When Wishes Collide (29 page)

She gave him a thoughtful look. "How do you feel about that?"

"I'm glad she'll be out of the picture. It will be easier to reconnect with Stephanie without her around confusing things."

"Maybe easier for you. I'm not so sure about Stephanie."

"Me either," he admitted. "I'm just going to have to wing it, Adrianna. Just love Steph with everything that I have and hope that's enough."

She smiled. "It will be more than enough." She paused. "I better start cooking."

"One other thing," he said.

"What?"

He pulled her into his arms again. "Last night was amazing. I care about you. I want you to know that."

Her eyes blurred with tears. "You don't have to say anything else."

"I have to put Stephanie first."

"I know that," she said. She drew in a shaky breath. "It's going to be fine. We always knew this wasn't the right time for us to start anything."

"But we already started," he said, wishing he didn't have to hurt her, because despite her words, he knew that last night had meant something to her. It had meant something to him, too.

"So now we end it," she said. "I'll go home after breakfast."

"No, stay for today."

She thought for a moment and then said, "I can't stay all day. But I will make breakfast before I leave."

"I don’t want you to go."

"But we both know I have to." She leaned in and pressed her lips against his. "Whatever happens. Last night was the best night of my life. Meeting you changed me in a really good way. So no regrets, okay?"

"No regrets," he murmured as he kissed her one last time.

December …

Wyatt woke up to someone kneeing him in the rib cage. He groaned and opened his sleepy eyes to see his daughter's smiling face as she sat on the bed next to him.

"What are you doing up so early?" he asked.

"It's Christmas, Daddy," Stephanie said, delight in her blue eyes. "We have to see what Santa brought us."

"Haven't you gotten enough presents?" he asked. In the past four months, Stephanie had received all the gifts she'd missed for birthdays and Christmas from every member of the family and some of his friends. She had been showered with love and attention, and she'd deserved every moment of adoration. But he knew that at some point he was going to have to tone things down a little. He loved his daughter enough not to spoil her – at least not too much.

"Come on," she said, tugging on his shirt. "Let's look under the tree."

"You mean you haven't already?"

"You told me not to."

That was true. They'd spent Christmas Eve at his parents' house and after tucking Stephanie in to bed, he'd made her promise not to sneak out and take a peek.

"Hurry up, Daddy."

At Stephanie's insistence, he got out of bed and followed his little girl into the living room. She squealed with delight at the packages under the tree. Falling to her knees, she searched through the boxes, her smile fading just a little as she didn't come across what she wanted.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

"No," she said quickly. "Which one should I open first?"

He reached for a package on the bookshelf that she hadn't seen yet. "How about this one?" he said, handing it to her. "It's from your mother."

Her gaze met his. "Really?"

He saw the hope in her eyes and knew he'd made the right decision. "Yes," he said. "Why don't you open it?"

She took the box in her hands, but she didn't move to pull off the paper and ribbon. Instead she stared down at the tag for a long time.

"It's okay," he said quietly.

"You're not mad?" she asked.

He shook his head. They'd talked a lot about what had happened, the lies Jen had told. For an eight-year-old, Stephanie had shown great maturity. She'd cried a few times, especially when she'd learned that her mother was going to jail for a few years, but in recent weeks, those episodes had been fewer and less emotionally intense.

He'd taken Stephanie for counseling, and the doctor had told him that it was in Stephanie's best interests to have some sort of contact with her mother, so he'd supervised the exchange of letters, and when Jen's parents had sent the Christmas package a few days earlier, he had taken a look at the book of poems and the loving note from Jen and had agreed to give the present to Stephanie.

Some day, he would probably take Stephanie to see her mother, but that wouldn't be for a while, and he would never ever let them be alone again.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked, as Steph continued to stare at the present.

She looked up at him and then put the gift aside. "I want to open your present first, Daddy."

"Really?" he asked, his heart swelling with love.

She nodded. "Which one should I pick?" she asked, looking at the brightly colored packages. He'd stop spoiling her really soon, he told himself.

"I think there's one I forgot to put out here," he said. "It's in the kitchen. Why don't you go get it?"

She gave him a curious look and then ran into the other room. He followed her to the doorway, happy with her scream of delight. She opened the cage and let the small puppy cover her with happy kisses.

"I can't believe you got me a dog," she said, laughing as the golden retriever squirmed in her arms.

"You told me a million times you wanted one. What are you going to name him?"

"I don't know," she said. "Is he really mine?"

"All yours. And you're going to have to learn how to feed him and give him baths, and we'll walk him together."

She set the puppy down, and the animal went skidding around the tile floor in joyous exploration. Then she ran over to him. "I love you, Daddy."

"I love you, too," he said, as he wrapped her up in his arms. "Let's go open the rest of the presents. We have lots to do today."

* * *

Adrianna stared at the wild chaos of wrapping paper and ribbon spread across her apartment floor. She'd had so many quiet, somber, dark Christmases, that this one would stand out in her mind for a very long time.

"You gave them a really happy Christmas," Lindsay said as she joined her by the Christmas tree in her living room. "Ben and Sara got everything they wanted."

She smiled at the two kids who were sitting at the kitchen counter with their mother. "All they wanted was their mom."

"Becky is turning out to be a decent waitress," Lindsay said. "I wasn't sure when you first brought her into the restaurant that she would work out, but you're right. She just needed someone to give her a chance to be a good mother. And that someone was you."

