If I Can't Have You (38 page)

“Maybe I imagined it, then.”

“Did you imagine anything else?” Adriana asked,
obviously annoyed that he’d suggested such a thing. “Did you imagine the blood or the slash across her throat.”

“No. I didn’t imagine any of that. Everything I saw, everything I did after I woke up is perfectly clear, and I’ve relived it every day since it happened.”

“Then,” she said adamantly, “you didn’t imagine something shiny falling off the bed, either.”

Adriana pushed back in her chair. “We need more information. I’m going to the library to check out the microfiche of the newspaper accounts. There’s got to be something we’re missing.”

He couldn’t bear the thought of her leaving and reached for her hand.

“Don’t go, Adriana. Stay here with me.”

“I won’t be gone for long.”

One minute away from her seemed an eternity. He couldn’t let her go. “What if I disappear while you’re gone?”

The laughter and joy he’d seen in her eyes for the past two days dimmed, and worry filled her face. “Has something happened? Do you know something you’re not telling me?”

Trevor pulled her down into his lap. “I’m afraid if we’re torn apart, for any reason at all, that I’m going to go back.”

“I don’t want to talk about that. Besides,” Adriana reminded him, “you can’t go unless I wish you back.”

“That’s only a guess. We don’t know for sure.”

Adriana rested her cheek against his, and he could feel the heaviness of her sigh. “I won’t let you go,” she whispered.

They’d been on edge since they’d returned from Hollywood, both worried that life was too good, that something awful was going to rip them apart. For two days he hadn’t let her out of his sight. He showered
with her, sat by her side when she worked. They ran errands together, and made love each time as if for the very last.

If he was going to be pulled back to his own decade, he planned to grab on to her hand and pull her there with him—if he could. If he couldn’t, he wanted to make sure she’d remember him.

“Promise you won’t forget me if I do go back,” he said.

Adriana laughed lightly, cupping his cheek in the palm of her hand. “How could I ever forget you?”

“You may not have a choice, any more than I have a choice about leaving you.”

She pushed up from his lap, turning her back on him. “I don’t want to talk about the possibility of your leaving.”

“I do.”

He shoved himself out of the chair and grabbed her hand. “Come here. I want to show you something.”

He drew her through the house and into her bedroom. Opening the closet door, he got down on his knees, pulling Adriana down beside him, and rummaged behind shoe boxes and other odds and ends crammed in the corner.

“Remember the secret stash of money I told you about?” he asked, looking at her in the closet lit only by the sunlight beaming through the bedroom windows.

“Of course I do.”

“Well, this is where I kept it.”

Adriana peeked her head around his shoulder as he tugged at the baseboard.

“Once you pull the strip of wood off, you’ll find a sliding door.”

“I have no intention of hiding my money in there. Banks are perfectly fine with me.”

“I’m not saying I want you to hide money here, it’s just that...”

“It’s just what?”

“If I go back in time...” He hesitated again, plowing his fingers through his hair. “If anything happens, I’ll try to leave you a message, something to let you know what’s happened to me.”

“You’re not going to go. I told you that already.”

She didn’t want to think about it any more than he did, but it had to be discussed.

“If I go back,” he continued, “I think it will happen after we learn the truth about that night.”

“Then I don’t want to find out,” she said adamantly. “We won’t even think about it any longer. Let’s just put the books away and do something else. We can go back to Sparta. We can go to Hollywood and visit cemeteries. I don’t care what we do, but I’d rather have you here than—”

Trevor gripped her arms and held her close. “You told me we had to learn the truth, and you were right. No matter what happens, you have to help me find out what occurred that night.”

She rested her forehead on his chest. “If you leave me, I promise never to forget you,” she said. When she looked up, he could see a faint sparkle in her eyes. “I won’t forgive you, either.”

“Empty threats don’t scare me,” he teased, trying to lighten the moment.

“Of course they don’t. You’re the hero. You always find a way to get out of trouble.”

They huddled together in the small confines of the closet. It was warm. The light scent of her perfume wafted around him, and he kissed her slow and deep and long.

God, he never wanted to leave her.

“Marry me, Adriana,” he whispered, right there in the middle of her gowns, her trousers, her
blouses, and shoes. “Marr
y me so I know you’ll never leave me again.”

“I won’t leave you, Trevor,” she said. “You don’t have to marry me to make me stick around.”

“Then marry me because you love me.”

He pulled the ring off the end of the string attached to the overhead bulb.

“I’ve got something here to bind us together—forever.”

He felt Adriana tremble when he took hold of her left hand and slid the plastic ring on her finger.

“Someday I’ll give you diamonds the size of walnuts.”

“I’ve had diamonds, Trevor. I’d rather have you—and this little plastic ring—any day.”

A tear slid down her cheek.

“Marry me,” he pleaded as he kissed the hand that wore the ring. “Marry me
now,
Adriana.”

oOo

The private plane Stewart had chartered landed in Las Vegas at 8:22 in the evening. A long white limousine was waiting at the airport, as was the florist.

“Oh, you’re just going to be
the
most beautiful bride,” Maggie quipped, as the florist placed a bouquet of two dozen red and white roses and baby’s breath in Adriana’s arms.

