My Wish for You (23 page)

“Which part
Sammy, because that was a lot and I don’t think I remember it all.” He trailed
off, thinking.

“The part where
you told me you love me.”

“Samantha Renee
Armstrong,” he said seriously, realizing what I meant. “I love you. I’ve always
loved you. Everything about you is amazing and pure. You’re not fake, or
concerned with your ‘image.’ I love that about you. I love everything about
you.”

A smile spread
across my face. I didn’t know whether or not he could see it, but it was there.
“I love you too, Sean.”

Picking me up in
his arms, he leaned down and kissed me. I could feel him smiling against my
lips as he squeezed his arms around me. To me, it was certainly an
award-winning kiss: one that would definitely give Ryan Gosling and Rachel
McAdams a run for their money. He was my shiny star, making all my wishes come
true.

We continued
like that, me in his arms, kissing in the pouring rain, until I was shivering
so hard I could barely stay still.

“Come on Sammy.”
He cradled me in his arms, putting the flashlight in my lap. “Let’s get you
home and out of this rain.”

I settled
against his chest, pointing the light so he could see. I was suddenly really
sleepy in my blissful happiness. I was thinking about what Sean had said before
I ran into the woods when something didn’t add up.

“Why did you
tell Cassie to have me meet you at the dock?”

He stopped,
trying to make sense of what I asked him. “What are you talking about?”

“You said Tasha
told you to meet her at the dock,” I explained. “Why did you tell Cassie to
have me meet you there if you were already meeting Tasha?”

“I didn’t tell
Cassie anything.”

“Then why…?” I
trailed off, the pieces falling into place.

“Oh. I am going
to kill my sister.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Despite the fact
that it was all a set up to break Sean and me up, I was slightly happy that
Cassie had sent me down to the dock to walk up on Sean and Tasha. Don’t get me
wrong, I was thoroughly pissed…knowing that it was a set up verified my belief
that Sean wasn’t lying though.

We broke through
the woods into the familiar circle of the campfire area outside of the cabin.
Sitting on the porch was my mom, Mrs. W, and Sarah, all wrapped up in blankets,
a lantern sitting between them. All three of them jumped up when they saw us
headed towards them.

“Why is it all
dark?” I asked Sean softly. There were no lights on anywhere that I could see.

“Power’s out,”
he muttered shortly. I just let him be. I knew he was really angry about the
Cassie thing. Wrapping my arm up around him, I rubbed his neck lightly. He
smiled slightly before kissing my forehead. I closed my eyes and he tightened
his grip around me.

“Oh my God,
Sean, you found her. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome
Mrs. A. Can you get a fire started? She’s freezing.”

“Yes. Of course.”

I heard the
screen click as she went inside.

“Sarah? Could
you get her some dry clothes?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Another click of
the door.

“What do you
need me to do, honey?” Mrs. W asked.

“Where’s Cassie?”

“Inside, I
think,” she told him, confused.

“I need to speak
with her,” he bit off. “Could you find her and tell her to find me?”

I could tell he
was speaking through his teeth, his anger seething. Mrs. W must have noticed as
well; she sounded shocked at her son’s short demeanor.

“Yeah, sure.”

Sean must have
realized the tone in his voice. He stopped in the doorway as she held the
screen open for us and kissed her on the top of the head.

“Thanks Mom.”

Once inside,
Sean and I both got changed. I curled up on the couch next to the fireplace,
Sean with his arms wrapped around me. Eventually, everyone was in the family
room except for Brian, who had just returned, and Cassie and Mrs. W.

I was finally
starting to feel warm and Sean was rubbing my back, making me sleepy. I nestled
my head into his chest and closed my eyes.

“Hey. What’s up?
Mom said you wanted to talk?”

I left my eyes
closed. I didn’t really want to see her. I hadn’t even heard her come in. Sean
made an effort to move out from under my arm. When I tried to hold him there,
he kissed my head.

“It’s alright
Sammy. I’m not going anywhere.” Reluctantly, I let him go.

“Yeah Cassie.”
He turned towards her. “As a matter of fact, I did.”

