Headley caught the object of Maya’s interest and stopped what he was about to say until the newcomers arrived.
“Hello, Cousin,” Maya said dryly as Mayor Arnold approached. Behind her, Axell groaned and squeezed her shoulder warningly, but she wasn’t afraid of Ralph Arnold.
The mayor shot Maya a dubious look but turned his full attention on the elderly reporter. “Headley, damn you, if you report this, I’ll rip your head off and stuff it down the toilet.”
Headley shrugged his sloping shoulders and tut-tutted.
“Admit it, Ralph,” Selene said in a bored voice, “You picked the wrong investment this time. I warned you, but you wouldn’t listen. There are plenty of entrepreneurs right here who could make money hand over fist, but no, you had to go hunting down Yankee strangers.”
“Selene, so help me,” Arnold glared at his companion, “I’ll paddle your rear end if you don’t shut up and let me handle this myself.”
Selene beamed and tousled his moussed hair. “Promise?”
Maya stared at her partner in astonishment but didn’t manage a word. The byplay looked entirely sexual to her, but what did she know? Selene was perfectly capable of consorting with the enemy for her own purposes. But what about Katherine?
The mayor gripped Selene’s wrist and pulled her out of his hair as he faced Maya and Axell. “I know what everyone is saying, but I didn’t have anything to do with this,” he declared. “I have the connections to get that road through here without taking such drastic measures. But I won’t,” he added hastily. “I’m recalling the petition for a through road. The shopping center operation is defunct until new investment money is found.”
It was a little late for that, Maya thought, but she merely snuggled into Axell’s arms and pretended this was all a movie. She kind of liked being a hooked fish. She would face the disaster of the school when she was stronger.
“Tell it all, Mayor,” Headley prompted. “The whole town will know it sooner or later.”
Ralph gritted his teeth and glanced helplessly at the small crowd of people around them. “Let me just talk to Axell.”
At any other time, Maya would have objected, but she read something in the mayor’s face that spoke of desperation, and she thought she was beginning to understand. Squeezing Axell’s hand as he started to protest, she stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Cleo and I will see to the kids. I can’t bear watching the place burn to ashes. Come home and tell me about it later.”
Axell caught her head, and kissed her fiercely, then let her walk off beside Cleo, with Matty between them. Both red heads held proudly, they swam through the crowd as easily as fish.
He happened to think that Maya wore a rainbow-hued halo as she gathered Alexa into her arms and turned to offer reassurances to anxious parents and teachers. But then, he was crazy in love and capable of seeing sunshine and roses in a rainstorm — she gave him hope, so much hope and joy the future glowed with the brilliance of it.
He returned his glare to Ralph. “Spill.”
Ralph glared at Selene and Headley and the policeman. The policeman hurried after Cleo. Headley crossed his arms stubbornly. Selene patted the mayor’s cheek and strolled off to check the fire damage. Axell lifted an eyebrow in her direction but didn’t question. Selene was as unpredictable as a summer storm.
“Well?” he asked.
“She only meant to help,” Ralph insisted, before Headley could speak. “She didn’t know the moron thought it was just an insurance scam for a derelict building. I just said I wished the flood had washed it away, and she took it a little too far.”
Axell lifted his eyebrows in Headley’s direction, but he already knew the answer. A part of him should have known it from the beginning. She’d always been too eager to please, too eager for acceptance, too eager to be someone. And Maya and the school had stood in her way.
“It’s Katherine,” Headley confirmed. “Katherine hired the arsonist.”
Thirty-eight
If at first you do succeed, try not to look astonished.
November, 1999
I’ve seen them, Helen, our granddaughters. We’re great-grandparents. Can you believe we’re that old? Not you. You’ll be forever young in that place in my mind where I see you, but I’m a senile old man now, weak and rotting at the core, as you discovered for yourself.
