-WYSIWYG-

What You See Is What You Get

CHAPTER ONE   CHAPTER TWO   CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR   CHAPTER FIVE   CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN   CHAPTER EIGHT   CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN   CHAPTER TWELVE   CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN   CHAPTER FIFTEEN   CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN   CHAPTER EIGHTEEN   CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER ONE

"Shameless flirt!!!!! Sweet-talk me some more!!!" Web page designer Serena Gregory typed the last exclamation point with a flourish, her hand bouncing up in the air Liberace-style caressing his beloved ivories. She played her keyboard as lovingly, as passionately, as if it were an extension of her soul.

Her tom cat, Elvis, meowed loudly, leaping lithely onto her lap. His fuzzy orange and white ringed tail tickled her nose, making her wrinkle it as she stifled a sneeze. Leaning forward, she twisted the volume knob higher so that Beatles music filled the air.

The fluffy feline leaned his head against her hand and rubbed in ecstasy. When she scratched behind his ears, he purred loudly.

Neon words popped up on her computer glowing eerily green in her otherwise dark bedroom. They etched themselves deeper into her heart than in her CRT screen. "I'd know your sweet heart anywhere, Songbird. You light my dreary days. You make this @#$%^&*^%&$# place bearable for me. COBRA offered me two hundred dollars for your picture. I told him not even for a million."

"Why would he do that?" Her heart hammered against her ribs so hard they'd surely crack. Guilt niggled at her when she thought about the photograph she'd sent him.

Picking up Zack's picture in her hands, she stared at it longingly. God but he was handsome in his flight uniform. Face it; with those penetrating eyes, classic Greek features and that Mel Gibson cleft in his chin, he'd be drop dead gorgeous in a loincloth. That is if he'd sent her his real picture and not some cut-out from an Air Force Times magazine.

Heat crept up her neck into her cheeks. He wouldn't be the first to make believe someone else's picture was his... Still, his words reflected a soul of gold. No matter what he looked like, his heart serenaded hers.

A huge sigh hissed out of her chest as she gazed into his soulful eyes. She'd feel so much better if he were lying about his looks. However, she suspected he was too straight arrow to lie. But maybe, just maybe, she could be his beast and he, her beauty.

She stopped herself short. He was half a world away; he'd never see her real self. Why was she even worried about his reaction? He'd never find out to have a reaction.

"Because you're absolutely gorgeous, blondie. Cobra's not the only one throwing money at me for your picture. But they're not getting it for even a million bucks!"

Serena stroked her dark brown hair, then pulled a strand in front of her eyes, gazing at it crosseyed in front of her nose. Then she traced the hideous scar that gouged the length of her cheek from the corner of her right eye to the corner of her lips, a gruesome reminder of the fateful automobile accident that killed her fiancé two years ago and left her half a woman. She felt half glad he couldn't see her real face, sad she would never know his gentle touch, for that matter, any man's touch ever again. No one could love someone as deformed as she. Especially not a dashing Air Force Captain like Zachary Elias Kane.

There was always Ms. Clairol, of course. Unfortunately, she knew of no cover up for her scar except an iron mask. Her chasm of guilt cracked a little wider, but she put a clamp on it. What did it matter that she pretended to be someone she wasn't, that she'd sent her older sister's picture to him instead of her own? She was honest about almost everything except her appearance. An online fling was fun and games. It wasn't for real. He'd never know. And she could dream. What harm would it do to flirt on-line with someone she'd never meet in the flesh?

"Stop! I can't take any more." Serena's fingers flew over her keyboard, driven by her guilt. Elvis protested when she jarred him from his comfy spot on her lap. He opened one green eye and glared at her haughtily. His tail fluttered up and down, a sure sign of his agitation.

"It's torture being so near yet so far from you." She sucked in her breath when she read what her traitorous fingers typed of their own volition. She couldn't breathe, awaiting Zack's words to appear on the screen, her gaze frozen on the blank instant message box where his words would appear.

"I feel the same way, soul mate. Is it possible to fall in love without ever having touched you, held you in my arms or felt your heart beat against mine? Without ever having kissed you?"

"I think so." She mouthed the words as her fingers pounded out the keys in an odd melodious rhythm. "I think I love yo..." She meant to backspace over the last sentence, delete that emotion from her heart as easily as she erased it from the screen. Instead, her finger slipped and the message flew across hyperspace to Iceland, to Zack's computer in his military dorm in probably less than a second. Her hand flew to her mouth to cover her gasp knowing her quest to be impossible.

The bedroom door flung open without ceremony. Serena's gaze collided with her sister's boiling one. Saundra's hands clamped on her hips. "How do you expect me to get romantic with Dillon with that bass rocking the house?"

"I'll turn it down. I didn't think it was that loud." Serena quickly flipped Zack's picture upside down, her heart fluttering at nearly being caught chatting to Zack. He was her most closely guarded secret and she didn't even want her sister to know about him. "Better yet, I'll put on my headphones. Happy?"

Saundra crossed the room, plugged in the headphones and fitted them to Serena's ears. Lifting one, she said, "Thanks Rena. Sorry I was such a bear." She dropped a kiss on Serena's cheek and sashayed from the room, her loose blonde hair swaying beautifully behind her, her long legged stride graceful.

Serena watched her older sister negotiate her room, wistful and more than a little envious of her beauty and her good pair of strong, powerful legs.

Light flashed on the CRT grabbing her attention and a deep groan escaped her throat when she read, "I think I love you, too."

The little pulse at the base of her neck fluttered and she forgot all about Saundra for a second as her mind wandered deep into cyberspace traveling halfway around the world.

Her fingers trembled when she positioned them on the worn keys. "O rjoml ertr npyj vtsxu@@@@" <Enter>.

Saundra sauntered over to Serena and loomed above her, her shadow falling across Serena. Her hands rested lightly on the handles of Serena's wheel chair. She bent at her waist to squint at the computer screen. She chuckled mirthlessly. "What's that supposed to be? Some kind of secret code?"

Serena held her breath, hoping her sister wouldn't read the rest of the conversation as she peered at the screen, grimacing. "No. I just can't type tonight." She craned her neck to gaze at her older sister. Even at this angle she still looked gorgeous. Some folks got all the luck and some got stuck with all life's dirty jokes. In this family, Saundra had all the luck and beauty. Smiling as sweetly as she could muster, anxious to get back to her own man, she said, "Isn't Dillon waiting for you?"

"Sweet Ser-e-na?" She was acutely aware of Zack calling for her. She used her peripheral vision when the screen blinked at her.

"Serena, are you there?" Zack typed.

"You get booted, Songbird?" She could almost hear Zack murmur the words.

"I left his motor running -- I'd better get back before it stalls." She paused at the door. "Rena?"

"I'm sure you can get it running again with no problem." A little chuckle escaped her lips. No man could resist her sister. On the other hand, if she didn't type something soon, she'd lose her connection to her man and there was no guarantee she'd be able to get back on tonight. The seconds seemed interminable.

"You could play something really romantic perhaps? Righteous Brothers or Lionel Richie? That is if you take off the headphones?" Closing the door, she left Serena alone with Zack again.

"Ser-e-na?"

