Wishing On A Starr Read online

  When he smiled, her heart fluttered wildly in her chest. It had been years since it had experience that. She smiled back, but her gaze floated downward to the woman’s blouse he carried in his hands.

  “Ah. It’s for my daughter,” he said, following her gaze. “She and her best friend sort of dragged me down here this morning,” he said with a nervous flutter in his voice. “We’re supposed to be just looking at windows.”

  “I was dragged down here under the same ruse,” Gia laughed, but then caught sight of the gold band around his finger.

  “Widower,” he answered the unasked question, and then added. “If you were wondering.”

  Her smile ballooned. “I was.”

  Chapter 2

  Daniel’s chest tightened painfully when the beautiful woman before him smiled. Her warm toffee complexion held just a hint of cinnamon around her cheeks while her feline shaped eyes were perfect for her dark magnetic orbs. A pang of guilt sideswiped him momentarily and he lowered his gaze to fidget with his gold band.

  “Is something wrong?”

  He covered his sudden unease with a smile and met her steady gaze.

  She seemed to recognize something in his expression because her smile softened. “How long have you been a widower?”

  “Four years.”

  She reached for the chain around her neck and, to his surprise, flashed a set of army dog tags and simple gold band. “Fifteen.”

  Daniel’s brows furrowed.

  “I married young,” she answered the unspoken question shortly before sadness ghosted around her eyes.

  “Sooo.” He decided to break their melancholy mood. “Do you come here often?” he asked, dusting off his pickup lines.

  The woman’s full lips widened as she shook her head.

  He winced. “That was pretty bad, huh?”

  “Yeah, I’m afraid so,” she laughed.

  “Sorry, but it’s been awhile.”

  “I figured as much.”

  When she laughed again, he sobered at its light, haunting, and lyrical sound. After a few seconds, he realized he was staring. “I’m Daniel,” he said, jutting out his hand.

  “Gia. Pleased to meet you.”

  Her hand slid lightly into his and he marveled at its softness. She smelled like a bouquet of spring flowers, which was interesting in the end of the fall season. He stared again, unable to help himself. “I know this is going to sound corny, but have we met before?”

  “Boy. You really are bad at this.”

  “No, no.” He laughed. “It’s just that…Well, you look familiar.”

  “I’m certain we’ve never met.”

  “Oh?”

  “I have a good memory when it comes to handsome men,” she said boldly with a twinkle in her eyes.

  He smiled. “I’m supposed to do the complimenting. That much I remember.”

  “Don’t worry. You can make it up at dinner.”

  “Dinner? Oh, dinner. Yes, I would like…wait a minute. I’m supposed to be doing the asking, too,” he said cheekily.

  “So ask me,” she smiled.

  Daniel liked her sass. It was a great combination with her ethereal beauty. “Well, Gia, I was wondering if I could interest you in having dinner with me tonight? I happen to know this great restaurant in the Village.”

  “Can’t.”

  He blinked as his smile evaporated. “Pardon?”

  “I can’t. I already have plans for tonight,” she said sadly, and then brightened. “But I’m free tomorrow night.”

  His smile ballooned while relief deflated his shoulders. “Tomorrow will be great.”

  Neve tapped Starr on the shoulder and then quickly pointed across the store. “Ho, alert.”

  Starr turned away from the shelves of men’s sweaters to squint through her glasses. “At least this one looks a little older,” she said, still inspecting the woman. “Actually, she’s very pretty.”

  “Yeah, but she could be a gold-digger,” Neve warned. “Manhattan is crawling with them. She looks like she’s chewed and spitted out a few men in her time.”

  “Will you quit it?” Starr rolled her eyes. “Don’t you think it’s a little gross for you to have a crush on my dad?”

  “I don’t have a crush...I’m just...concerned.” Neve shrugged. “I’ve been just as involved as you in trying to find him a new wife. You know, if he and my mother hooked up, then we could be sisters.”

  Starr nodded, but continued to watch her father. “I thought about that, too, but...” She turned and smiled politely at her best friend. “No offense, but your mother does come off a little desperate at times. She baked him three cakes for his birthday.”

  “What’s wrong with that? She likes to bake.”

  Though it was on the tip of her tongue to also point out that her mom showed up every Sunday with freshly baked rolls or popped up every Wednesday with Chicken Marsala, but Starr decided against it. Instead, her attention returned to her father and the way he practically lit up in front of this beautiful woman. Starr hadn’t seen him do that in a long time. Four years to be exact.

  “Then what about your backup plan?” Neve inquired. “Have you contacted the adoption agency yet?”

  Starr sighed. “Not yet. I’m still a little nervous on whether it’s a good idea or not. I don’t know anything about my real mother. She could be married, dead, or in prison.”

  Neve glanced back. “They are looking awfully cozy.”

  “C’mon,” Starr coaxed. “Let’s see if we can get a little closer.”

  “I think I can find the place,” Daniel said, accepting a business card with Gia’s home address written on the back and then flipping it over. “Ah, an interior designer?” He glanced at her. “You probably won’t believe this, but I’m in the market for a designer.”

