“You see, Nicky?” Dawn’s eyes filled with tears. “They weren’t kissing. Oh, how I wish they had been.”
Annie frowned. “You do?”
“Of course.” Dawn snuffled and wiped the back of her hand across her nose. Annie and Chase both reached for the paper towels, but Nick pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to his wife, who blew into it. “See, when I saw you in Daddy’s arms, well, when I thought I saw you in his arms, it was such a big thing that I felt happy for the first time since Nick and I got to the airport. I figured, just for a second, I admit, but still, I figured...”
“You figured what?” Annie said, softly, even though she already knew, even though it broke her heart to think that her daughter still harbored such useless dreams, such futile hopes. She went to Dawn’s side, looped her arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. “What, darling?”
Dawn took a shuddering breath. “I figured that a miracle had occurred today,” she whispered, “that you and Daddy had finally realized what a mistake you’d made in splitting up and that you still loved each other.”
There was a pained silence. Then a soft sob burst from Annie’s throat.
“Oh, Dawn. Darling, if it were only that simple!”
“You can’t judge the future of your marriage by the failure of ours,” Chase said gruffly. “Sweetie, if you and Nick love each other—”
“What does that prove? You and Mom loved each other, once.”
“Well, sure. Of course we did, but—”
“And then you fell out of love, like everybody else.”
“Not everybody, sweetie. That’s an awfully broad state—”
“It must have been awful, knowing you’d loved each other and then having things fall apart.”
Chase looked at Annie. Help me with this, his eyes flashed, but she knew she had no more answers now than she’d had five years ago.
“Well,” he said carefully, “yes, yes, it wasn’t pleasant. But that doesn’t mean—”
“You guys did your best to keep me out of it, but I wasn’t a baby. I used to hear Mom crying. And I saw how red your eyes were sometimes, Daddy.”
Nick got to his feet and stepped back as Chase reached for his daughter’s hand.
“We never meant to hurt you, Dawn. We’d have done anything to keep from hurting you.”
“You don’t understand, Daddy. I’m not crying over the past, I’m crying over the future. Over what’s almost definitely, positively, absolutely going to happen to Nicky and me. I don’t know why it took me so long to realize. We’ll—we’ll break each other’s hearts, is what we’ll do, and I’d rather walk away now than let that happen.”
Annie smoothed her daughter’s hair from her forehead. “Dawn, honey, I can point to lots of marriages that have succeeded.”
“More fail than succeed.”
“I don’t know where you got that idea.”
“It’s not an idea, it’s a fact. That Family Life course I’m taking at Easton, remember? My instructor showed us all these statistics, Mom. Marriage is a crapshoot.”
Annie gritted her teeth, silently calling herself a fool for having convinced Dawn that she ought to at least attend classes at the local community college, now that she wasn’t going to go away to school as they’d planned.
“There’s an element of risk in anything that’s really worthwhile,” Chase said.
Annie gave him a grateful look. “Exactly.”
“So, when people get married, they should be aware that they’re taking a gamble?” Dawn said, looking from her mother to her father.
Annie opened her mouth, then shut it. “Well, no. Not exactly,” she said, and cleared her throat. “People shouldn’t think that.” She looked at Chase again. Say something, was written all over her face.
“Of course not,” Chase said quickly. “A man and a woman should put all their faith in their ability to make their marriage succeed.”
“And if that turns out not to be enough?”
“Then they should try harder.”
Dawn nodded. “And then they should give up.”
“No! What I mean is...” It was Chase’s turn to look at Annie for support. “Annie? Can you, ah, explain this?”
“What your father is saying,” Annie said, stepping gingerly onto the quicksand, “is that sometimes a man and a woman try and try, and they still can’t make a relationship work.”
“Like you and Daddy.”
Annie could feel the sand shifting, ever so slowly, under her feet.
“Well, yes,” she said slowly, “like us. But that doesn’t mean all marriages are failures.”
