Dream a Little Dream (44 page)

Chip nodded, then wriggled out of Gabe’s lap and grabbed his pillow. “I used to sleep in Rosie’s room when I was a baby. Did you know that?”

Gabe smiled at him and picked up the comforter. “You don’t say.”

“Uh-huh. We have to be real quiet so we don’t wake her up.”

“Real quiet.” With the comforter tucked under one arm, he took Chip’s hand and walked out into the hallway.

“Gabe?”

“Yes?”

Chip stopped walking and gazed up at him, wide-eyed and earnest. “I wish Jamie could sleep in Rosie’s room, too.”

“Me too, son,” Gabe whispered. “Me too.”

Gabe would have torn Salvation apart to get Rachel out of jail, but, fortunately, as soon as he started pounding on the front door of Odell’s house, the police chief woke up, so it wasn’t necessary.

By seven o’clock, Gabe was pacing the floor of the main room of the police station, his eyes glued to the metal door that led to the jail. As soon as he got the chance, he was going to tear his brother apart.

But he knew he was shifting the blame away from where it belonged. If he hadn’t run away, none of this would have happened.

When he’d left the drive-in, he’d driven across the county line and ended up at an all-night truck stop drinking lethal coffee and facing his demons. The hours had ticked by, and it was nearly dawn before he’d figured out that Rachel had been right all along. He’d been using the Pride of Carolina to hide out. Although he’d been existing, he hadn’t really been living. He didn’t have the guts.

The door opened, and Rachel appeared. She froze as she caught sight of him.

Her face was pale, her hair tangled, and her calico dress a mass of wrinkles. The big black shoes plunked down at the ends of her slender legs looked like concrete blocks, one more burden weighing her down. But it was her eyes that tore a hole in his chest. Big, sad, uncertain.

He shot across the room and gathered her into his arms. She shuddered, and, as she trembled against him, he thought of Chip, who’d done the same thing earlier. And then he didn’t think of anything but holding tight to this feisty, stubborn sweetheart of a woman who’d pulled him back from the grave.

R
achel sagged
against Gabe’s chest. As she felt his arms wrap around her, she could barely speak. “Where’s Edward?”

“With Cal and Jane.” His hand stroked her hair. “He’s fine.”

“Cal—”

“Shh . . . Not now.”

The police chief spoke from behind them. “We got evidence, y’know.”

“No, you don’t.” Gabe drew away from her and drilled Odell with his gaze. “I put those things in the Escort myself, right before I drove off.”

She sucked in her breath. He was lying. She could see it in his face.

“You?” Odell said.

“That’s right.
Me.
Rachel didn’t know a thing about it.” The steely note in his voice dared Odell to contradict him, and the police chief didn’t try. Gabe tightened his grip around her shoulders and steered her toward the door.

Daylight had broken, and, as she breathed in the clear air, she didn’t think she’d ever smelled anything so beautiful. She realized Gabe was leading her toward a Mercedes, parked in a space marked
Reserved for the Chief of Police
. It took her a moment to remember the car was his, since she’d never seen him drive anything but his pickup.

“What’s this?”

He opened the door for her. “I wanted you to be comfortable.”

She tried to smile, but it wobbled at the corners.

“Slide in,” he said gently.

She did as he asked, and before long, they were traveling through Salvation’s deserted streets, accompanied by the rich purr of a flawless German engine. As they reached the highway, he rested one hand over her thigh.

“I promised Chip I’d have you back in time for breakfast. You can stay in the car while I go inside and get him.”

“You saw him?”

She waited for that stiff, distant look to settle over his face the way it always did whenever her son’s name came up, but Gabe seemed more worried than aloof. “I didn’t tell him you were in jail.”

“What did you say?”

“Just that there was a mix-up, and I had to go get you. But he’s a sensitive kid, and he picked up the fact that something was wrong.”

“He’s going to be imagining the worst.”

