Lucky Charm

CHAPTER SIX

DEREK BURNED THE PANCAKES he’d made Holly for breakfast. He really couldn’t cook and should have known better than to try. Back in the city, he’d lived on takeout.

Scraping the destroyed remains into Fred’s dish, he glanced at his daughter. “Want me to try again?”

She shook her head and made a disgusted face. “Can I have cold cereal, Dad?”

He laughed. “Smart move.”

“Yeah, I know. Even you can’t ruin corn flakes.” She climbed onto the counter and pulled out a cereal bowl. “Dad?”

“Hmm?” He poured the flakes from the box, then added milk and handed her a spoon.

“You promised to tell me about you and Gabrielle. That man said you dumped her. You said you didn’t. So what’s the real story?” she asked between slurping cereal and milk from a spoon.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, wondering how to explain adult behavior to a preteen. “We dated in high school and broke up before going away to college,” he said, proud of his concise summary.

“Who broke up with who?”

“I broke up with her.”

“Why?”

“I had my reasons. Finish your cereal. Grandpa’s coming by to take you to feed the ducks at the pond. You want to be ready.”

She glanced down and focused on eating what was left. “There. I finished my cereal. I’m just working on the milk.” She picked up the bowl, clearly intending to drink it down in one gulp.

He shot her a warning look.

“Okay, okay.” She retrieved the spoon and slowly sipped at the milk.

“That’s better.”

“Can Fred come with us to feed the ducks?” she asked.

“I don’t see why not. Just talk to your grandfather.”

She finished two more spoonfuls, then asked, “So what are you doing today?”

Boy, was she talkative this morning. “I’m going to get some work done here.” He had clients in the city who had left messages he needed to return. He didn’t need to go to the office he rented in town, though.

She finished her cereal with a last, loud slurp and walked the bowl over to the sink. “Do you still like Gabrielle? ’Cause I really like her a lot.”

He swallowed a groan. “Of course I like her.”

“Will you marry her the way Mom married John?”

Derek’s palms began to sweat. Suddenly, without warning, the front door creaked opened and Hank’s voice bellowed throughout the house.

“Who wants to go feed the ducks?” he called out to announce his presence.

“I do!” Holly swiveled around and ran into the other room.

Derek followed her out.

“Can we bring Fred? Please?” Holly asked her grandfather, questions of marriage and Gabrielle temporarily forgotten.

Bullet dodged, at least for the moment, Derek was grateful for his father’s interruption. “Hey, Dad,” he said, joining them by the front door.

“Grandpa said Fred can come because he’s a lazy old bastard who’d chase his tail before he’d worry about running after a duck,” Holly said, pleased both with her grandfather’s answer and herself for getting to repeat the curse word without reprimand.

Derek scowled. “Can you both watch your language?” He turned to his daughter. “Holly, go put on some sunscreen and make sure you take your oldest sneakers. Duck poop and dog poop are hard to get out.”

“Will do!” She ran upstairs to the loft, giving Derek some time with his father.

“I need to talk to you before she comes back down,” he said immediately.

“Yeah, yeah. I already apologized to you for my behavior last night. Isn’t that enough?” Hank didn’t meet Derek’s gaze, looking down at his feet instead.

At least the older man was contrite, even if he hid it behind his bluster.

“An apology to Gabrielle next time you see her would be even better. But I have an important question for you right now. When you walked out in the middle of her speech, where did you go?” Derek watched his father carefully for signs of dishonesty.

His father raised both eyebrows, clearly surprised at the question. “I told you when you got home last night. I went to the john. Why are you asking?”

Derek walked to the sofa in the family room and Hank followed.

“Someone deliberately keyed Gabrielle’s car during her talk. Someone also put a threatening letter under her windshield yesterday afternoon. It sure looks as if somebody didn’t want her to speak about curses,” he said, pointedly looking at his father.

“Hey, I resent the implication. I’ve got a temper but I’d never threaten a lady.”

