Mike and Charlene's gazes met over the top of Rainbow's head. This was the first time Rainbow had spoken of her mother since the shooting.

"I'm sure your mama hated rats," Charlene said without missing a beat. "I hate them, too. And I think it's terrific that Tigger is already teaching the kitties about mice. Although I'm trying to figure out how she got in here."

Rainbow looked down at her toes. "She came to the door, and I let her in."

"But how did she get out of your apartment?"

"Oh, c.r.a.p," Mike muttered. "I bet she got out through the kitchen window. I left it open this morning when I burned the toast. I forgot to close it before we went to the river."

"You went to the river?" Charlene asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, we did. Tim invited us out there. Rainbow is a little scared of the water, but Timmy had her doing a dog paddle. And she loved the sand at the swimming beach."

"If y'all like swimming," Charlene said, "I'll give you the key to our house down at the country club. You can use it anytime you like."

"That would be nice. Rainbow had a great time down there today."

Charlene looked up at him and went into doctor mode. "All right, big guy, back up and let me see that scalp wound." She put her hand in the middle of his chest and gave him the gentlest of pushes. He backed up, but for an instant, he didn't want to. Her touch ignited a fire under his skin. It blindsided him with its ferocity.

He'd already cataloged Charlene Polk as being showgirl s.e.xy. She had a great figure and a little wiggle in her walk. But when she touched him, all that s.e.x appeal became tangible, and hot. Very hot. So hot that it carried his libido to a place that he didn't want it to go. It was just wrong for him to l.u.s.t after the woman he'd chosen to be Rainbow's new mother. Wrong on so many levels.

But he found himself checking out her silky skin, and drinking in her b.u.t.tery scent, and getting lost in those big brown eyes. She pushed him back, over the sticky slime on the floor, and into one of her kitchen chairs. Rainbow climbed up into the other one and watched solemnly as Charlene opened her first-aid kit, tore open some gauze, and started cleaning the wound on his head.

Her touch was gentle and deeply disturbing. He itched to snake his hands around her cute, curvy hips. He wanted to pull her into his lap. He couldn't stop thinking about how nice it would be to give her a mola.s.ses-laden kiss. In fact, it would be even better if he could convince her to lick it off his lips and his face and his neck.

Oh, yeah.

d.a.m.n. He needed to purge his mind of these thoughts and concentrate on the mission that had brought him to this one-horse town in the first place.

He'd found Rainbow a perfect mother and father. Now he just needed to get them together.

CHAPTER.

15.

Mike knew he ought to take Rainbow to church on Sunday, but the idea of sitting in a pew listening to Timmy sermonize gave him the heebie-jeebies. There would be plenty of time for Rainbow to attend Sunday school and church once Mike headed back to Nevada.

Instead he took Charlene up on her open invitation to use her family's river house. And since Rainbow had had such a great time at the river on Sat.u.r.day, going back on Sunday morning seemed like a reasonable plan.

The Polk family's river house was a far cry from the one belonging to Martha Spalding. It looked like something from out of Better Homes and Gardens. The kitchen had state-of-the-art appliances, the bathroom sported granite tile, and the bedroom where Rainbow and Mike changed into their bathing suits had a bra.s.s bed that looked like a real antique.

Charlene Polk came from money, which surprised Mike because she seemed so down-to-earth, especially when she wore her stinky rubber boots.

Mike left his car in the driveway, and the two of them walked down the sloping banks to the man-made beach, where the homeowners had carved out a spot along the bank and dumped a bunch of sand to make a shallow wading area.

They had the beach to themselves, and Rainbow got busy building a sand castle while Mike settled into one of the wooden benches and snapped open his Sunday edition of the Orangeburg Times Democrat.

He couldn't keep his mind on the news. Instead, he worried about his plan to get Charlene and Timmy together, which had suffered a setback last night, when he'd lost his bet with Charlene. Not to mention the fact that Timmy didn't seem all that interested in courting Charlene, even if he had clearly changed his mind about Rainbow.

And that troubled Mike in ways he didn't wish to examine too closely. A week ago, he would have been overjoyed by Timmy's change of heart, but now he wanted more. He wanted Rainbow to have Charlene in her life.

