Wishful Thinking Read online

  “It’s Nana,” Rory said. “And this time I think it’s serious. Please, Phil, come now.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “We have to go.” Phil clicked her phone closed and looked at Josh.

  “What’s wrong? Did something happen?” He was already putting the car in gear but he threw her a worried glance as he backed out.

  “It’s my grandmother—my nana. She’s…gotten into some trouble.” Phil really couldn’t explain it any better than that and besides, she didn’t know the details. Rory had been so upset—gabbling something about Nana and her potion and Phil could only imagine what a mess their grandmother had gotten herself into this time.

  “Trouble?” Josh frowned. “Is she in the hospital?”

  “That’s not the kind of trouble my nana usually gets herself into,” Phil said grimly. “Look, Josh, I’m sorry but could you just take me back to my car? I’ve got to get straight over to Nana’s house and pick up my little sister. Then we have to head over to my other sister’s studio and pry her away from her art long enough to rescue my nana from whatever scrape she’s gotten herself into now.”

  “Okay, but let’s not waste time going to get your car.” Josh braked at the park’s exit sign. “Which way to your nana’s house?”

  “Oh, Josh, I couldn’t possibly ask you to—”

  “Forget about that. You need to think of your grandmother. Now which way to her house?”

  Phil pointed helplessly, knowing she shouldn’t get her best friend involved in her crazy family’s problems. But she didn’t want to waste precious time in getting to Nana. This kind of thing would never be an issue with Christian, of course. Since he and Cass hated each other like poison, he never wanted to have anything to do with her family. Phil had split her last four Christmases between their apartment and her nana’s house since he and Cass fought like cats and dogs the minute he walked in the door of the big lavender mansion.

  She wondered what Josh would think of her outspoken sisters and her eccentric nana. And what they would think of him.

  By the time they got to the large lavender Victorian house at the top of States Street, Phil was trying to think how she could explain if things got crazy. But the sight of Rory’s white, worried face drove every other thought in her mind away. She fumbled with the unfamiliar controls on Josh’s car and finally got the window to roll down.

  “Get in,” she told her sister. “Hurry up.”

  “Nana’s got herself in trouble over at Peaceful Beach this time. Who’s this?” Rory asked, climbing into the back seat of the Hybrid and giving Josh the once over.

  “This is—”

  “Wait a minute, I recognize him now!” Rory leaned up between the front seats and offered Josh a wide grin. “This is the hot guy from all your office pictures. The one you’re always talking about.”

  “This is my best friend, Josh,” Phil said, feeling her cheeks burn. “And Josh, this is my youngest sister, Rory. She’s got a big mouth.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Josh grinned and reached around to stick out his hand. Rory pumped it enthusiastically.

  “You’re even hotter in person,” she said, smiling at him. “And Phil is right—you have really nice hands for a guy.”

  “Well…thank you.” Josh grinned and raised an eyebrow at her. “So does she, uh, really talk about me that much?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Rory started. “Everything is always, ‘Josh said this’ and “Josh did that’ and—”

  “Rory do you think you could stop embarrassing me long enough for me to give Josh directions to Cass’s studio?” Phil interrupted her. To Josh she said, “Take a left and keep going until you reach Bender Boulevard. Go all the way down and it’s the fourth building on the left. The one with the rooster in the window.”

  Rory gave her a surprised look. “Wow. Cass said you were different after your birthday wish but I can’t believe how different. You never would have told me to shut up before.”

  “What birthday wish?” Josh frowned and Phil and Rory exchanged stunned glances. Phil had already been surprised that the FG’s magic let her explain as much as she had about her botched birthday wish to her best friend. But she had never expected him to be able to hear her discuss it with one of her sisters. Josh shouldn’t even have been able to hear their words, let alone understand them.

  “You heard that?” Rory asked, leaning forward to see Josh’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “I mean, it didn’t sound like a bee or a fly buzzing or make you want to talk about something else entirely?”

  Josh gave her a puzzled glance. “Uh, why would it sound like a fly buzzing?”

