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"The toughest."
"So tough you don't even need food." His gaze moved to the food sack in her lap. "Are you going to eat those fries or just play with them?"
"I told you I wasn't hungry."
"That must explain why you look like a skeleton. You're anorexic, aren't you?"
"Poor people don't get anorexia." She pushed a second French fry in her mouth. It was so good she wanted to stuff the entire package in. At the same time, she felt guilty for robbing Edward of even part of a treat he'd enjoy so much.
"Kristy says you hardly eat anything."
It bothered her to discover that Kristy was reporting to Gabe behind her back. "She should mind her own business."
"So why don't you eat?"
"You're right. I'm anorexic. Now let's drop the subject, okay?"
"Poor people don't get anorexia."
She ignored him and savored another French fry.
"Try some of that hamburger."
"I'm vegetarian."
"You've been eating meat at Kristy's."
"What are you, the food police?"
"I don't get it. Unless…" He studied her with shrewd eyes. "That first day when you fainted, I gave you a cupcake, and you tried to pass it off to your kid."
She stiffened.
"That's what's going on, isn't it? You're giving your food to your kid."
"His name is Edward, and this heads the list of things that aren't any of your business."
He stared at her and shook his head. "You're acting crazy. You know that, don't you? Your boy's getting plenty to eat. You're the one who's starving to death."
"I'm not talking about this."
"Damn, Rachel. You're nutty as a fruitcake."
"I am not!"
"Then explain it to me."
"I don't have to explain anything. Besides, look who's talking. In case you haven't noticed, you crossed through that padded cell between normal and psychotic a good hundred miles back."
"That must be why we get along so well."
He spoke so pleasantly she nearly smiled. He took a sip of his Dr Pepper. She gazed beyond the far edge of the screen toward Heartache Mountain and remembered how much she'd loved these mountains when Dwayne had first brought her here. It used to be, when she'd gazed at the green vista out her bedroom window, she felt as if she were touching the face of God.
She looked over at Gabe and, for the briefest moment, she saw another human being instead of an enemy. She saw someone as lost as she and just as determined not to show it.
He rested the back of his head against the jungle-gym bar and gazed over at her. "Your boy… He's been eating a good dinner every night, hasn't he?"
Her feeling of kinship vanished. "Are we back to this again?"
