Cursed by Love (9 page)

“No need.” Molly looked at him over her
shoulder while she got glasses out of the cabinet. “We disagree frequently, but
we haven’t come to blows yet.”

“And we won’t,” he promised. “Unless
it’s about the Sleeping Lotus.”

“Ah, I should have guessed. You’re the
owner of the other half.” Mom poured the iced tea.

They each took a glass, and Molly led the
way to the family room. Mom sat in her wingback chair with Penny settling at
her feet.

Molly took a spot at the opposite end of
the couch from Gabe. She’d worked hard to keep from drooling over him at the
library, so it was probably wise to continue putting as much space between them
as possible.

 “I am the other owner,” Gabe
admitted as Molly took a closer look at his socks. Daffy Duck, not
Tweety
Bird. Cool. “It’s an interesting situation, isn’t
it?”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Mom agreed.
“Do you have your half with you? I’d love to see the pieces together.” At
Gabe’s surprised grin, she laughed. “For purely artistic and educational
purposes, of course.”

“Of course.” His lips turned up into a
smile. “However, my part is stored safely under lock and key. I may be
paranoid, but all day I’ve felt like I was being followed.”

“You too?” Molly asked. “Have you seen
someone sneaking around or acting suspicious? Have you heard anything unusual?”

“It’s more like a nervous twitch between
my shoulder blades. Crazy, I know, but I thought I might have been followed on
my way to the library tonight.” He stopped with his glass halfway to his mouth.
“Have you seen or heard something that put you on edge?”

“No-
oo
.” She
wasn’t totally convinced the sounds she’d heard outside her window had anything
to do with the Lotus. “Probably just my imagination, but I’ve been jumpy ever
since James sprang the big surprise about the Lotus on us.”

“Yeah, me too. Granddad says he’s
keeping the news under wraps, but it wouldn’t shock me to find out he’s shown
the carving around his bowling league. If it weren’t for the sexual
connotation, he’d probably let my niece take it for show and tell. Come to
think of it, I should probably keep the piece in my possession at all times,
instead of leaving it at home.” He smiled at Molly’s mom. "Next time I
come over, I’ll have it with me, for sure.”

“What do you mean, next time?” Molly
crossed her arms and questioned the assumption that he’d be visiting again.

“Your mother would like to see the
Sleeping Lotus,” he reminded her. “How can I refuse such a reasonable request?”

“Hah!” Dismayed that he’d accepted an
invitation from her dad to join them for brunch, now Gabe was scheduling a
follow-up visit to Mom. Molly wasn’t sure how much togetherness she could take,
given the sexual tension that flared between them at the oddest moments. She’d
erect as many barriers as she could to prevent being blindsided by the emotions
or feelings that sneaky little statue provoked. “You’ve been unreasonable from
the moment we met.”

“Have I?” From his end of the couch, he
studied her. A definite challenge sparked deep in his hazel eyes. He stretched
his arm out along the sofa back. Her mouth went dry. He suddenly seemed a lot
closer than he had a moment before. “I’m ready to change that if you are.”

“How?” Immediately suspicious, Molly was
all too aware of the slow heat igniting in the pit of her stomach.

“Let’s call a truce.” A beguiling smile
put his darling dimple on display. “No point in arguing over the Sleeping Lotus
until we’ve learned more.”

It went against the grain with her to
ignore a problem. But in the end, the Sleeping Lotus might not pose a problem
at all. Not if she donated
Nonna’s
half to a museum.
But she had a feeling Mr. Moneygrubber sitting next to her would not consider
that a satisfactory resolution for their joint treasure.

“Come on,” he cajoled, pulling her away
from her thoughts, wrapping her in a zone of gentle persuasion that clouded her
objections.

And she flat out caved. “Okay. Truce,
for now.”

“Good.” His nod of satisfaction forced
Molly to wonder if she’d agreed to something more permanent or more intimate
than a temporary truce.

He moved toward her, and the little tug
of reluctance that cautioned her against touching him was overruled with a raging
desire to do just that.

