Three Little Wishes

Chapter Six

Riley Bennett sat on a leather couch in her brother Noah’s penthouse apartment in New York City, contemplating her summer wish list. Nowhere on her list did it say “Get picked up at the bus station by the cops.”

She should’ve known Noah would’ve canceled their mom’s credit card but she’d been hoping that, with all he’d had going on since their mom died, it would’ve slipped his mind.

Nothing slipped his mind. Nothing except her.

She’d heard from him ten times since she’d moved across the country to live with Billy, her father, in LA. She hadn’t wanted to move or to live with Billy, who’d been even worse than Noah about staying in touch. So she’d barely known the guy, and what she’d known she hadn’t really liked. And now that she’d been living with him and his new wife and their one-year-old twins for fifteen months, she pretty much hated him. If Billy’s reaction to her fake news last month that she was attending the six-week GSTEM camp at NYU was anything to go by, he felt the same way about her.

He couldn’t get rid of her fast enough. All he’d cared about was who was going to foot the bill for the camp. She’d lied and told him Noah was but that he’d have to pay for her flight. She’d planned on using her mother’s credit card to buy a bus ticket from New York to Sunshine Bay. She’d been confident her father wouldn’t call her brother. They didn’t get along, like at all.

Billy had married their mother when Noah was thirteen. Billy blamed him for their divorce. Riley figured he was probably right to. Noah was smart, crazy smart. She bet that Noah had seen through Billy right away and done everything he could to get rid of him.

If her father had bothered to check, he would’ve discovered Noah didn’t have a clue about the camp or that, with her grades, she wouldn’t have been eligible anyway. With the move and everything, she’d missed a semester of school. She was starting tenth grade at a new school in the fall, something she didn’t want to think about. She hadn’t told anyone how nervous she was. Who would she tell anyway? It wasn’t as if she had friends in LA, and all her father and his new wife cared about was the twins. Whatever. She didn’t want to be stuck with them for the summer anyway.

She glanced at the wish list on her iPad. She’d made it after her father told her he wasn’t going to put up with her moping around all summer with her nose stuck in a book and that she had to pull her weight around the house and help out with the twins. She missed her mom every day but she’d missed her even more when he’d said that to her. She needed to feel close to her mom again, and there was only one place she could think of where she would.

It wasn’t the brownstone in New York where she’d lived her entire life. Her brother had sold it in January. Nearly everything that meant something to Riley and her mom had been sold in the estate sale. She’d been so mad at Noah when she’d found out what he’d done that she’d yelled at him, and no one yelled at her brother, even her mom. It was the first time she remembered Noah ever being angry, like really angry.

But he hadn’t been angry at her. He’d been angry at Billy. Her father had told Noah that he didn’t want her mom’s stuff cluttering up his house and that Riley didn’t want to be reminded of her mom and to go ahead and sell everything. He’d wanted the money from the sale, though.

It always came down to the money with him. As her legal guardian, Billy got an allowance—a generous one—from her trust fund to raise her. She didn’t know what her mother had been thinking leaving her with him. Then again, it wasn’t as if Riley could live on her own no matter how much she would’ve liked to. And it wasn’t as if her single, workaholic brother had wanted her.

She glanced around Noah’s apartment. It looked pretty much the same as his office—a lot of dark wood and heavy leather furniture—only with more rooms. There weren’t any of her mom’s things or any family photos or mementos that she could see. Then again, she hadn’t snooped. Maybe he had some in his bedroom or his study. Except she kind of doubted it. He wasn’t a sentimental guy. She had a few memories of being at his penthouse but Noah had mostly come to the brownstone for holiday dinners and such.

The only place left where she’d feel close to her mom was the beach house on Sunshine Bay. They’d gone a few times when Riley was younger but her mom had spent all her summers there as a kid. Staying at the beach house on Sunshine Bay was the first item on Riley’s wish list. Now she just had to convince Noah not to send her back to LA and to let her spend the rest of the summer at the beach house… with him. That was the second item on her list. Her brother was the only real family she had left.

She reached for the plate of cookies Mrs. D had left on the coffee table for her. She loved her brother’s housekeeper and wished she could’ve stuck around so Riley would have support when Noah came home but it was getting late, and Mrs. D’s husband had called three times, wondering when she’d be home.

At the sound of the penthouse door opening, Riley’s hand froze over the plate of cookies. She scrambled back onto the couch, tucking herself into the corner. The excuses—lies—she’d come up with emptied out of her head now that Noah was here. She thought about pretending she was sleeping to put off facing her no-doubt-angry brother.

She heard a woman’s voice and cringed. She’d met plenty of the women her brother had dated in the past. He had a type—models and socialites. Beautiful women who had no interest in getting to know his little sister. As super smart as her brother was, he didn’t make very good choices when it came to the women he dated. Then again, they’d never lasted longer than a few weeks so maybe he didn’t care, as long as they looked good on his arm. Except she didn’t think Noah cared about that either. But what did she know?

