Chapter 27 The Wish
The Wish
“How are things going with Daire?”
Noelle sat across from me in my office with Hunter at her breast.
It was rare that she dropped in to see me at work. Was this a fact-finding mission? Did my brother put her up to this?
“Tell me you miss your job so much you’re coming back early,” I demanded.
“Oh, come on,” she snorted. “It’s not even the busy wedding season.”
“I will never recover from this past summer’s bridezillas.”
“Are you avoiding my question?” she retorted softly.
I looked at her directly. “No. I’m not. But you and Hawk are not the best at hiding your feelings.” I shrugged. “I understand why you’re weird with him.”
Her eyes bugged out. “You do?”
“Of course. You’re standing by your man, but what’s Hawk’s problem?”
Noelle shifted Hunter to her other breast and grimaced. “He just doesn’t want you to get hurt.”
“Why would he think that I’m going to get hurt? Max has vouched for him over and over, hasn’t he?” I asked, completely exasperated.
Who would have thought Hawkley would come back and be a pain in my ass older brother? At my age!
“Does he treat you well?”
“He’s incredibly attentive. He understands women, which I’d like to think comes strictly from being raised by a single mother, but I know better,” I responded drily.
“He called Hawk on Hunter’s death-day.”
“I can’t imagine that went well.” Hawkley was a grumpy bear at the best of times. On that day? He was practically feral.
“I can’t begin to describe to you just how badly that phone call went.
Hawkley was bent on protecting your privacy, and Daire was livid.
” She leaned forward, her gaze intent. “Livid. I’ve never heard anyone so angry.
” She laughed shortly. “The things he said…he did not hold back, Harley. It honestly freaked me out a bit. Freaked Hawkley out, too, until I asked him to consider how he would feel if he knew I was in pain, and someone was keeping him from me.”
“He understood then and called him back, but the call went through to Daire’s voicemail.”
“He called Max,” I murmured.
She shrugged. “His temper definitely got Hawk’s hackles up. Is he ever like that with you?”
“Me?” I pointed at my chest in shock. “Never. Though he did admit he sometimes has a temper, he said it would never be directed at me. He found me, you know. And somehow, he made everything easier.”
I met her eyes. “He makes everything easier. I think he is Hunter’s wish.”
Noelle’s eyebrows rose. “Yeah?”
I nodded.
A wishing stone, one circled with a single, unbroken, white line, allowed the finder one wish. It would only come true if it was given away or thrown back into the sea right afterward.
Hunter found it on the beach when I was seventeen. The same year Max brought Daire home on one of their school breaks. The summer I first laid eyes on him.
I could hear Hunter’s deep voice as if it happened yesterday.
I was digging my toes into the sand, admiring my new polish, when he spoke.
“For my wish,” he began, tossing the rock up and down in one hand. “I want a man who is worthy of my sister to sweep her clean off her tiny size fives and carry her away to her own happily ever after.”
I laughed and grabbed onto his biceps. “No, Hunter! Don’t waste your wish on me! It’s yours.”
He smiled down at me. “You’re never a waste.” His smile widened. “Besides, you’ll owe me forever. You’ll have to name all your kids after me. Hunter the Second. Hunter the Third. Huntress.”
“Huntress,” I snorted. “I’m not calling my daughter Huntress.”
He grabbed my arm, swept his foot behind my legs, and dropped me gently onto the sand as I half-laughed, half-screamed in outrage.
Eying the horizon, his face suddenly serious, he sprang backward and hauled back his arm in preparation to wing it out over the waves, then stopped and looked at me.
“When this happens, I want a commemorative plaque.”
I rolled my eyes, secretly overflowing with the joy afforded me by the blessing of being his sister.
Throwing his arm forward, he released the wish.
I lost sight of it in the reflected light off the waves.
Smiling smugly, he made a frame with his large hands. “Hunter. Best Brother Ever.”
Noelle’s voice brought me back. “Shrimpy,” she whispered. “Are you okay?”
Tears welled in her eyes.
I brought my hands to my face to find it bathed in tears.
