Yours For The Taking Part 5

"What are you doing now? I don't need any more money."

"I wasn't going to give you money. I was just going to make sure you had all my numbers." He pulled out his card and jotted down his grandfather's home number, his office number, and his cell. "I'm staying with my grandfather and it would be nice if you'd call me so he'll think you miss me. Most married people talk when they're away from each other."

She looked a little embarra.s.sed; her cheeks turned the most attractive shade of pink. "Oh, right. Okay, I'll call you. Lord knows what we'll talk about, but I'll call."

"Good." The doorbell rang, sounding like church bells on a Sunday morning.

Gina's brows shot up. "Are you expecting someone?" She obviously wasn't.

"I called the local market and ordered some food. I told them you needed to stock up on the basics. They deliver."

"Thanks, that was very... thoughtful." Her words belied her expression. She mumbled something to herself in Spanish as she followed him downstairs to the door. The delivery people had four boxes of food. "Did you buy out the entire market?"

Ben tipped the delivery boy and shrugged. "I wasn't sure what you liked."

Gina began unpacking the groceries; there was an awful lot of food. He might have gone a little overboard. "I'm sorry."

Ben tried to help but she shooed him aside. "If you put the stuff away, I'll never be able to find it. Would you please just let me do something for myself?"

Ben nodded. "Okay, I'll just get out of your way."

"Thank you." She seemed relieved and for some reason, that didn't set well with him. No one had ever worked so hard to get rid of him before. "I thought I'd take you out to eat before I left."

Gina picked up a bag of rice and set it in the pantry. "That's not necessary. I have a lot of unpacking to do before work tomorrow." She looked at the boxes of groceries on the counter. "And it's not as if I'll starve."

Ben called a cab and stayed out of her way as she put away the groceries. "I reset the alarm, you have the code."

"I know."

"You have the number of the alarm company?"

"Yes, you wrote it down with all the other instructions."

He checked his watch; he only had another five minutes before the cab would be there to take him to the airport. "You have all my numbers."

"Yes."

"Is it okay if I leave my car here?"

"Fine."

"You might have to move it if it snows-is that a problem?"

"No. If I can't, I know plenty of people who can."

Ben made his way to the foyer while mentally checking off the list of things he had to go over with her. He thought he covered it all. Gina handed him his coat and waited for him to leave. A horn tooted as he shrugged on his coat. "I guess this is it. Come on out with me so I can give you the car keys after I get my bags out of the trunk."

"Sure." She didn't bother with a coat and followed him out, wrapping her arms around herself against the cold.

Ben handed his bags off to the cabby who was too busy checking out Gina to notice. Ben cleared his throat to get the guy's attention. Still, the man didn't move. "Are you going to take my bags? If not, just pop the trunk so I can stash them and say good-bye to my wife."

The guy popped the trunk and took one of Ben's bags but not before he let out a low wolf-whistle.

Ben gave the guy a dirty look and turned back to Gina who didn't seem to notice the cabby or the attention.

"Have a safe trip."

"Thanks." Ben handed her the car keys. "You take care of yourself."

Gina nodded and started to back away. "Always."

Ben heard the trunk close behind him and pulled Gina's little compact body in close to his, ignoring the shocked look on her face. She started to say something and he took advantage of her open mouth to kiss her good-bye. He wasn't sure if he was doing it for his benefit or the cabby's-he'd think about it later-but he took her mouth the way he'd been tempted to ever since the day he'd married her. G.o.d she tasted of good champagne and shock and felt even better, especially after he straightened and lifted her off her feet. She didn't fight him and he didn't release her until he'd had her thoroughly kissed and confused. He set her back on the first step of their stoop, making sure she had her footing before letting her go. He turned on his heel and got into the cab without looking back. He didn't need to see the look of relief on Gina's face.

Gina rushed up the steps of the mansion, locked the door, and armed the alarm system behind her. What was that kiss all about? The man certainly didn't kiss like he was gay. But then, she wasn't sure what a gay guy kissed like either. He could have been imagining Hugh Jackman for all she knew. Still, that didn't explain why he'd kissed her in the first place. Sure the cabby was checking her out, but so what? That's what men did. Well, straight men at least. Maybe Ben was worried the guy would get the wrong idea. Not that it mattered to Gina, but it obviously mattered to Ben for some unknown reason.

