Chapter Twenty-Five #2
A vivid memory of going there with her mom and dad when she was five years old smacked her right in the heart, stealing her breath.
She could share without oversharing. “I have. Just once. On my fifth birthday. It was every bit as magical as you’d imagine.
The characters, the rides … but my favorite part was the fireworks.
” They flashed in her mind. She’d sat on her dad’s shoulders, Minnie Mouse ears on her head, exhausted and full of sugary treats and so absolutely enthralled she felt goose bumps wash over her now, just from the memory.
“Aren’t the lines atrocious, though?” Lainey asked.
Charlie couldn’t share that they’d had security escorts along for the entire day.
To Charlie, it’d been normal. People often wanted to talk to her dad, ask him to sign something, give him hugs.
They hadn’t shut down the park or anything like that, but Charlie’s family didn’t wait in lines.
They radioed ahead to say that Bryce’s family was approaching a ride; then the cast members said it was closed for maintenance, and they let Charlie and her parents in through side doors.
“They weren’t all that bad,” Charlie murmured, bittersweet nostalgia filling her chest.
Later, when she went back to the cabin to shower and change for her date with Gray, she spent some time looking at photos on her phone. When she’d scrolled through enough to have tears streaming down her cheeks, she pulled up Google and typed in her mother’s name.
“HAPPILY NEVER AFTER” FOR VIVI COLTER: VIVICA COLTER SPOTTED WITHOUT HER ENGAGEMENT RING
ESTRANGED! brYCE COLTER’S WIDOW AND ONLY CHILD NOT ON SPEAKING TERMS
CHARLOTTE COLTER IS CRUEL TO HER MOTHER; EX SPEAKS OUT
More tears fell. She closed the tabs, turned her phone off. No sense focusing on that when she had things to look forward to. She couldn’t control the storm at home, but she could embrace what she’d found. She’d come here to escape but never expected to meet people who made her feel so free.
You’re keeping things from all of them. Maybe you should go to therapy instead of just offering it. You know that withholding is no different than lying.
Charlie believed in accountability, in owning up to her mistakes.
She knew her part in the whole incident with her mom and Eddie’s daughters could have been avoided if she’d asked to speak to Vivi privately.
If she’d breathed through her initial shock instead of reacting.
If she’d stayed calm and in control. Instead, she’d lost it and the tornado that hit afterward leveled her entire world.
So, she’d run, landing in an almost fairy-tale-like community that made her feel at home. Safe.
Was it so wrong that she didn’t want to expose herself to these people who treated strangers like family?
People who made her feel like she belonged and was welcome for however long she wished.
She’d leave eventually, and would it be so bad if she did that without them knowing about the lowest moment of her life?
Charlie jumped in the shower, took her time washing her hair with her favorite products.
After blow-drying it, she added a few loose curls, applied a light touch of makeup.
Back in her room, she chose a pair of jeans and a light sage-green sweater that slipped off one shoulder.
And because she was missing him more than usual today, she pulled on the necklace her father had given her when she was a little girl.
It’d been far too long for her when she was young, but now, it fit perfectly.
She rested her hand on the music note and felt a sense of peace wash through her.
In her sessions, before she’d decided to focus on play therapy, she’d always told people to do the best they could in the moment.
Intentions mattered. She didn’t intend to hurt Bernie or any of the Keller family.
She hadn’t meant to grow so attached. Part of her wondered if it would be kinder to walk away from Grayson; end things now before anything real had begun.
Lying wasn’t something she’d ever been comfortable with, and the more she got to know him, the more withholding felt like lying.
She could tell him. His opinion shouldn’t really matter either way.
But that was a lie, too, because it did.
She liked the way he looked at her, made her feel, made her see herself.
It wasn’t wrong to want that a little longer.
She wasn’t obligated to tell him. He hadn’t opened up about his marriage or his obviously painful divorce.
That’s not what this was, so why was guilt creeping in like a thief in the night?
Live in the moment. She didn’t need to make what was happening between her and Gray bigger than it was.
They weren’t spending their lives together; they were having some fun.
Not telling him was perfectly acceptable.
You’re making the same mistakes you’ve made in the past, the ones you’re supposed to learn from.
But look how sharing with Isaiah had turned out.
It wasn’t wrong of her to keep her secrets, but what she didn’t want, what she was starting to worry more and more about, was leaving a trail of hurt in her wake.