Page 28 of Three Little Wishes

“Yes. But it’s not what you think. He wasn’t exploiting me.”

“What do you call it if not exploitation?”

“I didn’t know it then, but he was trying to save the station by increasing revenue, and Beach Babe, a local swimwear shop, would only advertise if I wore their suits on air.” She pulled her phone from the back pocket of her jeans, went to her photos, and scrolled to one from the previous July. She showed him. “See, it wasn’t that bad.”

She pointed to the yellow rubber duck she wore around her waist. “My cameraman at the time didn’t shoot me below Super Duck. And just to clear up something Megan said, I’m not a heartbreaker. I used to date my previous cameraman, and we remained good friends after we broke up. I’m friends with all my ex-boyfriends.” At least the ones who weren’t jerks.

She glanced at Noah and sighed. His face was no longer stone-cold but the muscle jumping in his clenched jaw suggested he was still ticked. She nudged him with her elbow, and his eyes came to her. Oh boy. There wasn’t a hint of indigo in his irises, they were entirely black.

She needed to change the subject. “So… my house flipping business with Megan. You’ve probably guessed that it didn’t work out as we’d hoped. Definitely not how I hoped anyway. Megan put up the money, at least in the beginning she did, and I was the working partner. And let me tell you, all I did was work. But there were some issues with the house, which by the way we got for a steal, something Megan took credit for, but I later found out it was because she’d waived the inspection. Hence the problems we ran into.”

She pulled up some before photos of the house on her phone and showed Noah. “Along with the interior needing to be completely updated, the house needed new wiring, plumbing, and a roof.”

She showed him a photo of herself and her ex-boyfriend tossing the old, moldy tiles off the roof. “That’s my ex. I couldn’t have done it without him. I retiled the kitchen with help from another ex-boyfriend, same with the cabinetry and countertops. But even with my exes helping, and me working what sometimes felt like twenty-four-seven, we were delayed.”

Willow brought up interior and exterior photos of the house from when it had gone up for sale. No matter that the house flip had turned Willow’s life upside down, she was proud of what she’d accomplished with a lot of help from her friends.

“Megan had anticipated putting the house on the market within three months. It took us nine. Even though I was the working partner, Megan insisted I contribute, which I understood. We weren’t only delayed. We were way over budget. But the only way I could come up with the money was to sell my house and use the little equity I had in it.”

Scrolling through her photos, Willow found one of her house. It was a cute two-bedroom Cape Cod with pink window boxes and pink shutters. She’d loved her house, and she got a little emotional looking at the picture. She turned it to Noah.

“Megan sold my house for me and waived her commission, but she wanted to sell it fast, so she dropped the price within two days of putting it on the market. I didn’t get what I’d expected, and of course, I’d promised Megan the expected amount so I had to take out a loan.” Willow gestured to the room at large. “She found me a place to rent, though. It was a little over my budget, but the rental market was tight. Luckily, Mr. Lowell’s her uncle, and she was able to convince him to rent to me.”

Noah stared at her, opened his mouth, and then closed it.

“What were you going to say?”

He raised a finger. “I need a minute.” He bowed his head, gave it a slow shake, and then raised his gaze to her. “Have you heard the sayingWith friends like that, who needs enemies?”

“She’s not that bad.”

He made a disbelieving sound in his throat.

“Okay, you’re right. But she hasn’t always been like this. Her husband cheated on her, and they had a messy divorce.”

“What time did Mr. Lowell call your mother?”

She frowned. “What does that have to do with Megan?”

He tapped his finger on her phone. “Check if Megan called you earlier today and the time of the first call your mother made to you after hearing from Megan’s uncle.”

She went to the recent calls and scrolled through them. “Megan called at nine thirty this morning.”

“Which is thirty minutes after Robyn informed her that I was pausing the sale of the beach house.”

“Okay, but—”

“What was the time of your mother’s first call to you?”

“Ten.” She lifted her gaze from the screen to Noah. “Do you really think that because Megan believed I’m the reason you paused the sale that she’d tell her uncle to kick me out?”

He raised an eyebrow.

She bowed her head. “You do.”

“It doesn’t matter what I think, Willow. What do you think?”

“That I’m an idiot.”

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