She scurried back to the keyboard, her fingers gliding over the keys. "I'm here fly boy. Nothing could tear me from your side," Serena zipped out the words. She put her fingers to her lips, kissed them, then touched the screen lightly and blew.

"What happened?" Zack asked

"Nothing to worry about. Just a slight technical difficulty. But she's gone now." She took a sip of Spritzy Soda. Its bubbles tickled her nose and she wrinkled it. "I have a surprise for you. Do you want to know what it is?"

"You're a tease. What do you think???????? <<waiting with baited breath, eager to take you in my loving arms, kiss your hot lips...>>."

"Is that a yes or a no?" Serena slid her mouse across the pad and opened her special wav folder. Quickly, she scanned until she found the special recording she'd made just for Zack.

"Yes!!!!!!!! Now!!!!!!!!"

"<G> BRB!" Serena opened the 'compose E-mail' menu. Her fingers flew over the keys while she sent her special message to him. She smiled in anticipation of his reaction. She knew he'd love it.

"I just sent it to you in an email. Check it now and tell me what you think," Serena typed.

"BRB," Zack said.

Since he'd be right back, she had a few seconds to move around. Yanking the earphones off of her ears, she turned off the CD player. Much as she loved the Beatles, she could only take so much of John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Sometimes Ringo's exuberant drumming rang in her ears. She reached for her guitar that leaned against her computer desk. Lovingly she cradled it in her lap, getting the feel of its smooth wood and gently curving arches. It fit perfectly in her arms.

She closed her eyes and strummed a few simple chords to warm up her fingers. Humming to herself, she picked her favorite melody.

When she finished, she opened her eyes slowly and smiled at the screen.

"That's beautiful, Serena. Who is it?" Zack asked.

She put the guitar back in its place gently then put the keyboard on her lap.

"<G> I wrote that song for you, fly boy, and recorded it. That's me on the guitar. I made it into a wav file. It's really simple. Do you want me to show you how?"

"Send the instructions to me in an email or I'll never remember. BTW...Is that your voice? It's incredibly beautiful."

Serena glowed, lowering her eyelids even though she knew he couldn't see her. Heat suffused her cheeks. She caught her bottom lip in her teeth.

"Yes. That's me. I play and sing a little. I thought you might like it. <<blushing, biting lower lip, glad you like it>>."

"I love it. Can I let Bulldog and the guys listen?" Zack asked.

"You mean they aren't looking over your shoulder?" Serena asked. Talking with her fingers was so much easier than the old fashioned method of talking with her voice. She was rarely self-conscious and she could be herself.

She wondered what the guys looked like. She'd have to ask Zack for a picture of the gang -- later. She wondered if any of them resembled Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer in Top Gun.

"I told you, you're all mine. Bulldog and Cobra had better not lay a hand on this keyboard! But it's time for lights out. We have an early run tomorrow," Zack said.

"But I have another surprise for you!" Serena's brows drew together in one straight line. Her fingers practically set the keyboard on fire.

"It'll have to wait till tomorrow. Bulldog's hitting the lights. If I don't go now, I'll have to shower in the dark."

"Don't torture me!!!!!!!" Visions of Zack's whipcord thighs and sinewy shoulders loomed in her mind's eye. Unconsciously, she moaned, hugging herself tightly to stifle the womanly desires firing up in the pit of her belly.

"I'll E-mail it to you," Serena informed him.

"<<G>> Do that! Until tomorrow, Songstress!"

"Cyber hugs and kisses fly boy. Till tomorrow -- -- -- -- -- > I'll await your arrival with my heart in my hands in our private room. Wear your best cologne. I'll be the one with the yellow rose in her teeth." Her brows danced in anticipation and she couldn't stop the secretive smile that seduced her lips.

"I'll bring the ladder to your balcony...till tomorrow. Remember...seven p.m. sharp your time," Zack crooned over cyberspace.

"I'll remember......{S Goodbye}." Already she longed for tomorrow night, for that tenuous connection between them.

"Dream of me!!!!!!! {S Goodbye}." A tinny computer voice actually said Goodbye in a robotic voice. She wondered for the zillionth time what his real voice sounded like, dreaming of a deep, silky voice that would caress her ears.

Serena stared at the screen when Zack's screen name, Zack ACE, blinked off. She felt bereft and lonely without it. Strange how black and white words on her computer screen filled her with such joy, with such yummy feelings. She picked up the pilot's photograph, held it before her and leaned back in her chair, staring at the computer generated image printed out by her color bubble jet printer that she had just ordered online. One minute he was here, consuming her world. The next he was gone as if he'd never existed. Was he just a fantasy? A figment of her imagination?

"What in the world am I doing? Someone's going to drop a net on me if they find out I fell in love over the Internet." The words she whispered to herself, rang out loud in the small room. She let out a long sigh as she leaned back stretching her cramped arms.

She typed several commands rapidly. Pleased with her handy work, she smiled at the screen.

Before her eyes, her new web page flashed onto the screen. Twin SR-71Black Birds soared above the clouds reaching for the heavens. In Shelley Volant script, she'd written, Zack Ace's Guardian Angel. Wispy angels opened their arms in the background. "The flash sequence works!"

She closed it down and sent an email to Zack.

"My Dearest love," she typed. "I made a web page for you. To see your second surprise, go to Guardian Angel. I have to get to work now. Safe flying! Love, Your Songstress."

The operation took a few seconds longer to send than usual and she worried her lip with her teeth, wondering if the upload would take. Finally, the message telling her the email had been sent flashed on the screen comforting her.

Expelling a deep sigh, Serena pushed herself even closer to the computer and sat up stiffly. Fun time was over. It was time to make a living.

She opened her newest creation, regarding the web page critically with her artist's keen eyes. The design didn't grab her attention as much as she would have liked. Spritzy Soda wanted a page that would knock Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Shasta down a few notches. This one sure wouldn't accomplish that the way it floundered now. She supposed it sufficed for the ordinary Joe Blow but she demanded perfection. Better than perfection, she demanded poetry in motion. "Move over Nissan," she murmured, "Barbie's going to dump G.I. Joe after she sees this!"

It had to be something so dynamite, so revolutionary, so spectacularly brilliant, that Coke, Pepsi, and Shasta would come begging to her on their hands and knees to design their web pages. Drumming her fingers lightly over the keys, she explored every nook and cranny of her brain. A mere ten percent functioning brain power wouldn't work for this assignment. She needed one hundred ten percent!

But the ideas just weren't flowing tonight. Zack filled her thoughts. Images of him crowded out everything else. Her flesh tingled just thinking about him and a dreamy smile curved her lips crookedly. Closing her eyes, she leaned back in her chair, going with the flow. Sometimes, the best ideas came when she didn't fight herself, when she let inspiration flow instead of bullying it along.

For the second time, she cradled her guitar in the nook of her arms and picked the strings to a haunting melody, letting it flow through her.

She dozed to sleep with a smile on her lips.

CHAPTER TWO

"Tell me your deepest, darkest fantasies. Introduce me to your soul," Zack wrote.

Serena sucked in a deep breath and wrinkled her nose. "Do I dare tell you? Do I even know?" she typed, searching the recesses of her mind and heart. Then she smiled cattily, tapping her fingers on the tinny sounding keyboard.

"You can tell me anything. Then I'll tell you mine."

