Read Second Hearts (The Wishes Series) for Free Online

places I’d visited could be considered remotely safe without Mitchell by my side. And finding my way to Adam hadn’t worked out too well. That left option three, and the idea wasn’t as awful as I expected it to be. I was tired, lonely and a little bit fragile. It seemed like the perfect time to go home to my father.
    An hour passed before I felt calm enough to call him with the news. Talking to Alex required preparation. Any hint of sadness or uneasiness resulted in a volley of questions that I usually had no answer for, followed by threats of jumping on a plane to come and get me.
    Today I was given a reprieve. Gabrielle answered.
    “Charli.” She punched out my name as if she’d been hanging by the phone, waiting for my call.
    I tried to hold it together but failed dismally, blubbering to her as if my world was ending. And at that point, I was pretty sure it was. “I saw him,” I snivelled.
    She sighed. “Oh, dear. Tell me what happened.”
    I explained the whole sorry saga in six messy sentences.
    There was a time when Gabrielle could have forewarned me that Adam had met someone else. They used to be extremely close; but Gabi and Adam no longer spoke at all. Years of exchanging long handwritten letters had ended. I’d never asked why, fearing it had something to do with me. Adam deserved a clean break. If cutting Gabrielle off was part of that break, then so be it.
    “I want to come home,” I whimpered pathetically.
    She groaned. “Why would you want to do that?”
    “It’s my home, Gabrielle.” I snapped at her, totally distraught.
    Going home would definitely cramp her style. Maybe that’s why she offered up her swank New York apartment.
    “Charli, if things had worked out with Adam, would you even be considering coming home right now?” But it hadn’t worked out. Not one thing had worked out the way I’d planned and hoped it would. “Your adventure had nothing to do with Adam,” she continued. “You wanted to see the world. Open your eyes and look around. You’ve arrived.”
    “I can’t stay.” My protest came out sounding like a growl. “I don’t know anyone, I don’t know my way around and I’m running out of money.”
    “And what does any of that have to do with Adam? Do you like New York?”
    I had to concede that my predicament did have nothing to do with Adam. He had no idea I was even in his city. I’d stood twenty metres away from him and he still didn’t know.
    “I do like it here.”
    “ Très bien ,” she soothed. “Calm yourself and look at the bigger picture.” She spoke in her best French teacher voice. I hadn’t missed it one bit. “You’re living in a gorgeous part of the city, in a perfectly secure building. Do you like the apartment?”
    What wasn’t to like? It was a palace. I’d spent a year hopping from one hovel to another. I would’ve considered any abode with running water and a roof that didn’t leak palatial.
    “It’s great. The apartment’s not the problem.”
    “Look, give New York a chance. Go and get a job. Get out and meet people. You won’t regret it.”
    Coming from anyone else it would have been difficult to believe, but Gabrielle was speaking from experience. She’d landed in New York at the same age as me, managed to make a go of it and stayed for four years. But there were differences. She had family here, a zillion dollars at her disposal and a green card allowing her to work legally. I had none of these things.
    “Charli, if you come back here, you’re going to want to leave again in a few months. Leaving the second time is going to be much harder than it was the first time.”
    I knew she was right but refused to tell her so. “I’ll give it a week and see what happens.”
    “Good girl.” I could tell by her tone of voice that she was smiling. I wondered if she could tell that I was mocking her by pulling a face. “Is Alex there?”
    “No, he’s still at the café.” It didn’t matter where in the world I was; I was