He thought for a long moment. “I once bid eighty thousand for a handwritten sheet of music from Rachmaninoff’s Theme of Paganini.”
“What! Was he going to at least perform it?”
“No, he died in the nineteen hundreds.”
She laughed at such extreme spending. “Why did you want it?”
“It’s beautiful. They used it in the movie Somewhere in Time. Christopher Reeve falls in love with Jane Seymour, a high society actress. He traveled back in time to meet her.” He flushed. “You’re laughing at me.”
“Not at all. I love that you’re such a romantic.” She wanted to know what specifically drew him to the story, to the song. “Do you identify with the movie?”
He shrugged. “He’s just a regular guy, trying to keep up in a foreign world. They see him as an outsider, no matter how much he tries to play the part. But Jane Seymour’s character, Elise, eventually falls in love with him—because he’s different.”
She stared at him, enchanted. “Play it for me.”
He reached for his phone and pressed a few keys. The house suddenly filled with delicate piano notes, building and building like a waterfall of sound so beautiful her eyes tingled with the urge to cry. He lifted her to her feet and pulled the sheet covering her away, letting it fall to the kitchen floor. Then he twirled her as the violins crashed in a crescendo of sheer perfection. The music trailed down her spine like chills, and the piano slowed the pace.
She heard the desperation, heard the longing and passion, felt every desire for belonging, and shut her eyes as the sound faded away in a sound of acceptance or sadness. She couldn’t tell.
“It’s beautiful. Does the movie have a happy ending?”
“Eventually. We can watch it if you want.”
As Jane Seymour’s heart-wrenching scream tore a hole in her heart, she wept into Gage’s arm. “I hate you for making me watch this!”
He laughed. “You wanted to.”
She wiped her nose. “I don’t see how this has a happy ending.”
“Just wait. Soul mates are never gone for good.”
He was right. Sometimes they just got lost somewhere in time.
The week passed like a dream. They stayed tucked away in his house, which slowly began to feel like a familiar home. But by the end of the weekend, the phones started to ring, and the pressure to return to reality troubled both of them.
“What happens after this?” she asked, not wanting to find out.
“Well, I guess you fly home, and I come visit.”
Her stomach lurched at the thought of another flight. “I need to get that medicine.”
“I can arrange your trip.”
A small, modest voice argued that she shouldn’t get spoiled, but she quickly hit that bitch in the head with a frying pan and all her girly parts cheered. They loved Gage. She loved Gage.
Maggie was insistent that she stay as long as she needed, but Perrin sensed her exhaustion over the phone. “I think my sister is having a terrible time with morning sickness. We’re a bunch of pukers in this family.”
He laughed. “Should we talk about the fact that we haven’t even looked for condoms the entire week you’ve been here?”
Perrin blushed guiltily. She wasn’t on the pill and stood a good chance of accidentally getting pregnant. Maybe even subconsciously she tried to sabotage herself into such a fate, not wanting her niece or nephew to grow up without a best friend.
“I can go on the pill if you want,” she offered, but she honestly didn’t want to.
He studied her. “My attorney tried talking me into a vasectomy.”
She frowned. “Why—Oh, God! I would never use pregnancy to go after your money. Please tell me you know that.”
“Just my sperm?”
“Gage, we were both careless.”
“I know. But I figured at some point you’d stop me.”
Her flush deepened to a warm burn. “Fine.” She shrugged. “I don’t think pregnancy would be the worst thing in the world. I’m getting older.”
“Do you want a baby? Last time we discussed children, you said it wasn’t for you.”
Before she answered, she looked into his eyes. “Do you?”
“I’d love a big family. But it might take me a while to consider marriage again.”
She took his hand. “I’m not her.”
“I know. And I’m grateful for it every day.”
They left the topic of marriage and family off the table for now. But when they made love again, a moment of question passed between them. “Should we use something?” he asked, waiting for her decision.
“Would you be upset if we don’t?”
He thought for a moment and then shook his head. “But it’s up to you.”
She pulled him inside of her and gave in to the moment. They never discussed it again.
Chapter 15
Gage drove her to an airfield off the beaten path of the international airport, where the jet waited. She hesitated, not wanting to leave his car or his side.