Snow wiped her eyes. "What?"
"You thought you were different from us," the red-haired beauty repeated. "You thought that because you two had found one another after five hundred years that your love was special. I thought the same thing. All the magic that surrounded my love affair with William, both emotionally and literally... I mean, that's why they call our stories fairy tales, right--love and magic and riding off into the sunset together?"
"Rapunzel, you've got this all wrong," Ms. White replied. "I didn't think I was special."
"The thing is..." Cindy said, "you are special."
Rapunzel and Briar Rose shifted uncomfortably.
"I knew it. We all knew it," Cindy continued. "We're all amazing women: beautiful, smart, capable. But we weren't Snow White."
"Cindy--"
But the blond beauty stopped Ms. White. "This isn't out of anger, Snow. I'm over that. But I'm a person that understands relationships. I had a family that was completely nuts, and I was married to a guy who was more boy than man. I know the truth when it's looking me in the face. He never got over you, and that's why I left him. William has always loved you. Not that he didn't love Briar, or Rapunzel, or me. I believe he tried to be a good husband to each of us. But his heart was always yours. You were the first woman in his life, and when you left him at the altar, he never recovered."
"We were too young. It was all happening so fast," Ms. White explained.
"I wish I had been that smart," Rapunzel said. Briar Rose nodded in agreement.
Cindy reached over and took Ms. White's hand. "For a long time I resented you, Snow, because I was always competing with you. Your spirit hung over our home like a ghost. Occasionally, we would be at a party and hear about something that was going on in your life and his eyes would fix on whoever was saying it. For days he would be distant, distracted. He'd spend a week at the stables, claiming the horses needed attention, but I wasn't stupid."
"Is this true?" Ms. White said, looking at the other women in the group. They all nodded. "I'm sorry."
"Snow, I don't think Cindy is chastising you," Rapunzel said.
"No, in fact, Snow, since I've come to know you I adore you, and I don't regret anything--my Tom is all the prince I will ever need. What I'm trying to say to you is that William's love for you is different. It is troubling that he hasn't tried to contact you."
"There goes Dr. Cindy," Rapunzel said. "Could you turn off the honesty you give your callers and remember we're trying to cheer this woman up?"
Snow White laughed and the others joined her.
"Ms. White, I know he loves you," Daphne said. "He's going to pop up any day now."
"I hope you're right," Ms. White said.
"Well, when he does, I hope you give him a karate kick to the behind," Briar Rose said, which caused the four women to burst into laughter again.
"Briar, I swear, you don't say much, but when you do it's hilarious," Rapunzel said. "Girls, I've got an idea, and you can tell me I'm nuts and say forget it, but how about we make this a regular thing?"
The women glanced at one another hesitantly.
"Come on!" Rapunzel cried. "We've been avoiding each other in this silly little town for two hundred years! Let's put it all behind us, meet for brunch, start a book club, gossip. Let's be friends!"
"I don't know," Cindy said hesitantly.
"What if we played poker?" Briar Rose suggested.
"I'm in," Ms. White said quickly.
Dr. Cindy threw up her arms in surrender. "How are Tuesday nights?"
"Can I come?" Daphne asked.
The table roared with laughter. "Of course you can come," Ms. White said. "So that settles it," Rapunzel replied. "Tuesday nights at my place. You bring the wine and I'll make something decadent that we shouldn't eat. We'll call ourselves the Poker Princesses."
The women nodded enthusiastically, and even Sabrina joined in.
Puck came over with a sack of muffins. "What's all the commotion?"
"And no boys!" Rapunzel cried, and the Poker Princesses applauded.
Puck grumbled and stormed out of the coffee shop. Sabrina grabbed her sister, said their good-byes, and chased after the fairy.
"We've got to get back," Sabrina said as they left. "Granny is going to miss us."
*
Oddly, Granny hadn't missed them. There had been a run at the yard sale and nearly three quarters of the items were sold. When the children landed in the backyard and circled the house to check in with the sale, they found their grandmother counting a huge stack of bills. Puck rushed up to his room for fear of being drafted into helping put things away.
"Oh, hello girls," Granny said. "As they say in the business world, we made a killing."
"Enough to pay the taxes?" Daphne asked.