by E K Woodcock
Copyright © 2020 by Ebru Kartal
All rights reserved.
Visit my website at http://www.ekwoodcock.com
Cover Design by Callie Rae: http://www.literarydesigns.com
Copyediting by Telltail Editing: http://www.telltailediting.com
Formatting by Callie Rae: http://www.literarydesigns.com
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book was inspired by my little girl and is written for her. Keep in mind, sweet girl, you can accomplish anything you put in your mind. I love you!
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One Skylar
Chapter Two Carter
Chapter Three Skylar
Chapter Four Carter
Chapter Five Skylar
Chapter Six Carter
Chapter Seven Skylar
Chapter Eight Carter
Chapter Nine Skylar
Chapter Ten Skylar
Chapter Eleven Carter
Chapter Twelve Skylar
Chapter Thirteen Carter
Chapter Fourteen Skylar
Chapter Fifteen Carter
Chapter Sixteen Skylar
Chapter Seventeen Carter
Chapter Eighteen Skylar
Chapter Nineteen Carter
Chapter Twenty Skylar
Chapter Twenty-One Carter
Chapter Twenty-Two Skylar
Chapter Twenty-Three Carter
Chapter Twenty-Four Skylar
Chapter Twenty-Five Carter
Epilogue Skylar
Acknowledgments
About the Author
It all started with a lost little shoe at the parking lot of the mall. Who would have guessed somebody else's Cinderella story would lead me to my Prince Charming?
The traffic in this town is horrible since they put those dreaded traffic lights at the bottom of the hill. They make the entire town congested, and it takes about twenty minutes to get in and out of the town. Today is one of those days where the lights aren't timed properly and good luck moving an inch in an hour, but I'm determined to see through this and get to my destination.
Last year for my twenty-sixth birthday, my mother bought me a sixty-minute reading with one of the better-known mediums in the city. Now, I'm not a religious or spiritual person but my mother is. She's very into psychics and mediums and everything that comes with them. I'm through and through a skeptic when it comes to these things. These people are intuitive, fantastic guessers, and very good at reading people.
But I'm bored and need a distraction today so I've finally booked my reading and am on my way to go learn about my future and what's in store for me. This should be entertaining at the very least.
After a thirty-minute gruesome car ride out of Cochrane, Alberta—thankfully, with all my hair still intact—I reach the outskirts of Calgary. Also known as The Heart of the New West, or what I like to call a distant cousin to Dallas, Texas.
It's a beautiful fall day in early September. The sun is bright and high, with not a single cloud in the sky. The trees have started to turn color with an explosion of oranges and reds, and it's the perfect sweater weather. What else could I ask for?
Driving through a cute and friendly neighborhood with manicured front lawns and white picket fences, I finally reach my destination and park in front of house number twenty. The skeptic in me is starting to poke its head out, so I take a deep breath before I get out of the car.
Here goes nothing. I give the door a gentle knock and wait for someone to answer. An eccentric-looking, thirty-something woman with ombré blond and red hair opens the door. “Welcome to my house, sweetie. Come in, let me take your coat.”
She has an infectious smile and a calming aura about her. I can't stop myself from smiling back, despite my skepticism. “Thank you very much, Aubrey,” I say as I pass her my coat. “I'm Skylar. Here for a reading.” As if she doesn't already know why I'm there.
“The room is right this way.” She points down the hall to the first door on the right.
It's a smallish room with lots of tinctures, oils and crystals, and a massage table in the middle. Walking through the door, the smell hits me right in the face. The room smells like a rain forest; the only thing missing is the chirping of birds to turn this mirage into a reality. Along with the smell, there's calming music with soft drumming and chanting. I immediately want to lie down on the massage table and take a nap for an hour.
She guides me in. “Take a seat on the table. I'm sorry I don't have a desk. I usually do all my readings and massages on here.”
I do as instruct and hop on the bed. It makes a creaking sound as I land on it. I give a worried look to Aubrey to make sure I haven't broken her table or it's not going to give out from under me. She just smiles and hands me a pack of tarot cards.
“All right, here's how it's going to go. I want you to hold these cards for a few minutes and shuffle them. Once shuffled, you can put them on the table in front of you. I'll pick your cards and start your reading.”
Nodding at her explanation, I shuffle the cards. Once I'm satisfied everything is mixed up well, I put the deck in front of me and touch it one last time for good measure.
“Perfect,” she says and starts flipping the cards. She flips eight cards and starts explaining what each of them means.
“There's something in your life that you used to do a lot and were very proud to be doing it. Whatever this is, it’s going to come back into your life again very soon and help you to reach your goals.”
She points to a middle card. The card has the picture of a village road surrounded by trees on each side with the sun shining bright on it, but there’s also an object blocking the road halfway through. Looking at it more clearly, I can see it’s a tree trunk. Before Aubrey says a word, I immediately know what this card means, but I let her take the lead anyway.
