Page 36 of Three Little Wishes

She held up her hands. “Uh, no way. I’m not helping you flash those guys.”

“Fine. We’ll go with my first plan,” Cami said, reaching for Riley’s hand. “It worked on Flynn so I’m sure it’ll work on them.”

“What plan?” Riley asked as Cami tugged on her hand.

“We’ll pretend you’re drowning.”

“We can’t do that!” Riley cried, digging in her heels, but it was useless against Cami’s freakish strength. She obviously worked out, a lot.

“Yes we can. How do you think I got Flynn’s attention?” Cami fluttered her lashes and grinned, and then she pushed Riley into the water.

Riley landed flat on her back, sputtering as a wave washed over her head. She sat up, pushing her hair from her face.“That’s not funny.” She scowled at Cami but she wasn’t paying attention to her. She was frowning at the sandbar.

“Oh sure, I tell you I can’t swim. You throw me in the water, and you don’t even check if I’m okay,” Riley muttered, twisting the water from her T-shirt as she walked to shore.

“It’s not even a foot deep,” Cami said, waving her hand at another boat pulling up to the sandbar with four girls inside. “I told you we should’ve swam over and said hi.”

Riley threw up her hands. “I can’t swim!”

“Someone’s hangry.” Cami laughed, and then her eyes lit up with a look that made Riley nervous. “I know. Let’s go to the food truck! They make the best lobster rolls. Have you had a lobster roll? You have to try one. They’re to die for.”

Here we go again, Riley thought. “We can’t leave the beach house. You don’t want to ruin your family’s surprise, remember?”

“I knew you were going to say that so I’ve come up with a plan.”

“I don’t like your plans,” Riley muttered, picking up her book, the beach towels, Cami’s suntan lotion that smelled like coconut and didn’t have any SPF, Cami’s water bottle, and her sunglasses.

Cami grinned. “You’ll like this one. Trust me,” she said as she ran across the sand, up the retaining wall steps, and across the grass to the beach house without looking back or offering to help carry the stuff.

Riley thought maybe she’d misjudged her when Cami turned and walked onto the grass, her eyes scanning the beach. “I forgot my flip-flops.” She pointed at the yellow flip-flops sticking out of the sand. “Can you grab them?”

Riley looked down at her arms and then sent a pointedstare in Cami’s direction, which had no effect on Cami whatsoever because she was already in the house and closing the door behind her.

After a return trip to the beach and back to the house, Riley went straight to the laundry room on the main floor and dumped everything on top of the washing machine. She heard the shower running upstairs and decided to sort it later. She didn’t want to risk leaving Cami alone for more than five minutes, and Riley needed to take a shower too.

She grabbed her book and raced up the curved wooden staircase. There were four bedrooms on the second level. Cami had complained that Riley and Willow’s rooms had balconies and hers didn’t. Riley had a feeling her brother had given Cami a room without a balcony for a reason. Except that after spending half a day with Cami, Riley didn’t think anyone would be able to stop her if she decided to escape.

Riley paused outside her bedroom. The shower was still on in Cami’s room, and she was singing… “Macarena.” Riley snorted a laugh and shook her head. Cami had weird taste in music, she thought as she rushed into her bedroom and stripped off her clothes.

She was on alert the entire time she showered, listening for any sign that Cami might be pulling off the great escape on Riley’s watch. She was congratulating herself on setting a record for fastest time showering and washing her hair when she heard someone knocking on the front door.

“I’ve got it,” she yelled, panicked that Cami would beat her to the door. Riley hopped into her shorts and grabbed a T-shirt. Shoving her head through the opening, she was attempting to get her arms through the holes as she opened her bedroom door and Cami ran past.

“Wait!” Riley called, hurrying after her. “You can’t answer the door.”

“Yes I can. Look,” Cami said from where she now stood at the bottom of the stairs, wearing a daisy-printed sundress with a yellow straw sun hat in her hand. She put it on her head, stuck a pair of oversize white-flower sunglasses on her face, and struck a pose. “Ta-da. I look like one of those old ladies who lunch. Now we can go to the food truck. Woo-hoo!” She took off like a shot for the door.

Riley ran down the stairs, reaching Cami a second before she threw open the front door. A woman wearing white heels, a white sundress, and a white sun hat stood on the other side of the door with a bouquet of blood-red roses in one hand and a bottle of red wine in the other.

She looked from Cami to Riley and smiled. “Hi. I’m looking for Noah Elliot? Would he be home?”

Cami crossed her arms. “Who are you?”

Riley wanted to know the same thing, but jeez, did Cami have to be so rude? She nudged her with an elbow. Cami glanced at Riley and shrugged.

“Hi. I’m Noah’s sister Riley, and this is my, ah, friend.”

“Noah’s not home, and neither is Willow.”

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