Queen (25 page)

He moaned in his sleep and shifted, his arm sliding lower from her breasts to her waist, then tightening in automatic response to the move. Even asleep he wouldn't let her go.

His hands, so broad and strong, yet gentle with his sons and so loving with her, had killed for her. She would never get over the feeling of waking up in the snow and hearing his voice and feeling his hands on her body and knowing that God had heard her prayers.

This man… her man… was worth fighting for, worth keeping. If she could get past a lifetime of doubts and remember that not every man was like Johnny Houston, then maybe… just maybe… they could make it work.

"I love you, Cody Bonner."

But he didn't hear, and later when he woke, she didn't repeat it. It had been hard enough to say when she'd known he wasn't listening.

It took hours for them to get out of bed and dressed. And the single most obvious need for doing so was his three sons, who were running up the driveway from the bus stop, tossing snowballs and verbal assaults back and forth as they came.

Queen spun from the doorway in sudden fright. "Don't tell them," she said.

Cody nodded. He didn't have to ask what. And he didn't have to ask why. What had happened between them was too new and fresh to share with anyone. Besides, what would he say? "Boys… today I slept with your aunt who's not really your aunt." Or better yet, "Boys… today I made love with the housekeeper, the woman who bakes your cookies." Not exactly the sorts of things a father tells his sons, especially when the woman in question is not their mother.

Queen sighed with relief, uncertain of what she'd thought he would do but happy that he agreed with her enough to pretend nothing had happened.

They could have saved themselves the time.

Donny burst into the house ahead of his two younger brothers, eyes bright with laughter, cheeks glowing from the sharp wind, and headed for the stairs to dump his books before razing the kitchen for an after-school snack.

"Hi, guys," he yelled as he ran past. Then something struck him as odd, and he turned on a dime and stared back at the pair who were standing on opposite sides of the room.

He backtracked into the room with a slight grin on his face, ignoring Will and J.J., who raced in behind him, slamming the door and barreling into the kitchen to lay claim to their snacks. Donny had suddenly realized there were more interesting things to do than fight for food.

"So… what's new?" he asked, and dumped his books on a chair.

"Not much, son," Cody said. "And I think that's supposed to be my line. What's new with you?"

Donny shrugged and turned his attention to Queen, missing nothing of her high color or the way she carefully avoided his father's slow gaze.

"Boring day, huh? What with this snow and all, I bet you never set foot outdoors, did you?"

Queen blushed furiously and then realized that they were falling into the little wretch's trap.

Donny grinned. "Hot damn!" he shouted, clapped his hands together, and then started out of the room.

Cody rolled his eyes and shrugged. He should have known they would be helpless in the face of teenage ingenuity.

"Donny!"

Queen's sharp tone stopped him in place. Thinking he was about to be reprimanded for his vocabulary, he sighed and turned.

"You forgot your books," she said.

He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows Groucho Marx style, his favorite new thing to do. "Yeah… right." And then he was gone.

"It's not my fault—" Cody started to say.

Queen held up her hand. "Don't bother apologizing for anything," she said. "It's no one's fault. And we should have known we can't hide hormones… not from someone with an overabundance of them."

Cody burst out laughing. The description of his son was perfect. And she was right. He could no more hide what he felt for her than he could stop breathing.

"Shall we dine?" Cody asked, making fun of the fact that they were about to referee snack time in the Bonner household.

"No, I think I'll leave the pleasure to you," Queen said. "Surely I've got some mending… or patching… or something that needs my attention. I think you should join your sons and have a time of sharing. It will be good for you."

He rolled his eyes. When those three were together there was no such thing as sharing; it was always more of a "go to your corner and come out smiling" sort of time, and she knew it.

"Thank you for the honor, my lady," he said softly as she left the room.

She turned and smiled at the look he gave her. On the surface she knew he'd been teasing her for the fact that she'd dumped the care of his sons in his lap, but on a deeper level she also heard him thanking her for more than here and now. He was thanking her for the past few hours they'd spent in each other's arms.

"It was my pleasure, sir," she said. "My pleasure indeed."

He stood for a long time, staring after her, and thought, No, that's where you're wrong, love. The pleasure was entirely mine.

As always in the mountains in winter, night came swiftly. Weary boys struggled through lessons and protested little when bedtime came. And as children will do, they sensed the change in their home without understanding it. Clinging to Queen as if she might suddenly disappear, Will and J.J. insisted on a nighttime ritual they'd almost forgotten: a bedtime story.

"How about me, guys?" Cody asked, seeing Queen's exhaustion in the dark shadows beneath her eyes, remembering that a short time ago she'd suffered a severe emotional and physical trauma. He also remembered what they'd put each other through only hours ago.

"No… we want Queenie," J.J. said, and then grinned at his father. "She does the sounds along with the story."

"She does? Then maybe I should listen, too. I like stories with sound effects."

