What You Wish For by Kerry Reichs Read Free Book Online Page B

With a wave, the small-framed detention master headed to his car.
    Minutes turned to quarter hours. All pretenses at diverting himself abandoned, Wyatt stared at every car driving close to the school entrance, most continuing on by. There was a wave of activity around 5:30 PM as athletes and coaches left the fields and headed home. Still Wyatt sat.
    Wyatt rarely got drunk, but he periodically had moments that felt like being drunk. This was one of them. It was today that he’d spoken to Ilana? He checked the calendar on his phone. Yes, there it was. She had said between three and four thirty? Yes, he was certain she had. They had agreed to meet at the school? It went on and on, Wyatt dissecting every nuance of their conversation to see if he’d forgotten or misunderstood any element.
    By five forty-five most doctors’ offices were closed. It was unmistakable that Ilana wasn’t coming. Wyatt was crushed, and irritated at the burning behind his eyes. Some days he swore he was pregnant too, emotions uncharacteristically at the surface. He focused on the positive. His absence didn’t change the outcome. Ilana would have the full evaluation, not just sex, but also heart, brain, kidneys, stomach, and bones. There would be sonogram images. She’d tell him all about it and it would be like being there.
    At 5:59 PM he accepted defeat and dialed his cousin Eva.

Eva Goes to Dinner
    E va smiled fondly at her cousin as he slid into the car. It was always amusing to watch Wyatt fold his proper frame into the MINI Cooper convertible.
    “Top down okay?”
    “Definitely. You look pretty.” He complimented her, even though she could tell something was on his mind.
    Eva was the epitome of “pretty,” a china doll with wide blue eyes, natural platinum hair, and delicate features. To Eva, being pretty wasn’t anything to be cocky about. It was more of a relief. Life seemed harder for people who weren’t pretty. Pretty wasted less time fussing and got out the door quicker. That’s what mattered to Eva.
    One of the things Eva liked about Wyatt was that while he never failed to give her compliments, her looks had nothing to do with his approval. To Eva, Wyatt was the kind of family that was both born and created—they were first cousins, stepping up for each other in the void of siblings. Wyatt was her emergency contact, her support system.
    “Nice elbow patches. Rooting in the seventies portion of the closet today?”
    “Nice skirt. Where’s the rest of it?”
    “You are your mother’s son.” Eva had thought that gingham dresses only happened in pioneer stories for girls until she’d visited her aunt in Minnesota. Her own mother, the vivid, wild-haired Cynthia, had run away from the farm to dance in L.A. when she was seventeen.
    “Nice air freshener,” Wyatt said. A pine-scented Chuck Norris was dangling from Eva’s rearview mirror. Chuck Norris was Eva’s hero. “It’s like a five-dollar security system.”
    “If Chuck Norris has five dollars and you have five dollars, Chuck Norris has more money than you,” Eva said.
    “If I had a million bucks and Chuck Norris had a wooden nickel, he’d have more money than me,” Wyatt said.
    “What happened?”
    “Ilana was supposed to pick me up for the twenty-week sonogram appointment but never showed.” Worry threaded his voice.
    “That woman needs to join the twenty-first century and get a cell phone.” Eva hadn’t taken to Ilana.
    Wyatt stared distractedly out the window.
    “Let’s go by the doctor’s office,” Eva offered. “I’ve got time before dinner.” She didn’t, but Bryan would understand.
    “I don’t know where it is.” Wyatt sighed. “You’d better take me home.”
    “Why don’t you come to dinner with us?” Eva didn’t want to leave Wyatt alone to brood. He was a brooder. “Bryan won’t mind.” Bryan would totally mind.
    “I appreciate the offer, but you know I’m going to brood, so you might as well take me home to get on with it.”