Wishes Read Online Free PDF Page B

as we were outside, Peter bent me backward until I was nearly horizontal and kissed me again, his fingers clutching my hair.
    “Oh, never mind,” Mrs. Bean said, waving to my family, who were all still nearby. “Jonathan!” she trilled. “Jonathan Carr! I need some help with my tent!”
    Jonathan strode over with his toolbox, glancing at Peter and me curiously as he entered Mrs. Bean’s tent. By this time Peter had released me from his embrace, but I knew I probably looked very weird, with wild hair and lipstick smeared all over my mouth, just like Peter’s. I could see Gram staring, horrified, at the two of us.

7.
    “I can’t live without you, Katy,” Peter whimpered.
    I looked at Gram and swallowed. “Hey, great,” I said as I led him out of the fairgrounds and into the fog of the Meadow.
    His cell phone rang. He threw it over his shoulder.
    “What . . . your phone . . . ,” I stammered.
    “Who needs it?” he declared with a shrug. “All I want in my life is you.” He put his arm around my waist and hauled me around like I was a growth on his hip.
    “But your uncle—”
    “The hell with him! With everything!” Suddenly Peter stopped and faced me, once again clutching my hair so that I couldn’t move my head. “Let’s run away together,” he whispered, his formerly cool gray eyes blazing with fervor. “We can go to Tibet.”
    “Tibet?” I managed to utter.
    “Somewhere far away, where no one will bother us. We’ll just lie in each other’s arms all day long, forever.”
    While the idea of spending the rest of my life with Peter held definite appeal, I didn’t think I’d enjoy spending it in Tibet. “Er . . . maybe we ought to think that over for a while,” I suggested. “And could you please let go of my head?”
    “Or Hawaii,” he went on, as if he hadn’t heard me. “We could go to Hawaii and work in a hotel. You could cook, and I’d be a waiter.”
    He was starting to scare me, but I forced a laugh. “Now?”
    “Why not? We don’t need to finish high school, as long as we’re together.”
    “Um, my hair . . .”
    “C’mon, let’s go get packed.”
    “One of you young people lose this?” Mr. Haversall emerged out of the fog like a poltergeist. He was holding Peter’s cell phone.
    Peter finally released my head from his iron grip. “Thank God,” I said.
    “Dingo found it.”
    “Keep it,” Peter said.
    I took it and stuck it into the pocket of my jeans. “Thanks, Mr. Haversall,” I said.
    “You leaving?”
    “Yes,” Peter said emphatically. “For parts unknown.”
    “Or Gram’s,” I added.
    Mr. Haversall raised his eyebrows. “In that case, you’d better follow Dingo. He’ll lead you out.”
    The dog woofed and took off. Even though he disappeared into the fog, his illuminated collar and well-timed barking showed us a way out that left us near Gram’s house.
    “Well,” I said as breezily as I could as we approached the front door. “That sure was fun. See you later.”
    I was about to leap inside, but Peter leaned against the doorway, blocking my way. “Let me in,” he murmured, his eyes smoldering.
    “Uh, I don’t know. I mean Gram—”
    “I need to be with you, Katy. All the way.”
    I coughed. “No,” I said. I could just picture Gram and Aunt Agnes finding us in a state of unbridled abandon. “Pull yourself together, Peter.”
    “I want to make up to you all the times I ignored you.”
    “It’s okay,” I insisted. “Water under the bridge.”
    “I won’t ever let you out of my sight again.”
    My shoulders slumped. I never thought I’d feel this way, but Peter’s newfound adoration for me was already getting old. “I’m afraid you’ll have to,” I said, as I moved him aside firmly and unlocked the door.
    “Don’t leave me,” he pleaded. I could only close my eyes and count to ten. “Katy!” he called pitifully as I squeezed through the doorway and then shut the door behind me, leaning against it from inside.