Chapter Thirty-One
B rooke had just finished changing into a flirty white sundress when she heard someone calling her name outside. She was in the middle of the lighthouse tower, and since none of the windows opened, she could go up to the balcony that circled the light, or she could go down to the door on the main floor. She opted to go up, practically giggling as she ran up the stairs. She knew it was Nate coming to pick her up for what were becoming weekly suppers with Nana and Duke. Finally, she was finally going to get her romantic balcony scene.
She swung open the heavy reinforced door and leaned over the iron railing, careful not to get rust on her white dress. “Hello! I’m up here!” she yelled. She heard footsteps on the concrete down below and the sound instantly raised her hackles. The steps were even and precise. There was no limp.
A tall man with dark hair came into view, and Brooke’s balcony dream was once again dashed. “Come down here!” Gates yelled. “Why are you up there?”
“Be right there!” she yelled. This time, she took her time on the stairs. Why hadn’t Gates texted her that he was coming? What was left to say? It was made perfectly clear to him that she was now with Nate. Him coming to her home unannounced when he knew she lived alone on an island was downright creepy.
When she pushed open the heavy front door, he was standing there waiting. “Hey,” he said.
“What are you doing here?” She didn’t invite him in or step outside.
He stood there wringing his hands and didn’t even attempt to smile. “I can still track you.”
“Shoot.” She looked around for her phone. It was upstairs in her bedroom. “I need to turn that off.”
“I went to the funeral,” he said. “Or wedding, or whatever it was. I know it’s been a while since then, but I can’t seem to shake it.”
She nodded. “I saw you.”
He was agitated and fidgety. “You moved on pretty fast.”
“I did.”
“And your family seems to like him.”
“They do.”
He nodded gravely. “Did you marry that guy?”
“It wasn’t a wedding.”
His nervous movements stopped abruptly. “Good.”
“Gates. Why are you here? I have to leave any minute now.”
He looked down at the pathway leading to the lighthouse. “Is he coming?”
“He is.”
“I don’t know.” He ran his right hand through his hair like he was in agony. “I don’t know why I’m here.”
Brooke waited. He was clearly there for a reason.
“I ruined so much, Brooke. So much more than you know.”
She stepped outside to join him, leaving the lighthouse door open.
“Libby told me what you said,” he said.
Brooke racked her brain trying to remember what that might be. She’d never shared anything personal with Libby, and she probably never would. “What did she say?”
“That you were only with Nate because you felt sorry for him.”
“Sorry for Nate?” She laughed out loud, then stopped when the full force of what he said hit her. “Wait. Now, let me get this straight,” Brooke began. This time she didn’t try to keep the anger from her voice. “I’m going to be in Libby’s wedding as a favor, right? A favor to the girl who bullied me. I’m wearing a dress that costs more than my entire wardrobe for her. I have been stressing myself out trying to get Camp Dogwood ready for her dumb wedding, and let’s not forget, she had this great idea to buy vintage china dishes and stemware her guests could use and then take home. Beautiful. Fabulous. We’ve all spent hours shopping for that stuff. And what did Libby just think of? What just suddenly occurred to her? Oh, that the guests can’t take home dirty dishes. So who gets assigned the job of washing them?” She pointed at herself. “This girl. I will be stuck inside washing dishes while you are all dancing under the moonlight.” She inhaled deeply before continuing. “And she has the audacity to tell you lies about me? She has the gall to say I feel sorry for Nate when she has no clue about me or about—”
“Brooke.” Gates touched her on the arm. “Calm down. I was just asking.”
“But can you see how she makes me so mad? She’s doing it again! She’s trying to ruin my life.”
“Well, we just cleared it up, didn’t we? The rumor ends here and now.”
“Does it, though? Who else is she telling? Who else thinks that I’m pity-dating Nate? He doesn’t deserve that. He’s the best guy, he’s…” As words kept flying out of her mouth, she realized she might be seriously hurting Gates’s feelings. “I’m sorry.”
“Why?” He seemed genuinely curious.
“I don’t know. I guess because I shouldn’t say things that might be hurtful. I should be sweeter .” She said the word with clear bitterness. He was the one who’d put the whole sweet and nice thought in her brain to begin with.
“I don’t think you should be sweeter.”
“You said I should be when we broke up.”
“I never said that.”
“You said that Jessa was sweet and I was nice.”
“She is sweet, and you are nice.”
“But you made it sound like sweet was better, that it was genuine. You said nice was all an act.”
“I never said that, Brooke. I don’t even believe that.”
“Well, it screwed me up for a while.” Brooke sat on the edge of the concrete platform and tucked her dress under her legs. Gates sat beside her. “I can’t be someone that I wasn’t made to be. I don’t want to be.”
“Yeah. Poor Jessa. She’s overly kind. Too sweet.”
“You think so?”
“I do.” He pressed his lips together and looked at her a beat too long. “That’s why I chose you instead.”
“What do you mean?” She didn’t need to ask the question. She knew exactly what he meant. She’d always suspected that Jessa had been his first choice.
