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