She rested against the big double doors that weighed more than she did and had to take a minute to catch her breath. d.a.m.n, for a second she let herself imagine Ben wasn't gay. Not a good thing to do. No, what she needed to do was forget both kisses ever occurred. Unfortunately, her body wasn't getting the message. She looked around the foyer of her new mansion and wrapped her arms around herself to fend off the sudden chill. If she didn't think about the kiss, all she was left with was the thought that she was the last person in the world who should be living in a place like this. Not a good alternative.

Everything about the place was so perfect. It was filled with what looked like priceless antiques, crystal chandeliers, and oriental carpets an inch thick. She hadn't asked Ben how much the furniture and furnishings cost, but that was only because she'd already been wigged out over the price of the house itself. Three million seven hundred thousand dollars. She dealt with numbers like that every day in business, but they were just that-numbers. This was personal. She didn't even want to know how much he spent on the contents, not to mention all the bedding, towels, and other incidentals that just appeared in the closets. She wondered if he'd hired a service to do that. Heck, she didn't even know if there were services that did that.

She looked around the big empty house and didn't think she'd ever felt so alone. She'd never lived alone until she stayed at Rosalie's place, but that hadn't bothered her. She knew the neighbors, Henry and Wayne, and heard them banging around upstairs, so it wasn't much different than being at home in the apartment she'd shared with Sam and Tina. Here, there was no one to make noise but her-or so she hoped. Growing up, she'd always lived with her mother, Tina, and sometimes the guy she thought might be her father. Of course, there were also the times they'd lived in shelters, they were the pits, but having all this peace and quiet-it was unnerving. Gina pulled her cell phone from her pocket and hit the speed dial.

"h.e.l.lo?"

"Hey, Tina." Gina returned to the kitchen thinking she should put the rest of the food away. "What are you and Sam doing tonight?" She dug through a box, pulled out all the pasta products, and carried them to the walk-in pantry. She remembered Jess had referred to it as a butler's pantry. As if...

"Sam's working tonight so I'm going home to make myself dinner. Why?"

Gina nudged the box filled with refrigerated food toward the refrigerator. Ben had bought enough to feed a family of five. There was so much perishable food, most of it would end up going bad if she didn't cook and freeze meals. She'd gone to bed hungry enough times to never allow that to happen. No, wasting food was not something she ever did. "You want to come over after work and see my new place?"

"Tonight?"

Milk, cheese, eggs. "If you're too tired, I understand."

"Gina, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm fine." He'd bought her two boxes of b.u.t.ter? It would take her a year to go through that much. "I just thought you'd like to see where I'm living. Hey, why don't you pack a bag and have Sam come here after his shift." Steak? She checked the label. Filet mignon. Nice. "I'll have dinner ready by the time you get here. We can have a sleepover, and then have breakfast with Sam before work in the morning."

"You want to have a sleepover?"

Gina heard concern in her sister's voice. Madre de Dios Madre de Dios. "Forget about it. It was a stupid idea. You're right."

"I'll be there right after work. I don't even need to stop at home. I know you'll have something I can wear tomorrow."

"You don't have to. Really, I'm fine."

"Give me the address."

Gina did because once Tina started worrying, she'd never let it rest until she checked Gina out in person. The last thing Gina wanted was her little sister worrying about her. Worrying was Gina's job. She'd been doing it most of her life.

Gina finished putting the food away and left the kitchen. She picked up her briefcase, determined to put that money in her bank account to good use, and went to sit in the library. The desk looked way too big for her so she curled up on the couch, opened her notebook computer on her lap, and took a deep breath as she signed onto the Internet and Googled Private Detective Agencies. She clicked on the site she'd looked at earlier and dialed the number.

"h.e.l.lo, I need to talk to someone about a missing person case."

Chapter 4.

"There's not a box of Mac & Cheese or Hamburger Helper to be found." Tina spun around in the butler's pantry, which was larger than Tina's entire kitchen, and smiled at Gina. "I don't know what half this gourmet stuff is, but it sure looks good."

