Page 50 of Full Circle

“I’m not doing a Phase Two!” I shook my head, frowning at both of them. “This has already been too much, y’all! You don’t have to go all out like this.”

“This isn’t even a fraction of what I want to do for your birthday,” insisted Wes. “I love you so much, Celeste, so let me make this day special. Please.” His eyes were imploring me to give in, their sincerity so powerful that I had to look away.

Maggie laced her fingers through mine. “She’s ready. Let’s get to it!”

The sun was already starting to set, giving the air a cool edge. Wesley noticed the shiver that ran down my spine and quickly put his arm around me, rubbing my arm for heat. Somehow his driver was already waiting for us at the gates when we finally walked to the exit. To my horror, Maggie held up a folded bandana and said I had to be blindfolded for the drive to our next stop. No matter how much I protested, she continued to smile like a lunatic and insist. Wes had to pin my arms to my sides for her to wrap it around my head. The shiver I felt after he brushed kisses along my earlobe and whispered, “Be good for me, Celeste,” had nothing to do with the temperature outside, however.

I had no idea how long it really took to get to the next place. My anxiety with the blindfold made time stand still as far as I was concerned, and I absolutely hated it. Wesley didn’t say a word, but made me settle against him, one arm wrapped around my shoulders. Periodically, he would trace a finger down the back of my neck and there was something oddly possessive about the gesture.

“Ugh, Wesley, you promised!” groaned Maggie to my right.

“Promised what?!” I was immediately on high alert.

Wesley snorted as Maggie replied, “No romantic stuff today! This is for all of us, not just you lovebirds!”

My flush extended all the way to my hairline. “I’m sorry, Maggie.” I genuinely was.

“It’s fine.” She sighed dramatically. “It just gets hard being the third wheel to the world’s most perfect couple.”

Perfect couple? Was that really what people thought of us? Wesley and I had never had an argument, which was true, but did that make us perfect?

I always used to think Mama and Daddy were perfect. The way he lit up every time he saw her. How she never let him walk by without touching him in some manner, even if it was just brushing her fingers across his arm in passing. Hell, he gave up farming, what generations of the Hendricks family had done on our land, just so that he could help her run The Comfy Cushion. Her dreams became his dreams, and they both worked their tails off for it. That seemed like the perfect couple to me.

It was also drastically different from the way Wesley and I were so wrapped up in each other that you couldn’t separate us. Neither one of us knew how to live without the other, and the ever looming threat of Mr. Madden sending Wesley away to a French boarding school kept both of us in that sweet spot between addiction and affection. Was that really how a perfect couple was made?

Before I had time to mull on these thoughts, the vehicle came to a stop and Maggie squealed beside me. "This is gonna be so much fun!" she gushed.

They both held a hand to lead me from the car, warning me when there was a staircase. Wesley let go long enough to open a door for us and then returned to my side. I couldn’t hear anything other than Maggie’s repeated squeaks of excitement, which had me on edge. It was a relief when they both drew me to a stop.

“Okay, you ready?” Wesley asked. Even his voice had an undercurrent of anticipation.

I nodded and the blindfold fell from my face.

We were standing inside a grand lobby that had aquatic themes and titles over cavernous entryways. Signs indicated different marine life, along with what looked like a cafeteria to my right and a gift shop that stood behind Wesley.

But none of it took my breath away quite as much as the sight of my daddy there in front of me. He was sitting in a wheelchair and the sheer size of the space made him look infinitesimally small, but he was here. Desiree was, of course, at his side, trying and utterly failing at keeping a pleasant smile on her face. Nana and Marla were here, too, along with Willow and a nurse I recognized from the hospital. Phillip, Mr. Madden’s assistant, stood beside a gentleman in a three piece suit who had a blue name tag on his coat.

“Daddy!” I cried, darting forward to hug him. It was so good to see him outside of the hospital, sitting up and smiling at me like he used to.

“You didn’t think I’d ignore my favorite daughter’s sweet sixteen, did you?” he teased me. The crinkle around his eyes was just the same as ever, even if his face was a bit paler than I remembered. Seeing him outside of a hospital bed in real clothes made him look more like the daddy I remembered rather than the patient I had come to recognize.

“Where are we?” I asked, though the question was posed towards Wesley.

The man beside Phillip stepped forward. “Happy birthday, Ms. Hendricks,” he greeted me, “and welcome to the Georgia Aquarium.”

Now the excitement hit. Wesley had told me countless stories of the Georgia Aquarium, a place he visited frequently with his nannies as a child.

“Where is everybody?” I inquired. If it was as popular as Wes made it out to be, I expected the place to be packed with people.

Daddy chuckled. “We get the place to ourselves! Wesley worked it all out!”

Phillip snorted. “I had a fair hand in it, Mr. Hendricks.” We all laughed, including Wesley.

I stepped closer to him, overwhelmed and grateful for the lengths he went to so my birthday could be special. “You did this all for me?” I murmured. It had to have cost a fortune, and I dreaded the favors his father would demand in exchange.

He shrugged. “You deserve to have a special day.”

Frowning, I couldn’t help but ask, “Won’t you get into more trouble for this?”

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