  “Maybe because Rory wants to be a veterinarian,” Phil interjected hurriedly. “So, uh—she does excellent animal impersonations. Show him, Rory—do a bird.” Obediently her little sister opened her mouth and let out a warble.

  Josh frowned. “No offense, Phil, but what the hell does that have to do with a birthday wish?”

  Phil and Rory exchanged worried glances again. “Uh, it’s a…uh… tradition in our family that you have to make a wish on your birthday,” she explained haltingly. “Rory is just teasing me about mine.”

  “Oh.” He laughed. “You must have wished to be more assertive, huh? With your whole speaking your mind thing?”

  Phil and Rory exchanged looks for the third time and Phil shrugged slightly. She had told Josh about her problem in the most roundabout way possible but the magic should have kept him from connecting that with her birthday wish.

  Rory cupped a hand over her lips and mouthed, “Does he have fairy blood?”

  Phil shook her head. She knew she would have felt the familiar prickle in her fingertips when she touched her best friend if that was the case. There was no doubt that he made her tingle, (lately anyway) but in a completely non-magical way. Had she ruined everything today, despite Josh’s assurances?

  Before she could explore the idea any further, Josh was pulling up in front of a restaurant that had a statue of a golden rooster as big as a Dalmatian in the window. Across the plate glass window in cursive script were the words, El Gallo de Oro.

  “Here we are.” Josh eyed the large golden rooster doubtfully. “Boy, you weren’t kidding about the rooster.”

  “Of course not.” Phil was already unbuckling her seatbelt.

  “It’s a Cuban restaurant,” Rory told him, sliding out of the back seat. “Best ropa vieja in town. You should try it. Cass’s studio is in the back.”

  “We won’t be a minute,” Phil told him. She and Rory hurried into the tiny restaurant which was filled with old men speaking Spanish and playing chess over thick china cups of café con leche. At every table was a different rooster statue although none were as eye-catching as the Dalmatian-sized rooster in the front window. Today she barely smelled the spicy aroma of the deep fried empanadas, she was in such a hurry to get to the back where her sister’s studio was located.

  The plain wooden door at the far end of the back hallway led to what had used to be a large storage room. Cass, who was addicted to the restaurant’s strong, sweet café con leche had gotten the bright idea to rent it as a studio and the owners, an elderly Cuban couple, had been agreeable. Why she couldn’t just take one of the empty rooms in the large lavender mansion on State Street was beyond Phil. But for some reason her sister preferred to rent a studio space when she could have had it for free. Go figure.

  There was a hand-lettered sign tacked to the door which read Art in progress—Do Not Disturb! in Cass’s elaborate script. From behind the panel of wood, a female voice that sounded like her sister was talking.

  “Shh!” Rory put a finger to her lips even though Phil hadn’t said anything. “Listen—you can hear what she’s saying.”

  Phil put her ear to the door and heard her sister say, “Oh, God—that’s perfect! Just the right spot. Now if we can just get into a different position…like this…”

  Rory’s emerald green eyes widened as she looked up at Phil. “What do you think is go
ing on in there, anyway?” she whispered, nodding at the door.

  “I have no idea and we don’t have time to find out,” Phil said. She knew the old Phil would have knocked timidly and hoped that her sister wouldn’t yell at her too much for disturbing her concentration. But she wasn’t that woman any more and their nana was in trouble. She turned the knob and pushed her way into the small studio.

  She was greeted with the disturbing sight of her sister kneeling before a gorgeous man with thick sable brown hair and a lush, pouty mouth that looked just made for kissing. He was reclining on a ratty old sofa that had obviously been salvaged from the dump. The sofa was draped in a dark red velvet throw that looked wonderful against his tan skin. And there was a lot of skin to see because he was completely naked.

  “Oh my God!” Phil muttered. She grabbed for Rory and slapped a hand over her baby sister’s eyes. “Don’t look,” she commanded.

  “Too late.” Rory’s voice sounded smug. “I saw it—all of it.” As usual her voice carried and both Cass and the naked man looked up.

  “What the hell? You promised no one else would see me!” The man jumped up, wrapping the red velvet throw around his waist in outraged modesty.