Tina explored as Gina tossed the salad. The filets were almost done.

"Do you need help with anything?" Tina asked.

"No, grilling sure is easy when you have one built into the twelve-burner stove. There's no crawling out on the fire escape to flip the burgers in this neighborhood."

Tina looked out the windows overlooking the garden. "You even have one of those super-deluxe built in barbecues down there. Why do you need two?"

"Probably because it rains and snows. I guess barbecuing isn't just for summer anymore." Gina put the salad on the table and searched the cupboards for serving bowls for the broccoli and rice. She had to get a stool to reach the bowls and ended up handing them off to Tina.

"Wow, this stuff is real china. And we're not talking Corelle either. I bet the silverware is really silver."

Gina climbed off the step stool. "G.o.d, I hope not. Just think of how much time it would take to keep it all polished. Heck, as it is, I'm going to have to clean one floor a day just to keep up."

Tina set the small table in the breakfast room. The dining room table probably sat twenty comfortably-not that they'd be comfortable eating there. "It's definitely not like our place. I can clean everything in under two hours. Maybe you should drape sheets over all the furniture in the rooms you don't use and just close them off like they did in all those old movies we used to watch when we were kids."

"Yeah, that's where the ghosts got the sheets they'd fly around under. No thanks. This place gives me the w.i.l.l.i.e.s as it is. I don't need any help in that department."

Spreading her arms out wide, Tina spun around the unbelievably large kitchen. "Is this place really all yours? Ben gave it to you just for marrying him?"

Gina spooned the rice into a small serving bowl. "For now, both our names are on the deed, but that will change once we file for divorce. He'll sign it over to me free and clear. It's in the prenup."

"Are you going to stay here?"

Gina filled the other serving bowl with broccoli. "No, as soon as the divorce is final, I'll sell it, buy a place like Rosalie's, and invest the rest of the money. And believe me, there will be plenty of it. Besides, what would I do with a place like this?"

Tina folded napkins and placed them under the forks. "I don't know. I guess you could marry someone who isn't gay and raise a family." She carried the food to the table.

Gina turned off the grill and brought over the filets. "You and Sam are the only family I need. I'm not the maternal type or the wife type. That's always been your style, not mine."

They sat and pa.s.sed the bowls and platter back and forth, filling their plates until Tina stopped serving herself rice, the spoon mid-air. "You don't know that. You've just never had the opportunity." She emptied the spoon onto her plate. "That will change. Before I met Sam, I never thought I'd fall in love and get married."

Gina laughed as she speared the broccoli. "You might not have, but I knew you would. That's just the type of person you are. Me, I'm way too selfish for a real relationship. Besides, I like living my own life."

Tina laughed. "You're the least selfish person I've ever known. And as for you living your own life, you don't know what that means. You've spent your entire life doing nothing but going to school, working, and taking care of people. You took care of Mama whenever we could find her and you practically raised me single-handedly. I remember all those nights you fed me and didn't eat anything yourself." She shook her head. "You did everything for everyone else." She cut her meat looking more serious than Gina wanted her to. "You know, at first I was really against this thing you and Ben are doing. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe this is G.o.d's way of giving you the winning lotto ticket."

Gina shook her head. "Someone was going to get a boatload of money for marrying him, and I couldn't come up with one good reason why it shouldn't be me. Still," she moved her food around her plate, "that doesn't mean I'm proud of it." She cut the meat. It was so tender; she could have cut it with the side of her fork. "I almost stopped the wedding halfway through. It's all a farce, but I still had to say the words. Promising to love Ben in sickness and in health just felt wrong."

"It would be different if Ben didn't know the deal. It's not as if you were lying to him."

"No, I just lied to G.o.d. That's so much better."

"Okay, so that was wrong, but it's nothing that can't be forgiven. You did it for all the right reasons. That's got to count for something."

