Page 103 of Fairy Godmothers Aren't Cheap

But that wasn’t a real wish. I didn’t want to mess with her world or heart. I just wanted Tamara to enjoy a long life of happiness.

After a deep hug from Tamara that made me miss her already, she stood beside Haden, closing the doors to his horse trailer, like a team that had worked alongside each other for decades. Then they both popped into their respective vehicles and drove off.

I stood on the step, watching the trailer turn a corner. Samantha waved off her moving crew, who were also done. She looked at me, lifted her chin, and sniffed coolly. “Later.”

She gave me the quickest hug known to man, and leapt into her car like none of this affected her. But I was pretty sure I saw her surreptitiously swipe some tears before she pulled away from the curb.

I sighed, feeling like a dream was coming to an end. Would the five of us even continue to hang out, now that we weren’t living together? Why couldn’t we just buy houses on the same street, and have drinks in each other’s backyards all summer?

I opened the GAL PAL texting chat and sent a message.

Me

I miss us already.

Tamara replied instantly.

Tamara

Me

Take good care of Felipe.

Tamara

I will.

I wipedmy own eyes and sniffled.

Gabby

If you miss me, you could come up here and help me clean!

Samantha

Gabs, stop or there’ll be nothing for the cleaning people to do, and they’ve already been paid.

I smiled and went to pocket my phone just as it rang. Seeing the number was Officer Beddoe’s, I answered it immediately. It was a Sunday, so if he was calling, it had to mean good news, right?

It was. The warehouse and lots had been released. I was free to get back to working on the park.

I lowered my phone and gazed down the empty street toward the future park, feeling like I’d lost all momentum and motivation. None of us gals lived here any longer. None of us were Everstone residents. This was no longer our community. We were now spread across the city and beyond. We couldn’t just plop down onto the couch with a pizza or Tamara’s chocolate cake and solve problems or brainstorm.

I still had Josie’s spreadsheets and all of our plans and proposals, but it was terrifying being the one in charge. The project felt like it was solely mine without the gals up in the living room, gathered on our mismatched furniture.

I turned back to the boarding house to find James leaning against the open door’s frame, watching me. Thank goodness for James and his family. Otherwise, I’d be trying to cram everything I owned into an Uber and telling the driver to stop at the first abandoned cardboard box that looked big enough to house me.

I wiped my damp eyes. There were so many emotions swirling through me I couldn’t process them all. James and I moved toward each other and his arms swept me up, holding me tight like he knew how I was feeling. Knew my pain, my fear, my aching loneliness, the sensation of being untethered, of not having a nest in which to return to when I needed recalibration.

* * *

On Monday morning,I ended the ninth phone call I’d made from the Backstrohm’s kitchen table. I’d been begging and pleading the park’s case to sponsors, demolition crews and everyone on the list that Josie had made for us back in June. I was offering to name the park after them, their business, their firstborn, or their childhood dog if they’d just tear down the warehouse frame or donate some money. Immediately.

Well, mostly I had left professional voicemails, the begging all in my head. It turned out that even in the full-on heavy season for all things constructing and deconstructing, basically nobody worked on Canada Day, July 1.

I was feeling impatient. I didn’t havetimefor holidays. I needed to get the park rolling again. I was one unanswered phone call away from going down to Home Hardware and buying a crowbar and trying to take the warehouse down on my own.

“Hey! Just me.” It was James, letting himself into his parents’ house.

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