Page 25 of Wish Upon A Star

“You don’t know him.” He’s staring at me past his daughter. “He shows up unannounced at eight thirty in the morning, and I see you two sucking face in the backyard. Excuse me if I’m a little confused.”

Sherri is gazing with curiosity and concern at her daughter; and I realize: she knows. “Charles, just listen, honey. Okay?”

“Listen to what?”

Sherri’s eyes are soft, hopeful, confused, concerned…a thousand things. These are parents who dearly, desperately, totally love their daughter.

“Mom, Dad, I…” Jo turns to look at me for help.

“Maybe first they should see the video,” I suggest. “Might give them some context.”

Her shoulders slump. “It’s so embarrassing.”

“It’s not, Jo,” I say. “It’s really not.”

Jo sighs. “Fine. Hold on—my phone is in my room.”

She vanishes up the stairs and returns with a cell phone. Spends a moment bringing up the video in question, and then hands it to her parents. Her mom takes the phone and holds it, while her dad blindly fumbles for a pair of reading glasses on the kitchen table.

They watch the video silently. Her mom’s eyes mist over and she covers her mouth with one hand, as if to hold in her emotions. Her dad’s jaw clenches and he blinks furiously a few times, swallows hard.

“I didn’t think he would see it,” Jo says, once it’s done playing. “I genuinely never expected him to see it. But somehow it…” she sighs. “It went viral.”

Her dad frowns. “How many views does it have?”

I surreptitiously check the post on my own app.

“Ten…million?” Jo answers, making it sound like a question.

Her dad rips off the readers, eyes wide. “Tenmillion? You’re kidding.”

“Actually, as of just now, it’s hit thirteen-point-five million,” I add.

“Dear lord,” Charlie mumbles. Then, he rallies, straightening. “I can’t believe you put that on the internet, Jo-Jo.”

“Dad.” She huffs, and then again. “Again, I thought the only people that would see it would be my friends. And then…he showed up here.”

“How does that lead to you two making out in my backyard? And why were you holding hands? And why do you have a weed tied to your finger?” Charlie sits down, abruptly, and slugs coffee like it’s whiskey, complete with a wince and a grunted sigh after the swallow.

“I, um.” She clearly has no clue how to proceed.

Neither do I. But she’s floundering and I have to step in.

“I said yes.” I move to stand beside Jo, take her hand in mine. “The only people that know I’m here are my agent and my assistant. I do my best to stay out of the media, and I legitimately have nothing to gain professionally from this.”

Sherri laughs. “We do, though.” She looks right at me. “Not that I’m saying we’d, you know, sell a story. I’m just saying, I don’t think the issue we have is thatyoumight be doing this for publicity.”

Charlie holds up both hands. “Hold on, hold on. When you say you said yes…” He clutches his coffee mug and stares at me. “You mean—”

“He means he said yes. And I said yes.” Jo looks at me, wonder and disbelief and hope all tangled in her eyes. “It means…”

“We’re getting married,” I finish, and the sound of that coming out of my mouth fills my head with a furious tumult of wild emotions, each more chaotic than the last. Her hand in mine, however, grounds me.

Charlie stands up. “No.”

Sherri moves to make a triangle between Jo and Charlie. “Hold on, honey. Just…breathe a second.”

“Are you talking to me or Dad?” Jo asks.