28
Brynn
“Uber Eats,” he says, laughing as I swing the door open. “Get it?” He holds up the white box. “Like the night we met and—”
“I get it.”
He steps inside, and I immediately kick the door closed. I’m far less enthused about what’s waiting for me inside the box compared to that night several days ago.
“So how exactly will this work?”
Sheldon was surprisingly agreeable when I proposed he let Josh go home tonight. I was prepared to beg, plead, and offer up my firstborn, but Sheldon just smiled when I suggested it, seeming rather pleased with the whole idea.
“It works the exact same way the original cake did. You make a wish, you blow out the candle, and when Josh Bishop wakes up tomorrow morning, he will be warm and cozy in his very own bed. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.”
Which will give him plenty of time to get up north and buy his dad’s bar back.
“Will he remember what happened?”
Sheldon hesitates ever so slightly as he sets the box down on the counter. “He should remember everything. There’s no reason why he wouldn’t, but wishes can be finicky things. I can make no guarantees.”
Josh might not decide to go up north if he doesn’t remember. And if he doesn’t buy his dad’s bar back, this whole plan is a waste. Not to mention he’ll have no recollection of the time we spent together here.
“Relax.” Sheldon’s voice is eerily calm. “It will all work out exactly as it’s supposed to. Have you forgotten where you are?”
I haven’t forgotten. How can I? The place where everything ends up as it’s meant to be—or at least I once thought so.
Sheldon opens the lid of the box. The cake is identical to the original one from back home and from the window of Bake a Wish. Same white icing. Same rainbow sprinkles. Even the birthday candle nestled in its center is the same. It’s adorably innocent-looking, considering its power.
Sheldon pulls a lighter from his back pocket. He flicks his thumb, igniting an orange flame that flickers eerily in front of his face before he holds it up to the candle. I step in close and inhale, but he pulls the cake away.
“Uh, uh, uh. I’m not leaving any room for funny business. I want to hear your wish out loud.”
I had anticipated this. Although I would have happily taken negligence on Sheldon’s part to wish both Josh and me home tonight, the plan felt a little too easy.
“Fine. But before I do, I want to make sure we are clear on our agreement.”
Sheldon crosses his arms over his chest. “Go on.”
“I will wish Josh to go home tonight, and in exchange, I will stay here and give Sloan the ending she deserves.”
Sheldon’s lips curl into a slow smile. “That’s the deal.”
There’s something in his smile that bugs me. I don’t know if it’s because it doesn’t quite match the look in his eyes or because maybe I’ve lost my faith in this place.
“To be clear, I win the pageant, Sloan and Spencer fall in love, and then I go home too just like our original agreement, right?”
His smile falters. It’s the tiniest twitch.
“What aren’t you telling me, Sheldon?”
He holds up his palms. “I’m not hiding anything. Our agreement is very straightforward. Sloan gets her happy ending, to be with Spencer…forever.”
All at once, I see the fatal flaw in my plan. Sheldon’s loophole. Why this all felt a little too easy.
“So I’ll never be able to go home?”
Sheldon drops his hands with a feigned dramatic sigh. “Is that really such a bad thing?”
My blood cools to the temperature of ice. I’ve been played. Hoodwinked. Right from the very beginning.
“Was that your plan all along? To keep us here indefinitely?”
Sheldon makes no effort to hide his rolling eyes. “What else do you want? I’ve basically handed you the perfect life: a town full of charm and whimsy and an overabundance of seasonally appropriate festivals. Idyllic weather—”
“Yeah,” I interrupt, “unless you count the occasional hurricane.”
Sheldon waves me off with the back of his hand.
I close my eyes and picture my future: life in Carson’s Cove with Spencer, laid out so perfectly that I can see every detail. Weekly date nights to Pop’s for milkshakes. A wedding at the gazebo with everyone in town in attendance. Growing old together. Happy. Easy.
Never seeing Josh again.
This terrible thought grows and grows until it consumes everything else.
There is nothing stopping me from abandoning this whole agreement with Sheldon right now.
I could easily and enthusiastically tell him to shove his plan up the one place in Carson’s Cove where the sun doesn’t regularly shine.
I could go back to Josh. Explain everything. Live like we have been these last few days. He’d have the Bronze; I could hang out with Luce. We could be happy.
But in the deepest corners of my heart, I know that Sheldon will never stop trying to tear us apart. And even if, by some miracle, we evade Sheldon’s plans, if Josh stays here, he will never get the chance to buy his father’s bar back, and he’ll never see his mom again.
In either scenario, my fate is sealed.
It has been since the moment I made that first wish.
But Josh’s doesn’t have to be.
“How do I know you’ll keep your word?”
Sheldon slides the cake toward me again. “This is no ordinary dessert. It’s got the magic of Carson’s Cove baked right into it. It’s bigger than you and me. It’s made of whimsy and suspension of belief, that same television magic that keeps you glued to your television each week. Once you make your wish, your contract is set. There’s nothing you or I can do to change it.”
His words make my stomach sink.
“You win, Sheldon.” I close my eyes. “I wish that Josh Bishop will wake up safe and happy in his own bed back in Toronto tomorrow morning, and I’ll agree to stay and give Sloan Edwards the ending she deserves…no matter how long it takes.”
I open my eyes and look at Sheldon. “Is that good enough for you?”
He lifts the cake up to me. “Let’s make it official.”