Saving Wishes (The Wishes Series) (22 page)

“All Charli has to do to aggravate you is exist,” returned Alex. “Everyone has a limit, Jasmine.”

Alex didn’t even know what I’d done to her. It was astonishing that he always defended me without question – especially when I least deserved it.

“She dyed my hands orange,” she bellowed, waving her hands under his nose.

“I see that.”

“Yeah, well….” Her voice trailed off. “There’s plenty you don’t see. Her reputation around town is as damaged as she is.” She spun around, pointing at Adam. “You could do so much better than her, you know that, right?”

Adam didn’t seem too worried. He actually looked like he felt sorry for her. I felt no pity whatsoever. I felt furious.

“Why are you doing this? You need to shut your mouth!” I yelled. “If you so much as say another bad word about me, Carol Lawson is going to know that you’ve been stealing from her,” I threatened.

“You won’t tell her,” she said, calling my bluff.

“Are you prepared to take that chance?” I asked, hoping I sounded just as vile as her.

Her eyes narrowed. “You’re despicable.”

Gabrielle let out a sharp laugh. “That is the pot calling the pan black.”

There was a long silence before Alex finally corrected her. “Kettle, Gabs.”

“Pardon?”

“Kettle. The pot calls the kettle black.”

“Why would the kettle be black?” wondered Gabrielle.

“I’ll explain it later, sweetheart,” he said gently.

Never before had I seen her grasp on the English language slip. But her blunder was nothing compared to Alex’s. He was either so distracted or so caught off guard that he had called Gabrielle
sweetheart
– right in front of the mouth of the south.

Jasmine let out a strange gurgling sound and stared at Gabrielle. Gabrielle was still frowning, fidgeting with the gold charm bracelet she was wearing, apparently trying to understand the black kettle situation. Jasmine returned her attention to Alex, and the look she gave him wasn’t kind. “You and
her
?” she asked in disbelief.

Alex smiled sweetly. “I’m not telling you anything. That’s how rumours start.” The biggest secret in the Cove was out; and judging by the Machiavellian look on his face, he didn’t care one bit.

“Ugh!” she growled, throwing her carroty hands in the air in defeat. “You all deserve each other!”

Her eyes flitted between the three of us. None of us spoke. She tugged on her gloves and stamped out.

Alex’s smile disappeared along with her, and an eerie silence set in. It was as if we’d all witnessed a terrible train crash and were too shocked to speak. I could feel his glare but kept my eyes on the front door.

“You have ten seconds to explain,” he informed me.

I punched out the explanation so quickly, I had five seconds to spare. I could almost see his mind ticking over as he processed my confession.

“Of all the stupid things to do.” His reproach was warranted, and defending myself would only have added fuel to an already raging fire. “You’re like a mini terrorist. Are you trying to get us run out of town?”

Gabrielle’s tried to stop a giggle escaping. I turned my attention to Adam

“I think it was ingenious,” he murmured, revealing the dimple on his cheek.

“You are too easily charmed,” complained Alex, waving his hands as if he was showcasing the major prize in a game show. “Charli Blake is the kind of girl your mother warned you about, Adam. Nothing but trouble.”

So much for defending me to the death! If he hadn’t been so worked up it would have been funny. The only people in the room game enough to see the humour were those of French lineage.

“I would be more than happy to claim her,” Adam told him.

“Me too,” added Gabrielle, much to my surprise.

Alex shook his head. He marched to the front door and flipped the sign, declaring the shop shut for the rest of the day.

“Are you closing?” asked Gabrielle, checking her watch. “It’s early.”

“I’m done. If I don’t get out of here, I might explode,” he muttered, pushing past me to collect his coat.

I knew Alex was close to breaking point. Escaping the café before he had a chance to lock the door seemed like a good idea. I reached for Adam’s hand. “I’ll see you later.” I moved quickly, giving Alex no chance of calling me back. Adam turned to face him as we reached the door.

“I’ll have her home early.”

“I honestly don’t care,” Alex said wearily.

He sounded broken. For a horrible second I wondered if I’d finally pushed him too far. Perhaps in the process of slaying the Beautiful dragons I’d accidently assassinated my white knight too. I peeked at my brother. “Do you mean that?” My voice was small because I feared his answer.

Alex looked back at me for a long time. He didn’t look angry any more, just beaten. “No,” he said simply. And I believed him.

Adam and I sat in his car while I explained the whole sorry saga to him. Even armed with all the details he didn’t seem to think I was as wicked as I clearly was. Alex and Gabrielle came out of the café soon after us, and left in separate cars. Not a good sign. Poor Alex had been pulled in too many directions that day, and knowing him, he was heading home to stew.

Alex was a big fan of brooding. I arrived home a few hours later to find him in the yard chopping firewood. Giving me the silent treatment while he took his frustration out on the woodheap was common practice. He’d hacked through enough wood in the last year to see us through at least three winters.

“Are you going to chop it all?” I asked, leaning against a veranda post, not willing to venture any closer while he was wielding an axe.

The axe smashed down on a block of wood. “I might.”

“Alex, I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not.” I couldn’t dispute it. I wasn’t feeling a skerrick of regret for dyeing the Beautifuls; but disappointing him was never part of the plan. “Do you ever think, Charli? Before you do stupid things does any part of your brain stop to consider the consequences?”

“Not often,” I admitted.

He leaned on the axe handle as he wiped sweat with his forearm. “What am I supposed to do with you?”

“I think you should take Gabrielle to the art exhibition in Stanley,” I said, ignoring his question.

He punched out a hard laugh. “I’m sure you do. Leaving a criminal mastermind and her awestruck boyfriend alone for a weekend sounds like a great idea.”

