Page 35 of Three Little Wishes

But this book was different from what she usually read, and she was having a hard time getting into it. Although maybe it wasn’t the book’s fault, she thought, when Cami yelled, “Get your nose out of the book and come bodysurf with me.”

“Later. The water’s cold,” Riley said, keeping her eyes glued to the page. Willow’s aunt was wearing a yellow polka-dot bikini that left little to the imagination.

Cami threw herself down beside Riley, spraying her with water and sand.

“Don’t do that. You have a broken arm and a concussion. You’re supposed to take it easy.” She didn’t know what Willow and her brother had been thinking, leaving her to babysit Cami. Then again, they might’ve thought Cami would be looking after her since Willow’s aunt was the adult and Rileywas the kid. If so, it had been a big miscalculation on their part.

“You’re such a worrywart. Look.” Cami sat up and waved her cast in front of Riley’s face.

Right, she was a worrywart because she wanted to protect Cami’s cast from getting wet and had covered it in plastic wrap and tape when every excuse she’d tried to dissuade Cami from going swimming had failed.

“Stop waving your arm in my face. You’re getting the pages wet.” Riley tightened her grip on the book in case Cami tried ripping it out of her hands again, but she’d already lost Cami’s attention. As she’d discovered, Cami had the attention span of a gnat.

“Hey! Over here,” Cami cried, leaping to her feet, jumping up and down, and waving her arm.

Riley looked to where Cami was waving, and her eyes got big. “Cami, stop waving at them. You’re supposed to be in hiding, remember?”

It was one of the reasons Riley had tried to dissuade Cami from going swimming. The beach house was surrounded by trees and sat in a sheltered part of the bay with its own private beach, but there were plenty of boats on the water and a sandbar three hundred yards from shore. Cami was trying get the attention of three teenage boys who’d jumped off an idling speedboat onto the sandbar.

Riley opened her mouth to tell Cami to stop being creepy. She was old enough to be their mother. But she didn’t want to freak Cami out by reminding her she was forty-seven, not seventeen.

“I’m starving. Let’s go eat,” Riley said as she stood up, brushing sand off her shorts.

Cami stopped waving to frown at her. “We had breakfast three hours ago.”

“It’s not my fault you slept in, and it’s two in the afternoon. If we don’t eat now, we’ll ruin our dinner.” To think she’d been glad when Cami finally woke up, Riley thought with a sigh.

Cami laughed. “You act like you’re fifteen going on thirty.” She grabbed Riley’s hand. “I have a better idea. Let’s swim to the sandbar and say hi.”

“I told you. I don’t know how to swim.” Riley pulled her hand free. “Besides, you’re not supposed to be talking to anyone.”

“Oh, he’s really cute, isn’t he?” Cami said, pointing at the sandbar, acting as if Riley hadn’t said anything. “The tall one wearing the fluorescent-green board shorts.”

Riley sighed. “Yeah. Sure. Whatever.”

Cami glanced at her. “Do you like boys? It’s fine if you like girls or even if you don’t like boys or girls.”

“I like boys.” They didn’t seem to like her, though. At least not in a boyfriend-girlfriend way. In New York, she had two friends who were boys. They’d all lived on the same street.

Cami cocked her head. “You don’t have a boyfriend, do you?”

“No! I’m fifteen.” She’d considered putting “Get a boyfriend” on her wish list, but what she really wanted was a friend.

“What’s your age have to do with it? Flynn and I, that’s my boyfriend, we started dating when I was fifteen.” Cami’s eyes lit up and she grabbed Riley’s hand. “I know how to get their attention. Come on, get in the water.”

“How many times do I have to tell you? I don’t swim.”

“That’s the point. Flynn was a lifeguard. A hot lifeguard, so you know what that means.”

“I really don’t.”

Cami arched an eyebrow. “I think I know why you’ve never had a boyfriend. Anyway, Flynn being hot meant that all the girls were trying to get his attention.” Cami pranced in front of her, tossing her hair and making flirty faces.

Riley laughed, and Cami grinned, taking her flirty-girl routine to a whole other level. The harder Riley laughed, the more outrageous Cami became.

Tears of laughter had blurred her vision, so it took a moment for Riley to notice that Cami’s boobs were in danger of falling out of her bikini. “Stop. You’re going to… lose your top.”

“I bet that’ll get their attention.” Cami’s hands moved to the ties at her back. “Stupid cast,” she muttered, turning her back to Riley.

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