Leaning forward in her chair, Serena fired out, "<<G>> How do I really know you're Zack and not Bulldog or one of the other guys?" She quirked one finely arched brow. At times like these, video conferencing would be worth platinum. Then again, that would go two ways and she didn't want him or anyone to see the real her.

"ROFLOL. Really, I'm hurt. <<heart breaking>> Don't you know me well enough by now? I'm the one who brings the ladder to your balcony. You await me with a yellow rose clenched in your teeth," Zack teased.

"Okay, it's you. <<tinkling laughter>> Uhm! Let me see. My deepest, darkest fantasy? Butterscotch!" Serena got a big kick out of letting loose and flirting so shamelessly. The anonymity of the Internet lent her courage she hadn't had since before the accident.

"You can do better than that!" Zack challenged.

Ah! But he couldn't delve into her mind and see what she saw -- butterscotch. Lots and lots of butterscotch. Nor would she elaborate. Some things a girl just had to keep to herself. Mystery really paid off. It intrigued men so much more than brazen straightforwardness."Chocolate?! {but I really prefer butterscotch!}"

"Se-re-na!!! I know you can do better than that!" She could just hear his raspy whisper all the way through cyberspace. She could feel her name on his lips and it sounded sexier, sultrier than she could have ever imagined possible. Tingles slid down her spine. She shivered deliciously.

She searched the deep recesses of her mind for a moment for a reply that would knock his socks off and leave him panting for more without being too...too explicit. Teasing him proved really fun. She hadn't flirted with anyone since her fiance had died in that terrible automobile wreck.

Doug's memory didn't cripple her heart as it once had whenever something reminded her of him even though she'd forever love him. Finally, she was healing, little by little, day by day.

Humming to herself, she smiled. It felt good.

A lightbulb lit up in her mind. The obvious!

"Flyboys with butterscotch and yellow roses under the moonlight by the brook!" Serena punched the keys with glee. Summer nights under the stars and moonlight had always been her favorite time, even before the accident. Ohio had the most perfect summers and nothing could compare to a sultry summer breeze with spray from the brook caressing her face -- well, almost nothing. Zack's arms around her would be better.

"Ooh baby! I think I bit off more than I can chew. <<getting all hot and bothered -- better than zeroing in on a Mig>>," Zack said.

Serena laughed joyously. "ROFL...ROFLOL!!!" Had Doug ever been so many laughs? She chuckled heartily and Donny pranced up and down, yapping his little white and black Lhapso Apso head off, demanding her attention.

"Okay, boy. Okay." She bent over and scratched his ears then lifted the little dog on her lap, petting him. He licked her face with his scratchy, wet tongue. "I love you, too," she crooned in her best doggy-ease, running her hand over his silky tail, luxuriating in its texture.

Donny panted, his tail wagging a mile a minute begging for more special attention.

"Okay, it's your turn. Fess up. What's your favorite fantasy?????" Serena demanded, licking her lips.

"That comes under the heading Top Secret Information," Zack said.

Serena yanked straight in her chair indignantly. "Promise breaker!"

"We-e-ell. If you beat me at Multi-Fighter Techno Wars, I'll divulge everything - - more than your little heart ever wanted to know."

She could just see him snickering all the way through cyberspace. Okay, she'd get him this time. "Sneaky devil! I should have known this was a trick! <<PMSing>> Don't you get tired of flying and jets?"

"Never ever. There's only one other way to get closer to heaven. We-e-e-el, maybe two...<<grinning lasciviously>>," Zack teased.

"I'm not going to go there," Serena taunted. "You men are soooooooooo exasperating! <<throwing head back in frustration! gritting teeth>>." In actuality, she held her forehead in her hand and shook her head. Men.

"Thank you, we aim to please."

"ROFL." Serena bit her bottom lip, thinking. This idea had been formulating in the back of her mind for weeks but she hadn't had the nerve to ask before. But now...He was stuck in Iceland with the polar bears and penguins for at least nine more months. What could it hurt to tell him the real truth about herself? "I have a condition..."

"Demands????? <<raising an eyebrow>> Let me see, he says to himself, what could she want of me>>?"

The moment of courage evaporated before she could tell him about her crippled legs or scarred cheek. "Okay smart guy! Don't get huffy on me. I want your snail mail address. I want to send you a care package." Serena threw caution to the north winds, ignoring the niggling voice of caution in her brain. She could never resist a challenge although no one had thrown one at her since before Doug had died, which made this doubly irresistible.

"Care package <<ears perk up, salivating>>. You mean like home made chocolate chip cookies and All My Children video tapes? <<dying to find out what happens to Erika>>."

She could practically see him salivating. "I could be persuaded...For a price." She hadn't a clue what her price would be. Her fingers had just taken control of her body, developing a mischievous mind of their own. It was as if they held the rest of her ransom.

"Name it!" Zack demanded as if in hostage negotiations over some dangerous Third World dictator general instead of chocolate chip cookies and soap operas.

She glanced out her bay window at the slowly setting sun over the sycamores and elms. Sunset, so gorgeous, so heavenly, was one of her favorite times of the day. Her artist's eye devoured the shifting hues of sunlight as the night sky conquered the daylight like a warrior in a chariot. Tonight proved particularly spectacular. Although she was in ordinary run of the mill, Strawberry Point, Ohio, small town non-extraordinaire, tonight's sunset came straight from the Arizona deserts -- all burnt orange with wisps of yellow and gold weaving through. An Inca sunset. It strained through the old elm that gently raked her dormer windows, leafy shadowy patterns shifting and swaying over her white pile carpeting.

"Yellow roses, butterscotch and dancing in the moonlight..." She hugged herself close, smiling dreamily, imagining being held in his strong arms, sniffing his aftershave which of course would be musky, just perfect for a rugged, yet debonair jet fighter pilot.

Tom Cruise move over! ZackAce is burning up the skies for real.

But then she remembered she couldn't dance and probably never would again except maybe in her dreams. Besides, she needed music to complete the picture. Soft, romantic music. She had a sudden urge to hear soft romantic melodies. Sifting through her stack of CDs, she found her favorites. Unchained Melody, Wild Summer Nights, Reunited, In My Room. Quickly, she programmed her CD player to play only those particular tunes, over and over. First, she had to hear Hotel California, let it's haunting melodies float over her.

"What song would you like me to play for you Songstress?" Zack asked.

"Hotel California...Hold me close, my darling. <<sighing>>." Closing her eyes, she let the music drift over her for a few seconds. It filled her, lit desires in her that scared her, that made her flick off the power switch as if that could switch off her heart. "Let's not go there after all. Are you ready to get the pants beaten off you, fly boy?" Serena challenged.

"What's wrong, Songstress?"

She stared at the screen motionlessly for several seconds. Slowly, she punched the keys like she was destroying the demons that taunted her in her nightmares -- demons that struggled for control of her soul. "I just want things to be real, really real. And that's impossible..." She stared out the window. A tear slid down her cheek. A star twinkled in the twilight. The last rays of the sun dipped behind leafy tree tops. Her world of the night that she had inhabited since the accident greeted her.

She shivered, longing for the sunlight again, longing for Zack's warmth to chase away the icy fingers of night that gripped her.

She shook herself mentally. What was wrong? She always loved the night, embraced it, longed for it and hid in its darkness. Creatures of the twilight world didn't care if her face was hideously scarred. She sort of fit in in a weird way.

