Chapter Eighteen
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve walked along the beaches of Willow Cove, particularly with Georgie, but this is one she’s never touched, which makes this feel significant. We made sure the girls were all set at the bakery, asking a surprisingly eager and repentant Meg to resume command over the rest of the baking for the morning, and then I brought Georgie here to the quiet beach across from my house. It’s not large enough for families to set up camp for the day, so it tends to stay quiet.
Quiet is what we need right now.
We’ve barely said anything since the whole thing with Lane went down, and I have so many things I want to say to Georgie. And so many things I should say but don’t want to. Like how Vanderman happened to be outside the bakery and heard me tell Lane that I will never sit by and allow anyone to speak poorly of my wife because I love her too much to subject her to the company of anyone who won’t cherish her.
Vanderman admitted he was wrong to question our marriage. He said he was following Uncle Bill’s instructions in their entirety, and then he handed me a letter. My name was on the front, as well as Georgie’s. In Bill’s handwriting.
I won’t tell Georgie about the letter until I’ve told her everything else weighing my steps down as we walk through the sand. If I am going to open my heart to this woman again, I need to know it will be safe with her.
She’s the first one to break the silence. “I still can’t believe he came all the way down here to try to get me to save the show.”
My hand tightens reflexively around hers. When I realized it was Lane, panic rose in my throat, but the fact that Georgie was so clearly frustrated by his presence quickly calmed my nerves and shifted my energy to anger. “I’m not questioning your judgment,” I mutter, “but what in the world did you see in that guy?”
She laughs. “At this point, I can’t even remember. I think it was our shared dream of starting a bakery, though his dream shifted into something different from mine. I was too stubborn to give up when I was so close to getting what I wanted.”
I don’t love the sound of that, but I refuse to jump to any conclusions. “What did you want? What do you want?”
She drops her head against my arm as we walk. “Something to call my own. I’ve started to realize it doesn’t have to be a big something.”
That’s promising. Hope blossoms in my chest, though I still worry it’s going to leave me brokenhearted. She hasn’t said she loves me, nor has she told me she won’t leave when Willow Cove becomes too small for her. Summer only just started, but what will happen when September hits and all of the excitement dies down?
“Georgie,” I croak and pull her to a stop. “I have to know. Why did you run away?” I’m honestly not sure if she will even answer, but if I don’t get anything else out of this conversation, this is the one thing I need.
Her smile is sad, filling me with trepidation, but she also reaches up and presses her palm to my cheek. “I was terrified, Royal.”
“Why?”
She shrugs, and her words come one after the other in a rush, like she’d been wanting to say them for a long time. “Because I didn’t know who I was. Because I thought my life was supposed to look a certain way. Because I was so sure you could do better than me.”
I choke out a strangled laugh. “You can’t mean that. Georgie, you are…” I don’t even know how to put it into words. “You’re a shooting star in a sky of people who are content to stay as they are. You’re the reason I believed I could have more than the small life I’d been living. Georgie, I would have—” I stop myself, not sure if I should speak the words on the tip of my tongue.
I take a slow breath. It’s not going to do me any good to keep secrets. “I booked a flight to New York, when Uncle Bill first told me where you’d gone.”
Georgie’s eyes well up with tears. “What?
I nod. “Even after the way you left, I couldn’t imagine a world where you weren’t in it, and when you didn’t show up in Willow Cove the next summer, I begged Bill to tell me where you were. And I bought a one-way ticket.”
“You came to New York?”
I shake my head, hating the answer to that question. “Before I could head to Charleston, Bill told me you were happy. I had been miserable for months, and you were happy away from me, so I took the coward’s way out and bought the surf shack instead, telling myself that I was perfectly content to keep living the life I’d known. Even if it wasn’t true.”
A tear slips down her cheek, followed by another. I’ve never seen Georgie cry, and the sight is painful. I didn’t mean to make her hurt.
“Royal,” she whispers, shaking her head. “I wasn’t happy. I told Bill that I was, but I missed you like crazy, and I kept thinking I’d made the wrong choice by leaving. Being with you…it didn’t feel real. Things weren’t supposed to be as easy as they were with you, so I convinced myself that it wasn’t meant to be.”
