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Puzzled, she watched him draw off her shoe. Did he want to make love? But surely not here. It was fully daylight, and, although the traffic was thin, they were far from alone on the highway.
He pulled off her other shoe and feathered a gentle kiss over her lips. It felt good, more comforting than passionate, and she wished he'd keep kissing her like that, but he backed away, brushed the hair from her face, and gazed down at her with tender eyes.
"I know I'm a jerk. I know I'm insensitive and domineering and a couple dozen other things, but I can't look at you in these a minute longer." With a flick of the wrist, he hurled both of her shoes right out the window.
"Gabe!"
He threw the car into drive, and they shot back out onto the highway.
"What are you doing?" She turned in her seat and tried to catch sight of her precious shoes. "They're all I have!"
"Not for long."
"Gabe!"
Once again, that warm, comforting hand settled over her thigh. "Hush. Just hush, will you, sweetheart?"
She slumped back into the seat. Gabe had gone crazy. That was the only explanation. The destruction of the drive-in had pushed him right over the edge.
The inside of her head felt like a soggy loaf of bread, and she couldn't think. Later, she'd sort it out.
The praying-hands gates stood open for them. Gabe drove through and pulled the Mercedes to a stop in the center of the courtyard. One of her sweat socks had fallen off when he'd removed her shoe, and she bent to take off the other one, then opened her car door.
He looked over at her. "I told you I'd go in and get him."
"I'm not afraid of your brother."
"I didn't say y
ou were."
"I'm going in."
She climbed the front steps barefoot. Her hair hadn't been near a comb since yesterday afternoon, and her calico dress was a road map of wrinkles, but she hadn't done anything wrong, and she wasn't going to hide from Cal Bonner.
Gabe came up next to her, as steady and solid as forever. Except Gabe wasn't forever. She would be leaving him behind tomorrow morning when she and Edward got on the bus.
The door was unlocked, and he gently steered her inside. Jane must have been watching for them because she immediately rushed into the foyer from the kitchen. She was dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Her normally tidy hair was loose and her face clear of makeup.
"Rachel! Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. Just a little tired. Is Edward up yet?"
"Rosie just woke him." She caught Rachel's hands in her own. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what Cal had done until a few hours ago."
Rachel nodded, not knowing how to respond.
Just then, a baby's high-pitched squeal came from the top of the stairs followed by a little boy's belly laugh. She raised her head and looked toward the balcony in time to see Cal coming out of the nursery with Rosie and Horse tucked under one arm and her son under the other. He bounced both children and made a train noise, only to freeze as he saw the trio in the foyer below.
Edward lifted his head and spotted her. He was wearing the same navy shorts he'd had on when she'd left him with the sitter yesterday evening, but the blue T-shirt hanging so loosely from his shoulders must have come from Jane because it read Physicists do it theoretically. "Mommy!"
She wanted to run to him and squeeze him until all her fears went away, but that would only frighten him. "Hey, sleepyhead."
Cal lowered him to the carpet, and he came racing down the stairs, one hand on the banister, sneakers flying. "Gabe! You said she'd be back!" He ran across the hallway and hurled himself against her legs. "Guess what? Rosie pooed in her diaper and smelled up the whole room, and her dad called her Rosie Stink-O."
"Did he?"
"It was a big mess."