Derek didn’t bring up the shotgun Hank had planned to take to the library. He wanted to believe his father. Besides, he couldn’t see Hank deliberately destroying someone’s property or threatening anyone.

“Just watch yourself,” Derek warned him. “If anyone but me had seen you with that gun, you’d be answering to someone other than me-someone with a badge.”

“You need to show some faith in your own family. Holly, are you coming?” Hank called upstairs.

She ran down the stairs and rounded the corner, a baseball cap on her head and another in her hand.

“Is that for me?” Hank asked.

“No, it’s for Fred.” She walked over to the oversize sausage roll they called a dog and plopped the cap down on his head.

Derek laughed. “How do you expect him to see where he’s going?”

“He has me, silly! Ready, Grandpa!” She clipped Fred’s leash on just like Derek had taught her and grabbed Hank’s hand.

Together they walked out, Fred lumbering along with them.

Alone, Derek let out a sigh and turned back toward the kitchen. He’d left the burned pan soaking and he needed to try to clean it, but the telephone rang, interrupting him.

“Hello?”

“Derek?” Gabrielle asked in that breathless way she had.

Just hearing her voice sent tremors of awareness rocketing through him. “Hey there.” He tightened his grip on the receiver.

“I only have a minute,” she said, talking low. “I came home to pick up a few things and Sharon’s in the other room. I need to see you tonight. It’s important.”

He didn’t hesitate. “Sure. Do you want to come here?”

“I don’t want Holly to hear what I have to say. Could you come by my room? Say around seven?”

“Sure thing. Can you give me a clue what it’s about?”

She laughed. “Wish I could, but you’ll have to wait until tonight. It’s serious, though.”

His body tensed immediately. “Did you receive another threat?”

“Not exactly. I promise I’ll explain everything when I see you, okay? Hang on.”

He heard her say something to Sharon in the other room.

“I’m back. Oh, one more thing. Can we get dinner? There’s nothing to eat at Mrs. Rhodes’s inn and I’ll be starving,” she said, drawing out the word.

“Not a problem.”

“Thanks!” She disconnected the line.

Dinner with Gabrielle tonight.

He’d heard the urgency in her voice, so he knew she had something big on her mind. But he’d also been intimately acquainted with the seductress side of Gabrielle and he was certain dinner had nothing to do with her needing to speak to him-and everything to do with a need of another kind.

DEREK ARRIVED AT GABRIELLE’S room to find her waiting with a picnic basket in hand. He decided not to question her intentions and drove them in his SUV to the public beach as she’d asked. Although there were still people enjoying the end of the day, they managed to find a quiet spot.

From the minute he’d picked her up, he couldn’t tear his eyes off the strapless sundress she wore-or rather the bare skin she revealed. She was more tanned than he’d realized, and her shoulders glistened beneath the setting sun. Despite all his good intentions, he was all wrapped up in her again. He was finding it damned hard to say he minded.

They ate the chicken-salad sandwiches she’d picked up at the café in town and made small talk.

Once they’d finished, he asked, “So what did you need to talk to me about?”

At the same time, she said, “I really need to talk to you.”

They both laughed.

“Great minds think alike.” She wiped her mouth and helped him put the remnants of the food and garbage back into the basket. “There was a time we used to finish each other’s sentences.” She met his gaze as if daring him to remember.

He did.

“Anyway, I thought you should finish eating first because this situation isn’t pretty. I didn’t want you to lose your appetite.” Then Gabrielle launched into a description of Sharon’s past, her unsavory ex-boyfriend, the pornographic pictures and how Sharon had thought it was all behind her. Then Gabrielle finished by explaining that the photographs had resurfaced and Sharon was being blackmailed.

He clenched his jaw, his blood boiling. “What kind of scumbag does that to a woman?”

