SHUDDERVILLE THREE

Cassie was drunk. She lifted her wedding dress and twirled around, and the world spun for a dizzying moment. She and Sophie were hanging out behind the historic mansion, sharing a bottle of champagne with Tobias Mandelbaum, while the rest of the wedding party was indoors doing the chicken dance. She could hear laughter and music echoing across the lake.

She was a married lady now. Mrs. William Thorne, III. But her wedding had been a sham. The marriage was a mistake. She wasn’t in love with Billy. “I get one wish?” she asked Mandelbaum. “Anything I want?”

“Whatever your heart desires.” His white hair was neatly combed, and he wore a dark grey suit, a navy tie and polished Italian loafers. He had a soapy, rosy complexion and translucent eyes the color of rock candy. “Think about it very carefully.”

“Anything in the world?”

Mandelbaum stabbed out his thumb. “You name it.”

A burst of laughter came from inside the mansion. Cassie stood very still in the moonlight. Billy Thorne was rich. Being married to him would guarantee her the good life. Friends and relatives had come from all over the country to celebrate and dance beneath the laser lights, while digital highlights from the ceremony played on the reception hall wall. Billy was such a safe choice. Reliable. Dependable. Predictable.

“Just one?” she said.

“Make it count,” Mandelbaum told her.

The air became tinged with possibility.
Whatever your heart desires
. Cassie’s stomach was in knots. What she wanted—what she really wanted—had nothing to do with Jayla McKnight. “Can’t I have two wishes?” she pleaded.

“No, young miss.”

“Young miss.” Cassie laughed. “I like the sound of that.”

“Missus doesn’t suit you,” he said slyly. “You were destined for better things.”

A shadow drifted over her mind.

“Well?” His eyes softened, and then hardened. He stood tapping his arthritic fingers on the curved handle of his cane.

True love. Why couldn’t she find true love? Why couldn’t she have everything?

“Cassie, you
promised
,” Sophie reminded her.

True love. Soul mates. That was what was missing from the equation—a sense of destiny and purpose and happily-ever-after. She hesitated on the verge of a revelation, a quiet hope blooming in her heart. Mandelbaum had offered her the world, and that kind of opportunity didn’t come along every day.

“Cassie…” Sophie whispered, sweat popping out on her brow. She wore very little makeup, and her plainness had shades to it—in certain lights, from certain angles, she could be quite beautiful.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Cassie turned her back on her best friend, linked arms with Mandelbaum, and the two of them strolled toward the lakefront.

“Cassie, be careful,” Sophie hissed. “It won’t turn out the way you think it will!”

They stood together on the bank, the bride and the mysterious old man.

“Anything I want?” Cassie said again, as if she hadn’t heard him the first seven or eight times.

“Anything your heart desires.”

“Wow.” She thought about Billy. So practical and tedious. Why settle for that?

As they stood gazing across the lake, the answers came easily. She wanted her freedom back. She didn’t want to be married to William Thorne, III. She wanted a more adventurous life. She wanted to find her soul mate. She slid off her wedding ring and cupped it in the palm of her hand.

“We’re alone now,” Mandelbaum said confidentially. “You can tell me.”

I want to find true love
.

The words sat inside her mouth like stones. She couldn’t spit them out. She looked back at her best friend, standing there in her wilted chartreuse bridesmaid’s gown, a crazed pattern of anguish stamped on her face.
She already knows I’m not going to keep my promise. She’s already given up on me.

“Okay.” Cassie turned to Tobias, whose eyes twinkled with a sense of fun and mischief. He was thin and stooped, with grandfatherly features and a pleasant way about him. She liked him. They were playing a little game. Why not play along?

The only reason she’d agreed to marry Billy in the first place was because Ryan Waverly had stopped calling. No explanations. Just a big brush-off. She’d never been dumped before. It was confusing, because Cassie could’ve sworn there was something special between them. Something beyond mere physical attraction—huge potential.

