A Secret Wish Read online

  "Just a wave," he said, running a hand through his damp hair. But there was an odd look in his eyes.

  The air around them was suddenly misty. Where had the fog come from? Just minutes ago it had been sunny. She shivered, as the bottle seemed to glow between them. She waited for some figure to appear, but nothing happened.

  "There's no genie," Braden said, an unexpected note of disappointment in his voice.

  She took the bottle out of his hands. The glass was warmer than it had been. "Let's wish anyway," she said, feeling as if it were suddenly very important.

  "Alexa –"

  "Please, Braden. You have to put your hand on the bottle, too."

  "I still think this is stupid."

  "I understand. But do it anyway."

  After a brief hesitation, he put his hand on the bottle, his fingers covering hers.

  She didn't know if the magic was in the bottle or in his touch, but she felt hot all over.

  Closing her eyes, she thought for a moment, and then silently whispered…

  "I wish Braden would fall in love with me."

  The wish scared her a little. She didn't really understand love. She just knew she wanted to feel it. And she wanted Braden to feel it, too.

  Opening her eyes, she caught Braden gazing back at her. She hoped he couldn't see the wish in her eyes. She'd feel so dumb. "What did you wish for?" she asked.

  "I can't tell you."

  "We tell each other everything," she protested.

  "Not wishes," he said.

  "Did you really make one?" she asked suspiciously.

  He grinned. "That's for me to know and you to find out."

  "Sometimes, I hate you," she said, hoping he'd never guess what her wish was.

  With the fog hitting the beach, the sky had grown very dark. It was getting late, and she had no more time in which to stall.

  "I have to tell you something," she said.

  "What's that?"

  "We're leaving tomorrow."

  His jaw dropped and a frown turned down his lips. "Summer isn't over for two more weeks."

  "I know, but my mom says we have to go."

  "Why?"

  "My parents aren't getting along."

  "What else is new?" he asked. "They never get along."

  "Well, it's worse now. They got into a huge fight last night. My dad slammed out of the house, and he didn't come home until this morning. He barely said anything to anyone, just packed up his stuff and left. My mom says we have to go back to Seattle so she can talk to him."

  "Why doesn't she go by herself?"

  "She said it's almost the end of summer anyway. I told her I wanted to stay, Braden, but she wouldn't listen. She was crying all night. I could hear her from my room after I went to bed. She's so angry and so sad."

  "That sucks."

  She let out a sigh. "Yeah, it does."

  He stared at her for a long minute, his expression unreadable. "When are you coming back?"

  "We usually come at Thanksgiving." Her stomach twisted into a knot as she realized how far away that was. She'd never worried before about Braden not being there when she came back for visits, but they were growing up, and it wouldn't be long before he got a girlfriend. He'd pick someone in town, someone who wasn't always leaving. And then where would she be?

  "Thanksgiving, huh? That's not for months," he said heavily.

  "I know. But we'll call and write, right?"

  "Sure."

  He didn't sound very convincing and lately she hadn't been able to read him as well as she used to.

  "I guess we should go," she said. She wished she could make this day last forever, because she had a terrible fear that she might never see Braden again, that after today everything would change – unless her wish came true. She really needed a little magic right now. Everything else in her life was turning so dark.

  As they walked across the sand, she told herself to stop getting so worked up. She would see Braden again. They were coming back in November. It was only a couple of months. But her mental pep talk did little to ease the tension in her body and the worry in her mind.

  The lights were coming on in the houses above them, some casting long shadows on the sand, giving an eerie, almost surreal quality to the dusky evening. The big castle-like house that was one of her favorites was just in front of them, and she couldn't help looking up at the widow's walk, wondering if she would see the beautiful woman with the long red hair who often stood on the deck in a swirling white gown that made her seem almost like a ghost. She'd nicknamed her Ariel, because she reminded her of a mermaid.

