Wishing On A Starr (10 page)
Read Wishing On A Starr Online
Authors: Adrianne Byrd
“Dad, what’s wrong?”
Tears glossed Gia’s eyes and then streamed down her face as her gaze took in the teenager’s nose, cheeks, and lips. She knew those features all to well, but couldn’t wrap her brain around how this was possible.
Daniel easily swooped her into his arms as though she weighed nothing. “Let’s get you over to the sofa,” he announced. “Starr, can you go into the kitchen and get her some water?”
Starr entered the apartment and meandered around until she found the kitchen.
Meanwhile, Gia dropped her face into her hands and tried to get a grip on herself. It had to be stress that was doing this to her. She couldn’t possibly being seeing what she thought she was.
“Are you all right, baby?” Daniel asked again as he gently brushed her hair back from her face. “C’mon talk to me.”
“It’s not possible,” Gia mumbled, trying to convince herself that her eyes were playing tricks on her.
“Here, daddy.” Starr returned to the room.
Gia spread her fingers and peeked through them. She hadn’t been dreaming. “How can this be?”
Starr nervously glanced at her father.
Gia lowered her hands and Daniel tried to press a glass of water into it.
“Here, drink this.”
She obeyed, but her gaze remained locked on his daughter. After draining the water in one long gulp, Gia quickly set the glass down on the coffee table and continued staring.
Starr fidgeted.
“Gia,” Daniel said softly. “Do I need to call someone?”
Shaking her head, Gia pushed herself to stand up. However, when she took a step toward Starr, the teenager retreated. Suddenly realizing how her behavior was probably frightening the young girl, Gia smiled to lighten the mood. It didn’t help.
The room remained layered with tension and Gia quickly came up with a plan to relieve it. She rushed out of her living room and dashed to her bedroom. When she returned to her stunned guests, she handed Daniel a picture. “That’s my late husband Jermaine.”
Daniel stared at her as he accepted the picture.
“Look at him.”
He glanced down, blinked, and then brought the picture closer to his face.
Now Gia fidgeted with her hand while sneaking more glances at Starr.
With disbelief etched into his features as well, Daniel glanced up at his daughter.
“What?” Starr asked. Finally tired of the adults’ odd behavior, Starr moved toward her father and reached for the photograph in his hand. One glance at the handsome man posed in a military uniform and Starr also needed help standing.
The resemblance was too similar to be ignored. “Who is this?”
Gia swallowed. “My deceased husband.”
Starr leaned more of her weight against her father. “Why…why does he look like me?”
Gia opened her mouth but couldn’t speak. There was still a great possibility that all of this was just a coincidence.
“You gave up a child for adoption,” Daniel said slowly. “And Hilary and I adopted a child.”
Gia nodded.
Daniel looked as though he needed to sit down as well, but he continued to stand and support his daughter. “We received a letter today,” he began.
Gia’s heart leapt to her throat. “I received a call.”
“ F-from whom?” Starr asked.
“The Independent Adoption Agency out of Atlanta.”
“Ohmigosh.” Starr clamped a hand over her mouth. “You’re my mother.”
The next four days passed in a blur as Gia, Starr, and Daniel got to know each other. The hardest part for Gia was explaining the circumstances surrounding Starr’s adoption. But she took great pride in telling Starr about her real father. To be sure, Gia and Starr took a DNA test.
After nearly fifteen years, mother and daughter were finally reunited.
For Christmas Eve, Gia invited Daniel and her daughter over to her place for a small get together. Close friends and a few associates gathered for the opportunity to meet Gia’s daughter.
Being that it was going to be her first Christmas with Starr, Gia had also gone on a mad shopping spree that amazed Bernie. She was driven by a need to give her daughter anything and everything her heart desired. So when Daniel and Starr showed up with their own armloads of gifts they were completely blown away by the amount of packages stuffed under Gia’s tree.
“Ms. Hunter, you shouldn’t have,” Starr said with wide eyes.
“Please, call me Gia,” she said, though in her heart she longed for her daughter to call her
Mom.
Maybe one day.
It became an exciting time for Gia and Starr; however, things grew a little awkward between Gia and Daniel.
“Hey, what are you doing hiding in here?” Gia asked, entering the kitchen.
“Oh, nothing. I just came in here for...for a few minutes.” Daniel set his cup of eggnog down on the counter.
Gia drew a breath when she realized Daniel was going out of his way to avoid making eye contact.
“Have things changed between us?” she asked bluntly.
His gaze still refused to meet hers. “I don’t know.”
She nodded and braided her hands together. “I’m not trying to steal her away from you.”
“Are you sure?”
Gia sucked in a breath, but waited until he finally looked at her. “I fell for you long before I knew about Starr.”
“Now that you know?”
“I hope to always be a part of her life...even if it doesn’t work out between us. Though I hope that it does.”
“Why?”
She drew a breath but held his gaze. “Because you taught me how to love again. You pulled me out of a dark place, introduced me to jazz, and taught me how to love Christmas.” Gia dried the corners of her eyes before the tears had a chance to fall. She couldn’t tell if rejection was on the horizon and she felt stripped and vulnerable.
At last, Daniel smiled and closed the distance between them. “It has been a magical few weeks. I, too, didn’t think that I would ever find love again.”
“Love?” she asked in a shaky tremor.
“Am I going too fast for you?”
“Actually, this whole thing has felt more like a wild roller coaster: fast but exhilarating.” She stared into the mirrors of his soul. “I love it and wouldn’t have it any other way.” A wide smile ballooned across her face.
Daniel leaned forward and savored a light kiss. “That makes two of us.”
Starr and Neve stepped back from the kitchen and grinned at each other.
“Wow,” Neve whispered. “Your wish came true. I wouldn’t have never believed this if I didn’t see it with my own eyes.”
