Chapter Twenty-Four Marigold
As soon as they landed at the private airport in Halifax, James let Marigold and Hugo out near the terminal so they could call a cab while James handled the postflight paperwork.
She and Hugo arranged to meet up at a brewery in town after he dropped Marigold off at the commercial airport.
Marigold could just imagine them sitting side by side at some charmingly rustic picnic table, James’s russet hair sparkling in the sun as she happily sipped one of those hoppy beers that always turned Marigold’s stomach.
She knew it was unfair to feel any weirdness—she was getting married today, for the love of god—but there was a part of her that wished she didn’t have a visual of the woman Hugo was going to hang out with after she left, even a lovely one who’d provided a massive favor.
“What’s the best way for me to pay James?” Marigold asked as the taxi pulled away from the terminal. “Can you text her and ask for her bank details so I can transfer the money right now?”
“I’ll figure it out with her later and let you know,” Hugo said. “You just worry about getting to your wedding.”
My wedding, Marigold thought. She’d been so laser-focused on making in back to Sandpiper Island that she hadn’t really thought about what would happen after she arrived.
The frantic rush to change into her dress, get her hair and makeup done (if there was even time), and then composing herself in time to walk down the aisle while hundreds of people looked on, whispering with surprise or relief that she’d finally shown up.
Because no matter how skillfully Natalie covered for her, guests were certainly speculating about Marigold’s whereabouts, wondering whether the notoriously impulsive party girl had had a change of heart.
The thought of all those eyes on her made her skin crawl.
“So what happened with you and James?” Marigold asked, half out of desire for distraction, half out of morbid curiosity.
“What do you mean?”
“Why’d you break up?”
“It didn’t work out.”
“Come on!” Marigold hit his arm. “I’m freaking out. I need some gossip to take my mind off things.”
“A painful period from my life counts as gossip?”
“Fine. When you put it that way…”
Hugo sighed and looked away. “She dumped me.”
“She dumped you?”
“Yes. Why do you sound so surprised?”
Marigold considered this. James had definitely been giving off I’m still into you vibes.
She’d been borderline flirty all day, affectionately teasing Hugo when he got nervous during takeoff, and then spending the rest of the flight reminding him of funny stories from their past. But perhaps she’d simply realized she’d made a mistake breaking up with Hugo.
She wouldn’t be the first. “Who’d break up with you?
” Marigold said, aware she was venturing into dangerous territory.
Hugo sniffed.
“Okay, I mean, what normal woman would break up with you?”
“I did something dumb. She found out and dumped me. Pretty standard stuff.”
“What’d you do?” Marigold couldn’t imagine Hugo doing anything shady, like texting other women, let alone cheating.
He was one of those impossibly, almost exhaustingly moral men, like Jonathan.
It was probably what they had most in common—a strong code of personal ethics from which they never deviated.
“I didn’t… communicate as well as I should’ve.”
“Something I know a little about.”
The taxi turned off the highway and onto the road that led to the airport.
Marigold thought about what Natalie always did before getting out of a cab: confirm that her phone was in her pocket, slip her purse over her shoulder, and then look around to make sure nothing had fallen onto the seat.
Her constant vigilance had always struck Marigold as amusing or exhausting, depending on her mood, but that’s why Natalie had never misplaced her phone, let alone fled to a foreign country to finalize her secret divorce the day before her wedding.
The taxi pulled up in front of the terminal, where dozens of people were taking suitcases out of bags, fetching trolleys, and hugging their loved ones goodbye.
A veritable mob scene compared to the private airfield they’d flown into.
“Thanks again for taking me all this way,” Marigold said. “It’s a lot more than I deserved.”
“You can’t get rid of me that easily. I’m not leaving until your plane takes off.”
“You know you can’t wait with me at the gate, right? Even Canada isn’t that laid-back.”
“I’ll wait in baggage claim. Your flight doesn’t leave for forty-five minutes. That’s a long time in Marigold world. Anything could happen. Weather delays, random drug search, a sale at Gucci.”
“There’s definitely no Gucci in this airport. And what do I look like? A suburban mom desperate for tacky status sunglasses?”
“Gucci’s tacky?”
“Never change, Hugo.” Marigold paid the fare and then she and Hugo headed into the terminal and made their way toward the security checkpoint.
She couldn’t believe they’d pulled this off; she was actually going to make her flight to Portland!
She still had a long way to go, but by the end of the day, she was going to be married.
Yet despite her eagerness to get on the plane, she found herself wishing the security line weren’t quite so short so she could have a few more minutes with Hugo.
It felt unlikely that they’d ever see each other again.