“They’re lovely, Maggie,” Adriana said, kissing her friend’s cheek. “How did you ever manage to do all this in just a few hours?”

“Money talks, darlin’. Fortunately, Stewart has
lots
of it. Isn’t it wonderful!”

Maggie buzzed around, confirming all the last-minute details, looking the perfect—but extravagant—matron of honor in shocking pink feathers. She stuck a white rose in the lapel of
Stewart’s somber navy blue coat, picked up her own bouquet of white roses, and shuffled off to give the chauffeur directions.

Adriana smiled at her husband-to-be and nervously pinned a red rosebud on the lapel of his white dinner jacket.

“This is the happiest day of my life,” she whispered. “I never knew I could love someone so much.”

Trevor kissed her forehead, and curled a lock of hair behind her ear. “Thank you for marrying me.” He took a deep breath, and for just one instant Adriana thought he was going to cry. Then, he smiled that wonderful movie-idol smile. “I love you, Adriana. God, how I love you.”

Adriana turned at the sound of Stewart clearing his throat. “Are you sure you want to go through with this, Adriana?” he asked.

“Mind your own business, sweetie,” Maggie drawled, breezing up behind him. “They’re in love, and they’re going to get married. We were asked here as guests, not as advisors.”

Adriana caught the wink in Trevor’s eye as he grinned at Maggie, then he turned to Stewart and patted his shoulder.

“We really have to work on this relationship of ours, Stew,” Trevor declared. “We’re going to have a lot of years together, as business associates and, hopefully, as friends.”

Adriana kissed her attorney on the cheek, hoping to remove the scowl he’d worn throughout the plane ride. “I want you to be happy about giving me away. Please.”

A slow grin tilted Stewart’s lips. “I skipped a round of golf to get this show organized. Guess I might as well be happy about something.”

“See why I love him so much?” Maggie said, pecking her husband’s lips. “And, oh, I just love a pretty wedding.”

They rode rather quietly to the courthouse to get a license, then even more quietly down a street of a
million glittering lights on their way to the Little Church of the West.

Trevor took hold of her hand after he stepped out of the car. She put one white-satin shoe on the pavement, then the next. He slipped an arm around her waist as they walked toward the quaint wooden wedding chapel, and just before they reached the door, a man rushed to Adriana’s side.

“Smile!”

The bright light flashed in front of Adriana’s eyes, and she jumped, her hands flying in front of her face.

“Stop it! Please,” she begged.

“There’s nothing to fear, Adriana.” Trevor’s low, soothing words comforted her. He gathered her hands in his and tucked them close to his chest. “No one’s going to hurt you and no one’s going to gossip.”

“But—”

He st
illed her words with a kiss. “It
’s our wedding day, and this is the photographer Maggie hired. I want to look at these pictures when we’re old and gray and w
e have fourteen grandchildren ru
nning around our house.”

Grandchildren?
They hadn’t even talked of a family. “I didn’t know you wanted any children.”

“I want everything life has to offer. But first I want you. Just you.”

He kissed her again as the camera flashed. She couldn’t help but smile. It was her wedding day, and she was marrying the man of her dreams.

No woman could ever wish for more.

She felt she might smile forever.

They stood before the altar, Trevor radiant in his tux, she in a shimmering white-silk sheath studded with seed pearls across the shoulders and bodice. It was long and flowing, as was the lacy veil that trailed lightly down her back. A masterpiece from the thirties, it was something she’d bought at an auction
the year before but had never had the heart to sell. Instead, she’d hid it away in her closet, thinking she might be able to wear it someday.

And tonight was perfect, in every respect.

From a corner of the room, Adriana could hear the violinist playing a beautiful renditi
on of “The Way You Look Tonight,
” the song they’d waltzed to the first time Trevor held her in his arms. Bouquets of red and white roses were clustered about the altar, and Trevor stood at her side, smiling softly as he held her hand tightly in his.

“Do you take...”

She barely heard the minister’s words, but she heard the love in Trevor’s voice when he said, “I do.”

She repeated the words herself, then laughed as Trevor slipped the plastic ring onto her finger once more. There hadn’t been time to pick out wedding rings, but that didn’t matter. They didn’t need gold or platinum or diamonds to bind them together, they didn’t even need the pastor’s words. But, all the same, she melted into Trevor’s embrace when the minister pronounced them “husband and wife.”

“I love you, Adriana,” Trevor whispered. “Forever.”

“Forever,” she whispered back.

Nothing could ever pull them apart.

Nothing.

Trevor lay beside his wife, wondering how he’d gotten so lucky. Sixty years ago he had no idea what happiness was all about, but Adriana had taught him. Of course, she’d also taught him about perseverance, and sticking with something even though it drove him insane.

Even now, on the third day of their marriage, she was lying on her side, flipping through books about his past, determined to learn something new. She’d promised not to leave his side, and she hadn’t. Still, she continued her search for Carole Sinclair’s murderer.

Why couldn’t they continue the honeymoon, thinking of nothing but each other? They’d shared two days of absolute bliss, laughing as they read old scripts together in the comfort and privacy of her suite at Sparta. They’d danced under glimmering crystal chandeliers and made love behind a mummy case.