  “What a coincidence,” she said, with a tinge of disbelief. “If you prefer to have a business lunch instead”

  “No, no,” he hastily corrected. “Dinner…” he glanced over her shoulder to catch sight of Starr and Neve ease into view. “…will be great. Okay, then. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He stepped back. “Say eight o’clock?” He took another giant step.

  Gia frowned. “Uh, sure. Eight is good.”

  “Great.” He bumped into someone and turned to apologize.

  “I’m back,” Bernie sang, approaching behind her.

  Her thick New York accent penetrated Gia’s thoughts and she quickly turned around. “That was fast.”

  “Turns out the lines weren’t so bad. Did you find anything?” Bernie quickly scanned the shelves.

  “I found something all right.” Gia’s gaze traveled back to where she’d last seen Daniel. “But nothing that would remotely interest Vinny,” she added when Bernie turned her inquiring eyes on her.

  “Tell you what,” Bernie sighed. “Why don’t we split up? We can zip through here faster that way.”

  “I don’t know what to buy Vinny,” Gia whined. “Why don’t I look for something for your daughter Tonya. That should be easier.”

  “Good idea. Meet you back in this very spot in one hour.”

  That long? Gia smiled. “Deal.” She waited until her friend dashed off before she made another futile glance for Daniel.

  He was gone.

  A bubble of hope popped, but Gia’s smile lingered. With a head and nose for business, flirting had never been Gia’s strong suit, but she was positively stunned by her performance today. Stunned and proud.

  For years, Gia suffered through countless lectures from her employees that she needed to find a life outside of her work. And for years, she’d lied saying her work was all she needed to be happy. She didn’t hate men or think she was better off without them, it’s just that she’d been so driven to succeed for so long, she feared she no longer knew how to relate to the opposite sex on an intimate level. Well, long term anyway.

  As loony as that sounded, it was the truth.

  Yeah, sure, she dated from time to time, but thus far, sh
e hadn’t found anyone she could stand to be around more than three dates. But something told her that wouldn’t be the case with Daniel. Daniel what?

  She stopped strolling the aisles to realize that she’d given him her number, but he’d disappeared before giving her his information. And what was up with him disappearing like that?

  Daniel left Saks with Starr and Neve flanked on opposite sides. So far, he’d managed to successfully dodge their needling questions, but if he knew his daughter, and he did, he was certain he wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long.

  “Admit it, Dad. You liked her,” Starr pressed. “I saw how you were looking at her.”

  “I’m pleading the fifth.”

  “You’re not on trial,” she informed him with an exasperated breath.

  “You could’ve fooled me,” he chuckled.

  They strolled down the walkway, heading to Rockefeller Center. Memories of Hilary surfaced in the back of his mind while a familiar ache resonated around his heart. At the sight of the golden Prometheus statue, Daniel drew a deep breath. Twenty-five years ago, he met Hilary at that very fountain.

  “Are we coming back here when they light the Christmas tree on Tuesday?” Starr asked out of the blue.

  “We have to,” Neve insisted. “We have to make a wish.”

  Daniel frowned. “A wish?”

  Simultaneously, the girls rolled their eyes-therefore transforming him into a double dummy, he supposed.

  “Everyone is entitled to one wish upon the star. But you have to make it on the first night in order for it to come true,” Starr said simply. “Everybody knows that.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I think I might of heard about that somewhere,” he lied and took a moment to do his own series of eye rolling.

  “Make fun of it all you want, Daddy, but its true. Mom told me.”

  His strides slowed. “She did?”

  “When I was little.” Starr shrugged. “She said she’d only done it twice, but each time, it worked.”

  Daniel was surprised he’d never heard this story. “What did she wish for?”

  “You and me, silly.”

  The way Starr smiled melted Daniel’s heart and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I’m about to be mushy in public,” he warned, shortly before he brushed a kiss against her cheek.

  Instead of protesting, Starr allowed it, and kissed him back.

  “So are you going to call her, Mr. Davis?” Neve asked timidly. “The lady in the store.”

  He drew a deep breath and watched how Starr’s eyes had zeroed back onto him. “I’m going to do more than that,” he announced proudly and produced Gia’s business card. “I’m taking her to dinner.”

  Shock colored Starr’s expression shortly before her eyes glowed with excitement. “You’re kidding me. Let me see it.”

  She reached for the card, but Daniel quickly jerked it out of reach. At the same time, a sudden gust of wind slipped it out of his fingers. Stunned, Daniel turned a bit to quickly and slipped on a patch of invisible ice.

  “Hey, buddy. Watch it.”

  His fall was everything but graceful. Daniel arms flailed wide and by the time he landed with an awkward thud, Starr and Neve tumbled on top of him, knocking what little wind he had left out. True to form, not a single New Yorker stopped or inquired if they were okay, but Starr and Neve suddenly caught a case of the giggles.

  “So glad that I amuse you girls,” he groaned. “Do you mind getting off me now, so I can stop looking like a idiot?”

  Still laughing, they lumbered slowly to their feet and then did a lousy job trying to help him up.

  Bones aching, muscles throbbing, Daniel dusted the snow from his clothes and glanced around. “Please tell me you saw where the card went.”

