Page 34 of One More Chance
“Oh, you did, did you?”
“I mean, yeah. It was exactly like we had planned, right down to the location – except for one thing. The name.”
Charlotte nodded. She had wanted to name the café after her mom but valued her veil of anonymity more, thus Sharon’s Spot had become The Sugar Peaks Cafe.
“Sharon’s Spot.” Logan smiled. “If I had come to town and seen Sharon’s Spot on the main street, I would’ve known I’d run in to see Billie Jo frothing up milk for fancy coffees. But instead, there was a girl named Megan running the place. I only caught a glimpse of you, but I thought that you were just another rich skier from the city.”
“Your brother recognized me. Right away.”
“Well, Freddie has been in town since high school. Seeing you here would make sense for him. I’ve been away, and you know...”
Charlotte knew exactly what Logan was talking about. “I don’t know.”
“Uh.” Logan put his forehead in his hands. “Forget it.”
“You’ve been gallivanting around the world dating supermodels?”
“No, Charlotte.” He looked up sharply. “That’s not what I meant.” His eyes met hers and then darted down to the table. “I had a picture of you in my head from back then. The Billie Jo that I knew. I mean, I can see you now, but you are very different from the girl that I knew back then.”
“People don’t change Logan,” Charlotte said.
“I agree,” Logan replied. “But they do morph and grow.”
“Are you about to spew out a caterpillar into butterfly analogy?” Charlotte raised her eyebrows.
“You were always a butterfly, Charlotte. You just didn’t know it.”
Charlotte gulped down the lump in her throat. The maple whiskey was starting to work its magic, and Charlotte found the courage to ask the question that had been swirling around in the back of her mind for the past fifteen years.
“Why, Logan? Why did you stand me up that night?”
“You don’t know?” Logan looked up from his chipped mug.
“How would I know?” Charlotte leaned in. “You never returned my calls; I even went to your house. Logan, you disappeared into thin air and all that was left were the shitty rumors.”
“Two piping hot beavertails,” Muriel interrupted as she set the plates down on the table. She looked to Logan and then to Charlotte, “I’m going to get you kids some water,” she turned on her heel and teetered back to the kitchen.
Charlotte pushed her plate aside. “Did you know that my mom worked extra shifts so that I could go to the stupid prom? I got a second job and worked my fingers to the bone so I could buy a dress that I still couldn’t really afford. But that wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part was how everyone in town looked at me after that. It was either with pity. Or disgust. Or a little bit of both.”
Logan sighed and leaned back. “You didn’t get my letter.”
“Letter?” Charlotte pursed her lips together. “What letter?”
“It makes a lot more sense now.” Logan smiled meekly while shaking his head.
Charlotte saw tears in Logan’s eyes and reached out to take his hand in hers. He let her and reached out to grasp her other hand, rubbing the back of her hands with his thick thumbs.
“When I found out that you left, I wrote you a letter.” Logan’s voice was strained, and Charlotte realized he was working very hard at holding the tears back. “I explained everything that happened that night and asked for your forgiveness. I never heard back from you, so I figured you didn’t, you know, forgive me.”
“Logan, I didn’t get a letter from you,” Charlotte’s throat was starting to betray her as well. “Where did you send it?” she asked quietly and squeezed his hands.
The diner door clattered open and Charlotte ripped her hands from Logan’s. They turned to see Megan, Josh, Freddie, and Lauren all stumble into the diner.
“Muriel, beavertail us!” Freddie shouted and made a ‘buy the round’ circular hand motion. “Hey, there you guys are,” he yelled and slid into the booth beside Charlotte. He grabbed the pastry from Logan’s plate, folded it in half and took a monstrous bite.
Charlotte’s head was swimming. Logan had written her a letter? What could it have said, and more importantly, why didn’t she get it? How different would her life be right now if she had received that one piece of paper?
She cast a glance at Logan. He had assumed an alpha male hockey player pose, his muscular arms stretched out along the back of the bench. “Hi, guys,” he said as the rest of the crew piled into the booth.
