Page 88 of Three Little Wishes

“There’s not going to be a dinner if I don’t get this right,” Riley said, and Cami reminded herself that today was about the girl she’d come to care about having fun.

She tested the dough. “My mother is the pizza queen and won’t settle for anything but perfection. But nothing in life is perfect. This dough is pretty damn close, though. And way better than Gia ever made,” she added with a grin.

“You really don’t like your sister, do you?”

“I love her.” She cleared her throat. “We’re just different, that’s all.” She patted the dough. “Okay, you’ll have to do the work and shape the pies,” she said, holding up her casted arm. “We’ll do the fun part together.”

“You mean like putting the toppings on them?”

“No, the best part, throwing the pies!”

“You’re a pro,” Cami said fifteen minutes later when Riley’s pie did a perfect spin in the air on her first try. “Where’s your phone?” Noah had caved and bought her one the day before.

“Over there.” Riley pointed at the opposite counter.

“Go get it, and put on ‘That’s Amore’ by Dean Martin.”

“Dean who?”

“Never mind who, just put it on,” she said, awkwardly tossing her pie in the air. She couldn’t wait to get her cast removed.

Riley laughed when the pie landed on Cami’s head. “We can’t use that one now,” she said.

“Why? My hair’s clean, and it was on there like for two seconds. Did you find the song?”

Riley pressed Play, and Cami closed her eyes as the memories of singing the song in the kitchen with her mother andsisters washed over her. She opened them to see Riley staring at her. “Are you crying?”

“No! I got flour in my eyes.” She wiped at them. “Now let’s sing and throw some pies.”

They were laughing and singing when another voice joined in and Carmen swiped Cami’s pie in the air and showed Riley why she was the pizza queen.

“You’re a show-off,” Cami said to her mother after Carmen finished dressing her pie in half the time it took Cami and Riley. She hugged her. “But I love you even if you made me look bad.”

Her mother leaned back and patted her cheek. “I love you too,cara.”

Cami’s eyes filled with tears, and she buried her face in her mother’s shoulder. “I missed you,” she whispered.

“Willow and Noah are on their way,” Gia said as she walked into the kitchen. She smiled at Riley. “Let’s get the pies in the oven.”

Cami wondered if Willow had called her mother or if Gia had called her daughter. She wondered what they’d said about her, about the celebratory dinner Cami had planned for just the four of them. It would never be just the four of them.

While the pies were in the oven, Cami and Riley made the Caesar salad.

“Why don’t you bring it out to the table?” Gia said to Riley. “You can help my mother set the family table.”

Riley’s gaze moved from Gia to Cami. “Okay,” she said, glancing over her shoulder as she walked away.

Cami nodded and smiled, letting Riley know she wouldn’t fight with her sister and ruin the dinner. She glanced at Gia, who was leaning against the counter with her arms crossed.

Cami held up her hands. “I’m not fighting with you.”

“No, what you’re going to do is listen to me. I’m sick and tired of everyone tiptoeing around you because you have amnesia. All you’ve done since you’ve come back here is cause problems between me and my family.Be nice to her, be patient with her, she thinks she’s seventeen.Well, you’re not! You’re a forty-seven-year-old woman who nearly destroyed this family once, and I’m not letting you do it again.”

“I know I’m forty-seven. I got my memory back, and do you know why I didn’t tell anyone, Gia? I didn’t tell them because I knew you’d do exactly what you’re doing now, try to get rid of me. And the only way I thought I’d have a chance to make amends tomyfamily is to be the Cami they once loved. I want that, I need that, and I…” She trailed off, unable to say she deserved it. “I won’t let you stop me from repairing my relationship with Ma, Eva, my nieces, or my daughter.”

Gia glanced away and then a determined look came over her face. “Your daughter,” she said. “That’s rich.”

“I loved her. You know I did. I didn’t want to leave her. But I had no choice.”

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