Miracle on 49th Street Read Free

got to get ready for it.”
    â€œAt the Westin,” Molly said.
    â€œRight. So I need to get back and change and do a few things.”
    He took the Oakleys off now, as if giving her a closer look. “Do I know you?”
    Molly was the one shaking her head now. “No reason why you should.” Then, “Nice jacket.”
    â€œThis old thing? We go way back, the two of us.”
    â€œTo UConn. I know.”
    â€œYeah, the sportswriters seem to get a kick out of it, maybe because they always think this is the year when it’s finally going to fall apart.” He shrugged. “No kidding, I don’t want to be rude, but I gotta bounce.”
    He opened the door on the driver’s side, like this was the official beginning of him saying good-bye to her and driving away.
    Blowing her off.
    He tossed the Celtics bag on the passenger seat in the front, then said, “Hey!” Like he’d come up with a bright idea. “Hey, I’ve got something for you, after all.” Winking at her. “Even though I said no autographs.”
    He opened up the back door then, pulled out a regulation size basketball, grabbed a Sharpie out of one of the pockets of the leather jacket. “To Molly—is that okay?”—not even waiting for an answer as he started writing.
    When he was done, he handed her the ball. She looked at what he’d written. “To Molly, a great fan and a new friend. Josh Cameron, No. 3.”
    Molly turned the ball over in her hands.
    Then she handed it back.
    It actually got a laugh out of him. “Now, wait a second. Nobody ever passes up Josh Cameron stuff.” He put his hands to his cheeks, trying to make himself look sad. “I must be losing it.”
    Get to it, she told herself, you’re losing him.
    â€œI didn’t come here for stuff,” she said.
    â€œWhy did you then?”
    Here goes.
    â€œI needed to talk to you about something important.”
    He looked at his Omega James Bond watch.
    â€œYou know what’s important to me right now? Making sure I show up for that Welcome Home dinner on time. So how about you have your teacher or your parents call the PR department and, who knows, maybe I could come speak at your school sometime.”
    Then he slid in behind the wheel and reached for the door and said, “Nice meeting you, Molly.”
    â€œShe bought that jacket for you.”
    He turned off the ignition now and said, “Excuse me?”
    â€œShe said she had left you crying in your dorm room when you got back that night from not making the Final Four, saying it was all your fault and you had let everybody down. And the next day she went and spent all the money she had in her checking account on that jacket and told you the next year you could wear it to the Final Four. And you did.”
    She said it word for word exactly right, the way she had all the times when she’d rehearsed it with Sam, Sam playing the part of Josh Cameron.
    He got out of the car and closed the door and got down in a crouch, so they were eye to eye. “You’re Jen’s kid, aren’t you?”
    â€œYes,” she said.
    â€œI’ve always told people that this old jacket is my good luck charm,” he said. “But I never told why. We promised we’d never tell anybody.”
    â€œDon’t be mad,” Molly said. “She only told me.”
    â€œI’m not mad.”
    â€œShe told me she never broke promises. Even when she promised you she wasn’t ever coming back.”
    Molly was wearing a red cap Sam had given her, a Red Sox cap with “Believe” on the front, from the year they won the World Series. Josh tipped it back slightly, to give himself a better look at her. “No wonder I thought I might know you,” he said. Then he nodded and said, “So she finally did come back.”
    Molly tried to swallow but couldn’t. “She came back.”
    â€œWell, tell