Dream a Little Dream

  Edward reached out and patted her leg. "See, Rosie. I told you they'd find us."

  Rachel kept her arm firmly wrapped around her son as they began to head across the clearing toward the highway, but they hadn't traveled more than a few yards before Rosie let out another shriek.

  Edward winced. "See, Mommy. I told you she can really yell."

  Gabe rubbed her back. "Hush, sweetheart…"

  But Rosie wouldn't be hushed. She twisted her body, flung out her arms, and screamed.

  Rachel followed the direction of her gaze and saw Horse lying at the base of the tree where they'd found the children. Rosie wanted her stuffed rabbit. "I'll get it."

  She walked back to the tree, then came to a halt as she saw that the back seam had split' open and the stuffing spilled out.

  Shining, sparkling stuffing.

  Gabe saw it at the same time she did. He hurried back to the tree and stared at the small pile of glittering stones. Most of them lay on the ground, a few clung to the rabbit's mangy gray fur.

  Gabe let out his breath. "Diamonds."

  She gazed numbly down at the sparkling stones. Dwayne had hidden his cache inside Edward's stuffed rabbit. The Kennedy chest and the Bible had merely been diversions so she wouldn't suspect the truth. When he'd begged her to bring their son to the airfield, it wasn't because he wanted to say good-bye, but because he'd known Edward would bring Horse along. Dwayne had wanted the diamonds, not his son.

  At that moment, Rachel decided G. Dwayne Snopes was no longer Edward's father.

  Gabe took her hand. "Looks like you finally found your fortune, Rach."

  She poked at one of the stones with the toe of Kristy's sandal and knew he was wrong. These diamonds weren't her fortune. Her real fortune stood right in front of her, but she had no right to claim it.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  « ^ »

  Rachel didn't get to take her shower until nearly ten o'clock that night after Edward had finally fallen asleep. She turned off the water and, as she dried herself, said one more prayer of thanksgiving that Edward and Rosie had both been given a clean bill of health by the doctors.

  There had been so much to do since they'd recovered the children. Cal had locked up the diamonds for her in Dwayne's old safe, then all of them had spoken with the police. They'd also checked on Bobby Dennis, who was in the hospital, and Rachel had talked with Carol. Bobby's mother was badly shaken and very much in need of forgiveness. Rachel had given it without a moment's hesitation.

  But she didn't want to think about Bobby now, so she concentrated on untangling her wet hair with Gabe's comb. She wasn't in any hurry. Right now, Gabe and his overdeveloped conscience were sitting out there waiting for her, and she knew that Mr. Eagle Scout had prepared himself to do the honorable thing. The comb caught on a snarl, and she tossed it down.

  If she'd had her wish, she and Edward would have gone back to Kristy's condo for the night, but Edward and Gabe had refused to be separated. She still didn't entirely understand how the relationship between them had changed so drastically. It was ironic. What had once seemed like an insurmountable problem in her relationship with Gabe had disappeared, but an equally large barrier still stood in the way. Gabe didn't love her, and she couldn't live in Cherry's shadow.

  She reached down to pick up the clean clothes Ethan and Kristy had brought her from the condo only to realize they weren't there. Wrapping a towel around herself, she cracked open the door. "Gabe? I need my clothes."

  Silence.

  She didn't want to walk out like this. "Gabe?"

  "I'm in the living room."

  "Where are my clothes?"

  "I burned them."

  "You did what?" She shot into the hallway. She felt defenseless enough without having to confront him wearing only a towel, so she stormed into his bedroom and pulled on one of his clean work shirts. After hurriedly buttoning it, she marched into the living room.

  He looked as cozy as could be, slouched in a wicker armchair with his feet propped on the old pine-blanket chest that served as a coffee table, ankles crossed, and a can of Dr Pepper in his hand. "Want something to drink?"

  She smelled the stench and spotted smoldering embers in the fireplace. "I want to know why you burned my clothes!"