Okay.

One wish.

She knew what she wanted and felt a sense of elation. “I don’t want to be Billy’s wife anymore. I want to be with Ryan—that’s my destiny. That’s my wish.”

Mandelbaum smiled and said, “You need to be more specific, young lady.”

“More specific? Okay. I want to be married to Ryan Waverly. Not Billy Thorne. Is that specific enough for you?”

“Ah,” he said, eyes narrowing. “Let’s seal it with a kiss.”

Before she could protest, he’d wrapped his scrawny, meatless arms around her and pulled her into a surprisingly strong embrace. He parted her lips with his tongue, and she didn’t dare pull away or express her revulsion. Apprehension traveled in waves up and down her spine until she couldn’t stand it anymore, until she pushed him away and wiped her mouth and said, “So? Where’s my wish?”

“Not so fast,” he said with a wink. “Close your eyes.”

*

Seconds later, she found herself buckled into the passenger seat of Ryan’s Range Rover. They were heading down some nameless highway, listening to Wagner through his 17-speaker Meridian audio system. The day was cold and overcast, and the highway guardrails reminded her of skeletal dinosaur tails. They were traveling through a woodsy valley somewhere in New England. Grackles settled on the tree branches like fat black leaves and the far hills were dotted with farmhouses.

The rhythm of the Range Rover invaded her body, and she looked over at Ryan for a stunned moment. He had deep-set eyes, a beautifully sculpted face and thick mahogany-colored hair. “Hey, stranger,” she said. “Where are you taking me?”

He frowned. “You don’t remember?”

“Nope. Sorry. It’s all a blur. Hangover. Whatever”

“Right.”

She snuck a peek at the elegant wedding ring on her finger with its tasteful diamond and 24-karat band—not Billy’s ostentatious ring, not by a long shot. “So you finally made an honest woman out of me, huh?” she said.

“Happily ever after. For better or worse.”

She laughed. “Oh, definitely for better.”

His eyes never left the road. “Cassie,” he sighed. “Do you realize what you’ve done?”

She grew confused and tried to recall exactly how she’d gotten there. Some sort of mental fog had settled over her brain.
One wish
. She gazed at the passing scenery and remembered her wedding day and Billy’s sweaty palms. She remembered the reception at the historic mansion, and stealing a bottle of champagne with Sophie, and Mandelbaum’s withered lips and that frisky tongue of his—ugh. That was enough remembering for one day. Okay, so she’d made a wish. She’d asked to be married to Ryan instead of Billy, and now here she was. Mrs. Ryan Waverly—Cassie Waverly. She liked the sound of that. They were married, with a ring and everything, only she couldn’t recall the ceremony or anything about the past 24 hours. Now they were driving toward an unknown destination. Maybe their honeymoon? This was no joke. She was Mrs. Ryan Waverly. She almost laughed. She’d entered another reality—one where wishes came true.

“Where are we going?”

He shrugged. “It’s an adventure. Sit back and relax.”

An adventure? Hadn’t she asked for a more adventurous life?

She frowned and tried to relax, but soon tendrils of remorse began to creep into her thoughts. She’d behaved selfishly. Not only had she betrayed her best friend, but she’d left a shattered relationship behind. Poor Billy. What had he ever done to deserve that? And Ryan wasn’t looking too happy about the arrangement, either. All kinds of hard feelings nestled in her heart, and Cassie suddenly burst into tears.

“Hey,” Ryan said, looking at her softly. “Now, now.”

“What?” she snapped at him. “You hate me, right? I did a stupid thing.”

He leaned over and kissed her with his soft warm lips, and she felt that tender spot she’d always had for him in her breast begin to swell. He was loose-limbed and athletic and had none of Billy’s stiffness or misplaced sense of propriety. She’d always had her pick of guys, but Ryan was special. He was funny and ironic in just the right ways. They fit together—she couldn’t explain it. He really got her, and she got him.

