Cursed by Love (8 page)

When Molly turned into the driveway of
her mother’s two-story traditional brick house on a neatly upscale
cul
de sac in Blue Ash, her father’s shiny new Jaguar
lurked at the curb. The temptation to leave pulled at her. But before she could
get the car in reverse, Gabe pulled his Harley in behind her, blocking the
drive.

Checking him out in her rearview mirror,
she admired the air of swagger the motorcycle provided. The jeans, leather
jacket, and bike gave him a more manly aura than his previous khakis and
button-down. He removed his helmet and jacket before putting his cell phone to
his ear. The phone diminished the swagger-factor greatly.

She hadn’t tried to talk him out of
coming with her. But now that it looked like a family reunion in progress, she
wished she’d lost him along the way. No such luck.

Meetings between her mom and dad pretty
much resembled a war zone these days. She didn’t relish the idea of introducing
an innocent hostage into the mix.

Not that Gabe was all that innocent. He
could be sweet, and hot—definitely hot—but his thought processes maneuvered on
too many levels to suit her. Some of them cynical. Some of them calculating.
Many of them complex. But the flinty look she detected in his eyes now and then
indicated a lack of innocence and optimism.

Still, nobody deserved to be ambushed by
the potshots of a feuding family. And these days, Molly couldn’t guarantee safe
passage. Not all that long ago, she wouldn’t have given a second thought to
dropping by with a friend. The last few months had changed that.

Handling both her parents at the same
time required more diplomacy than she possessed. On the other hand, adding a
stranger to the scene might put them on their best behavior. And since Gabe had
his own motives for coming here with her, he could fend for himself. Climbing
out of the VW, she crossed her fingers and hoped for the best.

Nudging the door closed, she returned
Mr. Gillespie’s wave from two doors down as he finished mowing his lawn.
Freshly cut grass scented the air as Molly gave herself a little pep talk in
preparation of greeting her father.

She loved him. She did. Unfortunately,
sometimes in the last few months, she needed to remind herself of that.

As she waited for Gabe to finish his
call, her father exited the attached garage and strode jauntily toward her,
golf clubs slung over his shoulder. His thick, blond, sliver-streaked hair gleamed
in the porch light.

Even wielding the bag of Pings instead
of a light saber or whip, he resembled Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. Her dad
was as handsome and charismatic as Harrison, any day.

“You’re a bit overdressed for playing through,
aren’t you?” She eyed his dark suit and red power tie.

“The suit was for a meeting I had with
the school superintendent this afternoon.” His eyes crinkled at the corners as
he smiled and stopped beside her. He dropped a kiss on her cheek and the clubs
on the ground. “It seems like forever since I’ve seen you, Moll. You look
beautiful.”

“It’s only been two weeks, Dad.” Pleased
to see him, too, she fought the answering smile that tugged at her lips. She
tried not to choose sides, but any overt friendliness with her father seemed
disloyal to her mom. Especially here on Mom’s turf. “You didn’t upset Mom, did
you?”

“Probably.” He cast a worried glance in
the direction of the house. “It’s April, and that’s when my regular golf group
starts playing. I needed my clubs. She found fault with that.”

Molly frowned. “And you couldn’t stop by
for them when she wasn’t home, instead of rubbing her nose in the fact that you
don’t live here anymore.”

“Whenever I try that, she accuses me of
sneaking around. I came over for my digital camera one day while she was still
at school, and you would‘ve thought I stole your grandmother’s silver
candlesticks from the Federal case she made out of it.” He shook his head. “It
seems like nothing I do pleases her. Or you.”

“Isn’t that the way it goes?” Molly
expelled a dispirited sigh. “You’re the behavioral expert. This is uncharted
territory for us. Nobody’s immune from acting out every divorce cliché in the
book.”

“They’re clichés for a reason.” He tried
to pull her into a hug, but she ducked away, feeling childish as she did it.
And ignoring the hurt look he tried to cover.