  “Wait. Wait!” Cass implored as he began to gather his clothes—a crumpled pair of jeans and a T-shirt—in one hand while the other still clutched at the throw. “I can explain,” she told the man. “These are my sisters.”

  “A private sitting—that’s what you said.” He sounded mortally offended. “That’s the only reason I let you sketch me nude.”

  “But it is a private session. I mean, I didn’t plan this. Wait!” Cass begged, but it was too late. The gorgeous muscular mostly naked man threw one offended look over his shoulder and headed for the door. On the way out, he ran headlong into Josh, who was just coming in.

  “Whoa—Hey, man. Sorry.” Josh stepped aside as the man, still wearing only the red velvet drape, exited the studio. From the general commotion that followed his exit, Phil could only assume that the old men had finally looked up from their chess games and café con leche.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Cass stormed, throwing down the large sketch pad she’d been holding and putting her hands on her hips. “Do you have any idea how long it took me to get him to pose nude? For months I’ve been coaxing him a little at a time. First his shirt…then his jeans…I just got him to take off his underwear fifteen minutes ago and you have to come in and ruin it!”

  “So this is why you don’t want to set up a studio in Nana’s house.” Rory grinned at her. “Nana would have kittens if she knew you were playing artistic strip poker with naked men.”

  “It’s a study of form and texture,” Cass muttered sulkily. “But he has such nice form and texture. And now he’ll never strip for me again.”

  “Well, maybe if you get a few singles and buy him a set of pasties…” Josh trailed off when Cass didn’t laugh. “Hey, I’m sorry. I’m supposed to be waiting in the car.”

  “Who is this joker, anyway?” Cass turned to Phil, still frowning. “And why did you come bursting in here and interrupt my session?”

  Phil opened her mouth but Rory beat her to it.

  “This is Josh. You know—the Josh?” she gushed to her sister. “Isn’t he hot?”

  Cass looked at him critically. “I’d have to see him naked to be sure.”

  “Hey, hey, hey.” Phil stepped in front of her friend protectively. “He’s my best friend.”

  “Meaning nobody gets to see him naked but you?” Rory wiggled her eyebrows comically.

  “That’s not what I meant and you know it.” Phil felt her cheeks start to burn. “Rory, you know I’m engaged.”

  “To a complete ass,” Cass said frankly. She stepped forward, extending a hand to Josh. “Nice to finally meet you. Any male friend of Phil’s who’s not her asshole fiancé is a friend of mine.”

  “Uh…okay. Nice to meet you too.” Josh pumped her hand firmly and smiled.

  “All right, enough with the introductions,” Phil snapped. “I’m sorry we interrupted your Playgirl posing session but Nana’s in trouble again so we need you, Cass.”

  “Again?” Cass frowned and headed for the door. “Why didn’t you just say so? Where did she go this time?”

  “Peaceful Beach,” Rory said as they all piled out of the studio and Cass locked it behind them.

  “Peaceful Beach? What’s she doing at a retirement community?” Cass demanded.

  Rory shrugged. “I don’t know, Cass. Maybe she went there because you told her to find a man her own age this time.”

  Phil rounded on her younger sister. “You told her to go looking for a man? Have you lost your mind, encouraging her like that?”

  “Well, it’s better than her hitting on boy scouts!” Cass snapped.

  “But not as good as keeping her from hitting on anyone at all,” Phil pointed out acidly.

  Cass frowned. “You know, Phil, I really hope you can get the fairy godmother to reverse this last wish. I thought it was a good idea at first but I think I liked you better when you were ‘meek as a sheep’ as Rory puts it.”

  “Fairy godmother?” Josh frowned and looked at the three of them. “What are you guys talking about?”

  Cass’s violet eyes widened and she looked at Phil for an explanation. Phil could only shrug uncertainly. Once again, her best friend had heard something that should have been completely unintelligible to non-fairy ears. What was going on?