“I hope you work things out with James,” she said. “I think you two would be good together.”
“You do? She’s training to be a moose oncologist, you know.”
“The noblest Canadian profession.”
“Text me when you get home, okay? I want to know that everything… worked out.”
Marigold nodded, worried that her voice might crack if she spoke. She reached up to give Hugo a tight hug. “Bye,” she whispered.
“Bye.”
Marigold stepped toward the end of the security line as Hugo turned away.
She forced herself to wait a few moments, then glanced over her shoulder.
Hugo had taken a seat in the cluster of gray pleather chairs under the departures board, apparently making good on his promise to wait until her plane took off.
He sat with his elbows on his knees, head resting in one hand.
His hair had come loose from its bun, making him look so much like a forlorn folk singer on an album cover that Marigold would’ve smiled had the slump of his shoulders not made something in her chest ache.
“Passport and boarding pass, please.” Marigold spun around to see a security officer frowning at her.
“Oh, sorry, here.” Marigold extended her documents, then pulled her arm back. “Hold on, I just need to—”
“Mare!” Hugo had risen from his seat and was jogging toward her.
“Sorry,” Marigold said to the security officer. “I’ll be right back.” She scooted past the five people in line behind her and waited for Hugo. “Everything okay?” she asked.
He paused to catch his breath, although it seemed strange that a ten-meter jog would’ve left him winded.
“I don’t really know how to say this… I know I shouldn’t say this.
But I need to tell you what really happened with me and James.
” He inhaled like a nervous kid preparing to give a speech in front of his whole class.
“I never should’ve dated her to begin with.
I wasn’t over you. A few weeks after we got together, I went to New York to look for you.
I lied to her and told her it was a work trip.
But I was really trying to track you down.
James found out and realized I was still in love with you.
” He paused and met Marigold’s eye. “That I am still in love with you.”
Marigold stared at him, wishing she could press “rewind” and listen again.
She needed to confirm that she’d understood him correctly, that her brain wasn’t playing a trick on her.
She wasn’t sure if these were the words she’d been waiting for or the ones she’d most feared.
It was unclear what was making her heart race—was it dopamine or adrenaline?
Joy or terror? “You… you really came to New York to look for me?”
“Yeah, I did. I obviously tried calling first, but you never picked up or called me back.”
“I…” Marigold winced, remembering the missed calls. How she’d panicked and just erased her call log. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to say without making things worse.”
“Well, I didn’t have your address, either, but I went to all the restaurants you’d mentioned, all the places you posted on Instagram. I spent three days combing the city before I ran out of money and had to fly home.”
Marigold pictured Hugo wandering the streets of a city he’d never visited before, navigating crowds and buildings as foreign as anything he’d ever seen.
His hopeful expression each time he saw a landmark he remembered from Marigold’s stories.
His face falling every time he walked out, no closer to finding her. “I wish…” She trailed off.
“What do you wish?” he asked quietly.
“I… I’m not sure.”
Hugo still loved her. And she couldn’t deny that she still had feelings for him.
But what did that really mean? This wasn’t a situation where she could just follow her instincts and see what happened.
Marigold had to face the painful, embarrassing truth: she’d never made good decisions on her own.
She’d always relied on people to steer her in the right direction: her parents, Olivia, Natalie, and now Jonathan.
Her heart had never led her down the right path—her heart didn’t know what was best for her.
Everyone she loved and trusted believed Jonathan was the one she belonged with, the man who’d keep her safe and protected even as the world crumbled around her.
What would they all say if she pulled out now?
Who would ever trust her with anything again?
Over the PA system, she heard some kind of boarding announcement about her flight, but the airport noise made it sound distant and staticky.
Hugo reached for her hand. “What if I said…” He swallowed, closed his eyes for a second, then tried again. “What if I asked you to…” Then he shook his head and smiled ruefully. “Forget about it. I’m being ridiculous.”
“No, please. Ask me what?”
He squeezed her hand. “Nothing. I don’t need to make this any harder for you.” Then with a sigh, he dropped her hand and reached out to stroke her hair. “It wasn’t meant to be. This is the happy ending you deserve.”
“Flight 7319 to Portland is now boarding. We’ll begin with boarding group one. Will all passengers in boarding group one please make your way to gate twelve.”
“There’s time. Please, we can’t leave things like this.” Except Marigold wasn’t even sure she knew what she was asking him for.
“Go on.” Hugo nudged her shoulder. “It’s time. I wish you all the best, Mare. Truly.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded, knowing that if she opened her mouth, she’d only make things worse. With a final smile, she turned and headed back to the security checkpoint. And this time, she didn’t look back.