“He wished for a man who was worthy of me to sweep me off my size fives and carry me away to my happily ever after.” I smiled through my tears. “Daire definitely swept me off my feet and he literally carries me everywhere.”
She laughed. “He actually carries you?”
“Yup.” I wiped my face and guffawed. “He picks me up to hug me to save his neck. Threw me over his shoulder after the fundraiser. Carries me to bed all the time. Says it saves time arguing.”
“You seem happy.”
“I am. You can see for yourself. He’ll be at dinner at Mom and Dad’s tonight.”
“Yeah?”
I shrugged. “I mean, Mom’s already half-adopted him.”
“Your parents seem to really like him.”
“I think they like him more than they like me,” I responded drily.
“Not true, Miss Harley!” My mom sailed into my office. “But I do absolutely love him for you. So does Dad.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” She nodded definitively. “Dad has spent a lot of time with him. They love the same authors and they’re both intensely interested in hiking. They’re planning a yearly excursion.”
“I love that,” I breathed, not realizing just how buoyed my parents’ approval would make me. “He doesn’t have a huge circle. Just his mom, her partner, John, and us. He’s in touch with a few friends from university, but not close to anyone other than Max. And me.”
“He’s a good person. The teachers who come to book club at Spill the Tea love him to death.”
“Oh, I bet they do,” I said drily.
She laughed. “You can’t deny he’s pretty, but honestly, they’re more enthralled with the difference he makes at the school.
He takes absolutely zero shit from Natalia, apparently she’s a huge pain in the ass.
He’s amazing with the special ed kids in his class.
And he’s just endlessly kind. That’s what Michelle’s mom said.
That’s quite a compliment. So, yes, Harley. We like him.”
“Natalia?” I cocked an eyebrow.
“Her son was in his class. She approached him twice after class and he went to the principal and had a meeting stipulating that further meetings would be supervised.”
“Friggity-frack,” Noelle breathed. “She must have come onto him like a steam train.”
I smirked. “Well, she’s never been known for subtlety.”
Mom slanted me a sly glance. “The fact that he apparently speaks so highly of you has them all swooning.”
Who does he talk about me with?
The ladies at book club talk about me?
My face flushed.
Do they think we’re a weird match?
“Who was talking?”
“Tsk, tsk,” Mom reprimanded me. “I cannot divulge the members of the Smut Hut. But they were all very positive and positively glowing when they spoke of you and him together.” She looks at me and her face softens as if she knows what I’m thinking.
Maybe she does.
I clear my expression.
“Most of these women have known you since you were a kid. They love you and want the best for you. Audrey’s mom loves him for you.
There are two women involved with Safe at Home who absolutely adore you.
And…well…let’s just say there is more than one woman in the group whose life has been made infinitely better because of you. ”
Tears sprang to my eyes.
A-fucking-gain.
“You’re so very loved and respected, baby girl. You have to know that.”
I didn’t.
I didn’t know it at all.
I nodded tightly then waved my hands. “Everybody out. I’ve got work to do and Noelle’s weird baby-mush hormones are rubbing off on me.”
Mom laughed and stood up but refused to leave without a hug.
I tried to make it brief, but she wouldn’t have it. Squeezing me tight, she whispered in my ear, “I’m so damn proud of you.”
Those words rang in my ears all afternoon.
I pretended to get back to work. Despite the tasks lined up for my afternoon, I could do little else other than to contemplate my mother’s words.
All of them.
There were things I already knew.
He liked to read, swam several times a week just as I did, loved kids, adored his mother, and loved the outdoors.
I didn’t know about his kindness.
I mean, I knew. I just hadn’t realized it was universal.
It occurred to me how much he loved people. And loved to be around them.
Other than me, he really only had Max here.
Noelle was friendly, but Hawkley was cool and standoffish. I understood my brother. He found it difficult to let people in.
Even Noelle had gotten quieter around him, but she also had a new baby at home. Perhaps she was just distracted.
But I still felt sorry for Daire who tried so hard with them only to be held at a distance.
A niggling doubt refused to release me. Two plus two equals four but I kept coming up with a different answer every time I looked at the situation between him and Hawkley.
And I was not the type to bury my head in the sand.
There was something he was not telling me.