Wished Away: A Broken Fairy Tale (27 page)

Charlotte leaps out of the car when she sees Gage and jumps into his arms. He breaks his gaze from mine to say something to Charlotte before placing a kiss on her forehead. I get out of the car and make my way to meet the others who all continue watching me intently. The two men walk over to the women, and when they touch, I swear they glow as if they are angels.

Gage comes to my side with Charlotte in his hands and kisses my cheek, taking me off guard. I hold my hand up to my cheek secretly wishing I could capture the feeling in a jar and save it for later. I notice the strangers smiling over at us with a knowing expression, and yet again, a feeling of calm and peace falls over me. “I’m glad you’re here.” He turns to the others. “Hey guys, this is Jessica and Charlotte, the lovely ladies I was telling you about.” He looks at me with such love, I want to fall back into his arms.

“I’m Dalton, and this is my wife Ava.” His Irish accent is like a warm river flowing through me. “Our children, Kate and Aiden are running around here somewhere.” He smiles brightly looking over to the others.

“I’m Hannah, and this is my husband Patrick. Our little ones are around here somewhere too.” She smiles at me with deep happy dimples. “We grew up in the house next door and are just visiting.”

Gage puts his arm around me and I lean into the warmth it brings me. “After they saw the top notch job your dad did on the renovations and expansion, they decided not to sell.”

I smile proudly. “I’m glad you are happy with his work.” I look over to Gage. “Thank you for recommending him.”

“After what he’s done with the bed and breakfast, I had to have him,” Ava says with a smile.

I notice a young girl and boy, maybe a little older than Charlotte, watching us from the steps. The little girl has a face of an angel and the grace of a butterfly. Her every moment seems in slow motion as she turns and whispers something to the boy sitting there with his arm protectively draped over her shoulder. His eyes are so big and brown that I feel like I’m being sucked in under a trance.

Gage nudges me, breaking me from my thoughts. “Did you hear me? How about we go inside for a minute?”

“Can I play for a little bit?” Charlotte asks.

“Actually how about I steal you away for a minute first, then you can come back out and play?” He says tapping the top of her nose.

“Carson and Kate would love it, right kids?” Dalton calls over to the two children sitting on the steps who smile back happily.

“Just send her over when she’s ready,” Dalton says smiling and turns to me. “It was a pleasure meeting you.”

I smile and nod back too captivated by them to respond.

Gage leads us through a garage packed with boxes and I get a sick feeling of loss knowing he will be leaving any day now. He has Charlotte’s hand in his and turns back to me with a shy smile that seems so unlike the confident man I’ve come to love. “Do you mind if I have a moment alone with Char?”

If it was any other man, I would question his intentions, not wanting him to make things worse on her, but I know Gage, and I know he’d rather die than harm that girl, so I nod and smile. “Of course not. I’ll just wait out here.”

He smiles up at me and shuts the door behind them leaving me alone, surrounded by nothing but reminders that he’ll be gone from my life forever if I don’t do something. A swift breeze sweeps through the room blowing a pile of papers, scattering them across the floor. I look down to see an envelope at my feet and reach down, taking it in my hands when I think I recognize the printing on the front. The way Cassie’s name is written, in perfect script with a squiggle line underneath makes me pause wondering why Dave would have written a letter to Cassie. I look around the garage for a moment, knowing it would be wrong for me to open an envelope that isn’t addressed to me, but curiosity is getting the better of me, so I pick up the wrinkled, blue envelope and trace my fingers over her name, and begin to feel nervous at what could be inside.

Memories begin to assault me and fall into place like a puzzle. Gage and Dave went to college together. Cassie also went there.
My heart races as the next thought crosses my mind
. Dave was never close with Gage the way Holden and Joey were when Gage moved back to town, in fact every time they joined our group, Dave and I would leave. I remember a phone call so long ago that nearly broke Dave and me apart. I begin to feel sick wondering if the perfect love I thought I had with Dave was all a lie. And if that’s true, I don’t know if I can ever trust anything again
.
Dave had someone else in his life at one time. I remember sitting on the beach all those years ago when he told me about her. He never said who it was.
Oh. My. God.

