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They reached the kitchen. Cassie stepped away and got them each a soda from the refrigerator. Chloe settled at the kitchen table. “Where’s Aunt Charity?” she asked.
“Taking a shower. The spaghetti sauce has been simmering for hours.” She pointed to a pot on a back burner. She plopped down opposite her sister. “Tell me everything.”
Chloe obliged, telling her sister about the gem exhibit and recounting Arizona’s stories.
Cassie sighed. “It’s so romantic. What a great way to spend the morning. But you probably just sat there taking notes, not even noticing the man. You’re hopeless.” Cassie tucked her short hair behind her ear. “I swear, when I have my twenty-fifth birthday and I get to wear the nightgown, I’m not going to waste a perfectly good opportunity dreaming about nothing! I plan to have a wonderfully romantic dream.”
Chloe smiled as her sister talked. She was glad they were back together again. The three years they’d spent apart in high school had been difficult for them both. She fought against a familiar flash of anger. Their parents should have planned better, she thought for the thousandth time. If they had, the two sisters wouldn’t have been separated and put into different foster homes.
She shook off the old memories and concentrated on the evening ahead. She’d promised herself that she would act like a real professional, that she wouldn’t let thoughts of the dream interfere.
“What time is Arizona coming over?” she asked.
Cassie glanced at the clock above the stove. “In about an hour.”
“I’d better get changed.”
Cassie followed her up the stairs. “Are you all right? Is something bothering you? You got a funny look on your face a second ago.”
“I’m fine.” They reached her bedroom first and both women entered. They sat on the bed facing each other. “I was just thinking that I’m glad we’re back together. High school was hard.”
Cassie’s good humor faded a little. “I know. I hated that the courts forced us to live apart. But we’re together now—at least until you run off to the big city to write for one of those New York magazines.” Cassie held up her hand. “Don’t even say it. I know the drill. This is what you want and you have every right to pursue your dreams. But I’ll miss you.”
Chloe leaned toward her. “You could come with me. We could rent an apartment together.”
Cassie shook her head. “No. I don’t want to leave Bradley. I like it here. I adore my job.”
“You’re a nursery school teacher.”
“Exactly, and I love it. The kids are great. I know you don’t understand—you want more for me. But this is what I want and you have to remember to respect that.”
“I know.” Chloe sighed. It was a familiar discussion. One she’d never won. “I just think you could do so much more with your life.”
“And I think working with children is the most important thing I can do. Besides, even if I was tempted to run off to New York with you, which I’m not, I couldn’t. What about Joel?”
Chloe forced her expression to remain pleasant and her hands still, when all she wanted to do was grab her sister by the shoulders and shake some sense into her.
Joel and Cassie had been dating since high school. They had an “understanding” that they would become engaged and then marry.
It was all a quirk of fate, Chloe thought grimly. While she had been sent away to another city when their parents had died and the two girls had been put into foster care, Cassie had stayed in town. She’d gone to the local high school and had started seeing Joel.
“If you can’t say something nice,” Cassie warned.
“Joel is the most boring man on the planet.”
“That’s hardly nice.”
“You don’t know what I was going to say. It’s a real improvement.”
“Oh, Chloe, we can’t all be like you. I think it’s great that you want to leave Bradley and make something of yourself. That’s your life and you’re going to be wonderful. But it’s not my life. I want to stay here. I want to have a family. Joel wants to marry me. I love him. I’ve been dating him for nearly nine years and he makes me happy. Let it go.”
Chloe bit her tongue and nodded her agreement. There wasn’t anything else she could say. Cassie was right—they each had to live their own lives.
Her sister stood up. “I have to go make myself beautiful for our guest and I suggest you do the same.” She paused in the doorway and leaned back dramatically, the back of one hand pressed against her forehead. “Maybe he’ll tell us about the time he saved the virgin from the angry volcano by single-handedly fighting off a dozen hostile natives with his bare hands.”
“I’m sure that will be the first story to cross his lips.”
“I knew it.” Cassie waggled her fingers and left.
Chloe stared after her. The two sisters couldn’t be more different. Part of the reason, she knew, was because they weren’t related by blood. When her mother had had trouble conceiving, her parents had gone on a long waiting list for adoption. As sometimes happened, Amanda Wright had later found out she was pregnant. The doctors had warned her she was unlikely to have another baby, so they hadn’t pulled their application. Seven months after Chloe had been born the Wrights received a call telling them there was a one-month-old girl available, if they wanted her.
Growing up, Chloe couldn’t remember a time when Cassie hadn’t been around. The girls had been inseparable. That had made those three years apart even more difficult.
She stood up and walked to the closet, not sure what she was going to wear tonight. Something pretty, but professional. She was going to ask Arizona questions to make up for her lapse earlier that day. As she studied her wardrobe, she heard Cassie’s enthusiastic but off-key singing drifting down the hall. She smiled. Cassie was one of those rare people who absolutely believed the best in everyone and always told the truth. She led with her chin and sometimes she got hurt. But that never changed her feelings about herself or the world.