Brushing the tears from her cheek, I take a few even breaths and try to settle the old fears that have never fully retreated since the day she ran away from me. It’s time to be brave and hope that I’m stronger than I was ten years ago. “Georgie, I never stopped loving you. And I don’t think I ever will stop. But if you’re going to leave, I would rather you tell me now. Don’t let me hope.”
Her response starts as a smile, small and tentative but so very beautiful. “I’ve been chasing a dream for so long. But being in Willow Cove again—no, being with you again—is the first time I haven’t felt like I’m running after something. I think…I think my dream is here. Something to call mine, that I know will never let me down.”
“Kingston’s can be anything you want it to be. The bakery is—”
She touches her fingers to my mouth, stifling my almost desperate words. “The only Kingston I care about is this one.” Then she rises up on her toes and kisses me. It’s not a kiss filled with heat or restrained desire like what we’ve shared before, but it’s every bit the embrace I’ve longed for over the years. More so. It’s a kiss that speaks of promise and a future and my own hopes and dreams coming true.
It actually hurts when she pulls away only a few seconds after she claims my lips. “I feel like I need to clarify.”
I groan. “I got the gist.”
But she shakes her head and gets a determined look in her eyes. “I made the mistake of not communicating last time, and I’m not going to do that again. You deserve more.”
“More kissing? Yes.”
She laughs but doesn’t kiss me. Instead, she puts her hands on either side of my face so I can’t look away. “I still want the bakery in my name.”
Some of the lightness in my chest dissipates. “Okay.”
“And it’s not because I don’t want to be married to you. I do. If you’re okay with that.”
I take hold of her left hand and kiss the sea glass ring on her finger. “I am.”
“Good. Because divorce sounds messy and I’m pretty fond of you, Kingston.”
Fond of me. Divorce sounds messy. I’m really trying to see the positives in what she’s saying, but it’s getting harder every minute. “Okay,” I say again.
“I’m going to make changes to the bakery,” she continues. I can only nod now. “It has good bones, but I need to make it my own if I’m going to thrive within it. And we’re going to have to do something about Prince Harry’s pen because he terrifies me every time I go out into the yard.”
None of this sounds anything like the vulnerable soul-baring I did a moment ago, and while I don’t think honesty is transactional, I can’t deny I was hoping for more “I love you” and less “that llama is trouble.”
Georgie’s smile grows, but it’s not something I can match right now. “I’m going to miss the city, King. I know I am.”
Which means she’s going to leave. I take a step back, but she grips both my hands and stops the movement.
“So I think we should take a vacation now and then, when we’re not in the middle of our busy summers.”
I swallow as I process her words. “Summers. Plural. Do you mean…”
“I love you, Royal Kingston. And there’s a whole world out there for us to see. Probably some great places for you to surf that aren’t in South Carolina.” Her smile is a wide grin now. “But even if you want to spend the rest of your days in Willow Cove, I want to share those days with you. You’ll just have to be prepared for Cecily to whisk me away now and then because she may be this marriage’s biggest supporter, but she’s still my best friend and won’t like that I’m choosing to make Willow Cove my permanent home.”
I think I’m crying now, which is ridiculous, but I can’t help it. “You love me,” I repeat. “You want to stay.”
“I want to be in your orbit for a change. You—”
I cut her off with a kiss, but I don’t have the same restraint she did. I’m greedy. I wrap my arms around her back and tug her against me because that roller coaster of emotions broke down what little inhibitions I had, and I need her body next to mine.
But something crinkles between us, reminding me of the letter Vanderman handed me outside the bakery. Though I’m tempted to ignore it and continue with what I was doing, that feels a bit like dishonoring the dead, so I pull the envelope out of my pocket and hold it out to show Georgie.
Her eyes go wide as she looks at the names on the front. “That’s Bill’s handwriting!”
“Vanderman gave this to me after I showed Lane to the parking lot.”
“What does it say?”
“No idea.”
Since I’m just standing here, staring at the letter, Georgie takes it out of my hand and breaks the seal, pulling the folded piece of paper out of the envelope. She leans against me so we both can see, and then we read it together.
Royal, if you’re reading this, it means I’m gone. I know that’s what they always say in the movies, and I hate being a cliche, but there’s really no other way to put it, is there? If this letter is in your hands, it means I’m not around to tell you this in person, and I can’t say that I’m not surprised. It seems to be the Kingston way, going too early, and I can only hope you’ll be the one to break the pattern because you deserve a long and happy life with Georgie.