"Why? Why is it impossible?" Zack asked.

She forced her mind back to Zack, glad she hadn't scared him off. "You're in Iceland!!!!! I'm in Strawberry Point -- -> half way across the world!!!!! You're an exciting fighter pilot. I'm a nobody. Wake up and smell the cyber coffee. This is all a game. You're not real. This isn't real!!"

"I am real, my sweet Ser-e-na. If I could, I'd take you in my arms and show you how real!!!!"

"And Se-re-na <<rasping your name>>. You are important. You're the most intelligent person I know. I love your web pages, your music, your voice, your soul!!!! Without you, I'd die on this iceberg. Promise me you won't leave me. Promise me. "

Serena sucked in a deep breath. Her lungs ached. Her fingers twitched to tell him anything he wanted to hear, anything at all. But this wasn't real. It was just words on a computer screen.

"I don't know." Serena mouthed the words under her breath that she typed. Her shadow taunted her in the darkening room.

"Ser-e-na. I love you!!!"

She could almost hear his voice again in her imagination, rasping her name in that deep, sultry voice that broke with heartache and longing. He knew she couldn't deny him anything. He seemed to reach across cyberspace, delve deep into her soul and know her deepest, darkest desires, secrets and weaknesses.

Maybe Zachary Elias Kane was her soul mate. Maybe, just maybe, such wonderful things truly existed -- outside space, time and continuum, within the deep realms of their cyberspace world.

She relented, for now at least. Sighing, she typed, "What do you want in your care package?"

"That's my Songstress! The guys composed a must have list. Are you ready?" Zack asked.

She could imagine the challenging note in his voice -- a voice that would be deep and rich as milk chocolate but with just a hint of sarcasm in it. Grabbing a pen and her handy dandy note pad that she scribbled her web page ideas on for future reference, heat suffused her cheeks when her gaze alighted on a doodle of Zack's name with a heart surrounding it.

She drug her eyes away with extreme force. "Remember, chocolate will melt."

"Not in Iceland. LOL."

"Yep. I hope you take shorthand...Here goes...Chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, Entemann's butter cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, some of that Cincinnati chili mix you rave about all the time, mint café olait, chocolate c..."

"Whoa fly boy!!!! That's a gastroacidic nightmare!!!! Don't you guys think of anything but your stomachs?" Her own stomach grumbled, reminding her she hadn't given it anything but a banana and a glass of milk all day. Lately, she hadn't been very hungry.

"Well, you said nothing weird."

"Men!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why don't you just email me the list?"

"Or you could cut and paste this into email."

She could see the smirk on that handsome face. Serena chewed on the end of her pen thoughtfully. His requests wouldn't be too hard to fulfill. But she wondered if it would arrive in one gooey, chocolately melted mess. And the postage would cost more than the contents of the package. Oh well, that meant she'd just have to triple wrap the All My Children videos in thick plastic and hope for the best. Zack and his buddies defended their country far away from home, stuck on some desolated iceberg. She supposed she could make such a small sacrifice. She kissed his picture and put it in front of her. Those rakish hazel eyes seemed to probe her very soul.

"So will you send it? Do I get my chocolate chip cookies? I like 'em gooey and soft," Zack said.

"You don't ask for much, do you fly boy?" She doodled his name on the notepad several more times, in various different gyrations. She wasn't really mad at him. But she loved to pull his chain. He was so easy, so fun to tease.

"Listen, Serena, if I'm asking too much, don't. I don't want to put you out," Zack said, suddenly somber -- or so she presumed.

"Zack!!!! <<hanging head, sneaking peeks at you through my eyelashes>> I was just teasing. I'll get you all that and more. But I'm not responsible if it melts en-route -- or if you gain a hundred pounds. Deal?" Serena said.

"That's my girl!!!! I knew you'd come through. <<rubbing stomach, dreaming of gooey chocolate chip cookies>>," Zack said.

"E-mail me your list and your address so I can print it out. I'll start taping All My Children tomorrow." She chuckled under her breath. The thought of seven grown he-men, called silly macho names like Bulldog, Cobra and Black Jack, crowded around the boob tube and drooling over soap operas tickled her to death. Iceland must be the most boring place on earth if chocolate chip cookies and soap re-runs excited them so much.

"Bulldog's swooning in anticipation of drooling over Erika...Are you ready to die at Tech Wars?" Zack couldn't get enough of his flying, real or virtual, it seemed.

"Eat my dust. fly boy!!!!!!" she typed with a flourish, anticipation searing her veins. She'd beat Zack at his own game this time. She could taste her victory already. Each time they played, she learned more and more of his moves. She proved a very fast learner. She'd outmaneuver him with his own defensive tactics.

***

"Serena?" Saundra pushed the slightly ajar door to Serena's bedroom open wide. She stepped tentatively into the dark room, her head turning toward Serena, her beautiful face still in shadow.

Serena sat next to her bay window that overlooked the little brook where she sometimes escaped for utter peace and solitude. Moonlight bathed the silvery water in its gentle glow. The old elm fluttered in the gentle summer breeze that came through her open window, cooling her heated flesh.

She strummed her guitar softly, singing low, not stopping when she glanced up at her sister who towered over her questioningly. Donny and Marie curled up at her feet, their little pink noses peeking out from beneath their black and white paws that covered their eyes. Their droopy ears spread over their paws as well. Donny's bushy tail fluttered over her bare ankles, caressing them.

Saundra perched delicately on the edge of the bay window seat. She stroked her sister's hair. "Dillon's cousin Dennis is in town tonight. We want you to double date with us. There's a new movie at the Twin. He's paying."

Serena kept singing, not moving away from her sister, but not responding, either.

Saundra heaved a deep sigh. "You know it's not healthy to hide in your room so much," Saundra said gently, inching closer to Serena, accidentally bumping against the neck of the guitar, making Serena strike a discordant note. "If you put your hair down, like this," Saundra pulled the rubber band out of Serena's hair that pulled it back severely from her face, and let it fall over Serena's cheeks, "and if we hot roll it so it curves over your cheeks, with some base and foundation cover up, the scar will barely show."

Serena pulled away slightly, her hand fluttering to her face. She stroked her scar, wondering if Saundra truly believed what she said.

"I don't think so," Serena whispered. Chills skipped down her spine. Her grip tightened on her guitar.

"I've been telling you so. You know you'd be very pretty if you'd just pamper yourself a little -- wear a little make up, let your hang hair down instead of scraping it back, get a little sunlight."

Serena turned away, staring at the moon. Was Zack gazing at that same moon? Did the same stars twinkle over him? Maybe he'd gone to sleep hours ago. She kept forgetting Iceland lay in some forsaken frozen wasteland hours before her time zone. It would be nearly sunrise there -- the dawn of a new day.

"Serena? Did you hear a word I said?" Saundra murmured, a worried frown in her eyes.

Serena turned back, a sad smile playing on her lips. "I don't think so. I-I'm not ready yet."

"It's been more than two years. Doug would want you to go on without him. He wouldn't want you to hide your life away in this room," Saundra insisted.