“This is one of those times when I envy
Steve for living hundreds of miles away,” she admitted.

“I’ve read the parents’ handbook. Hell,
I
wrote
the parents handbook for the Cincinnati schools. I know kids are
supposed to grow up and go out on their own, but I’m glad you stayed in town.”
Her father caught her gaze and pinned her with a look. He’d always been good at
that, damn it. “Having you around helps your mother, and I’d hate it if you
lived someplace else.”

She surrendered to the moment and gave
him a quick hug. “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere.”

“What about William? Isn’t he thinking
of moving to DC?” One of her dad’s super talents was turning every conversation
away from himself and onto others.

Before responding to the comment about
her former fiancé, she looked around to check on Gabe’s whereabouts. Still
several feet away, he leaned against his Harley, fiddling with whatever
advanced gadget he used to get through the day. His crossed ankles revealed
another pair of cartoon socks. Bright yellow this time.
Tweety
Bird, maybe?

She lowered her voice. “William accepted
the transfer to Washington. He’s living there now, as far as I know. I haven’t
heard from him since he asked for his ring back.” The swine.

“Oh, honey, I’m sorry.” His face fell
into lines of sympathy. “You told me the engagement was off, but I hoped you
might work things out.”

She shrugged. After a month of
consolation hot-fudge sundaes and late-night crying fests, she’d accepted his
absence with a surprising lack of heartache. Most days she could hardly
remember what he looked like, let alone what she’d loved about him. Or what had
escalated their minor differences into irreconcilable ones.
Had the Sleeping
Lotus done that?
“I know you liked him, but it’s definitely over between
us.”

“It wasn’t about me and what I wanted.
All I want is for you to be happy. You two seemed perfect together one day, and
then, the next day, the engagement was off.” Oh, he was good all right. Her
dad, the child psychologist. He excelled at appearing curious, at disguising
questions as statements, at drawing others out with enigmatic or sympathetic
comments. But Molly had fallen for his tactics too many times to be lured into
an in-depth discussion about this particular topic.

Especially not with Gabe hovering
nearby. Was it her imagination or had he inched closer?

“Blame it on some insidious relationship
virus.” She decided to lay some groundwork for the revelation about the
Sleeping Lotus. “Maybe there’s a nasty love-attacking-plague going around. Or
worse, the Webber’s have been
cursed
.”

“With voodoo or something? Leave it to
you to think so. That’s always been your specialty.” He chuckled, and his smile
held steady even when his tone turned serious. “Call me if you need to talk.
I’m still a good listener, you know. Or better yet, how about brunch on
Sunday?”

“Just you and me, right?” She wanted to
have a nice talk with him, but not about her love life and not if he intended
to spring some candidate for stepmom on her. She’d never be ready for that.

“Right, Moll. Just you and me.”

With some private time together, she’d
take the opportunity to warn him about the curse—not that he’d take the warning
seriously—and then, she’d slip the conversation around to Way Number Seven from
the marriage-counseling book.

Meanwhile, her mother ducked behind the
drapes at the front window, peeking out at the group assembled on the driveway.
Gabe had put away his phone and shuffled from foot to foot, maintaining a
discreet distance. Molly gave her mom a friendly wave and motioned Gabe
forward.

“A friend of yours?” Dad asked.

“Sort of.”
Friend
seemed like an
exaggeration. They weren’t quite there yet.

“Introduce us.” He used the fatherly tone
that didn’t leave much wiggle room.

“Of course.” Molly did the honors.

“How do you do, sir?” Gabe extended his
hand in a first-date-meeting-the-father kind of handshake, although she didn’t know
who he was trying to kid. Their little research get-together was nothing like a
date. No wine. No roses. No candlelight. No sweet nothings.

“Pleasure to meet you.” Her father fell
right into the prescribed role, subjecting Gabe to some serious sizing-up-the-suitor
scrutiny.

