Page 69 of You Wish
“It’s not that we haven’t done the work,” she went on. “We unpacked the baggage, labeled it, alphabetized it, and swore we’d never shove it under the bed again. But…”
“But?” she prompted.
“Our lives don’t fit. They just don’t.” Georgia let out a laugh, though it cracked halfway through. “He’s got his world. His career that takes him all over the place. I’ve got mine and it’s in Austin. And sure, there’s overlap. We both like Thai takeout and reruns ofThe Great British Bake Off. But in the ways that actually matter—where we live, what we want, how we see the next ten years—we’re on different maps.”
Nadine’s eyes softened, but she didn’t rush to contradict.
“I love him,” she admitted quietly, the words tasting both sweet and bitter. “And maybe that’s the cruelest part. Because love’s not the problem. It’s everything else. And if we keep forcing it, we’re just going to break something we can’t fix.”
“You and I both know that there are a lot of things that we really can’t fix,” Nadine said, referring to the inability to stop someone from dying. “But don’t confuse fear with inability.”
Is that what she was doing? What if Nadine was right and their timing could be right this time around. That she could have someone to share the burden with, allowing her to follow her own dreams. Dreams that were bigger than her and Jake’s differences.
“Moooom,” Ben called from the front room. “Where are the cocoas?”
Nadine picked up the vodka bottle. “I think we both need another little splash or two before we walk into a room with ten preteens who have been main-lining soda and gumdrops.”
Nadine wasn’t joking when she warned about the sugar-level intoxication in the family room. One sniff and she nearly fell into diabetic coma.
Nadine went from kid to kid handing out steaming mugs, but when she got to Ben he took a sip and then set the mug down as he swallowed hard—as if he couldn’t get the liquid down.
“You okay?” Nadine asked, concern in her voice.
“It’s awesome,” Ben said reassuringly.
That was all it took to tug her mind straight back to Connor. Watching Ben fight to keep the cocoa down made Georgia’s chest tighten. There was something about the way he tried so hard to smile, even when his body betrayed him.
She could still see her little brother at eleven, parked in his wheelchair at the edge of the track, a blanket tucked over his legs and a mischievous glint in his eyes. He used to tease her for worrying so much—“I’m not made of glass, G,” he’d say, grinning like he had the whole world figured out from four feet off the ground. And maybe he did. Connor had a way of making everyone around him feel braver, stronger, like nothing was impossible—even when every doctor said otherwise.
Ben had that same spark. And it was that spark, that stubborn, impossible light, that made her heart twist in ways she wasn’t prepared for.
Needing a moment to collect herself, she took two mugs off the platter and approached Dan, who had Jake backed into a corner and was throwing racing statistics around as if Jake hadn’t lived them.
“Figured you two might want something stronger than hot chocolate with a candy cane stir stick.”
She handed Dan a mug. He swigged it down like it was an energy drink and he’d been pushing for forty-eight hours straight. She looked at the bags under his eyes and realized he probably had.
Jake took his mug, his fingers grazing hers in a purposeful way that made her toes curl under. He sniffed the steam and lifted a brow.
“I told you it was leaded,” she said.
Then he took her mug and sniffed. “Darlin’, if mine is leaded, yours this must be racing fuel.”
“So, how long have you two been together?” Dan asked, and Georgia could hear Nadine snort.
“Oh, we’re just friends,” Georgia said, and at the same time Jake replied, “Ten years.”
“Ten years?” Dan said. “You two will have some little rug rats running around in no time.”
Georgia started to explain that she didn’t want kids when Jake put an arm around her waist and drew her in. “We used to talk about three or four. But after today I’m thinking five. How about you, darlin’?”
And that’s when Georgia realized that you could love someone and still know you’re not supposed to end up in the same story. And this chapter was coming to an end—it had to. But she wanted to pretend, even if for just a moment, that they could last forever.
She wouldn’t get her Christmas wish, but tonight she would get her goodbye.
24
Jake saw her the second he stepped into the den.
