Dream A Little Dream

24

Rachel 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?"

Gabe gave a mutter of disgust, slammed down his coffee mug, and headed toward the foyer as Ethan went on.

"We-I came back last night, but I didn't check my machine until half an hour ago. Kristy ran over to the jail as soon as she heard your message, and-Gabe!"

What had Kristy been doing at Ethan's so early in the morning? As Rachel pondered the implications, Jane gazed over at her, lines of worry etched in her smooth forehead. "I know you've been through a lot, Rachel, but for Gabe's sake, this really has to be settled."

"I suppose." Rachel took the wet paper towels Jane handed her and began cleaning up Rosie, who beamed at her. As the men's conversation continued in the hallway, Rachel planted a kiss on the baby's curls, then wiped up the tray. "Thanks for taking such good care of Edward. I was so worried about him."

"Of course you were. He's a wonderful little boy, smart as a whip. Cal and I adore him."

Jane stirred milk into a mug of coffee and gave it to her. Rachel took a seat on a counter stool just as the men appeared.

"Pastor Ethan!" Edward jumped down off his stool and began peppering Ethan with an account of his latest adventures. Ethan alternated between responding and throwing her unhappy looks that seemed to say he'd expected better from her.

Rosie began pounding on her high chair, demanding to be let down. While Jane filled another mug, Cal put his daughter on the floor. She immediately crawled over to Edward and pulled herself up on his legs.

He winced as her sharp little fingernails scratched his bare calf. "Rosie, you're a pain."

She clapped her hands, lost her balance, and fell back on her rump. Her face puckered, but before she could cry, Gabe scooped her up. It was the first time Rachel had seen him hold her, and from the surprise that flickered over his brothers' faces, she knew she wasn't the only one who'd noticed.

Gabe reached down and touched Edward's cheek. "How'd you like to watch TV while the grown-ups visit?"

"I don't like baby shows."

Jane abandoned her pancake mix and moved out from behind the counter. "Rosie's grandparents gave her a cartoon video for her birthday. It's still too old for her, but I bet you'll like it."

"Okay."

The two of them disappeared into the family room. Gabe set Rosie back down and put Horse in front of her. He eyed his brothers. "Since both of you are here, I think it's time we had a family meeting. I know you're tired, Rachel, but this has gone on long enough."

Rachel would rather have hidden in the bathroom than face such a biased jury, but she shrugged. "I haven't run from a fight yet, lover."

Ethan and Cal both stiffened. She gave herself a mental pat on the back. They were too easy.

Gabe regarded her with mild exasperation, then turned to his brothers. "All right. Here's the way it's going to be…"

Ethan cut him off. "Before you get started, you need to know how concerned Cal and I have been about the effect your relationship with Rachel's had on you." He paused. "Although Cal did go a little far last night."

"Yeah? Well, you weren't around to hold a prayer service!" Cal retorted.

Gabe exploded. "I'm not ten years old, for God's sake! And I damn well want to be able to fall asleep at night without worrying that one of you is going to have Rachel strung up while I'm not watching!" He shot his index finger at them. "She hasn't done one thing to either of you, but you've both treated her like dirt, and by damn, it's going to stop right now!"

Jane had returned to the kitchen. She patted Gabe's arm as she passed him, then went to stand beside her husband and stroke him.

Cal's jaw jutted. "This isn't about what she's done to us, and you know it. You're the one we're worried about!"

"Well, stop worrying!" Gabe shouted.

Rosie froze and blinked her eyes. Gabe drew a deep breath and dropped his voice. "Rachel's right. You're both like a couple of mother hens, and I can't stand it any longer."

Ethan said, "Look, Gabe… I have some experience here. I've done a lot of grief counseling, and you have to understand-"

"No! You're the one. who has to understand. If either of you-either one of you ever hurts Rachel again-you're going to regret it. If you so much as frown at her, you'll have to deal with me. Do both of you understand?"

Cal shoved his hands in his pockets and looked uncomfortable. "I wasn't going to tell you this, but I don't seem to have a choice. You're not going to like hearing it, but you're blind where she's concerned, and you need to know the truth." He drew a breath. "I offered Rachel twenty-five thousand dollars to leave town, and she took it."

Jane sighed. "Oh, Cal…"

Gabe turned to Rachel and studied her silently for several seconds. Finally, he lifted one inquisitive eyebrow.

She shrugged, then nodded.

He gave her a faint smile. "Good for you."

This time Cal was the one who exploded. "What do you mean, good for her! She let herself be bought!"

At the angry sound of her father's voice, Rosie's face puckered. Cal gathered her up and kissed her, all the time looking like a summer storm cloud.

Gabe was accustomed to his older brother's blustering, and it didn't bother him a bit. "Rachel survives any way she can. It's a quality I'm just starting to learn from her."