She visualized hands touching hands. Big
deal. But as his fingers curled around hers and their palms grazed, she
realized it
was
a big deal. Every time he touched her was a big deal.
The most casual of touches tempted her to jump him with a power that left her
shaking.

Oh, no! The curse!
She jerked her hand away from his. Her
reaction was being spurred on by the carnal spell of the Lotus, but how could
that be? The insidious thing wasn’t in the room. The separate parts weren’t anywhere
near one another.

She rubbed her palm against the couch
cushion, hoping to rub the attraction away. Glancing up at him again, she
decided the maneuver had worked. The dimples were gone, the amber flecks in his
eyes had receded, and he didn’t look quite as irresistible. He looked almost
ordinary, in fact.

“Well, now that you’ve settled that
between you, tell me what you’ve found out about how the Lotus came into our
families.” Mom’s words sucked any remaining effervescence out of the moment.

Molly blushed, realizing she’d forgotten
that her mom was in the room.

“Do you want to explain it?” Gabe asked.
“Or should I?”

“You go.”

He kept his version of the two family’s
ownership short and to the point. Just the facts. She added embellishments she hoped
would intrigue her mother.

Mom’s eyes glistened with excitement.
“Elegant Bella was the natural source for the piece, wasn’t she? Well-known in
her time, well-traveled, and she moved in well-to-do circles. I vaguely
remember stories about an infamous fiancé, but not the details. I’ll hop on the
Internet later and see what else I can discover.”

“Gosh, Mom, not you and the Internet,
too.” Molly clapped a hand to her forehead and groaned, although pleased to see
her mother’s interest piqued.

“Sure, why not? You two have learned a
lot, but I’m not sure what you’ve uncovered is rock-solid provenance. You still
don’t know who gave the Sleeping Lotus to
Jebediah
and Bella. Isn’t that important?”

“That piece of the puzzle just might
hold the key to our fortune.” Gabe said to Molly.

The bloody fortune again. Did he have to
mention it constantly? “Right,
if
we were planning on selling the
Sleeping Lotus.” Crossing her arms, Molly muttered to herself darkly. “Which
we’re not.”

“Not today.” Gabe stretched his arm farther
along the back of the couch, letting his fingers graze Molly’s shoulder and
trace the fabric at the neck of her shirt. “And not tomorrow, but who knows
about the future?” He arched an eyebrow at Molly. “Unless you’ve got a crystal
ball tucked away in that cavernous bag you carry.”

“She might.” Mom twinkled again. “She’s
always been more influenced by superstition and the supernatural than anyone
else in the family. I always wondered where that interest came from, but the
more I hear about the Sleeping Lotus, the more I’m persuaded Molly has a
recessive Bella-gene somewhere.”

“All that woo-woo stuff, huh?” Gabe
nodded. “I recognize the signs.”

“What signs?” Their comments about her
beliefs made Molly twitch. She automatically fingered the charms on her
bracelet for comfort.

“The crystal pendant you wear, the good
luck charms on your bracelet,” He smiled when she blushed and halted the survey
of the charms. “The unicorn earrings.” He set one of the creatures swinging
with a flick of his finger. “The dragon tattoo.”

Darn, she couldn’t believe he’d been
paying such close attention to her. When had he gotten a look at her lady
dragon? “I’m not
really
superstitious.” She knocked on the wooden end
table as she made the denial. “I just like to keep all the bases covered.”

“What base are you covering with your
fascination about—” He crooked his fingers into airy quotation marks as he
intoned “—The Curse.”

“What curse?” Mom’s ears perked up
again.

“The Curse of the Sleeping Lotus,” Molly
hastened to answer, overriding potentially derogatory comments from Gabe.

Mom issued a put-upon sigh. “Right.
Since you’re involved, I should have known there’d be a curse.”

“I didn’t fabricate it. There really is
one. That’s one of the things I came here tonight to warn—” she stopped and
corrected herself before Mom or Gabe objected to the more dramatic verb “—to
tell
you about.”

While Gabe rolled his eyes, his fingers
had moved from the edge of her shirt to graze the back of her neck. Warming
under the contact, Molly quickly poured out the whole tale, beginning with the
doomed affairs of the heart through the generations of accidental deaths all
the way up to and including her own broken engagement and her parents’
separation.

