“What’s up?” he asked as he got back into his rental SUV after trekking out to the volcano to see if there was anything interesting left to capture of the still-smoldering lava flows.
“Charlotte’s been in touch with her father,” Sloane said. “She just went to meet him last weekend.”
He’d been about to start the engine. At this, he dropped his hand and sat back. “You’re kidding. How’d she find him?”
“I’m not going to tell you,” she said. “You need to ask her. So what if you have Parkinson’s? Don’t let that stop you! Tomorrow or years down the line, she could get cancer or another disease! Would you quit loving her if that happened? Kick her out of your life?”
“Of course not. But she found out about me in time to avoid being bound to that kind of thing.”
“You don’t know what the future holds,” Sloane argued. “You don’t know exactly what this disease will do to you. It varies, depending on the person. They could even find a cure! Life is both precious and uncertain, Jules. You need to grab hold of happiness when it’s offered to you. Do you hear me? Anything can happen to anyone at any time. She lovesyou! She wantsyou! Now get your ass home and marry her, or I’m never going to speak to you again!”
She must’ve handed the phone to their mother at that point because he heard Karen’s voice next. “Jules?”
He let his head fall back against the seat. “What?” he said dully.
“Your father and I second what Sloane said.”
“You’re going to hang up on me now, too?”
“I don’t want to. I’m worried about you. Won’t you just let the people who love you... love you? Why do you have to make it so hard?”
For the first time, he allowed his mind to consider that what he wanted most might actually be good for everyone. He’d stand by Charlotte if she was going through something like this, wouldn’t he? So why couldn’t he believe that she’d do the same for him? Not out of pity, but out of love and commitment and the happiness they had when they were together.
Suddenly, hope blasted inside him like a giant gas flare on one of the oil rigs he’d photographed in Texas. He’d been trying so hard not to be selfish, not to limit Charlotte to the future he saw ahead of him. But what if the years they could spend together would be worth whatever it cost them?
“You’re trying to control too much,” he heard his father chime in even though Jerry wasn’t actually on the line.
“Do you really think it could work out somehow?” he asked, but he was talking to himself more than to anyone else.
“I think you two are destined to be together,” his mothersaid. “Don’t let her go, Jules. I admire what you’re trying to do, but it’s just as courageous to accept the truth and fight for what you want in spite of it.”
“Fight for what you want in spite of it,” he muttered. Those words somehow broke his resistance. He knew it immediately.
Starting the vehicle, he smiled as he put the transmission in Drive and tore down the dirt road leading to the highway. “I’ll book the first flight I can get,” he said.
“Can I tell her you’re coming?” Sloane called out, revealing that she’d been listening in all along.
“No. Leave everything to me,” he said. “I mean that.”
“Fine!” she yelled. “Just don’t fuck it up.”
He laughed because he heard his father immediately scold her for her language and because he felt lighter than he had in months.
He could only hope that his family was guiding him in the right direction—and that it wasn’t too late.
She’d finished her book, and she was only three weeks late. Charlotte could hardly believe she’d managed to write an entire manuscript—a story she was very happy with—despite everything that’d happened since Cliff first kicked her out, including meeting the man who’d supplied half her genetic information. She’d gone to San Diego last weekend and enjoyed having dinner with him and his wife. He seemed like a decent person, despite what she’d thought of him in the beginning. She liked his wife, Cindy, too. She was intelligent, kind and beautiful. They fit together well; Charlotte was glad their marriage had managed to survive what’d happened with Sabrina.
She was relieved about Cliff, too. Last she’d heard, he wasn’t going to try to break the prenup and leave her with nothing, as he’d threatened—probably because his attorney had told himit’d be a waste of time and money. He was going to pay her the eight hundred thousand dollars he owed her in a few months, when their divorce was final. Then she’d be able to move out of her parents’ house and get a place of her own—although she wasn’t in too much of a hurry to do that. Lilly was thriving right where she was. Don and Penny doted on her, so she had the love and support of three adults.
After submitting her finished manuscript, she wanted to go to bed and sleep off the effects of the last several months—this week particularly, during which she’d worked almost nonstop to reach “the end.” But her parents and Lilly were looking forward to taking her out to dinner to celebrate, so, telling herself she had to hang in there for one more night, she closed her laptop and headed to the bathroom to get ready.
“What’re you wearing?” her mother asked as she stopped by the bathroom where Charlotte was putting on makeup.
Charlotte found that an odd question. Her mother typically didn’t ask her what she was going to wear when they went out, not since she was a lot younger, anyway. “What do you want me to wear?”
“Something nice. A dress? We’re going to Fleming’s.”
Now she had to dress up, too? Charlotte wasn’t in the mood. But her parents had been so good about helping out since she and Lilly got back from Italy that she bit back her initial response. “Sure, I can wear a dress.”
