“Obviously.”
Jake shrugged. “I’m just glad I’m not relying on the Witness Protection Program. I’d be having the willies.”
“Me, too.”
The microwave beeped and Jake pulled the rice out. He carried the steaming bowls to the already set table. He’d done a nice job, Rainbow noticed. Crystal and china gleamed on a white tablecloth, and a vase of red roses made a beautiful centerpiece.
They sat and Jack served them. Rainbow was surprised to discover that she was famished, and Jake’s lo mein was the best she had ever tasted.
“You can cook for me anytime?3 she said appreciatively. “I intend to.”
The warm look in his eyes nearly left her breathless. For a moment, she just stared at him, until she realized that she was gawking like a lovelorn teenager. A blush suffused her cheeks and it was all she could do to return her attention to her meal. It was a painful moment of awareness for her as she realized how vulnerable she was.
“Anyway,” Jake said, picking up the thread of the story, “Herbie’s garbage scheme wound up costing the mob some money and trouble. They were after him, so he turned state’s evidence in exchange for being put in the Witness Protection Program. The mob boss and a couple of his henchmen got sent up for a long time. Harvey apparently knew a lot more about what was going on than just what he was involved with.”
“So he isn’t a killer, or anything?”
Jake shook his head. “Small-time con man, and not even a good one. The Feds apparently figured he wasn’t worth bothering with, until he offered to testify.”
“I could almost feel sorry for the guy.” “Almost being the operative word,” Jake agreed. “He sure is irritating.” “So Mustafa was right.”
Jake nodded. “The mob thought Joe’s boat belonged to Moroney. They’d been watching him, looking for a reasonably good way to wipe him out. The boat seemed ideal.”
“I’m sorry, Jake.”
It was a moment before he looked at her. “So am I. But what’s done is done, and it just as easily could have been a mindless accident. Or worse, he could have gotten really sick and suffered for a long time.
I’ve been thinking about it a lot this afternoon, and I decided this really wasn’t so bad. He died when he was happier than he’d ever been. We should all be so lucky. I’ll always miss him, but… well, Mustafa said he was happy.”
“So you believe that Mustafa is real?”
He put his fork down and looked straight at her. “If I ever doubt you or your mother again, I will personally cut out my own tongue.”
He shrugged. “When you see your deceased uncle as large as life, and an ectoplasmic Dustbuster in broad daylight, it’s kind of a wake-up call.”
But she had to press him. She had to know if this was for real. “It could have been faked.”
“Not in broad daylight. Not in a room full of people. Not right in front of my nose. I know what I saw. I know what I heard. I’m convinced.”
Her appetite was gone now, as her heart began a slow, heavy beating. She waited, hardly daring to breathe, feeling as if she stood on a pinnacle between possible futures, where one move could send her tumbling down the wrong side.
“Are you through?” he asked.
She managed a nod, her gaze following him as he stood and reached for her hand.
“Rainy?”
Somehow she managed to rise on legs that felt like water, clinging to his hand as the world seemed to whirl out of control, around her.
“You’re psychic,” he said. “I can live with that. I can live with tarot readings, and premonitions, and your mother and her crazy guides. In fact, I think I’ll even enjoy them. What I want to know is, can you live with me?”
She blinked, hardly daring to believe what he was saying. “Why shouldn’t I be able to live with you? You’re perfectly normal.”
“So are you,” he said softly, drawing her closer. “Extraordinarily normal. You’re kind, generous, level-headed, gorgeous, sexy—and psychic. I used to think that was weird, but it finally struck me that the only thing that’s weird is that you can sense what I can’t. You have a gift, and I don’t. Can you live with someone who can’t share that part of your world? Can you trust me to trust you?”
That was when she realized that trust really was the issue. The past had taught her not to trust people, to fear that they would be unable to accept her gift. Could she trust Jake to accept her?
It was a dangerous step, and she felt as if she hovered at the edge of a cliff—one foot extended out, into empty air—having to trust that when she moved forward, something would be there to catch her.
The psychic ether offered no answers. This was one she was going to have to decide herself, with no guidance but what was in her own heart. If she was to break out of the shell she was living in, she was going to have to take this chance.
She looked up into Jake’s eyes, eyes as blue as a midsummer sky, and felt her heart open wide, felt herself take that frightening step.
“Yes,” she said. It was the Tightest, truest thing she had ever said. She felt it all the way to the tips of her toes.
“Thank God,” he said, his voice shaky with emotion. “And now I’m going to be crass.”
“Please,” she said breathlessly, “be very crass.”
He laughed and turned to carry her toward the bedroom when a voice, seeming to come out of the thin air, said, “Oh no, you don’t!”
Jake froze. Rainbow felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise.
“Who’s in here?” she asked in a whisper.
Jake pointed with a jerk of his chin, and she turned her head.
Standing in the bedroom doorway was the man she had seen in the restaurant. Jake’s uncle. And with him, wrapped in his arms, was a lovely woman of about sixty, with steel-gray hair and bright, dark eyes.
“Uncle Joe?” Jake said, as if he didn’t quite know what to make of this.
“You two go somewhere else,” Joe said. “This is our home, Lucy’s and mine, and we’re not ready to give it up yet. This is where we were supposed to live.”
Then, before Jake could say another word, the two ghosts vanished on a whisper of chilly air.
Jake swallowed and looked down at Rainbow. There was something very like laughter in his gaze. “I think we’re intruding on their privacy.”
She nodded, feeling an absurd desire to laugh. “So it seems. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not have an audience, either.”
Gently he set her on her feet. “Right. Let’s go to your place. As far as I’m concerned, they can have the condo for as long as they want. I flunk we ought to get our own place anyway, someplace we pick together.”
Rainbow felt her breath catch in her throat. “Our own place?”
“Isn’t that what married people do?”
“Married?” She was feeling stunned, as if too much was happening all at once for her to absorb.
Astonishment turned to joy, as belief settled in her heart as gently as down. “I guess I don’t have any choice.”
His brow creased. “Why not?”
“The tarot said my life was going to change dramatically.”
He cocked a brow. “So you’ll marry me because of what the tarot said?”
She shook her head, beginning to smile. “I’ll marry you because I love you.”
He caught her around her waist, and swung her in circles. “I love you! Love you, love you, love you!”
Finally he set her on her feet again, grinning from ear to ear and holding her hand like a schoolboy. “Let’s get out of here,” he said. “Let’s go someplace private.”
She nodded and walked with him to the door.
As they were stepping out together to start their new life, they heard a voice from behind them say, “Well, it’s about time!”
Laughing together, they closed the door behind them and walked away.