Mr Destiny (35 page)

Why not tell the woman her story?

She probably wouldn't believe it anyway.

Kate almost didn't believe it herself.

By the time she finished giving Lorraine the highlights of her tea-leaves, Blessed Virgin, wedding-dress saga, Kate had even
started to wonder if she really had just made the whole story up.

“And after everything you've been through, you're just going to sit here hoping destiny will send Tony riding up the path
again?” Lorraine looked doubtful.

Kate was doubtful.

About finding Tony.

Also about what the outcome would be if she did find him.

Kate sighed. “I don't know what else to do,” she told her new friend. “I'm afraid if I start wandering around the park looking
for him, I'll miss Tony completely.”

Lorraine thought it over for a second.

“I have an idea,” she said.

Tony had remained calm through the delivery.

He really hadn't had much to do.

With the other woman's help, he had managed to slide the mattress beneath Judy only seconds before he saw the baby's head
crowning. All he'd done next was basically catch New York's newest little citizen in the baby blanket.

When the woman bent forward and wiped the baby's face and mouth with a baby wipe, the little guy had let them know real quick
what he thought about the whole situation.

“He's definitely a New Yorker,” Tony's smiling assistant had said. “He's screaming his head off before he even knows what's
going on.”

Tony barely remembered shouting out to the crowd that the baby was a boy. He had just finished placing the newborn carefully
on his mother's stomach when the emergency medical crew arrived to take over.

The happy family was gone now.

The crowd had dissipated, going about their business.

He and Skyscraper were back on their watch.

But Tony couldn't keep his hands from shaking.

Aftershock.

There wasn't a cop alive who hadn't experienced the same thing after the fact. After the adrenaline stopped pumping and the
danger was over, aftershock was the reminder that your subconscious was still going over a long list of the things that could
have gone wrong.

But what an incredible experience.

He couldn't imagine anything more amazing than witnessing the miracle of the birth of a child. Except one day being lucky
enough to witness his own child being born.

Kate.

He had so much to tell her.

He just hoped she gave him that chance.

Tony glanced around him, searching the crowd, looking for anything else that might be out of order. The park was still overloaded
with people, even though it was almost seven o'clock.

Some people were still waiting for the crowds to thin out. Some people were just now showing up and preferring being outside
to stuck inside in their hot apartments.

From the reports he'd been getting, it could be midnight or later before power was restored. He'd already resigned himself
to the fact that this was going to be a long, watchful night.

“Officer. Wait!”

Tony pulled Skyscraper to a halt and turned halfway around in the saddle, looking behind him.

A nice-looking young couple holding hands both waved.

They were about a hundred yards or more behind him. They started running to catch up. Both were dressed in jogging attire,
their water bottles hanging from the straps around their necks.

Tony tensed for a second, praying nothing as serious as what he'd just faced was the reason for them running in his direction.
They were slightly out of breath when they reached him.

“Is your name Tony?” the guy asked.

“Yes, I'm Tony.”

“Lorraine asked us to stop you if we saw you. She said she needed to see you, and you knew who she was. We'll show you where
she is.”

Lorraine?

Who the hell is Lorraine?

Tony racked his brain trying to place the name, but the search came up empty.

“Describe her for me,” Tony said.

The guy immediately looked over at the girl.

“She's an older woman. Heavyset. Curly sort of orange-looking hair.”

The guy nodded in agreement.

“She said you knew her,” the girl reminded him again.

One of Mama Gina's customers maybe?

He couldn't even count the number of times he'd heard his mother tell her customers to look him up if they ever needed anything
in Central Park.

“You need something? You find my boy Tony. He'll take care of it for you.”

The woman was probably stranded in the park. No way back to Queens anytime soon. Thanks to his mother, the poor woman probably
fully believed all she had to do was summon Gina's boy Tony, and he would send for the S.W.A.T. team to escort her safely
home.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

“Show me where she is,” Tony said with a sigh.

He pulled on the reins and turned Skyscraper around. They'd barely gone a couple of feet when two teenage girls on in-line
skates zoomed up beside him.

“Tony?” the girl wearing a pink helmet said.

“Yeah.”

