Prologue
“Grandmothers shouldn’t havefavorites, but I have to admit Zane is mine,” Virginia Logan said to her friend, as they sat having coffee on Judy’s small apartment patio. Despite fall’s arrival on the calendar in Wishing, Texas, the temperature and the air remained warm.
“I don’t think having a favorite is a problem as long as you don’t treat anyone that way.”
Ginny nodded in agreement. “I’d never admit it to anyone else, and if anything, I’m tougher on Zane, but that boy always has been special to me.”
How could she not love Zane a bit more when he reminded her so much of her dear late husband? Her grandson possessed her husband’s crooked smile. The one that made women’s hearts turn over. Zane’s eyes were the same vivid green that sparkled when he turned on the charm. He’d also inherited his grandfather’s sense of humor that had made her laugh during the roughest of times.
“Bless him, Zane’s coming to stay for my surgery.”
“But not your son?”
Ginny shook her head. “He’s on a trip with Carla. Not that he’d be any help if he came.” Ginny’s hand tightened around her glass of iced tea. “I was so thankful to have that boy after all those miscarriages that I indulged him. If I had it to do again, I’d raise him differently. I wish Zane hadn’t paid the price for my mistakes.”
And blast her son and first daughter-in-law for failing to see what their fighting did to their child. But then her son had been too busy juggling his secret life with his girlfriend and their children, while her daughter-in-law had been bent on revenge. “I wish they could’ve loved Zane more than they hated each other. Thankfully, I didn’t make the same mistakes with Zane.”
When her son and daughter-in-law filed for divorce, they forced Zane to choose who to live with. Way too perceptive for his age, Zane had known why his parents pawned the decision off on him. They wanted to move on—her son with his new family and her former daughter-in-law with her new boyfriend. Zane was part of the old life they both wanted to erase. Rather than choose between his parents, Zane had asked to live with his grandparents.
“You did a great job raising Zane. He’s a fine man.”
“He is, but the older he gets the more he shuts himself off from everyone except his few close friends.”
Not that anyone would suspect the fact. Zane, the life of any party, could stroll into a room and within five minutes capture most everyone’s attention. The females because of his looks and charm, the men because they hoped his magnetism would rub off. But none of the connections were real or meant a thing to Zane. They were all hat and no cattle. It was as if he expected other people to disappoint him, so he never let them in. That way when they did let him down, it wouldn’t hurt as much.
An idea had been floating around in her head for a few days and a little voice inside said today was the day to act. “Would you mind taking a trip to the well today?”
“You needing to make a wish?” Judy asked.
“That’s exactly what I’m thinking.”
Not fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the town’s historical park surrounding the wishing well and the tiny graveyard. They walked along the flagstone path toward the white picket fence. The tall grass in the surrounding field danced as the warm fall breeze brushed through it. At the gate, Ginny paused and traced the raised lettering on the iron plaque.
The gate creaked and squawked as she opened it and when they stood before the worn, old well, Ginny brushed her hand over the rough limestone. The stones remained as strong and vibrant as the day Alice stood here to make a wish for her sister, Anne.
Ginny adored this place. A sense of calm and love surrounded her here. Energy hummed in the air, vibrating with the memories of those who’d sought help for loved ones. Beyond the well with its weathered gray wooden roof stood four worn, chipped headstones. Such a simple place yet filled with such pure ardor and magic.
Though most young folks around town thought the legend was dreamed up by smart businessmen years ago as a marketing ploy, Ginny believed in Wishing’s famed well, along with fairies, leprechauns, and happily ever after. She always had.
According to the legend, Anne and Alice grew up as close as sisters could be until Anne moved to Texas with her husband Sam. Alice remained back east caring for their aged parents. Anne and Sam built a fine life on this land and were raising three children when the Civil War began. When Sam left for war, Anne found herself overwhelmed. She begged Alice to come to Texas to help, and her sister obliged. Together the two women held on to the land and kept the children fed and safe during those terrible years. When the war ended and the surviving men started coming home, Sam wasn’t among them. As more time passed without word on her husband, Anne became despondent and took to her bed.
Her heart heavy with worry for her sister, Alice stood at this very well one day, knowing her sister had given up. Not knowing what else to do, tears running down her face and falling into the well as she leaned over it, Alice tossed in a coin and wished for Sam’s safe return to the family that loved and needed him so desperately.
A few days later, her wish came true. Sam returned, along with the stranger who’d nursed him back to health after finding him near death beside the road.
The coin clutched in Ginny’s hand vibrated and heat raced through her.Please let this place work its magic for Zane. I don’t want him living the same superficial life his father has.
“Zane needs to learn there’s more to life.”
Ginny held her hand over the well and released the coin. It pinged off stones before splashing into the water. “I wish Zane would meet someone who turns the tables on him, makes him let go of the past, and helps him trust people again. And if he finds someone he could love, that would be an added bonus.”
Chapter One
“Isuppose youthink jumping a barbed wire fence naked is a good idea too.”
Zane Logan resisted the urge to cringe at his best friend Cooper’s comment as they stood in a corner of the Lucky Stars event barn at AJ and Grace’s engagement party.
For ten years since they met as freshmen in Squadron Twenty-One in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University it had been him, Coop, Ty, and AJ. Banding together, they’d survived that arduous freshman fish year and had a helluva good time in college. Since then, though they’d gone their separate ways, they’d kept in touch and gotten together a few times a year at Ty’s ranch. No matter what life threw their way, they were there for each other. But their lives were changing.