“See this card? It means you're stuck and can't move forward until you make the decision to overcome this barrier. You will be stuck in this place. To get on with your journey, take control over your life. It feels like you've given the reins of your life to someone else and they're dragging you wherever they go, whether you like it or not. It's time to take control back.”
I'm flabbergasted. That's how I've been feeling for the better half of this past year. “I'm currently stuck in a job I don't really like,” I mutter to her. Aubrey gives me a look full of understanding and compassion, and I can’t seem to stop myself from opening up to this stranger. “You know, I shouldn’t really say that. I love the people I work with and my boss is a decent person, but I’ve been there for three years now, doing the same darn thing day in and day out with no promises of a raise or a promotion. I’ve just had it,” I say, shrugging my shoulders.
Aubrey smiles like she knows exactly what’s happening in my life and moves on to the next card on the table. The card is very similar to the one before but it’s lacking the tree trunk that blocks the road. Instead, it has two hands reaching for each other over the sky, almost like the famous Michelangelo painting. “See this one? It symbolizes things are about to turn around for you. All you have to do is make the decision and follow through with it.”
The next card has a giant coin on it. She points at it
and says, “You've picked the money card, and I don't really need to explain to you what this card means because it's pretty self-explanatory. It all engages with making the decision. Once you take care of that stage, everything will snowball—health, wealth, success. This card is where your dreams come true.”
At this point, I'm so emotionally exhausted from not wanting to believe a word and can't stop myself from gawking at how true everything she's saying is. The last card is a single glass shoe sitting on ice under the starry night, lit up by the moon.
She looks at the card and then at me with a small smile on her face. “Do you know that saying ‘find a penny, pick it up; all day long you'll have good luck?’”
“Yes, I know the saying,” I reply, the skeptical in me rearing its head back up. Is this where she tells me about the tall, dark and mysterious man in my future just like any medium would say to a person who's desperate for love?
She smirks and says, “See a lost shoe, pick it up and Prince Charming you will find,” in a very Yoda-like fashion. It takes all my willpower not to roll my eyes and burst into laughter because this is exactly what I was expecting.
At the end of our reading, I hand her the gift card and simply say, “Thank you,” before I leave. I get into my car and immediately call my mother.
She picks up on the second ring. “Sooooo... tell me everything, Sky. How was it? What did she say? Do not skip any details!”
I do roll my eyes this time. “If you let me talk, Mother, I’ll tell you what a hack your medium is.”
There's silence on the other end of the phone, heavy with the disapproval of my word choices and my tone.
I sigh. “Okay, Mooooom.”
She snickers just like she always does when her perfect plan to guilt-trip me into something works. Don’t get me wrong, my mother isn’t a bad person, even though she loves to manipulate her way into everything she wants in life. She’s also just a tad bit overdramatic, but I wouldn’t change her for the world.
“Well, it was actually very interesting at the beginning. She pretty much hit everything on the nose.” Mom makes a noncommittal noise as if to say go on, and I continue. “Essentially, she told me I need to make a big decision and stick to it, that I was stuck in a place and to get out of it, I needed to take control of my life and take charge.”
“Oh, this is so exciting!” I could almost hear her jumping up and down in joy. “I bet ya it's about that job of yours.”
“Hmmm. That's what I thought, too.” I come to a stop at the lights and put my right turn signal on to merge onto the four-way.
“It's time, Skylar. If Aubrey said it was time, then it's time to pull the plug on that dead-end job and do something with your life.”
“Yes, Mom, but I want a safety blanket before I pull the plug, you know? I don't really want to become homeless and unemployed all at the same time because some medium told me to.” I don't let her get a word in before I continue. “Also, she said something wonky at the end that makes me believe she’s a hack, so I don't know how much to trust her.”
“And what was that?” I can hear the eyebrow lift through her question.
“She said something along the lines of, 'Find a lost shoe, pick it up, Prince charming you will find,’” I repeat the words Aubrey spoke earlier, rolling my eyes this time.
“Young lady, stop rolling your eyes at my medium,” she scolds.
I smirk at her guessing correctly. She knows me well. “Well, I mean, what else am I supposed to do with that? Anyways, I'm almost at the mall. Going to do some shopping now that I have some time. I'll talk to you later.”
“All right, monkey, we might have to go with the clips again,” I say as I once again struggle to put all my daughter’s hair in a ponytail with an elastic that's too tiny.
She scowls at me. “But, Daddy, all my friends have ponytails and I want one, too.”
“That's all right, Everly, but we’re not going to see your friends right now. Remember, we’re going to the mall.”
“Three stores, three stores,” she sings with delight. She would jump up and down if I could finish with her hair.
“Yes, exactly, three stores to shop from.” I smile at her, still battling with this elastic band.
I'm afraid my big callused hands are about to break this tiny, dainty band. “All right, Carter, you can do this. It's just a bit of hair and a tiny elastic, just put the hair through the hoop,” I give myself a pep talk.
