Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

I woke next to Penny, rolling onto my back to stare at the ceiling with a deep breath. Quiet snores fell from her mouth and filled the room. When I turned to look at her, I lost my breath at the sight of her wild hair and pink cheeks. The blanket was draped loosely over her chest, her bare skin shining in the morning sun. When I shifted again to reach for my water bottle on the nightstand, I felt the ache of the night before.

I gulped down half the water bottle, then pushed myself out of bed. The floor was freezing beneath my bare feet, and I pranced to the bathroom. Once inside, I peered at myself in the mirror. My red hair was in knots atop my head, and the blush beneath my freckles seemed permanent. I splashed some cold water on my face and brushed my hair, noticing the small purple marks littering my neck and inner thighs.

Memories flashed in my mind of Penny’s hands, Penny’s lips… Penny.

After I cleaned myself up, I did my best to open the bathroom door as quietly as possible. As soon as I did, though, Sprite appeared at my feet and let out the loudest meow I’d ever heard. I shushed the cat, but Penny’s eyes fluttered and she stretched at the noise.

“Sorry to wake you.” I winced as I stepped around Sprite to make my way back to the bed.

Penny rolled toward me, her eyes drooping with sleep. Without thinking, I leaned forward and kissed her. She blinked in surprise, returning the kiss and then sitting up and touching her lips.

“I don’t normally sleep with people I just met,” she said quietly. The rasp of her voice went straight through me.

“Neither do I,” I echoed.

“It must have been the wishes. They’re like catnip around here.”

I tilted my head. “What are you trying to say?”

Penny shook out her hands. “We don’t even know each other. It’s far too early for me to be this delighted by having you in my bed. I mean, god, the morning sun on your-” She trailed off, her eyes roaming down my chest. I swore I heard her whimper. “Anyway,” she cleared her throat, “you don’t even know if you’re staying or going.”

I leaned back against her headboard. “How about we start with coffee?”

“Coffee?” She echoed, nodding to herself. “We can do coffee.”

I didn’t believe in magic. I’d never believed in wishes before.

But I believed in love and attraction and that the people who were meant to find each other always did.

I’d forgotten that when I lost Anna. I forgot that there was beauty in the world, and love in the air. I was so focused on healing the gaping wound in my heart that I couldn’t stop to think about human connection and its power to heal the soul.

I left home less than forty-eight hours ago to make Anna’s wish, and everything was so different.

Penny and I changed and prepared for the day, though she was quieter than she’d been yesterday. When we set off on a walk from the inn, she pointed out a few pennies cast into the sidewalk, saying they brought good luck to all who walked this path.

“How did this place get its reputation, anyway? How did people figure out they can make wishes here?” I asked while we walked.

Penny shrugged. “Human nature, I guess. One person made a wish, and it came true. Then another, and another, and suddenly we’re the town where wishes come true.” She kicked a rock gently. “The town is a great tourist attraction for those who don’t believe in wishes. Which is fine; it keeps businesses like mine open. For those of us who call it home, though, the wishes are almost sacred. We only make them when we really need to. When we have no other choice.”

“And wishes about kissing pretty girls?” I asked.

Penny blushed brighter than a thousand suns. “Was selfish,” she admitted. I frowned, but she continued before I could question her, “And I would do it again a thousand times over.”

I drew in a breath. “Who are you, Penny Brookside?”

“I could ask you the same thing, Agnes Fallon.”

We both smiled.

“You don’t have to tell me your wish,” Penny said as we approached the coffee shop. “But I have a feeling I’m your answer.”

I thought about what I’d wished for.

I wish to live a life Anna would be proud of.

The wish was vague, barely enough to qualify as a wish. They were the only words I could think of as I tossed Anna’s wish into the waterfall, the best way I could think to honor my sister at that moment and every moment after that. Anna lived for twelve minutes before I was born; she’d lived in a world without me. I was never supposed to live in a world without her, and if I dedicated myself to going on all the adventures she never could, maybe I wouldn’t have to.

But then, I thought of Anna’s wish.

I wish for an everlasting love. A movie kind of love. A love worth living for.