Georgie, I know you’re reading this too because that was the point. This letter was only supposed to be passed on if the two of you have finally made your peace and accepted that you are meant to go through life together. I’m not a fortune teller or psychic, but I have known you both for a long time. I know you were and always will be better together, which is why I made sure the bakery would stay within the family. I hoped it would be a push in the right direction, and it must have worked because here we are.
It’s yours, Georgie, and I know you’ll make something great of it. I started Kingston’s because I wanted to share a bit of happiness with the world, and when I met you, I could see the same passion in your eyes. You reminded me a lot of me. Sometimes, that made me sad.
I made a lot of mistakes in my life, and one of them was thinking a bakery could be more important than a family of my own. I had you, Royal, and while the circumstances were heartbreaking, I’m so glad I got to watch you grow into the man you are now. Raising you, or at least pretending to, softened my regrets. But if I could go back and do it all over again, I would take every chance I got to find a partner. Someone to share in the trials and triumphs that come with every life.
Georgie, when you left Willow Cove, you were ready to take on the world, and I couldn’t have been prouder. But I was also worried. I worried you would forget what truly made your summers so happy. It wasn’t about the pastries or perfect recipes. It was about living your life to the fullest and doing the things you enjoyed. Every time we talked after you left, you seemed to forget more and more how much you used to light up when you saw Royal. Our conversations in the kitchen were always about the things you did the night before. The trouble you inevitably got into. The laughter you enjoyed.
I wish I had tried harder to help you remember what really mattered, but we both know how stubborn you are. You had to learn for yourself.
You both had to learn on your own, no matter how much it hurt to stand back.
Royal, you were so afraid of dreaming bigger. I don’t know if it was because you figured it wouldn’t matter in the end because you’re a Kingston or if you were simply heartbroken. I’m glad you finally found your way, and I hope you know by now there is more to this life than what Willow Cove can offer.
I hope you both stay, but if you don’t, I hope you make a home somewhere that feels right.
As long as you stay together, I know the two of you can live the life of your dreams. I wish I could be there to see those dreams come true, but apparently my time on this earth is done. Take it from a sort-of-old man: don’t waste any more time.
I love you both.
Bill Kingston
I’m speechless. I can barely breathe. I didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t any of this, and I can do nothing but shake my head as I stare at the words written in my uncle’s bold hand.
Georgie isn’t so tongue-tied. “Not a fortune teller?” She lets out a single, disbelieving laugh. “Are you sure this isn’t some weird prank? Coop trying to get back at me for blackmailing him?”
Wrapping my arms around her from behind, I close my eyes as I let all of this sink in. “Is that how you convinced him to fly off without me?”
She laughs. “Coop is pretty easy to persuade when you have the right dirt on him.”
“What kind of dirt do you have on Cooper Heyes?”
“Unimportant.”
She’s right, and I let out a sigh of contentment as I hold her against me. I don’t want to think about Coop right now. I want to think about her. “Bill really knew us better than we knew ourselves, didn’t he?” I say.
“I’m sad to think he had so many regrets, but he did have his own family. It just didn’t look like they usually do. I feel bad that we didn’t make things easier on him; you and I were clearly difficult children.”
I press my lips to her neck, enjoying the fact that I can do this without needing someone around to witness. In fact, I would rather not have a witness ever again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was a great child.” Never mind that the guys think I tend to lose all common sense when I’m around Georgie. Life is more fun with Georgie. It always has been. “You were the weird stray who thought working in a bakery was a fun way to spend your summer vacations.”
Leaning into my kisses for a moment, Georgie twists in my arms and then places her hand on my cheek. “I did think that was fun. But I also think Bill was right, and I always liked you more than I liked the bakery. I still do.”
I capture her mouth again, letting the warmth of her kiss seep into me and dispel the last of my fears. Uncle Bill was right, and we’re so much better together. Georgie seems to agree, wrapping her arms around my neck and rising up on her toes to meet my height. I can’t get her close enough, and I pick her up as I continue kissing her and start moving up the sand. This beach is fairly private, but not private enough.
My house is right across the street, and I’ve got a wife to love in every way I can.