Page 99 of Prime Time Romance

All at once, I see the fatal flaw in my plan. Sheldon’s loophole. Why this all felt a little too easy.

“So I’ll never be able to go home?”

Sheldon drops his hands with a feigned dramatic sigh. “Is that really such a bad thing?”

My blood cools to the temperature of ice. I’ve been played. Hoodwinked. Right from the very beginning.

“Was that your plan all along? To keep us here indefinitely?”

Sheldon makes no effort to hide his rolling eyes. “What else do you want? I’ve basically handed you the perfect life: a town full of charm and whimsy and an overabundance of seasonally appropriate festivals. Idyllic weather—”

“Yeah,” I interrupt, “unless you count the occasional hurricane.”

Sheldon waves me off with the back of his hand.

I close my eyes and picture my future: life in Carson’s Cove with Spencer, laid out so perfectly that I can see every detail. Weekly date nights to Pop’s for milkshakes. A wedding at the gazebo with everyone in town in attendance. Growing old together. Happy. Easy.

Never seeing Josh again.

This terrible thought grows and grows until it consumes everything else.

There is nothing stopping me from abandoning this whole agreement with Sheldon right now.

I could easily and enthusiastically tell him to shove his plan up the one place in Carson’s Cove where the sun doesn’t regularly shine.

I could go back to Josh. Explain everything. Live like we have been these last few days. He’d have the Bronze; I could hang out with Luce. We could be happy.

But in the deepest corners of my heart, I know that Sheldon will never stop trying to tear us apart. And even if, by some miracle, we evade Sheldon’s plans, if Josh stays here, he will never get the chance to buy his father’s bar back, and he’ll never see his mom again.

In either scenario, my fate is sealed.

It has been since the moment I made that first wish.

But Josh’s doesn’t have to be.

“How do I know you’ll keep your word?”

Sheldon slides the cake toward me again. “This is no ordinary dessert. It’s got the magic of Carson’s Cove baked right into it. It’s bigger than you and me. It’s made of whimsy and suspension of belief, that same television magic that keeps you glued to your television each week. Once you make your wish, your contract is set. There’s nothing you or I can do to change it.”

His words make my stomach sink.

“You win, Sheldon.” I close my eyes. “I wish that Josh Bishop will wake up safe and happy in his own bed back in Toronto tomorrow morning, and I’ll agree to stay and give Sloan Edwards the ending she deserves…no matter how long it takes.”

I open my eyes and look at Sheldon. “Is that good enough for you?”

He lifts the cake up to me. “Let’s make it official.”

29

Josh

I was worried she wouldn’t come.

Especially after Spencer swooped in yet again with something over the top, and Brynn chose him.

But she appears at the top of the ladder, right on time, and as she steps onto the roof, the string lights reflect in her eyes, making them sparkle.

“Oh my god. It’s so beautiful.” Brynn spins in a slow circle, checking out my best attempt at a romantic gesture. I’ve cleaned up the beer bottles and hung a few of the extra lights from downstairs. In the twilight, they give the roof an almost ethereal feel.