Saving Wishes (The Wishes Series) (35 page)

“Nothing bad,” I assured him.

“So I don’t need to meet with your principal or hire a lawyer?”

I pulled a face at him. “It’s my passport application. I’ve filled most of it out, so you just need to sign it so we can lodge the papers.”

I put the stack of papers on the counter.

He barely glanced at them. “We’ll go to Sorell next week, if I get time. We’ll lodge them there.”

“We can do it here, at the post office.”

Alex stared at me like I was missing something obvious. He picked the papers up and waved them at me. “You want to give these papers to Valerie Daintree?”

I nodded.

“You’re out of your mind. If you wait a few more months you won’t need my signature anyway.”

“I don’t want to wait, Alex,” I informed him. “I don’t care if people find out …unless you do.”

Throwing it all out there would only be empowering if both of us were prepared to let the secret go. His frown showed he wasn’t ready yet.

“It’s not that I don’t want to,” he said, handing papers back to me. “Just give me a while to figure out
how
.”

I nodded but said nothing. There was nothing I could have said that would have reassured him. Alex was dealing with issues much older than me and I had to give him the time he needed. In fact, I was prepared to let it drop indefinitely. At worst I’d have to wait until I turned eighteen in December and no longer need his signature.

It was Alex who broached the subject again, over breakfast the next morning.

“I’ll close up early today, pick you up after school and we’ll lodge the papers,” he told me.

I swallowed. “You’re sure about this?”

He scraped butter across his toast while he deliberated. “Charli, keeping quiet was never anything to do with you. You know that, right?”

I nodded, hoping I looked convincing.

“When I was a kid, we moved around a lot. My mum would spend a few months running up debts, drinking away her money. Eventually the wolves would come knocking.” He smiled, but there was nothing humorous in what he was saying. “So we’d move on. It was that way for years. When I had you, all I wanted was a stable life for us. Mum was so far gone by then that there was no way she could be on her own. Whatever plans I made had to include her. A guy I knew offered me a week of work on one of his boats. It was an opportunity to make some quick money and set us up somewhere new. All Donna had to do was stay sober for a week to look after you.”

“But she couldn’t do it?”

“Apparently not.” He grimaced. “She packed up and brought you here on a drunken whim.”

“Thank goodness for Floss, huh?”

“Floss took very good care of you until I got here,” he agreed. “By the time I arrived, Donna had already begun spinning the same crap I’d heard a hundred times before, telling everyone that life was good and she had it all together. But now her story included the sweet little daughter that she dragged everywhere with her, including the pub.”

I dropped my eyes to the table, unable to look at his tortured expression.

“The point I’m trying to make is that by the time I got here, I was tired of starting over all the time. I liked it here. I wanted you to grow up here. People in town were already talking about Mum, but it was harmless. Everyone just thought she was a lush – which she was.” He winked at me and I smiled. “I stuck to the story she’d started. I couldn’t bear explaining the truth back then.”

“And now?”

He stared straight at me, deliberating. “Now, I’m not sure that I care. No one can say I’ve done a bad job, right?”

I rolled my eyes, grinning. “You’re right, Alex. I’m almost normal.”

“Exactly,” he said exultantly. “My kid grew up to be ten times smarter, prettier and more brilliant than theirs.”

Apparently he still liked to hang out in La La land.

***

The last period was supposed to be free study. I used it to double-check my passport application. By the time Alex picked me up that afternoon, I was confident that it was flawless.

Alex parked in front of the post office and got out of the Ute. He was almost at the door before he realised I wasn’t following him. “Are you coming?” he asked, dropping his head to talk to me through the open window.

“Adam opens the car door for me,” I said, adding a pout.

“I’m not your date, Charlotte.” He opened the door anyway.

Valerie Daintree kept us waiting at the counter a long time, sorting mail into pigeonholes, knowing full well we were waiting to be served. Alex’s patience eventually ran out. He thumped his hand on the service bell so hard that it distorted the sound of the ring.

“Yes, Alex. May I help you?” she asked, finally turning to acknowledge us.

She was stringing him along for good reason. Alex had once dated her daughter, Sabine. Valerie had high hopes for them but as usual, Alex lost interest after just a few weeks, dumping her on Christmas Eve. Poor Sabine recovered quickly, moved to the mainland and married an accountant. Valerie, however, never seemed to get over it, which explained why she was trying to bump him off with a fierce stare.

Alex pushed the papers across the counter. Mrs Daintree took her time reading through them. It was excruciating, like waiting for Gabrielle to grade my French homework while I was still in the classroom.

“I’m sorry, Alex. It’s erroneous,” she said, thrusting the application back.

Who uses words like erroneous? I’d never even heard a Décarie say it.

He pushed them back to her, speaking slowly and smoothly. “Val, if you check the details, you’ll see that every detail is exactly as it should be.”

Mrs Daintree flicked forward a few pages to the copy of the birth certificate, studying it with wide-eyed interest. “Err, yes,” she stammered. “It appears to be in order.”

Alex leaned over the counter. “I assume that all information received at the post office is confidential and private?”

“Of course,” she replied snakily.

“Then I have no reason to think that this information will go anywhere other than the passport office.” He patted the papers with his palm.

Mrs Daintree’s mouth fell open as if she was going to speak but Alex beat her to it.

“You have a lovely day,” he said insincerely. He winked at me and grabbed my elbow, leading me towards the door.

I was glad we got out of there when we did. If we’d been a minute later, we wouldn’t have seen the pretty black Audi driving down the street.

