Gone With the Witch (35 page)

"You never went on the Ferris wheel in
Atlantic City?”

“
Get real," Pepper said.

"Okay, but if we're going on rides, we have to put War
lock in the car. We'll buy her a cup of vanilla ice cream, get
a bottle of water to replenish hers,
an
d
leave the windows cracked so she can catch a breeze."

Later, on the Ferris wheel, Storm managed to make Pepper laugh, but when they got to the
top,
her emotions got the better of her, though she tried not to let it show.

She'd been here last with Aiden, after all. But Pepper's
psychic sensitivity must have kicked in, because she leaned
into her and pretended to yawn.

Storm put an arm around her shoulder. "I never cry," she
said, wiping her cheeks.

"Me either," Pepper said, wiping her own. "Though I al
most did the morning 'I met you when I stood inside the
door of the school and watched you drive away."

"You did? Why didn't I sense that? 'I usually sense children crying"

"I told you. I never c
ry
.
I get bratty or silent.
Very
silent."

"Aha, and that's all 'I could hear as we left, a heavy
silence."

"That was me!"

"I was so shocked that Marvelanne was my mother, and
surprised that I couldn't hear Aiden's baby crying any
more, that I never thought ... I'm sorry I didn't understand right away what you needed."

"No problem. Heck, I can't believe you came back”

“
I couldn't get you out of my mind, silence or not" Pepper took another bite of her apple. "Would you
have

come
if you were still with the eye candy guy?"

“Aiden?
Absolutely.
It was his idea to d
ri
ve around and see if you were okay before we left."

"That's because I—"

"You what?"

"I ... watched you leave the restaurant. I think he spotted me. You really miss him, don't you?"

"I really do."

"Maybe he'll come find you"

"With his wife?"

"The two-timer!"

"He wasn't married when we stopped to see you. It's a long story."

"Tell me in the car then, 'kay? Can we go on the teacups
after this?"

"I'll throw up," Storm threatened.

"Nah, only sissies barf on the teacups, but
it's
okay to
puke on roller coasters. That's what I do. Hey," Pepper
said, "eye candy alert, one o'clock."

Storm looked down from three-quarters up the Ferris wheel to see Aiden pushing Ginny in her wheelchair with
Becky on her lap.
"Oh my Goddess.
What is
he
doing
here? 'I can't take this now. I'm not ready to see him
an
d
Claudette together.
Pepper, stay with me, okay?
Pretend you're sick, so we have to leave."

Pepper patted her hand. "I'll take care of everything."

Aiden and Ginny had spotted them and were waiting
when she and Pepper got off the Ferris wheel. Storm
homed in on Aiden and couldn't take her gaze from his, be
cause he seemed to have eyes only for her.

"Good to see you, Storm," he said.
"Cute cat face.”

“
Meow."
She'd
had
to get a painted kitty face. "What
are you all doing here?"

"I ... wanted to show Becky our ... carnival," he said,
something in his voice more personal than was comfort
able, under the circumstances. "When we drove into the parking lot, Ginny recognized your car, so we knew you were here, and we came looking for you."

Storm put her hands on Pepper's shoulders, as much for support as anything. "You remember Pepper?"

"I'm a Dalmatian." Pepper barked, making Becky gig
gle. "Storm rescued me"

Aiden looked up at her. "She rescued me, too."

Storm broke eye contact first to run her hand through a thatch of paprika screw curls. "It's Pepper's birthday. She's eleven today."

"Happy birthday, Pepper," Aiden said, and cleared his
throat. "I'm glad Storm went back for you. It wasn't my imag
ination, then, that you mouthed the words, `Take me with you,' before we left?"

Pepper stiffened beneath Storm's hands. "I never—"
She looked up at Storm, then down at her sneakers, and kicked a clump of dirt. "Yeah, 'I
did."

Storm really looked at Aiden then, ate him up with her
gaze, while she tried to survive a buckling in her knees and
heart. "Why didn't you tell me she wanted to come with us?"

"Your heart was already broken, Storm. I thought you
needed to come to terms with meeting your mother first, and
'I didn't think Marvelanne would let Pepper go lightly. 'I planned to tell you, but when we got to
Cape May, every
thing went haywire, and we never got a chance to talk. You
rescue kids. I
knew
you'd rescue your own sister when the
time was right. Pepper, this is my mother-in-law, Mrs. Lang
ley—"

"Call me Ginny, sweetheart"

"Hi, Ginny."

"And this dumpling is my daughter, Becky," Aiden
added, lifting Becky in his arms. "I still find the words a
shock.
My daughter.
Storm helped me find Becky, Pepper.
I didn't know she existed."

"So Storm rescued Becky, too," Pepper said.

"And me, too," Ginny added.

"Mama?"
Becky raised her arms to Storm.

Storm didn't know where to turn, but she wished she
could find a hole to crawl into. Where the hell was Claudette?
How could Aiden leave his sick wife at a nursing home to
come to a carnival several hours down the pike? "We have to
go now," Storm said. "Pepper is feeling sick."

