Secret North: Book 4 of The Wishes Series (43 page)

“Yes I just do!” she shouted, making Adam and Charli laugh.

Putting her wings on wasn’t simple. Ryan spun her around so she was facing her audience. It was the perfect distraction. She couldn’t see that he was trussing her up with more than wings.

“Are you sure about this, Ryan?” asked Adam cautiously.

I could understand his nervousness. From what I could make out, his daughter was being connected to a pulley system.

“I didn’t rig it,” he replied. “It was done professionally.”

“She’ll be fine,” whispered Charli, leaning in to him. “There are no rules in magic.”

“There are rules in safety, Charlotte,” Adam muttered back.

“Are you ready, Bridge?” asked Ryan.

She stumbled back as he tugged the cable. “What for?”

Ryan crouched in front of her. “I want to tell you something,” he began. “These wings are magic.”

“I know. I love them.”

“They’re going to make you fly.”

Bridget’s big blue eyes grew enormous. “Really?”

“Yes,” he confirmed. “They’re super special. The only time you can fly is if you’re wearing these wings. Do you understand?”

She nodded at a rate of knots. “Okay.”

“I mean it, Bridget,” he warned sternly. “You mustn’t ever try flying without these wings.”

“I won’t,” she promised, getting impatient. “Make me fly now, please.”

He took a step back and held both hands up. “I can’t make you fly,” he told her. You have to wish for it.”

The curtain at the back fluttered and a man appeared from behind the stage as if cued. He walked to Bridget and began fussing with her back. The little girl was so keyed up she didn’t even notice. I could feel the relief wafting off Adam. If there was a chance that Ryan hadn’t hooked her up safely, she was definitely good to go now.

The man gave someone out of view a thumbs up.

The uncle-of-the-millennium stepped aside. “Ready?” he asked.

“Born ready!”

“Wish hard, Bridge,” called Charli, between fits of giggles.

The little girl squeezed her eyes shut as if wishing took a mammoth effort. Perhaps it did. Wishes certainly couldn’t be seen. Maybe they could be felt.

The pulley above Bridget started turning and the girl with the ambition to fly lifted off. If that didn’t make a believer out of her, nothing would. By the time she opened her eyes, she was already a couple of feet off the floor.

“Get me higher to the sky, please.” She asked politely but it was definitely a demand.

“Wish harder then,” Ryan urged.

The more height Bridget gained, the more she moved. Her body swayed from side to side, ten feet off the ground. Her legs flailed and her arms waved as if she was treading water. It was impossible not to laugh – at least, that’s what Adam and I were doing. Charli was clinging to Adam, racked by silent sobs. I expected no less from her. For her, the moment would’ve been huge.

It was a big moment for Ryan too. I studied him as he stood looking up at the girl butterfly. He looked completely victorious, and rightly so. He’d just pulled off the impossible and given Bridget her wings back.

73. SWEET NOTHINGS

Ryan

If beauty sleep was an integral part of a bride’s preparations on the night before her wedding, Bente was screwed. I woke just after five to find her trashing the bedroom.

“What are you doing?” I mumbled.

Clothes were flying thick and fast as she pulled them out of the pink drawers and tossed them over her shoulder. “I can’t find your tie. I need to find it.”

“It’s hanging up with my suit.” I closed my eyes and pointed blindly at the closet. “Right where we left it.”

“Are you sure?”

The absolute panic in her voice woke me properly.

“Positive.” I propped myself on my elbow. “Come back to bed,” I suggested with a jerk of my head.

“I can’t,” she replied. “I have stuff to do.”

I looked at the clock and quickly did some mental math. “We’re getting married in ten hours. You can spare a minute.”

After a bit more coaxing, Bente reluctantly crawled into my arms. She was so stiff that trying to mould her into a decent cuddling position was akin to bending wire.

“Do you think we’re ready for this, Ryan?” she asked. I slid my hands down her legs. “What are you doing?”

“Checking the temperature of your feet,” I teased, grabbing them.

Finally she laughed and the effect was immediate. Tension slipped away and her body melted against mine.

“No cold feet,” she assured me, curling against my side. “I just don’t know if I’m ready for today. This wedding is going to be a big deal.”

“It’s one day, sweetheart.” I’d used that line a million times lately. Even to my ears it was wearing thin.

“I get stage fright,” she admitted. “It’s horrible. I can’t even breathe it’s so bad.”

I pulled her in closer, tucking her head under my chin. “You’ll be fine.”

“I hope so,” she uttered. “That’s why I don’t sing in front of people. Big crowds freak me out. It never used to bother me as a kid.”

“That’s because you had wings back then.” I grimaced, unable to believe that I’d actually said that out loud.

“I wish I still had them,” she whispered.

“You sang at the club,” I reminded, drawing a lazy pattern down her spine with my fingertips. “You had an audience then.”

“I kept my eyes shut,” she confessed. “I didn’t see any of them.”

I thought back to the night in question, picturing my little red firecracker up on the dusty stage. Her body was moving, her hands were drifting – and her eyes were welded shut. “I thought you were just in the zone.”

“I was in the zone, Ry,” she agreed. “The zone between peeing my pants and collapsing. I got through it by closing my eyes.”

I tried not to laugh, but failed. “Do the same thing at the church then,” I suggested.

“You want me to walk down the aisle with my eyes closed?”

“Yeah. We’ll attach a lead to Malibu and she can guide you, like one of those Labradors that assist the blind.”

Tightening my hold on her as she tried wriggling free was only effective for a few seconds. The sharp elbow she delivered to my ribs ended the battle quickly. Bente leapt off the bed and stood too far out of my reach for me to make another grab for her. “You are not funny, Ryan Décarie!”

