Wishing On A Starr (8 page)
Read Wishing On A Starr Online
Authors: Adrianne Byrd
“I never said I didn’t like him,” Gia said stiffly. “I’ve just been busy that’s all.”
Bernie stared.
“It wouldn’t have worked out anyway,” Gia added. “It never does.”
“Sounds like you’re scared.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” She huffed. However, her heart quickened at just how close Bernie was to the truth. “I just dated the man for a week.”
“Every night for a week and then ran away for another week. C’mon. Maybe this guy really is the one. Have you thought about that?”
In truth, she could think of little else. “It just can’t be this simple,” Gia mumbled.
“Believe it or not sometimes love is simple.”
“Love? Who said anything about love? I just said I liked the guy.” She bolted to her feet and paced behind her desk. “Who wouldn’t like him? He holds out chairs, opens car doors, and sings like...”
“He sings, too?”
“Oh, Bernie.” She sank back into her chair. “He has the most incredible voice and the things that man can do on a piano.”
Bernie’s brow lifted.
“Get your mind out of the gutter,” Gia reprimanded. “But all of that isn’t why I...like him.” She swallowed. “It’s the way he talks about his daughter. The pride and love he has for her is so humbling...and in some ways it makes me feel so undeserving of man like him.”
“What? That’s silly.”
“Is it?” Gia challenged. “He’s a man who’s all about family and doing the
right
thing. I haven’t even spoken to anyone in my family in years.” She glanced down at her hands. She had never shared any of this with Bernie. Avoidance was Gia’s specialty.
“What happened?” Bernie asked.
“I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life,” she whispered. “I sacrificed my child to save myself.” When she glanced up again, tears streamed down her face. “How can a man who values family so much ever understand what I’ve done?”
Starr, Neve, and her dad meticulously combed through Goodman’s Tree Farm. Hands down, this was one of Starr’s favorite traditions: finding the perfect tree. She would always picked the ones that were too big to squeeze into the house and her dad would always pretend to fall in love with the puniest thing on the lot, and in the old days her mother would always stumble onto the one that was just right.
Starr smiled weakly at the memory.
“So what do you think happened between that lady and your dad?” Neve whispered.
Starr glanced at her father who was busily inspecting a three-foot tree. “I don’t know. Like always, he’s keeping things pretty close to his vest.” She sighed. “I thought we were so close this time.”
“Well, you know what I think,” Neve hinted.
Instead of tossing up her usual protests or excuses, Starr felt herself wavering. Her father needed someone whether he wanted to admit it or not.
“Hey, Starr,” her dad shouted. “What do you think?” he asked, gesturing toward a stick with three branches.
She played her role to the hilt by rolling her eyes and droning, “I don’t think so, Dad.”
“Is that supposed to be a tree?” Neve whispered.
“He’s just playing,” Starr assured, and then watched her father meander off to find another ghastly choice. In her mind, she cut back to the day her father had met the attractive interior designer and the way he lit up around her. What
did
go wrong?
Her thoughts danced around the question until the three of them stumbled upon the perfect eight-foot tree two hours laterconsequently, it gave Starr her next big idea.
Gia picked up the phone and dialed the first three digits to Daniel’s home, but as her prepared speech jumbled in her head, she quickly hung up. She wanted to call mainly because she feared what Bernie had said was true:
maybe this guy really is the one.
She sighed and tightened the belt on her robe. It was more like wishful thinking on her part. Her confession to her best friend today was dead on. She had no right wanting a man like Dr. Daniel Davis.
Standing at the window of her apartment, she gazed at the buildings across the street. Christmas lights, glowing Santas, and miniature nativity scenes could be seen in just about every window. In the street, she could make out a few teenagers engaged in a fierce snowball fight. It was just another sign of families enjoying the holidays.
She retreated to her bathroom to rummage through her medicine cabinet. How could she have allowed two weeks to pass without getting a refill on her antidepressants?
The doorbell rang and Gia frowned. All her friends knew her golden rule: Call before you come over. So who was at her door?
At the bell’s second chime, she again tightened the belt on her robe and headed toward the front door. After peering through the peephole, Gia couldn’t make out what was on the other side. It sort of looked like something was blocking the door.
“Who is it?”
“Santa Claus.”
Gia’s heart leapt at Daniel’s unmistakable voice.
What is he doing here?
Her hand flew to her wet hair and she glanced down at her attire.
“Hello,” he called through the door when she hesitated too long.
“Yes, huh. Just a minute.” She sweated a few more bullets while teetering in limbo on what to do.
“I know I should have called,” Daniel explained through the door. “But while I was out shopping for a Christmas tree tonight, I was reminded of something you said to me.”
“What was that?” she asked, leaning against the door and feeling a bubble of hope rise within her.
“I remembered that you wanted to turn over a new leaf this Christmas. So I’m here to help you out.” Daniel waited. At the sound of the locks turning, he finally released a sigh of relief and allowed a broad smile to monopolize his face.
Gia opened the door and gasped in surprise at the sight of the large pine tree clogging the hallway. “You brought me a Christmas tree?”
Her gaze swung to him and he was warmed by its radiance. “You didn’t have one the last time I was here, so I took the liberty to help you get into the spirit. I hope you don’t mind.”
She flashed him a smile that was more beautiful than he remembered before she stepped back and allowed him entrance into the apartment. It took a bit of work but Daniel finally squeezed the large tree through the door.
“Nothing says Christmas like a trail of pine needles,” Gia joked.
