Page 3 of Save a Wish

Even though he wasn’t. He’d fallen off the roof of our veterinary clinic at Hartley’s Nest while repairing it and passed when I was sixteen. Being the youngest Hartley offspring meant I’d enjoyed the least amount of time with our father so those electronics store memories were so precious to me.

And sometimes . . . sometimes I feared I was forgetting details about my father. Was his hair more like Vanessa’s blonde or Darius’s? I often couldn’t remember the exact pitch of his voice or the melody of his laughter. How tall had he been? Taller than me? Taller than my brothers?

I’d pull out the photo albums Mom had on the shelves in the living room of the farmhouse where we’d grown up before building our own houses on Hartley’s Nest property. I’d get some answers from those photos, but I didn’t like relying on them. I wanted my father to have a permanent residence in my mind. I wanted him to always be a part of me.

Playing video games and fussing with gadgets helped keep him close. Therefore, any woman who wanted to be in my life needed to like these things too.

Sighing, I rolled my chair over to my business desk on the other side of the room. I could make use of this unexpected free time to do some finance and marketing stuff for Hartley’s Nest. I got in a few hours, but I had to admit to not being able to concentrate very well. My mind was on the gaming session I’d been in that had ended prematurely, the disappointing scan of women’s dating profiles, and the fading memories of my father instead. I pushed away from work and took a few minutes to stretch out.

My phone buzzed as I finished stretching with a call from my brother Isaac.

“Hey,” I answered.

“Can you do me a solid?” Isaac asked.

“Depends on what the solid is.” I’d most likely agree, but I’d learned from past mistakes to always get my brothers to define the favor before accepting. Otherwise I could end up doing nasty chores that required a full-scale decontamination session afterwards.

“Can you watch Amelia tonight? We just came back from hiking and she’s pooped, but Carina and I would like to sneak in an adults-only dinner at Bear Belly Tavern,” Isaac said.

Somehow I’d become the family babysitter. Amelia and Hunter liked coming over to my house because I had all the cool tech and I was fun. I took it as a compliment that they wanted to hang out, but shouldn’t a guy in his early thirties do things besides entertain nieces and nephews? Things such as going on dates with hot chicks or clowning around town with his boys.

Not that I had that many actual boys. Most of my friends were virtual or related to me. Did that make me a loser?

“Yeah, sure,” I said to Isaac, because what else did I have planned for tonight? Umm . . . nothing.

“Great! Thanks, Beckett,” Isaac said. “I’ll bring her by in like fifteen minutes.”

“Got it.” I ended the call and walked into my living room toward my huge screen TV. “TV on,” I said and the screen instantly came to life.

Cool, right? I thought so as did Amelia who often spent twenty-minute periods saying TV on and TV off, all while giggling as the TV flickered on and off at her command.

I searched through a list of favorites Amelia and I had collected especially for her and chose one of the more musical movies. She loved to sing along, the surround-sound speakers making every song sound like an epic performance.

I’d hoped for an older date tonight and some more mature entertainment, but Amelia was a cutie and I’d be doing my brother and his fiancée a favor. That meant they’d owe me a favor, which was always good to have on tap in this family.

As I shuffled into the kitchen to scrounge around for snacks, I wondered what advice my father would have given me about finding love. If only I could text him in Heaven and ask him. He’d clearly gotten it right because he’d snagged my mother, an amazing woman.

My wish was that someday I’d get it right too.

Chapter Two

Sadie

My name is Sadie Rodgers. Hi, I’m Sadie Rodgers. Sadie Rodgers is who I am.

These sentences looped in my head as I looked out the plane window at the sprawling Atlantic Ocean below. I had to make this new identity mine or else I’d end up right back where I definitely did not want to be. I was no longer Aislinn Síomóin of the tiny kingdom of Verdalach. I was not the daughter of Conall and Eithne.

King Conall and Queen Eithne.

I was not a princess.

Nor was I betrothed to Cian Ó Néill who only wanted me for the power that came from being my husband. Being a bargaining chip in governmental affairs hardly caused romantic feelings to bloom, but Cian wasn’t all that concerned with romance. He craved possessions, which my father was happy to consider me. Cian was also hungry for power, which my father could grant him.

As the deal was being made, I’d stood right there beside my mother, staring at her so intensely she had to have noticed.

Rescue me, my eyes had begged.

But she hadn’t seen me. Or, more likely, she had noticed my distress and had dismissed it. After all, she’d become queen in a similar deal when her father presented her to my father’s family against her will. Marriage in Verdalach was nothing more than a way to create alliances. Antiquated to be sure, but it hadn’t been done any other way in hundreds of years, and I was certain it would continue to be done that way for hundreds of years more.