  "Don't talk so loud. You'll wake up Chip. And I burned your clothes because I couldn't stand looking at them another minute. You don't own one thing that's not butt-ugly, Rachel Stone. Except your panties. I like them."

  He was acting as if he didn't have a care in the world. Where was the tense, difficult man she'd grown so used to? "Gabe, what's wrong with you? You had no right to do that."

  "As your present and future employer, I have a lot of rights."

  "Employer? The drive-in's closed, and I'm leaving tomorrow. You're not my employer any longer."

  She saw by his stubborn expression that he wasn't going to make this easy on her,

  "You refused to marry me," he said, "so I don't see any other way to go about it than to rehire you. I burned those bus tickets, by the way, along with your clothes."

  "You didn't." She slumped down on the couch, all the wind knocked out of her. Did he think that just because he'd finally attached himself to her son, everything was all right? "How could you do that?"

  For a moment he said nothing. Then he gave her a slow, calculating 'smile. "I know you too well, sweetheart. You're not going to keep those diamonds. That means it's time to cut a deal."

  She regarded him warily.

  He eyed her over the rim of his Dr Pepper, then sipped. As he lowered the can, he took his time studying her. His scrutiny made her fully conscious of the fact that she was completely naked beneath his shirt. She drew her legs closer together.

  "I'm making some changes in my life," he said.

  "Oh?"

  "I'm going to get licensed in North Carolina and open up a practice right here in Salvation."

  As upset as she was, she couldn't help but feel happy for him. "I'm glad. It's exactly what you should be doing."

  "But I'm going to need some help."

  "What kind of help?"

  "Well… I have to hire a receptionist who can also pinch hit when I need surgical help."

  "I already have a job in Florida," she pointed out. "And I'm not going to be your receptionist." Why did he have to belabor this? Didn't he understand how hard leaving him was for her?

  "That's not the job I'm offering you," he said smugly. "Although if you'd volunteer to help out every once in a while, I'm sure I'd appreciate it. But no, what I'm thinking about for you is more in the way of a career than a job."

  "A career? Doing what?"

  "Things I need done."

  "Such as?"

  "Well…" He seemed to be thinking. "Laundry. I don't mind cooking and washing dishes, but I don't like laundry."

  "You want me to do your laundry?"

  "Among other things."

  "Keep going."

  "Answering the phone in the evenings. When I'm not working, I don't like to answer the phone. You'd have to do that. If it's somebody in my family, I'll talk. Otherwise, you take care of it."

  "Doing laundry and answering the phone. This is supposed to be my new career?"

  "And balancing my checkbook. I really hate that. I just can't get all worked up about tracking down every little penny."

  "Gabe, you're a very wealthy man. You really need to look after your money better."

  "That's what my brothers keep telling me, but I'm just not interested."

  "Laundry, answering the phone, and balancing your checkbook. Is that it?"

  "Pretty much. Except for one other thing."

  "Which is?"

  "Sex. That's the main part of your job."

  "Sex?"

  "It comes before everything else. Way before that checkbook."

  "Having sex with you?"

  "Yes."

  "You want to pay me to have sex with you?"

  "Plus laundry and the phone and—"
>
  "You want to pay me! This is my new career! Being your full-time mistress and part-time housekeeper?"

  "That mistress thing… It'd be nice. I kind of like the idea of having a mistress. But because of Chip and the fact this is a small town, we'd have to get married." He held up his hand. "Now I know you don't want to do that, so you wouldn't have to look at it as a real marriage right away. Instead, it could be purely a business deal…" His eyes narrowed. "…something a bean counter like yourself should appreciate." He straightened in the chair. "I need sex; you provide it. Strictly commerce."

  "Oh, Gabe…"

  "Before you get too indignant, we're talking a lot of money here."

  Even though she knew she shouldn't, she couldn't help but ask. "How much?"

  "The day we get married, I'll give you a cashier's check for…" He stopped, scratched his head. "How much do you want?"

  "A million dollars," she snapped, angry with herself for even asking. But he was right. G. Dwayne's diamond stash could never be hers. She finally understood that.

