If Wishes Were Horses (A Fairy Tale Life Book 2) Read online

  If Wishes Were Horses

  Copyright © 2017 by C.B. Stagg

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short passages in a review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, dead or alive, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN-13: 978-1542424691

  Cover designed by Kassi Jean Designs

  Formatting by C. B. Stagg

  Edited by Christina M. Scambray & Jennifer Roberts- Hall

  A Note to Readers

  Thanks for reading the new and improved SECOND EDITION of If Wishes Were Horses, the second book in the An Ordinary Fairy Tale series, which is already up to FOUR books! Crazy, right? The plan right now is to end this series at book 6, but you know what they say about the best-laid plans…

  As an independently published author, the greatest gift you can give me is reading my book. The second greatest gift is reviewing the book on Amazon, B&N, or where ever you purchased it. Authors like me rely heavily on reviews to keep getting our books into the hands of readers like you. If you’re reading this on Kindle, just keep flipping to the very last page and you’ll have an opportunity to review the book right there while it’s fresh in your mind!

  Also, follow me on Amazon, Facebook, check out my Instagram, take a peek at my website. There are so many more stories I have to tell, so don’t miss out on a release!

  Yours, Charly Stagg

  http://www.cbstaggauthor.com @CBStaggAuthor

  Available Now:

  An Ordinary Fairy Tale (A Fairy Tale Life Book #1)

  If Wishes Were Horses (A Fairy Tale Life Book #2)

  Five Minutes to Midnight (A Fairy Tale Life Book #3)

  Scars Like Wings (A Fairy Tale Life Book #4)

  Coming Soon:

  Life on the Ground (A Fairy Tale Life Book #5)

  For all the other girls with messy buns, even messier houses, and enough creativity and imagination to power the world…

  And the men who love us!

  Prologue

  Jase

  December, 2011

  “HEY!”

  Becky grabbed me by the shoulder and started shaking me, incessantly poking my arm with one of her carefully manicured claws.

  “Stop,” I mumbled, drunk on sleep and not the least little bit ready to sober up.

  “Baby, get up,” she said with just a touch more authority in her groggy voice, as her ice-cold feet crept up my legs either in an attempt to get my attention or to warm herself up.

  “No.” I wiggled as far away from her as I could, given we were in a double bed. “Stop. It.” I tightened my eyes, the threat of the morning sun becoming more real by the second. Bec halfheartedly kicked her legs, displacing the covers, and allowing the pocket of heat we’d been collecting all night to escape.

  “I think someone’s at the damn door.” She flipped and flopped like a fish out of water, then burrowed deep into the down comforter, pulling it up to her chin. “And, at this godforsaken hour, if they aren’t on fire,” she mumbled between yawns, “you have my permission to murder them on the spot.” She flipped and rolled over once more, and was passed out within seconds.

  When I heard an even louder bang, then Casey’s voice yelling through the door, I heaved a sigh, mourning the loss of a sleep in day. Not that I ever slept in, but I resented the option being taken away from me just the same. Casey had just moved in next door and hearing his voice so early, coming from my front porch, almost had me regretting the decision to sell him the house I’d snapped up a few months earlier as part of my Rental Property Retirement Fund.

  “Jase, I know you’re up, man.”

  Boom.

  Boom.

  Boom.

  The glass that sat in six freshly painted panes on the top portion of my newly restored front door rattled nervously, having yet to bear witness to such stress. “Dude, let me in! Don’t make me use my key.”

  At that, Becky shot up, her eyes wild. I probably should have reminded her the new door I’d just refinished also came with new locks, but the sick satisfaction that she wouldn’t be getting any more sleep either settled on me like a smug little blanket, so I remained silent.

  Typically, it wouldn’t be an issue for my friend/ex-roommate to come over, even early, but there were things about my life he didn’t know. Casey Clark, my neighbor since childhood, my college roommate, and my all-around best friend, had no clue I was in a serious, romantic relationship with Becky Hanson, our other childhood neighbor, our other college roommate, and our other all-around best friend. And I had been for more than a decade.

  The moment my feet hit the cold wooden floor of our pier and beam house, I cursed and jerked them back up, searching the ground for my slippers. I needed something to serve as a barrier between my once warm feet and the icy wood path I’d have to walk.

  “Jase, you better go stop him before he busts up in here, or so help me God—”

  Becky was sitting straight up in bed with the sheet and fluffy, white comforter pooled around her waist, baring her smooth chestnut-colored skin to the frigid air in the room, which was now lightly dusted in goose bumps. Even freshly wakened, and none too happy about it, she was the most magnificent creature I’d ever seen. Unable to resist, I leaned down and captured her lips to stifle her threat, and she relaxed, biting back a smile.

  She giggled and rubbed her arms for warmth as I hopped to the closet where my robe was hanging. Once I was sufficiently covered, I winked back at my girl. “Don’t worry. I’ll get rid of him, but then I’m coming back for you.”

  She giggled again, but covered her mouth to stifle the sound as I stomped down the hall, hoping to make it well-known to Casey just how displeased I was at being pulled out of my warm bed on a cold Sunday morning.