Pepper made a ridiculous attempt at fake gagging.

Storm rolled her eyes and pulled Pepper against her
with an affectionate squeeze. "Forget it, Princess Funnel Cake, we'll cross
actress
off that list of things you want to be when you grow up."

Chapter forty-nine

GINNY
winked at Pepper, but she took Storm's hand.
"Don't run, Storm. Aiden is a widower. Claudette died
shortly after the ceremony. I know you were trying to make
me believe she'd get well, but people rally before they die. It's something I've seen often. I knew that's what was happening. I'm sure Claudette knew, too."

"Oh, Ginny."
Storm kissed her cheek. "I'm so sorry. Claudette was a good woman" Storm looked up. "Aiden, what can I say?"

"Mama?"
Becky whimpered, and Storm picked her up, her heart full of love for this little girl she barely knew.
Aiden's little girl.
Maybe that's why she loved her.

Becky touched her black kitty nose. "Nose," she said. Then she examined the black face paint on her finger and smeared it on her own nose. She turned to show her father and smear some on him. "Nose," she repeated, amusing them. "Mama," she said, turning back to Storm.
"Mama."
Becky nodded, circled Storm's neck with her little arms, and hugged her so tight, she grunted.

"She missed you," Aiden said. "Your absence was diffi
cult to explain."

"She's been clingy like that since Social Se
rv
ices took her," Ginny added.

"They took her!" Storm clasped Becky tighter. "What happened? How did you get her back?"

"After they came to the house with their paperwork," Ginny said, "and after Aiden kept from beating the male
social worker to a pulp, they took Becky and drove away. I
don't know which one of us was more broken. But Aiden rose to the occasion. He called his lawyers, and together
they stormed Social Se
rv
ices with his marriage license,
and Claudette's notarized statement that Aiden was Becky's
father. One department already had the paperwork, of
course, because Aiden had dropped it off earlier, while a different department had Becky."

"They're overworked, Ginny," Aiden said. "That was
easy to see. And they didn't hurt her. One worker con
fessed that it might have taken a day or so for the
paperwork to be processed, which isn't unreasonable. Hell,
I sometimes take days to get my paperwork done. They'd tried to console Becky, but we were scared to death, in the meantime."

"I'll bet you were," Storm said.

"She didn't stop sobbing for an hour after they handed her back to
me "
Aiden stroked his daughter's head on
Storm's shoulder so his knuckles grazed Storm's cheek
with every stroke. The awareness between them was alive, the communication almost as strong as when she spoke
telepathically with her sisters. He wanted them to be a fam
ily, and he was trying to show her how it could be.

Storm's emotions were in turmoil. Actually, she was scared to death. He'd just lost his wife. How could he possibly be thinking clearly?

His touch was torture, wonderful bad, as was the feel of
Becky filling her arms. Then that giggle as Becky smudged
her face paint with obviously amusing results. Storm

wallowed
in the silk of Becky's skin, her dark flyaway
curls, and the sweet, familiar scent of baby powder.

It hurt so much knowing their reunion would end that
Storm tried to give Becky back to Aiden sooner, rather than
later, but Becky refused to leave her, not even for Ginny. "Want Mama," she said, snuggling in, and a bittersweet
lump formed in Storm's throat as she cupped that little
head close.

Selfish, selfish, selfish.

Claudette should be holding her own baby, and
she
should not be grateful that Becky was calling her Mama.
"We do have to go," Storm said. "You need time to grieve,
you and Ginny, and Pepper and I need to ...
go."

"Drive back to
Salem with us in the coach," Aiden said,
the need rolling off him palpable, but who did he need?
His
dead wife or his lover?

Yes, that's what they'd been.
Lovers.
Storm shook her head. She couldn't bear to be this close to him without touching him. "I have the car," she said. "Thanks anyway"

"I can tow the car."

"I can
drive."

"It'll be more comfortable in the coach. We should be
back on
Paxton
Island
by six. Destiny knows that Ginny and 'I are on our way, and she went to tell Vickie, who's planning
to feed us all. Did you tell Destiny that you're on your way
home? At least I assume that's where you're going?"

"You assume right." Storm sighed, seeing no way out. "No, Destiny doesn't know we're on our way. I wanted to surprise her, let her meet Pepper before I told her we had another sister."

"The thing is," Aiden confessed, "I'm driving the coach,
so Ginny has to tend Becky, who gets restless in her car
seat that long. Having you and Pepper along would give Ginny a break, which I think she's ready for. And it's obvious that Becky wants you."

Low blow,
Storm thought.

Becky hugged her tighter, choking tight, as if she under
stood the conversation.

"We'll go with you, if you drop us off at the house in
Salem. I'm not up to the island tonight." She needed as
quick an escape as she could get from Aiden, and from her
yearning for this beautiful baby girl.