“Beats the hell out of me,” she muttered. “But not only does Sharon refuse to tell her fiancé about the blackmail but she’s insisting on dealing with this guy herself.” Gabrielle’s voice rose in pitch. “She’s going to the Wave tomorrow night to exchange money for photos, if you can believe that!”

“I can’t.”

“Well, I said I’d go with her.” She spoke softly, probably hoping he’d miss that last part.

His hearing was better than she’d hoped. “The hell you are. You two have no business handling a blackmailing bastard by yourselves.”

Gabrielle drew a deep breath. “Listen, friends don’t let friends get blackmailed alone. But you’re right. We shouldn’t go by ourselves. That’s why I’d like you to come for backup.” She patted his cheek with her palm.

“You’re just trying to stroke my ego so I’ll forget I’m upset with this whole situation.”

“Maybe I am.” She grinned. “And you’re much more astute than I gave you credit for. You have to know I can’t let her handle this alone.” She paused and arched her brows at him. “But I have another idea, though.”

He kicked at the sand with his heel. “I’m listening.”

“I thought you and I could do some investigating tomorrow, look up her old boyfriend. Maybe we can head this off. What do you say?” Her eyes were wide and imploring, yet excited at the prospect of doing some digging.

“My cousin Mike’s a cop in Boston. I’ll ask him to see what he can find out about Tony DeCarlo.”

“Excellent idea!” She wrapped him in her arms. “Thank you!” She tipped her head back and met his gaze.

Her eyes darkened immediately.

His thoughts turned to long hot kisses. But now he was preoccupied with her safety, as well. The fact that Sharon was being blackmailed was bad enough. But Derek hadn’t forgotten about Gabrielle’s two threatening incidents, either. He wanted to get to the bottom of everything going on, but since Sharon’s threat was more imminent, he’d start there.

“I really appreciate your help.” Gabrielle released her hold and settled back onto the blanket.

“Not a problem.”

“Hey.” She reached out and smoothed his forehead with her hand. “Relax, okay? I didn’t want to put you in a bad mood and ruin the whole night, but it was important enough to tell you about.”

He nodded. “I’m glad you trusted me,” he said gruffly.

She smiled. “I do. Now, let’s change the subject.”

He exhaled hard. “That’s a good idea.”

“So how much of a grilling did Holly give you about us?” Gabrielle asked, doing a one-eighty.

Reminded of his precocious daughter, he laughed. “Grilling is a good word for it. She’s a master interrogator. I told her we dated in high school and broke up before college.”

“And she accepted that without asking anything else?” Gabrielle stretched her legs out in front of her and wiggled her toenails, which were painted a hot pink.

“Oh, she asked for details, all right. She asked if I was going to marry you the way her mother had married John.”

Gabrielle jerked her head toward him, her eyes open wide.

Now, whatever had possessed him to admit such a thing?

“What did you tell her?” she asked.

“Nothing. She got distracted before I had to answer.”

“Derek?”

“Hmm?”

“What would you have told her? If she hadn’t been distracted?”

He propped his hands behind him and leaned back, settling in for an honest discussion. “I would have told her that I left you, but it hadn’t been easy.”

“Then why did you do it?” She glanced out over the ocean, her expression sad.

A warm breeze blew her hair back and his fingers itched to run through the silky strands, but he refrained, closing his fist instead. “You know why. I couldn’t let it touch you,” he said, referring to the curse.

Gabrielle bit on the inside of her cheek to keep from tossing back a sarcastic reply. She knew from experience if she baited Derek, he’d withdraw. And she needed to hear what he had to say.

“Tell me about Holly’s mom.” She couldn’t bring herself to call her his ex-wife.

“She’s a good woman who deserved better than me.” He groaned. “I already told you how we ended up together.”

A group of kids ran by their area of the beach, laughing and talking loudly.

He waited before he continued.

He met Gabrielle’s gaze, the pain in his eyes as great as the one in her heart. “Go on,” she said.

