Page 104 of Fighting the Tide
I’m staying at the bed-and-breakfast.Come here.Room 12.
This was probably her plan all along, to have Colette confront me and break things off, hoping I would come running to her afterward.What she didn’t expect was how honest Colette and I are with each other.Cassie assumed Brooke would be a sensitive topic between my girl and me, but she’s wrong.Brooke will never be buried and forgotten.She’s not a taboo subject in our relationship because she’s what brought us together.
I head into town and watch as some tourists walk the streets, heading to the few bars and restaurants still open.The rain has cooled the night down and made it bearable for strolls along the strip.I used to despise the summers here in Chatham because I hated sharing my town with people who didn’t grow up here, but now I see it as sharing a slice of our heaven.It’s small, clean, and friendly, perfect for a reprieve from the big city life.I know both sides of the coin.
After I park in the parking lot of the bed-and-breakfast, the building taking me back to five years earlier and the first time I really met Colette, I head up to Cassie’s room.The same elderly lady works behind the counter and she gives me a smile as I pass.I wonder if she remembers me or if there’s too many faces that come and go each summer?I take the stairs two at a time and find Cassie’s room easily.I stand in front of it and take a deep breath.There’s no easy way to cut someone who used to be important out of your life, but if they’re becoming like cancer and eating away at your vitality, they have to be removed.
I knock and the door opens as if she was standing and waiting on the other side.She has a smile on her face and is wearing nothing but a lace robe.“Come in.”She opens the door wider as I shake my head.
“No.This won’t take long.”Her smile drops as her arms cross over her chest.“I know what you tried to do tonight, and your plan failed.Instead of pulling apart Colette and me, you made it easier for me to tell her I love her and to ask her to move in with me.”
“Nolan, I didn’t… She’s so young… you can’t expect it to last.”I can see the tears forming in her eyes and I can’t find it in me to feel sorry for her.
“I’m moving back to Chatham to start a life with the woman I love.For the first time in my life, I have found love in its purest form.Even if we don’t last, if everything you’re saying is true, I still wouldn’t be with you.I wouldn’t even be your friend.Does that make it any clearer to you?Stay out of my life and away from my girl.”I turn and walk for the stairs, hearing her soft cries behind me.
“I’m going back to New York next week, so I’ll be out of your life anyway,” she calls out as I continue walking.I’ve said what I want and there’s nothing left to say.What she does with her life means nothing to me.
I wave to the lady behind the desk and head back outside.If anything or anyone tries to come between Colette and me, I won’t hesitate to get rid of it or them.I can feel it.This is my last chance, my second chance, at love, and I won’t squander it.From this day forward, each day will be devoted to making her happy and showing her what it means to be loved.
Long ago, I believed Chatham broke me, that this town had the potential to chew me up and spit me back out.I was so very wrong.Just like Monica and Avery have been telling me, Chatham wasn’t the reason why my life was challenging.I struggled because I couldn’t find where I belonged.
Now I know I belong with Colette, and Chatham is our home.
Epilogue
One year later
“Nolan!”Colettecallsfromthe bathroom.“I can’t find my curling iron!”
“You have a curling iron?”I ask as I straighten my tie in the mirror.“I’ve never seen it.”
“I know!I never unpacked it when I moved in, but I want ringlets for the wedding!”I hear her stomp toward the guest room to rifle through the boxes we have stacked in there.Some are hers from when she finally stopped packing overnight bags a few months ago and some are mine from my house in New York.
Today is Monica and Avery’s big day and they’re getting married on the beach at our spot, the same one we used to sit at when we were teenagers and complained about everything.It feels like we’ve come full circle and I can’t wait to see my best friends finally celebrate their love.
“How do you have this?”Colette comes into our bedroom holding something I haven’t seen in over six years.
“It was my mother’s,” I tell her as she lifts the lid of the small jewelry box, making the ballerina on the inside twirl.
“No, it’s not.It’s mine.”She must be mistaken because that doesn’t make any sense.
“I found it with my mother’s things.Why would she have it?”She holds up a small shell bracelet, her eyes misting over as she wraps it in her palm.
“This was my mother’s.”Her voice hitches as she looks down into the box.“I thought I lost it forever.”
“Colette.There’s no way my mother could have taken this jewelry box.She wasn’t even working for your grandparents when you were born.Besides, she wasn’t a thief.”I can feel anger swelling in my chest as I imagine her thinking my mother would do such a thing.
“I lost it long after she passed.”She gives me a soft smile and sets the jewelry box on the dresser to slip the shell bracelet on her wrist.It matches well with her crocheted, black halter dress, lined with an ivory slip on the inside.“I was collecting seashells along the beach the summer I was eleven, hoping to make another bracelet like my mother’s.I had the jewelry box with me and I set it down somewhere, I’m guessing, near this cottage, and when I came back with a handful of shells, it was gone.I was devastated and searched the beach for weeks until I had to leave and go back to school.”
I stare at the box as I shake my head.“That would mean my father found it…” I trail off because it’s absolutely possible.He was so far gone out of his mind with drugs and alcohol that he could’ve found it and thought it was my mother’s.It also means he knew where her things were and he never touched it.Even while he was so fucked-up from substances, he still had some regard for my mother.
“Fate has seriously tied us together in many ways,” she hums as she steps up to me, her hands lifting to run through my shorter hair.“You would think we were meant to be, even back then.”
“Fate has definitely made up for the shitstorm it caused me for many years.”I run my hands down her sides, soaking in her dress and stopping at her waist to bring her flush to my body.“You’re my everything.”I kiss her and when she moves to deepen it, I pull back with atsk.“We have an hour and a half to get our asses to the beach.If I don’t show, Avery will come for her best man herself and I will be shark food.”
“Shit!I have to find my curling iron!”She hurries off again toward the guest room as my eyes fall to the jewelry box.I had a piece of her with me for years and didn’t even know it.
“I’m going to take a walk on the beach!”I call out to her as I open the back door.She mutters something unintelligible as I step outside, giving her the space to do the unnecessary things to make her beautiful.She’s already the most stunning creature to walk this Earth, and she’s mine.
