Once they finished the soup and sandwiches, Rod presented her with a dish of b.u.t.terscotch pudding. With the tray somewhat cleared, she noticed a set of keys with strings of curled ribbon hanging from them. "What are these for?" she asked, looking up at him. "You already gave me house keys."

"They're not house keys. I got you something you really need."

Lowering the dish back to the tray, she looked up at him again, afraid to know how much he'd spent on her this time.

"You said your favorite color for this is white on our first date," he gave her a clue.

Though she didn't remember specifically what she'd said to him, she knew she loved white cars, and the keys were a pretty solid indication that her suspicion was correct. "Rod, you didn't? I can't accept a car." Why couldn't he understand she didn't need his money or anything his money could buy?

"You'll like it. I knew it was perfect for you the minute I saw it."

She tried to swallow the lump in her throat. Even he'd said there was more to their relationship than s.e.x. All the gifts made her feel their relationship was... something tainted. "I don't need it," she said softly.

"I know you're used to walking, but you'll get used to driving in no time.

You've got your license, don't you?"

She nodded, feeling numb. He'd done this for other women. She knew he had.

The spoiling, the lavishing, the moving in and playing house. This was the same pattern, and she had no idea how to escape it.

Bethany's apprehension grew over the next week with every gift Rod gave her. The decorating and furnishing of their bedroom, the hot tub he had installed because she came home so exhausted every day, the jewelry, the clothing, the flowers.

She never quite accepted any of it, but she couldn't out-and-out reject him either. The last thing she wanted to do was give him the incentive to send her away with all her consolation prizes.

If anything, he grew more affectionate every day and more eager to please.

They talked about babies every night at bedtime, as they held each other in the dark. He really didn't seem to mind they couldn't make love.

At work, she'd hired three new stylists, though the whole process made her feel horribly guilty. Rod had put her in the position of closing up shop or doing everything to make it successful by giving her the money and the renovations. She loved her salon too much to walk away from it, and so she did everything to make it a success. That meant, based on the amount of appointments they'd been getting, she'd have to hire at least two more stylists and a receptionist.

Beauty by Bethany had become a circus. There was never a moment to be idle, to take a break or have lunch. Even in her first year, when things had been promising, Bethany and her employees took frequent breaks.

Friday, at five o'clock, she'd never been more happy to leave her salon before. Her feet ached from standing for nine hours. She wanted to go. . .to Rod's house (the temptation for her to call it "home" was strong) and have a quiet, romantic evening with the man she loved. She was ready to resume "relations", despite how tired she was.

Today, for the first time, she'd driven the car Rod gifted her, out of necessity. He lived too far away to walk, and he'd been working a lot to cover for his friends while they were in The Keys.

On the way to Rod's house, she stopped to get the ingredients for a romantic dinner. He wasn't home yet, giving her time to get everything started in the kitchen and to feed Cameron before she went up to their bedroom and picked out a beautiful nightgown from the endless supply of lingerie Rod bought for her. Though she wanted to take a bath to get out all the aches, she settled for a quick shower and body oil.

Rod had said he'd be home by at least 5:30, but she knew he'd stop for flowers. At a few minutes before 5:30, she slipped into the gown and the matching robe. Then she went downstairs to set the table, light the candles and pour the wine.

It dawned on her, at the sound of the front door, that she was setting out to seduce him. Everything she'd done in preparation pointed to the one thing he couldn't fail to miss: She wanted to make love with him.

Too late to be so embarra.s.sed, but she knew her face was bright red when he came into the kitchen. As she'd predicted, he had pink roses for her tonight.

His gaze didn't move to the table she'd set or to the stove to see what was cooking. All he saw was her. Setting the box of flowers across the arms of a chair, he moved over to her. "G.o.d, you're beautiful, Bethany. You're better than a fantasy."

How easy to get lost in his eyes, to be spellbound. She was immediately glad she'd unconsciously set out to seduce him. He deserved this every night.

"Did you do all this for me, sweetness?" he asked, drawing her close.

Her nod was barely there, but he smiled. "I'm some lucky guy."

She found it hard to breathe. If she breathed at all, his cologne and his nearness made her dizzy with longing.

As he'd said, she felt she was lucky too. Most women never had a minute with the perfect man. Most women settled for second best, wanting what they couldn't have. Bethany had everything she wanted, even if it didn't last.

The front door slammed one second before Rod's lips would have touched hers. He turned toward the kitchen entryway and she followed his example. A woman Bethany recognized from Rod's descriptions appeared there. JoJo was dressed in raggedy jeans and a braless tanktop that was scandalous in light of how full-breasted the woman was. Her expression was. . .expressionless.

The dog was the first to run to her, but Rod got her attention first.