  Her heart skipped a beat as she saw the woman, but Ariel was definitely more alive than ghostly right now. She was shouting at someone – someone in the shadows.

  Braden paused, too, his gaze moving upward.

  "You lied to me," the woman shouted, her voice frenzied and filled with the pain of some betrayal.

  Alexa couldn't hear what the other person said, but it did nothing to calm Ariel. She picked up something and threw it into the shadows. At the sound of a crash, Alexa moved a little closer to Braden, unsettled by the fight. While her parents hadn't resorted to throwing things at each other, they fought with the same kind of intense anger. She didn't understand how people could go from loving each other to hating each other.

  "Don't tell me to be quiet," the woman yelled. "I'm tired of secrets. I can't keep it all in. I'm going to snap." She paused. "Don't touch me. I'll come in when I want to come in."

  "We should go," Alexa said, her stomach feeling a little sick.

  "Looks like she went inside anyway," Braden observed. "I wonder who she was arguing with and what all the secrets are about."

  Normally, Alexa loved secrets, but not today. "I don't care. I just wish everyone would stop fighting. I hate when people yell at each other. It makes me feel sick to my stomach. How does love turn into hate?"

  "It's going to be okay, Alexa."

  "I wish I could believe that," she said as they started walking again.

  "If you can believe in magic, you can believe in that," he said.

  She sighed. "Maybe you're right. Maybe there is no magic."

  He shook his head. "No, I don't want you to think that. I need you to believe."

  "Why?" she asked, giving him a curious look.

  His lips tightened and then he said, "Because then I can try to believe."

  She gazed into his eyes and saw a need she could fulfill. "Then I will."

  He nodded and they walked the rest of the way in silence.

  When they reached their bikes, Braden handed over her backpack, and she put the genie's bottle inside.

  "Do you want me to carry the backpack while you ride?" Braden offered.

  "No, I can hang on to it," she said, slipping the straps over her shoulder. She didn't want to let go of the bottle, because when she got home, she was going to make another wish, a wish that her parents would stop fighting. It had occurred to her that she might have wasted her wish on her own chance at love, when what she should have been concentrating on was getting her parents back on the same page.

  "Alexa," Braden said as she got on her bike.

  "Yes?" she asked.

  He moved his bike next to hers, then leaned over and kissed her on the mouth. His lips were firm and warm, a little salty, but actually quite perfect.

  Before she could really register the fact that she'd just gotten her first kiss, he pulled away.

  His voice was a little gruff when he said, "Come back, Alexa, okay?"

  "I will," she promised, her heart racing.

  Then she got on her bike and followed him down the road, wondering how long it would be before she saw him again.

  Chapter One

  Present Day …

  When Alexa Parker was twelve years old, two monumental events happened. She fell in love for the very first time, and her parents got divorced. Alexa couldn't think of one event without the other. Now, returning to Sand Harbor as a twenty
-seven-year-old adult, she was reminded of both.

  Every street in the picturesque beach town seemed to hold a memory, the rocky path to the beach that she and Braden had ridden their bikes down every day, the Boardwalk with the cotton candy and hot pretzel carts that were crowded with kids in the summer, the fishing boats coming into the harbor after a long day at sea, Nini's Pancake House, where her dad used to take her on Sunday mornings, and the majestic houses on the bluffs that she'd dreamed about one day living in.

  Like so many of her childhood dreams, living in a big house on her favorite beach was one that had fallen by the wayside. The same was true for her dream of becoming a glassmaker, of turning beautiful pieces of sea glass into something amazing, and also her dream of marrying her best friend. But those had been the dreams of an idealistic girl, who'd thought everything in life would always be perfect, exactly like that perfect summer kiss from Braden the very last time she'd seen him.

  She was a different person now. She could barely remember that naïve girl, but she'd never forgotten her first kiss.

