Page 34 of Save a Wish

“Nah. You would have figured out what to do on your own.”

“Maybe,” I said. “Eventually, but you made it so easy and all this behind the scenes pre-work has actually been fun because I got to work on it with someone. With you.”

“A date then? Tonight?” The hopeful arch of Beckett’s brows drew me in.

“Yes. I’d like that.”

“Fantastic.” He opened his mouth, but his gaze shifted to over my shoulder. “Oh, I think attendees are starting to arrive. I enlisted the help of Flora, my brother Darius’s fiancée, to check people in. She’s got a tablet over there with the registration list and a basket to collect cell phones so people will be ready for full relaxation mode.”

I turned to see a young woman with curly brown hair greeting people. She wore leggings with an autumn leaves pattern on them and a rusty-orange cardigan sweater with tall brown boots.

“Wow, she looks like autumn personified,” I said.

“Yeah, Flora only dresses in flora. C’mon, I’ll introduce you to her.” Beckett nudged me toward the woman, but then he scooped up my hand and tugged me along instead.

Holding hands with Beckett Hartley was such a simple thing.

And, yet, it didn’t feel simple at all.

Chapter Twelve

Beckett

My hand wrapped around Sadie’s felt right in every sense of the word. I used to think my hands were made only for fiddling with tech gadgets.

Untrue.

They’d been made to connect with this amazing woman, bravely putting herself out there to improve people’s lives.

And now she’d agreed to a date. Hell, she’d actually been the one to suggest it. She was bravely putting herself out there on a number of fronts, and I was glad one of us had. I’d planned to ask her out officially today, but I’d figured after her event would have been the best time for that question. I’d meant what I’d said about distracting her. I didn’t want to be the reason she couldn’t focus on what she’d aimed to accomplish today.

Perhaps asking me out, however, had been one of her goals for today. Knowing we had a date appeared to have reversed that freakout she’d been having after setting up her materials. She had no reason to freak out. She was about to dazzle the attendees. I was certain of it.

“Flora,” I said when we neared the little table we’d set up for check-ins.

She turned around and hit us both with a welcoming smile. “Hey, Beckett.” Her gaze behind her green-framed glasses shifted to my hand joined with Sadie’s and her lips tipped up at the corners. “And you must be Sadie. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Sadie said. “Thank you so much for helping out today.”

“No problem. I owed Beckett here a favor,” Flora said. “He helped me set up a database for a research project I’m doing for school. It made keeping track of everything so much easier. He’s a genius.”

“I’ve already come to that conclusion.” Sadie beamed me a smile and gave my hand a little squeeze.

Darius waltzed over and pressed a kiss to the top of Flora’s head.

“This is my oldest brother, Darius,” I said. “Young Flora is apparently into geezers.”

Flora gave me a light shove and I pretended to stumble back. Then Darius gave me a matching shove, only his had more force and really made me take a few fumbling steps backward.

But holding Sadie’s hand kept me from falling. In the literal sense anyway. I was falling in an entirely different sense the longer we remained connected.

“What? I’m stating a fact,” I said to Darius and Flora. “You two are engaged. You, Darius, are a geezer. Therefore, Flora is into geezers. It’s a simple logic equation.”

“I’m into intelligent, distinguished gentlemen.” Flora wrapped her arms around my brother’s waist and he slid one of his along her shoulders. This time, it didn’t make me feel empty inside to see the display of affection between them.

Because I was still holding Sadie’s hand. Neither of us had made a move to release that contact point either.

As we stood at the check-in table, the rest of my siblings filtered through with their significant others and I made those introductions as well.