20. Surprise, Surprise
CELESTE
When I wokeup on my birthday in April, I found Wesley grinning at me like the Chesire Cat. We were in River’s Run that morning and it was impossible for me to find any joy in my sweet sixteen. I wouldn’t be able to get my license since I hadn’t even had a chance to get a learner’s permit yet without Daddy to sign for it. Birthdays were already hard enough without Mama, so the prospect of spending one without either of them kept me from getting out of bed. Wesley was here to change that.
“Happy birthday, Celeste Renee Hendricks, the love of my life and the most beautiful girl in the world!” Wesley crooned. “Hurry up and get ready! We have something extra special planned today!”
I groaned into my pillow. “What do you mean ‘we?’”
“He means GET UP!” Maggie yelled, popping out from behind him and waving her arms in excitement. “It’s time to celebrate because a girl only turns 16 once!”
Despite my instinct to reject their surprise, I sat up and stretched. “Are y’all gonna make me do this? Even if I swear I don’t want to celebrate my birthday?”
Maggie rolled her eyes and looked at Wesley. “I told you she’d say that!” Turning back to me, she countered, “We want to celebrate your big day because you’re our favorite person. C’mon, you deserve to have a birthday to remember! Up and at ‘em!” She proceeded to cross over to the rickety dresser and rummage through my clothes.
Wesley stayed at my bedside and smirked. “I knew you’d say no and I’d cave because I hate not giving you what you want, so I recruited Maggie to our cause because she never cares if it pushes your buttons.”
“That’s evil!” I whined.
“So is the fact that you sleep in nothing but your panties here, but wear long pajamas when we’re alone in Atlanta,” Wesley countered, giving my body a onceover that made my skin heat.
It was totally true. “Well, it’s not my fault your penthouse is ridiculously cold!” Pulling my blanket over my sports bra and spandex short sleep attire I tried to keep my mind off the memories of Wesley touching my bare skin. It felt like a lifetime ago.
“What about school?” I made my last ditch effort, a feeble excuse at best.
Wesley snorted. “There’s a rule that says you can’t spend your sixteenth birthday in their building.” When I rolled my eyes at him, he held up his hands in surrender. “Hey, I don’t make ‘em, I just enforce ‘em!”
“Here!” Maggie cried triumphantly. “Put these on!” Clothes hurtled onto my lap as she danced in place, unable to contain her excitement.
If my best friend was this worked up, I was in for something completely over the top. Wesley merely continued to grin at me over her head as they both made their way to the stairs so I could change.
“Oh—and wear sneakers!” she called up the staircase. “We’re gonna be doing a lot of walking!”
“Ugh!” I groaned again, falling back onto my lumpy pillows in defeat.
An hour later, we exited Maggie’s rusty old hatchback at the airport in front of the Madden family jet. My hopes instantly soared. Wherever we were going wasn’t here in River’s Run.
I recognized Atlanta as soon as the plane began its descent and once again felt my hopes go up. Spending my birthday with Daddy would be the best gift ever, but it certainly didn’t involve a lot of walking. Daddy couldn’t even handle walking from his bed to the bathroom anymore. My suspicions were confirmed when the waiting car merged onto an unfamiliar highway going the opposite direction from the hospital. Still, it was unlikely that Wesley would bring me all the way here just to keep me from my dad.
“Are you serious?!” I whooped as we drove through the gates.
Wesley and Maggie both nodded vigorously.
We were at Six Flags amusement park, one of the places on my bucket list to visit someday. I had never been on a roller coaster before.
Maggie squealed with delight the moment the car pulled up to the entrance. Before he could get out, I grabbed Wesley by the sleeve of his t-shirt. Concern rimmed his bright blue eyes.
“How did you know?” I whispered.
“Know what?”
“That I’ve always wanted to come here.” My heart was fluttering again, something it hadn’t done in a really long time. For the first time all year, I was actually feeling.
Wesley was all smirk. “Because I know you, Lovebug.” He kissed me, pulling away before the passion grew, and quickly exited the Cadillac.
I never had so much fun in my life. Wesley pulled some strings with one of the park shareholders, who also happened to be a neighbor at M Tower, and got special passes that let us walk to the front of every line. And not just those line hopper things they advertised in commercials where you got to go in a shorter line with priority seating. No, we were able to flash ours and move directly to the operating attendant. We also had an unlimited food allowance, resulting in Maggie and I stuffing our faces with more French fries, cotton candy, and pizza than a human being should be allowed to consume. Wesley didn’t want to ruin his “training” and stuck to light salads throughout the day.
By the time we rode everything three times, including a roller coaster with a 95 foot drop, I was ready to cut my feet off. My entire body hurt from whiplash after being thrown every which way, but I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face. Poor Maggie’s voice was gone after all the screaming and we had never laughed so hard. I never wanted the day to end.
“Are we ready to move onto the next phase of Operation Birthday Surprise?” Wesley asked, stretching his long legs out in front of him. The three of us had collapsed onto a bench after a fourth ride around on the Georgia Scorcher, which had instantly become my favorite ride.
“I’m not doing a Phase Two!” I shook my head, frowning at both of them. “This has already been too much, y’all! You don’t have to go all out like this.”
