Come Lie With Me Read online

  She closed her eyes, fighting down the mingled pain and pleasure that made her throat threaten to close. Hearing his voice made her weak all over, and she didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or cry. “Yes,” she gulped. “He’s madly in love with me.”

  “What does he look like?” he growled.

  “He’s a gorgeous blond, with big blue eyes, not as dark as yours. He pouts for hours if he doesn’t win when we play Go Fish,” she said, and wiped a stray tear from her cheek.

  Blake chuckled. “He sounds like real competition. How tall is he?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. About as tall as your average five-year-old, I suppose,” she said.

  “Well, that’s a relief. I suppose I can leave you alone with him for a few more months.”

  She almost dropped the phone and had to grab the cord before it got away from her completely. Putting it back to her ear, she heard him say, “Are you still there?”

  “Yes,” she said, and wiped another tear away.

  “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” he said casually. “You told me over and over again that I didn’t love you; you explained in great detail why I couldn’t love you. But one thing that you never said was that you don’t love me, and it seems to me that should have been your number-one reason for calling off a wedding. Well?”

  What did he want? To reassure himself that she was all right, that she wasn’t pining away? She bit her lip, then said weakly, “I don’t love you.”

  “You’re lying,” he snapped in return, and she could feel his temper rising. “You’re so crazy about me that you’re standing there crying, aren’t you?”

  “No,” she denied, fiercely dashing the wetness from her face.

  “You’re lying again. I’ve got a meeting waiting for me, so I’ll let you get back to your patient, but I’m not through with you. If you thought you could end it by getting on a plane, you have a lot to learn about me. I’ll be calling you again. Dream about me, honey.”

  “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 them away because you were afraid of getting hurt again? I’m not going to let you push me away, honey. Think about it.”

  “Some guy,” Francine teased when Dione walked into the kitchen. Then she saw Dione’s white face and quickly pushed a chair at her, then poured a cup of coffee. “Is something wrong?”

  “Yes. No. I don’t know.” Dazed, she drank the coffee, then raised stunned golden eyes to the other woman. “He wants to marry me.”

  “So I gathered. What’s so surprising about that? I imagine a lot of men have wanted to marry you.”

  “He won’t take no for an answer,” she said abstractedly.

  “If he looks as great as he sounds, why would you want him to take no for an answer?” Francine asked practically. “Unless he’s a bum.”

  “No, he’s not a bum. He’s…even greater than he sounds.”

  “Do you love him?”

  Dione buried her face in her hands. “So much that I’ve been about to die without him.”

  “Then marry him!” Francine sat down beside her. “Marry him, and whatever problem is keeping you apart will be settled later. You’d be surprised how many problems people can settle when they’re sleeping in the same bed every night and they wake up to the same face every morning. Don’t be afraid to take the chance; every marriage is a gamble, but then so is walking across the street. If you didn’t take the chance you’d never get to the other side.”

  Words tumbled around in Dione’s mind that night as she lay sleeplessly in bed. Blake had said that she was afraid of getting hurt again, and it was the truth. But was she so afraid of getting hurt that she had deliberately turned her back on a man who loved her?

  No one had ever loved her before. No one had worried about her, held her when she cried, comforted her when she was upset….

  Except Blake. He had done all those things. Even Richard had thought