Impossible Dreams (39 page)

“Miss Alyssum?” the voice inquired on the other
end.

“Alyssum — Holm,” she corrected determinedly. She
hadn’t bothered changing the name on her legal documents. She’d
better start considering how much of her identity she wanted to sacrifice.

“Mrs. Holm,” the deep voice continued with more
assurance. “This is Philip MacGregor with MacGregor and Blythe in
Raleigh.”

Lawyers. Mr. Pfeiffer’s lawyers. Maya remembered them
well. She wrinkled her nose and wondered why they weren’t calling Selene.
She remembered they were supposed to. Panic immediately ripped through her.
What if they were calling to say the lease was invalid?

The lawyer had continued talking while her thoughts spun out
of control. She’d missed the first part of his spiel. Frantically, she
tried to tune in now.

“We’ve filed the will with the court here in
Raleigh. As executors, we’re free to begin proceedings on the deed
transfers. If you prefer, we can send someone down there with the documents.
We’re having the property appraised for estate-tax purposes. The
appraisal value will be your basis at the time of transfer, so you may wish
your attorney or accountant...”

Maya choked the receiver and stared blankly at the window.
Deed? Not lease?

“Mr. MacGregor,” she interrupted tentatively.
He’d think her a nutcase. She
was
a nutcase. She didn’t
care. “Could you please start all over? I don’t
understand...”

“I should have realized this came as a surprise to
you,” the voice replied soothingly. “Perhaps I should drive down
and explain in more detail. Would your sister be available? I’m not
certain how to reach her.”

“Cleo’s at the shop,” she said absently.
“I’ll call her. I just don’t understand...”

“Mr. Pfeiffer acknowledged you and your sister as his
granddaughters in his will, Mrs. Holm. He came to us a few years ago, after his
wife’s death, to have it drawn up. I think it would be best if I drove
down and explained it to you and your sister in person.”

“Yes. Yes, I think that’s best.”

Maya sank to the floor and stared into space, dimly aware of
Alexa’s crying in the background.

She’d thought there had been no will.

The lawyer had mentioned deeds.

Did the school belong to her now?

***

November, 1976

Some rumor-monger has told Dolly of my daughter’s
existence. I cannot even correspond with my lawyers for fear she will discover
what I have been doing without her knowledge. If Dolly should go to the Arnolds
to verify this damned story, there will be hell to pay. I’m not as
wealthy as they are, but by damn, I’ll do what it takes to look after the
ones I love.

I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.

Glancing out his office window, Axell saw the unmarked
police car parked in front of the building next door and cursed. He
didn’t need this now. The police had been all over the bar Saturday night
after he’d gone home. One of the local yokels had pulled a knife on a
city salesman, and his new manager hadn’t realized the seriousness of the
situation. He’d been too scared to call Axell.

So now he had police reports scattered across his desk,
lawyers and insurance companies calling about liability, and a curt message
from someone at the ABC board to deal with. The damned mayor had made certain
they’d heard about it. He didn’t need more police at Cleo’s
shop — his shop. He was a damned partner, thanks to Maya.

Flinging his pen down and striding out, Axell faced a
fleeting regret for the days when a leggy Katherine in her red suit used to
greet him in the mornings with nothing more noxious than gossip about the
latest backyard panther sighting. Now he had cops and knifings and drugs and a
skinny college graduate assistant in too-narrow ties anxiously waiting to be
thrown out on his ass. Life had been so much simpler...

Before Maya.

Axell rubbed his brow. He couldn’t reasonably blame
any of this on Maya. True, Katherine had quit because he’d married Maya,
but he couldn’t blame anyone but Katherine for that. And Maya had nothing
to do with the knifing, other than luring him home when he should have been
here. Maya had nothing to do with her sister’s drug habits, either. She
was completely innocent of everything except existing. Maya just needed to exist
to attract trouble like honey draws bees.

As Axell threw open the Curiosity Shoppe door, evil laughter
erupted over his head. Startled, he stopped in the doorway and glanced upward
for the chimes he’d personally installed himself. A grinning demon lit
from within beamed down on him. Swell, now Cleo was probably into demonology or
worse.

