Summer of Two Wishes by Julia London Read Free Book Online

suddenly entered the screen and sat on Finn’s right. She slipped her hand into his. Wyatt grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.
    The journalist was asking Finn about his escape. He told her in a flat way, like he’d said it one hundred times already, that after years of being chained, he was allowed an hour for exercise, and a careless mistake had given him the opportunity to escape: they forgot to lock the gate. He’d heard Coalition forces were nearby and had started running in that direction. He said he didn’t expect to make it, that he expected to die.
    The journalist then asked if there was a certain food he wanted to eat now that he was home. “Nah, I don’t care,” Finn said in a charming drawl. “Just as long as it’s made in America,” he added, and Macy smiled adoringly at him.
    Wyatt felt sick. He held up the remote with the intention of turning it off when the journalist said, “I know that there must be many difficulties in reintegrating with your old life now, but can you tell us what you were feeling when you learned Macy had remarried?”
    Wyatt’s heart stopped. Macy’s smile faded, and she looked at Finn. “Shocked,” he said simply, looking at Macy.
    “That must have been awful to learn after all that time in captivity. Were you angry?” the journalist asked softly.
    “Jackass,” Wyatt muttered.
    Finn shrugged a little. “Not angry. Just shocked. A lot can happen in three years.”
    “So where do you go from here, Macy?” the journalist asked, shifting his attention.
    “She goes back to her husband, you jackass!” Wyatt shouted at the TV.
    “Well, we’ll…we’ll just take it a day at a time,” Macy said, looking at Finn. “Right now, we’re all just celebrating the fact that Finn is alive and safe at home, where he belongs.” She smiled. Finn did not.
    “She has to say that, you know,” Linda Gail said.
    Wyatt jumped—he hadn’t even heard her come in.
    “If you think this stuff isn’t scripted, then you don’t know your government,” she added as she tossed a couple of files into his inbox.
    Wyatt turned off the TV. “I don’t want to listen to that garbage in here,” he said. “It’s a waste of your valuable time.”
    “Oh, I can spare a few minutes to keep up with what’s going on in the world,” Linda Gail drawled, “especially when that world is calling here several times a day.” She put her hands on her wide hips and watched Wyatt take his seat. “How are you holding up?”
    “Me?” He did not look at her. “I’m fine. Just fine. Did the environmental report come in on the Bleecher property?”
    “Fine.” Linda Gail snorted. “You’re so fine you forgot that you looked at the Bleecher report yesterday. Well the offer still stands, Wyatt. Davis and I would love to have you over for dinner while Macy is away. I can’t stand to think of you in that big house alone watching all this news coverage.”
    Wyatt knew all of Cedar Springs was buzzing about this. The local Austin TV stations and several national stations had been out to film their picturesque downtown. Wyatt’s friend Randy Hawkins had told him that the new mayor, Nancy Keller, saw this as an opportunity to spruce the town up. She’d run on a platform of revitalization, and with all the national attention their little town was receiving, she’d managed to convince the city council to do a bit of landscaping around the square.
    “That’s the difference between you and me. I don’t watch it,” Wyatt lied. “I’ve got work to do, Linda Gail.”
    He opened one of the files she’d left for him.
    “God forbid you actually accept a helping hand,” Linda Gail sighed, and went out, shutting the door behind her and leaving him blessedly alone.
    Wyatt tossed the file aside and removed his cell phone from his belt and glanced at it, hoping he’d missed a call. Maybe Macy had called before she’d gone on that program, but the truck had been so loud he hadn’t heard it.
    No