Wishful Thinking Read Free

around again and realized there was no sign of her jeans. For a moment she wondered if Ryan had been playing a trick on her just to get her into trouble, but before she could decide, she caught sight of another doorway.
    She headed over and peered in, happy to see that it led into a small, orderly laundry room. Next to the white washing machine and dryer was the chute with a laundry basket sitting below it. Most importantly, her jeans were on the top of the basket.
    Sophie immediately thanked the Universe for its help and then snatched the jeans and held them close as she breathed in the scent of denim. Thank goodness that order had been restored to the world.
    She headed back to the main part of the basement and was just about to go upstairs to where Kara would no doubt be waiting, when she heard a noise coming from outside.
    Because it was the basement, the only windows were set high up on the wall, but when the noise continued, Sophie felt duty bound to find out what it was. She pushed the black leather swivel chair that had been behind the desk over to the window and climbed up.
    At first, as she peered out, she thought she was merely looking at Mr. Rivers’s side garden, but then she realized that it actually flowed onto the side of the Taits’ house.
    Sophie widened her eyes. If she had known that there was no side fence between the two houses, she would’ve spent her entire day out there.
    At that moment she heard the noise again and then saw an orange basketball bouncing up and down, before a pair of legs walked into view. She craned her neck upward so she could see the owner of the legs.
    Oh, sweet happiness.
    It was Jonathan Tait. Sophie pressed her nose up to the glass. Not that she was a pervert or anything, but until a person had seen Jonathan Tait without a shirt on, it was hard to explain just how compelled she was to look at him. And of course it had to be taken into account that Sophie hadn’t seen much of her crush since he had left Miller Road Elementary the previous year to head to Robert Robertson Middle School. But now, not only would she get to see him every day starting tomorrow, she was obviously being given a chance to remind herself just how gorgeous he really was.
    See, Sophie knew that her jeans would help her. Wasn’t this proof of that? Even if it was in an unusual and slightly weird sort of way.
    She grinned some more. Jonathan was just as golden and lovely as she remembered him. All tanned skin, blond hair, and chocolaty brown eyes. But of course the best thing about him was that he was just as lovely on the inside as he was on the outside. Okay, well sure, she hadn’t had that many conversations with him—one to be precise. But the point was that it had been a quality one.
    It was actually a few months after her dad had first left, simply leaving a note saying that there was something he had to do and that he would be back soon. Problem was that her grandmother, who was staying with them at the time (trying to convince Sophie’s mom to stop crying and get out of her pajamas), kept saying that it was obvious her dad wasn’t coming back, since no one just vanishes like that unless he really doesn’t want to be found. She even used the police report to back up her story.
    Hence, a seven-year-old Sophie had been crying her eyes out behind the bike shed. Unfortunately, just as her eyes were at their reddest and her nose was at its snottiest, a gang of fourth graders made their way toward her, and even through her grief, she realized that if they caught her crying, they would probably make her life hell for all eternity.
    However, before they could reach her, Jonathan Tait appeared like some sort of modern-day savior, and not only did he pause in front of her to see if she was okay, but he then winked (and she didn’t care what Harvey said, it was most definitely a wink, not a facial tic) before he pointed across the practice field to where a fight was