Carly Phillips - Lucky Charm

The couch, Derek thought, where they’d made love. He didn’t think he’d ever forget. The memory would live with him forever.

Even if she couldn’t.

“Derek?”

“Hmm?”

Gabrielle walked over to him. She had no makeup on, her hair was a mess and her face was streaked from tears. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on.

“We need to talk,” she said.

Everything inside him rebelled at the notion. As long as things between them remained unspoken, they could go on as they were. But the moment they talked, this life they’d created, the illusion, came to an end.

But she was right.

It was time.

“Mary Perkins’s reign of terror is over. The police will sort through what she caused and what damage Elizabeth did, but it’s over. She can no longer claim her family’s curse over the Corwins gives her power. She’s been exposed as a fraud.” Gabrielle’s eyes flashed with the fire he so admired.

Despite the day she’d had, she maintained the spunk and determination that was a part of her.

“Hopefully people will feel freed,” he said, because he did agree with her. People who’d been blackmailed, bribed and hurt in Mary Perkins’s quest for power would feel vindicated.

“Do you?” She perched her hands on her hips, clearly challenging him. “Do you feel freed?”

He exhaled long and hard. “I feel relieved.” He chose his words carefully. “I’m relieved you’re not in danger anymore. I’m glad your plan to push Mary Perkins out into the open worked. But do I feel freed from the curse? Not really, no.”

A muscle worked in her jaw. “Why am I not surprised?” she asked sarcastically, her anger simmering just below the surface.

He understood. He did. He was angry at Fate, too. But he hadn’t lied to her. He’d never once made her a promise for more than today, and he’d never denied the fact that his family’s history played a role in the choices he made.

“Mary Perkins tormented people by preying on their weakness. Those people are freed. But me? The men in my family? Nothing that happened today changes the fact that for generations, every male who has fallen in love loses in unfathomable ways.” He drew a deep breath. “And, as an added bonus, not one of the women who’ve been involved with a Corwin man has escaped unscathed. Look at what nearly happened to you today. Because you were writing about my family. We are cursed,” he said clearly.

“That is such bull. How has the curse kicked in for you? It’s not as if you’ve said you love me, Derek. I doubt you’d even let yourself think it. So how does what happened today fit into the curse?” she asked, obviously frustrated.

He groaned, unable to argue with her logic. But logic wasn’t ruling his decisions. Fear and past evidence was. “Even if it doesn’t, I can’t take the constant fear that something awful is going to happen to you because of me. I’m not going to let you be hurt.”

She cupped his face in her hands, refusing to let him pull away. “Then don’t walk away from me.”

He swallowed hard, fighting not to respond to her plea, to keep his distance when everything in him rebelled against it. “I have to.”

“Make no mistake, Derek. If I leave this house today, it’s you walking away from me. Not the other way around. I don’t believe in curses, but if there is one, I believe our love is much more powerful.”

Her heart was in her voice and her eyes.

His heart filled every time he looked at her. “I’ve seen the history. Hell, I’ve lived it. I’m not tempting Fate.” He couldn’t.

Like his daughter, Gabrielle was too precious.

“That’s your final decision? Despite the fact that I love you with everything inside me?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Not despite the fact that you love me, Gabby. Because you love me.”

FOR THE FIRST FEW DAYS after the fire, Gabrielle kept herself busy with work. She had lost her man, but she was determined to write her book. Even if she’d failed to prove to Derek that circumstances, not curses, dictated the course of one’s life, she still believed it herself.

Like Gabrielle, Kayla wasn’t about to let the fire prevent her from continuing her story, which had grown in scope since Mayor Perkins’s arrest. Kayla wanted to continue working in Stewart and Perkins, so instead of moving home, she returned to Mrs. Rhodes’s inn for the duration of filming.

It wasn’t easy to stay in town and no longer be with Derek, but Gabrielle powered through. She’d be back at her big, lonely apartment in Boston soon enough. After five days, Kayla declared she had enough interviews and footage to go forward. She packed up her crew and returned to Boston.

Freed up from the constant camera presence, Gabrielle headed for Sharon’s house with a bottle of wine. Though she’d spoken with Sharon since the fire, they’d agreed not to hang out until they could have a girls’ night-no men and more important, no camera crew tagging along.

Sharon’s parents were at the movies and they had the family room to themselves. Sharon put the DVD of Ocean’s Eleven on television, satisfying Gabrielle’s George Clooney fix while giving Sharon her fill of Brad Pitt.

Half a bottle of chardonnay later, Sharon raised her glass in a toast. “To handsome men.”

Gabrielle grinned. “To handsome men who know how to treat women.” She clinked her glass against Sharon’s.

“To fictional men,” Sharon said with a wistful sigh.

“What’s going on? I thought with the threat to Richard’s campaign over, things between the two of you would be back on track.” Gabrielle took a sip of her wine.

Sharon stretched her legs out in front of her and wiggled her toes. “I think my toes are numb,” she said, laughing.

“Quit avoiding the question.”

Sharon shrugged. “You’re assuming things were ever normal. I told you, I don’t think he really knows me. I felt so lucky a good man would want to marry me, I let him think I’d become this docile, fragile female.”

Gabrielle frowned. “I thought that’s why you bought the lingerie at Victoria’s Secret. To show him the real you.” She nudged Sharon’s feet with hers. “What happened?”

“He’s been working nonstop. Or he’s been avoiding having the big discussion. I’m not sure which.”

Gabrielle raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you think it’s time you found out?”

Sharon downed the last of her glass. “You know what? I think you’re right. I’ll be right back.” She stood and ran upstairs.

Sharon was gone for a while. Whatever she had planned, Gabrielle figured the wine had put her up to it. But Sharon did need to face Richard once and for all.

Sharon came back down the stairs wearing the teddy she’d purchased on their shopping trip and a pair of high-heeled sandals.

Gabrielle’s eyes opened wide. She jumped up from her seat on the floor. “Where are you going dressed like that?”

Sharon opened the hall closet and pulled out a light trench coat and pulled it on, wrapping the belt tight around her waist. Then she grabbed her car keys. “To show Richard the real me.”

Gabrielle reached out and snagged the keys from her hand. Neither one of them were in any shape to drive. “I’ll call a cab to drive me home and we can drop you off along the way.”

She hoped her friend had better luck during her upcoming conversation with Richard than she’d had with Derek.

THE EFFECTS OF THE WINE had started to wear off in the cab. Now, standing on the doorstep, Sharon shivered and pulled the trench coat tighter as she rang the doorbell once more, waiting for Richard to answer. The light in the upstairs room told her he was home. She couldn’t, wouldn’t back out now. Richard would love and accept her or he wouldn’t. At least she would know.