painted what looked to him like the same color of pale yellow that he'd painted Berry's nursery all those years ago. Most everything else in the room was white, including the terry-cloth robe wrapped around Caroline's slender body.
'Berry's exhausted,' she said. 'Upset.'
'Over? Not Starks, I hope. He's getting what he deserves. Unless he dies peacefully, in which case he's getting better than he deserves.'
'As cruel as that sounds, I agree. He continues to torment Berry even as he's dying. She's carrying the burden for everything that happened.'
'Know what I think?' Dodge said. 'I think Starks played her like a fiddle. He kept her feeling sorry for him.'
'I'm sure of it,' Caroline said. 'He's a manipulator.'
Dodge went across to one of the windows and looked out across the back of the property, at the dark forest, the swimming pool and terrace, the lake beyond. It was a pleasing view. The moon was sparkling on the water that gently lapped the lakeshore. The reserve deputies had been withdrawn, returning the landscape to serenity.
Thinking out loud, he said, 'I still don't get why he went into that frigging swamp. Ski's confounded by it, too.'
'I suppose we'll never know. I'm just glad he's where he is now.'
'I'll feel better when he's in the ground,' Dodge said with feeling.
He gave the rear of the property one final, searching survey, then turned back in to the room. Caroline had sat down on the end of the bed. He hesitated, then said, 'Berry and I talked.' He backed up to an upholstered chair and sat down. 'Over cheeseburgers, while you and Ski were dealing with Mercury.'
'She figured it out.'
'I don't think it took her too long.'
'What did you tell her?'
'Everything. The whole ugly truth.'
'You didn't have to, Dodge.'
'Yeah, I did. Not for her, but for me. I needed her to know everything.'
'Why?'
'First off, so she would never blame you for splitting us up. Not that she would ever have a mind to, but I wanted to ensure she wouldn't. Secondly, so that whatever she feels for me is grounded in the cold, hard facts, not some fantasy daddy. I didn't want her view of me to be romanticized.
'By telling her the truth, I took a risk on her despising me. But maybe she'll see some redemption in my not trying to pass myself off as anything other than what I was. What I
'I believe she will. She's always been fair. She's not one to hold grudges, either. Besides, she's told me she likes you. She thinks you're cute.'
He guffawed.
'In a scruffy sort of way.'
'See, that's what I'm talking about,' he said crossly. 'She's seeing me better than I am.' He looked at Caroline and, for the millionth time, felt a shark's bite of regret. 'Not you, though. You saw me for exactly what I was.'
'And loved you anyway.'
A long silence stretched between them. Neither moved or looked away. Eventually she said, 'You didn't knock on my door only to talk about Berry.'
Dodge took a deep breath and expelled it, looked aside, and then came back. 'I never told you I was sorry, Caroline. Talking about it tonight brought back to me...' He stopped, sighed. 'As soon as it was done, it was too late to make it right. Fucking Crystal was the least of it. I know that sounds like a cliche, but I swear to God, it meant nothing. I went through it mechanically, the whole time planning what I was going to do as soon as it was over.
'I didn't betray you with my dick. I betrayed you with my ego. Nothing I said then, or say now, will make any difference. I did it. But I want you to know how sorry I am about it all. When you told me I'd hurt you worse than Roger Campton had, I hated what I'd done. Hated myself for doing it to you and destroying what we had.' He paused, took another soughing breath. 'I've wanted to say this to you for thirty years. I'm sorry for the pain I caused you.'
Her chest stuttered a little when she inhaled. 'Apology accepted.'
'Thank you.' Before he made an utter fool of himself, he slapped the tops of his thighs and stood up. 'I'm beat. I can't even remember this morning.'
'You came into our hotel room in Houston and woke us up.'
'That was today?'
'It's been a long one. But at least Oren Starks was caught. We can rest without worrying over our daughter's safety.' As he made to move past her, she reached for his hand and pressed her fingers around his. 'Thank you, Dodge.'
'I didn't do all that much.'
'You answered my call for help.'
'I'm glad you asked for it.'
'You were the first, the only, person I thought to ask.'
A moment ticked by, then another. She didn't release his hand. Instead, she studied the back of it and traced the ropy veins with her fingertip. Then slowly she turned it over, raised it to her lips, and pressed a kiss into his palm. She held his hand against her mouth for a long time, then looked up at him with eyes he could drown in.
'All these years,' she said huskily, 'and you're still so familiar to me. I would know this hand out of every other hand in the world.'
He just looked at her, not daring to move, or to believe that this was really happening.
'You've had a lot of women since me. Two wives. And many others.'
He made a motion with his shoulder.
'Do you...'
'What?'
'Do you remember anything about me?'
Gruffly, he said, 'Only everything.'
She smiled with uncertainty and a trace of sadness. 'I'm not young and lithe anymore.'
He'd restrained himself for as long as he could, for as long as he was willing to. He pulled her up and clutched her to him. No hug had ever been tighter. He rubbed his face in her hair and poured out the words he thought he'd never have another chance to say.
'You're the only thing I ever loved. God knows.' Placing his finger beneath her chin, he tilted her head up. 'I made such a goddamn mess of it, Caroline, but I wanted you the minute I saw you, and that's never changed.'
She lay across his chest, her cheek pressed against his heart, his chin propped on the top of her head. 'You're quiet,' she whispered.
'I'm old. You wore me out.'
She nudged his crotch with her knee. 'You're a stud.'
'You think?'
She came up on her elbow to look into his face. 'Um-hmm.' He smiled, and she smiled back. She ran her finger across his chin, her eyes moving lovingly over his face. 'Until tonight, you hadn't told me you were sorry. And, until now, I never thanked you.'
'Thanked me?'
'For Berry.'