And really, Timmy needed Charlene in his life, too. The woman was beautiful. And kind. And smart. And His thoughts began to wander back to the moment when she was doctoring the cut on his forehead.

Hot. Very, very hot.

Just then, a piping voice said, "Hey, Rainbow. Whatcha building?"

He looked up to find Ethan Wright, Rainbow's camp friend, standing beside Rainbow admiring her sand castle. Ethan was dressed in swim trunks and had a big sand bucket and a bright yellow plastic trowel. He fell to his knees. "You wanna build some roads and a moat around the castle? I brought my cars." He dumped half a dozen or more Matchbox cars out of his bucket.

Rainbow didn't say a word, but she nodded. Something eased in Mike's chest. This place was healing her. She was beginning to connect with people.

A minute later, Ethan's mother sat down on the bench beside him. She was pretty in a small-town, wholesome way, wearing a demure one-piece bathing suit and a white, see-through cover-up. "So," she said, "you're Pastor Tim's brother."

He looked over his paper. "I'm Mike. And you're Ethan's mother and Charlene's best friend, but I can't remember your first name."

Her eyebrow arched, conveying her surprise. "I'm Amanda. And how do you know that I'm Charlene's best friend?"

"She's my next-door neighbor. And she's very neighborly. And I want to know, are you the friend who likes dirty martinis?"

Amanda snorted a laugh. "I guess I'm guilty. So, how neighborly has she been?" Amanda's gaze turned sly. It occurred to him that Charlene's best friend might become an important ally in resurrecting his plans for Timmy and the girl next door.

"Just the usual stuff. She's been kind to Rainbow. She's given her several books, and she lets Rainbow come over to play with her new kittens. And all in all, I would say that Charlene has been good for Rainbow. So has Ethan, by the way. He's a pretty talkative kid."

That got a big smile. "Yes, he is. Gets it from his great-grandfather who was a radio broadcaster for years and years. So I take it Rainbow liked Pete the Cat?"

"You know about the book?"

"I helped Charlene pick it out. She wanted to give Rainbow a present, and she wasn't sure what would be good. I recommended the book because Ethan loves it."

"Rainbow loves it, too. It might be the first book anyone has ever given her. Last night I heard her singing that silly song before she fell asleep. Hearing Rainbow sing, even if it's in the privacy of her own room, is a pretty big thing. So I guess I need to thank you."

"Oh, no, I just facilitated things. Charlene is the one you should thank. I'll tell you a little secret. I think she's got a crush on Rainbow."

It was Mike's turn to smile, so he turned up the wattage. He needed Amanda as an ally. "You're right. Charlene seems to have really bonded with Rainbow. It seemed to happen so easily, and I'm wondering why."

"It's really complicated."

They lapsed into silence while Mike processed this information. He wanted to ask a dozen follow-up questions, but he held back. He didn't want to seem as if he were interrogating her or something.

He looked up and discovered Rainbow talking to Ethan, while the little boy listened with rapt attention. Rainbow appeared to be whispering, sharing secrets with her friend. He couldn't hear the kid's words but that didn't matter. She had a friend, and that seemed like a miracle.

Mike didn't believe in miracles. Heck, he didn't even believe in luck. Life was random, like the roll of the dice. But he nevertheless found himself ready to believe that running into Amanda and Ethan could be turned into a piece of extraordinary luck.

He turned toward Amanda. "I'm about to ask you a personal question that you might not want to answer. And if you don't, that's okay. But I was wondering, is Charlene interested in marriage?"

Amanda startled. "That is a personal question. Why? Are you interested? I'm not sure you're her type." She studied him again. She seemed to be judging him with that look.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I'm not the marrying kind. And you probably already know that I'm here for only one purpose-to find Rainbow the perfect family. It's occurred to me that, since Rainbow really likes Charlene and you just said Charlene has a crush on Rainbow, it follows that your friend would make a great mother for her."

"She probably would."

Amanda's gaze intensified until it seared his insides. But he continued laying his cards out for her to see. "So if Charlene would make a perfect mother, and Timmy is Rainbow's uncle, ready and willing to permanently adopt her, then the perfect thing would be to figure out a way to get Timmy to" He made a gesture with his hands.