“Look,” I contritely began, “all you have to do is make it to the end of the runway without peeing your pants – and if by chance you do pee your pants, I’ll still marry you.”

“Wonderful.” She slapped her hands down on her sides. “You’re all heart.”

“I’m only half hearted these days, Miss Denison,” I corrected. “You have the other half.”

Her scowl slipped in an instant. Even I was impressed by the impromptu sentiment. Until then I hadn’t realised I was capable of sweet nothings.

“I got your heart?” she asked in the tiniest of voices.

“Yeah,” I confirmed. “Just like you promised you would.”

The second she threw herself across the bed and back into my arms where she belonged, I knew that for now the crisis had been averted. All we had to do was make it through the next ten hours. If we could pull that off, the rest of our lives would be a cinch.

74. BAD OMENS

Bente

The instructional phone calls from the queen began just after eight. I was sitting at the counter trying to eat the breakfast Ryan had insisted on cooking when she rang for the third time.

“One more thing, darling. You need to be at Charli’s no later than ten,” she told me. “The hair and makeup team will be there at quarter past.”

“There’s a team?” I asked, horrified. “We need a team?”

“It’s a figure of speech, darling,” she soothed. “As far as I know there are only three.”

I only had one head. How I was supposed to cope with three people pawing at me at once was beyond me, but like the good bride I was trying to be, I promised to be there on time. As a reward, Fiona ended the call. “I have to go, darling,” she crooned. “Much to do.”

I went back to pushing eggs around my plate “You’ve got to eat something,” Ryan told me. “You might not get chance again for a while.” He made it sound as if I was gearing up for battle, which did nothing for my appetite.

I slid the plate away. “What are your plans for the day?”

He glanced at his watch. “Well, I’m getting married at three.”

“What about before three?”

He smiled at me, and it was perfect. “I’ll probably get dressed, watch
The Little Mermaid
for the last time as a single man and then wait for Adam to get here.”

“Sounds like an easy day.” I felt jealous.

“I need to take it easy,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows. “I have a long night ahead of me.”

I hung my head to hide my smile. He needed no encouragement. I could never have predicted three months ago that the arrogant man with the smart mouth and painful sting would turn out to be the best thing that had ever happened to me. I was just about to tell him so when my phone rang again.

“I’ll get it,” offered Ryan.

I pushed his hand away. “It’s okay. It’s Ivy.”

He swiped it off the counter anyway. “Ivy.”

As hard as I tried, I couldn’t make head or tail of the conversation. Ivy was doing most of the talking. Ryan’s responses were grunts, but his eyes never left mine, which was my biggest hint that the conversation wasn’t pleasant.

As soon as he ended the short call, I demanded an explanation.

He walked around the counter. I knew it was terrible news. All I could do was brace myself.

“There’s been a slight change of plans,” he said, easing into it.

Working quickly to offload the drama, he explained in a jumbled rush.

Ivy, Fabergé and Malibu were sick.

“She thinks it’s food poisoning,” he told me. “It’s pretty bad. They’re not going to be able to make it to the wedding.”

“But I need them, Ry,” I replied.

Ryan didn’t speak. He just stood there, giving me time to let the news sink in.

“They have to be there,” I whispered desperately. “Do something.”

I don’t know what I was expecting him to do. He might’ve been a recent convert to magic, but we needed a miracle to sort this mess out.

“You know Ivy would give anything to be able to make it,” he said quietly. “They’re really ill.”

I couldn’t believe it was happening. Apart from a few distant relatives, none of my family were going to be at my wedding.

“It’s a bad omen,” I warned, wringing my hands. “We broke too many rules.”

“What rules?”

“You saw my dress.” My tone made it sound like a wicked deed. “That’s bad luck. We spent the night before the wedding together too. More bad luck.”

“We’re not superstitious,” he pointed out; “therefore the rules don’t apply.”

I nodded a hundred times, willing myself to accept his words as true. “We can do this,” I gritted, trying to psyche myself up.

His hands moved to my face, holding my head still as he spoke. “Promise me you’ll be there,” Ryan demanded. “I’ll look like a total dick if you leave me standing at the altar.”

I tried to laugh. “I’ll be there.”

“Awesome.” He kissed me hard. It wasn’t sweet and romantic. It was more like a moral building exercise. “I’ll be there too.”

75. STUPID MEN

Ryan

It wasn’t our regular driver who picked Bente up and delivered her to Charli’s apartment that morning. I knew that because I watched her leave from the front window, making sure that she got in the car instead of making a run for it. I hadn’t let on, but her nervousness had rubbed off on me. When my brother arrived a few hours later I was a wreck, and his cheery demeanour did nothing to settle me.

“Ready?” he asked, strolling through the front door in a suit identical to mine.

I made no attempt to get off the couch. “I’m having trouble with this,” I confessed, waving my black tie at him in surrender.

Adam ordered me to get up. “How many times have you tied a tie in your life?” he asked, taking it from me.

“More times than I’ve been married.”

Adam threw the tie around my neck. “Nervous?”

“Only because I’m not convinced that she’s going to show up.”

“I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t,” he teased. “You’d be a lot to take on permanently.”

“Not helping, Adam,” I told him. “Seriously.”

He slapped my shoulders, shaking me. “She’ll be there,” he assured me. “She was getting dressed when I left.”

That was a good sign. Other than church, I could think of no other place she could go wearing a big white dress and a veil.

“Would it be bad manners if we got drunk now?”

“Yeah,” he replied, finishing off the knot at my throat. “But one drink won’t hurt.”