Page 55 of Your Every Wish

“You’re like a bad penny!” Bent shouts over the blaring of “Monster Mash.” “No, I don’t want to dance.”

That’s not why I tapped him on the shoulder.

“If we’re going to be partners, I thought it would be good to set some ground rules before I head off for Vegas.”

“I can’t hear you.”

I tug his arm and lead him across the makeshift dance floor and around couples dancing until we’re standing outside. “Lame costume, by the way.” He’s got on his usual cowboy getup—a hat and a pair of black, pointy-toed boots.

“What the hell are you supposed to be?” His eyes linger on my dress, which is a lot tighter and shorter than it looked on Amazon.

“A ghost.” I wave my hands over my white face because isn’t it obvious? “I said, ‘If we’re going to be partners, I thought it would be good to set some ground rules before I head off for Vegas.’ ”

“You want to do this at a party? When are you leaving?” he says as if he can’t wait for me to go, which is BS. Emma says he’s half in love with me. I doubt that but the chemistry is there, there is no denying it.

“In a couple of days,” I tell him. “Do you have a schedule for the renovations?”

“Not on me.” He seems to reconsider. “Come with me.”

“Where? I shouldn’t leave the party.” The truth is I won’t get very far in these shoes. They’re four-inch stilettos, another ill-advised Amazon purchase.

“We’re just going to my truck.” He points to the lot a few feet away.

I follow him and manage to hoist myself into his cab without a wardrobe malfunction. I feel like a teen, sneaking away from the prom to make out with my boyfriend.

He reaches into his back seat where he stows a laptop, turns it on, illuminating the dark cab, and calls up a file of a 3-D schematic of the park.

It makes me wonder if he started working on this even before we made our deal or whether he stayed up all last night sketching it out. The plan is pretty intricate.

“Wow!” The pool has been upgraded with new tile and stamped concrete decking.

He’s added a dock and gazebo at the pond along with a collection of picnic tables.

In the drawings, all the bocce ball and tennis courts have been revamped and the clubhouse has a new shed roof that gives it a contemporary look while still maintaining the whole mountain vibe.

“Are those cobblestone streets?” I lean over him to zoom in on the elevations, brushing his shoulder with mine as I move closer to his computer monitor to get a better look.

For a minute we both freeze, my breathing temporarily suspended. Then he ruins the moment by talking. “Yeah, it might be too much.”

“Nah, I don’t think so. It’s charming. Gives the place a little je ne sais quoi . You know, something extra.” Oh God, I’m rambling.

“We’ll see. I’d like to start in the next week or so. It would be nice to have the pool and pond ready by summer. In the meantime, maybe we can start filling some of the vacant spaces.”

“Why are you single?” I blurt out.

“What makes you think I am?”

I can feel my face turning red through all the white paint. “Uh, I just assumed . . . never mind. Just forget I said anything. The plans look great. We should get back to the party before we’re missed.”

I swing open the passenger door and am just about to hop out when he says, “How come you’re single?”

“Because I like it that way.”

“Yeah, me too.”

And then he does the damnedest thing and kisses me.

* * *

“Can I talk to you for a second?” Emma pulls me away mid-conversation with Trapper Bing, who has come to the potluck as a bird watcher. Big shocker.

She drags me past the punch table into the bathroom with the leaky toilets where we can at least hear each other over the loud music.

“What’s going on?” She looks ashen and I fear she may have eaten some of that guacamole, which tasted a little off to me, like the avocados were too ripe. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t want to live with him.” Emma’s eyes well up.

“Him” is Dex. She doesn’t have to say his name for me to know that, because of course she doesn’t want to live with him. He’s a million times wrong for her. The fact that she’s only coming around to this news now is the astounding part.

“Even though I can’t afford to move back to San Francisco unless I move in with him, I’m good with that. I want to stay here. ”

“Okay.” I’m silently applauding. “Have you told him yet?”

“No. Whether you believe it or not, he loves me. I don’t think he did before I moved away, before Misty. But now I do, and I don’t want to hurt him.”

“I believe it. Of course I believe it. Never mind Misty. Who wouldn’t love you, Emma? You’re the most loveable person I’ve ever met. I’ve never liked the way Dex treats you but that doesn’t mean I don’t think he loves you. The thing is, do you love him?”

“I thought I did.” She tips her head back to keep the tears from rolling down her face. “But I don’t think so anymore. And now I’m stuck. Because of Misty’s stupid hex or whatever it is I’m stuck.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Misty didn’t make Dex love you.” Someone tries to come in, but I quickly bar the door and lock it.

“She found the money,” Emma says. “If it wasn’t for her, we never would’ve . . . well, I guess Liam eventually would’ve come clean. But the point is she made both our wishes come true and now we’re stuck with them.”

I grab some toilet paper from one of the stalls and hand it to her. “Wipe your nose. I definitely believe Misty has some sort of extrasensory perception. But this whole wish thing . . . it was a joke, Emma. It’s not real. Just tell Dex you don’t want to move in with him, that you need space.”

“It’ll crush him. I need him to not love me anymore. But even Misty said it’s for life.”

“Come on!” I throw my arms up in the air. “Even if Misty did her woo-woo thing, I can come up with a million ways you can crush the love right out of him. Believe me, it’s not that hard.”

