Wishing On A Starr (9 page)

Chapter 9

Gia was lost in a world of passion to a man she hardly knew. The array of candlelight had diminished somewhat, but it still provided enough light for her to watch as waves of ecstasy washed over his handsome features. She could recognize it because they were the same waves crashing through her.

Tears gathered and fell at the exquisite feel of him inside of her. In the back of Gia’s mind, a voice tried to reason that this coupling was nothing more than two adults seeking to satisfy a physical need.

But she wasn’t buying it.

Something had clicked within her soul-something akin to two pieces of a puzzle finally snapping together. The completion of that puzzle was beautiful and divine.

Daniel thought that he would die at how her body sheathed him. Like an addict, his lips returned to her mouth and he was completely at peace to drown in their sweet taste.

She twisted breathlessly beneath him while her warm passage grew increasingly tight. Together their breathing and leisurely pace quickened until a spark ignited in the core of their souls.

He hiked her hips and dove deeper.

A cry of rapture tore from her lips and, soon after, an explosion erupted inside him and he clutched her body as his roar of release filled the apartment.

Daniel rolled onto his side, but still held her close. “I should tell you that I don’t do one night stands.” His heart sank a bit when her gaze lowered.

Daniel’s lips slowly traveled the column of her neck and then languished lazily at the crook of her collarbone. “Talk to me. Tell me what you’re afraid of.”

Her lips trembled and struggled to hold onto her secrets, but as his mouth continued its descent, her body grew warm and the truth about her past, her regrets, and her fears poured out of her.

“It’s past midnight,” Neve said, brushing on a final coat of nail polish on her toes. “That’s a good sign, right?”

I don’t want to say that I’m a genius, but I
am
a genius.”

“So when do you think we’ll get the chance to meet her?”

“Soon I hope.”

“What if she turns out to be like this awful stepmother and has children of her own? Next thing you know you’ll be like this modern day Cinderella.”

“Oh quit it. That story had a happy ending, by the way.”

“Yeah, but look at what she had to go through.” Neve shrugged. “I’m not too sure it was all worth it.”

“Look, my father would never fall for some evil, manipulative woman. Trust me on that. This Ms. Hunter has to be really someone special to snag my father. You saw how picky he was when we were trying to set him up.”

“Yeah. You’re right.” Starr waved her nails around in the air. “Don’t worry. We’ll think of something. But first let’s keep our finger crossed about this Gia Hunter. I have a feeling that she really could be the one.”

“So what about your plans to find your real mother?” Neve asked. “Are you still going to contact the adoption agency?”

Starr drew a deep breath and met her friend’s direct gaze head on. “I already have.”

Somewhere in between making love and confessions, Gia and Daniel finished decorating her first ever Christmas tree. The beauty of what they created, both while making love and the tree, filled Gia with a warm glow. However, what truly surprised her was that there was no judgment in his expression-only complete understanding and support.

Yet, when she described the minefield between her and her family, it was the first time he looked at her with something akin to disappointment in his eyes.

She shook her head and closed her eyes. She had plenty of time to figure this whole thing out. Right now, she just wanted Daniel to hold her forever.

Thoughts of Talboton, Ma Belle were put on the back burner. Gia’s arms tightened around Daniel. After so many years, it was time for her to be happy.

Five days before Christmas, Glenda could barely pull herself together. She had cried for so hard and for so long, her eyes remained puffy and bloodshot red 24/7.

Not only that, but the usually ornery Ma Belle had changed her tune and was now asking for Gia every hour on the hour.

“Call her,” Byron growled through the phone and fixed his hard stare on her through the prison’s Plexiglas. “How you goin’ deny her dyin’ wish?”

“You don’t understand.” Glenda raked her hands through her dry, un-permed, hair. “Gia escaped this place once. I ain’t gonna drag her back here and let this place dig its claws into her again. I won’t do it.”

“You talkin’ nonsense. After all Ma Belle’s done for us-takin’ us in after Ma died, and then helped raised our chil’in’, you gonna sit there and deny her dyin’ wish? Hell, you still livin’ up in her house, gurl.”

Glenda wiped away another stream of tears. “You ain’t got in you to understand. I’m doin’ this for Gia. If she wanted to see Ma Belle, she would’ve been here. I ain’t tryin’ to hurt nobody. I’m just tryin’ to do what’s right.”

