Protect Me, Love
Page 21
Jaycee! Delia wanted to cry out.
But there were no greetings in that abandoned rail yard, not until the sounds of scuffling died down and Max and Cassandra had been disarmed by the Hester Street gang with Nick joining in. Then Jaycee came forward wearing her crooked grin and reached her hand out toward Delia.
“Merry Christmas, sugar,” Jaycee said.
JAYCEE HAD PREDICTED two gifts for Delia that Christmas Eve. The first, from Jaycee herself, was deliverance from becoming yet another of Cassandra’s victims. Jaycee had used what Delia had taught her to read that Christmas card over her shoulder back at the settlement house. Jaycee guessed there was big trouble in store when she saw the look on Nick’s face as he scurried out of there after Delia. Jaycee went into action then, mobilizing everybody at the center, commandeering one of the trucks waiting to be loaded with Christmas dinners for needy families.
The rest was history—the end of the story for Cassandra and Max, the beginning for Delia and Nick who spent the next several hours on that same truck helping deliver those dinners and belting out carols at the top of their lungs till they were hoarse from song and laughter. There’d be time to clear everything up with the police later on. Until then, this was the first Christmas of their new life together, and neither of them intended to miss a single, blessed, beautiful minute of it.
“The second gift Jaycee promised,” Delia whispered as she and Nick tumbled up to her apartment door, arms around each other and near exhaustion.
“What are you talking about?” Nick asked.
Delia pointed to the package leaning against the door.
“I have a feeling this is the gift from heaven in Jaycee’s vision.”
Nick laughed, and it was the happiest sound she’d ever heard. “Then you’d better open it,” he said, and bent to kiss her, sweet as Christmas candy, full on the lips.
Delia kissed him back and held him very tight for a moment.
“Let’s go inside first,” she said.
Christmas morning was dawning behind the blinds in Delia’s living room. She hurried to the window and pulled the cord to let that light into the room.
“No need to hide anymore,” she said. “That’s all over.”
“Yes, it is,” Nick answered, taking her coat.
She smiled and sighed, as if his agreement made the words suddenly true and put the years of fear and subterfuge behind her for certain and for good. She sat down on the floor next to the blue spruce and unwrapped the brown paper from the package she’d discovered outside her door. She recognized what she found inside the moment she saw it, and a gasp escaped her lips as she choked back her tears. Cassandra had mentioned leaving Delia a second, even more enticing invitation to the rail yard, in case she didn’t get the one at Hester Street. Here it was, the linen-covered book Delia remembered so well.
“What is it?” Nick asked.
“My father’s journal,” she said.
She ran her fingers over the faded cover. She would save the reading of it for later on. She understood that what her father had written here would restore him to her in a way nothing else could have done. This book was exactly what Jaycee had predicted.
“A gift from heaven,” Delia murmured again.
Nick knelt beside her, and she lifted her face to his as they wound their arms around each other. “You’re a gift from heaven,” he said.
“Merry Christmas, my love,” Delia whispered in response as she gazed at the spun glass angel sparkling from a blue spruce branch and held Nick tight.
eISBN 978-14592-7597-3
PROTECT ME, LOVE
Copyright © 1996 by Alice Orr
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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Printed in U.S.A.
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Experct
Dear Reader
Dedication
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Copyright