Three Little Wishes

Chapter Seventeen

Willow sat on the Adirondack chair beside her sister watching the sun rise over the bay. It was a beautiful morning, peaceful and quiet. The only sound breaking the silence was the lulling shush of the waves rolling onto the shore.

Willow took a sip of her coffee and glanced at Sage. “You’re supposed to be helping me figure out why Mom called at the butt crack of dawn, not sleeping.”

“I’m trying to figure out why I agreed to a sleepover in the first place. I’m renaming it a wakeover, and I’m renaming the dog Demon Spawn.”

“He’s a puppy, and it was his first night in his new home. And you agreed to stay over to spend time with your aunt and so you didn’t have to lie to Mom and Nonna. You don’t think they somehow found out about Cami, do you?”

“What did Mom say again? I must’ve fallen asleep while you were telling me.”

“Seriously? You were looking right at me.”

“I didn’t have my morning coffee yet.” Sage lifted her mug to her lips and took a sip. “You can tell me now.”

“It wasn’t so much what she said, it was how she said it. She sounded… I don’t know, nervous. Upset. I heard Nonna yelling in the background. In Italian so I don’t know what she said, but she sounded upset too.”

“Nonna’s upset and yelling about something eighty percent of the time so you can’t go by that. But Mom rarely gets upset or nervous, unless it has to do with her art.”

“That must be it. She’s anxious about the auction.” Willow relaxed on the chair. “I feel better now. Thank you.”

“That’s it? You woke me up fifteen minutes after I’d finally fallen asleep, dragged me downstairs, handed me a cup of coffee, and then made me come out here… for that?”

“You should be thanking me. If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have gotten to enjoy the spectacular sunrise or this gorgeous morning.”

“What’s gorgeous about it? The grass is wet, gnats are swarming my head, and I’m sitting on a hard chair and not sleeping in a bed.” Her sister stiffened. “Tell me that’s not what I think it is?”

Willow pretended she didn’t hear Lucky barking and took a sip of her coffee to keep from laughing at her sister’s expression. Just as she got her amusement under control, the door opened and Noah walked out with Lucky on a leash.

“I take it back,” Sage whispered. “That’s worth waking up for.”

Her sister wasn’t wrong, and Willow had been right about Noah working out. And she knew this because his tanned muscular chest and rock-hard abs were on display. He was bare chested, his navy sleep pants riding low on his hips as he walked Lucky to a tree a hundred yards from where they sat. He had seriously sexy bedhead and looked half-asleep.

“Are you drooling?”

Willow wiped a hand over her mouth. “My jaw must’ve dropped, and coffee dribbled out.”

“You’ve been living with him for almost a week, and you haven’t seen him half-naked before?”

“He’s not half-naked. He’s wearing sleep pants. And the last time I saw him without a shirt was thirteen years ago. He’s changed, a lot.”

“Yeah, I bet he has. Not many fifteen-year-old have abs like that. We can count them when he turns around. I’m guessing eight.” Sage tilted her head to the side. “Although the view from the back is pretty spectacular too. Look at his shoulders… and his butt,” Sage murmured, saying exactly what Willow was thinking.

“I can hear you, you know,” Noah said, his sleep-laden voice rough and deep.

“Oops. We thought you were sleepwalking.” Her sister grinned, turning to Willow when Noah walked toward them. “You were right about his broody face.”

Noah scowled at Sage. “You’d have a broody face too if you had less than an hour’s sleep.”

“You weren’t the only one not sleeping. Your house isn’t soundproof, you know,” Sage said.

“Blame your sister.” He took Willow’s mug from her hand, downing what looked like the rest of her coffee.

“It’s not my fault,” she pointed out instead of suggesting he get his own cup of coffee. She’d have had to string more than four words together, and with a bare-chested Noah standing in front of her, that was most definitely beyond her.

Sage snorted and stood up. “I’ll let you two fight it out.” She waggled her eyebrows at Willow from behind Noah’s back. It was annoying having a sister who knew her so well. “I need at least five hours of sleep before we break the news about the teenager from hell to Mom and Nonna.”

“Sage, she’s not that bad.”

“Will, she and demon dog are a match made in hell.”

Noah laughed, taking a seat in the chair Sage had vacated and stretching out his long legs.

Willow shook her head. Even his feet were beautiful. “Don’t encourage her,” she said, leaning down to pick up Lucky, who was snuffling the grass.

“What are you two doing up, anyway?”

“Ask my sister. I’m going to bed, and Will, after you two chat, you should grab a few hours’ sleep before we have our showdown with the fam.”

“I can’t. I told you, Sage. Mom wants me to meet her at the beach at seven.”

Her sister frowned. “Are you sure you got the time right? She has her early-morning yoga class.”

“She canceled it. That’s why I told you I was worried they’d somehow heard about Cami. But I’m sure you’re right, and it’s about the silent auction.” She prayed her sister didn’t decide she’d been wrong and send Willow’s nerves into overdrive.

“This isn’t good. Mom never cancels her yoga classes, and what’s with meeting you at the beach? Not her apartment or the restaurant?”

Her sister really had been sleeping when she was talking to her. “She wants to go for a walk.”

“Babe, you buried the lede.” Sage lowered herself onto the front step. “This isn’t good.”

