36. ~ Char ~
CHAPTER 36
~ Char ~
M oving was the pits. Leaving my friends was even worse. And saying goodbye to Felipe, who was going with Tamara to Eagle Ridge, also ranked pretty darn low on the happiness scale.
There was just one thing that didn’t suck, and that was watching James carry my boxed things down to his Rover in an old pair of jeans and a ratty grey T-shirt that was a bit small, hugging his pecs. He was utterly delectable.
He’d caught the hungry way I’d been devouring him with my eyes. And of course I was. His shirt looked like it had been designed solely for him.
With a teasing twinkle in his baby blues, he pulled the cotton blend away from his abs and asked, “Should I see if I this comes in every colour?”
Why would he even have to ask? The answer was clearly yes. Especially since I’d been unable to resist touching his beefy arms whenever we passed on the stairs.
I gave him a lingering kiss and went back to my room with a fresh stack of black garbage bags to gather up the last bits. While I worked, I tried not to think about the fact that his parents were taking me in. Yes, I was going to be acting as their live-in house-sitter, but still. He was my boyfriend, and I was moving in with his parents. That didn’t say sexy things about my state of independence.
Sure, I could argue that I was free and wild, living wherever the breeze sent me, and that I was seizing the day and opportunities for adventure. The truth was, I wanted a more permanent home base, and I knew that without Sally and Otto, I would be essentially homeless.
Gabby’s parents and her two brothers had gathered up her stuff last night, moving her into Lamonte’s suite on the other side of the city. Lamonte was away working at a Jeep event, and I wondered if it would be at all awkward when he returned. Surely he had to know Gabby was crushing on him in a major way. Maybe this was his big move, and the two would be married within a year. Men confused me, and I hoped Lamonte knew what he was doing, letting Gabby move in with him.
At the moment, though, she was in our bathroom with the music cranked, getting a head start on scrubbing away every bit of evidence that we’d once lived here. It didn’t matter that Samantha’s dad had hired cleaners to come in after the moving company departed with Samantha’s things.
While I continued to throw the last of my belongings into garbage bags, Josie and a mysterious brigade appeared, looking like they’d just left a LARPing session. They must have been Live Action Role Playing dragon trainers or something. There were a lot of leather vests and tall boots, as well as a few weaponish items hanging from their thick belts. All I could think when I looked at them was, ‘Were dragons living in Canada?’ Either way, they whisked in and out of the house, every speck of Josie gone within fifteen minutes, as though they’d been controlled by one of her detailed spreadsheets.
I watched from the front window with a bit of awe as she jumped into an off-road vehicle with her crew. So efficient. But what was with the goofy ride? It looked ready for an apocalypse with a big Jackall jack strapped to the hood, extra stainless-steel reinforcement around the wheel wells, big knobby tires, and a roof rack filled with water and jerry cans and other equipment like a shovel, chains and a chainsaw.
But even odder than Josie’s brigade, and the guy with a futuristic-looking robotic hand, was the presence of Haden, Kade’s older brother. He’d shown up to help Tamara move back to Eagle Ridge since Kade apparently had a previous commitment: one that I hoped didn’t involve Jannifer Bryant again. What was so odd about Haden being here was that he and Tamara had never really hung out in the past. But, even more so, was the way Tamara studiously avoided any eye contact with the poor man. It made me doubt my theory that they’d make a good couple.
Well, until that blazing moment when the kitchen box I was carrying came apart, and I sent pots, pans and cutlery down the stairs with a resounding crash that had made a red-faced Randy curse at us. Tamara and Haden had taken one look at each other and doubled over with laughter, hanging off each other for support like they were the oldest of friends.
I still wished Tamara would choose him instead of Kade.
But that wasn’t a real wish. I didn’t want to mess with her world or heart. I just wanted Tamara to enjoy a long life of happiness.
After a deep hug from Tamara that made me miss her already, she stood beside Haden, closing the doors to his horse trailer, like a team that had worked alongside each other for decades. Then they both popped into their respective vehicles and drove off.
I stood on the step, watching the trailer turn a corner. Samantha waved off her moving crew, who were also done. She looked at me, lifted her chin, and sniffed coolly. “Later.”
She gave me the quickest hug known to man, and leapt into her car like none of this affected her. But I was pretty sure I saw her surreptitiously swipe some tears before she pulled away from the curb.
I sighed, feeling like a dream was coming to an end. Would the five of us even continue to hang out, now that we weren’t living together? Why couldn’t we just buy houses on the same street, and have drinks in each other’s backyards all summer?
I opened the GAL PAL texting chat and sent a message.
Me
I miss us already.
Tamara replied instantly.
Tamara
Me
Take good care of Felipe.
Tamara
I will.
I wiped my own eyes and sniffled.
Gabby
If you miss me, you could come up here and help me clean!
Samantha
Gabs, stop or there’ll be nothing for the cleaning people to do, and they’ve already been paid.
I smiled and went to pocket my phone just as it rang. Seeing the number was Officer Beddoe’s, I answered it immediately. It was a Sunday, so if he was calling, it had to mean good news, right?
It was. The warehouse and lots had been released. I was free to get back to working on the park.
I lowered my phone and gazed down the empty street toward the future park, feeling like I’d lost all momentum and motivation. None of us gals lived here any longer. None of us were Everstone residents. This was no longer our community. We were now spread across the city and beyond. We couldn’t just plop down onto the couch with a pizza or Tamara’s chocolate cake and solve problems or brainstorm.
I still had Josie’s spreadsheets and all of our plans and proposals, but it was terrifying being the one in charge. The project felt like it was solely mine without the gals up in the living room, gathered on our mismatched furniture.