"I know." Serena sighed. "But it's not because of Doug. I miss him -- I always will. He was wonderful. But..." Her thumb rubbed the bottom of the scar that met her lips, feeling the little ridge that loomed giant as a boulder in her mind. And she tried to move her feet to no avail. Even if Saundra could help her hide the scar -- which would be impossible without a mask -- she couldn't hide the wheel chair.

Saundra cupped her hand against Serena's scar and turned her face forcing Serena to meet her steady gaze. "You're beautiful, little sister. Inside and out. The scar doesn't matter. Or your legs."

Serena looked at Saundra disbelievingly. She couldn't really believe what she was saying.

"It doesn't," Saundra repeated with conviction, letting her hand fall to her side, stretching to her full height. Her long blond hair flowed past her shoulders, blowing away from her high sculpted cheekbones in the gentle July breeze. Her china blue eyes blazed with love and concern. "Will you come? Please! Do it for me."

Serena couldn't stand that pleading note in her sister's voice -- that one that oozed love and concern. She could take almost anything else but that. She sighed heavily and wrinkled her nose, sitting up straighter in her chair. Her fingers dug into the padding on her chair. She couldn't do this. Not now. Perhaps not ever.

Maybe time would dull the pain. Maybe she'd get used to being in this chair.

She shook her head, her hair swinging around her face like a velvety curtain. "I-I really can't," she whispered. "Tell Dillon and his cousin I'm sorry."

CHAPTER THREE

"What are you doing Songstress? Composing more music?" Zack typed.

"Talking to you! What do you think? <<would you like me to write another love song?>> <G>" Serena chuckled, smiling crookedly. She caught her reflection in the computer screen and noticed how the light in her limpid brown eyes danced and how her full, slightly off-kilter lips curved happily. Was that really her? Pulling her dark mahogany hair over her scar, she moved side to side, regarding herself critically.

Not too, too bad. Thick brows framed intelligent eyes and a pert nose, a little too pert for her liking, but not too bad. She shared her sister's high sculpted cheek bones and heart shaped face. If only, she sighed deeply, pulling her thick hair away from her scar, leaning closer to the terminal for a better look. If only the windshield hadn't slashed the left side of her face so hideously. She supposed she should be thankful that it hadn't cut her entire face, that her heart still pounded in her chest.

"What else are you doing? <<I'm eating the last of the delicious chocolate chip cookies, chocolate on my lips!>>" Was Zack hinting that he wanted another care package? More cookies?

"<<G>> Uhhhhmmmm!! You're teasing me!!! And, my, aren't we NOSY tonight? Actually, I have Elvis, Donny & Marie and Buddy Holly in my room for a concert," Serena teased.

"Now who's the smart aleck?! <<BTW, that was a hint!!!!!!!!!>>"

Serena quirked an eyebrow at the screen, then scratched Buddy Holly behind his ears. He wagged his fluffy tail excitedly. His tongue lolled out his mouth, panting heavily. Donny and Marie yipped and yapped, prancing around her bare feet vying for her attention. "Okay, okay!!!" Serena laughed. "Don't get so jealous. I love you all," she crooned, taking turns scratching each of them on their soft heads and rubbing their tender bellies when they rolled on their backs bicycling their doggie paws in the air.

Elvis opened one supercilious eye, flattened one ear, swished his fluffy tail and mewed as if to tell the noisy, irritating canines, stop bothering me, let me sleep! Tucking his face under his paw deep against his belly, he curled in the middle of her china white comforter, one giant orange fluff ball that reminded her of a big orange pom-pom on a roller skate.

Serena grimaced. His fur made one giant orange mess in this July heat. He shed everywhere. If her mother were home, she'd be on her hands and knees with the dust buster and a magnifying glass vacuuming up every last piece of cat fur.

But she and her father were living it up in Europe for the summer and she and Saundra had the house to themselves. Obviously. Darling Dillon kept Saundra company almost every evening and she herself played her music louder than usual. But not too loud. Otherwise, super curious Gladys next door would call the vice squad, adding it to her "what your girls did while you were gallivanting in Europe" list she was undoubtedly compiling with glee. Well, Gladys would never see Zack like she could see Dillon zooming in and out of here on his motorcycle. No one would ever find out about Zack. He was her secret.

"Not me dear fly boy. Elvis is here keeping me company. <<BTW -- -- -- - > I baked more chocolate chip cookies for you, but you know how hungry Elvis gets..." Serena teased.

"Are you trying to make me jealous? Or did I just cyber jump into some alternate universe? Is Jim Morrison there, too?" Zack asked.

"Nope. Not tonight. It's just you, me and the regular gang." There was practically a crowd.

"I see you got my package. Are the cookies good? I baked them myself," Serena admitted.

"Got it yesterday. The guys gobbled most of it up already. And we've watched All My Children reruns three times each. (Love that Erika.)"

At least he liked dark-haired women. Of course, Erika Kane was gorgeous beyond belief, in a league of her own. But it was a start. She didn't feel quite as terrible for not being a blonde like her sister. "Already? What do you guys do there for entertainment?"

"Uh. Personally, I wrestled a polar bear yesterday, ice skated with the penguins, went ice fishing with a couple of old Eskimo buddies..." Zack said.

"Come on, fly boy! It's July! Iceland gets a little warm in July doesn't it?" A gentle breeze rustled Serena's eyelet lace curtains. Elm tree branches scraped gently against her window. She felt a sudden urge to visit the brook, skip stones and wade ankle deep. Heck, she felt pretty good these days. If only she could still wade knee high in her rolled up blue jeans she'd be in Heaven.

She studied her little dogs. They were getting too hippy. They could use a good romp outside. She didn't take them out nearly enough anymore. "You're a little roly poly, aren't you Marie?"

Marie yapped delightedly, loving to be singled out for special attention. She jumped in the air, pirouetting for a doggie treat, her ears flopping around her.

"Not tonight girl. I'm fresh out of doggie biscuits," Serena crooned.

When Serena didn't come across, Marie finally curled up at her feet whimpering.

"A little. But it's still chilly. <<hugging self, wishing you were here to cuddle with, Ser-e-na!>> Mix up a magic potion for me?" Zack asked.

Serena felt suddenly warm and tingly all the way down to her toes. Her heart accelerated from sixty beats a minute to mach three. She hugged Buddy Holly, rubbing her cheek against his silky fur, wishing he were Zack. She tickled Marie with her toes.

"Oohhhh! I love the way you say "Ser-e-na". I get all goose pimply and warm all over." This called for some soft music. The Eagles track still lay in the CD player and she turned on Hotel California, her favorite. Closing her eyes for a long moment, she let the haunting melody wash over her.

"Songstress, I love you. Can we dance? What music do you want me to play?" Zack asked.

Dance? Pain washed over her. Of course he had no clue she'd probably never be able to dance again. Or how much she loved to dance. She and Doug had danced under the moonlight so many times...It seemed her dancing days died with him. One part of her wanted to tell Zack about Doug, about her legs, about her scarred cheek, but another stronger part, wouldn't permit her to open up this much to him. At least not yet. Perhaps one day. For now, she'd pretend. "Turn on Hotel California and take me in your arms my fly boy. Squeeze me tight. Kiss me..." She sucked in a deep breath staring at her words, wondering if she should hit the send key or if she should backspace over it.

"Ser-en-a!!!! I'm waiting..." Zack crooned.

