Lucky Charm

finesse.”

She bit down on her lower lip. “You haven’t lost your touch, either.” She reached across the divider and clasped his hand inside hers.

Her touch warmed him inside and out, but it wasn’t just the sexual chemistry that had his head spinning and his mind filled with regrets-although that alone was enough to knock him on his ass. It was the woman herself that got to him.

She’d come back into his life after all these years and without any bitterness about the past, she’d accepted his daughter. Just like that. One quick meeting and she’d given Holly everything the girl was missing in her life without hesitation.

No man could walk away from a woman whose heart was that big.

He had no choice.

“Gabby…”

She tipped her head to the side. “Please don’t tell me you still believe in curses.”

“How can I not believe in something that keeps proving itself over and over.” He reached out and stroked her hair. “How can I not want to protect you?”

“Derek, let me make something very clear. I didn’t appreciate you making decisions for me when I was seventeen and I appreciate it even less now. Your kiss made it perfectly clear how you feel about me. Don’t expect me to just walk away from you again.”

Before he could reply, she opened the door and hopped out. “Thanks for the ride,” she said, her voice cheerful.

Clearly she hadn’t listened to a word he’d just said.

His body was glad.

His mind and heart told him she was better off without him.

He ran a hand over his eyes, then slammed his hand against the steering wheel. When in the hell would what he wanted count? Or was the fact that his last name was Corwin stronger than anything else in this world?

He put the SUV in Reverse and pulled out of the driveway, slowing to watch Gabrielle let herself into the car. She stopped to pull a flier from beneath the windshield, glanced at one side and then the other before she crumpled it in her hand and then opened the car door.

The cute convertible suited her personality, he thought as she waved, indicating he could leave.

He drove away, certain of one thing. No matter how difficult it would be, he had to keep his distance. He couldn’t let the curse in his life destroy hers.

GABRIELLE TURNED ON THE ignition and hoped the air-conditioning kicked in fast. Her car, which had been sitting under the hot sun all afternoon, felt like an oven.

Her heart was racing a mile a minute, but it wasn’t just due to Derek’s kiss, nor was it the heat. The note on her car made her uneasy.

She pulled out the paper she’d crumpled so Derek wouldn’t think anything was wrong. But something was very wrong. The flier had been a threat. One side announced her talk at the library. The other had a handwritten warning scrawled in red crayon that read, “Go home or else.”

Gabrielle exhaled long and hard. While she disliked being told what was best for her, threats and ultimatums really ticked her off.

As if she didn’t have enough on her mind…After that kiss, did Derek really think she’d let him walk away? As long as she knew he still cared, she wasn’t going to allow his ridiculous beliefs to stop them from being together any more than she’d let some coward prevent her from speaking out tonight.

When Gabrielle was told no, her determination merely grew stronger. She recrumpled the paper and tossed it across the car.

Watch out, Derek Corwin. Gabrielle was back. And she was going to get what she wanted.

CHAPTER FOUR

DEREK HAD NO INTENTION of going to the library tonight. God knows, he didn’t need to hear any more about a curse he was already intimately familiar with. Unfortunately, after dinner, which he and Holly had shared at his father and his uncle Thomas’s house, Hank was still determined to go.

They were still sitting in the kitchen around the table. Derek rose to help his uncle clear the plates while his father began to rinse and place the rest of the dishes in the dishwasher. Holly had taken Fred for a walk, so when his father began discussing the library talk, Derek figured now was as good a time as any to get things out in the open. Derek didn’t want Holly exposed to the details about the family curses at her young age.

“Do you really want Gabrielle going on about our family history in public? Dragging our dirty laundry through the mud?” Hank asked.

“Excuse me for stating the obvious, but would it change anything? Everyone already knows we’re cursed,” Uncle Thomas said as he finished loading the dishwasher. “There’s no reason to go to the library and provide people with a sideshow.”

When it came to the curse, Uncle Thomas had always been the more rational of the two men. Still, there was no question both brothers had suffered. Hank might have lost the woman he loved, but he’d been one helluva father. A little crazy on this one particular subject, but a solid man nonetheless.

Uncle Thomas had a more colorful personal history. He and Uncle Edward had both fallen in love with the same woman. But Sara Jean Wilder had been dating Uncle Thomas first and she’d stayed with him-out of obligation, Uncle Edward claimed. Uncle Thomas loved her, though. They had three children and remained in a marriage that even Derek knew had been strained until Sara’s death from ovarian cancer two years ago.

Uncle Edward never forgave his brother. Surprisingly though, he’d moved on enough to fall in love with Derek’s aunt Renee. But their marriage, too, which had started out with promise, had been tense. Renee hadn’t been able to deal with Edward’s gruff demeanor and unwillingness to forgive. Eventually, she began to believe rumors around town that she had been Edward’s second choice. They’d had one son, but Aunt Renee had been miserable. They finally divorced. She’d moved on and remarried while Uncle Edward withdrew into himself and became the town loner.

The once-booming family construction business fell apart thanks to the rift between the brothers, resulting in bankruptcy. Afterward, the brothers earned a living by trade. Hank became an electrician, Thomas a handyman and Edward a plumber until he became such an oddity, people in town quit wanting him around. The Corwins had respectable jobs but no longer a thriving business.

Can anyone say curse?

Derek glanced around the small kitchen at his father and uncle. “I agree with Uncle Thomas,” Derek said. “Come on, Dad. Let’s stay home tonight. If none of us acknowledge the talk, maybe the gossip will die down sooner.”

“There’s no chance. Not as long as that Perkins family draws breath,” Hank said.

“You’re starting to sound like one of the Hatfields or the McCoys. Come to think of it, you’re starting to look like one of them, too.”

Tonight Hank’s hair was messier than usual. With his shirt buttoned incorrectly and hanging longer on one side, he looked as if he didn’t give a damn about anything. He liked it that way. But he wasn’t the most wild-looking of the brothers. That distinction belonged to Uncle Ed.

Uncle Thomas, on the other hand, prided himself on always facing talk, scandal or just life in general, looking his finest. When not working with his hands, he dressed immaculately in a collared, button-down shirt and Dockers.

Uncle Thomas chuckled. “You do need a haircut,” he said to his brother.

Hank scowled at him. “Why? Who’s lookin’ at me that I care about?”

“Your granddaughter,” Derek reminded him. “If nothing else, how about cleaning yourself up for her benefit?”