Wish Upon a Christmas Star Read Online Free PDF Page B

it more likely that Mike was alive.
    “You’re not hearing me,” Logan said. “He couldn’t help with the
rent if he was unemployed. I told him he needed to keep the busboy job until he
found another one. I talked him into going to work that day.”
    “You don’t know that,” Maria retorted. “Mike was bullheaded. If
he wanted to quit, he would have.”
    “I don’t think so,” Logan said. “Even if that’s true, he would
have gone in to work and given notice.”
    “Not if he phoned,” Maria said. Something else occurred to her.
“Maybe he didn’t feel any loyalty to the people there. Maybe he just didn’t show
up.”
    Logan shook his head. “You’re grasping at straws. No way would
Mike let your family believe he was dead.”
    “He dropped out of high school and ran away from home, Logan,”
she said. “He was on the outs with us.”
    “He wasn’t a vindictive kid,” Logan said.
    “He was a rebellious one,” Maria countered. “My parents caught
him drinking or skipping school or staying out all night lots of times. He
wanted to do his own thing without getting hassled.”
    “It’s one thing to be rebellious,” Logan said. “It’s another to
let your family go through the heartache of believing you’re dead.”
    Logan probably thought he sounded like the voice of reason. It
wouldn’t do any good to tell him she couldn’t rest until she’d eliminated any
chance that Mike was alive. Logan was just as closed-minded as always. If he’d
been able to open his mind to possibilities, they’d be married right now.
    “I hadn’t looked at it from that perspective.” She pretended to
look thoughtful. She had to wrench the next words from her mouth. “Perhaps
you’re right.”
    His mouth dropped open. He closed it and let out a heavy
breath. “Believe me, that doesn’t bring me any happiness.”
    She nodded.
    “What are you going to do now?” he asked.
    “What do you think I should do?”
    “You should drop it,” he said. “It’s a cruel trick that isn’t
worth your time.”
    Maria tried to look pensive. “You’re probably right.”
    “So you’re not going to Key West?”
    “What would be the point?” She put her credit card inside the
leather billfold the waitress had dropped by their table, and rose. “Would you
excuse me for a minute?”
    He hesitated only a moment before answering. “Sure.”
    On the way to the restroom, Maria stopped at the hostess stand
and placed a request. Within minutes, she rejoined Logan. Her credit card was on
the table, but nothing else.
    “Didn’t the waitress bring me a receipt?” she asked.
    Logan said, “I switched out our credit cards and went ahead and
paid the bill.”
    “Nobody asked you to do that,” she said.
    “I wanted to.”
    Because he was flaunting what a success he’d made of himself?
Even as the thought came into her head, she knew it wasn’t true. Logan had
always been generous with what he had, even when he was a broke high school
kid.
    “Thank you,” she managed to say. “We should go. You won’t be in
town long. I don’t want to keep you from your family.”
    “My parents like you,” Logan said. “They won’t mind waiting
while I drive you back to your office.”
    “They won’t have to wait,” Maria said on the way to the coat
rack. He helped her on with her coat, brushing against her in the process. A
shiver ran the length of her body.
    “Oh?” he said. “Why’s that?”
    She pointed through the glass doors to where a taxi idled at
the curb. “I had the hostess call a cab.”
    He looked wounded. “I would have driven you.”
    “I know,” she said. “Have a nice Christmas, Logan.”
    “You, too,” he said.
    She pushed open the doors and hurried to the cab, forcing
herself not to turn around for a final glance at him. When she closed the taxi
door behind her, she felt as though she were shutting out a past that included
Logan. Once upon a time, she never could have fooled him with that