by Ford, Mia
“Yeah, I know. Is old man Piper going to retire already and leave you the business?”
“I think so, eventually,” Miley said. “He claims he is grooming me to do just that.”
“Grooming you,” I said. “Is that a vet joke?”
Miley paused. “You are so juvenile, but yes. I think that should be a vet joke now.”
“Well, I’m glad you have high hopes,” I said.
“So, I’m glad you and Landon are talking again,” Miley said. “I always secretly wished that you two would get back together again, but I just thought I was being a good friend by never bringing his name up.”
“Thanks, you actually were. But I know we haven’t talked in a while, and a few things have actually happened beyond us just talking.”
“Oh, damn! Details! How many times have you ridden him silly?” Miley giggled.
“Focus,” I said. “Get your mind out of the gutter. I have something to tell you.”
“Oh, this sounds serious. I should sit down.”
I waited a moment until I heard a kitchen chair being dragged across the floor.
“I’m ready,” Miley said. “Devastate me.”
“Landon and I are eloping.”
The scream erupted in my ear before I could pull the phone away in time. My ear drum felt like it burst and I had to clutch the side of my head and wait for the echoing pain to float away. Wow, I couldn’t believe that, but I sort of half expected it.
“Are you ok?” I asked when she was done.
“I don’t believe this, I don’t believe this…” Miley was chanting like someone possessed along with a barrage of giggles and odd squealing sounds. I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
“This is the greatest thing!” Miley said. “When are you getting married and I am invited, right?”
“Hold your horses. We are having a ceremony in June. It’s all set up. But we are eloping first. No families or anyone. We just want it to be quick and we don’t want anyone to know until it is over. You should feel lucky that I’m telling you. Now, there is nothing that anyone can really break up. We’ve made that commitment. I’m going to be Mrs. Glatt now.”
“That sounds awesome! I am so excited for you.”
“Thank you,” I said. “And I have something important to ask you.”
“What?”
“Will you be my maid of honor at the ceremony in June?”
I heard Miley choke up into tears. “Yes! I would love to. Wow, I’m so happy. I’m just honored to be your maid of honor.”
I laughed. “I know you are.”
We chatted a while longer and when I hung up I felt whole again. It was nice talking to my best friend. She always made me feel better about any decisions that I’d made and everything that was going on in my life. I hoped that our friendship never ended for any reason. I poured myself a glass of wine and then I made a phone call to my landlord. It was time to break my lease and end my stay in the home I’d had for just a few months.
I was on my way back to where I belonged.
That night I tried to get a good night’s sleep. My landlord had tried to intimidate me and tell me how much it was going to cost to break the lease. He sounded completely dumbfounded when I told him that I didn’t care and I paid the rest of it over the phone with a credit card. It was over and done. I would be out in two days. I’d already hired the moving company to transport all of my stuff down to Landon’s. I was going to spend the next day or so boxing up everything. Landon was planning to come up and help me the next day. Between the two of us we could get it done quickly and easily.
I found as I lay in bed that I was just too wired to get any sleep. I was tired, but I was also jittery. I was so excited to embark on this brand new chapter of my life. I loved not knowing what was coming up next. I loved the feeling of being in control of where my destiny would end up while at the same time having a feeling of total spontaneity where I knew that something exciting could arise at any second. It was a life where nothing was out of reach. All of my dreams were coming true.
I realized as I lay there in bed trying to close my eyes, and trying to get some rest so I could spend the day boxing up my stuff with Landon, that as exciting as everything was, there was some fear there. Any sort of change like this was scary in your life, wasn’t it? It was ok, though. I was fine with whatever the world wanted to throw at me.
The night was not easy. I kept tossing and turning, trying to get some rest, but I was wide awake. I ended up pacing around my home, knowing this was the last time I would ever have a place by myself. I’d started something, and in an odd way I felt that I was finishing the journey without taking all of the steps. Pete was right about that; I was climbing the ladder, but I’d just received a magic boost that allowed me to skip over all of the rungs in the ladder between here and the finish line. I was there now, but I hadn’t gone on any real journeys to get there.
I couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty about this. I knew that I wanted all of my dreams to come true and I felt that I deserved it to happen, but did I really? Without putting in all of the required work, did I really deserve it?
No, I didn’t. But I did deserve true love. And that was what I had. And if that love paved the way for me to explore other things in my life that I wanted, even if it gave me an extra edge, then I wasn’t sure I should have felt so terribly guilty about that.
But I did. It was a weird sort of pain that was rising up through my guts and into the back of my mind. I felt a bit disgusted with myself. Would I ever really feel that I deserved the things that were coming to me? Or did I just get lucky enough that the man of my dreams happened to be the man who could help me make all of my other dreams come true?
It was maddening, just going around and around in circles.
I’m not sure how, but I eventually fell asleep for about three hours.
When I woke up the sun was just rising and I decided that it was time to tackle the day.