"Yeah!" Will said. "You can sleep with Donny. We get Queenie."

Queen flushed. There was no way she was going to look at Cody's face. She knew him well enough to know that he'd be enjoying this greatly and at her expense.

"It's fine with me," she said. "I don't care who listens, but they'd better be quiet."

Cody knew that last jab was meant for him but wisely made no comment.

"And remember the rules," she continued. "One story and then lights out."

It took forever to get the boys settled. Even though she'd warned them, the war still came when it was time to choose the story. They argued until Cody was about to step in and settle it his way. Queen intervened—as always, the peacemaker.

"How about if I tell you a story instead?" she asked.

The novelty of the idea was enough to make everyone curious and quickly get in place, waiting for the show to begin.

Queen took a deep breath, suddenly certain of what she would say. She needed to tell her story… in her own words… and to the people she'd come to love. They had to know her world just as she'd come to know theirs. And they had to accept her for who she was, as well as what she'd become to them.

"Once upon a time…" she began.

Cody grinned, unaware of the importance of the impending story until he saw the expression on her face and heard a tremble in her voice.

Donny sensed that more was about to happen than a little-kid fairy story, and he quieted instantly, shushing his brothers with a hiss and a look that brought silence to the room.

And then there was only Queen and her deep, husky voice, telling in a slow Tennessee drawl the story of the gambler's daughters.

"… in a tiny town… far away in the Tennessee hills, there lived three little girls and their father, who was by trade a gambler."

Cody caught his breath and tried not to stare at the sheen of tears in her eyes. If she cried, he would not be able to keep his hands off her, and he knew that she had to tell this story alone.

The boys listened, their eyes widening when she told them how the children were often hungry and many times never knew where they would sleep. And how they moved from town to town with their father, who was always in search of a better deal and a little luck, who would bet anything and everything he owned at the turn of a card. She told how the girls would whisper in their single bed, making plans for the day when they'd be grown and leave this awful life behind. Go somewhere to a faraway place where the air was clean and no one knew that they'd been poor.

"And the years went by, and the girls grew up, and a funny thing happened."

"What? What?" J.J. and Will echoed each other's questions, drawn to the story by the idea that three little girls had been motherless just like them.

"Just listen, and you'll find out," Queen said, gently hugging them against her. "Well! As much as they'd hated their father's life and the way that they'd been raised, they found out that they couldn't leave him as easily as they'd imagined. The tables had turned. They were still tied to him as they had been when they were children. But now it wasn't because they were small and poor. They couldn't leave him now because he was growing old, and he would have been alone. You see, along with the bad things in their lives, they realized that they'd had something very, very special as well. They'd had love. It held them together long after they were grown. And it held them together until the old man died."

Will sighed. "My mother died," he said.

"I know, sweetheart," Queen said. "But she loved you a lot, didn't she?"

He nodded.

"Then that's what you have to remember. Her love."

Cody couldn't look at her. He was too overwhelmed by her story to do anything but stare up at the ceiling above Donny's bed and hope to hell that no one saw him swallowing tears.

"What happened next?" Donny asked.

Queen's lips trembled, but she smiled and continued. "Let's see… where was I?" she asked.

"The gambler died," Cody said.

Queen nodded without looking at him. "Right… The gambler died. And when he did, the sisters realized that now they were free."

"Did they leave?"

Queen nodded. "They sure did. As fast as they could travel. One followed her heart and a man with a hatful of promises. One followed the bright lights and the old gambler's dreams."

"And what about the other one? Where did the last one go?"

Queen sighed. "She was the lucky one. Because when she left, she didn't know where she was going. She was just running. What she didn't know was that there was a special place and some special people just waiting for her to find them."

"Did she live happily ever after?" Will asked.

It was then that Cody looked up and held his breath, awaiting her answer as anxiously as were his sons.

Queen lifted her head and stared straight into his eyes. "Yes, honey, I think she did. Now… it's time to sleep. Tomorrow's a school day."

She slipped out of her nest between the boys, leaned over, and kissed each of them on the cheek before covering them up, then stepped aside when Cody came over to tuck them in.

"Night, Queenie. Night, Dad," they said in unison.

"Good night, guys," she said softly.

"What about me?" Donny asked as she started out the door.

Queen was surprised. Donny never allowed hugs and kisses unless he was the one offering. Cody stood aside as she slipped in between the beds and bent over the boy.

"Good night," Donny said as she kissed him on the cheek. "I'm really glad you ran to us," he added quietly.

She couldn't speak, only nodded her head in agreement as Cody turned off the lights.

They left the room together, closed the door behind them, then stood for a moment in the silence of the hall and looked at each other without speaking. And then Cody opened his arms and she walked into them, sighing with the peace that comes when you've been lost and finally find your way home.

He hugged her, rocking her within his embrace until her trembling stopped, and her arms came around him, and she turned her face up for the kiss she knew was waiting.