Your Wish: A Kinley Island Novel by Raleigh Ruebins

Author:Raleigh Ruebins [Ruebins, Raleigh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-09T16:00:00+00:00

16

Charlie

“Uncle C! Uncle C!”

The minute I opened the door of my car, Kelsey was running toward me, wrapping her arms around my legs.

“It’s the Kelsinator!” I said, picking her up and giving her the biggest hug I ever had. I swung her around in the air and she giggled uncontrollably.

“I missed you Uncle C!”

“I missed you so much too. And who is this? Is that the Aidenator?”

Aiden grinned up at me. “Hi, Uncle C.”

I picked him up and gave him the same spin that I had done for Kelsey.

“It’s so good to see you, Char,” James said, wrapping me in a big bear hug a few moments later. Stacey was behind him, and she hugged me afterwards, though it was a much weaker embrace.

“Hi, Charlie,” she said.

“Hey, Stace,” I said, stepping back. “I hope you’re all ready to build some gingerbread houses?”

“I’m going to build a gingerbread castle!” Kelsey said, jumping around on the pavement.

I’d found out from Ben that Kinley Island had an annual gingerbread house making contest that took place at the big library at the center of the island. It was the first night that my family was in town, and I’d decided to take them and show them that Kinley Island could be fun and kid-friendly.

And I could already tell from the totally full parking lot that this was a big deal in Kinley, and there were plenty of people and kids still filing inside. Normally it would have been a personal hell for me, but having James with me always made everything easier. It wasn’t like my brother was a shield for me, but in any social situations, he had always made me feel calmer. It felt like a miracle having him here in Kinley.

“This place is beautiful,” James said, looking over at the library, tucked between so many pine trees that had been strung with Christmas lights and garland.

“They say we might get a little bit of snow tonight, too,” I said.

“Oh no,” Stacey said.

“Nothing crazy. Just a bit of flurries, I think.”

“If it gets bad, we need to head straight back to the inn,” Stacey warned.

“It shouldn’t get bad. And I’m excited to make gingerbread houses,” I said.

“Me too!” Kelsey said.

“Me three!” Aiden added.

“Perfect,” I said. “We’re going to make the best gingerbread house Kinley Island has ever seen, guys.”

I had needed an outlet tonight. For the past week, Dean had been unavailable after flying back to New York to meet with the Norwegian firm again. It seemed to be taking up so much of his time, and for all I knew, he’d been hooking up with all kinds of people over in New York. That was what Dean Aldridge did. I had no reason to believe any of that would change just for me. We weren’t dating.

Tonight, I was going to get my mind off him.

I felt my phone in my pocket and slipped it out. Dean’s name lit up the screen, almost as if he had known I was thinking about him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.