“This isn’t even a fraction of what I want to do for your birthday,” insisted Wes. “I love you so much, Celeste, so let me make this day special. Please.” His eyes were imploring me to give in, their sincerity so powerful that I had to look away.
Maggie laced her fingers through mine. “She’s ready. Let’s get to it!”
The sun was already starting to set, giving the air a cool edge. Wesley noticed the shiver that ran down my spine and quickly put his arm around me, rubbing my arm for heat. Somehow his driver was already waiting for us at the gates when we finally walked to the exit. To my horror, Maggie held up a folded bandana and said I had to be blindfolded for the drive to our next stop. No matter how much I protested, she continued to smile like a lunatic and insist. Wes had to pin my arms to my sides for her to wrap it around my head. The shiver I felt after he brushed kisses along my earlobe and whispered, “Be good for me, Celeste,” had nothing to do with the temperature outside, however.
I had no idea how long it really took to get to the next place. My anxiety with the blindfold made time stand still as far as I was concerned, and I absolutely hated it. Wesley didn’t say a word, but made me settle against him, one arm wrapped around my shoulders. Periodically, he would trace a finger down the back of my neck and there was something oddly possessive about the gesture.
“Ugh, Wesley, you promised!” groaned Maggie to my right.
“Promised what?!” I was immediately on high alert.
Wesley snorted as Maggie replied, “No romantic stuff today! This is for all of us, not just you lovebirds!”
My flush extended all the way to my hairline. “I’m sorry, Maggie.” I genuinely was.
“It’s fine.” She sighed dramatically. “It just gets hard being the third wheel to the world’s most perfect couple.”
Perfect couple? Was that really what people thought of us? Wesley and I had never had an argument, which was true, but did that make us perfect?
I always used to think Mama and Daddy were perfect. The way he lit up every time he saw her. How she never let him walk by without touching him in some manner, even if it was just brushing her fingers across his arm in passing. Hell, he gave up farming, what generations of the Hendricks family had done on our land, just so that he could help her run The Comfy Cushion. Her dreams became his dreams, and they both worked their tails off for it. That seemed like the perfect couple to me.
It was also drastically different from the way Wesley and I were so wrapped up in each other that you couldn’t separate us. Neither one of us knew how to live without the other, and the ever looming threat of Mr. Madden sending Wesley away to a French boarding school kept both of us in that sweet spot between addiction and affection. Was that really how a perfect couple was made?
Before I had time to mull on these thoughts, the vehicle came to a stop and Maggie squealed beside me. ”This is gonna be so much fun!” she gushed.
They both held a hand to lead me from the car, warning me when there was a staircase. Wesley let go long enough to open a door for us and then returned to my side. I couldn’t hear anything other than Maggie’s repeated squeaks of excitement, which had me on edge. It was a relief when they both drew me to a stop.
“Okay, you ready?” Wesley asked. Even his voice had an undercurrent of anticipation.
I nodded and the blindfold fell from my face.
We were standing inside a grand lobby that had aquatic themes and titles over cavernous entryways. Signs indicated different marine life, along with what looked like a cafeteria to my right and a gift shop that stood behind Wesley.
But none of it took my breath away quite as much as the sight of my daddy there in front of me. He was sitting in a wheelchair and the sheer size of the space made him look infinitesimally small, but he was here. Desiree was, of course, at his side, trying and utterly failing at keeping a pleasant smile on her face. Nana and Marla were here, too, along with Willow and a nurse I recognized from the hospital. Phillip, Mr. Madden’s assistant, stood beside a gentleman in a three piece suit who had a blue name tag on his coat.
“Daddy!” I cried, darting forward to hug him. It was so good to see him outside of the hospital, sitting up and smiling at me like he used to.
“You didn’t think I’d ignore my favorite daughter’s sweet sixteen, did you?” he teased me. The crinkle around his eyes was just the same as ever, even if his face was a bit paler than I remembered. Seeing him outside of a hospital bed in real clothes made him look more like the daddy I remembered rather than the patient I had come to recognize.
“Where are we?” I asked, though the question was posed towards Wesley.
The man beside Phillip stepped forward. “Happy birthday, Ms. Hendricks,” he greeted me, “and welcome to the Georgia Aquarium.”
Now the excitement hit. Wesley had told me countless stories of the Georgia Aquarium, a place he visited frequently with his nannies as a child.
“Where is everybody?” I inquired. If it was as popular as Wes made it out to be, I expected the place to be packed with people.
Daddy chuckled. “We get the place to ourselves! Wesley worked it all out!”
Phillip snorted. “I had a fair hand in it, Mr. Hendricks.” We all laughed, including Wesley.
I stepped closer to him, overwhelmed and grateful for the lengths he went to so my birthday could be special. “You did this all for me?” I murmured. It had to have cost a fortune, and I dreaded the favors his father would demand in exchange.
He shrugged. “You deserve to have a special day.”
Frowning, I couldn’t help but ask, “Won’t you get into more trouble for this?”
Wesley gave me a smile that was more sad than happy. “Definitely. But I’ll take the punishment for the rest of my life if it means I give you the perfect birthday.”