The Millionaire Claims His Wife(11)

"A minister who can't keep his wedding ring on ought to consider going into some other kind of work," Chase growled.

"No," Dawn said, "he's in the right kind of work, Daddy. He's a reminder  of reality." She sighed again. "I just wish I'd been smart enough to  realize all this before today instead of being so darned dumb."

"Sweetheart, stop saying that." Nick clasped her shoulders. "You were  smart to fall in love with me, smarter still to marry me." He shot an  accusatory look at Chase and Annie. "As for thinking you saw your folks  kissing when we turned on the light-you were right."

Dawn's head came up. "I was?"

"Absolutely. I saw them, too."

"No," Annie said.

"We weren't," Chase added.

"Not at all," Annie argued, waving her hand in her ex's direction.  "Dawn, your father already explained what happened. I was upset. He was  trying to comfort me."

"You see, Nicky?" Dawn's eyes filled with tears. "They weren't kissing. Oh, how I wish they had been."

Annie frowned. "You do?"

"Of course." Dawn snuffled and wiped the back of her hand across her  nose. Annie and Chase both reached for the paper towels, but Nick pulled  a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to his wife, who blew into  it. "See, when I saw you in Daddy's arms, well, when I thought I saw  you in his arms, it was such a big thing that I felt happy for the first  time since Nick and I got to the airport. I figured, just for a second,  I admit, but still, I figured..."

"You figured what?" Annie said, softly, even though she already knew,  even though it broke her heart to think that her daughter still harbored  such useless dreams, such futile hopes. She went to Dawn's side, looped  her arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. "What,  darling?"

Dawn took a shuddering breath. "I figured that a miracle had occurred  today," she whispered, "that you and Daddy had finally realized what a  mistake you'd made in splitting up and that you still loved each other."

There was a pained silence. Then a soft sob burst from Annie's throat.

"Oh, Dawn. Darling, if it were only that simple!"                       
       
           



       

"You can't judge the future of your marriage by the failure of ours,"  Chase said gruffly. "Sweetie, if you and Nick love each other-"

"What does that prove? You and Mom loved each other, once."

"Well, sure. Of course we did, but-"

"And then you fell out of love, like everybody else."

"Not everybody, sweetie. That's an awfully broad state-"

"It must have been awful, knowing you'd loved each other and then having things fall apart."

Chase looked at Annie. Help me with this, his eyes flashed, but she knew  she had no more answers now than she'd had five years ago.

"Well," he said carefully, "yes, yes, it wasn't pleasant. But that doesn't mean-"

"You guys did your best to keep me out of it, but I wasn't a baby. I  used to hear Mom crying. And I saw how red your eyes were sometimes,  Daddy."

Nick got to his feet and stepped back as Chase reached for his daughter's hand.

"We never meant to hurt you, Dawn. We'd have done anything to keep from hurting you."

"You don't understand, Daddy. I'm not crying over the past, I'm crying  over the future. Over what's almost definitely, positively, absolutely  going to happen to Nicky and me. I don't know why it took me so long to  realize. We'll-we'll break each other's hearts, is what we'll do, and  I'd rather walk away now than let that happen."

Annie smoothed her daughter's hair from her forehead. "Dawn, honey, I can point to lots of marriages that have succeeded."

"More fail than succeed."

"I don't know where you got that idea."

"It's not an idea, it's a fact. That Family Life course I'm taking at  Easton, remember? My instructor showed us all these statistics, Mom.  Marriage is a crapshoot."

Annie gritted her teeth, silently calling herself a fool for having  convinced Dawn that she ought to at least attend classes at the local  community college, now that she wasn't going to go away to school as  they'd planned.

"There's an element of risk in anything that's really worthwhile," Chase said.

Annie gave him a grateful look. "Exactly."

"So, when people get married, they should be aware that they're taking a  gamble?" Dawn said, looking from her mother to her father.

Annie opened her mouth, then shut it. "Well, no. Not exactly," she said,  and cleared her throat. "People shouldn't think that." She looked at  Chase again. Say something, was written all over her face.

"Of course not," Chase said quickly. "A man and a woman should put all  their faith in their ability to make their marriage succeed."

"And if that turns out not to be enough?"

"Then they should try harder."

Dawn nodded. "And then they should give up."

"No! What I mean is..." It was Chase's turn to look at Annie for support. "Annie? Can you, ah, explain this?"

"What your father is saying," Annie said, stepping gingerly onto the  quicksand, "is that sometimes a man and a woman try and try, and they  still can't make a relationship work."

"Like you and Daddy."

Annie could feel the sand shifting, ever so slowly, under her feet.

"Well, yes," she said slowly, "like us. But that doesn't mean all marriages are failures."

Dawn sighed. "I guess. But other people's marriages don't mean much to  me right now. All I could think of today was how wonderful it would be  if you guys got back together again." She buried her nose in Nick's  handkerchief and gave a long, honking blow. "And then, when I saw you  guys kissing...when I thought I saw you kissing..."

"We were," Chase said. Annie's head sprang up as if somebody had jabbed  her with a pin. He saw the look of disbelief she flashed him but hell,  there was no reason to lie about something as simple as a kiss. He laced  his fingers through Dawn's and smiled gently at her. "You didn't  imagine that, sweetheart. You and Nick were right. I was kissing your  mother. And she was kissing me back."

Dawn's tearstained face lit.

"You mean..." She looked at them, her lips trembling. "I was right? You guys are thinking of getting together again?"

"No," Annie said quickly. "Dawn, a kiss doesn't mean-"

"It doesn't mean they've reached any decisions," Nick said. "Right, Mrs. Cooper?"

Oh, Nick, Annie thought unhappily. She rose to her feet and put her hand  on his arm. "Look, I know what you both would like to hear me say,  but-"                       
       
           



       

"Just say there's a chance," Nick said, his eyes pleading with hers for time, for hope, for understanding. "Even a little one."

Annie could feel the delicate pull of the quicksand at her toes. "Chase," she said urgently, "please, say something!"

Chase swallowed hard. It was years since Annie had looked at him this  way, as if he were her knight in shining armor. Dawn, too. He couldn't  remember his daughter turning to him since she'd stopped skinning her  knees playing softball.

Both his women needed him to come to their rescue.

It was a terrific feeling. Unfortunately he hadn't the faintest idea how to do it.

Think, he told himself, dammit, man, think! There had to be something...

Dawn's eyes filled again. "Never mind. You don't have to spell it out  for me. I'm old enough to understand that a kiss isn't a commitment."

Annie let out a breath that felt as if she'd been holding forever.

"That's right," she said.

"It was stupid of me to think that you guys were going to give it another try."

Annie smiled at Chase over their daughter's head.

"I'm glad you understand that, sweetie."

"There are no second chances, not in this life." Dawn wiped her nose and  looked at the trio gathered around her. "That's from Kierkegaard. Or  maybe Sartre. One of those guys, I forget which."

"Your philosophy course," Annie said grimly, mentally ripping in half  the tuition check she'd just mailed to Easton Community College.

"Of course there are," Chase said sharply.

"No," Dawn said, sighing, "there aren't. Just look at you two, if you want a perfect example."

"All right," Chase said, "I've had enough."

"Chase," Annie said, "don't say anything you'll regret."

"Mr. Cooper, sir, as Dawn's husband-"

"Dawn Elizabeth Cooper... Dawn Elizabeth Babbitt, you're behaving like a  spoiled child." Chase nudged Nick aside, put his hands on his hips and  glared down at his daughter. "This is all nonsense. Marriage statistics,  divorce statistics, and now quotes from a bunch of dead old men who  wouldn't have been able to find their-"