“No, I need Misty to undo it, to make things go back to the way they used to be between us.”

“You mean back when you were a puddle of need and would take any bone he was willing to throw you? Look, I’m not trying to be cruel. But isn’t it better this way? Why do you have to be the needy one? Let it be him.”

“I don’t want either of us to be needy. I want it to be equal.

And the truth is I don’t think he’s the one anymore.

Now I feel guilty that I did this to him, that I sicced Misty on him .

. . that according to her, his feelings for me will never go away.

He’ll always love me because of the wish. I need her to make it right.”

It’s all I can do to tell her how ridiculous that sounds. With time, Dex will get over her. But if it’ll make Emma feel better to have Misty erase the “hex,” then we’ll have her do a counterspell . . . or whatever.

“Fine, we’ll go to Misty’s first thing tomorrow and tell her to undo whatever she did.”

“Really?” Emma sniffles. “You promise?”

“Of course. I’ll always have your back, Emma, just like you have mine.”

* * *

“Why can’t you just undo it?” I say to Misty, who’s insisting on making us breakfast.

“It doesn’t work like that.”

I want to say Cut the bullshit and at least go through the motions .

Hocus pocus or whatever she needs to say or do to appease Emma, so my sister can dump Dex without guilt.

I have no idea why she’d feel guilty in the first place.

It’s not as if Dex is a prince. He treated her like crap in the past. But there you have it. Dex is a tool and Emma isn’t.

“How does it work, then?” Emma asks.

“A wish is a wish,” Misty says as she cracks eggs into a pan. “What’s done is done.”

It’s literally doublespeak.

I filch a mini muffin and pop it in my mouth. “What do you suggest we do, then?”

She stops scrambling the eggs and turns to the both of us. “You still have a third wish. Use it to undo the other two.”

“Just like that? That’s all we have to do?” I can play along for Emma’s sake.

“Wait a minute,” Emma says. “Why both wishes? Can’t I just use the third wish to undo the Dex wish? Does it mean Kennedy has to give up the money if there is any left over after the feds take whatever Willy owed?”

“Yep.” Misty adds a sprinkle of cheese to the eggs. “That’s exactly what it means. Altering your future has consequences. So either you’re altering your future or you’re not. There’s no halfway with this.”

“That doesn’t seem fair,” Emma says.

“Life isn’t fair, dear.”

“Just do it,” I say.

“No,” Emma says and turns to me. “Not when you have a stake in this, too.”

“It’s up to you two.” Misty hands me a tablecloth and Emma a stack of plates. “Would you girls mind setting the table?”

We move into the dining room where the two of us are alone.

In a soft voice I tell Emma, “It’s fine.

Let’s use our third wish to undo the first two.

I don’t want the money anyway.” Not completely the truth but if it’ll make Emma feel better about the whole Dex thing, I’m for it.

“We’re fine now. Maybe with Bent as a partner we’ll start turning a profit on this place.

Besides, I can go back to work now, and you don’t want to live in San Francisco anyway. ”

“But what about what Willy would’ve wanted for us? Our late father went to a lot of trouble to leave us that money.”

“Em, what he left us is bigger than money. I don’t want it anymore.

And you don’t want Dex. Let’s just tell her to undo the first two wishes and see what happens.

” I’m having a hard time believing that we’re even debating this.

As if Misty can just poof it all away. But I’d give up the sun and the moon to make Emma happy.

And I know she would do the same for me.

“Look, all the money in the world can’t compensate me for you being with Dex. ”

“Whoa, that’s harsh.”

“It came out worse than I meant it.”

“No, that’s how you meant it.” Emma laughs.

“So, we’re in agreement then, right?”

Emma nods and we rush into the kitchen and tell Misty to use our third wish to undo the first two.

“Okay, the first two wishes have been undone. You’re all good.” Misty hands Emma the mini muffins. “Put these on the table, please.”

“That’s it?” Emma says. “We don’t have to do any kind of ceremony or anything?”

“Nope. It’s all up here.” Misty taps her temple with her finger.

“I’ve taken care of everything. And just in case you were wondering, this doesn’t change our original deal.

You still can’t sell Cedar Pines. As far as I’m concerned you used all three wishes, even if you used the last one to undo the first two. ”

“Got it,” I say and force myself not to snort at the absurdity of this exercise.

But two days later, poof, the money is gone.

Mr. Townsend calls to tell us that the feds are seizing every last dime of the buried cash.

It turns out that Willy’s debt to the IRS was more considerable than anyone knew.

Even Cedar Pines was in jeopardy but with some fancy legal footwork Mr. Townsend was able to save the park, claiming that Willy’s LLC was a separate entity and as long as the corporation was up to date on its property taxes, there was nothing the feds could do.

“Thank you for saving the park,” Emma says, her voice cracking.

I’m filled with the same raw emotion. I don’t even care about the millions in the golf bag, the money that I technically gave up anyway.

But the trailer park . . . well, it means more to me than I ever thought it could.

Not just because of the residents, not just because it’s Emma’s home now, but because it is all we have left of our late father.

It’s what Emma and I have together. It’s us. And us is more than enough. It’s our every wish come true.