“Ah. You might feel that way now, but wait until we get this baby up and decorated. I guarantee you’ll be in the Christmas spirit by then.”
“You also brought decorations?”
“Hey, I came prepared.” Daniel winked, and then casually glanced over her attire. “I’m not complaining, but, um, you might want to put on something more appropriate for climbing trees.”
Her cheeks darkened prettily. “In that case I’ll go change.”
Daniel nodded and watched her disappear toward the back. Starr’s bright idea just earned her another gift under the tree. He was very aware of how badly things could have turned outhow things could
still
turn out.
A few minutes later, Gia returned to the living room dressed in a pair of form-fitting jeans and a red sweater just tight enough to stir the blood in any man with a pulse.
“Can I get you anything-maybe something to drink?”
“Some coffee would great,” he answered, jarring out of his trance. “I hope you’re not angry with me for just dropping by?” he asked tentatively.
Gia retrieved a can of Folgers from the cabinet and smiled at him. “No. I’m not angry…just surprised.”
He nodded, but still felt like he was treading on thin ice.
“Actually, I’ve been wanting to call you,” she began.
He definitely didn’t like the sound of that. “Oh?” he asked, drawing a deep breath and preparing for the worse.
“Yeah. Each time...I chickened out.”
Daniel remained composed though his heart was trying to hammer its way out of his chest.
“But I’m glad you came over. You made my night.” Her smiled brightened as she made the coffee.
Daniel relaxed, but then grew curious. “Why would you chicken out?”
Gia hit the brew button and crossed her arms. ”It’s complicated.”
He studied her as he nodded. “Well, I’ll let it go at that...but when you’re ready to talk, I’ve been told I’m a pretty good listener.”
“I’ll remember that.”
“Good.” He clapped his hands. “Now let’s go down to my car and get those decorations. Shall we?”
“Okay.” Gia quickly bounded out of the kitchen and grabbed her coat by the door. “I can’t believe that I’m actually doing this,” she said, slipping on her gloves.
“Trust me. You’re going to have fun.” He winked.
The moment the couple stepped out of the apartment building, an errant snowball hit Daniel.
“Sorry, Mister!” a kid yelled.
Daniel held up his hands. “Not a problem.”
Gia laughed and then clamped a hand over her mouth.
“What, you think that’s funny?” Daniel asked, grinning.
“It’s sort of-”
Bam! Gia was hit in the shoulder by another runaway snowball.
“Hey!” Gia turned toward the snow battling children.
“Sorry, Ma’am,” the kids called.
“Now that was funny!” Daniel chuckled.
“Uh, huh.” She knelt down and began gathering snow. “There are four of them, but I think we can take them.”
“What?”
“Hey, I’m a woman who believes in revenge.”
“We can’t-”
Bam! Another snowball smacked him in the chest.
“Sorry, Mister!”
“You were saying?” Gia asked, smiling sweetly up at him.
Daniel knelt beside her. “You’re right. We can take them.”
Gia launched the first snowball. With an astounding aim, it hit one of the boys in the center of his back.
That was all it took to commence a war.
Daniel sent his own snowball flying and caught the shoulder blade of one of the teenage boys.
“Good hit!” Gia declared, but then was smack soundly on the side of her head by return fire.
Squealing, she rocketed two balls in almost rapid succession. But nothing was as hilarious as watching Daniel take two in the face.
Temporarily flattened on his back, Gia struggled to help him up, but she took four hits and toppled over on top of him.
Laughing, the couple scrambled on hands and knees to find protection behind a parked car.
“We’re surrounded,” Daniel chuckled.
“We can’t give up,” Gia gathered more snow. However, the moment she stood up, she took a direct hit in the face and toppled right back into Daniel’s lap.
“Yeah, that’s showing them.”
They laughed as she sat up in his lap, but it soon faded to small puffs of frosted air when their eyes and lips were just inches apart.
Daniel remembered the taste of her lips and, despite the cold, his body stirred to life. He didn’t want to move too fast or scare her off again, but he wanted to kiss her, too.
To his surprise, she made the first move and close the small gap between them. The petals of her lips were softer than he remembered and their taste was intoxicatingly sweet. For a brief moment he was lost to a roaring passion that threatened everything he’d ever known. Nothing that tasted this good or felt so right could ever be wrong, he reasoned.
However, their attackers had other ideas.
“Ah!” Gia screamed when another snowball hit the back of her neck.
The war was back on.
However, it wasn’t long before Daniel and Gia had to reconsidered their position. Sure they managed to get in a few good hits, but the kids had speed and agility on their side. Defeat loomed before them.
In the end, World War III lasted all of twenty minutes.
“We surrender, we surrender!”
Gia and Daniel waved their hands from behind a parked car and were relieved when there was a cease-fire.
By the time, they returned to Gia’s apartment with bags of decorations, they were sopping wet and chilled to the bone.
“I definitely could go for that coffee now,” Gia chuckled, lowering her bags onto the sofa.
“That makes two of us.”
Gia slowly peeled out of her coat, amazed at the amount of snow that made it inside of her clothes. “I’m going to change again. You might want to strip out of those clothes before you catch your death.”
Daniel twisted his face in a fake frown. “Are you coming on to me?”
She smiled, feeling flirtatious. “What if I am?”
“In that case-” He settled his jacket over the back of his chair and moved closer until he could feel the gentle radiation of her body heat. “-I’d tell you that you don’t have to work so hard.”
He drew her close and sampled her lips once again. Problem was, he couldn’t stop kissing her, nor could he stop peeling off her clothes.