This time, the elastic doesn't fly across the room and I'm successful. She turns around with a triumphant look in her eyes and high fives me. “I knew you could do it, Daddy.”
Those eyes, they remind me so much of her mother, my beautiful Willow. She had long curly brown hair down to her mid-back, big brown doe eyes that couldn't hide any emotion, and a smile that could drop anyone to their knees. She was beautiful, and she was my rock.
As all stories have an end, ours had a very premature one. Everly was only a year old when we lost Willow, and not a day goes by that I don't miss her, but now, looking into Everly's big brown eyes, all I see is Willow looking back at me. Losing Willow was very unexpected, leaving me blindsided and desperate. If it wasn’t for my angel of a mother, I don’t know if I would have survived the pain.
Our daughter inherited all her mother’s looks, facial expressions, and personality, along with a few tricks of her own.
After what feels like forever, we finally leave the house and get in the car to drive to the mall. You know those single people who can decide they want to go somewhere and be out the door in a moment’s notice, well, that’s not this house.
In this house, getting ready takes at least forty-five minutes and then there's the ceremonious putting on the jacket and deciding whether to zip it up or button it up. Once that's decided, there's the picking of the shoes.
It usually ends with, “I'm wearing a pink skirt today, Daddy, so purple rain boots it is.” And that's usually the end of discussion. If I object to it, there'll be a long-winded debate about how I don't know anything about matching clothes. And this coming from a three-year-old who's just matched pink with purple.
We sing to the radio as I drive us to the mall. She’s belting out the lyrics to some Taylor Swift song, very offbeat and out of tune, but it's the most charming thing I've ever witnessed. I could never get sick of hearing her sing. She's shaking her hands and head, singing, “Shake it off, shake it off,” when I finally find a parking spot. I get out of the car to unbuckle her from her seat and join her in singing the song.
“Daddy, no, you're singing it wrong.” She giggles.
“Oh, yeah... well, if you know it so well, why you don’t tell me how it goes then?”
She proceeds to show me exactly how it’s sung. “See, Daddy, that's how it goes.”
I can't do anything but smile at this beautiful three-year-old girl who's brought so much joy into my life.
We walk in through the double doors of the mall entrance, and I immediately spot a shopping cart left abandoned by the wall. Pointing to it, I ask, “Do you want to ride in a cart or walk for a bit?”
At first, she doesn't answer so I look down to see an upset expression on her beautiful face. Tears are welling up in her eyes. Her button lip pops out, and her chin starts to wobble.
I immediately go down to my knees to be eye level with her, cupping her cheeks in my hands. “What's wrong, my princess? Why are you so upset?”
One tear rolls out. “We might have to go to four stores, Daddy,” she says.
I wipe her tears with my thumb. “And why would we do that, and why does that make you so upset, honey?”
Another tear rolls down her cheek as she just looks at her feet. I follow her line of sight and realize she's only wearing one sparkly purple boot. “Those were my favorite boots.”
She can't hold it back anymore and starts to full-on cry. I pull her into a hug. “Hey, don't worry. We'll get a new pair.”
She beams
at my revelation, and once again, I realize I've been played by a three-year-old.
With an amused smile on my face, I point to her with a wink. “You, my dear, are a master manipulator. Definitely got that trait from your mother.”
She merely giggles and keeps on walking with only one shoe.
I finally find a parking spot and squeeze my small car in between two huge trucks. “Think small thoughts" is my mantra to be able to get out without damaging the other vehicle or mine.
I crack the door and painstakingly squeeze out of the car. It takes me a good five minutes of carefully maneuvering, sucking my belly in, and cursing under my breath to make it out. I’m flustered and covered in sweat, but it’s my day off and I’m determined to spend it in the mall, spending my non-existent money.
As I muttered to myself about how people are inconsiderate with the way they park and the entire population of Calgary probably being in the mall, my eye catches a small purple object. At first, I want to avoid it, but the need to figure out what it is forces me to follow my line of sight to where the object is.
The closer I get, Aubrey’s words start to resurface in my mind. See a lost shoe, pick it up, and Prince Charming you will find.
I know exactly what this object is now, and I can’t stop myself from smiling a little. It’s a small rain boot left by the side of a parked truck. Picking it up, I think to myself that some poor mother is probably losing her mind in the mall while her toddler is wailing because she’s only got one shoe on and she doesn’t know where the other one is. Hoping to find them quickly, I walk through the doors of the mall with the shoe in hand. How hard could it be to find a child with only one shoe?
Walking in and out of stores, doing my shopping, I'm on my way to my favorite store when I finally spot them. I didn’t think they’d still be here considering I’ve been in the mall a couple of hours already. But there they are, and the sight in front of me is not what I expected. The person with the toddler is not the mother, but the father. And boy, is he ever good looking. Dark brown hair, muscular build, looks a lot like a taller Jensen Ackles. What's more charming is that you can see the love on his face when he looks at his daughter. What I wasn’t expecting is how heartwarming the scene in front of me is.