Pulling away from Bethany, he threw his arms around his sister seconds later, exclaiming "Josie!" with the same excitement a child would at seeing Santa.

Feeling out of place, Bethany wrapped her robe tighter around herself, as if shielding herself from harm.

"What're you doing here?" Rod asked.

"I live here, remember? I own the house. Any of this ring a bell?"

JoJo knelt to greet her dog, and so didn't catch Bethany's humiliation.

She'd had no idea this house didn't belong to Rod. Of course she knew the two of them lived together, but why would Rod invite her to live with him if it wasn't even his place to extend such an offer? And JoJo Summers looked mean enough to toss her out without batting an eyelash.

If Bethany made herself at home without the owner's permission, it was only right that she invite her to dine with them. "Would you like to join us for dinner? I could set another plate--"

Without glancing at Bethany, JoJo straightened and said to Rod, "I'll be staying awhile if I can get Morris to do his job for once."

Bethany's embarra.s.sment tripled at the barbarous cold-shoulder she'd been given. Even worse that Rod didn't seem to care. He wasn't even bothering to introduce her.

Brother and sister proceeded to get into a heated, yet icy cruel argument like nothing Bethany had ever experienced with her only sibling. All she wanted to do was escape, but they blocked the exit unless she wanted to go out the patio doors to the semi-indoor pool in her nightie.

Putting her arms around her chest, she tried to be inconspicuous. Not that it mattered. As far as JoJo was concerned, she didn't exist any more than support bras did.

JoJo turned and walked out of the room with a muttered expletive.

"Where you going?" Rod fell immediately back into his little-boy-watching-Santa-disappear mode.

"I'm getting my suitcase and then I'm gonna have a workout."

JoJo left them alone with that, Cameron following her up the staircase, and Bethany was overcome at how rude the woman was but even more hurt by how Rod completely forgot her.

He turned to her after a minute, as alive and in-tune with her as before the interruption. "I'm sorry I didn't introduce you, but Josie doesn't let me anymore. She figures it never lasts anyway, so why waste her time. Don't take it personally."

That apology only made Bethany wonder if his sister was simply realistic or down-right crude.

The mood had been spoiled. All she wanted to do was go put her clothes back on and hide in the only place she felt safe in this house now--the bedroom Rod called "ours."

He wouldn't let her change though, insisting his sister would be locked into the gym for a couple hours. JoJo was an ace at minding her own business, he said.

"Does it bother her, having you live in her house?" Bethany asked while they ate the romantic meal she no longer had an appet.i.te for. What she meant was "having you and your girlfriends live in her house."

"Why would she? She's never here. I think she's a vampire. She doesn't eat, she doesn't sleep, and she's always out for blood."

"Vampires sleep during the day," Bethany murmured, using the romantic vampire stories she read as her only reference.

"Well, Josie's a new kind of bloodsucker."

Fathoming the split personality Rod had with his sister wasn't easy. One minute he was the eager little boy, wanting love and attention, and the next he was insulting her and acting as if she disgusted him more than any other person.

He spent much of the meal telling Bethany about his sister's "bad side", which served to shock and frighten Bethany. As far as she could tell, there was no redeeming value to the woman.

It never occurred to Bethany that Rod wouldn't agree when she voiced her thoughts in their bedroom.

"What right do you have to say that about my sister?" His expression matched the infuriated tone of his voice.

The grip Bethany had on her brush slackened, and it fell to the table with a loud crack. Rod had never been mad at her, never raised his voice. It frightened her.

"You don't know anything about her, except what I told you. I didn't insult your brother when he was acting like a jerk about us. Maybe I should have, just so you'd know how it feels."

The tension she'd been feeling between them all week exploded, and she ran into the connecting bathroom, locking the door so he wouldn't see her tears.

Having him see them wouldn't have been any worse than hearing, because they poured forth so painfully from her chest she couldn't quiet the storm.

She would lose him. Now she would lose him because he loved his sister more than he did her, though he had a funny way of showing love to his sister. He'd returned words to her Bethany wouldn't feel comfortable saying to a dire enemy, if she had one. Telling herself being jealous of his love for his sister was ridiculous didn't ease the pain.

He knocked on the door, apologizing over and over, but she hardly heard him.

Why did everything have to be tied into one package? Failure and success in this relationship involved the same things: his interest, her ability to keep him interested, where she lived, what she did for a living. She had no idea how she could keep it together if she spent all her time walking on eggsh.e.l.ls.