Dawn sighed. “I guess. But other people’s marriages don’t mean much to me right now. All I could think of today was how wonderful it would be if you guys got back together again.” She buried her nose in Nick’s handkerchief and gave a long, honking blow. “And then, when I saw you guys kissing...when I thought I saw you kissing...”
“We were,” Chase said. Annie’s head sprang up as if somebody had jabbed her with a pin. He saw the look of disbelief she flashed him but hell, there was no reason to lie about something as simple as a kiss. He laced his fingers through Dawn’s and smiled gently at her. “You didn’t imagine that, sweetheart. You and Nick were right. I was kissing your mother. And she was kissing me back.”
Dawn’s tearstained face lit.
“You mean...” She looked at them, her lips trembling. “I was right? You guys are thinking of getting together again?”
“No,” Annie said quickly. “Dawn, a kiss doesn’t mean—”
“It doesn’t mean they’ve reached any decisions,” Nick said. “Right, Mrs. Cooper?”
Oh, Nick, Annie thought unhappily. She rose to her feet and put her hand on his arm. “Look, I know what you both would like to hear me say, but—”
“Just say there’s a chance,” Nick said, his eyes pleading with hers for time, for hope, for understanding. “Even a little one.”
Annie could feel the delicate pull of the quicksand at her toes. “Chase,” she said urgently, “please, say something!”
Chase swallowed hard. It was years since Annie had looked at him this way, as if he were her knight in shining armor. Dawn, too. He couldn’t remember his daughter turning to him since she’d stopped skinning her knees playing softball.
Both his women needed him to come to their rescue.
It was a terrific feeling. Unfortunately he hadn’t the faintest idea how to do it.
Think, he told himself, dammit, man, think! There had to be something...
Dawn’s eyes filled again. “Never mind. You don’t have to spell it out for me. I’m old enough to understand that a kiss isn’t a commitment.”
Annie let out a breath that felt as if she’d been holding forever.
“That’s right,” she said.
“It was stupid of me to think that you guys were going to give it another try.”
Annie smiled at Chase over their daughter’s head.
“I’m glad you understand that, sweetie.”
“There are no second chances, not in this life.” Dawn wiped her nose and looked at the trio gathered around her. “That’s from Kierkegaard. Or maybe Sartre. One of those guys, I forget which.”
“Your philosophy course,” Annie said grimly, mentally ripping in half the tuition check she’d just mailed to Easton Community College.
“Of course there are,” Chase said sharply.
“No,” Dawn said, sighing, “there aren’t. Just look at you two, if you want a perfect example.”
“All right,” Chase said, “I’ve had enough.”
“Chase,” Annie said, “don’t say anything you’ll regret.”
“Mr. Cooper, sir, as Dawn’s husband—”
“Dawn Elizabeth Cooper... Dawn Elizabeth Babbitt, you’re behaving like a spoiled child.” Chase nudged Nick aside, put his hands on his hips and glared down at his daughter. “This is all nonsense. Marriage statistics, divo
rce statistics, and now quotes from a bunch of dead old men who wouldn’t have been able to find their—”
“Chase,” Annie said sharply.
“—their hats on their heads, when they were still alive and kicking.” Chase squatted down in front of Dawn. “You and Nick love each other. That’s the reason you got married. Right?”
“Right,” Dawn said, in a small voice. “But, Daddy—”
“No, you listen to me, for a change. I gave you your turn, now you give me mine.” Chase took a deep breath. “You loved each other. You got married. You took some very important vows, among them the promise to stay together through the bad times as well as the good. Think about that promise, Dawn.” He took her hands in his and looked into her teary eyes. “It means, you’ve always got to give it a second chance. It means, love doesn’t die, it only gets lost sometimes, and if you loved each other once, there’s always damn good reason to think you can find it again.”
Dawn nodded, the tears streaming down her face.
