Dream a Little Dream (Chicago Stars, #4)(242)

Rachel, however, was very much afraid she understood the reason for Jane’s sudden burst of merriment. Why hadn’t Lisa waited as she’d asked?


She grabbed Rosie and hopped up from the floor. “I think it’s time I got Edward home.” She thrust the baby toward Ethan. “Gabe, would you mind driving—”

“Sit!” Jane commanded, pointing toward the floor.

Rachel accepted the inevitable and sat.

Rosie let out a squeal and reached for her. Ethan put her back down, and the baby promptly returned to Rachel’s lap where she busied herself playing with the buttons on the front of Rachel’s dress. In the meantime, Jane started laughing all over again, and Ethan couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Really, Jane. If you saw how sick that little girl is, I don’t think you’d be laughing.”

Jane immediately sobered. “Oh, it’s not that . . .” Another giggle slipped out, followed by more laughter. “It’s just that Rachel . . . Oh, Rachel.” She gasped for air. “We got a thank-you note from Lisa Scudder. Rachel gave Cal’s blood money to Emily’s Fund!”

All three men stared at her. Cal glared. “What are you talking about?”

“Your twenty-five thousand pieces of silver! Rachel didn’t keep it. She gave it all away!”

Gabe looked down at Rachel. He seemed confused, like someone who’d just heard the earth was round instead of square. “You didn’t keep any of it?”

“Cal really made me mad,” Rachel explained.

“I see.”

She retrieved her hair from Rosie’s mouth. “I asked Lisa to wait until I left town before she sent the note. I guess she forgot.” She gazed at Cal, who still had his head bent over the note. “The check’s postdated. She can’t deposit it until tomorrow.”

Quiet fell over the group. One by one, they all looked at Cal.

He finally raised his head and shrugged. Then he turned to Gabe. “I don’t know how you’re going to do it, bro, but you’d better come up with a foolproof way to keep her off that Greyhound tomorrow.” He jerked his head toward Rachel’s bare feet. “That was a good start.”

“I’m glad you approve,” Gabe said dryly.

Cal turned toward the family room. “Hey, Chip! Could you come in here for a minute?”

Rachel jumped up with Rosie in her arms. “Cal Bonner, I swear, if you say anything to my son about . . .”

Edward appeared. “Yes?”

Rosie chose that moment to give Rachel a wet kiss on her chin. Rachel glowered at Cal and patted Rosie’s diapered bottom. “Thank you, sweetheart.”

Cal ruffled Edward’s hair. “Chip, your mom and Gabe have some stuff they need to talk about. It’s good stuff, not bad, so you don’t have to worry. But the thing is, they need to be alone to do it, so do you think you could hang around here for a while longer? What do you say? The two of us can throw the football, and I’ll bet Aunt Jane would love to boot up that computer of hers and show you a few more planets.”

Aunt Jane? Rachel’s eyebrows shot up. “I really don’t think—”

“Great idea!” Ethan exclaimed. “What do you think, Chip?”

“Is it okay, Mommy?”

Only Rachel heard Gabe’s soft whisper. “If you say no, my big brother’s gonna beat you up.”

She didn’t want to be alone with Gabe and his Boy Scout’s sense of duty. She needed honest love, not sacrifice. And after loving Cherry Bonner, how could he love someone as flawed as she was? She’d wanted so very much to protect herself from a long good-bye, but now it was being forced on her.

She glanced around the room, searching for an ally, but her most likely one now looked vague, as if she’d tumbled back into the world of subatomic particles. The little munchkin in Rachel’s arms was adorable, but entirely useless in this situation. Her son had computers and football on his mind. And that left the Bonner brothers.

Her gaze flew from Cal’s face to Ethan’s and back again. What she saw there made her stomach sink. It had been bad enough to have these men regard her as Gabe’s enemy, but now they seemed to have decided she was good for their brother. She shuddered as she contemplated where that might lead them.

“It’s fine with your mother,” Ethan said.

“She doesn’t mind one bit if you stay here,” Cal added.

Only Gabe paid any attention to her wishes. “It is all right, isn’t it?”

She couldn’t say no without looking like an ogre, so she nodded.

“Yippee!” he squealed. “Rosie, I get to stay!”

Rosie celebrated by slapping Rachel’s cheeks with her small wet hands.

Gabe began to steer her toward the door, only to have Jane finally come out of her trance. “Rachel, would you like to borrow some shoes? I think I have a pair of sandals that—”


“She won’t need them,” Gabe said.

They reached the front door, and Cal shot forward. “Rachel?”

She stiffened, determined to throw every word of his sniveling apology right back in his face.

But instead of apologizing, he gave her a lady-killer grin that made her understand exactly how a brilliant woman like Jane could have fallen in love with someone so bullheaded.