She reached down to pick up the clean clothes Ethan and Kristy had brought her from the condo only to realize they weren't there. Wrapping a towel around herself, she cracked open the door. "Gabe? I need my clothes."
Silence.
She didn't want to walk out like this. "Gabe?"
"I'm in the living room."
"Where are my clothes?"
"I burned them."
"You did what?" She shot into the hallway. She felt defenseless enough without having to confront him wearing only a towel, so she stormed into his bedroom and pulled on one of his clean work shirts. After hurriedly buttoning it, she marched into the living room.
He looked as cozy as could be, slouched in a wicker armchair with his feet propped on the old pine-blanket chest that served as a coffee table, ankles crossed, and a can of Dr Pepper in his hand. "Want something to drink?"
She smelled the stench and spotted smoldering embers in the fireplace. "I want to know why you burned my clothes!"
"Don't talk so loud. You'll wake up Chip. And I burned your clothes because I couldn't stand looking at them another minute. You don't own one thing that's not butt-ugly, Rachel Stone. Except your panties. I like them."
He was acting as if he didn't have a care in the world. Where was the tense, difficult man she'd grown so used to? "Gabe, what's wrong with you? You had no right to do that."
"As your present and future employer, I have a lot of rights."
"Employer? The drive-in's closed, and I'm leaving tomorrow. You're not my employer any longer."
She saw by his stubborn expression that he wasn't going to make this easy on her,
"You refused to marry me," he said, "so I don't see any other way to go about it than to rehire you. I burned those bus tickets, by the way, along with your clothes."
"You didn't." She slumped down on the couch, all the wind knocked out of her. Did he think that just because he'd finally attached himself to her son, everything was all right? "How could you do that?"
For a moment he said nothing. Then he gave her a slow, calculating 'smile. "I know you too well, sweetheart. You're not going to keep those diamonds. That means it's time to cut a deal."
She regarded him warily.
He eyed her over the rim of his Dr Pepper, then sipped. As he lowered the can, he took his time studying her. His scrutiny made her fully conscious of the fact that she was completely naked beneath his shirt. She drew her legs closer together.
"I'm making some changes in my life," he said.
"Oh?"
"I'm going to get licensed in North Carolina and open up a practice right here in Salvation."
As upset as she was, she couldn't help but feel happy for him. "I'm glad. It's exactly what you should be doing."
"But I'm going to need some help."
"What kind of help?"
"Well… I have to hire a receptionist who can also pinch hit when I need surgical help."
"I already have a job in Florida," she pointed out. "And I'm not going to be your receptionist." Why did he have to belabor this? Didn't he understand how hard leaving him was for her?
"That's not the job I'm offering you," he said smugly. "Although if you'd volunteer to help out every once in a while, I'm sure I'd appreciate it. But no, what I'm thinking about for you is more in the way of a career than a job."
"A career? Doing what?"
"Things I need done."
"Such as?"
"Well…" He seemed to be thinking. "Laundry. I don't mind cooking and washing dishes, but I don't like laundry."
"You want me to do your laundry?"
"Among other things."
"Keep going."
"Answering the phone in the evenings. When I'm not working, I don't like to answer the phone. You'd have to do that. If it's somebody in my family, I'll talk. Otherwise, you take care of it."
"Doing laundry and answering the phone. This is supposed to be my new career?"
"And balancing my checkbook. I really hate that. I just can't get all worked up about tracking down every little penny."
"Gabe, you're a very wealthy man. You really need to look after your money better."
"That's what my brothers keep telling me, but I'm just not interested."
"Laundry, answering the phone, and balancing your checkbook. Is that it?"
"Pretty much. Except for one other thing."
"Which is?"
"Sex. That's the main part of your job."
"Sex?"
"It comes before everything else. Way before that checkbook."
"Having sex with you?"
"Yes."
"You want to pay me to have sex with you?"
"Plus laundry and the phone and-"
"You want to pay me! This is my new career! Being your full-time mistress and part-time housekeeper?"
"That mistress thing… It'd be nice. I kind of like the idea of having a mistress. But because of Chip and the fact this is a small town, we'd have to get married." He held up his hand. "Now I know you don't want to do that, so you wouldn't have to look at it as a real marriage right away. Instead, it could be purely a business deal…" His eyes narrowed. "…something a bean counter like yourself should appreciate." He straightened in the chair. "I need sex; you provide it. Strictly commerce."
"Oh, Gabe…"
"Before you get too indignant, we're talking a lot of money here."
Even though she knew she shouldn't, she couldn't help but ask. "How much?"
"The day we get married, I'll give you a cashier's check for…" He stopped, scratched his head. "How much do you want?"
"A million dollars," she snapped, angry with herself for even asking. But he was right. G. Dwayne's diamond stash could never be hers. She finally understood that.
"Okay. A million dollars."
She stared at him.
He shrugged. "I don't care that much about money, and you do. Plus, you'll have to spend a lot of time naked. It only seems fair."
She sank back into the cushions. The idea that a man this hopeless about his finances was allowed to roam free in the world was terrifying.
She felt as if she were hyperventilating. Just the fact that he had a million dollars was mind-boggling, let alone the notion that he wanted to give it to her. If only he were offering love instead, she'd snatch it up in a second.
He uncrossed his ankles and set his feet on the floor. "I know you had doubts about marriage because of the problem between Chip and me, but you might have noticed the problem has gone away."
She thought of the way Gabe and Edward had been with each other that evening. "I still don't understand quite how that happened. I know it wasn't just the kidnapping. I saw the way the two of you were behaving with each other this morning. How could something so serious go away so fast?"
"Have you ever hit that boy?"
"Of course not."
"Well, if you had, you wouldn't need to ask that question. And that's the other thing, Rachel. Besides the sex. I get an equal hand in raising Chip. We make decisions about him together." His voice grew deadly serious. "I'm not letting you take that boy away from me. I've lost one child, and I'm not going to lose another. If that means tearing up a hundred bus tickets and burning every stick of clothing you own, I'll do it."
"He's not your child."
"Yesterday morning he wasn't. Today he is."
She couldn't speak. Why was he making this so hard?
"You might have noticed that all the Bonners take kids pretty seriously."
She thought of the way Ethan and Cal treated Edward. As much as they had disliked her, they'd never shown him anything but kindness. And that morning Rosie had been passed from one adult to another, as if each person was responsible for her well-being. "I've noticed."
"Then it's a deal."
"Gabe, I barely survived one disastrous marriage, and I'm not going to put myself through that twice. If I ever marry again, it'll be for love."
His eyes crackled with indignation. "Do you seriously think you can sit there and tell me you don't love me, and I'm going to believe you? I'm not stupid, Rachel. Despite all your high-minded talk about being a wanton woman, you're as straitlaced as anybody I know, and if you didn't love me, there's no way you would have let me touch you, let alone spend some of the best nights of my life in your bed."