A few minutes later, Rod let himself in with a key, and she tried to calm herself by apologizing for what she'd said about his sister. Speaking only made her more upset, especially mixed with her relief when he kneeled in front of the toilet bowl she sat on and pulled her into his arms. "No, I'm sorry. I can't stand it when anybody except me insults her or hurts her. You had no way of knowing I'd react like a hypocrite. Men are the only ones who've ever insulted her before. I usually react by beating them as close to death as life will allow." He lifted her chin, softening noticeably more when he saw her tear-streaked cheeks. "I didn't scare you, did I, sweetness?"

He had, but not because she believed he'd hit her. His fury had just come out of nowhere.

"I'd never hurt you. I couldn't. I'd rather die than hurt you."

Nodding, Bethany put her arms around him and hid her face in his shoulder.

"My sister's just been through a lotta tough stuff she didn't handle very well. I know it's hard to believe, but I just want her to be happy. I want all the people I love to be as happy as I am. So sometimes I have to intervene."

At the moment, she didn't care about his sister, her problems, or his friends. She just wanted everything to be OK between them again.

The tension she'd felt all week was unfounded, she realized now. Compared to how close she'd been to losing him a few minutes ago, her worries in the past were ridiculous. But if it'd been this close once, it could be again. The more time they spent with each other, the more they found out about each other, the more likely he'd find something about her he just couldn't live with. And then her days were as numbered as her predecessors' had been.

"What do you think it means if a woman starts acting weird at weird times?"

Rod asked when Blackie tossed him a screwdriver from the rollout toolchest.

Rod had tried to convince himself he was imagining things. Bethany was an angel of sweetness whenever they were in bed, kissing, cuddling, making love.

But other times he felt she wanted to tell him she had doubts, about him, them, but she didn't know how to voice them.

He didn't want to hear them either. With the exception of the "fight"

they'd had last Friday, his life was perfect. To be realistic, he didn't expect their relationship to always be a bed of roses. They had to learn to deal with problems that came between them, and they had to be strong enough to face them instead of hiding things from each other. So, for that reason, he knew he had to confront her doubts if she had them. The reason he didn't want to hear them was because she might have already decided the course she'd take. That could mean she would leave him, and he already knew he couldn't take that. Obviously the gifts weren't working to convince her she'd never want for anything if she stayed with him.

Jon glanced up from the carburetor he was installing on a Honda V-45 Magna.

"Like when?"

"Like anytime we're not. . ."

"So, the s.e.x is still good?" Jon said.

"s.e.x and snuggling, yeah."

"Snuggling?" Blackie muttered under his breath from the worktable.

Rod was above embarra.s.sment in this. Guys always made the snuggling part sound unmanly if they allowed themselves to indulge in it, but they enjoyed it as much, or more, than women.

Blackie turned to Rod. "You got a problem, man, cuz it can only be one of two things. Might even be both. That lady wants to put you in a collar, and she wants the dirty lowdown."

"Marriage, and 'Oh, Bethany darling, I love you oh-so-much,'" Jon teased, making kissing noises.

Rod stared at them, dumfounded. It couldn't be that simple, could it? He hadn't told her the exact words "I love you" because they'd become a cliche and a cure-all. In every other way there was to tell her how he felt about her, he had, but if she needed those exact words he would make them new for her.

"Man, I thought she wanted out and didn't know how to say it!" The relief was so overwhelming, he started laughing.

"So, you're gonna do it?"

Rod stood up, flinging his arms around Blackie simply because he was nearby and standing. Blackie shoved him away immediately, which didn't phase Rod in the least.

"Are you kidding? I'm gonna do it tonight!"

"You don't wanna do this kinda thing spur-of-the-moment. Wait'll this weekend," Jon advised. "Or next weekend."

Everyone who knew a little something about Rod Summers knew his answer. "I can't wait that long. It'll have to be this weekend. In Milwaukee. The finest hotel, room service, and then the rings."

All his life he'd been told (and been self-aware) he rushed into things. He hadn't wanted to rush Bethany since it'd only been a month and she might not trust him a hundred percent yet. When they married, he didn't want her to have any doubt he was a one-woman man, for now and for ever.

As he headed for his car and the nearest jewelry shop, he heard Blackie ask, "You think he's really gonna do it?"

"You know something?" Jon said after half a minute. "I think he's just wild and crazy enough to go through with it."

Rod was acting very strange.

It all started yesterday. When she stopped at Rod's shop to pick him up after work, something they'd been doing "routinely", Jon told her Rod had gone "rock hunting" and would meet her at the house later. Blackie had smiled for some reason, something she'd never seen him do, and though she didn't know him very well she suspected he didn't do it often. Maybe that smile disarmed her enough to ask what in the world Rod was doing rock hunting this time of year.

Jon laughed so hard, she was embarra.s.sed. Blackie said something soothing to her, as if afraid she'd burst into tears. Then Jon hugged her in a brotherly way that made her feel warm and special instead of silly.