“I made a bed for him so he could sleep on the floor next to Rosie’s crib. That seemed to settle him down.”

She stared at him. “You made a bed for him?”

Gabe looked over at her. “Just leave it alone for now, will you, Rach?”

She wanted to question him farther, but the hint of entreaty in his expression silenced her.

They drove another mile or so without speaking. She needed to tell him about Russ Scudder, but she was too tired, and he seemed preoccupied. With no warning, he pulled the car off onto the shoulder, slid down the driver’s window, then gazed at her, looking so troubled she was alarmed.

“There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?”

“No,” he replied. “I’m just trying to figure out how to go about this.”

“Go about what?”

He leaned forward, slipped his fingers around her calf, and lifted it. “I know you’ve been through a lot, Rach, but I need something from you. I need it pretty bad.”

Puzzled, she watched him draw off her shoe. Did he want to make love? But surely not here. It was fully daylight, and, although the traffic was thin, they were far from alone on the highway.

He pulled off her other shoe and feathered a gentle kiss over her lips. It felt good, more comforting than passionate, and she wished he’d keep kissing her like that, but he backed away, brushed the hair from her face, and gazed down at her with tender eyes.

“I know I’m a jerk. I know I’m insensitive and domineering and a couple dozen other things, but I can’t look at you in these a minute longer.” With a flick of the wrist, he hurled both of her shoes right out the window.

“Gabe!”

He threw the car into drive, and they shot back out onto the highway.

“What are you doing?” She turned in her seat and tried to catch sight of her precious shoes. “They’re all I have!”

“Not for long.”

“Gabe!”

Once again, that warm, comforting hand settled over her thigh. “Hush. Just hush, will you, sweetheart?”

She slumped back into the seat. Gabe had gone crazy. That was the only explanation. The destruction of the drive-in had pushed him right over the edge.

The inside of her head felt like a soggy loaf of bread, and she couldn’t think. Later, she’d sort it out.

The praying-hands gates stood open for them. Gabe drove through and pulled the Mercedes to a stop in the center of the courtyard. One of her sweat socks had fallen off when he’d removed her shoe, and she bent to take off the other one, then opened her car door.

He looked over at her. “I told you I’d go in and get him.”

“I’m not afraid of your brother.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

“I’m going in.”

She climbed the front steps barefoot. Her hair hadn’t been near a comb since yesterday afternoon, and her calico dress was a road map of wrinkles, but she hadn’t done anything wrong, and she wasn’t going to hide from Cal Bonner.

Gabe came up next to her, as steady and solid as forever. Except Gabe wasn’t forever. She would be leaving him behind tomorrow morning when she and Edward got on the bus.

The door was unlocked, and he gently steered her inside. Jane must have been watching for them because she immediately rushed into the foyer from the kitchen. She was dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Her normally tidy hair was loose and her face clear of makeup.

“Rachel! Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Just a little tired. Is Edward up yet?”

“Rosie just woke him.” She caught Rachel’s hands in her own. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what Cal had done until a few hours ago.”

Rachel nodded, not knowing how to respond.

Just then, a baby’s high-pitched squeal came from the top of the stairs followed by a little boy’s belly laugh. She raised her head and looked toward the balcony in time to see Cal coming out of the nursery with Rosie and Horse tucked under one arm and her son under the other. He bounced both children and made a train noise, only to freeze as he saw the trio in the foyer below.

Edward lifted his head and spotted her. He was wearing the same navy shorts he’d had on when she’d left him with the sitter yesterday evening, but the blue T-shirt hanging so loosely from his shoulders must have come from Jane because it read
Physicists do it theoretically
.

“Mommy!”

She wanted to run to him and squeeze him until all her fears went away, but that would only frighten him. “Hey, sleepyhead.”

Cal lowered him to the carpet, and he came racing down the stairs, one hand on the banister, sneakers flying. “Gabe! You said she’d be back!” He ran across the hallway and hurled himself against her legs. “Guess what? Rosie pooed in her diaper and smelled up the whole room, and her dad called her Rosie Stink-O.”