Starr had a hard time believing it as well, but she couldn’t deny that she was ecstatic about the whole situation. Gia Hunter was all that she had hoped for. After learning the circumstance of her adoption, she knew there was no way that she could hate her real mother. Not when such great parents had adopted her.
Yes, everything was just how it was suppose to be. “You know, Neve, this really is going to be the best Christmas ever.”
Gia jumped away from Daniel when her phone rang and then laughed at herself. “Jeez, I’m being a lousy hostess,” she said, heading toward the phone’s wall unit. “Can you take those hors d’oeuvres out to the guests for me?”
“Certainly,” Daniel answered with a chuckle. “Don’t be too long. Your friends keep asking me when I’m going to propose.”
“Oh yeah? When are you?” she asked, picking up the phone.
“Soon.” Daniel replied. “Real soon.” He exited the kitchen with a wink.
Shaking her head, Gia placed the phone against her ear and answered.
“Hello, Gia? I-it’s me-Byron.”
Chapter 11
Christmas, Talboton, GA
After the flight from hell, Gia rushed through the doors of Baptist Meriwether Hospital by noon with her heart lodged in her throat and tears streaming down her face.
“Can I help you, ma’am?” a woman inquired from behind a nurses station.
“Y-yes.” She glanced around, and then swiped at her face with the back of her hand. “I’m here to see Maybelle Jackson. Can you tell me what room she’s in?”
Daniel and Starr finally caught up with Gia while the nurse typed into the computer. “I’m showing she’s in room three-twelve.”
Gia turned and collided into Daniel. Before she had a chance to react, he gently kissed her forehead, and slid a supportive arm around her waist.
“C’mon. We’ll help you find her.”
Starr favored her mother with a nervous smile and it suddenly occurred to Gia that the young girl was within seconds of meeting more members of her real family of all things on, of all things, her birthday. How traumatic would it be for her to meet her maternal grandmother on the day that she…
Gia reached for her daughter’s trembling hand and the small family walked down the hospital’s empty hallways looking for room three-twelve. They rounded the corner and stopped when they saw a crowd spilling out of one of the rooms.
Family members-young and old-all stared at Gia slack-jawed. Slowly, she inched toward them. Once the three of them maneuvered through the crowd to reach the door, Gia hesitated. What was she going to say?
“Baby,” Daniel whispered. “You can do this.”
Gia drew strength from him and lifted her head, but it took the squeeze from Starr’s hand for her to push open the door.
The room was cold and dim.
The nerve-racking sounds of machines beeping and pulsing sent a shiver of fear racing down Gia’s spine. Her attention locked on the outline on the bed and as she moved farther into the room, her gaze traveled its length.
A loud gasp came from someone sitting in a chair, but Gia blocked out the person as her eyes finally settled on the sleeping face of Ma Belle. It was a face both familiar and foreign to Gia, and she was suddenly overwhelmed by guilt.
“What are you doing here?”
Gia finally lifted her eyes to Glenda’s hard gaze.
“I called her.”
Gia jumped and turned around to see her brother Byron enter the room behind Daniel and Starr.
Glenda seethed. “I told you-”
“She’s got every right to be here,” Byron said with a dismissive tone, and then stared at Gia. “Ma Belle’s been askin’ for you.”
Ma Belle drew a deep sigh and shifted in her bed, but her eyes remained closed. “Ya’ll goin’ keep all this racket up or are you goin’ to let an old woman get some rest?”
Gia smiled. Her grandma was going to be cantankerous to the end.
Byron maneuvered around the small crowd and moved toward the bed. “Ma,” he said, taking her plump hand. “There’s somebody here to see you.”
“Honey chile, I’m too tired for more guests right now.” She winced and shifted to get comfortable again. “Tell ‘em to come back in the mornin’.”
Gia immediately took a retreating step, but had once again bumped against Daniel’s chest.
Byron motioned Gia to the bed. “Ma, I think you want to see this person tonight. She came all the way from New York on account I told her you wanted to see her.”
“New York?” Ma Belle questioned and finally pried open her eyes.
On trembling legs, Gia approached the bed. She was unprepared when Byron grabbed her hand and placed it atop of Ma Belle’s. Her grandmother’s hand felt more like a block of ice and it trembled as much as her own.
“G-Gia?” Ma Belle questioned. “Chile, is it really you?”
Gia opened her mouth but her warring emotions had choked off her vocal chords and she was unable to speak.
A smile slowly carved its way across Ma Belle’s face. “My Lawd, I never thought I’d see your face again.” She squeezed Gia’s hand. “Glad to see I was wrong. ’Course, I realize I’m the reason you ran from town.”
“No,” Gia whispered.
“Just ‘cause I’m dyin’ it’s no reason for us to start lyin’, chile. I pushed you to give up your baby and I had no right. It’s just...”
“It’s okay.” Gia glanced over at Starr who also had tears brimming her eyes as she clutched her father. “Things worked out just fine, Ma.”
“I tried my best with what little I had,” Ma Belle went on. “I know you chil’en think I was always hard on you, but I treated you like my folks treated me. I always wanted the best for you and maybe I just didn’t know how to go about gettin’ it to you. I need you to forgive me because I had no right to-”
“
I
made the choice, Ma.” Gia forced the truth out her mouth. “Me. I wanted to blame you. I tried to blame you, but it was
my
choice. You don’t need to seek forgiveness from me because you did nothing wrong. I ran from Talboton trying to escape myself-but it didn’t work.” She sighed, thinking about the years, she had spent in depression and then her thoughts turned to how things have changed. She didn’t need pills to get through life anymore. Somehow, some way a miracle had been performed this Christmas. She had her daughter, a man of her dreams, and now the chance to mend the tattered bridge between her and her family.