70
At midnight, the beach became a conversation between moon and tides, the stretch of sand untouched except for the sea birds and a stray coyote. Except for tonight, when the four women gathered at the water’s edge.
Celeste couldn’t remember the last time she’d been to Herring Cove at that hour. Maybe in the early days with Jack, when dinner turned into drinks which turned into a drunken stroll through town and ultimately to the beach. There had been a night or two when they’d made love in the sand. The thought of the way their bodies had responded to each other’s back then—like magnets, like electrified cables—made her yearn for him now. The pain she’d been feeling for the past few days shot up again, just when she thought she couldn’t feel any worse.
“The important thing is to stay in the moment,” Maud said, as if reading her mind.
Maud, dressed in white jeans and a white T-shirt, was barefoot and gathered Celeste, Gemma, and Elodie into a tight circle. Celeste had dressed carefully for the occasion in one of her favorite pale blue tunics she’d found at a thrift shop years ago. It had lantern sleeves and went nearly to the ground, with slits on either side of her legs for easy movement. Elodie wore joggers and a gray cashmere wrap, while Gemma was dressed in denim shorts and a P’town hoodie. They stood as close to the ocean as possible before the tide licked their feet.
“Our intention tonight is to rid ourselves of negative energy and fear,” Maud said. “The universe gives us signs—the stars can point us in the right direction. But the biggest factor in how our lives turn out is the choices we make. And the fact that the three of you are standing together here tonight is a powerful choice.”
Celeste glanced at her sister and they shared a smile.
“I know that all three of you have the intention to be positive, to move forward in life. The challenge is that there are so few rites of passage for adult women,” Maud said. “And it’s a shame, because as we get older, we need to learn how to let go of the past in order to live fully in the present. So tonight, we form an Intention Circle.” She told them to join hands.
“In order to dispel what has been holding us back, we each need to evoke the thing we want most to come into our lives. As we do that, we will pass this ring—a symbol of the past—to each speaker.” She handed the diamond eternity band to Celeste. “Would you like to go first?”
“Yes,” she said. She held the ring gingerly. Normally, she didn’t feel the slightest bit self-conscious engaging in spiritual business. But she knew Gemma and Elodie were skeptics at best, making it all the more touching that they’d gone out of their way to help her in this way. “I want Jack to forgive me, and to trust me again. And to come back to me. I want to be able to get married tomorrow like we planned. But I don’t know if it’s too late.”
It was one thing to ask the universe to vanquish bad energy. But human emotions were another thing; she knew Jack was deeply hurt. Because of her choices. Maud was right.
Jack wouldn’t understand why she was afraid of getting married if she never really told him, and so he wouldn’t understand how she let go of that fear. She’d just have to hope that somehow, talking to him tomorrow, he might not understand her but he’d at least believe her. If not, it wouldn’t be because of the curse. She’d have only herself to blame.
Celeste passed the ring to Elodie, who hesitated a few seconds before taking it in her hand. She gazed at the ring, turning it between her thumb and forefinger in a way that caught the moonlight. When she spoke, it was so quietly that it was hard to hear over the rush of the waves.
“Our family fortune was built on the words ‘A Diamond Says Love.’ But it’s obvious now how flawed that is. A diamond doesn’t say love. Moments like this say love. Family says love. Forgiveness says love.”
Celeste reached out to put her arm around her sister. And then Elodie passed the ring to her niece.
Gemma looked out at the sea. From her position in the Intention Circle, she had the best view of the water, liquid silver in the moonlight.
She held the remains of her mother’s diamond in her palm, her fingers wrapped tightly around it. She had to resist the urge to slip it onto her finger one last time.
“Speak when you’re ready,” Maud nudged.
It was her turn to declare what she wanted to bring into her life. At the beginning of the summer, that would have been simple. She’d wanted to grow her company. She wanted her name to be synonymous with modern jewelry. She wanted the Pavlins to realize the mistake they’d made in casting her aside. And she wanted the Electric Rose, the symbol of all she’d lost—and been denied.
“I have . . . a lot I need to figure out,” she said slowly.
“Gemma, may I?” Elodie piped up. “I’m sorry for turning you away from what’s rightfully yours. I hope you’ll forgive me. And you were right about what you said: The company has become stagnant. We need new energy. And I hope that energy will come from you.”
“From me?”
“I want to offer you a design position with Pavlin & Co. It would be entry-level—you would be part of a team under our head designer. But there’s room to grow. There’s a future for you at Pavlin & Co if you’d like it.”
Gemma, stunned, glanced at Celeste. Where had this come from? Celeste smiled.
“I don’t get it,” she said.
“I’ve seen you at work this summer. I’ve seen how people respond to your designs. You’d be an asset to Pavlin & Co. It’s as simple as that. I would offer this to you even if you were a stranger.”
Here it was—a moment she had dreamed about as a teenager, only to realize it would never happen. But what if it could?
Gemma bit her lip. She knew, standing in the moonlight, flanked by her mother’s sisters, that she didn’t need to work at Pavlin & Co to make her life complete. She’d come to her aunts looking for a diamond, and instead found her family.
“Thank you, Aunt Elodie,” she said. “I’ll think about it. But first, can we agree on one thing? No auction. Tell Sloan Pierce it’s off.”
“Agreed,” said Elodie.
“Are you two really negotiating right now?” said Maud. “Please, let’s stay in the moment. Gemma, you need to focus on what you most want to bring into your life.”
Looking at the silvery water, at the stillness punctuated only by the rolling tide, she missed Sanjay with a physical ache. What did she want most in the world? The answer was clear to her.
“I want Sanjay back.” There it was. She couldn’t deny it: She wanted the true love Maud had promised earlier in the summer.
“Good,” said Maud. “Now we’re ready to release the past. Gemma, since you’re the last one holding the ring, I ask you to step into the water and toss it as far as you can manage. And in your mind, hold the thought that you are intentionally letting it go.”
“Won’t the tide just bring it back in?” Elodie said.
An amused smile played at Maud’s lips. “We must trust the universe to accept what we’re offering it,” she said.
Gemma glanced at Celeste, who nodded at her. She walked a few feet into the water. It was cool and pebbly underfoot. She felt goose bumps rise on her arms and kept walking until she was up to her thighs, just before the water could reach her shorts. She felt herself squeezing the ring, as if afraid to lose it. Here it was, an object she’d wanted so badly for years. And she was about to toss it into the ocean.
Surrounded by black water and under the spotlight of an August full moon, all she could think about was her mother. The sea had taken her mother, and now the sea would take the remains of her ring.
Gemma pulled her arm back and then thrust it forward like she was pitching a ball, her fingers unfurling to release the ring into the pull of the outgoing tide. It was shocking to let it disappear, not even hearing it hit the water over the churning waves. She stood for a minute, as if expecting it to come back to her.
And then she realized she was happy to set it free.