Gina brightened up. "Which reminds me. I'm going to make a deposit to your savings account. You and Sam need to start looking for a house in the 'burbs.'" She did a quick calculation. She'd transferred $15,000 to the detective agency to start the investigation, which left her $35,000 in the bank. "I can write you a check for $30,000 today, and I'll give you about the same amount next month. Between that and what you and Sam have saved, you'll have enough for a down payment for your dream house." Gina took a bite of her steak; it was much more palatable when she discussed what she could do to help Tina. "I'll send you more every month so we can start paying off the mortgage. By the time Ben and I divorce, I want us both to own homes free and clear."

Gina looked up from her plate and found Tina shaking her head. "Oh no. Sam and I can't accept that kind of money from you. You know that. It was one thing when you were living with us and paying rent. But to take that much money from you? No way. But thanks for offering."

Had Tina absolutely lost her mind? "Thanks for offering? Are you nuts? Call it a loan if you want. I don't care. I just want to make sure you and Sam will never be put in the position to lose your home. Why do you think I did this, anyway? It wasn't just for me, it was for you, too."

Tina sat back and crossed her arms. "Don't you dare get mad at me. As I recall, I wasn't given a choice in the matter. You can't just do things like this without discussing it with Sam and me. You don't run our lives, we do. You have to stop this, Gina. It's time to cut the ap.r.o.n strings."

"What ap.r.o.n strings?"

Tina reached over and took Gina's hand. "Gina, you know I love you, but I'm all grown up now. You're not responsible for me anymore. I'm a big girl; I have my own marriage and my own career. I'm settled and happy. Maybe it's time that you stop worrying about me and worry about you. You're the only one in this room who's not happy."

"What are you talking about?" Gina looked at her sister and couldn't help but be hurt. "It'll be years before you and Sam can afford to move out of the city and start your family. I'm just expediting it." She pulled her hand from beneath Tina's. "And I am happy, d.a.m.n it. Don't I look happy?" When Tina gave her a skeptical look, she continued. "I have everything I've ever wanted."

"Oh, yeah, that's why you married a stranger and moved into this monstrosity of a house. Because you're oh so happy and have such a full life."

"I have the life I always wanted and it's a beautiful house."

"It's beautiful, but Gina, you gotta admit it's way over-the-top. It looks like something out of those mansions on One Life to Live One Life to Live. As a matter-of-fact, your life could be a story on a soap opera."

Tina didn't know the half of it, which was something Gina thanked G.o.d for every day. Tina had been too young to remember, Gina had been old enough to remember but too young to stop it. She closed her eyes and tried to feel hopeful. It wasn't working.

Bringing her mind back to the present, Gina chose to ignore the soap opera comment because she'd spent many a night lying in bed thinking the exact same thing and wondering if she'd wake up and find herself in some kind of reality TV show. Things like this just didn't happen to women like her-the illegitimate daughter of a wh.o.r.e and a drug addict. She'd spent the last month looking for the catch in the deal but didn't see one. "I'll admit the house isn't my style but it's an investment." She'd always seen it as an investment in both their futures, and with a whole lot of luck, maybe Rafael's too. Now that Tina shot part of that down, there was no reason why it shouldn't be an investment in she and Rafael's futures. "Once I sell it, I'll buy a little place that fits me and invest the rest. Still, I'd be happier if you'd let me-"

Tina cut her off with a wave of the hand. "Sam and I are happy doing things our way. If he knew you'd even offered-"

"Oh, he'll know. I'll tell him myself. Tina, I always thought I was the stubborn one but now I'm beginning to wonder. You're cutting off your nose to spite your face. It's insane not to take the money even if you want to pay it back with interest. Now is the perfect time to buy a house in a nice, safe neighborhood. The real estate market is down; you'll be able to buy so much more of a house than you could have two years ago, and the interest rates are still so low. They're only going to go up, just wait. Maybe Sam will be able to talk some sense into you."

Tina pushed her plate away. "Ha! A lot you know."

"Fine, then at least get out of your place and move in here. There's tons of room and you and Sam can live rent free for as long as I own it."

"You're doing it again."

"What?"

"Not cutting the ap.r.o.n strings. Besides, don't you think you should ask your husband about that?"

Gina picked up her plate and Tina's and carried them to the sink. "What does he have to do with anything?"