* * *
“Hey, check it out.”
Landon was holding an envelope in his hand as he came back into the living room. We were packing up boxes when we heard the mailbox slam shut outside. I realized instantly that I had forgotten to have the mail changed. At least I’d taken care of everything else though, so I felt that I was still going strong in this adjustment.
I took the envelope from him. It was from my parents. I was surprised that they had written instead of called me. What in the world?
I opened the letter and began to read it out loud. “Dear Cora, we are so sorry about the way things ended the other night. Your father and I love you and we really did feel that we were doing the right thing by hiding those letters from Landon. Sad to say, I threw them all away. I did not keep them, but I do remember reading each and every single one of them. The man who wrote those letters was heartbroken and he desperately loves you. I almost caved several times as I became so choked up by the beauty of the words, but in the end I always decided that we were still doing the right thing. Your father and I feel that we were wrong in this. We have taken the time to discuss things further and after seeing how passionate the two of you are about each other, we have decided to give you our blessing, not that you need it. But we do hope that you will consider this and please don’t shut us out of your life—either of you. We wish for the best in love and happiness for the both of you. We’d love to sit down with you both in person soon. Please, consider it. Love, Mom and Dad.”
I wiped my eyes as the tears started to fall and I sat the letter down on the coffee table before letting my body collapse to the couch. I’d never heard my mother say such emotionally moving things before, and I knew how hard it was for her and my father to sit down and write that letter. It was also a bit poetic how they chose to send a letter, rather than call or text me. My parents even did email now and social media. I’d turned them on to the twenty first century.
“Are you alright, babe?” Landon asked.
I rubbed my hands through my hai
r and then squeezed my neck muscles to massage them a moment, which eased enough tension for me to get my head back on straight.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“So, what do you think about their offer?” Landon asked.
“I’m not sure. Do you think they really mean it?”
“That sounded pretty heartfelt to me, but I don’t know. They are your parents; you know them better than me.”
I scoffed. “I thought I did. After what they pulled on us, I’m not sure I can ever forgive them.”
“Well, you might not forgive what they did, but you can forgive them as people. They are fallible and they made a mistake. I don’t think hating your parents and keeping them out of your life forever is going to do any good for anybody, do you?”
I looked over at Landon. Sometimes he was so much more level-headed than I was. He was right. I didn’t want my parents out of my life forever. What they did was inexcusable, but I wanted to believe that they were truly sorry and that they wanted to make it right somehow. I am not the kind of person who can hold onto that much hate. I loved my parents and I was not going to go through my life without them in it.
“You’re right,” I said. “I guess we should take them up on the offer. We can all sit down together and finally talk. Clearing the air, after all this time will do wonders. I know it.”
“That’s it,” Landon said with a smile.
He grabbed the tape and finished off a box before setting it over on the stack in the corner. We were almost done. Landon had arrived at my place a little past seven and we’d gotten so much done in just six hours.
“So, you hungry?” I asked.
“Of course,” Landon replied. “I was thinking pizza.”
I smiled. “You are so right.”
We sat down on the couch to take a load off with a few beers. The pizza was on its way. As we sat there taking a much deserved rest, I thought about my parents’ words again. It was beautiful what they had said. I wanted to see them. I wanted to talk to them in person.
“I want to wait until after we get back from Vegas before we talk to my parents,” I said.
Landon nodded. “Ok. That’s your choice.”
I grabbed my phone and texted my mother. I told her we would love to sit down and talk in person. I was busy moving and getting settled into Landon’s place, but we could talk in three days.
A short while later my mother texted back. “That’s perfect. We love you, sweetie.”
I smiled and put my phone away. A moment later the pizza delivery arrived at the door.
Perfect timing.
Chapter 28
Landon
“Vegas here we come!”
Cora snuggled up against me and laid her head on my shoulder. I closed my eyes for a moment and imagined the sweet skies around us opening up and transporting us magically to the beautiful future that awaited us. It sounded corny in my head, but I was pretty sure that it was kind of romantic.
Cora and I were in my jet flying to Las Vegas where we were going to elope—finally. It had only been a few days since I’d suggested it, but it felt like an eternity. In all of the stories I’d ever heard when people decided to elope, they pretty much dropped everything right then and then just went there to get it done. That was the idea, anyway. But Cora and I decided to take it a bit slower. Either way, we were getting it done and within the next twelve hours we were going to be husband and wife.
I hadn’t told a soul I was leaving to do this, and Cora had only told Miley, which I figured because she basically told Miley everything. Miley… that was a sticking point with me. I knew that Cora had told all of her friends to ignore me like the plague, but the way they treated me was still a bit of a sore spot. Hell, one of them actually tried to fist fight me. The next time I met him I wondered if we would have words, or would he shake my hand like a man and apologize. I knew where he was coming from, though. After all, he thought I’d cheated on his good friend (whom he clearly wanted to be with) and she was hurting.
