Cursed by Love (22 page)

His words lifted a weight off her
shoulders, but the larger goal of doing something to fix their problems still
existed. “I hate seeing Mom so unhappy, especially when I don’t understand why
you left her.”

Dad’s fork full of pancakes stalled
halfway to his mouth. “She’s unhappy? She always seems mad when I see her and
relieved not to have to put up with me all the time.”

“Mad, sad, unhappy. You know how hard it
is to isolate those emotions. I don’t think she understands what’s going on any
more than I do.” She lifted her cup, blew on the coffee, and then set it down.
“I thought you had the perfect marriage, and I’ve been trying to figure out a
way to patch things up between you. I read a book that suggested one way to
rekindle a flickering spark is to rediscover the things that attracted you to
one another in the first place. Don’t you think that’s good advice, Dad?”

Beside her, Gabe put his phone in his
pocket and shifted uncomfortably. He cleared his throat and stood. “Excuse me,
I need to—I’ll just—Excuse me a moment.”

“Sorry, Gabe.” Molly ducked her head.
She shouldn’t have taken Gabe further into her personal family territory than
he wanted to go. He had his own worries.

He snagged a biscuit off his plate and
winked at her. “No problem. I’ll be back.” He checked the time as he left the
dining room.

Dad bit into a strip of bacon and waited
until Gabe disappeared. “Why do you think I was the one who decided I should
leave home?”

“Because—”
Mom had always said so.
Hadn’t she?
Maybe Molly assumed he’d been the one who wanted the
separation, because he’d been the one to leave. And because she’d identified
more with Mom. And Mom had been so upset. “Weren’t you?”

He looked confused. “I’m not sure. We
must have agreed it seemed like a good idea at the time, but I don’t remember
who suggested it. Or why. One day, we looked at one another and it was like it
was all over between us. We didn’t have enough energy or interest left to even
fight about it. So I left.”

All of Molly’s senses went on alert.
“Are you having an affair with Rhonda Fellini?”

“Good God, no.” He practically shuddered
at the thought. “Your mother accused me of the same thing.”

“But she thought you were. Why was
that?”

“Rhonda was going through a rough time
with her own marriage. Her husband was having an affair, but they went to a
marriage counselor I recommended. Now they’ve patched things up. We cried on
one another’s shoulders a few times, but never anything more intimate.” He shook
his head. “I guess your mother misinterpreted all of that.”

“All right then.” Molly swept aside the
subject of his supposed affair. “Did this lack of energy occur before or after
Grandmother died?”

He studied the ceiling tiles, searching
for the answer. “After. I suspected she was suffering from depression over your
grandmother’s death. But when I tried to discuss it with her, she told me to
quit trying to analyze her. Why?”

“The Sleeping Lotus.” She nodded
decisively just as Gabe slipped back into his seat beside her. She looked at
him triumphantly. “It’s time for Dad to know the truth.”

Gabe appeared adorably horrified by the
suggestion,
thunking
his forehead with the heel of
his hand. “God, no, don’t tell me I was lucky enough to return in time for the
retelling of the ‘Love Curse of the Sleeping Lotus’ tale.” He shifted away in
time to miss the elbow she aimed at his ribs. “Come on, Molly, don’t start.”

She sniffed at his continued dismissal
that the curse was responsible for all the heartache their families had been
through. “Even if you won’t acknowledge that their problems started when Mom
inherited half of the Sleeping Lotus, I’m more and more certain of it. The
facts are clear.”

“Facts? There are no—Wait a minute.”
Gabe stopped abruptly and chewed on the inside of his cheek, while he crossed
and re-crossed his knife and fork on his plate, then gaped at Molly. “Your
mother
inherited the Sleeping Lotus from your grandmother?”

“Yes, of course.” His intensity confused
her. “You know that. We’ve talked about it endlessly.”

He smiled then, not the happy smile that
reached his eyes and warmed her with its sincerity, but a grim smile that bared
his teeth and blasted her with arctic coldness. He reached out and tucked her
hair behind her ear. Gentle. Personal. Insistent on getting and keeping her
attention. “I thought the Lotus petals belonged to you.”

“They belong to my family. The curse is
the curse. As long as the pieces are separated, it doesn’t matter who owns
them.” Chilled, she rubbed her hands up and down her arms, looking up to see if
they were seated under an overactive air-conditioning vent. “Let’s just tell
Dad about the curse and let him decide for himself. What could it hurt?”

“How’s the cleanup going?” Gabe asked
Molly as they left the restaurant and she took his hand.

“It’s going.” She watched her dad head
for the prized Jaguar parked in the farthest corner of the lot. “Mom and a
friend from school helped me yesterday. We’re not quite finished, but I’m sick
of working on it. I’m taking a break this afternoon to go to a concert in Eden
Park.”

After sitting through another recitation
about the Sleeping Lotus curse, he knew she was optimistic about giving her dad
a lot to think about where his marriage was concerned. Even Gabe was starting
to see how someone with her superstitious nature would fall for the outlandish
tale. It did make a certain amount of off-the-wall sense.

But Gabe had been counting the seconds,
eager to have the meal over and dreading having the meal over. He knew Molly
had noticed he hadn’t hugged her when he arrived, and that he’d been keeping a
close eye on the time. She didn’t miss much. But now that they were outside and
alone, she turned to him with a happy smile.