“Lorraine asked us to stop you if we saw you.”

Are you f'ing kidding me?

“Already got the message,” Tony said, pointing to the joggers who were now walking up the path ahead. “They're going to show
me where she is.”

The girls waved and both skated away.

He hadn't expected the no-nonsense-looking businessman carrying his briefcase to stop him with the same message from Lorraine.

Or the burly biker with the tattoos.

Or the street performer with his guitar case.

But when the Hasidic Jew in his black clothing, hat, and earlocks stopped beside him, Tony saved the poor guy the trouble.
“Lorraine wants to see me, right?”

He nodded, his curls bouncing above his long beard.

Tony thanked him and nudged Skyscraper forward.

But he had decided one thing.

His mother was way overdue for that lecture.

If he had to tie Mama to a chair.

Put duct tape over her mouth to keep her quiet.

Even make Papa promise not to untie her until he left.

Mama was definitely going to get a stern lecture.

“Here come some of our carrier pigeons back now,” Lorraine said, looking over at Kate with a big smile.

Kate looked up.

The girls on the roller blades were trying to outrace each other back to where she and Lorraine were sitting. The girl in
the green helmet skidded sideways to a stop in front of them, beating her friend who was wearing the pink helmet.

“We found the cop,” the girl said proudly. “He's just a little ways behind us.”

Kate jumped up from the bench. “You found him?”

The girl looked at her funny. “Well, like, yeah.” She looked back at Lorraine. “I thought you were the one who wanted to see
him.”

“No, Cinderella here needs to see him,” Lorraine said, tossing her thumb toward Kate. “She's having a major heart attack at
the moment.”

The girl looked Kate up and down.

“She doesn't look like she's having any kind of heart attack to me.”

“Trust me, sweetie,” Lorraine said. “In a few years you're going to remember this conversation, and you'll know exactly what
I'm talking about.”

“Whatever,” the girl said. She motioned to her friend, and they both skated off.

“Thank you,” Kate called after them.

Then the panic set in.

Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.

Tony was right behind them.

Kate grabbed the picture, picked up the hem of her dress, and ran across the path to the same place she'd been standing when
he first saw her.

She placed the painting on top of the waist-high concrete fence, propping the painting carefully against the black iron railing.
After hurriedly raking her fingers through her hair, she smoothed out her dress as best she could and stood up straight.

“How do I look?” she called out to Lorraine.

“Do you want the truth? Or do you want me to lie to you?” Lorraine called back.

“Lie to me,” Kate told her.

“You couldn't look any more beautiful.”

Lorraine pulled herself up from the bench. She walked across the path and began smoothing a few more wrinkles out of the satin
skirt. She picked at a few of the sequins on the bodice, then adjusted both of the dainty pearl t-straps to a perfect position
on Kate's shoulders.

After repositioning Kate so she was standing directly beside the Blessed Virgin, she took Kate's left hand and put it on top
of the painting. It crossed Kate's mind that the pose was so fitting, she could have been waiting to have her own portrait
painted.

Lorraine stepped back, admiring her work and smiling.

Until she looked down at Kate's feet.

She clicked her tongue disapprovingly.

“Baby needs a new pair of shoes.”

Baby.

Kate flashed hot all over.

The couple ahead of him stopped walking and waited for Tony to catch up. When he pulled Skyscraper to a stop beside them,
the girl pointed ahead.

“When we left, Lorraine was sitting on a park bench just around the curve. That's where you'll find her.”

Tony thanked them.

The couple darted off in the opposite direction, in full jogging mode again.

He sat there for a moment.

It was the first time he'd realized where he was.

Just around the curve.

Tony laughed.

How ironic.

Just around the curve was where he first saw Kate.

He snapped the reins, urging Skyscraper forward.

He was still chuckling to himself.

Until they rounded the curve.

Tony stopped chuckling.

The last thing he expected was exactly what he found.

Kate, standing beside the Blessed Virgin.

Wearing his wedding dress.

And a pair of—what—Nikes?

It didn't matter.

She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

This woman
is
my destiny.

Kate's heart almost stopped when Tony rounded the curve. The look on his face was more than just perplexed. He looked shocked.
As if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.