Sand Jewels (The Wishes Series) by GJ Walker-Smith Page B

I’d probably pushed my luck to the limit where Charli was concerned. She’d been extremely helpful and borderline pleasant.
    I thanked her instead – and Alex for no other reason than continuing with our stupid charade.
    It was then that she floored me with a most unexpected offer. “You should come to our house some time soon,” suggested Charli. “Our tulips are having a great run at the moment.”
    “Oh, I’d like that,” I stammered.
    She shrugged. “Cool.”
    Cool indeed. She’d unwittingly just given me permission to visit my boyfriend at his house for the very first time.

    13. BELIEVING
    I’d often wondered what Alex and Charli’s house looked like. There was something remarkably sordid about the fact that I hadn’t yet visited.
    More than once I’d made Alex describe it to me. From what I knew, it was just a little bit bigger than the cottage and nowhere near as stylish. He’d seemed embarrassed when telling me that part but his demeanour soon changed when he explained how he’d spent two years bringing it back from ruin.
    “It was a dump when I bought it,” he told me. “Charli was only little. It was hopeless trying to get anything done while she was there. I probably could’ve had it finished a year earlier if she hadn’t insisted on helping me paint.”
    I smiled at his reminiscing and then I felt a little sad. At an age when most young men are out living it up, he was renovating a house with a toddler so they’d keep a roof over their heads.
    “How old were you?” I asked.
    He shrugged. “I don’t know. Twenty-one or two.”
    Stories like that made me want to never stop kissing him. It also made my mind spin in strange directions. I sometimes daydreamed, imagining a house full of kids with messy hair and cheeky smiles.
    Reality usually dragged me back quite quickly. Considering I hadn’t even visited his home yet, planning babies was probably jumping the gun.
    ***
    I managed to hold off going out there for a whole day. On Sunday morning I texted Alex and asked for directions. It was ludicrous that I didn’t know where he lived.
    It took me fifteen minutes to get there. I would’ve made it in ten if I hadn’t taken a wrong turn and ended up at the front gates of an alpaca farm. Until then, I hadn’t even known there was an alpaca farm in Pipers Cove.
    Eventually I bounced my small car up the rough gravel driveway and parked next to Alex’s Ute. I felt like a nervous schoolgirl heading to a blind date. Having Alex meet me on the veranda put me at ease the tiniest bit. I wanted to lurch forward and kiss him, and then remembered I had a part to play.
    I wasn’t madly-in-love Gabs today. I was Mademoiselle Décarie who was supposed to be desperately keen to check out the tulip blooms.
    I nervously smoothed down the back of my hair as I climbed the front steps.
    “Relax, Gabs,” beamed Alex. “Charli’s not here.”
    I took a breath for the first time since getting out of the car. “Where is she? She was supposed to be here to show me the tulips.”
    He shrugged, still grinning. “She got a better offer. She’s at Nicole’s.”
    I was almost relieved to hear that irresponsible, thoughtless Charli was back in pole position. For some reason, she was easier to deal with than the marginally sweet version I’d met with a few days earlier.
    Alex gripped my waist and drew me in close, kissing me intently. “I still want to see the tulips,” I said, breaking free.
    Keeping his hold on me, he straightened up and pointed down to the garden that sloped down the hill.
    I blinked a few hundred times to make sure what I was looking at was real. I couldn’t believe I’d missed it on the way up to the house. A gorgeous sea of red and orange blooms covered a huge area.
    “You planted them?” I asked in disbelief.
    Alex let out a low chuckle. “Every single one of them.”
    “Why so many?”
    He tightened his hold and whispered in my ear. “Because fairies use them as beds for their