I tear open the letter and glance back to make sure Gage isn’t coming yet. I take a deep breath before looking at the letter to see the signature that I feared, Dave’s name is signed in the perfect penmanship that’s uncannily his. I close my eyes, take another deep breath, trying to hold back the tears and begin to read.

Cassie,

You have been one of my best friends these past few years, and I will always think back fondly on our time together. But now that we have graduated, it’s time for us to say good bye. When Gage asked me about us the other night, I didn’t lie, because I didn’t have to. But after the other night, I know we can’t be friends anymore.

“Mommy, look at what Gage gave me!” Charlotte flies through the door causing me to stop reading the letter that leaves me with so many questions. The shock that the person Dave and I fought about that one night so long ago, that made me doubt him, was Cassie, is making me feel like I’m going to be sick.

When Gage’s eyes meet mine, it’s clear he sees the distress I’m in when and his bright smile fades, and a mask of calm covers his face when he swipes Charlotte up in his arms. “Hey sweetie, why don’t you go play with Carson and Kate for a minute so I can talk to your mom?”

She smiles brightly up at him and winks, like they are in on some secret plan, running past me before I can see the present she received and Gage is at my side looking down at the crumpled paper I have gripped in my shaking hand.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me about them?” I begin to take my anger and feelings of betrayal out on the only person I can. “I asked you why we never hung out when you moved back. I asked you why you always kept a polite distance at Joey’s parties. And you dismissed it as bad timing. What else have you lied about?” I yell and have no idea why. I close my eyes, and look up at him knowing I’m being an ass, and he’s not really the one I should be mad at. I’m just so confused.

He reaches out and takes my hand that is holding the letter in his hand. “What is this?”

His touch sets me on fire and I want nothing more than to feel them all over me, but when I look at the letter and feel the sting of betrayal, the tears become harder to hold back. “A gust of wind blew it on my feet. It was Dave’s writing.” My voice breaks and Gage takes my other hand in his. He gently opens my hand and kisses my palm, his way of showing me he loves me, and I dissolve.

“I knew they cared about each other. But they cared about us more.” His eyes are soft and sure. “Don’t let this be another reason to push me out. Let me love you, Jess.”

“You’re leaving,” I say in a whisper. “I can’t follow you.”

“I’m not leaving. I never was leaving. If you would stop and just listen to me, Jessica.” He takes my face in his hands and presses his forehead to mine. “I. Am. Nothing. Without. You.” His deep, raspy voice sparks something inside me and I have no doubt he means every word.

I look up at him, wanting nothing more than to be his forever, but I can hardly breathe. I’m so confused about everything, about Dave, about Gage not leaving, and now about if I can ever trust again, because right now the two men I trusted more than any other in the world seem to have been keeping the same secret from me, and I’m hurt.

“I can’t think right now, I don’t know what to believe anymore.” He wipes a tear away with his thumb and I want so much to let him take away my hurt, but I can’t. “I just need time.”

He presses a kiss to my forehead. “I can give you time as long as it brings you back to me.” He steps back and releases me from his grasp. “Hell Jess, if I could wish away all your doubt I would, because you should never doubt me or my love for you.” He takes my hand in his. “I love you, Jessica.”

Charlotte calls for me from the yard, and I wipe my tears away, trying to hide my sadness. I look over to Gage and try and smile. “I do love you, Gage. I never stopped.” I take a deep breath trying to gather my emotions and walk out of the garage to see Charlotte waving goodbye to her new friends.

I quickly usher her into the car and look back one last time to see Gage standing in the driveway, with his hands in the pockets of his dark black jeans, watching us intently.

Charlotte rolls down her window and yells, “Rainbows and butterflies,” to Gage before blowing him a kiss. And it takes everything inside me not to completely fall apart when Gage catches her kiss and places it on heart.

When I drive away, I do everything I can to hold it together seeing Gage in my rearview mirror just standing there, watching us drive away.

“Look what my new friend Kate gave me.” Charlotte holds up a heart shaped rock.

A tear escapes as I think of the words that Dave would say whenever he’d give me one of those rocks. Words that only the two of us knew he would say. “Always choose love,” I say to myself.

