California Dreamin'

“She needs to wait?”

“Yes.”

“For other guys.”

He takes his time answering to that. “Yes.”

“So you’ll be fine if she brings home someone else?

This time, his silence before he answers is even longer. I can see the struggle in his features, in his tight body.

“Yes.” He grits his teeth. “Years later.”

Gosh, he’s such a liar. Still, I nod thoughtfully. “How many years exactly?”

He doesn’t like that.

“Willow,” he says, irritated. “I’m not in the mood to talk about this.”

He’s probably not going to like what I’m going to tell him now either so I keep my voice calm and soft. I keep toying with the ends of his hair.

“Okay.” I nod. “Are you in the mood to listen to a story?”

“Willow—”

I put a finger on his soft mouth. “Shh. Just hear me out. Please?”

He gives me a look for a few beats before jerking out a nod. I know it’s costing him. I also know that he probably already knows the story I’m going to tell him.

Not to mention, he’s aware that he isn’t going to like it so I lean into him and give him a sweet kiss on his lips as a reward.

“So once upon a time there was a girl. Let’s call her Snow Princess,” I whisper over his lips, staring into his intense gray eyes. “She was sent to live in a castle. But this wasn’t an ordinary castle at all. It was called Heartstone Psychiatric Hospital. She hated every second of it. She wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. But then, she met a man—let’s call him the Ice King. Like all the things and people inside that castle, she hated him at first too. In fact, she hated him the most. Because he was the doctor and our Snow Princess didn’t like doctors, especially psychiatrists. She thought psychiatrists asked too many questions. But then slowly, she realized that this psychiatrist was different. He was special and he made her feel special too. So she fell in love with him. Against all rules and all better judgement. But you’ll never guess the best part.”

I smile at him and kiss his harsh jaw again before saying, “She was eighteen. And he was thirty-two.”

He remains silent for a few moments and I give him a pointed look. Then he breathes in sharply. “Is there a point to all this?”

I want to chuckle at his question. He can be so stubborn when he wants to be.

But I’ve raised two kids; I know how to deal with people who are deliberately stubborn.

“Yes.” Again, I adopt a calm voice. “The point is that age has nothing to do with who you fall in love with. She loves him, Simon. Like I loved you when I barely knew what love was. And he loves her back like you loved me, despite all the differences between us.”

“He doesn’t,” he clips.

“What?”

“He doesn’t love her.”

My hands in his hair stop and I try to get off his lap so we can have a serious discussion. “What are you talking about?”

But I should’ve known better. Simon wraps both his strong arms around me and keeps me connected and sprawled on him.

When I’m firmly ensconced in his lap again, he explains, “He left her.” At my confused frown, he goes on. “You know what he told me? He told me that two years ago he left for California because he loved her. Because he didn’t know what to do with his feelings for her.”

He has to stop speaking for a second because he’s so angry. It colors his cheekbones in a scarlet flush and I wind my arms back around his neck.

“Do you remember how depressed she was after he left? For days, I watched her struggle. We watched her struggle. She’d barely smile. She’d barely take interest in anything. She’d cry and I didn’t know how to fix it. I didn’t know how to make it better for her. I didn’t even know why until today. She went through all that because he left her. He made her cry. And he’s still making her cry.” He bores his tortured gaze into mine.

“She hates California. Fallon hates L.A. but she’s there because of him. Because he’s there. My daughter is all alone on the other side of the country because of him. He’s not good enough for her.”

My own eyes are filled with tears. It came as a shock for all of us, Dean leaving to go live thousands of miles away. We had no idea that he was planning such a big move. Not until he came over for dinner one night and broke the news to us.

I remember seeing Fallon’s face. It was stricken, gone pale. And it remained that way for days after. She remained that way, in shock, in a fog for days.