With images of Satanic rituals ballooning in his mind, Axell
scanned the interior where a plainclothes detective had stopped talking and
turned to stare. Cleo, looking rattier and more tired than usual, glared in his
direction. So much for the once cheerful atmosphere of the playful shop Maya
had created.

“I haven’t done the weekend’s receipts
yet,” Cleo declared, as if Axell normally came in every day and demanded
them. “And tell your wife I want my teapot back.”

“You tell her. She’s your sister.”
Determined not to be shoved aside by Cleo’s machinations — he knew enough
about human nature to know her rudeness had a purpose — Axell nodded at the
detective. “Morning, Rick. Anything I can do for you?” Calm and
controlled. He could do that. That’s how he functioned.

The detective’s expression remained unreadable.
“Morning, Axell. Just having a word with the lady.”

“I’m no lady and never will be,” Cleo
retorted. “You’ve had your say. You can find your own way
out.” She glared at Axell. “That goes for you too.”

It struck Axell that Maya’s sister was in need of a
good spanking, but that didn’t fall in his line of duty. He walked out
with the detective.

“All right, Rick, now tell me what that’s all
about. That’s my building, my wife’s sister, and I own half the
shop. I’ve a right to know.”

The detective looked uncomfortable. Axell was a council
member and on the police oversight committee. His vote was one of many, but his
influence in the town was considerable. Axell didn’t normally use his
influence for the purpose of intimidation, but he was tired of being on the
defensive.

“She had a known dealer in the shop the instant she
hit town.” The detective shrugged. “That’s all I’m free
to say, and I shouldn’t have said that. Forget where you heard it.”

Axell waited for the pain to grip his stomach, but
miraculously, it only twisted a little. With a nod, he acknowledged the
detective’s request. “She wants her kid back. She’ll stay
clean, if she can. We’ve got to get the dealer off the street.”

“That’s what I intend to do.” The
detective slammed into his car and drove off.

Axell took a deep breath and prepared to beard the lion in
her den. This gladiator intended to rip the lion’s damned head off.

***

“Selene, you’ve got to be there. You’re
the only one I can trust. Axell will be
furious
, absolutely furious. He
didn’t want anyone to know about our relationship to Pfieffer, and now
we’re actually
heirs
... Heirs! Can you imagine? I’m an
heiress.” Dizzily, Maya paced up and down with the cordless, ramming her
hand through her hair and almost giggling at the absurdity, except its
implications were too enormous.

“People will think we
murdered
that poor old
man. You know how they’ve been whispering about the mayor and Mr.
Pfeiffer’s nieces and nephews. Now they’ll accuse
us
. I
think I’ll throw up.” She glanced out the window at the new maple
for reassurance. If she could only believe it meant love...

“Hurling is one alternative,” Selene said dryly
through the phone. “Calling Axell and a lawyer is another. Your choice,
girl.”

“I want it all to go away,” she whispered,
sinking down beside Alexa, who was resting in her infant seat, and stroking her
daughter’s petal-soft cheek. “I just want to live my life and love
my kids and make the world go away.”

“Seems to me, that’s why you married Axell. Call
him.”

Maya was terrified the world would make Axell go away.

“What happens if we own the school free and
clear?” she whispered.

“We have a bonfire, whoop war cries, and circle the
wagons, ’cause the rednecks will be after us with a vengeance,”
Selene replied grimly. “You call Axell. I’ll call my attorney. And
then we’d better consider a security fence and armed guards, or selling out.”

Maya would rather throw up. Hanging up the receiver, she
crooned a silly love song to Alexa. Maybe she could call Stephen and he would
agree to send her back to California. Maybe she could take Axell’s credit
cards and book passage to Australia.

Maybe she could call Axell.

Cradling Alexa in her arms, changing her diaper and watching
her kick with sheer exuberation, Maya remembered the moment Axell had delivered
her, the astonishment and wonder on his face as he brought this living,
breathing human being into the world for the first time, and she knew she
couldn’t run any more.

