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Chapter One
“See you in thirty minutes, babe. Can’t wait for us to make it official.”
A besotted smile on his face, Tyler Kent ended the conversation and pocketed his phone. Hopefully his gorgeous bride, Beverly, would make it to City Hall on time. Eager to get out of the restaurant where he’d stopped for a late lunch after a series of unexpected meetings at the hospital, he headed toward the door, tripping over something at knee-level.
“Ouch, you mean. You hurt me.” The small child wrapped in pink from top to bottom pummeled his thighs with her gloved fists.
“Hey, stop that,” he scolded, trying to find a face under the pink hood.
“You’re mean.” The little fists kept punching his leg.
“Enough.” His rough tone must have scared her because she stepped back and plopped down on the floor against the restaurant’s exit door. “I didn’t see you. You’re the one who—”
What was he doing discussing with a munchkin? He surveyed his surrounding for an adult but saw no one approaching the child. “Where’s your mommy?”
“Mommy’s doing potty.”
“Ah...” Not a good reason for a mother to leave her little one roaming around on her own. “Why did you leave her?”
“Mommy said to wait at the door. This is a door. I didn’t find another one there.” She pointed toward the restroom.
The little girl was none of his business, but he didn’t feel comfortable leaving her alone in the restaurant, sitting on the cold floor, in a breezy doorway.
“Don’t sit here. You might catch cold.”
As a pediatric cardiologist, he had a tendency to worry about any child exposed to danger, especially in unusual circumstances like these.
“I have to wait at the door,” she repeated stubbornly and raised her head.
The hood fell back, revealing bluish green eyes set in an almond-colored face. The adorable little girl was way too pretty to be left alone in one of Long Island’s busy plazas, a few days before Christmas, with the dark clouds gathering in the sky predicting a snowstorm.
Uncomfortable with the situation, Tyler weighed his options, then called a waitress. “I found this little girl here by herself. She claimed her mother is in the restroom. Would you check the restroom and tell the mother her daughter is waiting for her at the restaurant’s door?”
“Right away.”
A couple of minutes later, the waitress returned. “There’s no one in the restrooms. The three stalls are open. I had a waiter check the men’s room. No one’s there either.”
“Bummer. Thank you, miss. But we can’t leave this kid by herself.”
“Sorry, sir. Not my business. I’ll call the manager. Maybe her mother abandoned her. We see a lot of crazy women these days.” The waitress shook her head.
“And maybe the poor woman is frantically looking for her daughter.” He couldn’t leave the child alone. “What’s your name, pumpkin?”
“Can’t say.” She jerked back, her finger pointed at him. “I don’t know you.”
“We have to find your mommy.”
“Yes. Mommy gone potty.”
“She’s not there anymore. Come with me. We’ll look for her.” He tried to take her hand.
She hid both hands behind her back and narrowed her eyes. “You’re stranger. I can’t go with you.”
Her mother had taught her well. But how could he help her if he didn’t know who she was?
His phone vibrated, and he pulled it out of his pocket. It was Beverly. As if he could forget about the wedding.
“Hi Baby Boo, don’t fret. I’m almost at City Hall.”