I wondered if
she knew that he was about to rip into her.

“There’s
something that I want to get straight.”

“Oh? And what’s
that?” She sounded like she was bracing herself.

“My
relationships are
none
of your business.”

I heard the door
open and I guessed it was Brian. He moved across the room to sit at my feet. I
cracked my eyes open and looked at him. He smiled at me briefly and patted my
leg. Everyone was now there to witness the soon to erupt confrontation.

“I didn’t break
it off with Tasha because of Samantha. I broke it off because of the countless
times that she used me. Because of the countless times that she broke my heart.
I
broke it off because of the countless times that she cheated on me.”

Someone, my
guess was Mrs. W, gasped.

“And I am pissed
that you would doubt that about me, that you would choose her over me, your brother.
I am ashamed that you would pick someone who tore me apart over me, because of
some petty grudge that you have towards my girlfriend. So, let’s get this
clear, Cassandra. Samantha is
not
something that you can play with. She
is not something to try and destroy. Sending her down to the docks when you
knew that Tasha was going to pounce on me is
not
okay.”

“You did what?”
Mr. W asked.

“I…I…I didn’t,”
she faltered. “I didn’t know.”

“Really?”

Her phone
jingled and Sean must have grabbed for it.

“Really, Cassie?
Your texts say different. Your texts say that you knew about the entire plan.
And they also say that Sam getting lost in the woods was such a funny joke.”

Sean must have
thrown down the phone; there was a loud cracking noise, probably meaning that he
broke it. There was a long, tense silence before Sean spoke again, sounding
calmer and more composed.

“It isn’t a
joke. Terrorizing the girl that I’m in love with is
not
a joke. Don’t
you get that?”

“I…I’m so sorry,
Sean.”

“Yeah, well, I’m
not the only one you owe an apology to. And since she’s asleep you might want
to think of what you’re going to say so she doesn’t hate you forever.” He
exhaled deeply and came back over to me, situating us so we were curled up like
before. I sighed happily and snuggled up to him where I knew I was safe and
warm, and fell asleep quickly.

***

Someone,
probably Sean, had carried me to my bed at some point. The next morning, I was
awoken by the familiar light shining across my eyes. I cracked my eyes open
slightly to see if Cassie or Sarah were still around. Neither of them was, so,
I felt it was safe to open my eyes and roll onto my back.

Last night was
certainly something. The realization that Sean and I were actually an item hit
me and I beamed to myself. My wish had finally come true. And to think, I
fought against coming to the cabin at all. If I hadn’t, things between Sean and
I would never have unfolded.

There was a soft
knocking on the door.

“Is the princess
awake yet?” Brian called from behind the door.

“She is. You may
enter, sir.” I laughed.

“Well, good
morning, Sunshine.”

“Hey Bry.”

“What up, little
sis?” he said, plopping down beside me. I shot him a look and he laughed at me,
muttering about how I couldn’t take a joke.

“So, what’s up?”
I asked him.

“Not much. I
feel like I haven’t talked to you in forever, and tomorrow we’re going home,
and then you’ll be going off to your fancy science program with your
boooyfriend, and I’ll be stuck in Reno going to the local college. We’re never
going to see each other.”

“That’s not true
BryBry. We’ll see each other on breaks and holidays. And you can always come
see me whenever you want. Wait. Did you say we’re leaving tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Didn’t
you realize that today was the fourth?”

“Uh, seeing as
how I spent the night scared out of my mind in the woods, no, I did not,” I
reminded him. I couldn’t believe that today was the Fourth of July. I always
seemed to forget that my birthday was right before the patriotic holiday. That
would explain how Sean got a hold of those pretty fireworks, though.

“Since you
brought it up, how are you doing?”

“What do you
mean?”

“Last night was
really something,” he implied.

“Yeah….” I
hesitated.

“Everything with
Tasha.”

“Yeah….”

“And then
getting stuck in the woods.”

“Yeah….” I
repeated like a record skipping.

“And then
everything with Cassie.”

“Yeah….”

“Would you quit
saying ‘yeah’?!”