“Don’t you see?” She all but implored
her mother to agree. “After you brought home
Nonna’s
half of the Sleeping Lotus, you and Dad separated. That’s what went wrong with
your marriage.”

“Was that it?” Mother pursed her lips as
if mulling the possibility. “And all this time, I’d been blaming Rhonda
Fellini, your father’s bimbo secretary.”

“Mom!” Molly’s gaze darted to Gabe,
measuring his reaction to her mother’s pronouncement. He abruptly stopped the
circular pattern he’d been drawing on her neck, but otherwise, he exhibited no
outward reaction. Unless his sudden fascination with his shoes could be
construed as one. “Dad is
not
having an affair with Rhonda.”

Gabe jumped up, tapping Molly on her
knee as he headed for the door. Just a gentle almost absent gesture that
managed to calmed her. “Excuse me. I left my cell phone outside, and I’m
expecting a call. Be right back.”

Remaining silent, she knew he had his
phone in his pocket. Her eyes followed him until the door closed behind him,
then she rounded on her mother. “I can’t believe you said that about Dad in
front of Gabe. You know it’s not true.”

“So your father says.” Mom crossed her
arms and tapped her foot. “And maybe it’s not, but the fascination is there. I
can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice when he talks about her. In ways
that have been absent for a long time when he talks about me. Ways that I
miss.”

“But none of that is because of Rhonda,”
Molly insisted. “It’s the curse of the Sleeping Lotus.”

“I doubt if either Rhonda or the curse
is to blame.” Regret shadowed Mom’s eyes. She turned her head and wiped a tear
away. “Really, the breakup was the result of middle-aged boredom more than
anything else. At our age, it’s hard to maintain the passion that came so
easily at twenty-two.”

“I don’t believe the kind of love you two
shared just disappears. It might take some work, but you can get that spark
back.” Molly’s heart broke a little over her mother’s pain, but she remembered
The
Ten Ways to Save a Marriage
. “A book I read suggested that you each try
remembering the things you first noticed about the other. What were some of the
things about Dad that originally caught your attention?”

Mom tilted her head to the side, looking
thoughtful. “Oh, the usual. His looks, of course. His sense of humor, his sense
of responsibility, and the way he—” She cut off the memory, pressing her lips
in a thin line. She waved her hand in front of her, as if erasing her thoughts
along with her words. “Never mind all that. We had a good run, a great marriage
for a long time, but we’ve agreed to move on. Separately.” She dropped her chin
and pleated the fabric of her tweed skirt between her fingers, avoiding Molly’s
look of disbelief. “It’s probably for the best.”

“Don’t say that.”

When Mom looked up, she’d donned a
forced smile, one that bore no resemblance to the dreamy one that had softened
her face when she’d remembered her first impressions of her husband. “Ever
since our talk yesterday, I’ve been trying to look on the bright side. Your
father always resisted traveling, and now, his opinion doesn’t count. He never
wanted to go dancing, so I’m signing up for salsa lessons. I’ll have more time
for my garden, too.”

“When are you going to do these things?
Just yesterday you were moping around the house in your pajamas.”

“As soon as school’s out in June.”
Mother pressed her lips together for a long moment, then spoke with more
resolution. “I’ve spent too many years catering to your father and his
schedule. Now, I’ll do whatever I want, whenever I want.” She stretched out her
arms as if embracing the luxury. “I’ll start sleeping late, and join a bridge
club. I’ll have pizza every night for supper. Or hot fudge sundaes for
breakfast. Whatever I want.” Her huge smile only quivered a little around the
edges as she repeated the words.

“When he came in tonight, I was so
pleased to see him. But all he came for was his precious golf clubs. I realized
how right you were last night. I
should
stop waiting for your father to
come back. The separation’s the best thing for both of us. Really, it is.”

The feeble declaration rang hollow in
Molly’s ears. She didn’t believe her mother bought into it either. Yesterday,
Molly had been encouraging her mother to take a stronger stance, but she hadn’t
known about the curse then. Now that she did, her mother’s recent melancholy,
her detachment, and the tears in her eyes made more sense.