Amanda threw back her head and laughed. "Mike, let me tell you something. You aren't the only one in this town who's tried to match Charlene up with Tim. Charlene's aunt Millie has been nudging her in that direction for some time.

"Of course she would have to give up being an Episcopalian. And that's hard in this town, where you kind of come up knowing who you belong to. And besides, the Methodists move their ministers around every ten years or so. I don't think Charlene wants to live like a vagabond. And of course, Charlene's mother would have a hissy fit. But even if Charlene found the gumption to tell her mother where to go, the fact that they belong to different churches also means they don't have many occasions to, you know, meet and mingle."

"Precisely my point. We need to help them meet and mingle."

"How? And by the way, Charlene would skin me alive if I tried any matchmaking tricks."

He folded his arms across his chest. "Really? What would you say if I told you that Miriam Randall suggested that Charlene and Timmy were a match made in heaven? What if I told you she even said that the solution to this problem was to have Timmy volunteer for the AARC bachelor auction and to find some way of encouraging Charlene to buy him?"

Amanda's eyes widened. "Miriam Randall suggested this? When did that happen?"

"I went to see her last week, on Tuesday, I think. I told her I was looking for a wife for Timmy. I suggested Charlene might be perfect for him."

"You did? Really? And Miriam thought this was a good idea?"

"I did and she did."

"Well, I'll be Really?"

"Yes."

"Okay. That changes everything. I mean if Miriam thinks they belong together, then it will happen. I'm not even sure we need to do anything."

Uh-oh, he hadn't seen that curve coming. "But I thought Miriam helped people see the truth."

"Sometimes. And sometimes people get it all wrong, like they did with Jenny Carpenter and Reverend Lake."

"What?"

She waved her hand in dismissal. "Everyone thought Miriam wanted Pastor Tim to marry the woman who owns the Jonquil House. But they were wrong. I'm just saying that sometimes people misinterpret what Miriam says."

"She was explicit with me. She told me that a little nudge from us would set the Lord's plan into action. She also said that Timmy was destined to marry someone with a medical background."

"The Lord's plan?"

"That's what Miriam said. She suggested that the bachelor auction represented a confluence of forces or some such thing. I'm a bit skeptical of that part, but she believed it."

"Okay, I get that. I mean, there will be all those single men and all those single women."

"Yeah, that, too," he said.

"But even if you could get Pastor Tim to enter the auction, how are you going to convince her to buy him?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm talking to you."

"You want me to convince her?"

"You're her best friend. If not you, then who?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean she's going to take my advice. She rarely does when it comes to men."

"Oh, that's too bad. Of course you could force the issue. You could buy Timmy for her. You know, like setting her up on a blind date or something."

"No. I told you, I don't play matchmaker for my friends. Ever."

"Oh, that's too bad. But maybe you could break that rule, you know, just this once. I'm telling you, Miriam made it sound like getting them together for dinner might be all it would take for true love to bloom. And if we're wrong about that, and no fires are ignited, then we haven't really lost anything, have we? You know the old saying about nothing ventured, nothing gained."

"You are a gambler, aren't you?"

"I never said I wasn't."

"But, wait, I just thought of another problem. Pastor Tim is arguably the best-looking bachelor in town." She paused a moment. "Who isn't gay," she added as an afterthought. "Every single woman is going to want to bid on him."

"Money is not a problem. I would be happy to underwrite the entire plan."

"It's kind of tempting, actually. And Charlene is already kind of angry with me."

"She is? About what?"

"I gave her some relationship advice that she resented" Amanda's voice trailed off for a moment before she took a deep breath and continued. "You know, Mike, Charlene needs an intervention in her life. But I'm having a hard time seeing her with your brother. I'm really sorry."

"But he would make a terrific husband for someone. And he's going to become Rainbow's father."

Amanda gave Mike a measuring look. "No. I can't help you."

"Would you at least think about it?" He gave her the most earnest look he could muster.

"Okay. But I think you're barking up the wrong tree."

He hadn't closed the deal but he'd planted the seed. He needed to back off a little. She'd refuse if he pressed.

"Fair enough," he said. "But the auction is next Sat.u.r.day, less than a week away. And I still need to figure out a way to get Timmy to volunteer."