She smiled dreamily and caressed the <Enter> key. Singing along softly, she imagined herself in Zack's arms, leaning her head against his warm shoulder, listening to his strong heartbeat, swooning to the scent of his spicy aftershave...

"Hold me tight, Songstress. Run your fingers through my hair, kiss my neck...<<gazing deeply into your china blue eyes>>," Zack said.

"China blue eyes? What? My eyes are deep brown." Serena almost hit the enter key when she remembered her little white lie -- in this case her blue lies.

She gasped, then quickly, carefully highlighted then deleted her tell tale words before her gig was up for good. His very understandable mistake yanked her out of the dream world she'd fallen into. "I have to be more careful," she murmured. Donny yapped, concurring. He stood on his hind legs, placing his front paws on her chair.

She narrowed her eyes at the little dog. "When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it!" Softening, she tickled his belly.

Quickly, she added, "<<sighing>> I don't know how much more I can take. Being apart from you is pure misery. I know our souls were meant to be together. Perhaps...perhaps, we knew each other in another life, in our pre-mortal existence. Do you believe in that?" Her brows knit together. She wrinkled her nose and bit her bottom lip. She leaned back in her chair awaiting his reply. She'd never really believed in reincarnation, but there was some cosmic connection between them.

"I knew you were mine, my sweet Ser-e-na. I knew your soul the moment we met. I felt the connection. I know we are meant to be together, here, now, forever. <<my arms ache to hold you, my lips ache to kiss yours>>.

This was getting too, too intense. She'd need an ice cold shower after this online session. The desires in the pit of her belly flamed out of control. Her fingers trembled on the keys. Her breathing rasped deep in her lungs.

Staring at Zack's picture, she marveled for the billionth time at just how handsome he was. She longed to have him all to herself, to share stardust and delight with him, to forget all sense of time and place, forget everything except him and his arms and his lips and his...

Shaking herself, she forced herself out of this delicious delirium. But it wasn't easy with a dreamy smile still pasted to her lips and a song in her heart. She began to feel the rhythm, to hear the melody of a new song, Zack's song, deep inside. Tonight she would write a love song for Zack, a song that would live in her heart forever and ever. By tomorrow, it would wing its way to Iceland over the information super highway.

Cradling Buddy Holly in her arms, she lifted him, looming over her computer. She laid him on her lap, then rolled them to the bay window seat and laid him in his favorite doggie bed. Leaning over from her chair, she kissed his head. "Sweet dreams." His feet pawed the air and she smiled. "Good hunting, boy!"

She stretched her arms to the ceiling, getting the kinks out of her shoulders. Crossing her arms over her chest, she hugged herself, rocking back and forth.

Opening her eyes, she looked around for her guitar. She'd left it by the window, her second favorite spot in her bedroom, second only to her computer. It was great to sit in her bay window under the moonlight and strum her guitar softly. Sometimes, she thought the stars twinkled just for her.

A bright flash of light caught her eye. She blinked, then a smile curved her lips.

A shooting star lit the heavens, leaving magic cosmic dust trailing in its wake, inviting her to make a very special wish.

She didn't even have to think twice. She already knew what she wished for. Zack, in the flesh, here in her arms, forever through eternity.

Zack!

How long had she been dreaming? Had she been booted off line? Would he think she was angry at him?

Spinning her chair around, racing for the computer, she reached it just in time to click the button that warned her the system was going to boot her off line any second if she didn't respond.

"Songstress?" Zack asked.

"Serena, are you there?" Zack called again.

"Ser-e-na? Ser-e-na? Did you fly into the Heavens?" Zack teased.

She expelled a grateful sigh.

"I'm here, fly boy," Serena typed and rasped aloud.

"I was afraid I'd have to sign off without saying goodnight to you. Bulldog's flicking the lights. Sometimes I feel like a kid again, being in the Air Force. All these rules and regulations. Living in this dorm like one big sleep-over -- Stephen King style."

She could well imagine his dorm -- at least from military movies she'd watched over the years. Whether they truly depicted life in the military she didn't know. She'd have to make a note to ask Zack sometime. "Never my darling! You're all man and you're all mine!" Serena said.

"Forever Songstress. But I really have to go now. Please send me another care package asap!" Zack pleaded.

"I'll start taping All My Children and baking more cookies." She chuckled under her breath. Just the thought of swaggering fighter types hunched in front of a television console drooling over Erika Kane gave her goose pimples along her arms. She never would have imagined in a million trillion years...

"You're too good to me. I'll make it up to you," Zack promised.

"Just don't leave me, ever!" Serena made him promise.

"I won't, not ever in a million years...Meet me tomorrow night for Multi Techno Wars?" Zack challenged.

"You're soooooooo romantic! How could any girl say no to such a request?" Serena laughed aloud.

"How about if I serenade you on your balcony first? And bring you yellow roses? I'll bring you chocolates!" Zack changed gears.

"Make it butterscotch and you've got yourself a deal!" Serena teased.

"Done. Wear your hair down full of moonlight and put a yellow rose in your teeth, Songstress! Bring your guitar and sing to me," Zack said.

"I will, fly boy. I will." She connected to her web browser, found her favorite electronic greeting card company and sent a batch of yellow cyber roses to Zack with a mushy message of love and longing, then leaned back in her chair and smiled dreamily.

"Tell Elvis you're all mine! (^-^)"

Serena smiled at the big tom cat stretching on her bed, wondering if he'd fight the real Elvis for her. "I promise." She whispered, "Elvis, I'm all Zack's!"

Elvis yawned a monster yawn and swished his tail lazily as if he were a horse swatting away a pesky fly.

"You don't even care, do you boy?" Serena chuckled softly.

The tom cat rolled over to his other side ignoring her. His fluffy tail swished up and down lazily.

"Till tomorrow. Sweet dreams fly boy! Dream of me! <<I'll hold you in my dreams, kiss your lips tenderly...>> {S Goodbye}," Serena murmured.

"Sweet dreams, my sweet Ser-e-na. Dream of me! {S Goodbye}." Zack's words seemed to croon but the electronic voice of her computer sounded tinny like an android when it said, Goodbye. Again, she felt as if she'd slipped into Captain Kirk's futuristic world of star studded nights and far away galaxies.

ZackAce blinked off the screen.

Donny and Marie started yapping and prancing about her feet. Marie nipped her ankle gently. Donny bounded for her closed door and jumped up on it. He turned his head and stared at her panting.

Serena chuckled, sighing. "Okay. I can take a hint." She signed off line and shut down her computer. The room darkened except for moonbeams skirting through her open window.

She laid her guitar down gently by her computer. She whistled as she spun her chair around. "Come on Buddy. Time for a walk."

Buddy's ears perked up and leapt out of his bed, frisky and wide awake as if he'd only pretended to sleep.

Serena's three little pooches yapped up a storm, jumping in the air like trained circus dogs. Marie looked so adorable with her new pink ribbons bow tied around each ear.

"I know," she chuckled. "Yadda, yadda, yadda," she teased, opening her door and the dogs bounded down the hall.

Moonlight greeted her when she wheeled over the threshold to the outside world. Crisp night air caressed her heated flesh. She lifted her heavy hair off the nape of her neck and leaned her head back to gaze at the constellations. She wondered if Zack saw the same heavens she did, or if they shined brighter, closer at the tip top of the world?