“Ye…alright.
What’s your point?”

“It must have
been, you know, upsetting.”

“Yeah, it was,”
I admitted. “Sean made it a lot better though.”

He gave me a
look that made me blush.

“You and Sean
seem to be doing really good.”

“Yeah,” I
smiled. “We are.”

“It was really
cute how worried he was about your birthday. He was running around like a
chicken with his head cut off.”

“He really did
too much. It was wonderful. Everything was just so amazing. I felt like I
should have, I don’t know, done something for him.”

“He wanted
everything to be perfect for you.”

“It was,” I told
him. “It really was.”

“I’m sure he’ll
be glad to hear that.”

“Where is he?” I
asked nonchalantly.

“He and Sarah
went to get stuff for dinner, but I don’t even know if we’re going to do a
family dinner. Mom and Charles are supposed to talk at some point today.”

“Oh, dear.”

“Yeah.” He
paused, “Do you think they’ll get back together?”

“I don’t know. I
don’t think so. From the sound of it, Charles has made a decision, and I don’t
think Mom would try and change his mind. Part of me hopes not. He’s been so
awful lately.”

“Yeah. I
noticed,” Brian said bitterly.

“I can’t believe
we’re leaving tomorrow.” I changed the topic so he didn’t have to think about
Charles’s blowup on our birthday.

“Yeah, me
neither,” he agreed.

“Do you think
that Sean and I are going to be okay when we go off to college?”

“Definitely,”
Brian reassured me. “Sam, you and Sean are amazing together. Plus, you’re both
going to UOP. You guys are going to be the perfect college couple.”

I smiled at the
image that brought to my mind. When I got my acceptance letter to the
University of Pacific, I was so excited. I had gotten into other, more prestigious
schools, but UOP had a state of the art science program. On top of that, it was
the school that Sean went to…not that I would ever admit to anyone that that
was one of the reasons I chose to go there. It was my personal number one
school, and I quickly responded to my acceptance despite anyone’s, especially
Charles’s, insistence not to.

Brian and I went
downstairs and had lunch together. It had been a while since we had really
gotten a chance to hang out. During our meal, we were joined by Sarah and Sean,
who had returned from the store with things for breakfast the next day. We were
cleaning up the kitchen when Mrs. W came in.

“Hey guys. How
would you feel about fending for yourselves for dinner tonight? I know we
usually have a celebration, but I just don’t think it’ll be a good idea. Your
mom is on the phone with Charles, and it doesn’t really sound like it’s going
too well.”

“That’s alright,
Mom,” Sean answered. “We’re probably going to go out anyway.”

“Oh. Okay. Just
make sure you’re safe. Oh, and make sure all of your things are packed and the
quads and things are ready to go, please?”

We all agreed
and she left us there to go on our way. I was worried about my mom, but I knew
she would be okay. She was the strongest woman that I knew. Things would be way
different though.

“So, where are
we going tonight?” I asked Sean, getting my mind off of it.

“An end of
summer party.”

“I probably
should have guessed that,” I laughed.

“Probably. What’s
on the agenda today?”

“You heard your
mom. We need to get our things together. And that involves you helping me track
down all of my things.” I smiled up at him.

“Oh joy,” he
replied sarcastically.

Chapter Thirty

“I still can’t
believe that you stole my book,” I said as Sean handed me back my copy of
The
Notebook
. It was the last of my possessions that I needed before I could
zip up my bag. Of course, in the few weeks that we had been there, it seemed as
if my things had multiplied tenfold. Tracking them down proved to be just as
daunting of a task as packing them in the first place.

“I did not steal
your book. I just borrowed it temporarily without asking. I gave it back in
perfect condition! Cut me some slack.”

“Never. Years
down the line we will be at some college party, and I will be telling everyone
that I can find that you are a lover of Nicholas Sparks’s romance novels.”

“You even think
about it and I will buy a pet frog and terrorize you with him forever.”

I glared at him.
“That isn’t even funny.”

He snickered. “It
is to me.”

I went to hit
him with my book and he picked me up around the waist.