“I’m sorry, but what’s wrong with your mom wanting to go for a walk on the beach with you?” Noah asked, reaching over and removing strands of Willow’s hair from Lucky’s mouth before he took the dog from her.

“It’s our mom’s thing,” Willow said, stealing Lucky back. She needed something to calm her nerves, and she didn’t think cuddling up to a half-naked Noah was a good idea. “If ever she had bad news to share, like when our bisnonna, great-grandmother, died or when our cousin was going to spend her summers in England, she took us for a walk on the beach.”

“So much for sleeping,” Sage grumbled. “We have about an hour to prepare and get ready.”

“You can’t come.”

“Of course I can. I’m not letting you do this on your own.”

“Mom doesn’t want you there. She told me she wanted to talk to me on my own.”

“She actually said she doesn’t want me there? Because that intimates that she knows I’m here and means they know about Cami. Or it’s possible that she wants to talk to you about me. I wonder—”

“She knows you’re here. I had to tell her. She must’ve heard that I was with Noah and Riley at the pet rescue event yesterday, and when I admitted I’ve been staying here, she got weirdly upset. She made me feel like I was seventeen, and she’d caught me sleeping over at my boyfriend’s, and his parents weren’t home.”

“Or at your boss’s vacation home. The same boss who is closing your beloved Channel 5.”

“That’s it! With everything going on, I totally forgot to tell her Noah’s not closing the station.”

Noah scratched his head. “Uh, Willow, that’s not what I said.”

“I know, I know, and I’ll explain it all to my mom when I see her. But you have no idea how relieved I am. I’ve been worrying myself sick over nothing.”

“Not exactly nothing,” Sage said, getting up from the step. “We still have to break the news about the teenager from hell.” Her sister nodded at Lucky. “I bet Demon Spawn would love to go for a walk with you and Mom.”

“Don’t listen to her. You’re the best doggy,” Willow said, cuddling and kissing Lucky as her sister walked into the house, closing the door behind her.

“Is this how it’s going to be from now on? You’re going to give your kisses to the dog instead of me?”

“You didn’t act like you wanted me to kiss you last night. You acted like you wanted to strangle me.”

“I admit I was tempted to when I thought you’d orchestrated the whole thing with Lucky.” He raised his hand when she opened her mouth to defend herself. “I knew within a couple minutes that you had nothing to do with it. I was angry at myself and spent the rest of the night kicking my ass for not being there for Riley when she needed me.”

“But in your own way, you were, Noah. For three years, you worked your job and your mother’s so she had more time to spend with Riley.”

“She still put in fifty hours a week, Willow. I should’ve forced the issue. I should’ve given her an ultimatum. If I had, Riley wouldn’t have lost her mother and been forced to live with Billy.”

Willow put Lucky down and moved to sit on Noah’s lap. His arms went around her, and she cupped the side of his face with her hand, stroking his beard-stubbled cheek with her thumb. “Riley wasn’t the only one who lost their mother. Have you even taken time to grieve?”

“I’m not fifteen. I didn’t have to move away from the only home I’ve ever known.” He held her gaze. “She truly believes Billy wants her because of her trust fund. When she said that…” He shook his head.

“Do you think that’s the only reason he wants her?”

“I did threaten to get the trustees to freeze her trust fund and to do an investigation of all expenditures if he didn’t let her stay the summer with me… but no, I don’t believe it. I’d like to think I would’ve fought him for custody if I did. Billy might’ve been a lousy husband and stepfather, but he adored Riley. For the first four years of her life, he raised her. He was a stay-at-home dad, which I admit, in my mind, at the time, validated my opinion that the only reason he was with my mother was for a free ride.”

Willow winced, and he nodded. “Yeah, I know. I could, and can, be an ass.”

“Maybe an overprotective son and big brother.”

“If I was an overprotective brother, I would’ve called Riley at least once a week and checked up on her.” He speared his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know why I didn’t. I meant to, and then between selling off my mother’s personal estate and dissolving the corporation, there never seemed to be enough time in the day.”

“You need to cut yourself some slack. It’s in the past. You have a second chance. You and Riley can make up for the time you lost. And maybe you need to give Billy one too. At least don’t threaten him before you have a conversation about Riley.”

“What did I do to get so lucky to have you—” He sighed when Lucky jumped onto Willow’s lap. “I wasn’t calling you—” Lucky cut him off by excitedly licking his face.

Willow laughed, picked up Lucky, stood, and then returned the puppy to Noah’s lap. “I’d better get going.” She kissed the top of Lucky’s head. “You should bring him to bed with you instead of putting him in the crate. He’s probably as tired as you are, and you’ll all get some sleep.”

“I’d rather bring you to bed with me, but I’ll settle for a kiss.”

She leaned in, placing a hand on his chest while fighting the urge to tell him her choice would be option one. She kissed him on the top of his head instead.

“That wasn’t exactly the kiss I was hoping for.”

“After what you just said, I don’t trust myself with Half-Naked Noah. We have two teenagers and my sister in the house, and I have a meeting with my mom in”—she looked at her phone—“an hour, and I have to convince her you are a great guy or I’m afraid she’ll lock me away in her apartment.”

“No lock could keep me out,” he said, then he grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips, kissing her palm. “Thanks for what you said about Riley. It helped.”

“She loves you, Noah. Never doubt that she does.” Willow walked to the house, afraid that she might be falling a little in love with Noah herself.