  Unfortunately, her relationship with Braden had not lasted past that summer. Her parents' divorce had changed her life in every possible way. She and her mom had moved back East, far away from the Washington coast. Her dad had ended up in Los Angeles a few years later and had remarried and had other children.

  The first few years she'd tried to keep in touch with Braden, but she'd had her hands full dealing with her mom's extreme depression and the move to a new city and a new school. Sand Harbor had seemed very far away. Their contact had faded to occasional calls and emails and then eventually nothing.

  Braden had had his own problems to deal with, including the death of his father, who'd been killed in action when Braden was fifteen. She'd tried to get in touch with him then, but he'd never called her back. Her mother said she couldn't afford to fly her across the country for the funeral. That was pretty much the end of their tenuous relationship.

  Years passed, and she dated other guys, but she was never quite able to get Braden out of her mind. Thinking she'd give it one more shot, she'd gone to Sand Harbor right after her college graduation. She was too late. She was shocked to learn that Braden had married at twenty, just weeks before enlisting in the Army.

  The dream of her heart was finally shut down. Braden was taken. He was with someone else. She had to move on with her life.

  That had been six years ago.

  Now she was back in Sand Harbor, and she had no idea where Braden was, but it didn't matter. She wasn't here for Braden, she was here for her aunt, Phoebe Gray, who had been injured in a break-in at her antique store. While Alexa had been kept away from everyone connected to her father's side of the family, she had reunited with her father's older sister, Phoebe, on her last visit to Sand Harbor.

  They'd been in frequent contact since then, a fact she'd happily kept from her mother, who was still quite bitter about that side of the family. But Alexa didn't blame her aunt or her uncle or her cousins for her parents' divorce. And she'd enjoyed getting to know them again over the past few years. Most of the contact was over email or through online social sites, but it was a start. When her cousin, Evie, had called her at dawn to tell her about the robbery, she'd immediately said she was on her way. She hadn't always been there for her aunt, but she could be there now.

  She'd caught the first plane out of San Francisco, rented a car, and made the two-hour drive from Seattle to Sand Harbor. She'd stopped at the hospital first, but her aunt was unconscious, and the doctor said it could be hours before she woke up. Several of Phoebe's friends were in the waiting room, so reassured that her aunt would not be alone when she woke up, Alexa had decided to track down Evie and see what was happening with the police investigation.

  Pulling into a spot down the street from her aunt's antique shop, aptly named Yesterday Once More, she drew in a deep breath and then stepped out of the car. The store was one of many boutiques on a downtown side street. Although, there was some foot traffic, there weren't quite as many tourists on this block. The shop sat between a vintage clothing store and a beauty salon. A small walkway separated the antique shop from the salon; a path many used to cut through to the main post office on the next block.

  As Alexa approached the shop, she was again assailed with memories. Her aunt had opened Yesterday Once More thirty years ago, and almost everyone in the family had worked there at some time or another, herself included. She'd loved helping out in the store on her summer vacations. Like her aunt, she was captivated by anything that was old and came with a story. Imagining where the pieces had come from and who had used them had been one of her favorite pastimes.

  Her gut tightened as she reached the shop. The big bay window was intact, but the glass over the front door had been shattered and was now boarded up with wood. Remnants of yellow crime scene tape clung to the frame. She still couldn't believe someone had broken into the shop. There had not been a lot of crime in Sand Harbor when she was growing up, but perhaps things had changed.

  Seeing someone inside the shop, she tried the doorknob, but it was locked, so she knocked. A moment later, a woman's face peered around the corner of a large desk in the front window. Alexa waved, recognizing her cousin's dark brown hair and pretty blue eyes. Evie was the oldest daughter of her father's brother, Stan.

  "Alexa," Evie, said with a relieved smile, as she opened the door. "I'm so glad you came."