  "Okay. A million dollars."

  She stared at him.

  He shrugged. "I don't care that much about money, and you do. Plus, you'll have to spend a lot of time naked. It only seems fair."

  She sank back into the cushions. The idea that a man this hopeless about his finances was allowed to roam free in the world was terrifying.

  She felt as if she were hyperventilating. Just the fact that he had a million dollars was mind-boggling, let alone the notion that he wanted to give it to her. If only he were offering love instead, she'd snatch it up in a second.

  He uncrossed his ankles and set his feet on the floor. "I know you had doubts about marriage because of the problem between Chip and me, but you might have noticed the problem has gone away."

  She thought of the way Gabe and Edward had been with each other that evening. "I still don't understand quite how that happened. I know it wasn't just the kidnapping. I saw the way the two of you were behaving with each other this morning. How could something so serious go away so fast?"

  "Have you ever hit that boy?"

  "Of course not."

  "Well, if you had, you wouldn't need to ask that question. And that's the other thing, Rachel. Besides the sex. I get an equal hand in raising Chip. We make decisions about him together." His voice grew deadly serious. "I'm not letting you take that boy away from me. I've lost one child, and I'm not going to lose another. If that means tearing up a hundred bus tickets and burning every stick of clothing you own, I'll do it."

  "He's not your child."

  "Yesterday morning he wasn't. Today he is."

  She couldn't speak. Why was he making this so hard?

  "You might have noticed that all the Bonners take kids pretty seriously."

  She thought of the way Ethan and Cal treated Edward. As much as they had disliked her, they'd never shown him anything but kindness. And that morning Rosie had been passed from one adult to another, as if each person was responsible for her well-being. "I've noticed."

  "Then it's a deal."

  "Gabe, I barely survived one disastrous marriage, and I'm not going to put myself through that twice. If I ever marry again, it'll be for love."

  His eyes crackled with indignation. "Do you seriously think you can sit there and tell me you don't love me, and I'm going to believe you? I'm not stupid, Rachel. Despite all your high-minded talk about being a wanton woman, you're as straitlaced as anybody I know, and if you didn't love me, there's no way you would have let me touch you, let alone spend some of the best nights of my life in your bed."

  She thought seriously of punching him. Instead, she gritted her teeth. "It's not my love that's in question here."

  He regarded her blankly.

  She snatched one of the throw pillows from the couch and hurled it at him.

  "Damn! You made me spill my Dr Pepper."

  She jumped up. "I'm outta here."

  He slammed down the can and jumped up, too. "You're not a reasonable woman, Rachel. Has anybody ever pointed that out to you?"

  "Reasonable!" She was spitting mad. "Just because I won't be your charity case, you think I'm unreasonable?"

  "Charity case? Is that what you think you are?"

  "I know it. Ethan's not the only saint in the Bonner family."

  "You think I'm a saint?" Instead of being annoyed, he looked rather pleased.

  "Brother…" she muttered.

  He pushed his index finger toward her. "I'm going to marry you, Rachel. So just get that through your head right now."

  "Why would you want to marry me? You don't love me!"

  "Says who?"

  "Don't play games with me. It's too important." Her anger fled. She bit her lip. "Please, Gabe."

  He went to her at once, and pulled her down on the couch next to him. "Why would I play games about something like this? Don't you think it's important to me, too?"

  "Not the way it is to me. You care about me, but I need more. Can't you understand that?"

  "Of course I can. Rachel, don't you know how I feel about you?"

  "Not the way you felt about Cherry, that's for sure." She hated the sharp note she heard in her voice, hated herself for being jealous of a dead woman.

  "My life with Cherry is over," he said quietly.

  She gazed down at her hands. "I don't think it'll ever be over. And I can't live in competition."

  "You aren't in competition with Cherry."

  He didn't understand at all. She twisted her fingers and thought about walking from the room, but she had just enough fight left to give him one more chance. "Then tell me something bad about her."

  "What do you mean?"

