Page 43 of Strings Attached
Dawn makes the lighthouse’s pale surface appear coral and gritty, like a seashell from the beach. The waves below keep perfect time like a metronome counting down moments I don’t want to face. Seabirds wheel through the morning mist, their cries sound mournful without my cello to answer.
It feels wrong to be here without Giuseppe. Like showing up to karaoke without a voice. But maybe that’s fitting—I’m not here to make music. I’m afraid I’m here to say goodbye.
The contract in my pocket weighs like lead, Jules’ elegant handwriting mapping out a future I can’t fight. But Dean’s parents’ faces haunt me more than any touring schedule. I’ve spent the night replaying their expressions—the shimmering eyes of his mother, the gaping mouth of his father. The way they looked at me like I was a dissonant note that could shatter their carefully maintained harmony.
I understand family disappointment. I’ve spent years trying to be worth Alex’s sacrifices. But this feels different. Deeper. Like I’m not just disappointing them, but threatening their entire world. Maybe it’s the non-magical thing. Or maybe… my throat tightens as I remember Dean mentioning his sister’supcoming wedding. Maybe the idea of him settling here, with me, is what truly devastated them.
A twig snaps behind me and my heart lurches. Dean emerges from the forest path, and just the sight of him makes my chest ache. He’s wearing a black button-down with the sleeves rolled up. No jacket. It’s like he’s peeled off his armor, but somehow it doesn’t feel like a hopeful gesture. The shadows under his eyes match the stubble on his jaw. He looks like he’s slept about as much as I have.
My heart screams that I’m the last thing he should worry about. He has an entire magical community to protect. His family to reconcile with. His sister’s wedding to consider. But when his eyes meet mine, that rare genuine smile breaks across his face, softening the hard lines and wrinkling his eyes.
I cross to him. He seems hesitant to touch me so I wrap my arms around his waist. With a sigh, he pulls me closer. He smells like autumn itself— something distinctly magical that I’ve come to associate with his presence. If food in Magnolia Cove can taste like comfort, I’ve decided Dean’s smell is safety. But it’s not from any magical enhancement. That’s just who he is. Which only makes this harder, because I already knew it wouldn’t be simple.
Magic and music, duty and dreams—we were always going to be a complicated melody. But this is different. The memory of his mother’s horror-stricken face cuts through me. I lost my parents young enough that their absences have become a familiar ache. Alex is all the family I have left, and she gave up so much to make sure I never felt alone. How can I ask Dean to risk his chance at healing his own family? To choose me over bridging the decade-wide gap with his sister, over mending what’s broken with his parents?
I can’t.
I won’t
Because another thing Alex taught me was love. Real love isn’t about perfect harmony or flawless performances. It’s about knowing when to step back, when to let the music breathe, when to give someone else the solo. It’s about recognizing that sometimes the most profound way to care for someone is to become a rest in their melody rather than trying to force yourself into their score.
And right now, loving Dean means giving him the space to reconcile with his family, to mend what’s broken, to find his way back to the people who knew his heart before I ever did. Even if it means my heart breaks in the process.
“I’m sorry about my parents’ reaction,” he says into my hair.
I curl my fingers around his hips. Everything in me wants to hold on to him forever. “It’s okay. It’s not a big?—”
“It is.” He pushes back slightly so he can cup my cheek with his hand. “They’re just acting out of fear.”
The tenderness in his touch makes my throat tight. This feels simultaneously so right and so wrong. When he kisses me, it’s soft and slow and I’m too busy trying to memorize it to actually enjoy it.
I force myself to let him go. To take a step back. “Their fears aren’t unfounded though.”
He frowns. “What do you mean?”
“You’re the Head Warlock of a magical island, Dean.” I raise my arms out like I can encompass all of Magnolia Cove. Of everything he protects. “And I’m a woman who barely read fairytales as a kid, much less grew up with any magic, and I’m about to leave.”
Because I’ve realized leaving fixes everything. I can’t earn a real living here. Not the kind I need to survive. Staying means stepping in where I don’t belong—distracting Alex from the life she’s finally building and distracting Dean from the family he’sstill trying to save. If I go, maybe they’ll both be able to breathe easier. Maybe I will too.
Pain flashes across his face, quick as lightning but just as intense. He masters it almost immediately, but I’ve learned to read the weight in his pauses.
“We can make it work.” His voice carries the desperate edge of someone trying to hold on to smoke. “Long distance isn’t impossible. I could visit during my vacation time and you’ll be in Magnolia Cove to see your sister anyway and?—”
A whimper escapes before I can catch it, because god, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear. What I’d dared to hope for in the darkest hours of last night. But hope is a cruel companion when reality has other plans.
“Look me in the eye,” I whisper, “and tell me your parents will accept you dating me.”
The silence stretches between us like a string pulled too tight, trembling on the verge of breaking, its tension humming in the air.
When I part my lips again, I’m still whispering. “Tell me that dating me wouldn’t further harm your relationship with them.”
He huffs a breath and pinches the bridge of his nose. “My relationship with my parents has always been complicated and?—”
“—and you love them.”
“Of course I do, but Missy, I love?—”
“If you choose me and it fractures your family more, you’ll live to regret it.” The lump in my throat feels impossible to speak past. It took everything in me to cut him off, to not let him finish what he was about to say. “Take it from someone who doesn’t have her parents around to work things out with anymore.”