I turned back to the boarding house to find James leaning against the open door’s frame, watching me. Thank goodness for James and his family. Otherwise, I’d be trying to cram everything I owned into an Uber and telling the driver to stop at the first abandoned cardboard box that looked big enough to house me.
I wiped my damp eyes. There were so many emotions swirling through me I couldn’t process them all. James and I moved toward each other and his arms swept me up, holding me tight like he knew how I was feeling. Knew my pain, my fear, my aching loneliness, the sensation of being untethered, of not having a nest in which to return to when I needed recalibration.
* * *
On Monday morning, I ended the ninth phone call I’d made from the Backstrohm’s kitchen table. I’d been begging and pleading the park’s case to sponsors, demolition crews and everyone on the list that Josie had made for us back in June. I was offering to name the park after them, their business, their firstborn, or their childhood dog if they’d just tear down the warehouse frame or donate some money. Immediately.
Well, mostly I had left professional voicemails, the begging all in my head. It turned out that even in the full-on heavy season for all things constructing and deconstructing, basically nobody worked on Canada Day, July 1.
I was feeling impatient. I didn’t have time for holidays. I needed to get the park rolling again. I was one unanswered phone call away from going down to Home Hardware and buying a crowbar and trying to take the warehouse down on my own.
“Hey! Just me.” It was James, letting himself into his parents’ house.
“In here if you’re looking for me.” I hoped that he was. I hadn’t seen him yet today. And even though we’d spent most of yesterday together while moving me here, and it wasn’t really my style to be clingy, I found myself longing to see or hear from him each day.
“If you’re looking for your parents, they’re out enjoying free Canada Day cake at some park. I can’t remember which one.” They’d be taking off on their trip in a few days, and the first twenty-four hours of living together had been pretty good. Otto was the quintessential quiet dad, doing his own thing. And Sally had naturally found the right balance between doting and letting me find my own way.
“Happy birthday,” James said, bending to lay a kiss on the crown of my head.
“Not my birthday.”
“Then happy Canada Day.”
“Thanks. You, too.” I half expected him to be holding a strawberry milkshake from Peter’s. But instead, he had a small wrapped box.
“What’s this?” I asked, immediately freaking out. We were in that undefined zone where we were dating, but not really talking about it or what it all meant to us.
I suppose we knew what the other person wanted in a relationship, although I wasn’t sure he’d figured out that I was now starting to want that cozy togetherness, too.
Even though I was certain it wouldn’t happen for us, seeing as, eventually, Estelle’s very real magic would wear off. Then I’d be alone once again, off to find my way, off to find a new tribe to call my own.
And this pretty little box looked like a gift. The kind you’d give a serious girlfriend.
He set it beside me at the kitchen table. “It won’t bite you.”
No, but what it represented might.
I squeezed out a smile. “Thanks.”
“Open it.”
I slipped off the ribbon and opened the palm-sized box, lifting up the delicate square of cotton covering the item inside. And there, staring up at me, was a piece of the most beautiful pottery fragment, edged in silver to wear as a necklace.
The one from the museum. The one with the painted hands. The original, authentic piece. The one that was expensive. Way too expensive.
“James…” There were a lot of reasons this should not be sitting in the palm of my hand. “I know I said I’d pay you back if you bought this, but I can’t. I really need to put all my money into the park right now.”
Even living rent free for the next two months wasn’t going to help me afford this item, as much as I longed for it.
I handed it back to him, but he only unclipped the necklace, ready to clasp it on me. “Try it.”
Dangerous, dangerous game.
He came around behind me, waiting for me to sweep my hair off my neck. I scrunched my eyes shut, pushing away tears.
I distinctly remember wishing for this necklace. The strong longing I’d had for it. The words in my heart slipping from my mouth.
And now here it was. This meant my wishes were still in effect. All of them. It made me want to slam myself into the bathroom, and cry and cry until there was nothing left.
James gently fed the silver chain around my neck, doing up the clasp. His fingers brushed my skin, sending shivers down my spine. He smelled like sandalwood and reassurance. This moment felt intimate. Filled with love.
The fragment fell at just the perfect height to wear with almost everything. I angled it, peering at its authentic, ancient glaze. One of a kind.
Like James.
But it was too much. Too expensive. How could Estelle grant this wish right now? James had been without work for several weeks, even though he could probably head back now that the warehouse had been released. But there were still so many, many reasons he shouldn’t have bought this necklace.
For starters, today was a holiday so the museum gift shop was closed. But most vitally, the present was too much, too pricey. Instead of spending hundreds on me, he should be buying himself groceries to feed his giant muscles. He should be planning his next spontaneous trip without the obligatory pit stops to excavation sites, just because I was enthused about them. It should be about him.
I met James’s gaze, my throat dry, my brain lacking the words I needed to deliver in order to return this amazing gift that was thousands of years old, and made me feel like the kind of woman a pharaoh would build a pyramid for.
James was watching my reaction, his brow furrowed. I felt for the poor man as my eyes filled with love and gratitude. I was all over the place these days. The idea of Estelle’s magic creating all of these beautiful moments between James and me was messing with my head, creeping under my skin, and making me doubt everything I felt.
I tried to say the words “I can’t” but my throat locked as though under a spell.
He placed a soft kiss on my cheek, and I ducked my chin, feeling ashamed for the way I’d abused our friendship and his generous kindness with my wishes. I felt like I’d possibly made him into an amazing boyfriend against his own desires, and forced him to act toward me in the way he would for his heart’s truest match. Not for a woman who could never quite make the distance.