  Alexa gave Evie a hug and then glanced around the crowded showroom. Her aunt had always had plenty of inventory, but she'd also been very disciplined about keeping her displays organized. Now, everything was in chaos. Smaller items were strewn across the floor and on some of the tables and desks. There was broken glass as well as shattered tiles and ceramics on the floor. It looked as if the thief had been more interested in destroying the pieces rather than stealing them, but that didn't make sense.

  "Wow," she murmured. "I had no idea it would be this bad."

  Evie nodded, her lips drawing together in a tense line. "It's horrible."

  "Have the police caught the person or people who did this?"

  "Not yet. The Chief of Police, Edwin Hayes, actually found Aunt Phoebe. They're good friends, and he said he'd had a hunch she might be working late, so he'd stopped by. If he hadn't done so, it might have been morning before anyone found her. She'd already lost a lot of blood by the time the paramedics got there.

  Alexa followed her cousin's gaze to the dark red stain on the floor by the front counter. Her stomach turned over as she realized how close her aunt had come to losing her life.

  "They don’t know if Aunt Phoebe was struck from behind or if she hit her head on the counter when she fell, but she has a big gash on the back of her head," Evie added.

  "I saw the bandage around her head. I stopped by the hospital on my way here. She was asleep and surrounded by friends. I thought I might be of more help if I came here."

  Evie nodded. "That makes sense. I'm going to stop by this evening. Aunt Phoebe's friend, Louise, promised to call me if there's any change." Evie paused. "I feel so bad about what happened. It's partly my fault."

  "Why would you say that?" Alexa asked in surprise.

  "I came by here yesterday afternoon. Aunt Phoebe had just gotten in a big delivery from the Wellbourne estate, all those boxes," she added, pointing to a stack of eight to ten boxes, some of which were opened and upturned on the floor, some of which were still sealed. "She told me she was going to come back after dinner and get a head start on unpacking, because the weekends are so busy and she wanted to make room in the store before the tourists descended."

  "You couldn't have predicted a robbery, Evie."

  "No, but I knew she was going to be in the store late at night. I should have tried to dissuade her from coming in alone or persuaded her to wait until today. I also could have offered to help. Beverly Adams, Aunt Phoebe's assistant, is on vacation until next week."

  "Evie, stop it. Aunt Phoebe wouldn't have been persuaded
to wait even if you'd tried to talk her into it. This shop is her baby and she watches over it like a hawk. Besides that, she's stubborn."

  "Stubbornness is a Parker family trait," Evie said with a sigh.

  "Exactly."

  "I'm so glad you were able to come, Alexa. My parents are in Europe right now, and I haven't been able to catch up with them yet, so I want to make sure I'm taking care of everything."

  "I'll help you however I can." Alexa said.

  "I appreciate that. Did you speak to your parents? Is your father coming?"

  "I left a message for my dad, but he hasn't returned my call. That's not unusual. We don't talk often, especially since his wife had another baby."

  "I can't believe your father is having babies at his age," Evie said, raising an eyebrow.

  "His wife is fourteen years younger," she said, deliberately keeping her tone neutral. She didn't want to get into her feelings about her dad's marriage. She should have been used to it all by now. It had been twelve years since he'd married his second wife, and this new baby was number four.

  "And your mom?" Evie asked somewhat tentatively.

  "She's actually the best I've seen her in years. She got remarried last year, and her husband is in the wine business. She often goes on trips with him, and she seems happy."

  "I'm glad for her and for you."

  "Thanks."

  "Aunt Phoebe will be happy to see you when she wakes up."

  Alexa liked the hopeful note in Evie's voice. She didn't want to think about the possibility that her aunt would never wake up. That was too awful to contemplate. "So what can I do?" she asked.

  "If you want to start with clean up, that would be great. I have to pick up my twins from school in a few minutes, so I won't be able to do much more today. If you unpack anything, just make sure to write down each item with a brief description. Aunt Phoebe is a stickler for details."

  "I remember that from when I worked here as a kid."

  "Some things don't change," Evie said with a smile.

  "So the shipment is from an estate?"