Page 78 of Save a Wish

I glanced to my feet and he was right. I had on one black sock and one gray sock.

“I wasn’t paying attention this morning when I got dressed.” Because I hadn’t slept at all as visions of having fun with Sadie morphed into her outfitted like a medieval princess who was pointing and laughing at me.

Isaac opened his mouth, no doubt to ask more questions, but the doorbell rang.

Darius walked to his front door, opened it, and returned with Jimmy. The man was dressed in a brand new, charcoal gray suit. The work boots or muck boots he frequently wore had been replaced by polished dressy boots. His shirt was a crisp white and the tie around his neck was swirled with harvest colors. His hair and beard had been freshly trimmed as well. Aside from the anxious wringing of his hands and the darting of his gaze around the room at all of us, Jimmy Slater looked as if he’d stepped out of a fashion magazine.

Vanessa whistled. “Wow, Jimmy. You look amazing.”

“Thank you.” He bowed his head, a bashful air about him. “And thank you all for agreeing to meet with me.”

“Sure,” Darius said. “What’s this all about, Jimmy?”

The rest of my siblings echoed that same question, but I knew. I could see it in the old man’s eyes. Love had made him bold.

While love had only made me a sucker.

“Well, I’d like to . . .” His voice cracked a bit and he appeared to catch himself fidgeting with his hands. He shook them out a bit, smoothed them down the front of his suit jacket, and drew in a deep breath. The movements reminded me of Sadie because they were definitely an attempt at Jimmy centering himself. The man’s aura right now was a little chaotic, but something else radiated from it too.

Determination.

“I’d like your permission to ask your mother to marry me.” Jimmy let his gaze stop on each of us around the room.

For at least a count of fifteen, no one moved. No one spoke. Hell, no one breathed.

I wanted to be happy for Jimmy and Mom, but I couldn’t help thinking that now I truly would be the last Hartley to find a soulmate. And now I didn’t have any prospects because the woman who had stolen my heart had done so by lying to me. I was here, grieving the loss of Sadie Rodgers when Sadie Rodgers hadn’t really existed.

Jimmy turned pleading eyes to Darius. My brother got the message that, as the oldest Hartley child, he had the ability to get the rest of us onboard this marriage proposal train. I was already onboard, but I didn’t have the energy to say it right now.

Darius lifted his hand to Jimmy. “Of course you have our permission, Jimmy.” They shook hands as Darius swept his gaze to the rest of us and motioned with a slight angle of his head for us to speak up.

Vanessa was the first to follow and offer her consent and congratulations then she hugged Jimmy. Isaac and Joshua agreed at the same time as they often did as twins and shook Jimmy’s hand as Darius had.

Logan stepped up to Jimmy next. He had his arms folded across his chest as he stared at the man. “If you do anything to hurt our mother, we will hunt you down and do things to you that are far worse than the most gruesome rumors about you being a serial killer, Jimmy Slater. Understood?”

Jimmy’s lips tilted up at one corner. “Understood.”

Logan shook Jimmy’s hand then looked back at me. “What do you say, Beckett?”

“I’ve been ready to call you Papa since the beginning, Jimmy,” I managed to say as I got to my feet and shook Jimmy’s hand. “You have my blessing.” I couldn’t be happy, but at least my dear mother would be.

“Thank you.” Jimmy glanced around the room. “Thank you all. I promise to always take good care of your mother.”

“When are you planning to ask her?” Vanessa asked.

“This weekend. At some point during the All Hallow’s Eve Walk.” Jimmy plunged his hand into his pants pocket and produced two items. One was a small velvet box that had a simple silver band with diamonds embedded in it. It was perfectly Beth Hartley because our mother worked hard with her hands around Hartley’s Nest. She didn’t like flashy or bulky jewelry and would adore the practicality of the one Jimmy had picked.

The second item was a pendant necklace on a leather cord. I instantly recognized it as one of Sadie’s—Princess Aislinn’s—creations.

Jimmy held it so it dangled by the cord. “I’m giving this to Beth too. I had your Sadie make this, Beckett. It’s a rock Beth and I found together.”

“Sadie is not mine,” I blurted. “She’s not even Sadie.”

Everyone—except Logan—looked at me, surprised with curious arches to their brows.

“Sadie is a princess.” Logan said, and that sentence released a blizzard of questions so I recounted what Hank and I had found at the cabin.

“This is crazy.” Vanessa had come to sit beside me, her hand resting on my knee in a comforting gesture.