Passion's Price (17 page)

At home, he phoned a restaurant, ordered food and they settled on the dining-room floor with the puzzle. As darkness encroached, Darlene put the last piece in place, and they gazed at their handiwork.

“Do you know what it is?” she asked him.

“I think it’s his house. Yeah! Let’s go.” Securing the eight-by-twelve inch puzzle on a silver tray, he put it on the floor in the back of his car, so as not to disturb the tiny pieces.

“He’ll be surprised to see me,” Darlene said.

“If he’s playing a joke. Do you still love me?” Mike asked.

“Lord, yes. If I hadn’t known it before, what I went through Sunday and Monday night would have soldered it to my brain.”

“I can’t tell you how I felt when I received your call yesterday morning. It was like coming back from the dead. Darlene, don’t treat this thing lightly. If you hadn’t called me, it would have been over. And, yes, it would’ve hurt, but I’ve been hurt before.”

“Believe me, you don’t have to tell me. I didn’t hurt worse than that when I lost both of my parents at the same time.”

He parked in front of Boyd’s house. Her finger traced his thigh, and he looked at her, first sideways and then fully in the face. She saw his Adam’s apple bobbing furiously and opened her arms to him. His resistance lasted for a second, and she was holding him, loving him and sobbing in his arms.

“G…give me a minute to set… straighten up,” she whispered. He dried her tears with his handkerchief.

Boyd opened the door before they rang the bell. “I saw you when you parked, but I didn’t know Darlene was with you. Come in. Did you solve it?”

“It’s a sketch for the design of this house?” Darlene said. “It was terribly complicated, and there was nothing to go by. Who made this puzzle?”

“I did. I could have made it more difficult, but I wanted you to solve it. I own a company of sixty-one employees that makes puzzles and many kinds of crafts. I’ve retired from actively working there, but I’m still CEO, and I love puzzles of any kind.” He observed them closely. “I see you’ve made up. Wonderful. You don’t know how happy I am.

“Sit over here. As you know, I have no children, and no relatives who care about me. Upon my death, my will will state that the two of you inherit this house and all of my property, including my company, Farmer Enterprises. However, to help you avoid such foolishness as Darlene exhibited Sunday morning, there will be a provision stating that the property cannot be sold or divided until ten years after you receive it. If you take good care of it, your children and grandchildren should have a comfortable life.”

Later, as they sat in Mike’s living room holding each other, he got up suddenly. “Excuse me for a minute.” When he came back to her, he knelt before her. “I love you, and I will for as long as I breathe. Will you marry me? I’ll be faithful to you, and I’ll take the best care that I can of you and our children.”

Happiness suffused her as she looked down at him, and love seemed to flood her being. “I’ll be proud to be your wife. I love you, and I want the whole world to know that you love me.”

He slipped the diamond ring on her finger, and she sucked his bottom lip into her mouth. “You may put my belongings in my room,” she said, “but do I have to sleep there?”

“Definitely not.” He carried her to his bed and loved her until they were both spent.

Later, they sat up in bed drinking wine and eating cheese and crackers.

“Do couples ever get tired of…uh, making love?”

“Damned if I know. You bet I won’t.”

“Me, neither,” she said. Then she put the glasses on the night table, slid down beneath the covers and caressed him until he groaned with pleasure. “Just a little reminder that I can give as good as I get,” she said as he wrapped her in his arms.

On January third of the following year, one month after her marriage to Lieutenant Detective Michael Raines, attorney Darlene Cunningham-Raines opened her law practice in Memphis, Tennessee. As her first client, Boyd Farmer engaged her to represent Farmer Enterprises in a copyright case.