Finding Home (20 page)

“
First I have to ask you a question.”

“
Is the question part of the secret?”

“
Sort of. What do you think about your pa?”

Dorie
’s interest dissolved. “He’s all right. He’s just my daddy.”

“
What do you think about him gettin’ married?”

Dorie
’s face fell into a troubled expression. “Could he?”

“
If he wanted to, which he might.”

“
He’s too old.”

Phoebe opened her mouth to protest, but changed her mind.
“He is, and the older he gets the more likely he’ll need someone to look after him. How would you feel about having a stepmother?”

“
Would she boss me?”

“
No more than I do.”

“
Did he tell you who she is?”

“
I have a close acquaintance with her,” Phoebe said. “She’s about as good-hearted a person I know.”

“
Who is it?”

For once in her life, Phoebe
’s wealth of courage failed her. “That’s the second part of the secret. I can’t say until I’m sure you’re gonna keep the first part.”

Dorie suddenly appe
ared stricken. “Is it Belle Martin?”

Phoebe
’s eyes narrowed. “Who’s Belle Martin?”

“
She brought food every day after Momma died. She tried to kiss Daddy on his cheek.”

“
The brazen hussy! Gage wouldn’t choose her coming or going!”

“
Every time she looked at me she wrinkled her nose.”

“
If she ever wrinkles her nose at you again, you point her out to me. I’ll break it for her.”

Dorie smothered a giggle,
then looked at Phoebe. “If you and Daddy didn’t fuss so much, maybe he’d marry you.”

Phoebe saw her ch
ance, but she couldn’t make herself jump all the way into it. “I could try to talk him into it,” she said with a sigh, as if the idea of marrying Gage Morgan was little more than a daily chore. “But when I get married I want babies and I guess I’d worry about how you’d take that.”

“
Real babies?” Dorie’s eyes grew wide.

“
Real babies. Now that you’ve brought it up, though, if I married Gage, then Maydean would be your aunt by marriage and Willie-Boy would be your uncle.”

“
But Willie-Boy is littler than me!”

“
See what I mean? Your Pa wouldn’t like to do anything that’d make you unhappy.”

“
Willie-Boy’s all right when he’s not being a pest.”

Phoebe assumed a properly sober expression.
“Ain’t he, though?”

Dorie displayed a sudden anxiety.
“What do you think my momma would say?”

This was the all-important point. Phoebe shook her head.
“It’s hard to imagine, what with her bein’ in heaven and all. My opinion is that she’d appreciate knowin’ you were cared for. She loves you and people who love always want to see their loved ones happy.”

“
I’m happy with you and Maydean. But Belle doesn’t make me happy. She scares me. Why don’t you tell Daddy to marry you, Phoebe?”

“
I’m not sure he’d take to the idea, as stubborn as he is.”

“
You could try.”

“
Tell you what. You come back to the table and finish your supper while I ponder on it. If it comes about and he mentions it to you, you’ll have to appear surprised. Men don’t like to think we women conspire behind their backs.”

“
You like me, don’t you Phoebe?”

“
Mostly,” Phoebe replied, knowing that a child had keen insight and could see through pretense. “I’d like you a passel more if the next time you ran in here to sulk, you’d take your sandals off first. Now I got to wash this bedspread again.”

~~~~

“I couldn’t’ve done a better job of it myself,” Phoebe said, admiring the manner in which Gage had welded her bumper back onto the truck. She also admired the way his biceps tightened, the way his back muscles rippled. Her heart fluttered, but she restrained herself. “I reckon I’ll go get it gassed up before we harvest crabs this morning.”

“
I’m not getting in that skiff with you again. Take Maydean or Dorie.”

“
But I let you sleep all night and I didn’t pester you before breakfast either.”

“
Lucky me.”

Phoebe paid no attention to his doleful glare.
“You’re back to thinkin’ I’m too skinny.”

“
Nope, I’m thinking survival.”

“
Don’t you want to do it even the least little bit?”

Sweat beg
an to bead on his upper lip. “I have work to do.”

“
You’re so strong-willed, Gage. I admire that in a man.”

“
Just so long as you admire from a distance.”

“
I can’t promise.” Phoebe thought about his body in her power and felt her insides begin to tremble. But the yard was open for business and the kids were running loose. Privacy was not assured. Practicality swayed her. The letter from Ma suddenly loomed large in her mind. “Anyway, I’m glad we got the truck fixed. It don’t belong to me, you know. It’s Pa’s. I got to return it.”

Gage wiped his hands on a rag, taking an inordinate amount of time doing it.
“Don’t think I want you going off anywhere. I’m feeling possessive.”

“
Oh. Well, what about if Pa came and got it?”

“
That’d be better.”

All of Phoebe
’s nerve endings began to hum. “Maybe Ma and Erlene could come down with Pa on the bus. Ma wouldn’t countenance me getting married without her being there. She’d like to know it’s so.”

“
That sounds reasonable. But Phoebe, don’t go planning a big wedding.”

“
I thought just family.”

He looked at her from beneath his thick sweep of dark lashes.
“You’re too agreeable, too fast. I get the feeling you’re somehow putting something over on me.”

“
I’m agreeable because I’m so happy,” she reassured with a grand air, gliding toward him, putting her hand on his arm. “Gage, let me kiss you. I won’t put my tongue in your mouth and make you crazy. I just want to feel your lips on mine.”

“
You’re dodging the issue. Just family.” His gaze bent hard on her face. “How many aunts, uncles and cousins have you got back up in those gullies and hills?”

“
There’s just Ma and Pa and Erlene. Joey and his wife won’t come because of the baby.”

“
I don’t want to spend a lot of money on frou frous getting married.”

“
Me, either. I want us to save our money for solid things. And I aim to use my crab money for the particulars. We got to have a weddin’ feast, but Ma and I can cook that. Ma can bake the cake. The only outsiders ought to be the preacher and his wife. It wouldn’t be polite to slight them.”

The questioning in his eyes faded,
then brightened once again. “Just so there’s no misunderstanding let’s agree right now. I’ll set aside four hundred dollars for us getting married outside of your ring. Not a penny more.”

Four hundred dollars
. Lor! She could get married ten times over for that. It descended on her with a shock that his idea of parsimony was far more generous than her own. “I’ll make that do,” she said solemnly. “I’ll eke out every dime.” She slid her hand up his arm. “Now, will you kiss me, or do you aim to make me suffer daylight to dusk?”

He bent his head and pressed his mouth lightly to hers. Phoebe nibbled on his lower lip.

“Lord have mercy, woman. Stop that.” But he laughed and his arms tightened his embrace. Phoebe pressed her thigh to his, felt the quicksilver stirring in his loins. She was aglow with feminine power. All would be well. Even when Ma and Pa arrived. She just knew it. Gage ended the kiss, but Phoebe stayed put in his arms.

Her
heart filled with tenderness. “Gage, I’m going to make you the best wife in the universe.”

“
You don’t have to be the best, Phoebe. Just belong to me.”

There was an underlying insistence in his voice. Phoebe stepped out of his arms.
“God put you in my path, Gage. There was never a man before you and there won’t be after. Married to you I’m going to be the envy of every woman between here and Mobile. I ain’t givin’ that up.”

Gage laughed.
“I wouldn’t put it all on God, Phoebe. Blame some of it on a woman driver that didn’t look where she was going. Now, get out of here and go crabbing before my willpower fails me.”

“
Is it about to?” she asked, all hope and letting the snide remark about her driving fritter away on the breeze wafting through the welding shed and proud of herself for not stomping on it with Hawley pride.

“
Mr. Gage!” Willie-Boy shouted as he hurried into the shop. “Did you get that bike fixed for me yet?”

“
Reprieve.” Gage grinned.

Phoebe tilted her head and returned his grin.
“Wait until after dark.”