Molly would never forgive herself if she
was even remotely responsible for causing a fraction of that pain. She summoned
up the courage to ask. “Mom, you’re not just being diplomatic, are you? It wasn’t
my fault, was it?”

“Your fault that your father and I
separated? Why would you think that?” Mom’s surprise should have reassured her,
but it didn’t.

“Just being silly, I guess. Fulfilling
one of the biggest clichés of every child in the world, young or old, the worry
and fear that it’s somehow my fault that my parents have split up.”

“Oh, honey, no, you should never think
that.”

Gabe tapped on the door he’d exited and
stepped into the foyer with a show of reluctance. His gaze darted from her
mother to Molly, as if waiting for an “all-clear” signal. Molly’s heart rate
bumped up at the sight of him.

Her mother donned her happy-hostess
persona. “Let me just freshen our drinks.”

As she escaped, Gabe dropped into a
chair across from Molly. She swallowed her disappointment that he hadn’t
claimed a seat near her on the couch. With her mother out of the room, Penny
moved over and rested her head on Molly’s knee.

Gabe absently picked up a crystal
paperweight from the end table, shifting it from palm to palm before setting it
back down. He gave her a sympathetic shrug. “Family! What are you going to do
with them, right?”

She was surprised he understood. Even
though he seemed to have plenty of family and was obviously close to his
grandfather, he’d never mentioned anything about his parents. Even when they’d
followed the trail of the Sleeping Lotus through his family history. He’d
leap-frogged from his grandfather’s generation to the current one, no mention
of a father or mother at all.

“Sorry about that.” She grimaced. “I
shouldn’t have dragged you into our little drama.”

“Don’t worry about it. You didn’t drag
me. I insisted on tagging along, and I understand all about family drama. We
have it for breakfast at my house.”

“I’ve been thinking, Molly.” Mother
returned with a fresh pitcher of tea in her hand and a more chipper expression
on her face. “I seem to remember Mama having some Bella Simone scrapbooks. Did
you find anything like that when you went through her things last night?”

“Oh,
Nonna’s
things!” Sitting up straighter, Molly clapped her hands as she remembered the
letters. Penny lifted her head and yawned, a little reminder that she found her
humans exhausting. Molly dug around in her tote and pulled out the packet of
letters. “How could I have forgotten the most important part?”

“About the Sleeping Lotus?” Gabe perked
up like Penny with a new chew toy.

“No, sorry. The most important part for
Mom
,
I should have said. It’s the false trail I was on when you called last night.
They’re letters.” She pulled the stack of correspondence out of her bag and
offered it to her mother on the palms of her hands. “From your father.”

“My father?” Mom’s eyes widened to
saucer-size. “When were they written?”

“Right after you were born, when he
shipped out overseas.”

Mom reached out quickly then drew her
hands back, before gingerly taking the letters, as if she feared they were too
delicate to handle. “I had no idea. Why didn’t Mother ever show them to me? Did
he mention me? Oh, Molly! Now, this is a real treasure, worth more to me than
all the money in the world. Thank you, darling.” She hugged them to her chest,
her fingers stroking the wrinkled onionskin. “Have you read them?”

“I started to. They were beautiful, but
pretty personal. I thought I should let you have first crack at them. There may
be revelations you don’t want anyone else to know.”

“There may be revelations he wouldn’t
have wanted his daughter to know,” Mother countered, wryly. “I’m sure the
censors would have redacted any military or government secrets out of them
before they reached Mother.”

Molly glanced over at Gabe to see if he
had resumed his study of his shoes. Nope, his gaze seemed to have moved from
his feet to hers. But that couldn’t be right. Why would he stare at her feet?
Self-consciously, her toes curled inside her sandals, and she crossed her
ankles.

After a moment, he turned and picked up
an antique abacus her dad had given her mom one Christmas. He flicked the beads
up and down in the columns as if tallying s complicated sum.

“But you’re going to read them, right?”
Molly asked.