“Exactly,” she said. “That’s why, when I saw you and Mom together I thought, isn’t it wonderful? They’ve decided to give themselves another chance.”
“Dawn,” Nick said, “please, darling. You’re upset.”
“I am not,” Dawn said in a shaky whisper.
“Let’s get out of here. Let’s give us a chance.”
“What for? So we can break our hearts someplace down the road?” A sob caught in her throat. “You’re asking me to take a terrible gamble, Nick, and to do that would take a miracle.”
“Yes!” The word seemed to leap, unbidden, from Chase’s throat. Every head in the room snapped in his direction.
“Yes?” Annie said. “Yes, what?”
Chase stared at his former wife’s pale face. It was a terrific question. What had he said yes to? Despite all his arguments, he knew his daughter was right. A frighteningly high percentage of marriages failed. And the breakup, when you’d loved someone as deeply as he’d once loved Annie, was the worst pain imaginable.
But how could he let his daughter and her groom fail before they’d even tried? Nick had the right idea. He and Dawn had to get away from here. They had to be alone and unpressured. They had to go on their honeymoon, and Chase could think of only one way to make that happen.
His daughter wanted a miracle? Okay. He’d give her one.
“Yes, you were right, about your mother and me.”
“No,” Annie said. “Chase, don’t!”
“We didn’t want to say anything until we were certain, because it isn’t certain yet, you understand, it’s far from certain, in fact, it’s very, very uncertain and altogether iffy—”
“Chase!” Annie cried, her voice high and panicked, but hell, he’d gone too far to stop now.
So he ignored Annie, gave Dawn his most ingratiating smile and shot a quick prayer in the direction of the ceiling, just in case anybody who kept track of white lies was listening.
“No promises,” he said, “and absolutely no guarantees because, frankly, I don’t think the odds are too good but yeah, your mother and I have decided to at least talk about giving things between us a second chance.”
CHAPTER FIVE
CHASE WATCHED as Annie paced the length of the living room.
It was almost hypnotic. She went back and forth, back and forth, pausing before him each time just long enough to give him a look that had gone from anger to disbelief to a glare that would have brought joy to the heart of the Medusa.
Aside from a quick burst of fury after Dawn and Nick had left, she had yet to say anything to him, but that was hardly reassuring. Another explosion was just a matter of time. Her white face, thinned mouth and determined pacing told him so. And he could hardly blame her.
What in heaven’s name had impelled him to do such a stupid thing? To even suggest there was a possibility of reconciliation had been crazy. It was wrong. Hell, it was unfair. Dawn, falsely convinced she’d had her miracle, had gone off with hope in her heart...
But at least she’d gone. That was what he’d wanted, after all, to give his daughter time to be alone with her husband, time to realize that the future of her marriage was not linked to the failure of his and Annie’s.
Just because one generation screwed things up didn’t mean the next one would, too.
Chase felt the weight lifting from his shoulders. What he’d done had been impetuous, perhaps even outrageous. But if it gave Dawn time to find her own way through the minefield of life and marriage, it was worth it. Who had he hurt, really? When the kids got back from their honeymoon—happy, he was certain, and concentrating on their future instead of his and Annie’s—he’d explain that he’d misled them, just a little bit.
“And just how do you think she’s going to feel, when you tell her you lied?”
Chase looked up. Annie had come to a stop in front of him. Her sweatshirt inexplicably but appropriately featured a picture of Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch. Her face was white, her eyes shiny and she was so angry she was trembling.
Angry—and incredibly beautiful.
A lifetime ago, she used to tremble that way when she lay in his arms. When he touched her. When he stroked her breasts, and her belly. When he moved between her silken thighs...
“Do you hear me, Chase Cooper? How do you think our daughter will feel, when she finds out her miracle is a bucket of hogwash?”
Chase frowned. “It isn’t as bad as that.”
“You’re right. It’s worse.”
“Look, I was just trying to help her.”
