When You Wish (Contemporary Romance) Read Online Free Page A

real office and maybe hire a real secretary. The Jewels should really devote all their time to making the quilts they were becoming famous for.
    Grace took the chair behind the desk, and Dan took the one on the other side. The metal creaked beneath his weight and they both winced.
    “Now, Doctor—” He raised an eyebrow. “I mean, Dan, you’d like more information about Project Hope? You wish to make a donation? Money? Blankets? Time? Or maybe you can help me distribute the blankets. I have to tell you, I don’t have any hospital contacts yet. I’m still waiting for final word on a grant.”
    “That’s why I’m here.”
    It was Grace’s turn to be confused. “The grant? You’re from Mrs. Cabilla?”
    “No, or at least not in the way you think.” He sighed, then stood and paced the tight confines of the office. His size made the movement ridiculous, and he stopped with a growl of impatience, placing both hands in the center of Grace’s desk and looming over her. “I’m the man who’s spent five years trying to discover a way to prevent paronychial infections. If Mrs. Cabilla gives the money to Project Hope, everything I’ve done thus far will be worth nothing.”
    Grace stood. She wasn’t going to let him loom over her. She knew that tactic for the intimidation ploy it was. Though why he wanted to intimidate her she had no idea. “I don’t understand.”
    “I’m sure you don’t. That’s why I came to talk to you. I want you to withdraw your grant application. If you don’t, thousands, perhaps millions, of people will suffer.”
     
     
    She’d ordered him out of her office, followed him down the stairs and shooed him out the front door. Good riddance! She wasn’t letting Dr. Daniel Chadwick into her home again. The nerve of the man! Trying to take her money. Trying to kill her dream. Trying to imply that Project Hope was a joke and his research oh, so very important.
    But paronychial infections did sound serious—and painful.
    “Arrgh!” She slammed the door and stomped back up the stairs. Luckily the jewels were just deaf enough not to notice her grumbling and stamping, because she didn’t want to talk to anyone right then. She wanted to stew and fume, then she’d call Mrs. Cabilla and settle this once and for all.
    Grace was not going to let Dr. Dan make her feel unworthy. If his research was so great, people would be standing in line to give him money. He didn’t need to take away the only chance she had to make a wish, a dream, and a promise, come true.
    Grace crossed to the window overlooking the street and peeked around the curtain. He still stood next to his car, gazing at the house.
    How could such a jerk be so cute? How could such a creep have such an incredible body? How could such a . . . a . . . a stiff pretend to be such a nice guy?
    Dan’s wide shoulders slumped and he shook his head. For a moment he looked so dejected, Grace felt kind of bad. Then she reminded herself who and what he was: the enemy of her dream.
    “Grace?”
    “Hmm?”
    She continued to stare out the window as he got in his car and drove out of her life forever. Good riddance, she thought once more. So why did she feel so bereft?
    Aunt Em joined her at the window, but there was nothing left to see except a distant Lake Illusion sparkling in the sheen of the late afternoon sun. “What did Dr. Magnificent want?”
    Grace smiled. Em never changed. Men were her forte. “He was, wasn’t he?”
    “Magnificent? You bet your moccasins. If he hadn’t been looking at you like the last cream puff on the dessert tray, I might have snapped him up. But even with my extensive know-how, I doubt I’d be able to seduce that man away from you.”
    “He won’t be looking at me again, and I won’t be looking at him.”
    “Did he go medical on you?” Em asked.
    Em had no patience for those who didn’t understand magic and mystery. Her grandmother had been a healer in Ireland and passed the knowledge of herbs and the