Come Lie With Me - Linda Howard [90]
“I will not!” she said fiercely, but she said it to a dial tone, and she was lying anyway. She dreamed about him almost every night and woke up with her pillow damp from the tears she’d shed in her sleep.
Thoroughly rattled, she returned to Kevin, and delighted him by losing a game of Go Fish.
Over the next few days her nerves gradually settled down, and she stopped jumping every time the phone rang. A blizzard shut the city down for two days, knocking out phone service and the electricity. The electricity was restored in a matter of hours, keeping them from freezing, but the phone service waited until clear skies had returned. She was out in the snow with Kevin and Amy, building a snowman for them with their inexpert but hilarious help, when Francine called her.
“Dione, you have a call! It’s your friend again. Come on in; I’ll bring the children in and get them dried off.”
“Awww, Mommy,” Kevin protested, but Francine was already pushing his little wheelchair inside and Amy followed obediently.
“Hello,” Blake said warmly after she stammered out a hesitant greeting. “Are you pregnant?” This time she was prepared and held on tightly to the receiver. “No. I…I thought about that, too, but everything’s all right.”
“Good. I didn’t mean to get carried away. Serena is pregnant. She didn’t waste any time when Richard came back. She was so excited at the possibility that she couldn’t wait to take one of those early warning tests, or whatever you call them.”
“I’m happy for her. How do you feel about being an uncle?”
“It’s okay by me, but I’d rather be a father.”
She cautiously leaned against the wall. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that when we get married I’m going to throw away my whole supply of—”
“We’re not getting married!” she yelped, then glanced around to see if anyone had heard her. No one was in sight, so she guessed that Francine was still occupied with the children.
“Sure we are,” he returned calmly. “On the first of May. You set the date yourself. Don’t you remember? I was making love to you.”
“I remember,” she whispered. “But don’t you remember? I broke the engagement. I gave your heart back to you.”
“That’s what you think,” he said. “We’re getting married if I have to drag you kicking and screaming back to Phoenix.”
Again she was left listening to a dial tone.
She couldn’t make any sense out of what he was doing. Sleep got harder and harder to attain, and she lay awake going over the possibilities. Why would he insist that they were getting married? Why couldn’t he just let it go?
It was a week before he called her again, and Francine had an amused gleam in her eye when she handed her the phone. “It’s that dishy guy again,” she said as Dione lifted the receiver to her ear.
“Tell her thank you,” Blake chuckled. “How are you, honey?”
“Blake, why are you calling me?” she asked in desperation.
“Why shouldn’t I call you? Is it against the law for a man to talk to the woman he’s going to marry?”
“I’m not going to marry you!” she said, and this time she bellowed it. Francine popped her head out of the kitchen and grinned at her.
Blake was laughing. “Sure you are. You already know all my bad habits and love me anyway; what could be better?”
“Would you listen to reason?” she yelled. “It’s out of the question for me to marry you!”
“You’re the one who’s not listening,” he countered. “You love me, and I love you. I don’t know why you’re so convinced that I can’t love you, but you’re wrong. Just think of the fun we’re going to have while I show you how wrong you are.”
“This is crazy,” she moaned.
“No, this isn’t crazy. You’ve got some crazy ideas, though, and you’re going to get rid of them. You’ve convinced yourself that no one is going to love you, and you walked away from me, knowing that it was tearing me apart and half killing yourself at the same time. Your mother didn’t love you, and Scott didn’t love you, but they were only two people. How many people since then have loved you, and you pushed