A woman rounded the corner and blinked. Then her lips lifted in a smile, a wide, dazzling smile that made Riley feel like crying. She blinked to ward off the tears gathering in her eyes—how weird was that?—and tried offering one of her own. Her smile wobbled when her brother came into view.

The woman must’ve noticed because she turned on Noah and lightly swatted his chest. Riley’s eyes went wide. She didn’t know anyone who would dare swat her brother when he was angry, and he very obviously was. Most of the time people would run in the opposite direction.

“Noah, stop looking at her like that. You’re scaring her.”

Her brother looked down his nose at the lady—she was tall but Noah was way taller—and raised an eyebrow.

The woman rolled her eyes and laughed. Laughed!

Riley held her breath, waiting for her brother to explode. He didn’t. Instead, he did something as shocking as Riley’s urge to cry. He smiled. It wasn’t a big smile, more like a twitch of his lips. Still, Riley gawked at him with her mouth hanging open.

His gaze moved to her, and he rolled his eyes. She might’ve laughed if he didn’t follow up his eye roll with a raised finger, pointing it at her. “I have a call to make, and when I’m done, you have some explaining to do, Riley.”

She gave a jerky nod. “Noah,” she called when he turned to walk away.

He glanced over his shoulder.

“Please don’t call Billy.”

The woman stared at Noah’s retreating back and shook her head. “All that man does is work,” she said as she walked toward Riley.

She was beautiful, like way more beautiful than any of the women her brother had dated in the past. She had long, wavy blond hair and blue eyes that sparkled. She didn’t dress anything like her brother’s previous girlfriends. She wore pink sneakers with faded jeans and a sheer, flowy, floral top over a camisole instead of a tight, revealing dress and sky-high heels.

“Hi, Riley. I’m Willow,” she said, extending her hand.

Riley shook it, thinking her name was cool, just like her. “Hi,” she said. Then she asked, even though it was probably rude, but she couldn’t help it because she was curious, “Are you my brother’s girlfriend?”

Willow grinned, taking a seat beside Riley on the couch. “No.” Then she added, maybe because Riley’s disappointment showed on her face, “But we were friends a long time ago, when we were fifteen. We met at Hidden Cove on Sunshine Bay. We were pretty much inseparable for three weeks that summer.”

Riley gasped. They’d known each other when they were the same age as her! “Do you live in Sunshine Bay or just vacation there?”

“I live there.” She waved a hand in the direction of the study. “I actually work at Channel 5. I’m a weathergirl, or I should say weatherperson.”

“That’s so cool!”

Willow wrinkled her nose. “Between you and me, I’m not a very good weatherperson.”

“I don’t believe you. I bet you’re really good at it.” She couldn’t imagine Willow being bad at anything she did.

“Aw, thanks, honey.” She gave Riley a hug.

Riley froze. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had hugged her. Her throat began to tickle and the backs of her eyes burned.

Willow pulled away. “I’m sorry. I can’t seem to help myself. I’m affectionate but I need to remember that not everyone is.”

“It’s okay. I didn’t mind.”

Willow’s gaze roamed her face, and her smile faltered. Riley didn’t think she believed her and was going to explain her reaction. But she kind of didn’t want to because she was afraid she might cry if she told Willow no one had hugged her since her mom’s funeral.

Willow reached in her back pocket and pulled out her phone, entering a passcode. “Trust me. You’ll believe me after you see this. Here, watch.” She pressed Start.

It was a video of Willow delivering the weather in a lobster costume. Not once, but several times, and in each one, something hysterical happened to her.

By the time the video ended, Riley was laughing so hard that she could barely speak. Once she’d stopped laughing, she said, “You have to put that on TikTok.”

“No way. It’s bad enough everyone in Sunshine Bay thinks I’m an idiot,” she said, then groaned. “If my coworkers think there’s a chance it’ll go viral, and they can figure out a way to monetize the video, they’ll totally do it, especially now that we’re all going to lose our jobs.” She squeezed her eyes shut and gave her head a small shake. “Ignore me. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It’s okay. I know my brother is selling off Bennett Broadcasting. Our mom would want him to. I want him to.” She bit her lip at how that must sound to Willow and tried to explain. “It’s a lot, running the company. Noah’s a lawyer and the head of the legal department and mostly doesn’t have a life outside of work. It’s worse now that he’s taken over from our mom.” She clenched her teeth before continuing, her voice barely a whisper. “Our mom worked all the time too. Running the company killed her. She wouldn’t want Noah to have a heart attack and die like she did.”

“Oh, Riley, I’m so sorry about your mom.”

Riley didn’t know why, maybe it was the compassion in Willow’s eyes or maybe it was because she’d kept everything bottled up inside since her mom died, but she threw herself sobbing into Willow’s arms and told her everything, even about her wish list. And while she did, Willow murmured words of comfort and stroked her hair, and then she muttered what she’d do to Billy if she ever saw him, and that made Riley snort-laugh.

