The Orchard Table: An Autumn Festival Story, Part 5 of 8

In Part 5 of The Autumn Lantern Festival, a shared orchard supper gives friends time to notice the affection growing between Mara and Eli. Quiet conversation makes the coming festival feel newly personal. Inside this episode: - Grounding - The table under the tree - What everyone brought - The festival enters anyway - The empty chair This is an original work of fiction created for this series. Characters, places, and events are fictional. Follow Small Town Romance: Gentle Love Stories for the next chapter of this gentle love story.