“I know I’m a downer. I know I can be hard to handle. How could a person like me ever deserve a woman like her?”
That stung. “And I wasn’t as great, so you settled for me.”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. You were as great. You are as great. Better in some ways. You have really good boundaries, and you’re not afraid to stand up for what you believe in. You don’t give up on people. It’s just that Nathan was the one who saw those things in you first. Not me.” He turned to face her. “I know what I did, Brooke. You liked him, and I pushed and pushed until I won you over.”
Brooke didn’t mention that he might never have won her over if she’d had a way to get in touch with Nathan. Gates had been her second choice too.
“But I want you to know that it’s me who’s hurting now. I deserve it. I know I do. I fell in love with you over the years we were together. I will always love you.”
They both turned as they heard footsteps approaching. This time, with Nate’s signature heavy step, light step cadence.
Brooke placed her hand on Gates’s knee. “And I will always have love for you too.”
When Nate appeared, Brooke ran over and hugged him. “Look who came to visit,” she said. “Our old camp buddy.”
“Hey, Gates,” Nate said, taking stock of the situation. “All good?”
Gates walked over and shook Nate’s hand. “Yeah. Fine. Hey, uh, sorry about the camp stuff all those years ago.”
“It’s all good now,” Nate said.
Gates took a few steps down the pathway. There was something in the back pocket of his jeans. Maybe he had overstuffed his wallet, or maybe he’d picked up a rock that he wanted to keep.
Brooke yelled out, “Hey, Gates. It’s okay with me, you know.”
He stopped and turned around. “What is?”
“You and Jessa.”
“She has no interest in dating me,” he said.
“You never know until you try.”
He nodded, and walked on.
“Gates wants to go out with Jessa?” Nate asked.
“He always has. I’ll tell you all about it in the car.”
“Are you going to tell Jessa too?”
“Of course I’m going to tell Jessa! Should I call her, or should we stop by after supper?”
“Depends on if Duke buys us dessert.”
“Right. Dottie’s always got something.”
“Do you think Jessa likes him back?” he asked.
“I have no idea. She pretends to be anti-men, but I don’t believe her.”
Nate waited as she ran inside to get her phone and purse. She excitedly reached for his hand as they walked to his car. “I can hardly wait to hear what she says.”
*
“Gross,” Jessa said. “No way. I’d rather have food poisoning. Honestly, I never understood how you could stand him.”
“Doesn’t get any clearer than that,” Nate joked.
Brooke, Nate, Jessa, and Tulip were all sitting around Dottie’s kitchen table with bowls of peach cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream. Jessa hadn’t touched hers. “Jess, are you sure you don’t like him?” Brooke asked. “There was a time back at camp when I thought you two might have something. I promise, I swear , if you do, it is absolutely okay with me.”
“Listen, you and Nate were able to turn back time because you never let go of each other. I don’t even remember if I had feelings for Gates back then, but if I did, those feelings have been dead and gone for years. They will never be resurrected.”
Dottie joined the group with her bowl of dessert and a heaping side of prognostication. “I tell you what,” she said. “I knew something was off all those years ago.”
“Mama. Stop it, please,” Jessa said.
“I didn’t say he was supposed to be yours, baby girl,” Dottie said. “He just wasn’t rightfully hers. He could be meant for Harriet Whatsamadinger way out in Australia for all I know.”
“Harriet who?” Jessa asked.
“You know better than to ask that, Carolina Jessamine. I just plucked that name from the air.” Dottie pulled off her blue knit cap and placed it on the table before taking a huge bite of the warm cobbler with cold ice cream topper. Her dark hair was salted with grays. Parts of her were beautiful, like Jessa. Mainly her large blue eyes and soft, delicate chin. The rest of her looked like an overworked sun-lover. “I’ve been on the hamster wheel all day,” she said. “And that damn wedding is coming up so quick. I mixed up remoulade sauce for two hundred people, I made the yeast bread and the coleslaw, and then I sliced open every one of those damned crab legs. Thank God she didn’t ask me to make the cake. My hands are going to smell like crab and horseradish for the rest of my days.”
“I’ll be glad when this wedding is over,” Brooke said. “It’s been tons of work getting Camp Dogwood ready too.”
“Well, sweetheart, I’m proud of you for sticking to your word,” Dottie said. “You committed to doing that wedding and you’re seeing it through.”
“Not happily.”
“Now, lookie here. That might be a little bit my fault. I’ve been telling you all about my visions and making you feel like you had to do certain things. I apologize for that. I do. This wedding might be the biggest disaster in the Northern Hemisphere. It might go so bad that people leave crying. Libby’s a real wild card, ya know?” Dottie took a big bite of dessert and chewed carefully while she thought. “Here’s my final piece of advice. And I want you to really hear me on this, okay?” She turned to her daughters. “Carolina Jessamine and Tulip, I want you to hear this too.” She aggressively wiped her mouth with her napkin and looked back and forth at the three of them with intensity. “Just believe that everything will work out, and let the universe surprise you.”