“Hah!”
“Okay, okay. Maybe I made a mistake, but—”
“Maybe?” Her voice shot up the scale, her eyebrows to her hairline. “Maybe you made a mistake?”
“The words just came out. I didn’t mean—”
“Can’t you even admit you were wrong?”
“I already did. I said maybe I made a mistake.”
Annie snorted. “You still don’t see it, do you! A ‘mistake’ is when a person forgets an appointment. Or dials a wrong number.”
“Or says something, in the heat of the moment, that he thinks might—”
“You lied, Chase. There’s a big difference. But I’m not surprised.”
Chase rose to his feet. “And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing,” Annie said coldly, and turned away.
“Dammit!” He grabbed her shoulder and swung her around to face him. “If there’s one thing I never could stand, it was that word. ‘Nothing,’ you always say, but even an idiot can tell you really mean ‘something.”
Annie smiled sweetly. “I’m happy to hear it.”
Dark color swept into his face. He clutched her tighter and leaned toward her.
“You’re pushing your luck, babe.”
“Why?” Her chin lifted. “What are you going to do, huh? Slug me?”
Annie saw Chase’s eyes narrow. What had made her say such a thing? They had quarreled, yes. Fought furiously with words. By the time they’d agreed to divorce, they’d hurled every possible bit of invective at each other.
But he’d never hit her. He’d never raised his hand to her. She’d never been afraid of him physically and she wasn’t now.
It was just that she was so angry. So enraged. He was, too. And just a little while ago, when he’d been mad and she’d been mad, he’d ended up hauling her into his arms and kissing her until her toes had tingled.
For Pete’s sake, woman, are you insane? Are you trying to tick him off so he’ll kiss you again?
She stiffened, then twisted out of his grasp.
“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” she said. She walked to the sofa and sat down. “I just wish I knew what to do next.”
“Why should we have to ‘do’ anything?” Chase said, sitting down in the chair.
“Dawn’s going to have such expectations...”
Chase sighed and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. He put his head in his hands.
“year.”
“How could you? How could you tell her that?”
“I don’t know.” He straightened up and passed his hand over his face. “Exhaustion, maybe. I haven’t slept in—what year is this, anyway?”
“To tell her such nonsense—”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said, “okay, you made your point” He frowned and shifted his backside on the cushion of the contraption Annie called a chair, where he’d spent the last hour being tortured. “What’s this damn chair stuffed with, anyway? Steel filings?”
“Horsehair, which should be just right, considering that you are, without question, the biggest horse’s patootie I ever did know!”
Chase gave a bark of incredulous laughter. “Patootie? Goodness gracious, land’s sakes alive, Miss Annie, what out and out vulgarity!”
“Dammit, Chase—”
“Oh my. Better watch yourself, babe. Your language is slipping.”
“Don’t ‘babe’ me. I don’t like it. Just tell me what we’re supposed to do now.”
Chase winced as he got to his feet He rubbed the small of his back, then massaged his neck, and walked slowly to the window.
The sun was a slash of lemon yellow as it rose in the deep woods behind the house. Dawn was almost here—and his Dawn was almost there, in Hawaii, beginning her honeymoon with Nick. He smiled and thought of sharing the play-on-words with Annie, but he suspected she might not see the humor in the situation.
“We wait until the kids come home,” he said, turning around and looking at Annie, “and then we tell—I tell them—that I should never have claimed we were going to give things another try.”
“The truth, you mean.”
“The whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Yes.”
Annie nodded. She stood up and walked toward the kitchen. Chase followed her.
“I suppose that will clear your conscience.”
Chase eased onto a stool at the counter.
“Look, I know it won’t be that easy, but—”
He winced as Annie slammed a cupboard door shut.
“Unfortunately,” she said, “it won’t do a thing for mine.”
“If you’re going to make another pot of coffee or tea—”
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
The Millionaire Claims His Wife Page 6