Free A Fairytale Christmas by Susan Wiggs Page B

My life, if the truth be known.”
    She frowned. “I don’t know what you mean.”
    Harry shrugged. “He’s not the sort to boast. He saved my life. Last Friday night, it was. Two junkies were mugging me. Jack came on like a locomotive. Decked themboth, and then they turned tail and ran. I’ll never forget that.”
    “Last Friday night?” she repeated slowly.
    “Precisely. He didn’t want to accept a thing for his troubles, but I insisted. When he showed me your invitation,
I
became the locomotive. Gave him a whole new look.” Harry winked. “Poof! He certainly did turn out different, didn’t he?”
    “Like magic,” she conceded, fascinated.
    He twirled his cane. “Miracles happen. I hope you had a good time that night. Jack had his doubts, but I swore he’d love every minute of it.”
    We
both
loved every minute of it, she thought. Because it wasn’t real. It was a fairy-tale illusion.
    “Well,” said Harry, cramming on his hat and moving toward the elevators. “I’d best be going. Give that to Jack when you see him.” He gestured at the shopping bag.
    She picked it up. “But I won’t be seeing him.”
    “You will. Trust me.”
    Exasperated, she turned to give the parcel back to Harry. The little man was nowhere in sight.
He must be quicker than he looks
, she thought.
    She was trying to decide what to do with the bag when her cellular phone rang. She dug it out of her handbag. “Hello?”
    “Miss Langston?”
    “Maria! Are you all right?”
    “I just called for a taxi. The baby’s coming.”
    Madeleine felt a thrill of pleasure and concern. “How do you feel, sweetie?”
    “Like—” She gasped, breathing hard for a moment. “Like the baby’s coming. Miss Langston?”
    “Yes?”
    “Do you think you could … you know, come to the hospital? Just for a while …”
    “Maria?”
    “Yeah?”
    “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Chapter Ten
    H is parka flapping open and his hat long gone, Jack rushed down the green tile corridor of the hospital. Maria Garza was a lot more grown-up than he had suspected. Not wanting to disrupt the Christmas Eve festivities at the center, she had quietly called a cab and gone alone to the hospital.
    The second Jack had found out, he’d raced over. Sister Doyle was managing the center. Families from the neighborhood had all come. Derek was playing a dapper Santa Claus and Brad was serving punch. The preppies had surprised Jack with their willingness to help out. Maybe they felt sorry for him for getting fired on Christmas.
    Hell, he’d had it coming.
    He skidded to a stop at the nurses’ station of the maternity wing. “Maria Garza?” he asked.
    The nurse peered at him over her reading glasses, then poked at her keyboard. “In labor. Looks like they’re going to take her into Delivery pretty soon. You the father?”
    “No, but—”
    “
I’m
the father,” said a worried voice.
    Jack turned to see a young man in a construction-companyparka, his hair mussed by the wind and his ears chapped, his feet dancing nervously on the tile floor. “What, you figure better late than never, José?”
    José’s eyes flashed, but only for an instant. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s what I figure. Look, Jack, I’m going to stay with her now. It’ll be good. I got a steady job and a nice apartment in Queens. I just, I don’t know. Quit calling her. It was stupid of me. I got scared.”
    “So how do you think Maria felt?”
    He hung his head. “It won’t happen again, man. I got a nice place, really. Just for the three of us.” He lifted his chin. His face bore a maturity that had been lacking before. “If she’ll have me.”
    Jack felt pride and cautious relief. “That’s always the big question, isn’t it, buddy? Whether or not she’ll have you.”
    The nurse cleared her throat. “They’re about to take her into Delivery. You’d better scrub up if you think you’re going to be part of this.”
    The look of sheer wonder and excitement that