  Josh was still frowning at her as they left the little Cuban restaurant and Phil struggled to manufacture an explanation. “Cass is just kidding. She likes to joke a lot,” she said lamely. “Come on, we have to get to Peaceful Beach.” But as they piled into Josh’s blue Hybrid, she couldn’t help wondering if there was more to her best friend than met the eye.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Peaceful Beach labeled itself as an “Adult Community for Active Seniors” and it was almost like a town unto itself. There was a swimming pool, a shuffle board court, and a huge rec room in the assisted living area where the residents could play bingo or watch the big screen TV on movie night. It was the kind of place that Phil couldn’t ever imagine her nana living in. Mainly because, despite her age, Nana’s fairy blood kept her spry and she looked and acted much younger than she was. She didn’t belong at Peaceful Beach any more than she had belonged at the Eagle Scout bowl-a-thon.

  Phil was anxious to park and go looking for her grandmother but the long winding road that led from the front gates to the main facilities was a one way lane. Just as Josh was pulling through the gates, a purple and pink golf cart with long pink fringe hanging from its canopy pulled out in front of him. An old couple with gray hair was sitting in the cart; the man was driving and woman was moving her hands in excited gestures as she talked. Her excitement didn’t seem to affect her companion in any way, though—or at least, it didn’t affect his driving. The cart crawled along at a sedate fifteen miles per hour making sure they were stuck driving at a parade pace instead an Indy 500 clip, which would have suited Phil’s frayed nerves a lot better.

  “What’s the deal with the stupid golf cart?” she demanded, unable to help speaking her mind. “Don’t those things go any faster? And why is it all decorated in pink and purple fringe like that? It’s bizarre.”

  Rory piped up from the back seat. “That’s how they get around here since so many of the residents have had their licenses taken away. They all drive golf carts all over the place. We studied it in my Psych of Aging class.”

  “I guess they like to customize their carts the way we customize our cars,” Josh said with a grin. “You know—pimp my cart.”

  “Nana hasn’t called again and you know she would if things got really hairy,” Rory pointed out. “Be patient, Phil. Maybe someday it’ll be you driving around on a pimped-out golf cart. Look at that old couple—aren’t they cute? Can’t you see you and Christian on a cart like that fifty years from now?”

  “I don’
t know,” Phil said honestly. She bit her lip and looked out the window at the couple in the cart ahead of them.

  Rory frowned. “What do you mean, you don’t know?” she demanded. “You’re always talking about how you want to grow old with the man you love and gushy stuff like that. Cass says you’re worse than me half the time and you know I’m a hopeless romantic.”

  Phil didn’t want to go into this right now, but the wish kicked in and she had to speak her mind. “I mean I don’t know how I feel about Christian right now,” she said, looking straight ahead at the old couple on the golf cart so she didn’t have to see her sisters’ faces as she spoke. “He’s been so distant this whole past year. And, well…we had a fight this morning and he said some things that really hurt me.”

  “Things? What things?” Cass demanded from the back seat. “Maybe things that made you come to your senses and decide to leave his boring ass?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it right now,” Phil said truthfully. She glanced over her shoulder at Cass and Rory who were looking at her eagerly. “It’s just…when he said what he said, I don’t think he was trying to hurt me. But it hurt just the same.”

  “What hurt? What did he say?” Rory was practically bouncing up and down in her seat.

  Phil opened her mouth but at that moment the pink-and-purple golf cart turned off into a side road and the way ahead was clear. “Punch it!” Phil leaned forward as though she could make the car go faster with the force of her will.

  Josh gave her an amused glance. “Okay, but do we know where we’re going once we get there?”

  Phil looked back at Rory. “Did Nana say where she was when she called?”

  Rory shrugged. “She just said she was at Peaceful Beach in the rec room and that things were getting, uh, a little out of hand.”

  “Crap, Nana would probably say the same thing about a nuclear meltdown,” Cass pointed out, frowning. She looked about as impatient as Phil felt, her black eyebrows pulled down in a scowl.

  They were pulling into a large parking area now and Phil could see a series of buildings, some of them public areas and some apartments, all crowding a well landscaped area crisscrossed with clean, even sidewalks. “Look at this,” she said, gesturing towards the maze of buildings and walkways. “How are we going to find out which one is the rec room?”