It’s so damned difficult watching them make the same mistakes we made, but I’m no example for them to follow, so I stay out of their way. Maybe they’re forged of sterner stuff than you and me. Our dreams died for lack of trying, but they don’t give up as easily as we did.
For their sake, I’m mending my ways, Helen. I can see now as you saw then that love and not money fulfills dreams and hopes. I’ve been hoping to impress them with my wealth, hoping to make a difference in their lives, but they’re carving their own paths without need of my help. I can cut out the rottenness without fear now. If that means I’ll be joining you soon, I won’t complain. I’d rather hope that, if I do this right, some day, our daughter’s children will be proud to call me granddad.
***
Maya propped her elbows on the step behind her and admired the newly restored wood and glass of the foyer below them. The building was the first of her grandfather’s properties to be renovated — an old Victorian on the residential outskirts of town.
Axell slid his arm behind her and idly stroked the small of her back. She loved the way he was always touching her. She’d missed that desperately growing up. Perhaps Cleo had forgiven the people they knew now as their grandparents, but she couldn’t, not entirely. How could anyone, with any huge stretch of the imagination, believe cold hard cash or nasty alcohol could replace the warmth and love of someone’s arms?
She felt sorry for those broken people in the papers Cleo had saved, but she regretted more all the years wasted because no one cared to give her grandparents a hug, and they, in turn, had never passed their hugs to their daughter.
Perhaps they’d passed on their lesson anyway. Those papers were an eternal reminder of the love she shared, the love she felt compelled to pass along to all around her.
“I’ve never known anyone could actually make dreams come true,” Axell murmured with an undertone of amazement as he gazed at the new school created in just three months. “You must be a fairy godmother.”
“Don’t be silly. I didn’t do all this. I just nagged a lot.”
His hand rose higher to stroke the underside of her breast, but she could tell by his voice that his thoughts were elsewhere, following their own curious paths.
“No, you dreamed the impossible, and you persevered through everything this town and fate and whatever threw at you. You never gave up, Maya. And this school isn’t the only dream you’ve made come true.”
Glancing at the big man sprawling across the stairs with her, Maya felt the love welling up within her. Once, she would have sworn he didn’t know how to relax enough to sprawl. Shrugging off his philosophical fantasies, she followed the path of Axell’s long legs to the crumpled cuff of his expensive trousers, and grinned. The chaos of their life had diminished the importance of his immaculate attire, along with some of his uptight habits. She caught him in shirt sleeves more often now, although she noticed he’d carefully hung his coat over the newel post today.
“I still don’t know what you’re going to do with this place here in town once the school is rebuilt out in the county,” he continued idly, not expecting a response to his wilder theories.
She knew he wasn’t criticizing her. All summer, he hadn’t told her what to do unless asked, and he had accepted her eccentric, impractical ideas without question, because he actually believed she knew what she was doing. Maya beamed at him for that.
“The church across the street will need a new Sunday school building if it continues growing as it has. In two years, when my school is finished, Selene will persuade the church that this is the perfect property. If they don’t think so” —she shrugged— “ma
ybe we’ll be big enough to need two schools by then.”
Axell shot her a skeptical look but didn’t comment on the likelihood of that. He couldn’t, she knew. Their enrollment had tripled for the fall semester.
“Well, it’s better than letting this old building sit here and rot, I suppose. Still, Selene and Cleo are taking a lot of chances by renovating all these old buildings instead of ripping them down. The land alone is worth a fortune.”
They’d had this argument before and both knew the routine. Axell didn’t like taking risks, but it wasn’t his inheritance. Working with Selene had given Cleo a new lease on life, a reason to get up in the mornings, a life without the ceaseless worry of finding the next meal. Maya would exchange her entire inheritance just to see her sister drug-free. She didn’t mind the risk.
