Moonlight Masquerade Read online

  They’d spent the few minutes speculating on the cause of the misery, each person having a different opinion.

  “Bad sex,” Danni said. “If the sex isn’t good, no matter how much you love someone, it’s not worth it.”

  “I agree,” Kelli said.

  Carter and Roan looked at the two women with eyes full of concern.

  “Are we . . . ? I mean . . . ” Carter said to Kelli.

  “Baby, we’re great!”

  He sighed in relief and so did Roan when Danni kissed his cheek.

  “So what’s the problem between Sophie and Reede?” Danni asked. “What’s making them the two unhappiest people on earth?”

  Not one of them could come up with an answer, but now Dr. Reede’s three employees were asking Carter to help them.

  “You see,” Betsy said, “we sort of made a vow that we’d do whatever was necessary to make the doctor happy. We were the ones who kept the secret of who he was.”

  “And the corset was us,” Heather said.

  “But Sara helped with the horse,” Alice added.

  “And the doc’s costume, of course,” Heather said.

  “We had nothing to do with the robbers, but Mike took care of that. He’s been a real asset to this town,” Alice said.

  “So you see,” Betsy said, “how hard we’ve worked.”

  “And it’s paid off as Dr. Reede’s temper has greatly improved since Sophie came to town,” Alice said.

  “But now he’s so glum that—” Heather began.

  “That’s too mild a word,” Betsy said as she looked hard at Carter. “The truth is that Dr. Reede is so depressed that he’s barely functioning. And we think Sophie isn’t much better.”

  “They are very polite to each other,” Heather said. “The day I’m polite to my husband is the day I’ll ask him for a divorce.”

  The three women stopped talking and stared at Carter.

  “Ladies,” he said slowly, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Not a word of it.”

  Betsy looked at the clock on the wall. “We have to get back to work or we’d stay and explain. But it all boils down to the fact that you have to talk to Sophie and find out what’s going on between her and Dr. Reede.”

  Immediately, Carter saw a thousand things wrong with that idea. Kelli, for all that she pretended not to be, was quite jealous of Sophie. “This past summer?” she’d asked. “Just a few months ago you were thinking of marrying Sophie and now you want me to believe that you’re completely over her?” Nothing he’d said had made her believe Sophie was in the past—the recent past.

  Besides that, Roan and Reede glared at him, and the giant who was the local sheriff stopped in often and looked at Carter as though he were a criminal he had to keep close watch over. Although, since Christmas, the sheriff had seemed to be looking at Sophie with less than affection.

  As for Sophie, she still moved away when Carter got too near.

  “Really and truly,” Carter said, “I don’t know what’s going on.”

  Betsy stood up and the other women followed her lead. “That’s just the point. No one knows what’s going on but you are the one who has to find out.”

  With that, the three women left the restaurant. Carter locked the door behind them then flopped down onto a chair. At this moment the thought of returning to Texas and the little town that was virtually owned by his family appealed greatly to him.

  He looked around the empty restaurant. Everything was clean and no one was there. Kelli had gone to get supplies, and Roan and Danni were . . . Wherever lovers went in Edilean. Sophie was upstairs in her apartment, where she often went in the afternoons now. No more staying downstairs and helping clean. Since Christmas Sophie looked as though she would never smile again.

  Part of Carter wanted to flee, but the bigger part of him knew the women were correct. Right now, in this town, he was the closest thing Sophie had to a girlfriend.

  With a sigh, he started up the stairs. She probably won’t see me, he thought. She’ll probably—

  He knocked once and Sophie opened the door.

  “Oh. I thought you were Reede. Sometimes he gets off early.”

  Carter stepped inside and closed the door behind him. “We need to talk.”

  “Carter, if you and Kelli have had an argument and now you want me back, it’s not going to happen. I—”

  “No argument. I came here to find out what’s wrong with you.”

  “Nothing,” she said. “You need to leave. You saw what Reede did the last time he got jealous.”

  Carter’s eyes widened. “Sophie, is that what’s wrong with you? Is he horribly jealous? Does he . . . Has he hit you? I can get you some help. I can—”

  Sophie plopped down on the sofa. “Of course he hasn’t! Reede couldn’t be kinder. He’s very sweet to me. Very courteous.”

  Carter sat in a chair across from her. “Sophie, you’re driving us all crazy! You look miserable but no one can figure out why. What is wrong? You have a fabulous job coming up, some doctor is mad about you, you have friends, and—”

  “Reede won’t leave. I can’t get him to go.”

  “You want to break up with him?” he asked with sympathy.

  “Heavens no! Where did you get that idea? I want to marry him and get pregnant immediately. Don’t you think Reede was made to be a father?”

  Carter ran his hand over his face, then looked at her with eyes full of pleading. “Sophie, help me out here. I was told to talk to you and find out what’s wrong between you and Dr. Hit-First-Talk-Later but all I hear is good.”

  “I did tell you,” Sophie said. “What’s wrong is that Reede won’t leave.”

  “Last I heard, if the man leaves no babies are made.”

  Sophie looked at the windows to the outside. She desperately needed to talk to someone. The last two weeks had been hell. Reede had been so resolutely cheerful that she wanted to strangle him. Instead, she’d smiled back at him as sweetly as she could. But several times when he’d thought no one was looking, she’d seen the look of . . . well, fatalism on his face. She could see that the happiness he tried to show her was only skin deep.

  “Okay, Sophie,” Carter said, “I know I’m failing the girlfriend test but I really don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. You want to marry him; you want him to leave. Make up your mind.”

  Sophie shook her head at him is disbelief. “You are failing as a girlfriend. Carter, I want Reede to leave and I want to go with him.”

  Carter still didn’t understand. “So go. Now, is the problem solved?”

  “No, Mr. Rich Boy, the problem is not solved. Reede can’t leave to go save the world because he has no money for funding. I can get the money but only if I stay here and work for Henry. But Reede won’t accept the gift and leave because I can’t leave.”

  Carter blinked at her for a moment. “ ‘The Gift of the Magi.’ ”

  “Right,” Sophie said. “ ‘The Gift of the Magi.’ ”

  They were referring to the O. Henry story where the very poor couple who were deeply in love wanted to buy each other gifts. He sold his gold watch to buy her combs for her glorious hair; she sold her hair to buy him a fob chain for his watch.

  Sophie looked up at him. “I’m considering telling Reede I’m actually in love with you so he’ll take Henry’s offer of funding and leave town. I want him to go do what he’s meant to.”

  Carter turned pale at that idea and involuntarily put his hand to his nose. “Please don’t do that. What about your sculpture? You’re so very talented.”

  Sophie stood up, walked to the windows, then turned back to look at him. “I think maybe everyone on earth is given a talent.”

  “Not like yours.”

  “Maybe not,” she said, frowning, “but to succeed I think a person also needs . . . I don’t know, drive. Ambition. Something to propel a person forward. I’ve heard people in churches sing better than people who sell millions of disks. So why aren’t the best sin