Page 35 of Save a Wish

“And you already met Vanessa and Little Ben, but this is her husband, Spencer, and Hunter, their other son.” I tilted my head at my sister. “Weren’t you coming to this alone?”

Vanessa shrugged. “I was.”

“But I told Spencer to get his ass here, Beckett, and be supportive of your new friend.” Logan wiggled his eyebrows and gestured to Sadie.

I glared back at my brother, silently warning him not to be a weirdo.

“I appreciate that, Logan,” Sadie said, oblivious to my brother’s attempt at teasing me.

“No problem.” He slid his arm around his wife, Ashley. “C’mon, baby. Let’s find a good spot to get all serene and shit.”

“You should totally put get all serene and shit on a T-shirt with your business logo,” Vanessa said. “I can help with that if you want. I love making T-shirts.”

My family strode off, except for Flora who resumed checking in attendees as the flow of them increased.

“You have such a nice family,” Sadie said, her gaze still on them as they found spots in the event space and conversed with each other and the attendees.

“They are pretty great,” I agreed, “except when they’re giant pains in the ass.”

Flora let out a little laugh and I poked her in the shoulder.

“You know I’m right,” I said.

Flora mimed zipping her lips closed as Mom and Jimmy came over.

“Oh, what a lovely turnout,” Mom said. “This was a great idea, Beckett.”

“I only have great ideas.”

Mom pursed her lips, but her eyes were still merry. “I seem to recall an idea involving jumping from a treehouse to land on a trampoline that wasn’t so great.”

I winced. “Yeah, okay. You got me there.” I craned my head back a bit to show Sadie the underside of my chin and the two-inch scar there that my beard masked a bit. “Whacked my jaw pretty good on a branch on the way down and sliced myself open.”

Sadie grimaced. “Ouch.”

“A big and bloody ouch,” Mom said. “It wasn’t as if I hadn’t seen my older boys get mangled before but that one was particularly gruesome.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “So much blood out of one little boy.”

“Needed plastic surgery to fix it,” I said.

“It’s too bad they didn’t fix the rest of your face when they had you on the operating table,” Logan said as he sidled up next to me again.

“Weren’t you finding a spot for the event?” I asked. “Why are you back here?”

“We forgot our yoga mats,” my brother said. “Heading back to my house to grab them.” He saluted us and jogged away. Which was good. It meant I’d be free of his taunting for at least a few minutes.

Mom and Jimmy wished Sadie good luck then went off in search of their own spot as well.

“For the record,” Sadie said slowly as she squinted at me as if I was a specimen she was studying, “I don’t think your face needs fixing at all.”

“See? This is the energy people need in their lives and that is why you’re going to be super successful.” I wanted to kiss her, but we hadn’t had a first date yet, so I settled for grinning stupidly at her. “I’ll let you mingle with your attendees. Part of this event is about networking and making connections. Can’t do that if I monopolize your time.”

“But you’ll monopolize my time later?” Sadie’s voice held a coy note that I loved. “On our date?”

“That’s a promise.” I bowed a little before backing away. “I’m going to check that all the tech is ready. You know, microphones and such.” I’d wanted to set up a camera for recording, but like my request for a website photo of her, Sadie had declined. What made her so shy about having her image captured?

I glanced at the time on my phone. “Fifteen minutes until showtime, lady. You’re going to be great.”

Sadie gave me a little wave as she joined Flora at the check-in table.