Molly rolled her eyes. No matter how old
she got, or how long she lived independently of him, he never seemed to get
past the idea that she was his little girl in need of his protection.

She used to kind of like it. But not
lately and definitely not today.

“Would you like to join us for brunch on
Sunday?” her father asked Gabe. Knowing him well, she should have realized he’d
make the offer.

“Sure.” Gabe ignored the glare Molly
shot him. If he came along with them, he’d be sitting through another rehash on
the Sleeping Lotus curse, and she didn’t want to hear any more of his
skepticism. “When and where?”

“Molly can let you know. I’ll call her
and set something up.” He hugged her long enough to whisper in her ear, “Good
going, Moll. You really
are
handling the breakup well. I thought you
were just putting up a good front.

“Da-ad!” Molly spluttered, but he was
already heading toward the latest manifestation of his midlife crisis.

She started toward the house, but halted
when Gabe remained behind, watching her father stick his golf clubs in the
trunk.

“That car’s a beauty.” His tone bordered
on religious reverence.

“Thanks.” Dad removed a handkerchief
from his coat pocket and rubbed a non-existent smudge. “She handles like a
dream.”

“I can imagine.” Gabe all but drooled.
“What kind of engine?”

She hooked him by the elbow and tugged.
“You can hear all about the Testosterone Dream Machine on Sunday. But if you
want to meet Mom, come now, before I change my mind.” Really, what was it about
men and their toys? “See you later, Dad.”

Molly led Gabe up the drive, through the
garage, then into the house. As she closed the door behind them, Mom stepped
into the kitchen with Penny at her heels. The golden retriever exhibited her
usual tail-wagging welcome, but Mom looked like a different woman than she had
the day before. Whatever had passed between her parents this evening, her mom
seemed to have accepted it better than Molly or her dad expected.

Today, Mom looked more like her old
self. Professional, intelligent, serene, with that classy ageless beauty the
women from Bella on down had passed through the generations, stopping just
short of Molly. She’d turned out cute as a button. More elfin than classic, her
type was a cross between Peter Pan and Tinker Bell, while her mother resembled
Grace Kelly.

“This is a nice surprise.” Mom glanced
from Molly to Gabe. “Visits from my daughter two days in a row, during the
middle of the week, and this time, with a guest in tow. Who do we have here,
Molly?”

She recognized the matchmaking gleam in
her mother’s eyes. “We have Gabe Shaw. Gabe, this is my mother, Ellen Webber.”
Molly bent down to offer Penny the adoration the dog deserved. “And this is our
family protector, Penny.”

“Hello, Gabe Shaw.” Her mom smiled, something
she hadn’t done much of lately. For that alone, Molly wanted to kiss Gabe for
joining them. “It’s like old times to have a friend of Molly’s here. Now, if
you two raid the refrigerator and commandeer the stereo to play
New Kids on
the Block,
it will seem like an eighties time warp.”

“God forbid.” Molly pretended to a
horrified shudder. “The sooner we forget the eighties, the better off we’ll be.
If the pictures of me with big,
big
bangs and the worst perm in the
history of the world are any indication, that wasn’t my best decade.”

“Speak for yourself,” Gabe piped up as
he bent over to make friends with Penny. “I kind of liked them.”

“Of course, you did.” Molly eyed him
with pity. “That was probably when you got your first Nintendo.”

“How did you know? Is the Tech Nerd
tattoo still visible on my forehead?”

“I guessed from that truckload of
technology you drag around. It looks like you never go anywhere without your
cell phone and your laptop. You’ve probably got a Bluetooth device hidden
somewhere on you, and I’m picturing an iPad in your briefcase.” She poked him
in the ribs. He looked cute, boyish, and playful when he blushed. “Am I right?”

“Hey!” He straightened his shoulders.
“Some of us have embraced the technical advances of the twenty-first century.”

“Children, children.” Mom used her hands
to form the letter T. “No more bickering or you’ll both end up in time-out.”