Page 85 of Three Little Wishes

Instead of answering the question, he got out of the car and walked around to the passenger side.

“Noah!” she cried as he opened the door. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.”

“I lied to you.”

“You did?”

“I did. I got the results of the DNA test when your brother walked over to ask my baby sister to dance.”

“I don’t… August is… You read the results without me?”

“I did.” He helped her out of the car and then crouched in front of her, reaching for her foot. “As much as I love looking at you in those heels, you need to take them off. You’ll sink in the sand.”

“This is not how I saw this playing out when we finally found out we weren’t related,” she said, leaning against the car as he took off one of Cami’s Jimmy Choos and then the other.

He tossed them in the car and then stood and closed the door. “If I kissed you now, I wouldn’t want to stop, so if you can be patient a little longer, I promise to make it worth the wait.”

“I think I can do that, mainly because I’m mad at you for looking at the results without me,” she told him.

“Sweetheart, if we’d gotten the results when we were at the beach house, I would’ve opened them with you.” He turned on his phone’s flashlight and then handed it to her before sweeping her into his arms. “Shine it on the path.”

The dark sky was littered with stars and a half moon shone on the bay but they didn’t provide enough light to illuminate their way.

“There was also another reason I didn’t think you’d want to read the results at the auction,” he said.

“We could’ve gone onto the patio at Windemere and read them there.”

“We could have,” he said as they reached the cove where they’d spent three wonderful weeks together that long-ago summer. “But this is better, don’t you think?”

She took in the small, flickering lanterns casting a warm, romantic glow over a blanket spread in the sand. There were a picnic basket, a bottle of wine, and two glasses.

“It is.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing a light kiss on his throat. “I’m sorry if I was cranky. It’s just that I’d wanted us to be together when we read the results.”

He set her on her feet in the sand. “And what if the results weren’t the ones we got?” he asked as he took off his shoes andthen reached for her hand, drawing her onto the blanket with him.

“You’re right, and this is the perfect place to celebrate.” She rested her head on his shoulder as he put in his phone’s password.

He turned the screen to her.

“I don’t know what I’m looking at. Whose results are those?”

“Your father’s. Sage and I reached out to Flynn, and he agreed to do a swab and send it to the lab we used.”

“I don’t understand why you’d reach out to him. We’d know he’s my father if Will wasn’t.”

“Technology has improved to a degree that DNA testing between cousins is fairly accurate but I didn’t want us to have even the slightest doubt. I didn’t think you would either. And your sister agreed.”

“Have you shared the results with Flynn?”

“He would’ve received them when I did.” Noah tucked her hair behind her ear. “When he learned Cami was your mother and not your aunt, he began questioning if he was your father. He saw the resemblance between you and his daughters.” He smiled. “I gather Amos did too.”

She half laughed, half sobbed, burying her face in Noah’s chest. “I can’t believe Amos is my grandfather.”

“Are you happy about this?”

She leaned back, framing his face with her hands. “Happy? I’m ecstatic. I’m over the moon.” She kissed him, and then they did everything she’d dreamed they’d do if they got the results they were hoping for.

They made love, and they laughed, and they talked, and they drank wine, and they ate the picnic her mother andgrandmother had packed for them. It was after they’d made love a second time that Noah showed her the house on the bay that he wanted to buy for them, and Willow fell asleep under the stars wrapped in his arms, dreaming of a bright, happy future with the man she adored.

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