~~~~

“It’s been dark for hours.” Gage stood on the threshold of Phoebe’s bedroom, peering in. “Isn’t there some little promise or other you wanted to make good on?”

“
I was waitin’ for the kids to get hard asleep.” She stretched sinuously, arching; the line of her throat was compellingly vulnerable. She was stopped for a moment by Gage’s gaze riveted on her, then she smiled. For modesty’s sake he wore pajama bottoms, but they did little to hide his aroused state. “Have you been layin’ abed thinkin’ of me?”

“
I was reading the paper.”

Phoebe laughed. She felt so bold.
“Tell me one thing you read.”

“
I read my horoscope. It said for me not to tolerate any teasing.” He crossed the room, scooped her into his arms. “It said I should be creative in an affair of the heart.”

Cradled in his arms, Phoebe felt no more substantial than a willow.
“What else did it say?”

He nuzzled her neck as he carried her into his own room
and placed her on his bed. “It said I should drag you by the hair on your head into my lair and strip you naked.” He took the hem of her gown, pulled it up. Phoebe’s arms slid out.

“
Did it say anything about closin’ and lockin’ the door to the lair?”

“
Leave it to you to be the practical one. Good thing you don’t write horoscopes.”

“
Good thing I’m here so you can make it come true.”

His eyes, opaque
with passion, took in her shoulders, the tidy mounds of her breasts. Small breasts, rounded with dainty pink nipples.

When he returned to bed
after locking the door, he lay down beside her, pressing his lips into the curve of her neck and began to stroke every inch of her.

His hot kisses distract
ed Phoebe. She couldn’t keep track of where his hands were going, what they were doing. His hands, then his lips closed over her exposed breasts, and a pleased sound erupted from him as he pulled her against him, forcing her to feel him jutting against her thighs. He was making her body dance, flooding her with heat.

“
Gage!” she cried, her voice small, vanishing as his tongue dipped into a most intimate crevice. He ignored her protests. Something extraordinary seemed to be happening inside her. Air escaped her lungs, blood seemed to suffuse her head, her muscles rippled as if they were separate entities borne haphazardly on a sudden wind; an unfamiliar interior fluttering seemed to warn her of something about to take place, some desperate event needing completion. A sensation, unlike anything she’d ever experienced pierced her brain, then radiated out until all of her being was seized, frozen. There was a tremendous swelling, a building pressure in her loins, and a startled cry broke from her throat as the immense feeling savagely exploded.

She was dying, separating into different selves, she could scarcely breathe. She felt all at once
lighter and as limp as boiled noodles.

As if attuned to
the shuddering waves, Gage whispered, “Babe...finally...”

Phoebe
wondered how he could know, feeling as if the secret was exposed, on display. “I like you calling me Babe.” She touched his face with her fingertips and whispered his name.

He came up over her, kissing her breasts, her throat, her mouth so that s
he opened to his thrusting presence, captured by the hardness riding between her thighs. Whatever had happened inside her body seemed to have created in him a surging ardor, some higher level of stimulation. She gave herself up to him and closed her mind to all else.