“That’s where I started to think about the curse and how it related to my future. I loved you, so I broke up with you to protect you from the fallout that all men and the women they loved in my family have suffered. But I didn’t love Marlene.” He never broke eye contact with her. “Not the way I loved you.”

He’d said it the other night, but hearing it now caused her breath to catch in her throat and her heart thudded heavily in her chest. As bad as she felt for the other woman, this was exactly what she’d always needed to believe. That he’d never been able to move past loving her, just as she’d never been able to fully commit to someone else.

He needed to know she’d felt the same way. “Derek-”

He placed his hand over her mouth. His touch was electric. Her body tingled and every nerve ending came alive.

“Let me finish explaining first.”

She nodded.

“After the shock of Marlene’s pregnancy wore off, of course I offered to marry her.”

“It was the gentlemanly thing to do.”

He inclined his head and looked up at the sky. “That wasn’t the only reason. I realized that Marlene was giving me a chance to have a future-a wife, a family.”

All the things she’d wanted with him, Gabrielle thought, but said nothing. What good would it do now? They could only move forward from here.

“It might not have been the situation I would have chosen, but that’s what made it so perfect. I thought that since I cared about her but wasn’t in love with her, the curse wouldn’t ever come into play. The wording specifically said-Any Corwin male who falls in love would be destined to lose his love and his fortune. Because I didn’t love Marlene, I thought I was safe.” He exhaled hard. “I was wrong.”

Gabrielle’s heart picked up speed. This was her chance to question the curse, the opportunity she’d been waiting for to change Derek’s way of thinking.

She scrambled to her knees and inched closer to him. “Derek, listen to me. I need you to think,” she said, knowing her future depended on his reaction to her words. “Tell me why your marriage broke up and how you think it was because of some ancient curse.” She intentionally sounded as sarcastic as she felt.

“Gabby, I know the curse isn’t rational. But in my family history, facts are facts. And I watched it play out again in my own life.”

“How?”

“Marlene came from a family that didn’t have a lot of money. Her father was a solid working guy until he died when Marlene was in junior high. Her mother was an Italian woman who stayed home to take care of the kids, but after her husband passed away, she had to get a job as a housekeeper to make ends meet. Marlene was the first one to go to college. Getting pregnant wasn’t in her plans, but we agreed to keep the baby and make it work between us. I tried.” He sounded tired and weary, as if relating an old story he could no longer quite believe.

She placed her hand over his. “I’m sure you did everything you could to stay together for Holly’s sake.”

He nodded. “I worked damned hard to make enough money to stem Marlene’s childhood insecurities about being poor. But she didn’t understand about the long hours I had to put in. And the more strained things got at home, the harder I worked. By the time we divorced, there was nothing left of the friendship we’d shared.” He shook his head, his frustration obvious.

Gabrielle squeezed his hand tighter. “Did you ever think it was something as simple as two people who aren’t in love might not be able to make a marriage work?”

“I sure did. Until I took a huge hit financially. I’d worked my way up at a large securities firm. I did well, made big money for my clients and for myself. Later, I began investing capital in companies I thought were going to do well. Start-ups like JetBlue Airlines among others. Around the same time as my divorce, I put a large chunk of cash into what was supposed to be a sure thing.” He shook his head and laughed wryly. “That’s when I learned there’s no such thing.”

As Gabrielle listened to him, her frustration grew. “It would have happened, anyway! A financial miscalculation has nothing to do with a curse. Don’t you see how each incident-your divorce, your money problems-they’re not related. There’s a logical, rational explanation for each!”

He remained silent so she continued. “Let’s say for the sake of argument, there is such a thing as a curse. It kicks in if you fall in love. But you weren’t in love with Marlene. No love, no curse!” she yelled at him.

“Well, if things got that bad with Marlene, I sure as hell am not going to take that chance with you!” His brown eyes flashed with determination.

But she was equally determined to make her point. “Well, I’m not going to give you a choice.” She settled into his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled him close and planted a warm, hot kiss on his lips.