The Love Scam - MaryJanice Davidson Page 0,87
“It’s all right. Don’t look so scared. I love that you blurted it in front of everybody.”
“But how d’you know?”
He let go of her hands and lay back down, like he didn’t want to crowd her.
“You put yourself in danger for my sake and, more important, my daughter’s. And you hated keeping your word to my grandma, but you did it anyway, and you still managed to find ways to help me whenever you could without betraying her trust. You went way, way above and beyond the job description. And you don’t fuck for fun.”
“I don’t?”
“No.” He smiled. “And you haven’t been with anybody for a long time, and I’m enough of a pig to be glad.”
True, but…? “All right, you’re correct, you confident schmuck, but how—”
“Because you don’t know you still sleepwalk. If you were boning on the regular—”
“Good God.”
“—whoever you were with would have mentioned it to you before now.”
“I—” Sleepwalk? No. Not for years. Not since she was a little girl. Except … Rake wouldn’t lie. Not about this. “I do?”
“When you’re upset about something, you sleepwalk that night.”
“What do I do?” She was fascinated and mortified. The fact that he was acting like her nocturnal rambling was no biggie was the only thing keeping her from leaping from the bed. And possibly the window. He never said a word. Not once. He was fine with my being a freak. He likes when I’m a freak.
“You go to the window.” His hand was stroking her naked back. “You’re upset until I tell you that you’re an adult and can go wherever you want. Then you’re happy and go back to bed.”
She stared at him. “You never…”
“No.”
“But now? You’re telling me now?”
“No more secrets.”
“No more secrets,” she repeated like an idiot, and God, if that were true? That would mean everything. That would be too good to be true. But it seemed that was a Tarbell specialty: things that were too good to be true.
“So, back to why you love me,” he said calmly, like he hadn’t just blown her mind, “You did all that, why? Because you felt sorry for me? You hate pity. You went to all that trouble for a job? No. You love me. Which works out nicely,” he sighed, snuggling into her, “because I love you.”
She laid back down and put her head on his chest. Her head was spinning, and she’d think about what had just happened for a long time. Years. But for now … right now this very minute … “Say that again. I want to feel it and hear it.”
“I love you, I love you, I love you. I love Claire Delaney, I love you more than I love Peeps— Ow!” It all rumbled through him—and her!—and that wonderful deep voice filled the room. Guy could’ve been in radio, if radio were still a thing.
She rested her chin on his chest so she could look up at him. “I’ve never been to Vegas.”
“Oh, good. You’ll hate it.”
She laughed. “Really?”
“Oh, yeah. Everyone does. It’ll be great. And the scammers in that town? It’ll be like Christmas for you. We’re gonna make some new rules, though. Family-friendly rules, so you can still stomp scammers but Lillith and I won’t ever worry about you going to jail.”
“Okay,” she agreed. It wouldn’t be that simple; she wasn’t used to having someone outside the family worry about her. There would be a period of adjustment. Possibly lasting years. There would be arguments in their immediate future. Plenty of them. But also Rake and Lillith. And the Big Pipe Dream. Their relationship wouldn’t be simple, which, if anything, made it more valuable by far.
Las Vegas, sure. And maybe she’d take him to the Cape, show him the condo, take him to meet Mr. Marsh, who loved telling the story (to everyone, alas) of how Delaney saved him from con artists and predatory prostitutes (the man was pushing eighty, and that had been five years ago; what had he been thinking?). She wouldn’t bother with the Chicago hotel room—she and Rake had seen plenty of those—but he could show her Vegas, she could take them to Minnesota, get some proper milk into Rake’s diet, take Lillith fishing, keep an eye on their dairy regimen … They had … everything, really. Their lives, their pocketbooks, the world.
USA: Dead Ahead!
Epilogue
“Little brother,” Blake said by way of greeting.
“God, you’re so uptight. Who answers the phone like that?” Rake bitched, purely as a matter of form. Delaney and Lillith were