Page 62 of His One True Wish

“I’ll never tell,” I said, turning to kiss her. I pressed my lips up against this beautiful, magnetic girl who made my heart feel like it did before I left home, before I went to war. That’s what I couldn’t put my finger on until this moment. Billie made me feel not only like a better man, she made me feel like the man that I wanted to become before I lost myself.

“I saw stars,” she said.

“Did you wish?” I asked, my eyes closed.“I did,” she said.

“Did you wish to go home?” I asked softly.

“Not this time,” she said. “But I can’t tell you, or it won’t come true.”

I propped myself up and looked outside. Aa flash of light illuminated the foggy trees as a beam from inside the kitchen moved across the window.

“What’s that?” Billie said, sitting up.

“I’ll check,” I said, pulling on my shorts. I hopped on one leg as I pulled on my shirt, my pants in hand.

There was a knock at the door.

I froze and glanced back at Billie, who was scrambling buck naked across the carpet, reaching for her clothes.

“Who’s there?” she gasped, tugging on her panties.

I leaned toward the window and opened the slat.

There was another knock on the door.

“Billie, you in there!” a voice called. “Axl? Are you home. It’s Mason.” Another round of knocking.

“Oh, my God, it’s Mason,” Billie said. Jumping up, she tugged on her pants and grabbed her shirt, pulling it over her bare breasts. “I mean, hooray.”

“One sec,” I shouted, backing away from the window.

Billie fluffed up her shirt trying to hide her braless nipples. “I’m here, Mason.”

“You good?” I whispered.

“Yes,” she said.

I opened the door. Mason Lee and his son stood waiting under the porch light.

CHAPTER 18

BILLIE

“What in the hell, Billie. Youarehere,” Mason said. His worried expression dissolved into a familiar grin.

“Hey, Billie.”

Mason and his look-alike son, Ethan, came into the kitchen, Ethan following a step behind.

Mason was tall, muscular, with an angular face, bright white hair, what was left of it, and stubble. Ethan shared the lines of his father’s face, but had a shock of curly, still-blonde hair that fell into his eyes. Though Ethan looked just like Mason, I imagined his twin brother Alfie took after their missing mother. Alfie was tall and wiry. The Lee brothers looked like two sides of a coin.

“I just got off the phone with your Mom,” Mason said. “She is worried sick about you.”

“Mason,” I said, darting across the kitchen and burying him in a hug. “My phone died, and I don’t have a charger.”

“Told you she was fine, Dad,” Ethan said, sighing.

“Thanks, Ethan,” I said, glancing over at him. He still looked like the smiling kid I used to babysit, but his face had matured. He had to be over eighteen by now. He had a manly look about him that mademe feel old. I imagined he was close to graduating if he hadn’t already.

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