Page 93 of The Love Scam
“Because you don’t know you still sleepwalk. If you were boning on the regular—”
“GoodGod.”
“—whoever you were with would have mentioned it to you before now.”
“I—” Sleepwalk? No. Not for years. Not since she was a little girl. Except… Rake wouldn’t lie. Not about this. “I do?”
“When you’re upset about something, you sleepwalk that night.”
“What do I do?” She was fascinated and mortified. The fact that he was acting like her nocturnal rambling was no biggie was the only thing keeping her from leaping from the bed. And possibly the window.He never said a word. Not once. He was fine with my being a freak. Helikeswhen I’m a freak.
“You go to the window.” His hand was stroking her naked back. “You’re upset until I tell you that you’re an adult and can go wherever you want. Then you’re happy and go back to bed.”
Shestaredat him. “You never…”
“No.”
“But now? You’re telling me now?”
“No more secrets.”
“No more secrets,” she repeated like an idiot, and God, if that were true? That would mean everything. That would be too good to be true. But it seemed that was a Tarbell specialty: things that were too good to be true.
“So, back to why you love me,” he said calmly, like he hadn’t just blown her mind, “You did all that, why? Because you felt sorry for me? You hate pity. You went to all that trouble for a job? No. You love me. Which works out nicely,” he sighed, snuggling into her, “because I love you.”
She laid back down and put her head on his chest. Her head was spinning, and she’d think about what had just happened for a long time. Years. But for now… right now this very minute… “Say that again. I want to feel itandhear it.”
“I love you, I love you, I love you. I love Claire Delaney, I love you more than I love Peeps— Ow!” It all rumbled through him—and her!—and that wonderful deep voice filled the room. Guy could’ve been in radio, if radio were still a thing.
She rested her chin on his chest so she could look up at him. “I’ve never been to Vegas.”
“Oh, good. You’ll hate it.”
She laughed. “Really?”
“Oh, yeah. Everyone does. It’ll be great. And the scammers in that town? It’ll be like Christmas for you. We’re gonna make some new rules, though. Family-friendly rules, so you can still stomp scammers but Lillith and I won’t ever worry about you going to jail.”
“Okay,” she agreed. It wouldn’t be that simple; she wasn’t used to having someone outside the family worry about her. There would be a period of adjustment. Possibly lasting years. There would be arguments in their immediate future. Plenty of them. But also Rake and Lillith. And the Big PipeDream. Their relationship wouldn’t be simple, which, if anything, made it more valuable by far.
Las Vegas, sure. And maybe she’d take him to the Cape, show him the condo, take him to meet Mr. Marsh, who loved telling the story (to everyone, alas) of how Delaney saved him from con artists and predatory prostitutes (the man was pushing eighty, and that had been five years ago; what had he beenthinking?). She wouldn’t bother with the Chicago hotel room—she and Rake had seen plenty of those—but he could show her Vegas, she could take them to Minnesota, get some proper milk into Rake’s diet, take Lillith fishing, keep an eye on their dairy regimen… They had… everything, really. Their lives, their pocketbooks, the world.
USA: Dead Ahead!
Epilogue
“Little brother,” Blake said by way of greeting.
“God, you’resouptight. Who answers the phone like that?” Rake bitched, purely as a matter of form. Delaney and Lillith were in the lobby, saying one more good-bye to Sofia, Ellen, and Teresa and demanding that they come to Vegas pronto. That left Rake time to knock the last thing off his “To Do” list. “Listen, I’ve started a family and I’m in love and stuff, so. Just FYI. Her name’s Claire Delaney and she’s awesome.”
“Congratulations!”
Weird. Blake sounded genuinely happy for him. And not surprised at all.
“Nonna told you all about her, huh?”
“In breathless detail. I particularly like the part where she’s a master of the martial arts and can beat you mercilessly if the mood strikes. And beautiful, of course. Nonna said she has fog-colored eyes and a talent for aggravating you.”
“Yeah, she’s almost as good at it as you are. Which I didn’t think was possible. I definitely didn’t think it would makeher hotter to me. And you haven’t even heard the best part; Delaney had an old friend who—”
