Lucky Charm (14 page)

She grinned and exhaled in relief.

“Let's eat!” Holly ran for the kitchen.

“I think she wants first dibs on her choice of doughnuts,” Gabrielle said.

“She can have it. I want first dibs on you,” he said in a low voice.

He'd gotten home late last night, long after Holly had fallen asleep. This morning she'd been tired and hadn't asked any questions. A good thing, since he couldn't have answered them without a goofy grin on his face. Despite how wrong it was for him to keep seeing Gabrielle, knowing he was sinking deeper and falling fast, he couldn't deny they were magic together. He wasn't ready to let her go yet.

She stepped closer. “I'm glad to hear you don't have any regrets.”

“How could I? You just need to remember where I stand.”

She tilted her head to one side. “How could I?” she mimicked his comment wryly, but kept a smile on her face. “Did I ever tell you what my favorite television show is?”

He narrowed his gaze. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“It's
Survivor,
” she said, ignoring his question. “Want to know why? The motto. Outwit, outplay, outlast. Something I happen to think I'm pretty good at.” She met his gaze with flashing determination.

He'd been warned. She wasn't going to let the curse stand between them this time.

“Are you two coming? I already finished one doughnut!” Holly called from the other room.

“Did you even chew it?” he called back.

Gabrielle laughed. “Come on. If there's not a chocolate doughnut left, there'll be hell to pay.”

He led the way into the kitchen, thoughts of Gabrielle and chocolate dancing in his brain. He still smelled the scent when he breathed in, even before she'd shown up this morning.

“I wish I could stay and eat but I have an early appointment in town. I'd planned on grabbing coffee while I was there.”

“Where is your office, anyway?” Gabrielle asked.

“I rent a room at Englebert and Rowe, the law firm in town. They have all the office supplies I need, and since they had empty space, it was a win-win situation.”

Gabrielle nodded. “I understand. I should have called before showing up, anyway.”

“Can you stay and have doughnuts with me?” Holly asked Gabrielle, powdered sugar on her nose.

“I sure can. If your dad doesn't mind?” She paused and glanced at Derek for permission.

He
should
mind. His daughter shouldn't be bonding with Gabrielle any more than he should sleep with her again. “Of course I don't mind if you stay.”

“Yes!” Holly pumped her fist in the air. “I want you to meet Fred.”

Gabrielle crinkled her nose in confusion. “Who's Fred?”

“My father's basset hound,” Derek said.

“He's old and he smells like shi—”

Derek shot his daughter a warning glare.

“Shiitake mushrooms. He smells like shiitake mushrooms,” Holly said, giggling as if she had gotten away with the curse.

Derek groaned. Marlene was going to give him hell when she returned and discovered his daughter's new vocabulary, courtesy of Hank.

“I'd love to meet Fred,” Gabrielle said.

Derek knew she meant it. He remembered that Gabrielle had always wanted her own dog, but her parents had never wanted the responsibility.

He'd intended to get her one for Christmas, their senior year. But then he'd talked to her parents. They'd been adamant about him waiting. He'd promised her a puppy one day…but then he'd come to his senses. His mother's letter had reminded him about the ramifications of the curse and why he and Gabrielle couldn't be together.

“Did you ever get a pet?” he asked her, knowing he was treading on sensitive ground.

She shook her head.

“Why not?” Holly asked. “Don't you like dogs? You'll like Fred. He's a lazy bas—”

“Hey!” Derek admonished.

“Basset hound! He's a lazy basset hound. Jeez, Dad, relax!”

Gabrielle laughed.

Derek's face flushed hot. Time for him to go to work, he thought, before he made a bigger ass of himself.

“I never got a dog because it wouldn't have felt right.” As Gabrielle spoke, she never broke eye contact with him, giving him a view into her soul.

After he'd left her, Derek had been selfishly focused on his own torment. He'd convinced himself that she'd move on and be better off without him. As her career had soared, he further patted himself on the back, reassuring himself he'd been right. But suddenly, in her eyes, he saw the pain he'd inflicted and accepted that the dreams he'd crushed hadn't just been his own.

