Page 28 of Save a Wish

“I’d love to,” he said, “but I’m in the middle of something.”

“Something more important than gaming?” The woman’s voice rose up an octave. “Okay, who is this and what have you done with Beckett Hartley?”

“It’s me, you goofball,” Beckett said. “I’m helping someone who is trying to launch a business and we’re on a roll here. Raincheck on Apocalypse Attack?”

“Yeah, sure,” the woman said slowly. “But you should probably expect Leif and Melvin to at least text you to confirm because they aren’t going to believe me when I say you didn’t want to play right now.”

I tapped Beckett’s arm and he looked at me. “I can go if you—”

He immediately shook his head. “Maybe we can play tomorrow, Zia.”

“Okay. Later, dude,” the woman said.

“Later.” Beckett tapped the screen to end the call.

“Seriously,” I said. “I can go.”

“That was a friend I play video games with and I don’t want you to go.” Beckett turned those brown eyes on me. “We are on a roll with your business stuff and it’s best to ride the wave, you know? Get as much accomplished as we can while the fire is hot.”

The way he’d said the word hot and let his gaze slowly sweep over me certainly stoked a fire that had been quietly simmering since Beckett had reclined on his couch before the sound bath.

What is this feeling? I definitely hadn’t felt like this whenever I was in the presence of Cian.

Quite the opposite, in fact. Every interaction with Cian had left me cold. And dismayed. And hopeless about the future.

But interacting with Beckett? That made me feel as if anything was possible.

Chapter Ten

Beckett

What was happening to me? Zia hadn’t been wrong. The Beckett who had declined to play Apocalypse Attack when all his gaming buddies were free was not a Beckett that had appeared before today. Normally, I jumped at the chance to play, especially because the instances of all three of my online friends being available at the same time were so rare.

But I had company today.

Attractive company.

Company that needed me.

Well, she needed my know-how anyway.

And I hadn’t lied. We were on a roll. It made sense to keep . . . rolling. The sooner we had Sadie’s website up and running, the sooner she could start making money.

“Thank you for choosing to continue working with me,” Sadie said. “I’ve extended the offer of free Kalm Kingdom services into the afterlife for you.”

“Sweet, but if I need your services in the afterlife, I didn’t end up where I thought I was going to,” I joked.

“You’re definitely going to Heaven,” Sadie said. “You spent half a day—and are planning to spend more of it—with a stranger, helping her in ways she can probably never truly repay.”

“Seeing Kalm Kingdom take off will be payment enough.” I stood, gathered our plates, and brought them to the sink to rinse and put in the dishwasher.

Sadie closed the bag of chips and stashed them in the correct cupboard as if she knew where everything went in my kitchen.

And that was a pleasant notion. One I wanted to be true.

“Shall we?” I arced an arm toward the hallway that led to my office and Sadie led the way, that familiarity hitting me square in the chest again.

We settled in our seats and dove back in, polishing the website, designing and ordering business cards, and making several versions of a flyer. By the time we came up for air, darkness had crept in outside.