Josh wriggles his eyebrows. ‘The love of a good woman?’
Owen throws a ribbon his way with a flick of his wrist. ‘Mind your business and think about your own tree wish.’
‘Fine,’ he says, stomping up to the tree and tying his ribbon to the tree trunk. From the slight flush that decorated Owen’s cheeks, I wonder if Josh’s joke had been accurate.
When Josh’s ribbon is secured he steps back for a second and places his hands on his hips, as if waiting for something to happen. After a moment he grabs his bottle of water from his backpack and unscrews the lid, leaning down to pour a generous portion of his water around the tree’s roots.
‘Ham, what are you doing?’ Elliot asks with his usual soft smirk.
‘What do you think? I’m watering our wishes,’ he replies, indignant.
I grin in response. The move is just so inexplicablyJosh.
He rights himself, but within milliseconds he’s throwing himself upon Elliot with a scream of ‘your daily blessing,’ scrubbing his fist jovially into Elliot’s freshly washed hair.
Owen doesn’t hesitate to join in this time, and Elliot eventually gives into them both and takes it with a muffled sigh.
When he emerges, he rejoins my side looking delightfully rumpled. And to be totally honest, it’s taking every shred of my willpower not to thrust my fingers into the mess of his hair and grab his lovely face and kiss it.
As we bid our farewells to the wishing tree, I give it one last fond glance.
‘Who knew Firecrest Festival was where wishes came true?’ Hennie says, giving me a pointed look. I stick my tongue out at her in response as we all make our way back to the main path. And for a minute I find myself unable to look in Elliot’s direction.
30
We keep walking on the path that will eventually lead us to Route 16. Hennie hasn’t seen the area yet and has eagerly requested a tour from our Crest Fest veterans.
Elliot offers to buy a round of iced coffees for extra fuel that we all desperately need, apart from Josh. He excitedly zips from food stall to shop to small stage to charity shop to absorb whatever is on offer. I envy his energy more than ever (as does Hennie, who whispers to Owen, ‘What do you feed him?’)
Just before we reach the dazzling sign for Route 16, Hennie points out a small path hidden between some trees to our right. It’s mostly undecorated, apart from a handful of tiny lanterns dangling from the low-hanging branches. I imagine it would look beautiful if you were to stumble upon this place at night.
‘What’s down there?’ Hennie asks.
Josh nods at the path as if it were an old friend. ‘That would be Ransom. The one who eludes me.’
‘Doesn’t look like much from here,’ Hennie notes, unimpressed.
‘Ah, ’tis the beauty of the venue!’ Josh elaborates. ‘You don’t know what you’ll find until you’re inside. It’s Firecrest legend.’
I lean forward with my hands on my knees to peer underneath the leaves hiding the sight at the end of the path. I can make out what looks like a regular front door – except for two things. The first is that it isn’t attached to any walls, only countless trees and colourful planks of wood surrounding it.
The other is that there’s a painting of a bright red lobster on it.
‘Elliot, look,’ I gasp, grabbing his wrist.
Elliot, followed by the others, crouches next to me to look through the trees.
‘Oh, shit! That can’t be a coincidence?’ Hennie says.
Josh is already shaking his head. ‘You want to try to get into Ransom?Now? We have no intel. I’vetried.’
‘Maybe we should try, just to be sure?’ I suggest, looking to Elliot.
He nods and sets off down the path first.
‘There’s no point, team,’ Josh offers, but I just shoot him a smile and usher him to follow me. ‘I’m prepped for this rejection, but I fear you are not!’
‘If we do get in, you should know that Ham will go feral,’ Owen says with a laugh.
