Page 58 of The Number of Love
She jolted and pressed that last inch into the window, away from him as much as she could manage.
Because she could imagine it. Maman, feeling the pain, knowing her last minutes were upon her, and thinking not of herself or how to get help, but of her children. Praying that God spare them whatever pain He could.
But He shouldn’t have listened. He should have told her anyway.
Drake swayed a bit on his feet, but he didn’t move off, didn’t reach for any support. “I know nothing makes it easier. I do, I’ve been there. Logic can’t make itfeelless.”
Her chin edged up. “I am no slave to my feelings.” She wouldn’t be. Couldn’t be.
His smile looked sad. And understanding. “Then cling to the logic. If you trust the Lord enough to listen when He asks you to pray for a stranger, you must trust Him in this too—that He knows better than we do when it is time for us to die.”
How many times had she said she trusted the Lord because He was the only being in the universe she could be sure was smarter than she? She hadn’t questioned Him when He took Papa home. But somehow this was different. “I cannot accept it. Not this time.” Her words emerged bare and skeletal, clattering against each other like dry bones.
He opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, Lukas appeared, frowning and fierce. “Margot, what is the matter?” He shot an arrow of a look at Drake.
Margot touched her brother’s arm to still him. “We were talking of Maman. That’s all.”
She could feel his muscles relax, even as he sighed and focused on her again. “It is supposed to be a celebration of your birthday tonight,ma bichette.”
As if she could help but think of her mother when celebrating herown birth. It was such a ridiculous thing to say that her shoulders wiggled against the itch of it. “Don’t be stupid, Lukas.”
He wasn’t, and so he could puzzle out quickly enough the idiot thing he’d said. He rolled his eyes.
She lifted her chin. “And if you don’t stop calling me a doe, I’m going to—”
“What should I call you instead?Mon nombre?”
She had to give it to her brother—he knew how to cheer her. “That would do.”
“You are ridiculous. But I shall still give you your gift. Come.”
She let him take her hand and tug her toward the couch. And she sent Drake a long glance as she stepped around him. One that apologized, she hoped, for Lukas assuminghehad made her cry. One that said she appreciated him listening—and not being offended at her for all but accusing him of being the reason she hadn’t saved her mother.
One that said, perhaps, that she hoped they could be friends ... if he’d just stoplookingat her as he did.
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Drake blamed his exhaustion on the churning waves crashing around inside him, knowing very well that had little to do with it.
She’d prayed for him. Whenever he faced the threat of Jaeger, she’d been praying.
Had it been old Mrs. Colton from the flat above Dot’s who said so, he simply would have marveled at the Lord’s care. But it wasn’t. It washer. While her dark eyes had been haunting him, his number had been echoing in her mind, bidding her to pray.
Did it mean anything? That they were somehow connected, other than through his sister? She’d say no, he suspected.
But his heart said yes.
Were the others not chattering and passing Margot a few wrapped packages, he may have splayed a hand over his chest to try to dampen the ache there. He’d have to be a fool to pursue this course. And he wasn’t. He didn’t need the headache and heartache of chasing after a girl who wanted nothing to do with him.
But notnothing. There’d been something in that final glance of hers. Something that acknowledged that there was more connecting them than Dot. Or there could be.
Not romance though. She’d call him a fool for even considering itand pretend he didn’t exist again while sitting a few inches away, as she’d done through dinner.
“Here.” Her brother—who at least didn’t still look ready to finish what Jaeger’s bullet had started—handed her a rectangular gift that shoutedbookin its dimension. “I had Barclay scouring the bookshops for months to find this.”
He had no idea who Barclay might be, but Willa, who sat on the end of the couch closest to him, leaned over to say, “My older brother. He has a ... knack, let’s call it, for finding whatever anyone might need. Hence why Admiral Hall has hired him to do just that.”
Drake produced a smile for her, though she turned back to face Margot before she really saw it.