  One part of her said to back off while her pride was still intact, but some things were more important than pride. "You said I wasn't in competition with her, but I don't think that's true." She felt petty and miserable. She couldn't look at him, so she continued to gaze at her hands. "I need to hear something bad about her."

  "This is silly."

  "To you, maybe, but not to me."

  "Rachel, why are you putting yourself through this?"

  "There had to be something about her that wasn't wonderful. I mean… Did she snore?" She finally looked up and regarded him hopefully. "I don't snore."

  He slipped his hand over her clenched ones. "Neither did she."

  "Maybe she—I don't know. Put the newspaper in the trash before you had a chance to read it?"

  "Once or twice, I guess."

  She hated the compassion she saw in his expression, but she had to see this through. Her mind searched for something an almost-perfect woman might have done. "Did she ever… use your razor to shave her legs?"

  "She didn't like the razors I used." He paused and regarded her pointedly. "Unlike you."

  She began to feel desperate. Surely there was something. "I'm a very good cook."

  If anything, his expression grew even more sympathetic. "She baked bread at least once a week."

  The only time Rachel had tried to bake bread, she'd killed the yeast. "I hardly ever get traffic tickets."

  He lifted one eyebrow.

  She rushed on. "And sometimes people who are exceptionally kindhearted don't tell jokes well. They sort of screw up the punch line."

  "You're reaching." He kissed her on the forehead, then let her go and sank back into the corner of the couch. "You really want to go through with this, don't you? Even though it doesn't have anything to do with you."

  "She seems so perfect."

  He took a deep breath. "All right, then. Listen up because I'm only going to say this once, so you'd better pay attention. I loved Cherry with all my heart, and now I feel the same way about you."

  She exhaled a long, slow breath.

  He said, "You might not have been able to save Dwayne's soul, but you sure saved mine. You pulled me out of all that self-pity I was caught in and turned my life upside down. I started to live again."

  She could feel hers
elf melting, and she moved toward him, but he held up his hand. "I'm not finished. You're the one who brought this up, so now you can listen. Cherry was… She was almost too good. She never lost her temper, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get a bad word out of her about anybody, including people who were real creeps. Even if she was tired or not feeling well or Jamie had been acting up, she wouldn't snap or be grouchy, she'd just get quiet. She was so damned sweet."

  "That makes me feel a lot better," she said dryly.

  "Now here's the part I'm only going to say once." He drew a deep breath. "Sometimes living with Cherry was a little like living with Mother Teresa or somebody. She was so sweet, so reasonable, so damn good, that I didn't have a lot of room for error when it came to my own shortcomings."

  Happiness unfolded inside her like a fan of rainbows. "Really?"

  "Really."

  "And with me?"

  He smiled. "I have a lot of room for error."

  She beamed at him.

  "One other thing." He frowned. "Cherry used to hum. When she was cooking, cleaning, even reading a magazine, she'd hum. Sometimes it was okay, but other times, it kind of got on my nerves."

  "Random humming can be annoying." Rachel found that she was starting to like Cherry Bonner.

  "And the thing was… Because she always overlooked all my flaws, I could never get on her case about it."

  "You poor thing." She bit her bottom lip. "Was she… I know I'm a jerk for asking, but… In bed?"

  He began to look amused. "You're a mass of insecurities, aren't you?"

  "Never mind. Forget I asked."

  "It wouldn't be fair to Cherry if I held up a sex kitten like yourself as a standard for comparison."

  Her eyes widened, and she smiled. "Really?"

  He laughed.

  She hurled herself across the couch, and his arms tightened around her as if he wouldn't ever let her go. His lips brushed her hair, and his voice grew gruff with emotion. "Cherry was the love of my boyhood, Rach. You're the love of my manhood. And I do love you, with all my heart. Please don't leave me."

  She couldn't respond because his mouth had settled over hers, and she lost herself in a kiss so shattering that nothing else existed.

  When they drew apart, she found herself gazing into his eyes, and it was like looking into his soul. All the barriers between them were gone.