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Those were the words that were in his heart, the ones that didn’t come out of his mouth, but were there in his tone. She’d caught them exactly, giving voice to them, and handed them back to him, laying them at his feet.

“That’s how I feel, too.” Those words were simple, but every bit as heartfelt as he could make them.

He found, that while she might need the words at some point, she understood the emotion now.

Their lips met again, and it was a while before they went back out to help the ladies finish the apple turnovers.

Epilogue

“Iheard that DwightEckenrode not only proposed to Orchid, but he put an offer down on that old rundown farm just north of town, the one that’s been on the market for more than a year, but no one wants to touch because it needed so much work.”

All the Piece Makers sat around the table, teacups in front of them. They had been working on a quilt and had just finished up that morning and were all taking a break now. Soup simmered on the stove in the back, and Charlene should really get up and stir it, but she’d been thinking.

“I heard that too. I also heard he had a highfalutin architect in to look at it, and, instead of bulldozing the house, they’re going to fix it.”

“I heard about the highfalutin architect, but I also heard that he had a local fella taking a look at it as well. And he hadn’t decided whether he was going to go with the big city firm or give the North Dakota fella a chance.”

“He’s hiring the North Dakota guy,” Charlene said with reassurance. She’d just talked to Dwight last night. It had been a month since the Apple Festival, and he told her that Orchid had said yes, and had shown her the ring.

He thanked her for her advice, and then asked if he could ask her something.

She hadn’t been expecting what he said.

He thought he knew who the father of Daphne’s daughter, Powell, was, and he’d asked Charlene if that was accurate.

Charlene had been floored.

She’d never considered it, but, in her mind’s eye she saw Powell, and she saw the man Dwight had suggested. She didn’t see how he couldn’t be right.

She hadn’t figured out though, whether Daphne knew. Could she really know who the father was, live in the same town with him, and not tell him that he had a daughter?

And the man. He lived in Sweet Water. But he didn’t treat Powell any differently than any other kid that lived in town.

Could he really not know?

And, if they truly didn’t know...how did that happen?