He swallowed hard, facing his actions for the first time. Then and now he wanted everything she had to offer. But he could give her nothing in return.

He needed air. Work was the perfect excuse. “You'll like Fred. Just watch out for your shoes.”

“He likes to chew them, sometimes he even pees,” Holly said. “Grandpa says it's a wonder he doesn't poop there, too.”

“I'll keep my shoes on.” Gabrielle curled her toes into her sandals.

“I've got to get going. Uncle Thomas is next door,” he told his daughter. “I was going to drop you off there, but Gabrielle can do it when she's ready to leave. I'll let him know you'll be over a little later than planned, okay?”

She nodded.

“Your father isn't around?” Gabrielle asked.

Derek caught the hopeful note in her voice.

“No, he's out. It's his week to do the grocery shopping,” Holly said.

In other words, she had no need to worry about the old man and his shotgun, Derek thought, but he didn't say the words aloud.

He left his two best girls alone and headed out to work.

B
Y THE TIME
G
ABRIELLE
finished breakfast with Holly, she'd discovered just how precocious Derek's daughter could be. As they walked across the land that separated the barn and the main house, Holly continued the inquisition she'd begun over the doughnuts.

“So have you ever been married?” Holly asked.

Gabrielle liked this question better than
Were you in love with my father back in high school?
It was young love, Gabrielle had said. And she much preferred this question to
Are you in love with him now? He's a really good guy even if he does snore.
That one had stumped her and she'd deflected the question by focusing on the snoring instead of the love.

Did she love Derek?

Without a doubt.

Was that the same as them having a future? Not just yet. But she wasn't going to let him walk away without fighting this time.

“Gabrielle, did you hear me? I asked if you've ever been married.” Holly nudged her with her elbow.

“Nope, never been married.” Grass connected the one large piece of property and Holly enjoyed skipping as they walked.

“Why not?”

Gabrielle glanced up at the warm sun in the cloudless sky. “Because no one I loved ever asked me,” she said honestly.

“Would you say yes if my dad asked?”

“You are a nosy one.” Gabrielle shook her head and laughed.

“That's what my mom says, too.”

“I'd like to meet her one day.” Gabrielle was surprised to realize she wasn't just saying it to be nice to Holly. She did want to meet Derek's ex-wife.

Not only to get a better view into Derek's past but to meet Holly's mother. “I bet she's a great lady. After all, she's got a kid like you.”

Holly laughed. As they reached the house, the girl caught sight of Fred and ran toward him, leaving questions about Gabrielle loving Derek far behind. Thank God for the kid's short attention span, Gabrielle thought.

“Gabrielle, come meet Fred!” Holly waved her over.

Gabrielle knelt down and greeted the old basset hound with a pat on the head. “You are as smelly as promised, old man.” But his sad face and long ears were so sweet, Gabrielle couldn't help falling in love immediately. “How old is he?”

Holly shrugged. “Grandpa says he doesn't remember.”

“He's about ten,” a deep male voice said.

Gabrielle glanced up.

“Thomas Corwin,” he said, extending a hand.

She rose to greet him, wiping the dust off her walking shorts. “Gabrielle Donovan.” She shook his hand.

Unlike his brother Hank, Thomas had freshly trimmed hair, also dark like his brother's, and a buttoned-down collared shirt with khakis.

“We met when you were younger,” Thomas said.

“At Derek's. I used to have dinner at his house when we were in high school.” Before the brothers had moved in together.

He smiled. “I remember.”

“Uncle Thomas, can we give Fred a bath?” Holly asked.

He nodded. “I think that's a great idea. I'd love to see the look on your grandfather's face when he comes home and finds Fred smelling like a rose.”

Holly grinned. “I'll go get the shampoo!” She took off at a run, leaving Gabrielle dizzy.

