Page 22 of Three Little Wishes

“Robyn, I’m in the car. You’re on speaker.”

“It’s just me, Robyn,” Willow said, waving her fingers even though Noah’s assistant obviously couldn’t see her. She’d gotten to know Robyn on the drive to New York and liked her a lot.

Noah angled his head, looking at her through his sunglasses. If she could see his eyes, she imagined they’d be giving her aseriously?look.

“Hi, Willow. How did it go with your aunt?”

Willow smiled. Robyn was so nice. “It—”

“Robyn, I imagine you were calling me for a reason. A reason that has nothing to do with Willow and her aunt.”

“Noah!” Willow gasped, then, noting the firm set of his jaw, decided not to push her luck. She didn’t want him taking out his frustration with her on Robyn. It had become obvious over the course of the past twenty-four hours that Willow frustrated him a lot. “I’ll get your number from Noah, and we can chat later, Robyn.”

“I’d love that!”

“Do you mind if I talk to Robyn now?”

“Be my guest,” she said, pressing her lips together to keep from laughing. Noah had no idea how easy he was to tease or how much she enjoyed getting a reaction from him.

Robyn’s voice came through the speaker, sounding professional and competent, which Willow knew, from listening to what had felt like hours of their conversations, she was. Then again, Noah wouldn’t put up with anyone who wasn’t excellent at their job.

“I got in touch with the real estate agent first thing thismorning as you requested, Noah, and asked her to pause the beach house listing. She had an interested party and wasn’t pleased. I have a feeling you’ll be hearing from her.”

“I don’t know why I would, but I trust your read on the situation, Robyn. Thanks for the heads-up.”

In the past twenty-four hours, Willow had discovered several things she liked about CEO Noah. As much as he was driven and demanding and didn’t suffer incompetence lightly, his employees clearly liked and respected him. In all the conversations she’d been privy to, and there had been many, he had been polite, respectful, and appreciative.

She’d suspected he was a micromanager and had been surprised to discover he wasn’t. He was confident in his staff’s ability to deal with difficult negotiations and routinely delegated assignments, even if his staff believed they required his expertise. And it had to be said that Noah was extremely good at his job. But if his employees weren’t as confident in their abilities as Noah was, he patiently coached them until they were, and when those same negotiations went smoothly, he refused to take credit.

“No problem,” Robyn said. “I’ve heard back from the IT specialist that I had check on your home office at the beach house. There are issues that may take him some time to resolve so I’m afraid working remotely will be difficult. The network is patchy.”

“That’s fine. I’ll come back to New York and work in the office until—”

“You don’t have to, Noah.” Willow jumped into the conversation, unwilling to let the opportunity pass. “I’m sorry for interrupting but there are no network issues at the station, and I’m sure Don would be happy to give up his office for you.”

“Willow’s right, Noah. It’s a good option.”

She wanted to kiss Robyn. It wasn’t a good option. It was perfect. Willow would have Noah right where she wanted him. He’d get to know her coworkers and realize what Channel 5 meant to them, and what it meant to the people of Sunshine Bay.

“I suppose that would work. At least until I get Riley settled. If you could let Don know—”

“It’s okay. I can take care of it, Robyn,” Willow said, holding up her phone.

“No worries, Willow. I’ve got it. Thanks, though.”

“She’s waving her phone and bouncing in her seat, Robyn, so it’s safe to say Willow would like to handle it.”

Robyn chuckled. “Works for me.”

“Yay! I’ll get on it right now.”

She couldn’t help herself and did another little dance in her seat. She felt Noah’s eyes on her, so she smiled at him and shrugged. He shook his head and returned to his conversation with Robyn, setting up what sounded like a hundred meetings to take place over the next few days.

Seconds after she’d shared the awesome news with Don, Naomi, and Veronica and gotten things sorted on their end, she bit the bullet and called her sister. Her call went to voicemail, and she left a message for Sage to call her back. As soon as she disconnected, her cell phone rang. She glanced at the screen. It wasn’t Sage, it was Megan.

Willow took a deep breath and brought the phone to her ear. “Hey. What’s up?”

“Where are you? And don’t try and tell me you’re at work. I called the station and the restaurant.”

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