Lovelight Farms

Stella thinks about her feelings for Luka and how he has pretended to be her boyfriend a few times when strangers started getting too close at bars. She recounts the story of how she met Luka while in the depths of grief after her mother’s death a few months earlier. Stella and Luka quickly formed a bond that helped Stella see beyond her grief, but he lives in New York and only comes to Inglewild occasionally to visit his mother. Luka and Stella’s relationship remains entirely platonic, yet Stella secretly longs for a romantic relationship with him.

Stella is uncomfortable with the idea of having Luka pretend to be her boyfriend for Evelyn’s visit, as she thinks that it will cross a line in their relationship and reveal her feelings for him. Additionally, Stella feels like Luka is the closest thing she has to family, and she is not willing to risk that by telling him how she really feels.

Stella receives a text message from her distant father, Brian Milford, who left her and her mother when she was young, leaving them in poverty for much of their lives while he returned to his wealthy family. Every year, Brian has an early Thanksgiving dinner with Stella; his wife, Elle; and Stella’s half-brother, Charlie. This yearly ritual with her father makes Stella feel like an obligation, as he never checks in on her at any other time. She sees that she also has messages from Luka, and when she calls him, Stella learns that Luka is in town visiting his mother and wants to come over later.

Stella thinks about buying the farm when she was “blinded by positivity” after never having laid down roots since she always moved around as a child (26). She treasures a picture of her and her mother at the tree farm from her childhood. Once she learned that the farm was for sale, she knew that she wanted to give people the same happy experiences that she had when she was a child. As she walks to her cottage by the farm, she sees a light on and Luka waiting for her. After she bought the farm, Luka brought Stella a pine-tree-shaped car air freshener from the local gas station. Though he knew it was silly, he loved how Stella’s face lit up when he gave it to her, so he makes it a tradition to bring her a pine tree air freshener every time he visits. Luka makes Stella dinner, and she accidentally blurts out that she needs him to date her before she can explain the situation with the contest. Luka is not nearly as troubled about this idea as Stella is and quickly agrees to be her fake boyfriend. Stella conceals the bad news about the farm’s finances, yet she knows that Luka knows she is not telling him everything.

The next morning, Layla asks her what happened with Luka. Layla mentions how she has been rooting for Stella and Luka to become a couple since the beginning of their friendship and is certain that both have feelings for one another. Stella, however, believes that if something more were to happen between her and Luka, it would have happened already, knowing Luka’s direct manner. Luka comes over later that day and reassures Stella that pretending to date will have no effect on their friendship, but Stella is still nervous. Beckett informs Stella that their pumpkin patch has been demolished two days before Halloween by local teenagers, he suspects, yet Stella wonders if there is something bigger at play.

When discussing their plan to fake a relationship, Luka mentions that Evelyn St. James will likely be staying in the neighboring small town of Inglewild, where everyone knows Stella and Luka and would be surprised to learn that they are dating. The two agree to act like they are together in town and walk through the tight-knit community holding hands to attract gossip. To Stella’s surprise, everyone seems happy for the couple and mentions that they have been rooting for them to get together.

As they pass the old police station, Stella and Luka are met by Sheriff Dane Jones, the first person Stella and her mother met in Inglewild and who had always felt protective of them. He brings up Stella’s annual visit to her father’s, and Luka asks her why she still goes even though it makes her upset. Stella is convinced that the dinners are her stepmother’s idea rather than her father’s, but she feels obligated to go. She always spends her actual Thanksgiving alone, even though Luka’s family always invites her to theirs. When she sees his tight-knit family, she notices all the things that she is missing out on. Luka invites himself to the fake Thanksgiving dinner at her father’s, and Stella can’t think of a reason to refuse him. By the time they return to the farm, Beckett reveals that the gossip about their relationship has made it to him, in spite of his lack of connections in town. Stella worries about what will happen when everyone in the town learns that they are not dating. Yet Luka doubts that they will need an exit strategy, thinking that if they were actually dating, they wouldn’t let their eventual breakup ruin their friendship.