Holding on to her cool, slim fingers, he
enjoyed the moment longer than he should have before he turned toward the
Harley. “You’re not going alone, are you?”

“No, I’m going with a group of people.
Want to join us?”

There was almost nothing he’d like more,
but of course, he couldn’t. “Love to, but I have other plans.” He felt like an
ass for what he was about to do. He wasn’t lying to her, exactly, but his
actions would sure smack of betrayal once she learned about them. “Rain check?”

She squinted at the clouds gathering
overhead. “That’s a very real possibility. Maybe we can meet for dinner later.”

“Maybe we can.” He remained studiously
neutral.

The brilliant blue of her eyes clouded
over, much like the overhead sky. She took a step back, away from him. “Sure, I
understand. Call me if you’d like to get together.”

Would she want to get together with
someone who was plotting behind her back? No more than she’d want to get
together with a loser who’d lost his company and couldn’t take care of his
family. Either choice turned his stomach, but he couldn’t take his chances on
what ifs with Molly when there was a very real possibility that everything he’d
worked so hard to achieve would disappear by the end of the week.

Damn Quigley and his ultimatums! Damn
Uncle Harold and his lack of self-control!

Damn, damn, damn.

Gabe clenched his fists and got a firm
grip on his restraint. “I’ll do that, you know, when I’m not so busy.”

“Fine.” Her smile vanished, and she
turned away.

Well, there she went, heading off
without him. She held her shoulders stiff against the lamest excuse in the
arsenal of male brush-offs—the work excuse.

He trailed along behind her wondering
what else he could do. There was no future for them. He might as well cut her
out of his life now, while he still could, before he told her how much he
cared. Before he ended up responsible for one more person. He couldn’t handle
one more person right now.

But it was worth taking one last shot at
getting what he needed from her, before she disappeared from his life, probably
forever.

“Uh, Molly.”

She stopped beside an unidentified SUV,
and he closed in behind her. She unlocked the door with the key fob.

“Whose car is this?”

“Mom’s. There’s a lot of trash to be
hauled out of the house, too much for the VW, so we traded for a few days.”

“You aren’t going back home by yourself,
are you?” Picturing her walking in there alone worried him.

“I’ll have to sometime.” She shrugged.
“It may as well be today.”

“Do you think that’s wise? Or safe?”

“After seeing my home violated, I don’t
know how long it will be before I feel completely safe or sure about anything
again.” She gave a shudder of uneasiness. “But the motivation for the break-in
was that damned Sleeping Lotus, nothing personal, and I’ll be more careful
about using the security system. Dad, Mom, the police, my brother in St. Louis,
and even the principal at my school have already lectured me.”

“Good. Just don’t go in if there are any
strange cars on the block, or if anything looks or sounds funny. Or—”

“Really?” She stopped him with her
sarcasm. “You mean if the windows are smashed or there are strange men lounging
on the porch I shouldn’t go in the house? Here, let me make a note for future
reference.” She pretended to search her purse for pen and paper.

 “All right, all right. You’re not
an idiot, I know, but it’s hard not to worry.” He didn’t see how he could say
anything more without revealing more about his feelings. He opened the car door
for her and asked the question that was uppermost on his mind. “Have you
decided what you want to do with the Sleeping Lotus?”

She stopped with her foot on the running
board, faltered for a second, then spun around. The glare in her eyes seared
him like meat on a grill. “You said you didn’t care about that anymore.”

“I don’t.”
Like hell.
“I just
wondered if you’d decided.”

She chewed her bottom lip. “Not yet.”

He leaned against the door and slid his
hands in his pockets, pretending to be Mr. Casual as all hope drained away. “Okay,
then, take your time. Talk to you later.”

Now he really did have to go, but hated
leaving her with that sad, disillusioned expression on her face.

He didn’t want to leave her at all

One last kiss, that’s all he needed.
When he reached out and lifted her chin, she blinked in surprise. He moved to
cradle her jaw between his palms, memorizing her face, her features, losing
himself in the startling blue of her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said, then planted his
lips squarely against hers.

Her lips took only a second to soften
beneath his, and his tongue swept inside. He put all he had into it, kissing
her at his own pace, exploring her mouth with his tongue. Memorizing her
responsiveness, every nuance, every texture.

As his fingers caressed the fullness of
her breast, she shivered and pressed her palms flat against his back. She
pulled him closer, rubbing against him.

Gripping her jean-covered thigh, he
pulled up her knee, guiding her leg around his hip. Heat flashed through him,
and his hand moved to caress her breast through her sunny yellow sweater while
he deepened the kiss still more.

A car door slammed nearby, reminding him
at the last possible second that they were on full display. Again.

Slowly, he pulled his hand away from her
breast, removing his lips from hers, leaving her breathless. His own breath
came in nearly painful gasps, but he lingered over the sight of her swollen
lips. He wanted to remember her like this. To see her sparkling with sexual
energy. And smiling. If he had to leave, he wanted to leave her smiling.

She opened her eyes and shrugged. “And
still, we haven’t made it to a bed.”

“That would be too good to be true.” He
hesitated, as if reluctant to continue. “Just one more thing, Molly.”

“Hmmm?”

He tapped her shoulder and backed away.
“Tag. You’re ‘it’.”