Cal hadn't gotten the response he wanted, and, with Rosie tucked into the crook of his arm like a Super Bowl game ball, he gathered his forces for another attack. "How can you forget what she did at the drive-in?"

That sparked Gabe's temper all over again. "Tell me something, big brother. What would you do if you came home one night and found out I'd had Jane thrown into jail?"

Jane regarded him with interest while Cal's face reddened with outrage. "It's not the same thing at all. Jane's my wife!"

"Yeah, well, last week I asked Rachel to marry me."

"You did what?"

"You heard me."

Ethan and Cal stared at her. Earlier at the drive-in, she'd told Cal exactly this, but he hadn't believed her.

Rosie poked her tiny index finger in her father's mouth. Cal studied his brother and slowly withdrew her hand. "You're going to marry her?"

For the first time, Gabe seemed to lose some steam. "I don't know. She's still thinking about it."

This time when Cal confronted her, he seemed more confused than angry. "If he asked you to marry him, why did you trash the drive-in?"

She started to tell him she hadn't done it, but Gabe spoke first.

"Because Rachel's heart is bigger than her brain." He curled his hand around the back of her neck and rubbed the nape with' his thumb. "She knew the drive-in wasn't good for me, but I wouldn't listen to her. Rachel is… She's pretty much a street fighter when it comes to people she cares about, and this was her own peculiar form of warfare."

For a moment she thought Gabe had decided to tell his third lie of the day, and then she realized he wasn't lying. He honestly thought she'd done it. The weasel! But just as she worked up a little righteous indignation, the gentle understanding she saw in his eyes took it right out of her. Even believing this, he was still on her side.

"Gabe! Gabe!" Edward squealed from the next room. "Gabe, you gotta see this!"

He hesitated, and she fully expected him to tell Edward to wait, but he surprised her. Spearing his brothers with another intimidating glare, he said, "Don't either of you go anywhere. I'll be right back." He turned to Jane. "Guard her from them, will you?"

"I'll do my best."

The moment he disappeared into the family room, Rachel rose from her stool. Both brothers watched her, their expressions bewildered. As Cal set Rosie down, Rachel reached inside herself for some well-deserved rage, only to find an uneasy jumble of frustration and a twisted sort of understanding. Love had a lot of faces to it, and she was looking at two of them right now. How wonderful it would be to go through life supported by these men, no matter how misguided they were.

She spoke quietly. "I don't really care whether you believe me or not, but, just to set the record straight, Gabe's wrong. I'm not the one who vandalized the drive-in. That isn't to say I wouldn't have done it just for the reason he mentioned, but the fact is, I didn't think of it." She went on, determined to clean the slate as best she could. "And Odell didn't take my shoes. Gabe threw them out the car window on the way over here."

When Cal spoke, his tone lacked its customary antagonism. "What does Gabe mean that he asked you to marry him, and you're thinking about it?"

"It means I told him no."

Ethan frowned. "You're not going to marry him?" "You know I can't. Gabe's a soft touch. He cares about me, and that makes him protective. I guess it's a Bonner family trait." She cleared her throat, forced out the words. "Getting married is the only way he can think of to keep me out of trouble. But he doesn't love me."

"And you love him, don't you?" Ethan said gently. "Yeah." She nodded. Tried to smile. "A lot." To her dismay, her eyes filled with tears. "He thinks I'm tough, but I'm not tough enough to spend the rest of my life wanting what I can't have, and that's why I can't marry him."

Her toes tickled, and she looked down to see that Rosie had discovered them. Glad of the distraction, she dropped onto the black marble floor and sat cross-legged so the baby could crawl into her lap.

A sound came from Cal that was part sigh, part groan. "We screwed up big-time."

"We!" Ethan retorted, just as Gabe reappeared from the family room. "I wouldn't have had her thrown in jail! And I wouldn't have bribed her, either, Mr. Big Shot Billionaire!"

"I'm not a billionaire!" Cal exclaimed. "And if you had my kind of money, you would have done exactly the same thing!"

"Children, children," Jane admonished. And then, without warning, her hand flew to her mouth and she burst out in laughter. "Oh, my goodness!" They all stared at her.

"I'm sorry, but it just hit me…" She calmed herself, then began laughing again.

Cal frowned. "What's wrong?"

"I-Oh, dear…" She whipped a tissue from a box on the counter and dabbed her eyes. "I forgot all about it till now. We got the strangest note in the mail yesterday afternoon. I was going to ask you what it meant, but then I started thinking about Bose-Einstein condensates. BEC atoms," she added, as if that explained it all, "and you brought Chip home with you, and it slipped my mind until now."

Cal regarded her with the patience of a man long accustomed to living with a woman obsessed with things like Bose-Einstein condensates. "What slipped your mind?"

Jane chuckled, then walked over to to a small pile of mail lying on the counter space next to the pantry. "This note. It's from Lisa Scudder. You remember. She's the mother of the little girl Emily who has leukemia. We made a contribution to her medical fund last fall, but she acknowledged that months ago, so I was confused." Jane started laughing again, and all three Bonner brothers frowned. They clearly saw nothing funny about a child with leukemia.

