A Wish on Gardenia Street by Shelley Shepard Gray

Author:Shelley Shepard Gray
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

JUST AS LEONA pulled out two packages of lunch meat for Zack, the kitchen door opened and her sisters and their husbands rushed in. After arriving that morning, Rosanna and Naomi had announced that they were going to go on a shopping run. Less than an hour later, they and their husbands were off and running.

As usual, Leona felt she was moving about two steps behind.

“Hi, girls,” Naomi said as she set two sacks on the kitchen counter. “Help us unload these groceries.”

“Zack will help you. I’m making him a sandwich.”

“Sounds like you’re spoiling him already,” Rosanna teased as she, too, set down a sack.

“Making a sandwich ain’t spoiling,” Zack declared. “She’s merely being nice.”

“Zack, come out and help us get the rest of these groceries,” Michael, Rosanna’s husband, said as he walked out with David, Naomi’s husband.

Leona smiled to herself as the five of them chattered back and forth while they brought in more sacks of groceries. This bantering about nothing was what she’d always hoped to have when she’d been engaged the first time. She’d wanted a partner who got along with her family. She’d wanted to have a man who could hold his own against her bossy sisters but who also was caring and sweet and full of life. Zack was all of those things.

After spreading a thin amount of mayonnaise on the bread, she put the sandwich together, set it on a plate, and handed it to him after he set down the last sack on the counter. “Here you are,” she said with a smile.

He leaned closer. “You really didn’t mind making this for me, did ya?”

“Of course not, silly.”

To her surprise, he leaned even closer, so close that his lips brushed her ear. “I love your family, but I canna wait to have you all to myself in a ­couple of days, Leona.”

“Me too,” she whispered right back, fully aware that a fierce blush was now staining her cheeks and neck.

“Enough of that, you two,” Naomi said. “You’re not married yet.”

“Naomi, hush,” Rosanna said. “Leave them alone. They look sweet.”

Leona was sure she’d never been more embarrassed. “You two are the worst sisters ever.”

But as she’d expected, her sisters merely shrugged off her comment. “Zack, because we like you, you may sit at the table and moon over Leona,” Naomi stated with a wink.

“Danke,” he said as he sat down. But when Leona was about to sit down beside him, Rosanna shook her head.

“Not you, Leona. Since we’re all living here together in this rental house, you get to still be useful. Come help us unpack all these sacks.”

“Anything else?” Leona asked sarcastically.

“Not at the moment. Though I expect you will have to let us tease you as much as possible.”

“I’m glad things haven’t changed too much,” Leona replied. But of course she was glad things hadn’t really changed at all.

When she noticed that Zack was grinning broadly in her direction, she realized that things had, in fact, only gotten better.

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