Page 1 of Win Some Love Some
1
Six Years Ago
Nora
“Happy birthday dear Nora. Happy birthday to you!”
A room full of my family and friends and not a single one of them could sing in key.
Still, they sounded beautiful. A chorus of love and flat voices – I wouldn’t have it any other way. Our tiny house was full to the rafters for my 18thbirthday. People were leaning over the staircase banister and wives were sitting on husband’s laps. Kids were everywhere.
“Thank you everyone, except you, Matt Sullivan. I saw you not singing.” I said and everyone laughed.
“He’s not much of a singer,” his wife, Carrie, said.
“Well,” I said, everyone’s attention on me, which I didn’t hate. “From what I just heard, none of you are.”
The room filled with good natured groans and happy insults. It was the middle of August and the doors were open, letting ina badly needed cool breeze that smelled like summer and the ocean and home.
“Blow out the candles!” My sister Charlie shouted from where she was hanging over the banister.
“I’ll help you, Nora.” Will, my youngest brother, shouted from the back of the room.
“No, me. I’ll do it.” Bethany, my youngest sister, would not be outshone by Will.
The two of them muscled their way through the crowd, stepping on feet and throwing elbows.
“Will,” RJ, short for Roy Junior, my oldest brother, barked from his spot near the kitchen. “Let Bethany.”
“Yeah, Will, let me.” Bethany was only four but she was the toughest of all of us. She wore a sparkly pink party dress, mud boots and was going through a “don’t brush my hair or I’ll scream” phase. She kneeled up on one of the bench seats closest to the table. Her eyes bright with candlelight and victorious glee.
Will crossed his arms and looked peeved – an exact replica of our dad, but he would always follow his big brother’s lead.
“They’re Nora’s candles,” Roy grunted from across the room, I didn’t know where my mom was. Normally, she would be standing right by his side. Maybe rounding up the young kids playing out back to come inside for cake?
She would be upset that she missed this part. Blowing out the candles. Later she would ask me what I’d wished for. I never told her, but it never stopped her from asking.
I smiled at everyone assembled around the table – Sheriff Bobby and Mari, who had made the cake. Uncle Jackson and Aunt Lola. Mal and Jolie. And there…leaning against the wall, next to Sheila Hedgemore, who worked at the dress shop, the candlelight reflecting in his eyes – was my Birthday Wish.
Nick Renard.
My first friend. My best friend. My partner in crime.
My soul mate.
Our path to being together had been complicated by the fact that I was younger than him, by a few years. Like eleven of them. But turning eighteen…becoming an adult - awoman –changed everything.
Nick smiled at me, that lopsided smile like he wasn’t ready to commit to showing anyone he was happy. But I knew the truth. I knew he was happy. More than that, I made him happy. He lifted his beer in a little toast. It hurt sometimes to look at him. His dark hair, those eyes that were sometimes blue, sometimes green, sometimes brown. The nose that had been broken once or twice from his time in juvie. His lips with the little scar in the corner. I knew that face by heart and tonight…tonight I was going to know the rest of him.
He just didn’t know it yet.
Just you wait, Nick Renard, tonight I’m going to blow your mind.
Not that I knew how to do that. Exactly. But he was a man, he’d had a few girlfriends over the years – he’d know what to do. I just had to tell him it was okay now.
With all her heart, Bethany blew out the candles, basically spitting all over the top of the cake.
I closed my eyes and made my wish.