“You can’t baby me forever,” I grumbled.

He smashed the axe down on another defenceless block of wood, so hard that splinters hit the garage. Staying on the veranda was a wise decision. “If you’re so big and brave, how come you came running to me when you knew Jasmine was on the warpath?”

“I’m not brave, Alex. I’m scared of everything, but lately I’ve become hopeful of changing that.”

“It’s fleeting, Charli. Adam is leaving in a few weeks. Then what?”

It bothered me that he’d mentioned Adam. He had nothing to do with anything that had happened that day. And now the speech I’d prepared during the drive home didn’t seem applicable any more. He’d gone off on a completely different tangent.

“It won’t be the end. I’m sure of it.”

Alex let out an appalled groan, swinging the axe over his head as if it was weightless. The ear-splitting crack of the wood made me flinch. “You’re absurd. You are so…. seventeen,” he said, puffing with exertion. “If you’re thinking of running off to New York, you’re making a huge mistake. You’d be giving up everything. You’ll get stuck somewhere you don’t want to be and you’ll hate every minute of it.”

“Like you did?”

Those three words grabbed him. Even from a distance, his hazel eyes looked as hard as glass. “Don’t you start,” he warned.

“You know it’s true,” I insisted. “I don’t even know what your dreams were but I know you gave them up to look after me. You give
everything
to me. You can stop doing that now.”

He dropped the axe on the grass and leaned down to pick up the chopped wood. “You do stupid things, make dumb decisions. I wonder if I gave you enough. Maybe there’s some major life lesson I forgot to clue you in about.”

Abandoning the safety of the veranda, I stepped on to the lawn.

“Alex, the things I do are no reflection of the job you’ve done. Sometimes I’m just a jerk. Don’t take it so personally.”

He pointed to the pile of wood with his free hand. It was a mute ultimatum that I understood perfectly. I picked up the smallest pieces I could find. Unimpressed with my effort, he offloaded a much larger log into my arms.

He smirked. “Sometimes I’m a jerk too.”

“This is too heavy,” I complained.

“Suck it up, princess.” He was already walking towards the garage carrying more wood than I could have shifted in a week.

I’d pushed the envelope too far that day to consider claiming pity points. Pretending to drop the bundle on my foot and faking a mortal injury wouldn’t wash. I followed him the to the neatly stacked woodpile.

“Don’t throw it all away for a boy, Charli,” he said as soon as I was close enough to hear.

It was a confusing exchange. He flitted from chastising me about the dumb decisions I made to my relationship with Adam. Why did he think the two were linked?

I dropped the on the ground. Alex began stacking it against the wall. It felt like I had only half of his attention and I found myself raising my voice to compensate.

“I would never regret it, no matter how short-lived it might be. I’d rather have five minutes of something amazing than a lifetime of nothing special. Staying here, playing it safe and never dealing with anything more challenging than Jasmine Tate would kill me.”

Alex walked past, ignoring the fact that I was yelling at him. I groaned in protest, dragging my feet across the damp grass as if I was physically damaged. He waited until my arms were laden before speaking.

“I’m not blind, Charli. I knew before you even did that there wasn’t enough in this town for you. A few months away will be – ”

The two logs thudding to the ground as I dropped them cut his sentence short. “I’m not coming back here, Alex, ever,” I blurted. “When Nic and I are done travelling, I’m going to New York.” I’d had no intention of revealing that little gem quite so soon, but as usual, my mouth got the better of me.

I might as well have drilled him in the side of the head with the blocks of wood he’d just chopped. He looked so devastated that I wished I could suck the words back in. Calming down and explaining my reasons was the only chance I had to make him understand – except I didn’t know how. “I
need
to be with him.”

Trite
, I thought. He’s never going to buy it.

“You’re not supposed to
need
him, Charli. You’re supposed to just
want
him. Needing him is what I’m afraid of. You’re going to follow him to New York and get stuck there because you need him…and trust me…when need kicks in, you’re not going to want him any more.”

“I love him,” I added, hoping it was a more acceptable reason.

“Well, it sounds like you’ve got it all worked out. You’ve come to this conclusion in just one month? Nice work.”

“I feel sorry for you!” I yelled. “You’ve become jaded.” Frustration was making my blood boil.

Alex must have noticed that I was on the brink of a major meltdown. His demeanour changed. “What do you want me to say, Charli?” he asked gently. “What do you want to hear?”

I stared at him, doubtful that I was capable of giving an answer any less banal than the last few. “I just want you to have faith in me. I’m never going to have it any more together than right now.”

“I promise you, in time you will.”

“I’m always going to see things differently. I’m going to continue to chance things to fate. I’m always going to believe in magic and I’m always going to trust that things will work out in the end.” I pointed a log at him. “Those are the lessons
you
taught me. That’s who I am.”

His hands flew up, but at least he reacted. It was the only proof I had that he was actually listening to me. “You forgot to mention that you also have a defective sense of judgment and zero common sense,” he said, leaning to pick up more wood.

“I’m working on it,” I said sourly. “Please, just consider the bigger picture for a minute. What if I’m so unbelievably lucky that I’ve found the one I want to be with forever? ”

“And what are the odds of that, Charli?” he asked as he walked back to the garage.

“I’ll take my chances. I’m not wrong about this,” I insisted, following empty-handed.

“And if you are?”

“I won’t regret a single minute of it. I can promise you that much. That has to be enough for you.”

“Look, Adam has been a good distraction for you. I see that. But you have to see it for what it is. This isn’t his real life, Charli, and I doubt you’re going to fit into his world. What do you know about his family?”

“It couldn’t be any weirder than ours,” I replied morosely.