"It's nice to put a family back together," she said. "I saw so many broken ones growing up, and I could never do anything about them. This time I could."

Lindsay put her arm around her shoulders. "You're a great person. I just wish you could be happy, too."

"I am happy," she said, not wanting to admit there was still a hole in her heart. She'd spoken to Wyatt only a few times in the past few months. He was busy rebuilding his family, and she couldn't blame him for that."

"You miss Wyatt."

She shrugged. "Today is not the day for being sad," she said firmly. "We need to get dressed and go to work."

"I can't believe you talked Stephan into opening the restaurant on Christmas day and into feeding the neighborhood for free."

"It was a tradition Josephine started, and one I always meant to continue if I ever ran my own restaurant, which I now do."

"And you're doing it quite well, I might add," Lindsay said.

"Thank you." Working at the restaurant had been great the past few months. She no longer had nightmares or panic attacks. She no longer saw Will on the floor by the bar. Instead she remembered the good times they'd shared.

She'd worked her ass off to make the restaurant as successful as possible, and business was booming. There was an hour wait on most weekend nights. She relished every moment of her job, and she had to admit that the work had given her less time to think about Wyatt. But days like today, he was on her mind. She wondered how he was enjoying Christmas with Stephanie.

"Hey, kids, Becky … we gotta get a move on," Lindsay said. "Boss wants us to go to work."

Adrianna smiled. "It will be fun. I promise."

Fifteen minutes later they were walking through the streets of North Beach.

It was a beautiful California Christmas morning, blue skies, temperature in the mid sixties, and a cool, crisp breeze. As they headed up the hill toward Vincenzo's, she glanced at the sweeping view, the Golden Gate Bridge, Angel Island, and felt refreshed. This was her city, her life, and she was happy.

When they reached the square by Vincenzo's, she decided to make a small detour.

"I'll be inside in a minute," she told Lindsay. "I have to make a wish."

"Really?" Lindsay asked, with a curious smile.

"Yeah, this quarter has been burning a hole in my pocket for a long time."

She walked over to the fountain and pulled out the coin. Six months earlier, she'd wished for a way to get past her fear, to get her life back, and her coin had been knocked out of the fountain. But it hadn't mattered, because meeting Wyatt had made her wish come true.

Now, she had another wish.

As she was about to toss her coin, a man called her name.

Startled, she almost dropped her coin into the water, which would have been very anticlimactic. She managed to hang on to it, as she turned around.

"Wyatt," she said in surprise.
 
"I can't believe you're here. Where's Stephanie?"

He tipped his head toward the front of Vincenzo's. She could see Stephanie laughing with Ben and Sara, Becky and Lindsay – and there was a puppy, too. She turned back to Wyatt. "You got a dog?"

"It was Stephanie's Christmas present," he said with a helpless shrug. "I'm a pushover."

"Yes, you are. Life has certainly changed for you."

"Yeah, my place is one noisy mess."

She saw the pure joy in his clear blue gaze and was truly happy for him. "You love it."

"I love you," he said, shocking her with the words.

She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

He grinned at her. "Speechless, huh?"

"We – we haven't seen each other in months."

"But I've thought about you every day," he said, his smile turning serious. He put his hands on her arms. "I wanted to call you a hundred times, but I had to take care of Stephanie first. And I had to figure out if I could give you what you deserve. My relationship with Jen was a mess. I wasn't a good husband."

"I don't believe that."

"It's true. I made mistakes. But I don't want to talk about Jen. I want to talk about you. You inspired me, Adrianna. You kept me going when I was ready to quit. You found my daughter for me."

"We did it together."

He squeezed her arms. "I love you, Adrianna. I didn't think I could ever say that again to a woman. I didn't think I could ever put my life into someone else's hands. But you changed my mind. You and your capacity to give without taking, your kindness, your spirit, your everything."

"You're making me blush," she said, feeling not only heat in her cheeks but moisture in her eyes. "I'm not perfect."

"You're perfect for me. I trust you, Adrianna. And that's big."

She was incredibly touched. "I trust you, too, Wyatt. I haven't been able to do that with everyone. But your courage made me face my own fears, not just about the restaurant and the robbery, but about myself, about not being good enough. I know now that I am."

"You are."

She drew in a big breath. "I was afraid when I didn't hear from you that our time was up."

"I didn't want to come to you until I knew what I had to offer."

"And what's what?" she asked, her heart starting to pound.

"A life of love," he said. "With me and my daughter … and our puppy. Crazy relatives," he added. "You'll have to take my family along with me. I know you don't like cops, but I don't think I'll be quitting any time soon. I don't know how to do anything else."

She put her fingers against his mouth. "Stop. I don't hate your job anymore, and all the rest sounds pretty good. But I have to say you're getting ahead of yourself. We haven't even been on a date yet."

He laughed. "You're right. What is wrong with me? How about Friday night?"

"I think I have to work."

"I'm not going to like Chef's hours, am I?"

"Probably not. I'm free on Sunday."

"So am I," he said, smiling into her eyes. "So what do you say?"

She wanted to say yes to the date, to the life, to everything, but some small part of her was still just a tiny bit afraid that she was so close to getting everything she'd ever wanted that something was bound to go wrong.