Chloe wondered what it would be like to have that much faith. She was too cynical to believe in people. Especially those she didn’t know well. That’s why she was a decent journalist. The thing was if she wanted anyone else to believe that, she was going to have to write a dynamite article. Arizona Smith and the secrets of his life were her ticket out of Bradley.
* * *
ARIZONA SWALLOWED A drink of beer and wondered why the sight of an attractive young woman cooing over the scar on his arm didn’t do a thing for him. Cassie bent over him and made tsking noises.
“I can see where they first stitched you up in the field,” she said. “There are still a few puncture wounds.”
Her fingers were cool and smooth as she stroked his skin. He waited, hoping to feeling a tingle or a flicker of interest. Nothing. Less than nothing. He was restless.
Cassie straightened and smiled. “Any other scars?”
She’d noticed the mark on his arm the second he’d walked into the house. As near as he could figure, the sight of it had sent Chloe screaming out of his presence. Funny, he’d never thought it was that scary looking, but then he was a guy. Maybe Chloe was squeamish.
Cassie’s gaze was filled with curiosity and good humor. She reminded him of the little sister he’d never had. He couldn’t help teasing her a little. “I do have another scar on my leg. I’d show it to you, but I’d have to take my pants off to do it.”
“Oh, I don’t mind,” Cassie said quickly.
Arizona watched her, but there was no guile in her expression. Had she really meant what she’d said?
Footsteps interrupted his thoughts. He looked up and all the attraction that had been missing when Cassie had touched him slammed into him with the subtlety of an aircraft carrier taking out a forty-foot yacht.
Chloe stood just inside the kitchen. She wore a sleeveless dress in pale peach. The soft-looking fabric clung to her curves in a way designed to make a man forget to breathe. Her long hair had been pulled back into a braid. His fingers itched to tug the curls free.
“You might want to rethink your comment, Cassie,” Chloe said to her sister. “I believe you just told Arizona you wanted him to take his pants off.”
“I do.” Suddenly, Cassie seemed to realize the implications of what she’d just said. She blanched, then color flooded her face. “Oh, no. I didn’t mean— That is to say, he has a scar and—” She glanced from him to Chloe and back. “I didn’t mean anything else. We were talking and—”
Chloe chuckled. “We know what you meant. Just be careful. Not every strange man is going to understand you’re not issuing an invitation.”
Cassie nodded.
Arizona leaned close to her. “I won’t take offense if you’ll explain to your sister that I’m not really strange.”
Chloe took the seat opposite him. “Yes, you are, and I’ll thank you not to corrupt my little sister.”
“Little by how much?” he asked. “Charity told me you’re about the same age.”
“Chloe is six months older,” Cassie told him. “I was adopted.”
“So I heard.” He looked from one to the other.
Charity came into the room and walked to the stove. “The sauce is nearly ready,” she said, lifting the cover and stirring. Instantly a spicy tomato aroma filled the room.
“I’ll do the garlic bread,” Chloe said.
“I’ll take care of the salad.” Cassie headed for the refrigerator.
“Should I offer to help or will I be told to just stay out of the way?”
“The latter, of course,” Charity told him, her eyes twinkling at him as she glanced over her shoulder.
He leaned back in his chair. It didn’t matter how many cultures he visited, or where he traveled in the world. Some customs remained the same. The ritual dance of women preparing a meal was one.
Whether the women were barefoot by an open fire, in a log house, a stone kitchen or a Victorian mansion, they moved with a grace and rhythm that was as old as the species. Conversation ebbed and flowed as they performed their magic. He supposed he enjoyed watching because no one did this for him very often. He was a frequent guest, but never a member of the family.
He caught Chloe’s eye and they shared a moment of connection across the kitchen. The rest of the room disappeared until she was the only one left. Then Cassie touched her arm and she turned away from him. He was again on the outside. He envied her the place she held in this special world.
* * *
THE DINNER DISHES had been pushed to the center of the table, but no one was in a hurry to pick them up. Arizona tore apart the last piece of garlic bread as Cassie raised her hands in frustration.
“How can you say it’s not true?” she asked. “The nightgown has been in the Bradley family for generations.”
“It’s just a nightgown,” Chloe insisted. “How can you say it has magic powers? As I’ve said before, there is no such thing as magic or destiny. It’s all smoke and mirrors.”
Cassie shook her head. “Aunt Charity, you talk to her.”
“She won’t listen to me,” the older woman said. “Arizona, you have a go at it. Chloe is our resident cynic.”
“I’ll try.” He leaned forward and stared at the beautiful woman sitting across from him. He would rather carry her up to bed, but that hadn’t been offered as one of the options, so he thought about the various feats of magic he’d experienced personally.
“Several years ago I was in India,” he began. “A boy had been mauled by a tiger stalking the village. The cat nearly took off his leg. Although the bone wasn’t broken, he lost a lot of blood.”