I try to focus back on the road, crossing the bridge leading back into Mantoloking wanting nothing more than to close myself away and read the rest of the letter. Charlotte turns up the radio and begins dancing to “Happy” and it takes all of my self-control not to smash the stereo and instead focus on getting us safely home.

When I turn off the car once we pull into the driveway, Charlotte holds something up to me. “Mom, will you put this on me?”

I take the silver necklace in my hand and smile, noticing the three stars hanging at the center. “What’s this?” I ask as she leans in for me to clasp it around her neck.

“I showed you in the garage. It’s a present from Gage. He said that it’s so I know I can always look up in the sky and know someone is watching over me. My grandparent’s and my dad. Isn’t it beautiful? The diamonds are real, but he told me not to tell you. He said it will fit perfectly with Daddy’s necklace.”

I smile at the gesture. He never knew that a star was a symbol of love for Dave and me. “It’s beautiful, sweetie.”

I get out of the car and Charlotte runs across the street to show Sophie and Ellie her new necklace. I’m glad to have a moment alone, and text Cam to ask her to keep Charlotte for dinner so that I can have time to read the letter a thousand times before she gets home. I grab an entire bottle of wine, one glass, a blanket off the couch, and walk out to the deck. I pour a glass full of wine and drink half of it down before opening up the letter that I’ve had clenched in my hands since I found it. When I see Dave’s handwriting, I choke up, feeling such an overwhelming sense of sadness, wishing more than anything he was here with me to explain all this, that I have to look away for a moment before beginning. I take one more large drink from my glass when I hear the crunching of stones from the side of my house. I silently curse under my breath, pissed that Cam has let Charlotte come home when she knows what I’m about to read. My frustration turns to relief and I smile when I see not only Cam come around the corner, but Joey and Holden are close behind holding another couple bottles of wine.

“You don’t have to tell us what it says, we are just here to share wine,” Joey says with a sad smile and kisses my cheek before sitting on the sofa lounger across from me.

The three of them sit near me and begin opening their wine, and I focus my attention back to the letter. I’m not reading it aloud, and I don’t know that I want them reading it either. I take a deep breath and begin reading where I left off.

You see, Jess is everything to me. I’ve loved her since the first time I met her, and there hasn’t been a day that has passed that that has ever waivered. I know you feel the same about Gage. We are both so lucky to have found someone we love more than ourselves. I believe there isn’t just one person on earth for each of us, and it is rare to find even one of those, but in you, I think I may have gotten close. That is why I must say good bye, my friend. We owe it to Jess and Gage to honor the love we have for them and the devotion they have shown us. There is not another man in the world that could be more worthy of you than Gage. I am only glad he never met Jess, because he would certainly give me a run for my money. Thank you for being my friend, and my confidant. I will never forget you.

Your friend,

Dave

I sit there for a moment and take in his words of friendship, of love, and of his commitment to me. The jealousy that had enveloped me earlier is dissipated when I begin to remember what Dave said to me when he came home and told me about the girl I now know was Cassie. Everything in that letter was basically what he had told me. He was honest, he was loyal, and now he’s gone. He’s gone and never, ever coming back. Tears explode from me and sobs burst out causing everyone to shoot up from their seats and come to my side. I’ve never broken down in front of them this way, and the way they all come to my side, comforting me rather than questioning me, I wonder why I kept them out for so long. Memories of Gage, standing there watching me drive away, his deep blue eyes locking on mine that first time at the charity event making me notice him for the first time, flicker through my thoughts of Dave, and I begin to cry harder with the overwhelming feeling of having so many unanswered questions.

“Did he take the job in Ohio?” I ask through my sobs, while I try to calm myself.

Joey drapes his arm around me. “We have all tried to tell you, he never did, Jess. He turned it down the second he found out. He quit two weeks later, and decided to work with his dad on the bed and breakfast.” He brushes the hair from my tear stained face and looks at me with compassion knowing how much I didn’t want him to give up his dreams for me. “He still volunteers at the hospital and is setting up pro-bono surgeries for kids in need. He’s still doing what he loves.”