Wishes Read Online Free Page A

tissue and waiting for today, when she and Jonathan Carr would be handfasted again. They’d planned to be married by now, but something always came up to interfere. Besides, a handfasting was cheaper and more fun than a wedding.
    The highlight of the Beltane festival is in the evening, when a bonfire is built up high, and couples in love hold hands and jump over it. Most of the couples are young and don’t have any trouble leaping over the fire, but there are options if you don’t want to do that. Because of their advanced age, Agnes and Jonathan would probably just step sedately over a glowing coal. Too bad for them. Leaping over the fire is a rush. Anyway, however you do it, fire-dancing is the sign that you’re committed to someone. That you love them and they love you.
    I think that’s really what made Agnes look so pretty. At thirty-eight, she’d been waiting a long time to fall in love, but it had been worth the wait. Jonathan was a great guy, attentive, caring, and devoted to the woman he loved.
    The opposite of Peter Shaw.
    “The weather will be nice, I hear,” Gram said, setting a platter of bacon and eggs in front of me. It didn’t matter that I worked in a restaurant kitchen after school. Gram always cooked for me when I stayed at her house.
    “Will you and Peter be jumping the fire?” she asked me. I grunted noncommittally because, to tell the truth, I didn’t know.
    Fortunately, my non-answer was allowed to slide because the kitchen phone rang. “It’s for you,” Gram said, handing me the phone. “Peter.”
    I closed my eyes. I knew it. He was going to cancel.
    “Katy?”
    “Don’t tell me. You can’t make it.”
    “Yes, I can. I’ll just be a little late. Jeremiah wants me to take him to the airport. I don’t want to hold your family up, so go on without me, and I’ll catch up to you.”
    Well, okay. It could have been worse, but I still wasn’t happy. “Fine,” I said. “Thanks for letting me know.” I meant to sound casual, but I think I came off as mean.
    “He’s paying me a hundred dollars.”
    “Lucky you.”
    “Um, yeah,” Peter said uncertainly. I could tell he was trying to gauge how angry I was.
    Sometimes I can be such a pill. I should have changed my tone, I knew, but I didn’t. “I’ll see you when you get the time,” I said coldly.
    “Oh.” He sounded defeated. “Okay, I’ll see you there.”
    “Is Peter working again?” Gram asked when I handed the phone back to her.
    “Big surprise.”
    “Peter is conscientious and responsible,” Agnes said in her schoolteacher’s voice. “You ought to be grateful.”
    That was really annoying. “That’s easy for you to say,” I snapped, tossing my fork onto my plate with a clatter. “Jonathan always shows up for you when he says he will. He doesn’t put you last every time. He doesn’t cancel out on everything that’s fun.”
    “Peter has three jobs,” Agnes pointed out. “He goes to school, he works at Hattie’s, and he’s interning at Shaw Enterprises.”
    “Interning,” I scoffed. “He’s a gofer for his uncle.”
    “Jeremiah Shaw is the most influential man in Whitfield,” my aunt said, continuing her unwanted harangue. “If Peter can get a leg up in Shaw Enterprises, his future will be assured.”
    “Having a career isn’t the most important thing in life, Aunt Agnes,” I said caustically.
    “No, it isn’t,” Gram put in, holding up her spatula like a scepter. “ Family is. And Jeremiah is the only family Peter has. Would you have him break that one tie to all the generations of the Shaw bloodline just so he could pay attention to you?”
    “Yes!” I shouted. I know I sounded childish, but once the word was out of my mouth, I couldn’t take it back.
    “I see,” Gram said, turning back to the stove with that New England indifference that was like shutting a door in your face.
    Agnes tutted disapprovingly.
    “Would you care for breakfast, Agnes?” Gram asked.
    I knew I was being