Byron shook his head. “You wrong, Glenda. I can’t do much about it while locked up, but I’m going to be out of here in a couple of days. And you can bet your last dollar I’m callin’ Gia as soon as I walk out.”

A nervous Gia kept her eyes on the clock. Tonight, she was going to meet Daniel’s beloved daughter Starr. Daniel had arranged for them to spend an evening at Radio City Music Hall. One minute, Gia was excited and anxious, and in the next, she was nauseous and thinking up every excuse she could to back out.

“You’re meeting the daughter?” Bernie plopped into the seat across from Gia’s desk. “That’s the equivalent of meeting the parents-if not higher.”

Gia reached into her desk and removed a packet of Alka-Seltzer. “Please, let’s just change the subject.”

“Are you kidding me? This is the longest relationship I’ve known you to be in and you want me to just drop it? Not on your life.” She settled back in her chair and crossed her arms. “Do you know what I have to go through to get Vinny to get our tree every year? It’s like pulling teeth.”

“So if a man brings you a Christmas tree he’s a keeper?”

“ No. If a man brings you a Christmas tree, plays with you in the snow, and puts a smile of your face like the one you’ve been wearing for the last five days,
then
he’s a keeper.”

Gia knew she was right. It was hard enough not to melt every time she spoke his name or even thought about him. Daniel had a way of making her feel young and loved. And she was falling in love with him as well.

“Well, I, for one, am glad that this day has finally come. You deserve to be happy. Grab onto this man and don’t you dare let him go.”

Daniel hadn’t intended to read his daughter’s personal mail, however, while he was straightening up the dining room, his eyes snagged on a company’s letterhead: Independent Adoption Agency.

Starr was searching for her biological mother-and she hadn’t said a word to him.

He lowered into one of the chairs at the dining room table. His hands trembled as his eyes scanned the letter. Yet, before he could finish, the front door opened and his daughter and her constant companion entered the house.

“You left it out,” he said simply, and then glanced to her frozen friend. “Neve, do you mind going home? I would like to talk to Starr in private.”

Neve’s sympathetic gaze shifted to Starr, but she wisely retreated backwards toward the door. “I’ll call you later,” she said, and then flashed a flat smile when she didn’t receive a response.

The house became as silent as a tomb until the click of the front door announced Neve’s final departure.

Starr slowly crossed her arms and lifted her chin. “Why are you reading my mail?”

“I didn’t mean to,” he answered softly and placed the offending letter down on the table. Though his brain was crammed packed with questions, he struggled to pull one out of the clutter.

The tightening in his chest loosened a bit, but he still didn’t know how to handle this latest information. Wasn’t this the thing that Hilary always feared: the biological mother showing up and taking Starr away from the people who loved her. “If you wanted to meet your real mother I wish you would’ve told me.” He held her gaze. “I would’ve helped.”

“It’s not what you think.” Starr’s shoulders deflated and she pulled up another chair. “In fact you’d probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you what I had in mind.”

Daniel patiently folded his hands in his lap. “Why don’t you try me?”

“Well,” she drew a deep breath. “I had hoped to pair you and my biological mother together, if she’s still single.”

Of all the things Daniel expected her to say that explanation was nowhere on the list. He took a few seconds to mull the confession again and then decided honesty should only be rewarded with honesty.

“Starr, that has to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard.”

Gia paced inside her apartment with her nerves tied up in knots. She had several hours to digest the information from the adoption agency and she still couldn’t believe the latest course of events. Her wish had come true.

She hadn’t made a habit of believing in magic or anything else supernatural, but the call from the agency had her reconsidering. Now that the agency had gotten her okay, the next step was waiting for them to deliver her daughter her entire adoption file, complete with Gia’s name and address.

A new waiting game.

There was the possibility that her daughter would receive the file and still never contact her, but she quickly pushed those thoughts aside. So far this season had brought her out of her depression, had given her Daniel, and now her daughter.

The doorbell rang and jarred her out of her stupor. She had forgotten to cancel her date. She glanced at her watch as she headed toward the door. It was an hour before show time and she wasn’t even dressed.

She stopped at the front door with her hand on the knob when she suddenly remembered Daniel was coming with his daughter.

She glanced down just as the doorbell rang again.

“I’m off to a great start,” she mumbled and pulled open the door. She greeted Daniel with a smile, but then Gia’s gaze shifted. She froze unable to believe that she was staring into the eyes of her deceased husband.