“Oh, definitely.” Mother pulled an
envelope out of the packet, lifted the flap, and peered inside. After a
moment’s hesitation, she removed the delicate sheet of paper and unfolded it.
“My goodness, my heart’s fluttering like a schoolgirl, and my palms are damp. I
feel like I’m about to meet my father.” She closed her eyes and pressed her
lips together. “At last.”

Molly’s eyes welled up, imagining how
she would feel if she had never known her father. She might be angry with him
now, but her life would be incomplete without him and all the things he’d
taught her. Without all the special moments they’d shared.

“I should go.” Gabe turned to her
mother. “So you can take your time and have some privacy during the introduction.”

“Good idea.” Molly jumped up. “I’ll go,
too. And knowing that
Nonna
had a couple of Bella
scrapbooks gives me some added incentive to finish going through those boxes.
I’ll take a couple more home with me tonight.”

Gabe got to his feet. “I could lend a
hand.”

Molly’s heart shimmied as she pictured
Gabe in her doll-sized house, taking up space next to her on the living room
floor, and breathing her air.

“That would be great.” She swept her
eyelashes down to hide her fizzy reaction. “Call me later if you want to talk,
Mom.” She turned to give her mother a quick hug before hooking his arm with her
hand. “Come help me fetch and carry. We’ll grab some cartons from the basement,
then head out.”

“Pleasure meeting you, Mrs. Webber,”
Gabe said.

“The pleasure was mine.” She fingered
the edges of her father’s letters. “Come back any time. Bring the Sleeping
Lotus.”

“Will do.” He winked as he trailed Molly
from the room.

“Should I follow you again?” he asked,
after they’d lugged Molly’s choice of boxes from the house and deposited them
in her car trunk. He peered at her from the shadows cast by the corner
streetlight. “I’m starting to feel like a stalker.”

“I’ll give you the address and
directions to my house. It’s not far.” A hint of his cologne drifted to her.
She inhaled, fixing the clean, musky scent in her memory. “Are you familiar
with Hyde Park?” He pulled out his phone to plug in the information she
provided.

“Is that off Observatory?”

Groping inside her tote for her keys,
Molly nodded. He stepped up to open the door for her. She passed close by him,
before slipping behind the wheel. Shaking off the awkwardness of her constant
reaction to him, she smiled. He leaned in toward her.

Their gazes locked.

They were close enough for their breaths
to meet and mingle.

In the illumination of the dome light,
she noticed the dark scruff on his jaw, a slightly crooked tooth. Ridiculously
long eyelashes created shadows across his cheek. The moment stretched from
simple awareness to something more.

Was he going to kiss her?
If she held a Crazy Eight Ball in her
hands, she felt certain all signs would point to “yes.” Her screaming hormones
all pointed to “yes.” She turned to meet him halfway. More than halfway.

A familiar metallic tune interrupted the
silence.

“Damn.” Gabe pulled his phone out and
swiped to answer it. “Sorry, I have to take this.”

His long legs blocked Molly from closing
the door. Her eyes leveled out at about belt height. Oh, great, nothing like a
bug’s eye view of a man’s jean-covered crotch to stir the imagination.

She tore her gaze away and opened her
bag, searching for something, anything to occupy her hands and thoughts, while
she waited. Thankfully, he paced away from the car and she closed the door.
Within seconds, she overheard his raised voice through the closed window.

Yelling at someone. Again.

Chilling her overactive hormones from
their
now! take-me-now
eagerness to
not-in-this-lifetime
dread.
Definitely, not. Luckily, timely phone calls kept averting her from disaster.

“He did what? When?” he bellowed. “You
need me to come back to the office
now
? 
Right
now?” Gabe
closed his eyes and shook his head as if he couldn’t bear the thought.

Disappointed in him, and in herself,
Molly wrapped her arms around her torso, aware of a sudden plunge in
temperature. This tone didn’t fit the personality of the man she was coming to
know, the one who’d been so sweet to her mom, but she’d heard it for herself
now, twice.

Starting the engine, she nudged up the
heat, anxious to get home, to get away from Gabe. She jumped when he tapped on
the window, then lowered the glass halfway.

“Sorry.” His lips moved into a
resistance-melting smile. “I’m going back to work for a while, so you’ll have
to mine the mother lode of memorabilia on your own again.”