The Wishing Tree Read Online Free PDF Page B

her head, her eyes burning with tears. "You are … too good to me."
    "That's impossible, Ria. No one could ever be too good to you. You're one in a million."
    She was quiet until she could get control of her emotions. "That means so much to me," she said finally. "Thank you."
    The carousel came to a stop and Miguel clambered down from his yellow pony, running to where they stood. "Mama, I waved at you again when I went by and you didn't wave back. I thought you might be crying."
    "No." She bent to him to give him a hug. "I wasn't. I was just talking to Pete. About Christmas things."
    "Did you wish for something on our wishing tree?" Miguel's impish face looked up earnestly into Pete's.
    "Uh… Well, not yet," Pete evaded.
    Ria could see that Miguel was worried about it.
    "Mama, did you?"
    "Yes," she said firmly. "I sure did."
    "We'll have to wait 'til Christmas to see if it comes true, I think," he told her seriously, taking her hand.
    She looked at Pete, shaking her head slightly as they started down through the mall. "No," she said softly. "We don't have to wait. I've gotten more than I ever could've wished for already."
    He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her knuckles. "I guess my wish is the one we'll have to hold our breaths for, then. Here's hoping the tree doesn't give out before I get what I want."
    * * * * *
    Pete pulled into the parking lot and opened his door, then the back door on his side where Miguel insisted on sitting.
    "Want to go on up and open the door?" He glanced at Ria. "I'll carry him up, then come back for everything."
    She gave him a grateful smile. "Let me carry some of it as I go."
    "It's all right, honey. I'll get it."
    "I'll make coffee." She closed the truck door and headed for the stairwell.
    "That's a good trade," he teased.
    He unbuckled Miguel's seatbelt and gently pulled him out of the truck. Miguel's arms went around his neck and he savored the sleepy trust of the little boy he'd already come to love in such a short time. This had been a wonderful day for all of them, Pete thought – not just for Miguel. He couldn't remember a day when he'd felt so happy. He couldn't remember a night when he'd slept peacefully, with none of the nightmares of the battlefield crashing through his head.
    But he had done so last night. He stopped at the bottom of the stairwell, letting that thought settle. For the first time in six years, he'd had a full night of uninterrupted sleep. During those years, he would have given everything he owned to have that peacefulness back. Who'd known all it took was holding Maria Sanchez in his arms?
    He came up the stairs slowly. He'd met Maria and everything changed – for the better. He didn't want to move too fast … scare her. Or was he scaring himself with thoughts of settling down with Maria, taking on the role of husband and father, when he had no experience in either capacity?
    As he came through the door, he noticed Ria standing beside the kitchen table. Her face was filled with anxiety, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. Inside, the spic-and-span apartment had been ransacked. The drawers had been pulled out and left on the floor, clothing scattered helter-skelter across the carpet.
    Ria's hands shook as she grasped the table to steady herself. "He's been here again."
    Anger shot through Pete, but he kept calm, knowing he had to do so for her. "Can you come turn back his bed?" he asked softly.
    "Yes, let me do that." She turned to hurry down the hallway.
    Pete followed, waiting for her to make the bed ready. Miguel's room had been left untouched, but everything else was in shambles – including the tree, Pete noted.
    Somehow, that angered him more than all the rest of it as he thought of the excitement in Miguel's small face, the happiness in Ria's eyes as they'd decorated it.
    He laid Miguel in the bed and glanced at Maria, who was unlacing her son's shoes. She was barely holding herself together. Pete didn't want to leave her alone, but he