“Our grandfather took from the community and never gave anything back,” she replied complacently, watching the sun sparkle over the prisms hanging from the old chandelier they’d rescued from the fire remains. “He took drug money to buy some of these buildings. Maybe he tried to make up for his wrongs by renting the school and shop to us cheaply and telling the dealer to take a hike, but that doesn’t right the wrongs he committed. But we can see downtown restored, see that the tenants have decent places to live, offer their children an education they wouldn’t get elsewhere. It’s a start.”
Axell was watching her, and Maya wanted to bask in the warmth of his approval and the stirring awareness between them, but she continued staring at the prisms. The opening ceremonies for the fall session of the Impossible Dream in its new location were about to start in half an hour. They didn’t have time for what he was thinking, what they both were thinking. On some subjects, they were perfectly attuned. Her breasts tingled beneath his lightest touch.
“That’s a nice thick carpet you had installed in the office,” he murmured.
Maya darted him a hasty look. “We can’t,” she whispered. “There isn’t time. Cleo and Selene...”
“Will be running late, as usual. Do you realize this is the first time in months we haven’t had the kids underfoot?”
Oh, dear Lord, he was such a beautiful man. Maya gazed up into dreamy gray eyes and got lost in them. When Axell lowered his head and scorched her lips with his, she melted bonelessly and would have flowed down the stairs like hot molasses if he hadn’t caught her waist and dragged her up.
“I hope you have ocean tides in the CD player.” He hit the stereo button as he hauled her into the office and the crashing waves exploded from the speakers overhead.
“Axell, this is insane,” Maya protested as he laid her down on the thick carpet and pinned her with his weight. He had his necktie on, for pity’s sake, and his best white shirt.
Anyone could walk in downstairs. She forgot her objections as he slid his hand down the scooped neck of her summer dress. “Ummm, Axell, don’t...” Her voice trailed off as his lips found a more interesting place to play and she arched upward for more.
“Don’t what?” he murmured, trailing kisses up her throat. “Don’t kiss my wife in the middle of the day? We’re perfectly respectable, you know.”
No, they weren’t. He had his big hand up her dress and she was frantically loosening his tie and looking for his buttons. There was nothing respectable about this. But it was wonderful, just the same.
“We’re an old married couple,” she whispered. “We should have grown out of this by now.”
Axell snorted as he nibbled her ear. “We’ve been married all of five months and two don’t count. I figure we’ve got another five good years at least.” His fingers found her panties and stroked. “Maybe ten. Then I’ll be over the hill and what will you do?”
She laughed with a trill blending with the ebb tides on the sound system. “Follow you over to see what’s on the other side. You’ll never be old, Axell Holm, you have too much curiosity in you.”
A hank of golden hair fell across his brow as his smile gleamed down at her, and Maya’s heart pounded as it always did when he looked at her like that. Nordic gods weren’t meant to be possessed, but she thought maybe she owned just a little piece of him, or maybe more. She cried out in delight as he finally unsnarled their hampering clothing and sank into her.
Afterward, they lay in disarray upon the thick carpet, listening to the sounds of bird song emanating from the speakers.
“I forgot to take my pill again last night,” Maya worried out loud.
“You always forget to take it,” Axell replied calmly, pulling her tighter against him. “One of these days, you’re going to get caught.” He tickled her breast as he adjusted her head more comfortably against his shoulder.
“You wouldn’t mind?” she asked as the sensations he generated swept through her.
Axell propped himself up on one elbow. “Are you trying to tell me something?”
She shook her head until her hair tumbled around her ears, but she smiled. “No, I just wanted to know you wouldn’t mind. Alexa is a handful already.”
He gazed speculatively at her still unbuttoned dress. “Maybe breast-feeding makes them quieter?” he suggested with a gleam of hope.
Hot waves of desire crashed through her at his words and look and implication. She wanted more babies, Axell’s babies, and he seemed equally interested. She breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn’t certain, after that last episode...
“Shall I deliver them for you?” he inquired with a mischievous curve to his smile as he followed the path of her thoughts.