  “Dude, what the hell?” I yelled as I yanked the door open. I squinted, partially to protect my eyes from the morning sun, but also to read the expression on his face, given I hadn’t grabbed my glasses from the table beside my bed. I half expected him to be covered in blood the way he’d been carrying on.

  “Jesus, man. Let me in,” he stuttered, shaking as his words created little ice clouds in the air between us. “It’s colder than your heart out here!”

  I stood in the doorway, formulating a response that would make him go away, but I wasn’t quick enough. Casey pushed his way over the threshold, just in time to see Becky slink out of what he knew to be my bedroom, and down the hallway and into the bathroom, completely unaware she’d been caught wearing nothing but the beauty God gave her.

  Literally. Nothing.

  His eyes widened as he looked at me, down the hall again, and then back at me. The transformation was comical as I watched him shake the shock from his mind and regain focus while I stood there holding my breath, rooted to the floor like a damn tree.

  “That, my boy… ” His head bobbed up and down, pointing at the ghost of Bec’s naked form as he grinned like the cat that ate the canary. “That’s going to need to be addressed, like, immediately.”

  I nodded. There was no more hiding. Even if he’d had his suspicions, Casey now had categorical proof that my relationship with Becky went way beyond that of friends and roommates. It was time I manned up and admitted to the secret we’d been keeping. Because as of last month, there was no reason for the whole world not to know I had fallen head-
over-feet in love with the girl next door.

  Wordlessly, I ushered him in and put the coffee on, taking my damn sweet time while he watched, no doubt thinking back over the days, months, maybe even years, trying to figure out when our shenanigans had first started. I finally made my way back to the table, sloth-like, and set down not two, but three steaming mugs of coffee.

  “So, you planning to coax your girlfriend out of the proverbial closet?” he whispered, eyeing the third mug before meeting my eyes. He sure was a smug bastard. “I think I’m going to need her to be a part of this.”

  I lowered my head, shaking it ever so slightly and held my palms toward the sky, my version of waving the white flag. But I wondered if the lopsided smirk on my face made it obvious that Casey finally knowing about our affair was a weight off my shoulders. Because it definitely was.

  “Hang on,” I said, holding up one finger. With a glance back down the hall, I quickly opened and closed the front door, knowing the only way Becky would emerge was if she thought we were alone.

  “Hey, Bec? Sweetie?” My syrupy sweet, singsong tone was in direct contrast to what Casey knew of the relationship between his two oldest and dearest friends. “I have coffee.” I’d known Becky a long time, and I knew it would be the promise of caffeine to make that girl out herself.

  I heard the creak of her door before the light from her bedroom spilled out into the cold, dark hall, so I used my body as a barrier between the kitchen and the rest of the house. It was one thing for Casey to get a view of her backside, but I wasn’t having him see any more of what was mine.

  She walked out, adjusting the thermostat on the way, and shuffled her slipper-clad feet my direction. Thankfully, she’d wrapped her nakedness up in her old fuzzy robe since our home was currently the North Pole. When she rounded the corner and spotted Casey still sitting there, she froze for the briefest of seconds, before rolling her eyes in a huff, sending me a death glare, then prancing into the kitchen.

  “Funny. I thought I heard you leave.” Her tone communicated anything but humor. She shot another icy look my way before she shrugged, sighed, then moved in closer to plant a big wet one right on my mouth.

  “Ohhhh, my eyes! MY EYES!” Casey covered his face with his arm while both of us cracked up at his display. “Seriously though, what the hell, y’all?” He sat up straighter and shifted in his chair, the first sign that he was a little less comfortable than he was letting on. “How long has this,” he motioned, pointing between the two of us, “been going on?”

  “What? Him and me?” Becky’s high-pitched voice gave the perfect air of insignificance as if it was no big thing when we both knew different. “How long has it been now? Nine?”

  “Ten?” I suggested.

  “No, I think… eleven, maybe?”

  I nodded in agreement as I realized we both planned to draw this out, to make it more interesting. I loved how well our twisted minds worked together.

  “Wow.” Casey laughed. “I started to suspect something about a year ago, so I guess I was right.” Just as he sat back, fingers laced behind his head in triumph, Becky’s famous cackle flew from her mouth.

  “Oh, no, baby.” Crossing her arms over her robed chest, she added, “I think you misunderstand. This thing between Jase and me?” She mimicked the motion Casey used just seconds before. “It started the summer after our junior year… in high school.”

  It took Casey a second to process the fact that his entire life had practically been a lie. We just looked on and grinned. Once that second was over, he stood, pulling Becky and me into a giant three-way bear hug. Then he went to the kitchen and poured one more cup of coffee, easily making himself comfortable in the house he’d shared with us when we’d first started college at Texas A&M all those years ago. Setting the additional steaming mug on the table, he turned toward the door.

  “Where are you going?” Becky asked. I watched her satisfied smirk slide from her face. It was almost as if our revelation hadn’t garnered the fanfare she’d been expecting.

  “I’m just going to run next door. To my house.” He smiled, and so did I. “To wake my fiancée who, by the way, called this several months ago.”