When Riley finally stopped crying and snort-laughing, she pulled away from Willow, embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I—”

Willow cut her off by putting her hands on Riley’s shoulders and looking her in the eyes. It was then she realized Willow had been crying too. “You don’t have a single thing to apologize for. I’m honored that you felt comfortable sharing with me.” She swiped a finger under her lashes, gave a firm nod as if she’d convinced herself of something, and smiled. “Now we just have to figure out a way for you to accomplish your goals, starting with spending the summer in Sunshine Bay.”

Riley stared at her in awe. “You’re going to help me?”

“Of course I am. Just think of me as your fairy godmother.”

Riley giggled. Giggled! “You look more like a fairy princess than a fairy godmother.”

“You’re sweet,” Willow murmured as she glanced down the hall, looking preoccupied. Then she returned her gaze to Riley. “The first thing we have to do is convince your brother to go along with my plan.”

Riley’s shoulders slumped, and she shook her head. “He won’t.”

“He has to,” Willow said with a determined expression on her face. “There’s nothing more important than family. And Riley, I think, as much as you need him, your brother needs you. We just have to make him see that.”

Riley wasn’t as confident as Willow. Her brother didn’t seem to need anyone. “He doesn’t really like to be told what to do.”

Willow laughed. “You’re not telling me something I don’t know.” Her laughter faded, and she took both of Riley’s hands in hers. “I need to be honest with you. If we can convince Noah to let you stay at the beach house for the summer, it works for me too. I’m trying to convince him to sell Channel 5 instead of closing the station, and I need time to do that.”

“He’s not selling it?” Riley asked, surprised. Her mom had always told her that the TV station on Sunshine Bay had a special place in Riley’s grandfather’s heart. It was where Bennett Broadcasting Group had gotten its start.

“No, he supposedly tried and got no interest. I think part of the problem was that he doesn’t feel Channel 5 is a viable investment and didn’t try very hard. But my coworkers and I have some really good ideas to increase revenue and viewership. We just need time to implement them.” She smiled and gave Riley’s hands a little shake. “But even if I didn’t personally benefit from you, and hopefully Noah, staying in Sunshine Bay this summer, I’d still want to help you.”

“Why?”

“Because I remember what it’s like being fifteen. It can suck, and even having a loving and supportive family like I did, and still do, it took a fifteen-year-old nerd with dark hair, glasses, and braces, who at first didn’t want anything to do with me—”

Riley’s eyes went wide. “How could he not want anything to do with you?”

Willow laughed. “You’ll have to ask your brother.”

“Noah was the nerd?”

“He was, and he also turned one of the worst summers of my life into one of the happiest. And I want to do that for you.”

“So Noah was like your fairy godmother?” Riley’s voice gurgled with laughter as she pictured her tall and handsome big brother wearing a dress and waving a wand.

Willow grinned. “More like my Prince Charming,” she said, then wrinkled her nose. “It would be easier to convince him if he was still my Prince Charming instead of Mercedes Man and CEO Noah.”

Riley frowned. She was about to ask Willow what she meant when she heard a sound. She glanced over Willow’s shoulder, letting out a small eek to warn her that Noah was walking into the living room.

Willow must’ve mistaken her warning eek for a distressed eek because she didn’t look around or stop talking. “Don’t worry, honey. You leave everything to me. I’ll convince Noah—”

Her brother fisted his hands on his hips and said, “No.”

Willow whirled around. “What do you mean no? You don’t even know what I was going to say.”

“All I needed to hear was ‘I’ll convince Noah’ to know what my answer will be, and I’ll repeat, the answer is no. Absolutely not.”

Willow gasped and shot to her feet. “You can’t say no!”

“I just did.”

Willow closed the short distance between them and leaned into him. “Well, you can’t. I’m not one of your employees who you can simply boss around or ignore.”

Noah crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “Does your paycheck come from Bennett Broadcasting Group?”

“Fine. Maybe I am, but this has nothing to do with that. It has to do with your sister.”

“Yes, my sister.” He raised his gaze to Riley. “The study, now,” he said before returning his gaze to Willow. “My housekeeper has no doubt prepared a meal for me. Feel free to eat it. The kitchen is that way.” He lifted a hand, pointing in the direction of the kitchen.

“Riley, stay right where you are,” Willow ordered without looking at her. Then she rose up on her toes and got way into the space of Riley’s now seriously ticked-off brother. “You will lecture her over my dead body.”

“Don’t tempt me,” Noah said, his voice low and flat.

“You have no idea, absolutely no idea, what she’s suffered. And do you know why that is, Noah? Because you don’t call her every day, you don’t even call her once a week or once a month!” And then Willow told him everything Riley had told her. Riley didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but she was leaning toward laughing at the dazed expression on her brother’s face as he watched Willow, who was kind of dramatic, and the way she talked about Billy was all kinds of funny.

But when Willow stopped talking and let out a shuddered sob, Noah’s face softened, and he lifted a hand to the back of Willow’s head and brought it gently to his chest, gathering her into his arms.

Then he looked at Riley with the same soft expression on his face and held out his arm. “Come here, Tink. You can stay at the beach house,” he said, and Riley started crying. Not because he’d made her wish come true but because he’d used her nickname. The one her mom had called her.