“She's a bundle of energy, that kid. And she switches topics faster than the speed of light.”

“She's a special little girl,” Thomas said, nodding. “Thank God she is a girl. In this family that's a blessing, as you well know.” His voice turned somber at the subject matter.

The curse.

He'd given her an opening to question him, and Gabrielle glanced around to make sure they were alone. Holly was busy finding shampoo to wash the dog, Derek was in town and Hank wasn't home, either. She might not get another opportunity.

“Do you mind talking about it?”

“The curse? Why not? You're going to write this book, so you might as well hear the true version of our family history. Besides, I've read your work and I know your history with Derek. I don't believe you'd hurt us.”

“Thank you,” she said, warmed by his apparent faith.

“Let's sit.” He gestured to an old scarred picnic table with benches on either side.

She lowered herself onto the hard wood.

Fred ambled up to her and plopped himself on the floor at her feet. She gave the dog's head a few strokes before turning to Thomas, who sat beside her on the bench.

“I know about your generation. Who married who and when, who passed away, who got divorced. The dates and specifics I can get from county records. What I can't figure out is the rationale behind the belief.”

“Why grown, intelligent men believe in witchcraft?” he asked, surprising Gabrielle with his deep laughter.

“Exactly.” She nodded, glad he'd put it that way and not her. “Why would all of you prefer to believe your family was cursed rather than see your history as an unfortunate set of circumstances?”

Thomas rested against the table. “Because those circumstances keep replaying themselves in every generation. That adds up to a curse, if you ask me.”

Fred pushed his nose into her calf, insistently urging her to give him more attention. She leaned over and petted him some more. “You know the expression, when it rains it pours?” she asked Thomas.

“Of course.”

“Isn't it possible that your family's just had more than its share of misfortune? That this is the hand you were dealt?”

He glanced out at the yard. Together they watched Holly retrieve the bucket and shampoo from the garage, along with other things for Fred's bath.

Thomas met her gaze. “My father laid eyes on my mother and it was love at first sight. My mother said the same thing about him.”

Gabrielle placed her elbow on the table and propped her chin in her hand, listening intently.

“Like the Corwin males before him, my father was determined to beat the curse. His father, my grandfather, died not long after catching his wife cavorting with the neighbor, a widower who'd lost his wife and was lonely. My grandmother would go help him with the kids. A little too much helping went on, if you get my drift. My grandfather walked in on them when he came home from work early one day. He shot the neighbor and my grandmother died of a heart attack right there on the spot.”

Gabrielle blinked. “Seriously?”

“Sounds like a comedy of errors, doesn't it?” He tapped his foot against the dirt on the ground, discussing the tale as if it had happened to another family.

Gabrielle had seen that kind of behavior before in her interviews. Subjects often found it easier to detach themselves from things that haunted them, rather than let themselves face the emotion. Especially men.

Gabrielle inclined her head. “It does,” she admitted.

“We haven't even gotten to my parents' story,” Thomas said. “Mom and Dad married and had their kids pretty quickly. They were happy. Even they thought they'd conquered the original Mary Perkins curse.”

Gabrielle knew what was coming next. “Until…”

“A huge storm hit the East Coast. A nor'easter, probably, though I'm not sure if they called it that back then. Wiped out most of the town and my father's business.”

“What did he do for a living?” Gabrielle asked.

“He was a blacksmith, an extremely talented one. His shop, his tools and equipment—all gone.” Thomas slashed his hand through the air.

Nature, Gabrielle thought. A storm, which she knew from growing up in New England, often devastated the coastline and businesses along with it.

But before she could point that out, Thomas continued. “The storm hit late afternoon. We were all home except for my father. Since my grandmother—my mother's mother—lived with us, Mom left us kids with her mother so she could go out and look for my father. She never made it.”

“What happened?”

“A flash flood hit and she drowned.” He spoke without emotion, but pain flashed in his eyes.