  “And then what?”

  “Then,” he answered over his shoulder, “you two are going to start at the beginning.”

  Before Casey had closed the door completely, Becky sank into the nearest dining chair, staring into her half-empty mug. When she sensed me beside her, she wrapped her arms around my waist and buried her head into my stomach. “You know,” she spoke, her words muffled by my bathrobe, “we’re headed home for Christmas in just a few days. I was talking to Mom, and she mentioned that for the first time in a long time, all three Clark boys will be home.” She looked up at me, her eyes searching mine for approval of the suggestion I knew she was about to make. “Do you think you could be persuaded to shuck off your introvert cloak with me? We could join in the festivities. I’m thinking, maybe we can—”

  I stooped down, halting her words with my lips. I wasn’t sure what she was about to say, but whatever it was, major change was bound to come from it. When I pulled back, many minutes and kisses later, I asked, “You’re thinking maybe we can… ? What were you about to say?”

  “Nothing.” She shook her head slightly. “We can get to that part later. We have other hurdles that need jumping first. What I want to know is where do we even start? How much do we tell him? Them? What are they expecting to hear? I’m pretty sure it’s not what we’re about to dump on them. And why am I just now starting to feel guilty about the fact that we’ve spent more than a decade lying, albeit by omission—but lying just the same—to a man who loves both of us like family?” Words avalanched from her mouth, tripping over her tongue on the way out as her pitch rose with every syllable.

  Running her fingers through her hair, she tugged it at the roots before rubbing her palms down her face. When she made a move to pull at her hair again, I grabbed her wrists, pulling her up from her seated position, and took her in my arms, where she automatically placed her ear over my heart.

  “What are you—”

  “Shhh, don’t talk. Just listen,” I whispered. We swayed side to side as I ran my hands along the hourglass figure that was the focal point of all my fantasies as a teen, and even more vividly as an adult.

  “Can you feel it?” I asked, burying my face in her hair.

  “Yeah, baby, I can, and it’ll never not freak me out that you have such a profound effect on me, you know.”

  “That first night, I thought your heart was going to jump right out of your chest and run out the door.”

  “But you held me, just like this. Didn’t let me go until our hearts were in sync, slow and steady, just like what’s happening right now.” She tugged my robe open and placed soft kisses on my chest. “I fell in love with you that night.”

  I stopped our silent dance to look into Becky’s golden brown eyes. “I know you did. I felt the moment your soul took up residence in mine.”

  “Come on. You didn’t know. How could you?”

  “How could I tell? Because starting with that moment and even now, my senses light up when I’m with you. I swear, when you’re in my arms, I can actually feel the earth spinning.” She moaned into my chest.

  “Jason Pearson,” she said, slapping me on my ass. “You cannot open those sexy lips of yours and spout those delicious words, knowing we’re five minutes away from having company knocking on our front door.”

  She pulled away and grabbed my hand, pulling me down the hall. “Where are we going?” I asked, my smile splitting my face in two.

  “Do you even listen? I said we have five minutes. Now, do you want to spend it talking or… ?”

  “Nope, not talking, but just so we’re on the same page, what exactly are we telling Vaughn and Casey?”

  “We’ll tell them that we fell in love,” she said, shrugging off her robe to reveal the nothing she had on underneath. “Ours is no fairy tale, but it’s my fav
orite love story, and it’s about time we shared it.”

  Chapter 1

  Becky

  August, 1999

  “ARE THERE ANY MORE kids in the house?”

  Only silence followed.

  For the last thirty minutes, I’d watched red and blue lights flashing through the window and into the closet where I hid like a criminal. The police stomped in and out of rooms, searching all through the dilapidated house, while their thunderous footsteps shook the wooden floor I’d been crouching on most of the night.

  I heard the butt of a gun hit someone with a grunt, breaking the silence and at that moment, I’d have given my left eye to sprout wings and fly away from the deplorable position in which I’d found myself. Because nothing, in my sixteen years of life, could have prepared me for the events of that night.

  “I said,” the scrape of chair legs on the wooden floor sang out like the cry of an injured bird, “are there any more kids in the house?” The muffled reply was unintelligible, but it was clear the question had been answered.

  It seemed I’d gone unnoticed. Again.

  I spent my nights in the back corner of the coat closet, down a forgotten hallway in the ancient home. Out of sight, out of mind was the safest place for me. Luckily, I’d already retreated to my hiding place when the front door was bashed in.

  I’d been living with Toby and Myra since my mom’s overdose a year ago. Toby was the only friend of my mother’s I’d ever met, so when I came home from school to find her cold body on our kitchen floor one day, I used her phone to call him. He’d come immediately. He made it known he wasn’t happy about it, but at least he’d come. And he brought friends.

  “Of course she would leave me with her little bitch… ”

  “She yours?” one of the hulking guys beside him asked as he grunted and grabbed his crotch.

  “Naw, man, it wasn’t like that with Minnie, least not back when this one was made. And you best not be making jokes like that around Myra. She’ll have my balls and yours.”