Page 32 of Six Wishes

CHAPTER16

Hey, hot girl

Chloe

“Hi, Miss Chloe!” Ethan Knight’s four-year-old voice fills my ear as soon as I answer my phone. Since I was expecting to hear Alison’s voice when I answered the phone, this is the best surprise. I tried to get him to just called me Chloe and drop the Miss, but we are not there just yet.

“Ethan! How are you?” I match my tone of voice to his and I hear him giggle.

“Ali wants to talk to you,” is all he says and passes the phone to Alison who gets right to business.

“I can’t wait to have dinner with you and Van tonight,” she squeals. Good thing my apartment is super clean and organized since that’s where we’re having our small get together.

As it turns out, when Van told me the other day that he would obsess over things not being in proper order, he was not joking. By the time I got home from the shelter, not only did he have all the stuff in my boxes in their rightful place, but the apartment was spotless. He even did all my laundry, folded it neatly and put it all away.

My mind was completely blown, and I felt like I had entered the wrong apartment.

“I’m excited too,” I now tell Alison. Van is on a mission to mend things with Wyatt. He gave me a general idea of what had caused them to drift apart back in the day. I’d probably be with Wyatt on this one, just not sure I’d be able to hold a grudge for this long though.

“Wyatt’s been grumbling about it ever since Van called to talk to him. It’s kind of funny,” Alison gives me a full report on how things went down when Van called to speak with Wyatt. “But today’s really the only time we can come over. We got a lot going on for Saturday.”

Alison and Wyatt are getting married on Saturday, almost a month to the day of her sister’s wedding, same location, just a bigger gathering.

“I did a thing today,” Alison tells me in a quiet voice, then takes a moment to send Ethan away to play, like she doesn’t want him to hear what’s going on.

“Oh, something good I hope,” I can’t tell if I should get worried over it or not.

“It is. At least I hope so,” she laughs, and I can tell she is very happy about the mystery event. “Wyatt’s been talking about us having a baby. So I had an appointment today to have my implant removed. For birth control,” she clarifies, and I gasp in shock.

“You don’t think it’s too soon?”

“I thought about that too,” she gets very serious now. “But we’ve been best friends for five years, and us being together like this now is the perfect icing on that cake. I want to have a baby with Wyatt.”

“Wow, that’s amazing, Al,” I think their love story is so romantic. I’ve been reading her sister’s romance novels that she writes, and now I feel like everything is romantic.

“Thank you. Now it’ll be your turn, Chlo,” she starts laughing and I freeze. “It seems to be spreading around and everyone I know is in a very serious relationship all of a sudden, some with babies already, and for the rest, you can tell it’s coming.” Now she’s really cracking up, but I’m not feeling it.

“I hate to interrupt so abruptly,” I mutter into the phone. “But I need to go talk to Van about something.”

“A baby, I hope,” she teases, then hangs up.

Jesus, why are things happening to me right now?

I tap on the screen of my phone and frantically look for the app where I keep track of my period. We are safe, thank you, God. I sag in relief, but then my brain gets into high gear, reminding me that I will not be this lucky forever, not from the way we go at it.

I get up from the chair in the spare bedroom where Van put together an office area of sorts. What for, I have no idea, but now I have a home office.

“Van!” I holler for him when I am almost in the kitchen. He’s got the table set already for our dinner tonight, and it’s only noon. He’s been here constantly since he cleaned the place.

His workout clothes look sweaty and like they’re sticking to him. I have learned that first thing he does after a good workout is prepare himself a protein shake that’s full of all kinds of healthy stuff. His shakes are so much better than what I drank before he barged into my life, so I am grateful when he has my tall glass of it ready.

“Hey, hot girl,” he grins at me now, but he won’t for long, I just know it. “Go ahead, feel my shirt,” he says when he notices me eyeballing the muscle definition obvious through the wet material. I almost fall for it, when he continues, “it’s made of boyfriend material!”

I want to laugh, which I do a little, but I am also this close to slapping him right now. We need to have a serious conversation, and now.

“Van, I need you to focus on what I am going to tell you.” I look him square in the eyes and wait for him to realize that I am not messing around.

“What’s going on? You okay?” His eyes start running up and down my body, taking mental note of everything he sees. He is very observant in general, I have to say.

---