Page 34 of Wish For Me

She shrugs. “I know you, baby. I have a hard time believing you’ll let this opportunity pass you by.”

“But it would mean leaving,” I say, my voice cracking on the last word. “For two years.”

“And that would suck.” A flicker of pain crosses her face. “But it would also be two years of adventures. Experiences you’d never have anywhere else.”

“And you would visit,” Aunt Sam says.

“And we would visit you.” Haylee rubs my arm again. Her smile is understanding. “No one is going to forget about you, Rosie.”

Harrison lets out a little cry—apparently, he jabbed himself in the eye with his new toy airplane—and Jasmine jumps up to check on him.

“Sometimes,” I say, watching them together, “I think that Leo and I should buy a house and have a baby. I can still work at the shelter and he can do his research here.” I look at my mom. “That would be a good life.”

“It would,” she agrees.

“But sometimes I’m not sure if I want kids at all,” I admit, thinking about that negative test. “Ilikemy life. I like the time I have with Leo. I like that I’m always able to be around for my siblings and my cousins and I can devote so much energy to the shelter.”

“Not having kids is a perfectly valid choice,” Sam says. “Just because that’s what we did, doesn’t mean it has to be your path, too. I know lots of happy women who didn’t go that route.”

“Having kids later is also an option,” Haylee points out. “Lennon and I waited way longer than these guys. There were other things we wanted to do first.”

“No one gets to make these decisions for you, Rosie,” my mom says. “You’re a smart girl and you’ve always been good at knowing your own heart. Whatever you and Leo decide is what’s going to be right for you.”

“It does sound pretty cool…” I say, letting some of the excitement I’ve been keeping at bay all these weeks bleed through. “Living in Singapore? We could travel. Learn a new language.”

“Meet lots of new people,” Karen agrees.

Aunt Sam reaches over to squeeze my hand. “And you could take that big heart of yours and help people there, too. The same way you’ve been doing here.”

That excitement builds and I look to my mom. Her expression is sad, like she knows what I’m going to decide, but excited, too.

God, I’m so lucky.

“Are you sure I can’t convince you to tell Dad?”

She laughs, then dabs at her eyes. “How about we get him real drunk at the wedding and both tell him.”

“Deal.”

The door to the kitchen swings open and we all look up, expecting to see the guys filing through with platters of pancakes. Instead, we see Fox, Bodhi and Leo trailing behind them, all three of them wearing nearly identical looks of worry. Fox is holding his cell phone, and looks like he might throw up.

“I just got off the phone with June in Napa,” he says. “There’s a problem with the venue.”

SEVEN

BODHI

Everly can’t stop crying. Every sob and whimper out of her mouth is like a knife to my chest.

“I don’t understand why this is happening,” she sniffles and I feel beyond helpless as I tighten my hold around her waist.

“It’s just really bad luck,” Alex says soothingly, rubbing her leg.

Bad luck. Yeah, that’s putting it mildly. Bad luck is what we’ve already been dealing with—the dress and the photographer and the stupid useless candles. This isn’t bad luck. This is a fucking disaster.

Our venue caught fire last night. It caughtfire. Half the damn kitchen burned down. June’s mom, who owns a vineyard nearby, heard about it from a neighbor and June called us right away. We’re expecting a call from the owner any minute to tell us what we already know—they can’t host our wedding next week.

“Is it my fault?” Everly whimpers quietly, so only I can hear.