Free Wish Upon a Christmas Star by Darlene Gardner Page B

for a business degree.
    Maria entered the lobby just then, reminding him that the
future he’d pictured had included her. She didn’t look her best. Her black hair
was starting to fall out of her ponytail and her sundress was wrinkled. Even at
her worst, though, Maria was beautiful.
    “Logan?” Harvey said. “Why aren’t you answering? You do want
the job, right?”
    “Absolutely,” he declared.
    “Then get back here ASAP. This weekend at the latest. Can you
do that?”
    Logan hadn’t gotten as far as he had without telling his boss
what he wanted to hear. “I can do that.”
    “Good.” Harvey rang off at the same moment Maria spotted Logan.
Her shoulders squared and her chin lifted. It didn’t look as if she’d be
apologizing for ditching Logan.
    “Hey, Maria.” He indicated the armchair next to him. “Have a
seat. Fill me in on what’s happened since I last saw you.”
    She dropped her hands on her hips. They were curvy, the way a
woman’s hips should be.
    “Oh, no,” she said. “Don’t tell me you’re spying for Annalise
now.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “That was my sister on the phone, wasn’t it?” she demanded.
    “Actually, it was my boss,” Logan said. “I called to let him
know I was delayed.”
    Her shoulders seemed to relax. “I bet he wasn’t happy about
that.”
    “He wasn’t.”
    “So did you tell him you’d be back as soon as you could?” She
crossed her arms over her chest, regarding him intently. “You did, didn’t
you?”
    “My job’s important to me,” he said.
    “I know it is.” Her words were matter-of-fact; her tone was
flippant. “So go back to New York. I won’t stop you.”
    She was as impossible as she’d always been—and as complicated.
The hard exterior she presented hid a marshmallow center, a trait she’d shared
with her brother Mike. Logan couldn’t tell whether she really didn’t want him
around or if she was using the tough talk as a defense mechanism.
    “I’m here at least until tomorrow,” Logan said. “Let me help
you, Maria.”
    Her mouth worked but no words emerged. It was as though she
wasn’t sure what to say, as though she wanted him to stay but couldn’t bring
herself to say so.
    He patted the armchair again. “C’mon. Sit with me awhile.”
    “I don’t owe you anything, Logan,” she said. “Yeah, you were a
help back at the post office. I’ll admit that. But I didn’t ask you to come
here.”
    “You’d feel less guilty if you sat down and told me what you’ve
been up to,” he said.
    She sank into the chair. “What makes you think I feel
guilty?”
    “I got you to sit down, didn’t I?” he asked.
    “Okay, so I do feel a little guilty,” she admitted, throwing up
her hands. “You want to know what I’ve been up to? I’ll tell you. Then you’ll
understand why you’re not needed.”
    She spent the next ten minutes telling him about a Santa Claus
statue that kept getting defaced and her deal to mentor an apprentice private
eye in return for information. She had a list of local hangouts, contact
information for some longtime Key West residents and a suggestion to go to the
nightly sunset celebration at the Mallory Square dock.
    “I can usually do a lot of investigative work online but not
with this case,” she said. “The only way to find out if Mike is in Key West is
to physically go out and talk to people.”
    “All the more reason to keep me around,” Logan said. “We can
cover more ground if we work together.”
    “I don’t understand,” Maria said. “You haven’t seen me in
years. Why is it so important for you to help me?”
    A good question. He wasn’t completely sure of his reasons.
Guilt had something to do with it, but so did the thought of leaving Maria alone
in Key West so close to Christmas.
    “Does it matter?” he asked. “Can’t you just accept my
help?”
    “What if I refuse?”
    “It won’t do any good,” Logan said. “I’ll follow you around
town. I’m better at it now. I got