Maya smacked his arm and struggled to sit up. “I want sedation next time. Now, we’ve got to get up from here. Selene and Cleo will be here any minute, then half the town will arrive.”
“You’re missing Matty,” he declared as he helped her button her dress.
“He belongs with Cleo. She needs him.” Maya shooed Axell’s hand away when it did more stroking than buttoning. “But Constance misses him. There’s a boy in our summer class, one of the scholarship kids who’s in a foster home...”
Axell sat up and straightened his tie while watching her warily. “Maya...”
She hastened on. “He’s up for adoption but his foster parents can’t afford another kid. He and Constance play well together. He’s only six, Axell...”
He sighed with resignation and fastened his belt as the door chimes rang below. “What’s one more?” he agreed.
Maya flung her arms around his neck and buried his cheek in kisses. “I knew you’d say that. Thank you, thank you...” She was so blessed. She only wished everyone could have a man like Axell in their lives.
“Maya? Axell? You up there?”
“We’re coming, we’re coming!” Maya called joyfully as she brushed down her skirt and raced toward the hall.
That was an understatement, Axell reflected as he watched his wife flit from view. He shouldn’t still be thinking about sex after just having it, but Maya did that to his mind. He wanted to pull her back down on the rug and put babies in her. He was deranged. In a wild spurt of caveman hunger to see his wife carrying his child, he’d agreed to take on another six-year-old. Given a chance, she’d populate his house with strangers.
And why not? They had room for them, and Maya had enough love in her heart for entire schools of children. With her help, he could learn to love them all too. Tightening the knot in his tie, Axell wandered out to greet Maya’s sister and partner. Hell, with Maya around, he wouldn’t just accumulate kids, he’d have relatives and friends crawling all over the damned place. The house would never be empty again.
Spirits decidedly high, he stood at the top of the stairs and watched as Maya gesticulated wildly over whatever topic had popped into her head now. Selene caught sight of him and blew him a kiss. Cleo frowned, but Cleo always frowned.
“Cool dress,” Axell called down to his sister-in-law, and she brightened perceptibly. Like a kid, Cleo just needed attention.
As he sauntered down the stairs and all three women turned to welcome him, Axell realized something el
se: for the first time in his life, he was a participant and not an observer. He belonged in the world Maya created around them. Reaching Maya and hugging her shoulders, he savored the moment.
“The psychiatrist has declared Katherine competent to stand trial,” Selene declared without prelude. “The lawyer will probably plead temporary insanity.”
Axell was aware of Maya watching him with sympathy. Him. Katherine was a distant cousin of Maya’s, had hired an arsonist and tried to destroy Maya’s school, and Maya was looking at him with sympathy.
He shook his head in disbelief and chucked her chin. “Don’t look at me that way, honey. I didn’t encourage her obsession any more than Ralph did. The lawyer’s right, she was delusional.” He didn’t mention that the Pfeiffer side of the family seemed to have more than its fair share of quirks.
He chuckled as he looked down at the currently crimson streak in Maya’s hair. It contrasted nicely with turquoise eyes and a pink flowered dress that only Maya could make sexy. And he’d thought Maya was delusional. He shook his head all over again.
“She was your friend,” Maya reminded him. “She probably thought she was saving you from my clutches.”
“Or making Ralph so happy he’d marry her,” Selene replied dryly. “Which makes her truly delusional. Ralph will never marry anyone his mama doesn’t approve of, and so long as he’s taking care of her, his mama will never approve.”
“Want me to put a contract out on his mama?” Cleo asked cynically. “Where are the twin disasters today anyway? I thought they’d be leading a protest march down Main Street against allowing riffraff into their community.”
Axell grinned. “Mrs. Arnold and Sandra have gone up to Cherokee to break the bank at the casino. I think they’re planning on buying the town back with Indian money.”
Beside him, Maya snorted. “They’re looking for men,” she countered. “I wish them well of any they find up there.”
Impossible Dreams Page 34
