Two Once Removed

Can a lingering regret and wonder about love that ended tragically decades ago be too great to ignore when empty-nest loneliness, stale marriage, and the stars “align” to give an opportunity to reconnect? As a dedicated, fifty-year-old mother of three college-age and adult children, Callie Larson lives a storybook life of affluence and access just outside of Washington, D.C. Until recently, her life fulfillment came through her children to the point she barely missed her husband as he traveled extensively for work. But with all three children gone, her life has an unfamiliar emptiness. Her luxurious home is too quiet. And her husband is showing no signs of reducing his business travel to be with her. Jason Cartwright is a fifty-five-year-old divorced father of four college-age and adult daughters. He is retired with the resources and freedom to go anywhere when he buys a small, dilapidated, oceanfront cottage on the North Carolina Outer Banks. Twenty-seven years earlier, Jason was engaged to Callie until she returned the ring six weeks before their ceremony. When a mutual friend shows Callie Jason's Facebook post inviting friends to visit, they notice his cottage is just a few hours' drive from Callie's mother. And when Callie's husband coldly abandons her for a boy's golf weekend, she takes his suggestion to visit her mom which gives her the opportunity to make a day trip to the beach to check Jason out, from afar. As she sits bewildered at a convenience store near his cottage, Jason pulls in to buy gas. This 'accidental' run-in brings them together to reconnect, catch-up, and to finish the conversations they left open long ago - all while dodging family interjections and dealing with Jason's new friends.

Spring is blooming as nine months have passed since the funeral. A happy, multi-family celebration, with best friends from Callie and Jason's youth in Cleveland, takes place in Great Falls, Virginia, to remind them of what they once had, have, and need to be finally happy. Complications ensue as Chase schemes to hide more things and to take and keep what he wants to make sure his life is full of the richness he thinks he deserves. All while the disruptive ripple effects of love, distraction, and separation ramble through both families to cause significant hurt and damage that has to be resolved for them to reach a happy conclusion.

Two Once There is the sequel to Two Once Removed where Callie Larson and Jason Cartwright come together again as life continues to move forward and unravel at the same time. Through their journey, more truths uncover as their extended families make their realities more painfully clear. In the months that follow their impromptu weekend of rediscovery and Callie's cryptic Thanksgiving Day text saying to "wait for her", Jason invests in a mountain retreat after staying there over Christmas and New Years. The purchase is kept secret as he suspiciously travels back and forth to Asheville, North Carolina near where the retreat is located. With her kids on vacation in Nantucket with her soon-to-be ex-husband, Callie makes her return to the beach searching for Jason. Her trip is intended to be a surprise after holding her promise of complete silence while she focused on resolving her marriage issues to a final decree. When she arrives at the beach, Callie only finds his daughters who immediately recognize her as the mystery woman in the photograph on Jason's kitchen counter. The events that follow draw in family and friends to both combine and collide into a new reality for both Callie and Jason. Their agreed absolute silence, followed by missteps, misunderstandings and a single family tragedy, challenge their destiny to be together to not be as absolute as first thought. Two Once There is an intense, emotional story about taking the step from mid-life, loveless marriage fantasy to reality. Parents, children, friends and geography add to the blend as both Jason and Callie learn more about what a life together would be and how it would affect them and their lives with their families.