“We pretty much raised ourselves after that. Grandma wasn't much help, since she was getting on in years and died soon after she lost her daughter. Dad spent most of his time doing repairs for a little money in and around town. He never could replace the tools and equipment he lost that day. And mentally, he was never the same.”

“How so?” Gabrielle asked, although she could hazard a guess.

“He blamed himself for Mom's death. He said if he had pushed her away instead of marrying her, the curse wouldn't have kicked in. She'd still be alive.”

“But—”

He shook his head. “We all said what you're probably thinking. We told him it was a storm, an act of God. Nobody could control it.”

Gabrielle nodded, glad he'd agreed. “Which is logical and true!”

“Except that over time, each one of us ignored the curse and lived to disprove its existence. You already know my brothers' stories of love and loss. I'm sure you've heard mine. Why wouldn't we believe it was predestined?”

She exhaled hard, realizing as she'd listened to Thomas recount his family's past, how the history had built upon itself, working against rational belief.

Yet she tried to counter his argument, anyway. “Because as much pain as you've all had in your life, you must realize other people suffer, too. Bad things happen. You can't always explain it away.”

“Uncle Thomas!” Holly called out to him. “I'm ready!” She pointed to the bucket and the hose she'd run from the spigot and dragged to the pail of water.

Fred lifted his head from his resting position on the ground beside Gabrielle.

“Fred, come!” Holly called.

The dog took one look at the bucket and the running water and rose to his short feet.

“Come!” Holly called again.

The dog turned and headed the opposite way.

Gabrielle chuckled. “That dog is smarter than he looks.”

Thomas grinned. “Go grab Fred's leash. I'll be right there,” he called to his niece before turning back to Gabrielle. “Don't you think I want to agree with you? I have a son who deserves the best in life, but it just isn't in the cards. Look at Derek.”

Gabrielle's head began to hurt at the other man's obstinance. It was a family trait. “I have looked at Derek and so far all I see is a man who broke up with me before anything bad could happen. A man with a failed marriage and business, both of which can be traced back to human error,” she said, frustrated.

Thomas surprised her by reaching out and placing his hand over hers. “I can understand why you feel the need to disprove a curse that affects your own life. But take it from me and my brothers. It can't be done.” He patted her hand compassionately, which only made her more determined to get Derek over the negative mind-set held by his male relatives.

“At my age—”

“How old are you, if you don't mind my asking?”

He grinned. “I'm fifty-six. Hank's fifty-seven and Edward is the baby at fifty-five,” he said, his frown returning at the mention of his brother and rival. “Why?”

“Because you all look young. You
are
young. Too young to have sworn off love,” Gabrielle said, knowing she was discussing something intensely personal with a man who was basically a stranger.

But this man wasn't a stranger to Derek. Thomas Corwin and his brothers' choices all affected how Derek viewed life, and love.

He shrugged. “I can't speak for the others, but I enjoy my life.”

“And you're prepared to spend another thirty or so years alone? With just your brother for company because things didn't work out for you the first time?”

Once again, he patted her hand. “Young lady, I may have sworn off love but I'm not devoid of companionship, if you get my drift.”

Gabrielle was sure she blushed about ten shades of red.

“I'm smart about no longer wanting things I know I can't have.”

“Like love,” she said.

He nodded. “Like love.”

Gabrielle sighed. She was surprised at how easy it was to understand where Thomas and the rest of the Corwin men were coming from.

And that scared her.

Because unless she could prove the curse was nothing but coincidence, circumstance, she'd have a fascinating true-life paranormal book…but she and Derek wouldn't stand a chance.

 

S
HARON FELT LIKE AN ASS
. Dressed in running wear, shorts and a T-shirt, her hair pulled back in a ponytail and dark sunglasses covering her eyes, she waited outside the building where Gabrielle had said Tony lived. But feeling stupid and giving up were two different things. Someone was torturing her, and she intended to find out if her ex-boyfriend was that person. The first part of her plan was to discover what Tony's life was like now. To see if he'd changed, or if he was the same self-centered bastard she'd known in college.