Just a Wish Away Read Free

twenty-seven-year-old adult, she was reminded of both.
    Every street in the picturesque beach town seemed to hold a memory, the rocky path to the beach that she and Braden had ridden their bikes down every day, the Boardwalk with the cotton candy and hot pretzel carts that were crowded with kids in the summer, the fishing boats coming into the harbor after a long day at sea, Nini's Pancake House, where her dad used to take her on Sunday mornings, and the majestic houses on the bluffs that she'd dreamed about one day living in.
    Like so many of her childhood dreams, living in a big house on her favorite beach was one that had fallen by the wayside. The same was true for her dream of becoming a glassmaker, of turning beautiful pieces of sea glass into something amazing, and also her dream of marrying her best friend. But those had been the dreams of an idealistic girl, who'd thought everything in life would always be perfect, exactly like that perfect summer kiss from Braden the very last time she'd seen him.
    She was a different person now. She could barely remember that naïve girl, but she'd never forgotten her first kiss.
    Unfortunately, her relationship with Braden had not lasted past that summer. Her parents' divorce had changed her life in every possible way. She and her mom had moved back East, far away from the Washington coast. Her dad had ended up in Los Angeles a few years later and had remarried and had other children.
    The first few years she'd tried to keep in touch with Braden, but she'd had her hands full dealing with her mom's extreme depression and the move to a new city and a new school. Sand Harbor had seemed very far away. Their contact had faded to occasional calls and emails and then eventually nothing.
    Braden had had his own problems to deal with, including the death of his father, who'd been killed in action when Braden was fifteen. She'd tried to get in touch with him then, but he'd never called her back. Her mother said she couldn't afford to fly her across the country for the funeral. That was pretty much the end of their tenuous relationship.
    Years passed, and she dated other guys, but she was never quite able to get Braden out of her mind. Thinking she'd give it one more shot, she'd gone to Sand Harbor right after her college graduation. She was too late. She was shocked to learn that Braden had married at twenty, just weeks before enlisting in the Army.
    The dream of her heart was finally shut down. Braden was taken. He was with someone else. She had to move on with her life.
    That had been six years ago.
    Now she was back in Sand Harbor, and she had no idea where Braden was, but it didn't matter. She wasn't here for Braden, she was here for her aunt, Phoebe Gray, who had been injured in a break-in at her antique store. While Alexa had been kept away from everyone connected to her father's side of the family, she had reunited with her father's older sister, Phoebe, on her last visit to Sand Harbor.
    They'd been in frequent contact since then, a fact she'd happily kept from her mother, who was still quite bitter about that side of the family. But Alexa didn't blame her aunt or her uncle or her cousins for her parents' divorce. And she'd enjoyed getting to know them again over the past few years. Most of the contact was over email or through online social sites, but it was a start. When her cousin, Evie, had called her at dawn to tell her about the robbery, she'd immediately said she was on her way. She hadn't always been there for her aunt, but she could be there now.
    She'd caught the first plane out of San Francisco, rented a car, and made the two-hour drive from Seattle to Sand Harbor. She'd stopped at the hospital first, but her aunt was unconscious, and the doctor said it could be hours before she woke up. Several of Phoebe's friends were in the waiting room, so reassured that her aunt would not be alone when she woke up, Alexa had decided to track down Evie and see what was happening with