  The trio’s gazes searched around the snow-covered ground and in between the feet of the bustling crowd. However, after fifteen minutes, they gave up.

  “Maybe she’s still in the store,” Starr said, hopefully.

  Daniel glanced at his watch and sighed. “I seriously doubt that. Not to mention the low probability of finding her in that crowd. “What was the name of that interior decorating business?” he asked himself and tried to will an image of the card in his mind, but it wasn’t working.

  Neve patted him on the shoulder. “It looks like you have a wish to make, too, Mr. Davis.”

  “Yeah, but by Tuesday it’ll be too late.”

  Chapter 3

  “Don’t you dare call that gal,” Ma Belle spat from her sickbed. “She hasn’t come to see me in all these years, so she doesn’t need to come and see me now.” Her jaw set in a stubborn line, but she was unable to prevent her bottom lip from quivering.

  Glenda said nothing as she tucked the blanket tighter around her grandmother.

  “You might as well fix your face ‘cause I’m not gonna change my mind.”

  “I didn’t say anything,” Glenda said, turning and lifting the dinner tray from the nightstand. Everyone knew there was no point in arguing with Ma Belle. She rarely, if ever, changed her mind about anything.

  However, Glenda was hardly fooled by the matriarch’s blustering. Ma Belle’s heart broke the minute Gia escaped Talboton, and it never healed.

  The majority of the family thought Gia’s dreams of finding a better life in a big city like New York wouldn’t last more than a couple of weeks. Some even suggested that she should set her sights on Atlanta-where she would at least be no more than a couple of hours from home and the fall on her face wouldn’t be as painful.

  But Glenda knew her sister would make it because despite what everybody else believed, Gia had already hit rock bottom.

  “Momma, we’re out of Coco Puffs.”

  Glenda glanced at her sixteen-year-old daughter, Jenny, and her bulging pregnant belly, and felt an overwhelming weariness in her bones.

  “Momma, did you hear me?”

  “Yes, chile. Just put it on the grocery list and I’ll get some more in the morning. Why in the world you want to eat cereal for dinner anyway?” Glenda headed for the kitchen sink to get started on the dishes.

  “’Cause that’s what I have a craving for,” Jenny laughed. “Don’t tell me that I have to explain cravings to a woman who had ten kids.”

  Glenda bit her lip and warded off the sting of tears. Without a doubt, Jenny didn’t mean anything by the casual comment, but that didn’t stop it from smacking her with the truth of her life.

  Gia fled from Talboton to avoid turning into Glenda: an endless baby factory and a woman who fell for every lie every man has ever told her. Glenda pressed a hand to her mouth, but failed to stop a ragged sob.

  “Momma, are you okay?” Jenny closed the refrigerator door and waddled next to her.

  “I’m fine,” she answered, but the tears that followed said otherwise.

  “Did I say something wrong?” The concern in Jenny’s voice heightened as she slid her arm around her mother’s waist. “I’m sorry if I did.”

  “No, Chile. I think I just need to go lie down for a few minutes. Be a dear and finish the dishes for me.” Glenda avoided making eye contact and slid out of her daughter’s arms to shuffle to her own bedroom in the back of the house. Once she had entered and closed the door behind her, she glanced around the room she had lived in her entire life and drew a deep breath. “Gia, whatever you do, don’t you ever come back here.”

  #

  Miraculously, Gia survived a full day of shopping. Of course the ten-hour venture resulted in only two Christmas gifts, but that was another gripe for another day.

  After closing and locking her front door, Gia tossed her keys onto the first end table she passed in the living room and pretended not to notice the flashing light on the answering machine.

  “It’s my day off,” she mumbled under her breath. The first one she’d had in almost four months, three weeks, and two days.

  Not that she was counting.

  Gia wandered into the kitchen and grabbed a Diet Pepsi from the fridge before me
andering to her bedroom where she placed her cell phone on its charger. Like most of the day, her thoughts returned to the wickedly handsome man she’d met at Saks. Her lips curled upward at the memory of his dimpled cheeks and Crest-white smile, but they kept turning south whenever she’d replayed the way the man had taken off.

  She sighed as her gaze landed on her little red dress across her bed, still plastic-wrapped from the dry cleaners. The only thing about heading to a private birthday dinner was the meal itself. She was starving.

  On cue, Gia’s stomach released a mighty growl as if seconding the thought. “Just hang in there,” she mumbled under her breath and glanced at her watch. “Two hours until chow time.” Popping the top to her soda, she made a beeline toward the adjoining bathroom and turned on the shower to full blast.

  She took her time peeling out of her clothes and pinning up the back of her hair, but instead of stepping into the shower, Gia froze at the sight of her blurred reflection. Her heart skipped a beat when she caught a glimpse of a younger version of herself with a protruding belly.

  Gia drew a shaky breath and inched a trembling hand along her stomachher flat stomach. Sorrow, her old and faithful friend, swept across her body and squeezed her heart until tears leaked from her eyes.

  Blink, her brain screamed. If she blinked, the image would go away and the pain would ease in her chest. But there was that part of her that was still fixated on the young girl’s belly and it was just a matter of time before a million “what ifs” crammed into her head.