Rachel, however, was very much afraid she understood the reason for Jane's sudden burst of merriment. Why hadn't Lisa waited as she'd asked?

She grabbed Rosie and hopped up from the floor. "I think it's time I got Edward home." She thrust the baby toward Ethan. "Gabe, would you mind driving-"

"Sit!" Jane commanded, pointing toward the floor.

Rachel accepted the inevitable and sat.

Rosie let out a squeal and reached for her. Ethan put her back down, and the baby promptly returned to Rachel's lap where she busied herself playing with the buttons on the front of Rachel's dress. In the meantime, Jane started laughing all over again, and Ethan couldn't stand it any longer.

"Really, Jane. If you saw how sick that little girl is, I don't think you'd be laughing."

Jane immediately sobered. "Oh, it's not that…" Another giggle slipped out, followed by more laughter. "It's just that Rachel… Oh, Rachel." She gasped for air. "We got a thank-you note from Lisa Scudder. Rachel gave Cal's blood money to Emily's Fund!"

All three men stared at her. Cal glared. "What are you talking about?"

"Your twenty-five thousand pieces of silver! Rachel didn't keep it. She gave it all away!"

Gabe looked down at Rachel. He seemed confused, like someone who'd just heard the earth was round instead of square. "You didn't keep any of it?"

"Cal really made me mad," Rachel explained.

"I see."

She retrieved her hair from Rosie's mouth. "I asked Lisa to wait until I left town before she sent the note. I guess she forgot." She gazed at Cal, who still had his head bent over the note. "The check's postdated. She can't deposit it until tomorrow."

Quiet fell over the group. One by one, they all looked at Cal.

He finally raised his head and shrugged. Then he turned to Gabe. "I don't know how you're going to do it, bro, but you'd better come up with a foolproof way to keep her off that Greyhound tomorrow." He jerked his head toward Rachel's bare feet. "That was a good start."

"I'm glad you approve," Gabe said dryly.

Cal turned toward the family room. "Hey, Chip! Could you come in here for a minute?"

Rachel jumped up with Rosie in her arms. "Cal Bonner, I swear, if you say anything to my son about…"

Edward appeared. "Yes?"

Rosie chose that moment to give Rachel a wet kiss on her chin. Rachel glowered at Cal and patted Rosie's diapered bottom. "Thank you, sweetheart."

Cal ruffled Edward's hair "Chip, your mom and Gabe have some stuff they need to talk about. It's good stuff, not bad, so you don't have to worry. But the thing is, they need to be alone to do it, so do you think you could hang around here for a while longer? What do you say? The two of us can throw the football, and I'll bet Aunt Jane would love to boot up that computer of hers and show you a few more planets."

Aunt Jane? Rachel's eyebrows shot up. "I really don't think-"

"Great idea!" Ethan exclaimed. "What do you think, Chip?"

"Is it okay, Mommy?"

Only Rachel heard Gabe's soft whisper. "If you say no, my big brother's gonna beat you up."

She didn't want to be alone with Gabe and his Boy Scout's sense of duty. She needed honest love, not sacrifice. And after loving Cherry Bonner, how could he love someone as flawed as she was? She'd wanted so very much to protect herself from a long good-bye, but now it was being forced on her.

She glanced around the room, searching for an ally, but her most likely one now looked vague, as if she'd tumbled back into the world of subatomic particles. The little munchkin in Rachel's arms was adorable, but entirely useless in this situation. Her son had computers and football on his mind. And that left the Bonner brothers.

Her gaze flew from Cal's face to Ethan's and back again. What she saw there made her stomach sink. It had been bad enough to have these men regard her as Gabe's enemy, but now they seemed to have decided she was good for their brother. She shuddered as she contemplated where that might lead them.

"It's fine with your mother," Ethan said.

"She doesn't mind one bit if you stay here," Cal added.

Only Gabe paid any attention to her wishes. "It is all right, isn't it?"

She couldn't say no without looking like an ogre, so she nodded.

"Yippee!" he squealed. "Rosie, I get to stay!"

Rosie celebrated by slapping Rachel's cheeks with her small wet hands.

Gabe began to steer her toward the door, only to have Jane finally come out of her trance. "Rachel, would you like to borrow some shoes? I think I have a pair of sandals that-"

"She won't need them," Gabe said.

They reached the front door, and Cal shot forward. "Rachel?"

She stiffened, determined to throw every word of his sniveling apology right back in his face.

But instead of apologizing, he gave her a lady-killer grin that made her understand exactly how a brilliant woman like Jane could have fallen in love with someone so bullheaded.

"I know you hate my guts, and it'll probably take you a lifetime to forgive me, but…" He scratched his chin. "Could I please have Rosie back?"