“Did he?”

“It was a big mess.”

“I’ll bet.”

Rachel lifted her head and looked toward Cal, who was coming down the steps with his daughter tucked in the crook of his arm. He regarded her stonily.

“The coffee’s ready in the kitchen,” Jane said. “Let me see what I can scratch up for breakfast.”

Rachel returned Cal’s gaze for a moment, then took Edward’s hand. “Thanks, Jane, but we need to go.”

“But Mommy, Rosie’s dad said I can have some of his Lucky Charms.”

“Maybe another time.”

“But I want some now. Can I? Please?” To her surprise, Edward turned to Gabe. Some of her son’s wariness returned, and his voice grew smaller, his manner more cautious. “Please, Gabe?”

To her surprise Gabe reached out and rubbed his shoulder. It was a voluntary touch, and his voice held a note of tenderness that astonished her. “I think your mom’s tired. How about if I buy you a box of Lucky Charms on the way home?”

She expected Edward to back off, but he didn’t. Instead of pressing his case with her, he continued to speak to Gabe, and his wariness vanished. “But then I can’t see Rosie put food in her hair. She does that, Gabe. Really . . . And I want to see it.”

Gabe looked at her. “What do you say, Rachel?”

Rachel was so mystified by the change in their relationship that she didn’t immediately reply, and Jane stepped in. “I know you’re tired, Rachel, but you have to eat anyway. Let me fix you something before you go.” With brisk determination, she swept her into the kitchen.

The men followed, silent and cautious. Edward, however, seemed unaware of the tension. He flew back and forth between Rosie, Gabe, and Cal, asking about Lucky Charms, Rosie’s eating habits, and spinning an earnest story about his own babyhood when he swore a dinosaur had come to visit him in Rosie’s room. The men were completely attentive to him, maybe because it kept them from having to deal with each other.

Rachel excused herself to use the powder room, where she freshened up as best she could, but with her bare feet and wrinkled old house dress, she looked like she should be traveling through Oklahoma with the Joad family instead of being entertained by the Bonners.

When she came out, Jane was opening a box of pancake mix, while Edward perched on a stool at the counter with a bowl of cereal and Cal fed oatmeal to Rosie, who was in her high chair. Gabe stood apart, leaning against the counter and cradling a dark-green coffee mug.

Jane glanced up from the box she was opening, then stared at Rachel’s bare feet. “Did something happen to your shoes?”

Gabe glared at his brother and spoke before she could reply. “Odell confiscated them. She spent the night barefoot on that dirty concrete floor.”

Jane shot Rachel a horrified look. Rachel lifted her eyebrow and, with a barely perceptible motion, shook her head. What was wrong with Gabe? That made his second lie this morning. Apparently he intended to make his brother suffer.

Jane bit her bottom lip and turned her attention to the pancake mix.

Cal immediately grew defensive. “I told them they had to take care of her, Gabe. Odell said he would.” Rosie chose that moment to blow a happy raspberry, sending a shower of oatmeal at her father.

Edward piped up. “Rosie’s mommy showed me her computer last night, and I got to see all these planets moving around, and she said they was part of the—uh—” He looked up at Jane and the familiar worried expression formed on his face. “I forgot.”

She smiled. “The solar system.”

“I remember.”

Just then the front doorbell rang, and Cal jumped up to answer it. It was barely seven-thirty, too early for a casual caller, but as Cal’s voice drifted into the kitchen from the foyer, Rachel soon realized the identity of the visitor.

“Where have you been?” she heard Cal say. “You were supposed to be in Knoxville, but the hotel said you weren’t registered.”

“Change in plans.”

At the sound of Ethan’s voice, Rachel regarded Jane glumly. “One more Mountie to Gabe’s rescue. Aren’t I just the lucky one?”