But all of that was in the past, right? I was man enough to move past it; I just hoped he was.
“I’m so happy right now,” Cora said. She turned her head and looked at me with those big, sweet eyes of hers. The beauty this woman possessed would never cease to amaze me and captivate me.
“Me too,” I said. “Would you like some more champagne?”
“Yes,” Cora said. “Please get me a refill.”
I got up and poured the champagne into two glasses. I handed the glass to Cora and sat down beside her. She took a few sips and then sat her glass down on the side table.
“I would have loved to have read those letters of yours,” Cora said.
“I think they just said what I’ve already told you repeatedly. You know how I feel about you. In each letter I did my best to pour my heart out.”
“Did you know I used to keep a diary? When I was in high school, and sometimes I would write poems.”
“Yeah? Did you write any poems about boys?”
“Sometimes,” Cora giggled.
“I’ve never been much of a writer,” I said. “I guess, I never had much to say that I needed to say by the written word, but when I was writing those letters, it was like something else took over and out came all of these emotions, things I’d never have been able to say in person.”
“That’s the way writing is,” Cora said. “I often wondered if my mother ever read my diary.”
“You think she would have cared what was going on inside the mind of a teenage girl that badly? I’m sure she’s been there.”
Cora hit me playfully. “Yeah, but my parents were always so protective of me. They wanted to know what I was doing at all times. It was almost smothering. So, I wouldn’t have put it past her to read my diary.”
“It didn’t have a lock?”
“Yeah, but I’m sure she could have picked it or found the key, or even made a spare key.”
“You really think she was devious enough to do that?”
Cora looked at me. I raised my hands and shook my head. “Sorry, I almost forgot. But was there anything in there so private that you would have cared what she thought if she had read them?”
“Yes, maybe. I don’t know. Looking back now, probably not, but at the time they were my private thoughts and feelings and no one should have snooped at them.”
“What makes you think she did?”
“Well, occasionally I would come home and find it in a different place, or just slightly in a different place. When I would ask her about it, mom would say that she was in there cleaning and she dropped it and put it back.”
“I never had anything like that,” I said. “Of course, I doubted my parents cared enough to snoop around my private life. I was practically raised by maids and butlers.”
Cora shook her head in disbelief. “Wow, that must have been a weird way to grow up.”
“It was very lonely,” I said. “But at the same time, it made me very self-reliant. It made me tougher than some of the other kids, I think. It was a good thing as far as I’m concerned, but I wish I could look back on those times with some fonder memories. But mostly it was just me hanging out with a few good friends doing really silly things and hoping that someone cared enough to catch us and punish us.”
I took a sip of my champagne. I hadn’t meant to take a dark trip down memory lane, but when those roads are opened up, it takes a strong will to not follow them.
Cora put her hand on mine softly. I loved her touch so much. The warmth and the love that flowed from her skin to mine travelled from my hand all over me. I knew that I could never have a bad day with her in my life, not really. No matter how tough things got in the real world, as long as I had this woman to come home to, then none of it mattered. I took such comfort and pride in knowing this.
“I’m sorry you had to grow up that way,” Cora said.
“Don’t be,” I said. “It made me who I am. I like to think I’m pretty strong and resilient. If I hadn’t
been raised that way, I might not be. So, don’t feel sorry for me. I never have.”
“I love you,” Cora whispered as she leaned close to me.
I gave her a kiss. Just briefly, softly. My lips just brushed against hers and then a tiny little push off each other. And that was enough. My blood started to boil in my veins with the passionate stir of my longing desire for the woman I loved.
“I love you,” I said.
I brushed my hand through her hair slowly. I loved to feel the way every individual strand of her angelic, long, straight hair just rustled against my skin as I slipped through them. I did it again, this time with a little more pressure, which allowed my fingertips to glide across the top of her head.
She closed her eyes and melted into the sensation. I continued the motion, all the while bringing her closer and closer to me. Then I rested my hand on the back of her neck and brought her in to me until our lips were touching once again. I kissed her softly at first, just sweetly, lovingly. I wanted the emotions to ring through. Cora had to know how desperately I loved her and needed her in every possible way.
Her lips parted slightly, and her hot breath began to flow between my own lips, mingling and twisting together with my own. We were sharing the passion. The life force moving from her to me and back again, growing stronger with each passing beat of our hearts.
I slipped my tongue into her warm mouth and just let it rest there. I wanted to take this slowly. There was no hurry, nothing else demanding our attention anywhere. No, it was just her and me. We were together. I’d closed off the back part of the jet so that we could be alone. No one would dare disturb us, unless there was some unforeseen emergency. And the world was too happy right then for that to happen.
My tongue scraped against hers and she responded with a sweet moan of pleasure. I gave her tongue a slight, little flick with mine, just a taste. And she responded back with a flick of her own. We continued this again, teasing one another, until I finally opened my mouth and probed into hers with my tongue and began to tackle it again, a bit more aggressively.