The night loomed so quietly out here in the country, she could hear the brook babble one hundred feet away. Cicadas serenaded one another. Crickets chirped, rubbing their hind legs together like a violin recital. Fireflies blinked on and off, lighting a path to the brook just for her.

Bliss complete.

Well, except for one thing, her heart cried. Except for Zack who could never truly be hers. Not in the flesh.

Her hand sneaked up to her cheek, cradling her scar. Would he be hers if he could see her true appearance? Would he want to dance with her under the moonlight? Would he want to plunder her lips beneath his?

She sighed, afraid to explore the answer.

She smiled as the little dogs ran and jumped, bounding all over the lawn. Sonny and Buddy wrestled in the grass. Marie chased fireflies, her mouth snapping open and shut, trying to catch a tasty treat.

An owl hooted, probably to its mate, but maybe, just maybe, in warning of something sinister.

Whistling to her little dogs, Serena swung her chair around in a one eighty and headed to the safety of her house. "Time to go in kids!"

Elvis rushed out the door on her way inside. A pretty white cat, part Siamese, part Himalayan by the look of her, sauntered out of the bushes beneath Serena's bedroom. She meowed loudly when Elvis lumbered out. He looked over his shoulder, flicked his tail and bounded off. The white cat followed.

Serena watched his hips jounce up and down until he was out of sight, a silly grin on her face. "I think he has a girlfriend!"

Love definitely permeated this hot Ohio Valley July night.

Serena wandered a little closer to the brook. How she longed to wade in it right now, to skip stones and see if she could beat her record for the most jumps. Twenty-one, pretty darn good if she said so herself. A rapturous lover's moon gleamed over the valley. She could see almost as clearly as if the daytime sun blazed upon her.

Even if she could wade, common sense would have stopped her. Although she wasn't aware of any wild animals in these parts and Strawberry Point nestled in the overwhelmingly, if boringly safe Ohio Valley, a slight possibility of danger lurked under this gloriously romantic moon.

CHAPTER FOUR

"Is Songstress online yet, Ace?" Bulldog yelled from the weight room. "Ask her if she has a sister or a cousin for me, will ya?"

"Kiss me sweet, fly boy," Grizzly Bear crooned, taunting. "Take me in your strong arms. Never let me go!" He leaned around the corner, batting short stubby eyelashes, rolling his eyes.

Zack tossed a dirty sock at him, grinning. He hit the target right on getting a dirty look for his excellent aim.

"Hey Bulldog! What would Julie say about you having a girlfriend? Put your wife online for Heaven's sake!" Zack yelled. He rolled his eyes heavenward.

"I don't have the money for an online service! Do you think I'm rich or something? On pilot's pay and five kids?" Bulldog's voice grew closer. He stuck his head around the corner, a white towel draped over his shoulders, his dark hair soaked with perspiration.

"Cheapskate!" Zack flashed an annoyed grin.

"Wonderful." he muttered sarcastically, pounding the keys. "Conan just blew out my right wing. I'm a goner!"

"Give it up. Don't you get tired of playing jet pilot after you do the real thing all day?" Bulldog quirked a silvery eyebrow at him.

"Never! I'll rule the universe yet! Me and Songstress will cast a spell on them if necessary. But I'm saving that for last. Conan and MrSpock won't get the best of the greatest fighter pilot in the galaxy!" Zack promised.

"I'm starting to worry about you, Ace! Maybe you should take some time stateside. Aren't you due for a little leave?" Bulldog perched on the edge of a military issue metal swivel stool with paint chips flaking off. Zack's little cubical barely fit the two men, neither of who were overly bulky. This was home away from home -- which wasn't saying much -- but when Songbird was online, it was Heaven.

Zack whirled in his swivel chair, quirking an eyebrow. He leaned back as far as the chair would let him, crossing his hands behind his head. "Are you serious boss?" He waved a hand toward the computer terminal. "This is all just in fun. A game. What else am I supposed to do on this iceberg?"

"Even the girl? Songstress?" Bulldog wiped perspiration off his brow. His eyes narrowed like a hawk's watching Zack closely. Some of that same perspiration had made rivulets down his fatigue green t-shirt.

Zack leaned back in his chair, oblivious to the fact Conan had just blown his jet to smithereens. He tapped his fingers on the computer desk in no particular rhythm. "No. The girl's something special. Very special."

"Zachary, old man. Don't tell me you've fallen for someone you've never seen? Someone that might not even be a woman?" Bulldog chuckled mirthlessly. "What if you're cybering with a fat old hacker?"

"Songstress is no man, if that's what you mean." Zack stretched to his full height, grabbed Bulldog's towel in a swift calculated move and snapped it against his hairy leg. "I think I can tell how a woman thinks and talks."

"Ouch! I can send you to the brig for attacking a superior officer." Bulldog grinned.

"Right!" Zack chuckled. "And you'll be laughed right out of the Air Force for bringing up such wimpy charges and wasting the tax payer's money."

"Join me in a little weight training? You're getting soft vegetating in front of that computer screen. Songstress isn't due on yet, is she?" Bulldog inclined his head toward Zack's computer.

Zack glanced over his shoulder at the ticking clock on the cement block wall. Six p.m. "Not for another hour or so," Zack mumbled. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to workout for a few." He flexed his arms. "Don't want to get flabby like you."

"Give someone else a chance online for awhile anyway. You're not the only one with needs. Some of the other guys want a turn." Bulldog put a companionable arm around Zack's shoulders, edging him away from the computer. He inclined his head as if beckoning to somebody.

Zack turned to see what or whom Bulldog nodded at, but spied nothing. His screen saver eclipsed his techno wars game. Who cared? He'd already crashed and burned. Tonight wasn't the night he'd save the universe. Maybe tomorrow night.

"Tell them to get their own computer then. Pay for their own service." Zack waved off Bulldog's bantering. He thought he heard a footfall and turned again. He saw nothing. But his senses screamed something not quite right brewed behind his back.

"Spot me on the barbell for a moment, will ya Ace? Add a 30 pounder to that end, would you?" Bulldog zeroed in on his favorite part of their mini gym.

Bulldog lowered himself to the red mat on the floor, rolled onto his back and gripped the long bar. Clenching his teeth, grunting with extreme effort, he pushed upward pumping the heavy iron.

Zack watched his muscles ripple, struggling. Perspiration trickled down his brow. His knuckles turned almost as white as his sideburns.

Grunting, Bulldog lowered the weight.

Zack grabbed the bar from above, taking it from Bulldog's hands, laying it on the matt above Bulldog's head.

"Not too shabby, old man. My turn to show you how it's done. Move over and spot me." Zack flexed his hands and pumped his arms in preparation.

"Move over guys. Ace is gonna show us how it's supposed to be done," Bulldog said with a grin.

Cobra and Grizzly Bear chuckled from their vantage point where they leaned against the wall.

"Add another thirty pounds there, will you?" Zack requested, stacking a thirty pound weight on the end nearest him.

Bulldog furrowed his brow together. "This isn't a contest Ace. You go hurting yourself and Uncle Sam's out a fighter pilot for awhile. It's not going to look very good on your service record."

Zack smiled, sure of himself. "I'm sure I won't get hurt. I do this all the time."

