Page 76 of Wishing for Love

Her sister laughed. “Sounds like you are in a good spot while you navigate things then. My best piece of advice is not to stress.”

“Easier said than done, but I’m going to try.”

“What is it you want?” Taylor asked. “What are you looking for? Do you know?”

She laughed. “Hasn’t that been my problem most of my life? I never plan and don’t know what I want?”

“True,” Taylor said. “But what about now? Don’t you have dreams and goals or wishes?”

“Don’t we all?” she said.

“Now you’re sounding like the Crystal I grew up with,” Taylor said. “Don’t go back to her.”

“I’m just kidding,” she said. She knew she was a wise ass and on the flighty side as a kid. “Truthfully, I like being a nanny. I like caring for the house and Elsie. I never thought in a million years I’d want to be a housewife.”

It even felt funny saying that in this day and age.

“There is nothing wrong with it,” Taylor said. “Not everyone likes it or wants to do it. If you enjoy it, be happy that you are and get paid for it.”

“You’re right,” she said. “I’m not sure it’s a dream, but I do enjoy it.”

“There you go,” Taylor said. “We all need to have something to dream or wish for. Focus on that and see if it’s realistic. If not, then don’t worry either. Dreams are there to give us hope, but not always to come true. At least that's how I look at it.”

“Thanks,” she said. She hung up after that and thought about what her older sister said.

Crystal always needed hope in her life. She wasn’t someone to wish on anything. She just did what she had to do to get by.

Maybe she didn’t want to just get by.

What she wanted was to be loved and accepted for who she was.

Was that a dream? Maybe a wish?

Yeah, more like a wish to be loved.

27

HAPPIER PERSON

Phoenix closed the book he was reading to Elsie later that night, kissed her and shut the light, then went right upstairs to Crystal’s suite.

There was so much he had to say, but when he got home after six, Elsie and Crystal had eaten, Elsie was bathed and ready for bed and he said he had it and she could be done for the night.

She didn’t argue, but he’d told her he’d be up to talk later.

“Is she sleeping?” Crystal asked.

“She is,” he said, coming over to sit next to her on the couch.

“You look tired and overwhelmed.”

“I am,” he said. “My cousins didn’t leave until six for the airport and I came right home. I’ve got a lot of things to think about and do.”

He’d made the call to the retailer that he could get the product in time and the contract was being sent over tomorrow. It’d go to both his father and Braylon to look it over before he signed everything.

As West said, they just needed to take care of that first and then move on to the rest.

“Anything you want to talk about?”

---