“Is that Adam’s car?” asked Alex incredulously.

I couldn’t blame him for being unsure. The sleek black car had undergone some changes. Most noticeable were the huge glittery butterfly decals adorning the side windows.

I gagged. “Not any more.”

The sale of the Audi had been rushed through much quicker than Adam had anticipated. His original plan of handing it over just before he left town fell by the wayside once Jasmine started calling him incessantly, pleading with him to give it up early. He was mystified how she got his number. I suspected Nicole, but kept my thought to myself.

It pulled into a bay in front of Carol’s salon. The doors were flung open. Alex began to laugh. The hot pink velour seat covers, purple dash mat and fluffy thing hanging off the rear vision mirror made it look like the inside of a seedy nightclub.

Jasmine, Lily and Lisa piled out. The juniors headed straight into the salon, but Jasmine spotted us staring at her.

“Hi Alex,” she called, ignoring me. “What do you think?”

“I think I want to scratch my eyes out,” he muttered, too quietly for her to hear. He gave her a thumbs-up and sought refuge in the Ute. I was still giggling when I got in.

“Adam will cry when he sees it,” I told him.

“Adam should have known better,” he replied.

Before he started the car, his phone rang. Alex answered it without checking the number. “Yes Val, that’s correct,” he said formally.

After answering a few more questions with one-word answers, he ended the call, groaning. “Val’s going through your application as we speak. She had a few burning questions,” he said wryly. “She’s probably in there right now Googling Olivia’s name.”

“Have you ever Googled her name?” I asked in a small voice.

He turned the key. “Why would I do that?”

“Aren’t you curious? Don’t you ever wonder what became of her?”

“I’m sure she did just fine,” he said, looking over his shoulder as he backed out. “But I’ll understand if you’re curious. If you want to find her, I’ll help you.”

I couldn’t make sense of his attitude. He’d loved her. They’d had a child together. How could he not be curious?

I wasn’t interested in finding her. Olivia Fielding meant nothing to me. All of my curiosity was based around her relationship with my father.

Neither of us said much on the journey home. Once we got out of the car, the conversation would be over. If I wanted to know more, I had to ask now.

“How could you just forget about her, Alex?”

He looked at the bunch of keys in his hand. “I’ll never forget her. I see her every time I look at you.” He looked across at me, looking embarrassed by his admission. “We went our separate ways and that’s how it was supposed to go. We weren’t destined to be together forever.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because we were so different, Charli. I wanted a quiet life where I could surf all day. She had hopes of living in a big city and touring with a famous ballet company. The only thing we had in common was the fact that we were hopelessly in love with each other.”

“Perhaps you should have thought about that before you made a baby,” I snapped.

“There are reasons why society discourages teenage pregnancy, Charli,” he said, tapping the side of his forehead.

“Why did you stay with her for so long if you knew it wasn’t going to work out?”

“Because I loved her.” He enunciated each word like it was a stupid question.

I let out a disgusted groan. “Trite.”

“It’s the truth,” he insisted. “You’re so sure I don’t understand what you’re going through, aren’t you? I
lived
it, Charli.”

“It’s completely different.”

“Of course it is,” he said sarcastically. “Because you and Boy Wonder are peas in a pod, right? So similar it’s scary.”

I hated the condescending tone he adopted whenever he dragged Adam into a conversation. No good ever came of it.

“There’s no comparison. I’m not about to make any accidental babies,” I hissed.

“The baby had nothing to do with it. I know that because you’re very young, you’re hopeful that things will work out for the long haul. I also know that you’re going to absolutely hate New York. Adam will win out for a while, but eventually you’re going to have to make a tough decision.”

“What decision?”

“You’re going to have to decide when to call it quits.”

Why would I ever have to do that? I loved Adam. There would never be a time when I wanted to end it. I was certain of it.

Alex shifted in his seat. “Charli, I know logic isn’t your strong point, but work with me here. Adam is about to start law school. That’s his dream. You have a dream. He has a dream. They don’t match up.”

Adam had his whole life meticulously mapped out. A career in law awaited him. That was his bliss. None of that was achievable unless he spent the next few years working towards it. My hopes for the future were much more simplistic but just as valid. I wanted to tell Alex that I’d found a way to tie it all together, that we could be happy together in New York for as long as Adam needed to be there. But I couldn’t.

“Things might change.” My voice sounded weak even to me.

“If you alter his course, you’ll never be able to live with yourself,” he warned. “There should be no compromise at your age, for either of you. You’re both supposed to get what you want. The best you can hope for is that you meet somewhere in the middle later on.”

“I wasn’t planning to change Adam’s path.”

“You know you have the power to do that though, right?”

Ridiculous
, I thought, shaking my head emphatically.

“I’ve seen the way he looks at you, Charli. He’s at the point where he’d do just about anything to keep you in his life; and for Adam, that’s completely new territory. He’s used to getting everything he wants. He’s never had to work for that to happen.”

Ordinarily, Alex could go days without saying anything insightful. Deep conversations were a rarity. Perhaps that’s why I was so confused.

“Tell me what you think I should do,” I muttered.

“I can’t tell you what to do.”

That was a lie. Alex was always telling me what to do. The fact that I’d never actually done it was failure on my part, not his.

“Once you stop being ruled by your heart and start actually listening to what your head is telling you, things will become clearer. There just shouldn’t be compromise at seventeen.”

Alex’s words burned like acid. I thought hard, struggling to find a flaw in his theory. “I won’t change my mind about him,” I insisted.