not real, is he?” The boy’s frown deepened.
Tony glanced at the rabbit and shrugged. “Looks real to me.”
“There’s no such thing as an Easter Bunny. It’s all pretend.” The boy’s shoulders slumped and his lower lip jutted out.
“Jack, don’t bother the man.” The mother had caught up. Winded from her race to catch up with her son, her words came in short gasps. Her eyes held the remnants of fear probably from realizing he had wandered away. “Why did you leave without telling me?” She lowered her voice to a whisper meant for her son. “You know the rule about talking to strangers.”
A blond-haired woman, her arms wrapped around a child with Down syndrome, appeared behind them. “Don’t be too hard on him, Erin. We were talking. It was probably hard to resist coming to see the Easter Bunny. Right, Jack?”
Jack looked at Tony. “Do kids really get wishes? Or is that pretend, too?”
“Why? Do you have a wish?” Tony asked.
The boy nodded. “I’ve been wishing and praying every night and I didn’t know how God was going to help me. But I heard Mom and Aunt Carol talking. She said that kids get to make a wish and sometimes that wish comes true. Since you’re in charge of the Easter Bunny, I figure God wants me to ask you.”
“Jack.” The mom placed her hand on the boy’s shoulder. “What are you talking about? What wish?”
“Yes, Jack,” Tony said with a grin. “What is this wish that’s so big you’ve been praying about it?”
“I need a dad.”
“Jack!” The mother coughed and sputtered. Her friend gasped and then burst into laughter.
“Not a real dad,” Jack spoke faster. “A pretend dad would be fine. But I need him by eight o’clock next Saturday.”
“Eight o’clock?” Tony, just as surprised as the mother, could only echo the boy’s words.
Jack’s head bobbed up and down. “Mrs. Meltzer at Kidz Club says it doesn’t have to be a real dad. It can be a stepdad or an uncle or a grandfather or even a big brother. That’s what you need to ride the boys’ bus to Disney World. But I don’t have any of those things. It’s just me, my mom and Aunt Tess. I really want to go on that bus.”
The mother’s face and throat flushed with color. She was an attractive woman. Slender. Medium height. Auburn hair. Green eyes. An appealing package. The woman seemed to be struggling to find something appropriate to say. “Jack,” was the only word she managed to whisper.
“Moms get to go. And sisters, too,” the boy continued. “But they have to ride on the second bus. Only the guys get to ride the first bus. Mom’s going with me. But if I don’t get a pretend dad, I won’t be able to ride the first bus with the rest of the guys. I don’t want to ride the girls’ bus.”
“Jack Patrick O’Malley, you stop it right this minute.”
A smile tugged at the edges of Tony’s mouth. Obviously, the mother had overcome her embarrassment and slid right on into mad-as-all-get-out.
“I don’t want to be different from the other kids,” Jack said, ignoring his mother’s outburst. “My legs don’t work right. I can’t play with the other kids at recess. I have to use this stupid walker all the time. I want to go on the boys’ bus. I want to be just like everybody else even if it’s only for one day. Can you do it? Can you get me a pretend dad for Saturday?”
Tony drew in a deep breath.
Lord, how am I supposed to handle this? Couldn’t he have wished for a train set or an action figure? No, he had to hit me in the gut with this. Please, Father, give me the right words.
“That’s a pretty big order.” He looked into the expectant, freckled face staring up at him and, again, saw himself as a boy. Although too young to have any real memories of his police officer father who had been killed in the line of duty, he remembered only too well the pain of growing up without a dad.
Tony’s chest constricted when he saw the trust and hope reflected in the boy’s eyes. “Some things are tough, Jack, even for me,” he said gently. “But I’ll see what the Easter bunny and I can do. Why don’t you go with your aunt?” He pointed toward the refreshments. “I need to talk with your mom.”
Carol, still chuckling, led Jack and Amy away.
Erin watched the man get down from the table and stretch to his full six-foot-two height. He was tall, dark and lethally handsome. She wished the ground would open up and swallow her. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “When he said he had a wish, I thought he would ask for a new toy or a video game. I don’t know what to say.”
Her discomfort deepened when with an athletic grace he covered the distance between them in seconds. His T-shirt strained against his muscular arms and chest. A pleasant masculine scent teased her nostrils and Erin squelched a sudden, irrational urge to move closer for a deeper whiff. But it was his eyes that moved her. Deep, dark, chocolate eyes lit with amusement and a hint of something else. Empathy?
Empathy she appreciated. Sympathy she didn’t need from anyone.
“Relax,” he said. “Don’t you know? I hang out with the Easter Bunny. Who knows better than me the surprising things that slip out of the mouths of kids?” He offered his hand. “I’m Tony Marino.”
His grip was firm and strong.
“Erin O’Malley.”
He released her hand and gestured for her to wait. He pulled a wallet from his back pocket, withdrew a business card and handed it to her.
“I work for the Sheriff’s Department.”
“You’re a cop?” What else could go wrong today?
Tony nodded. “A detective.” His eyes held a warmth and compassion that made his next words easier to hear. “I’d like to volunteer to accompany Jack on the boys’ bus.”
This tall, muscular man with a giving heart and a voice like hot, southern honey made Erin stand up and take notice despite his bad taste in permanent employment.
He nodded toward the business card. “You can verify my credentials before Saturday, ma’am.”
She refrained from answering and tried to make sense of her ridiculous, and completely unexpected, attraction to him. Just the word cop usually worked like a bucket of ice-cold water. And the fact that he was a member of the untrustworthy male species normally cinched the deal.
“Why would you want to ride the bus with my son?” she asked.
“That’s what today is all about, isn’t it? Granting wishes to kids?” He leaned close. His breath fanned her cheek and he whispered in her ear as if they shared a secret all their own. “I know from personal experience what it feels like to grow up without a dad. I know what it would mean to your son to ride the bus with the other boys.”
“I…I…” A multitude of emotions bombarded Erin. Surprise. Embarrassment. Curiosity. Goose bumps danced along her arms when those chocolate