He tried not to notice the way her eyes darkened as her pupils widened with the storytelling. He tried to ignore the scent of her body, the slender curves beneath her dress or the way he knew how great it would be between them, almost as if they’d been lovers before.
“If he’d been near a hospital, he might have had a chance,” he continued. “But the village didn’t even have a nurse, let alone medical facilities. My grandfather and I knew the boy was going to die and we could only offer painkillers to ease his passing.”
He paused, remembering his own fear from that night. He’d been thirteen or fourteen, and he could relate to the screams of fear and pain from the injured child.
“That night the village performed an old ceremony of sacrifice and worship. They came together to heal one of their own. I wasn’t allowed to attend—I was considered too young. But I heard it. The singing and chanting. I smelled the incense. I don’t know what they did but it worked. When I went to visit him the next morning, I was afraid he would already be dead. Instead, I found him sitting up. His wound had nearly healed. He was talking and laughing because the pain was gone. Within a week, it was as if it had never happened. Since then, I’ve witnessed many things I can’t explain.”
“Wow,” Cassie breathed. “That is so cool.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Every supermarket tabloid has a story about people being abducted by aliens. Do you believe that, too?”
So she was a doubter. Somehow that made the challenge more interesting. “I saw the boy. When I see aliens abducting people from cornfields, I’ll believe that as well.”
“I want to know what has made you believe in all this.”
“I want to know what has made you such a cynic,” he responded. “Do you mean to tell me that in all your twenty-five years there hasn’t been one incident you can’t explain? One event or circumstance that makes no sense, but that you can’t deny?”
Their gazes locked. Something flickered in her eyes. Something that called out to him and if they’d been alone...
But they weren’t, he reminded himself. They had two very interested onlookers.
“My, look at the time,” Chloe said. “If we don’t get these dishes soaking, they’ll never come clean.”
With that she sprang to her feet and started to clear the table. The other two women moved to help her. Cassie shooed Arizona back into his seat when he tried to assist. His gaze followed Chloe. She was hiding something. He could feel it.
There was a mystery behind her pretty face and he had every intention of solving it.
CHAPTER FIVE
“I LOOK like a bridesmaid,” Cassie complained.
Chloe fluffed her sister’s hair. “You look beautiful. I love that dress.”
“It’s too young. I should change into something else. Why can’t I look sophisticated, like you?”
Chloe faced front and studied their reflections in the mirror. They stood in her bathroom, both ready to go out for the evening. Cassie wore a long-sleeved, silky dress of pale pink that fell to midcalf. Lace edged the oversize collar. Her thick hair had been smoothed away from her face, exposing the gold heart earrings she always wore—the earrings that matched Chloe’s locket—a legacy from their mother.
Chloe was willing to admit that while Cassie didn’t look like a bridesmaid, there was definitely something virginal about her dress and her expression. She was still untouched by the ways of the world. Chloe thought about her own heartache and figured her sister was lucky to still be so unaware of the emotional pain that awaited her.
Chloe turned her attention to her own reflection. In contrast to her sister’s innocence, she looked ready for sin. She’d pulled her long curls up on top of her head, securing them in a large clip. The ends fell to the back of her neck and danced against her bare skin. Her dress was simple. A scoop-neck, long-sleeved velvet dress. The soft burgundy fabric came to midthigh, exposing a lot of leg.
Overtly sexy wasn’t her usual style, but then neither was a man like Arizona. She was attending a reception in his honor. She figured she needed all the help she could get just to maintain some kind of power base in the relationship. If only she weren’t so attracted to him, she might have a fighting chance. But she was attracted. She shivered at the thought of being near him again. Of seeing him and talking to him. Lord help her if he asked her to dance. She would probably become a giant puddle right there on the dance floor.
“I hate being short,” Cassie said with a sigh.
“You’re five-five. That’s average, not short. Besides, I would love to be petite.”
“Me, too.” Cassie patted her hips. “Instead, I’m curvy. You get to be tall and slender and beautiful. If you weren’t my sister, I think I’d hate you. I might just hate you anyway.”
Chloe smiled and kissed her cheek. “You know you love me. I love you, too. So we’re even.”
The doorbell rang downstairs. Cassie glanced toward the door. “That will be Joel. You know we’re going out to dinner before we come to the reception, right?”
“Why? There will be food at the party. You can eat there.”
Cassie slipped out of the bathroom. “You know how Joel is. He’s concerned that with Arizona’s reputation and his world travel, the university will be serving something exotic. Joel doesn’t eat exotic things. We’ll go to our regular restaurant and join you later.”
Chloe resisted the urge to roll her eyes. What on earth was Cassie doing with Joel? Why couldn’t she see she was simply settling? There was a whole world out there just waiting to be seen. But instead of speaking her mind, Chloe forced herself to smile. They’d had this discussion a hundred times. Cassie knew her sister’s opinion on the subject, and she was old enough to make her own decisions.