She’d reached the destination Fate had intended for
her. She could let the current carry her away on a slow and lonely journey
through life, or she could fight to stay here — in her spawning grounds. She
grinned at the reference. Axell had said fish have spawning grounds, not nests.
That was probably true. She’d spawn with him any day. But first, she had
to find a way to anchor herself.

***

The demon screamed as Maya opened the shop door. She almost
dropped Alexa in surprise, but the furious shouting match at the counter
distracted her sufficiently from the demon to keep her grip.

“I’ll not have Maya — ”

“Don’t give me that crap, you — ”

“Don’t interrupt me!”

Maya blinked in surprise at this last roar. Axell. Axell
never shouted. Axell never raised his voice. Axell looked as if he were about
to murder Cleo.

Both of them ignored the screaming demon and her arrival.
Well, she was an heiress now. She expected a little attention.

Wickedly, she leaned over the counter and plugged in the
current to the dragon mobile.

The multi-hued dragon began to rotate slowly. Small trolls
and elves orbited around him. The duo at the counter continued shouting
nonsensically. The dragon spun faster and swung in wider arcs.

Maya hummed a little tune, set Alexa’s seat on the
counter, and pushed the button wired to the mobile motor.

The dragon’s trap door flew open and his treasure
exploded in a bright swirl of glittering confetti, hard candy, and dried rose
petals. She hadn’t been able to make up her mind about the contents, and
she’d never tested the results. The effect was quite as amazing to her as
to the others.

Cleo screamed and dodged ricocheting peppermints. Sparkling
metallic confetti drifted, caught in the air currents from the overhead fans,
and scattered in rainbow flurries across the contents of the store.

Axell merely turned and arched a questioning eyebrow in her
direction, before gathering up Alexa and stepping out of the hail of
destruction.

“Party pooper,” she pouted as Axell caught her
elbow and pulled her toward the door where the confetti didn’t reach.

“Too bad there’s no way it could shoot out
helium balloons,” Axell replied reflectively, examining the spinning
dragon.

Looking mildly abashed, Cleo warily stood up, and in wonder,
watched the cloud of confetti settle and swirl in dying eddies. She picked up a
peppermint and absently unwrapped it as a small tornado of petals pirouetted
over the wicker chairs.

“You’re not happy unless you’re blowing
things up, are you?” she asked.

Maya smiled and wrapped an auburn curl around her finger. A
rose petal drifted to the floor. “I showered you with treasures, Cleo.
You never learned to appreciate them.”

Beside her, Axell choked. She couldn’t tell if it was
from laughter or not. Axell didn’t laugh often, but she knew he had a
sense of humor.

“Well, it’s more colorful than dust,” Cleo
acknowledged, blowing purple and red stars off her cash register. “You
had a point?”

“I’m celebrating.”

Axell watched as Maya sailed into the center of the room with
all flags flying. He knew that airy look. The ditzier Maya got, the worse the
situation. She was swimming so fast downstream right now, she’d be over
the falls before she knew it.

“People commonly do that with champagne. Are you going
to enlighten us?”

He didn’t dare approach Maya when she had that
dangerous glint in her eye. He didn’t know if the tree had been delivered
yet. He didn’t know if she’d seen it or understood. For all he
knew, she considered it an insult, and she was here to smack him in the face.

Now that she had everyone’s attention, she slipped
into full Maya mode, curled up in the high-backed chair, and beamed. Axell
wouldn’t be surprised if rainbows formed over her head. Blissfully
stricken by the power of her smile, he didn’t even have to look lower to
recall every sensual detail of her bare breast against his palm, her lithe body
arching into his. Her siren call...

“We’re heiresses,” she announced sweetly.

Black clouds obliterated any rainbows. Axell groaned and
covered his eyes.

Cleo ignored him and waited patiently for Maya to explain.
Instead, Axell had the distinct feeling Maya was waiting for him. It was
frightening how easily he read her sometimes, as if there were some unspoken
current of understanding between them. He’d never known anything like it
before. The responsibility was not only frightening, but overwhelming.

He could handle responsibility. With a sigh, Axell uncovered
his eyes and glared at his wife. She didn’t flinch, just waited
expectantly. Damn, but he loved the way she did that.