The overcast sky leant a coppery tone to the day. They drove past gray stonewalls and leafy paths into the woods, and she didn’t care where they were going, just as long as they were going there together. She reached for Ryan’s hand and said, “Hey, you know what? I love you.”

He glanced at her and sighed.

“I’m not in love with Billy. I made a big mistake, marrying him. But you stopped returning my phone calls. And I got confused. I thought we had something.”

He didn’t say anything. His face was tight. He took the next exit off the highway, and they traveled down a meandering two-lane road, following signs to the state park.

“Where are we going?”

“I want to show you something.”

“What?”

“You’ll see.”

They parked in a heavily wooded area off a narrow paved road, in front of a stand of birch trees, tall sturdy trunks glowing silver in the overcast light. A nearby metal sign said, “STATE PROPERTY—DO NOT MOLEST.”

“Ooh. Are you going to molest me?” she said, hurt by his silence and overcompensating by making lame jokes and batting her eyelashes at him.

He opened the door and got out. “Come on,” he said.

“Where are we going?”

“I told you, I want to show you something.”

“Why are you acting so weird?”

“Come on.” He sounded angry.

She pulled on her fleece jacket and got out, then stood shivering in the parking area. “Where are we?”

“Pennsylvania.”

“What are we doing here?”

He scooped her toward him, held her close, and kissed her lightly on the lips. She could feel the heat emanating from his body as he gently teased her mouth open with his tongue, and she melted like a snow cone in the sun. He tasted tart and salty, like tequila with a wedge of lime. He held her close for a moment. “I wish you’d talked to me first.”

“About what?”

He drew back. “I need to explain something to you.”

“Okay.”

They locked eyes a beat, and she felt something awful touch her soul, like a toad’s clinging footpads. “Cassie,” he said. “Do you have any idea what real love is? I mean—honest-to-God true love?”

She began to tremble with an inner tension and rested her cheek against his chest and listened to his heartbeat. “I’ve got a better idea. Let’s just stay like this forever.”

Very tenderly, he pried her away from him. “Follow me,” he said sternly.

She shivered—more out of fear than anything else—and followed him up the jagged mountainside along a narrow, untamed path. The clouds were low and slowly rolling in the sky. After about fifteen minutes of hiking, they paused on a granite precipice with a stunning view of the falls. Bursts of freshwater cascaded down fissures in the mountain and crashed into a churning rock pool below, the sound of it swelling toward them like the rhythmic motion of a subway train.

“It’s this way,” Ryan said, leading her up a steep incline where the trail cut clumsily into the rock.

Her legs burned on the rugged ascent. She could feel the cool spray from the cascading water, so earthy and refreshing. At 100 feet, they crossed a sturdy footbridge that spanned a dangerous gap in the rocks and overlooked a spectacular view. Crystal clean water tumbled down a series of jagged natural steps, hitting boulders and ledges in splats and splutters, creating musical noise. The falls, the physical pull of gravity—were all making sense to her now. In the same way, Cassie was obeying the physical laws of nature by falling in love with Ryan. There was a chemical splashing in her soul, a hormonal pull toward her destiny. Love was what you wished for. Somehow she would make amends to the two very important people she had let down.

They were halfway up the mountainside when the path grew rough and rocky. They hiked in silence, stepping gingerly over gnarled roots that wriggled across the paths, creating stumbling blocks. Very near the top, they took a detour up some wooden steps toward another scenic overlook. There was a sheer drop of 150 feet beyond the rickety guardrail. A frothy torrent of water plunged down the rock wall, creating a stunning cascade. They stood on the precipice, holding onto the wooden rail and looking down at the churning rock pool below. On the far side of the gorge, tree branches feathered toward a darkening sky.

She caught him staring at her and smiled. “What?” she said.

“Don’t you think we should tell each other the truth, Cassie?”