As I watched Penny order her coffee, I felt that pull again. Something in the air that physically drew me closer to her and made it so I couldn’t possibly look anywhere but at her.

I wondered if whatever wish magic was in Harluck combined our wishes and somehow gave me… everything.

“What’s your coffee order?” Penny asked. “Hey, you okay?”

She must have noticed the spooked look on my face—or perhaps I’d gone pale in the realization that I hadn’t only wished for a fulfilling life, I’d wished for love too. I stumbled a few steps back, placing my hands on the back of the nearest chair to stabilize myself.

“Agnes,” Penny said, placing her hand on my arm. “Are you alright?”

I looked at her again, my eyes wide. And just like every time I’d looked at her since I saw her in the lobby for the first time, my world moved in slow motion, pulsing around me like all that mattered was her.

“Do you believe in love?” I asked.

She tilted her head, a small smile teasing her lips. “Are you saying you love me?”

I shook my head, laughing. “I think I’m supposed to. I think I’m going to.”

Penny slipped her fingers through mine and drew in a breath. “My mama used to tell me I would know when I found the person I was meant to spend my life with. I always thought she was crazy. How was I supposed to look at someone and just know?” She licked her lips, raising my hand to her mouth to kiss my knuckles. “I suppose that’s Harluck.”

“That’s Harluck,” I murmured. My chest felt heavy. “Can we step outside?”

Penny held my hand patiently while we slipped outside into the cold November air. I gulped it down, watching my breath fan around us in puffs. Penny’s free hand rubbed my back as I struggled to gain control of my pounding heart.

“Agnes, nothing needs to be decided today. What if we just… took it slow?”

“Took it slow,” I echoed.

“Sure. We could go out to dinner tonight? And maybe breakfast tomorrow?” Penny smiled. The morning clouds parted and lit up her pretty green eyes, probably just to send me reeling into agreement.

“That means I have to stay in Harluck, a place I’ve been less than a day, to take a chance on a woman I barely know because of a wish,” I said. “Doesn’t that sound a little crazy to you?”

Penny’s grin grew impossibly wider. “What would Anna do?”

I opened my mouth to argue before clamping it shut. If my sister found out what her future could be, she would grab it with both hands and never let go.

I wish to live a life Anna would be proud of.

I looked away from Penny, taking in the town around me—from the local market to the bookstore where I knew Penny’s sister worked. I saw a flower shop and a tailor. A woman walking her dog and a middle-aged couple walking through the streets. Cars and trucks drove slowly through the town's center, admiring every unique corner and brick.

I wondered if they felt it.

The same thing I felt when I drove into this town, and felt again as I took it all in.

The magic.

I still wasn’t sure how it had happened, but I had stumbled across a town made of magic, nestled deep in the mountains of North Carolina—a state I thought I had seen everything from.

If Anna were alive, and she’d made her wish herself, every part of this would be different. I might have come with her to appease her dream, but I certainly wouldn’t have made a wish of my own. I certainly wouldn’t have wished for love.

And yet, I was so sure that her wish was given to me along with my own.

“Anna would never walk away from this,” I finally told Penny, breathing in the breeze as it rushed through the air.

She almost replied, but paused as the wind continued to sing through the trees. I listened harder, wishing I could hear the sound of Anna’s laugh through the leaves again—like I had the day before.

As soon as I wished it, there it was.

Penny must have heard it too—or maybe something completely different—because her smile softened and she turned to face me. “And what about you, Agnes? Are you going to walk away from this?”

Anna’s laughter echoed in the wind for a moment longer, lifting my soul higher and higher into the sunshine. For the first time in seven months, I didn’t feel so alone. I wasn’t sure whether that was because some part of her now lived in the mountains around Harluck, or because there was a gorgeous woman holding my hand and waiting for my answer. I thought about every wish that came before me, every hopeless soul that stumbled into Harluck and left with everything they ever wanted. Women who wished for children, children who wanted the pain to stop, couples who longed for true love.

And me… who wanted to live.

I took Penny’s hand. “Let’s get some coffee.”