"Since when? I've never seen you." Bulldog arranged himself in the spotter position.

"I'm in here a lot more than you know." Zack patted his firm stomach. "How do you think I keep in prime condition? Not eating all those chocolate chip cookies."

"If everyone had your ego, no one would challenge Uncle Sam." Bulldog laughed.

"Not ego. Confidence." Zack lifted the weights high over his head, holding it as long as he could. "Practice," he panted, lowering the weight.

"Not too shabby, Ace. Not shabby at all. Let's work on the biceps for a few. Join me," Bulldog ordered. "Unless you want to see Erika for the umpteenth time."

Zack chuckled. "I think I'll wait for the new batch of tapes. Besides, I prefer real women over television fantasies."

"Did you hear that guys? Blasphemy! He doesn't want to watch Erika again." Bulldog was an unmerciful tease.

"Be my guest. Ogle Erika. It's time for my rendezvous with Songstress," Zack murmured rising from his seat. "Throw me a towel, will ya, Cobra?"

"Sure thing, Ace." Cobra tossed a towel in his face laughing outright, mischief sparkling in his hazel eyes, more green than brown.

"Thanks! I'll remember that!" Zack wiped perspiration from his brow then dropped the towel over his shoulder.

"Just give our love to Songstress. See if she has a sister or a cousin for us, will ya? A guy doesn't forget his buddies, remember?" Cobra asked.

"I couldn't forget you guys if I tried!" Zack tweaked them with the end of his towel. He stopped by on the way to the fridge and grabbed a diet Spritzy Soda. Popping the ring top, it fizzed, a little of the cola bubbling over the rim.

Tipping it to his parched lips, he downed a swig. "Ahhh! That hit the spot." He wiped the cold can to his heated cheeks and forehead, closing his eyes at the delicious coolness.

Sauntering to his computer, his towel draped around his shoulders, he stopped abruptly, can to his lips.

Black Jack sat in his chair typing on his computer.

Zack inched forward, silent as an Indian brave, reading over his shoulder. Dread twisted his stomach. They wouldn't, would they?

Of course they would, the lying sneaks! He'd been expecting this sooner or later. It was inevitable knowing this bunch of jokers.

"I love you so much Songstress. I want to make love to you all day long, sweep you off your feet, whisk you away and marry you!" Black Jack pounded on the keyboard, so intense on his fun that he didn't hear Zack creep up on him.

"Is this a proposal, fly boy?" Songstress typed back.

Zack gulped, groaning inwardly. This was a nightmare. They had him married off already.

"You can bank on it, sweetheart. I'll fly in on my jet fighter plane and whisk you off to Las Vegas for a quickie wedding. We'll get an Elvis impersonator to marry us..."

Zack's first instinct was to yell in his ear, make him jump to the ceiling. But he went with his second impulse.

He put his hands around Black Jack's neck and squeezed ever so gently. Whispering menacingly in his ear, he promised, "You ever mess with my woman or my relationship again, you'll wake up dead."

Black Jack jumped, shrieking, "I'm sorry Ace. The guys put me up to it."

Lascivious male laughter echoed behind him. He whirled around on the ball of his foot, his towel flying. He raked unsteady fingers through his still slightly damp hair. "I oughtta strangle each and every one of you! Get your own girls and leave me and mine alone!"

"Fat chance, sweet fly boy! It's more fun to tease you than watch Erika or lift weights."

"Dance with me under the moonlight, sweet fly boy! Climb my cyber balcony!" Cobra spoke in falsetto, batting his eyelashes, grinning from ear to ear. He turned to Grizzly Bear crooning, "Dance with me?"

Grizzly Bear put his hairy arms around Cobra, leaned his head against his shoulder and batted his stubby eyelashes at Cobra. They waltzed in their stockinged feet.

"Very funny, guys!" Zack chuckled. "You're just so hilarious. Or are you that hard up?"

"Jealous, Ace?" Grizzly Bear turned to him, holding out his hand. "I'll save the next dance for you!" He threw an exaggerated smooch to him which Zack ducked.

Bulldog sauntered to a position next to Zack. "What's goin' on in here, men?" Bulldog lifted an enquiring eyebrow. "Why wasn't I invited to the dance?"

"I'll save the next dance for you, Colonel." Grizzly Bear turned to Zack, he widened his eyes like a puppy dog. "Maybe I can squeeze you in for the next dance, Ace."

"What am I? Chopped Liver?" Cobra lifted his eyebrows lasciviously. He twirled a makebelieve handlebar mustache like a Vaudevillian villain.

"You're just jealous!" Zack grumbled.

Black Jack remained quiet, still looking peaked from his near death experience. He must have realized from his deathly quiet tone of voice that no one messed with Zack Kane and got away with it. No one.

"Out of my seat, Black Jack! Let me repair the damage before her daddy escorts me down the aisle with a shotgun!" Zack mumbled. Impatient, he grabbed the back of his chair, tilted it forward, dumping Black Jack on the cold cement floor.

"Take it easy lover boy! I was moving!" Black Jack grumbled, rubbing his tush where he'd landed heavily.

"Get moving and don't look back. Y'all give me some privacy tonight. This is not a group activity or the Senior Prom!" Zack growled.

"Ol' Ace is being anti social again." Grizzly Bear made a grab for Serena's picture displayed prominently on Zack's locker. "We'll just have to drool over the pin up."

"Touch it and die!" Zack growled ominously, slamming the locker closed. No one messed with his lady.

Grizzly Bear pulled his hand back just in time before he had a stump. "He's getting touchy. He must really like this chick."

"Can I be best man at your wedding sweet flyboy?" Cobra drawled and bent on one knee as if proposing and put his head on Zack's knee. Big puppy dog eyes implored Zack. "Puh-lease!"

Zack shoved him gently off his knee. "I've already been married. Why would I want to try it again? It's not all it's cracked up to be." A little voice in the back of his mind argued with him. Marriage to someone like Serena could be Heaven, given half a chance. She was nothing like Carolyn. She'd never lie to him.

He shook himself. After Carolyn's ultimate betrayal, he'd sworn off marriage. Not women, not their sweet charms, but marriage, fidelity, trust. Or at least he thought he had till he met the Songstress. Now he wasn't so sure.

"Get outta here, men! Leave the lovesick puppy alone to cyber in peace!" Bulldog defended him, if you could call that a defense. Zack scowled.

The men shuffled away, protesting, rolling their eyes. Their snickers filled the otherwise quiet dorm.

Zack turned back to the computer.

"Zack?" Serena typed.

"Zack, are you there?" Songstress asked.

"Did I say something wrong???????? Zack, did you get booted???????" Serena asked again.

Zack bent over his keyboard, striking keys as fast as he could with two fingers. "You didn't do anything wrong sweet Serena. But that wasn't me you were talking to."

"No? Who was that? <<turning bright, bright red, embarrassed>>," Serena admitted.

He could imagine a lovely blush creep into her alabaster cheeks making her cornflower yellow hair look almost white. How charming she must look.

"<G> That was Black Jack. The other guys kept me preoccupied while he was talking to you." Zack leaned back in his chair, tipping the Spritzy Soda to his lips. He smacked his lips, wishing he had more of those delicious chocolate chip cookies of hers to go with his drink.

"How can I be sure you're you? ROFLOL," Serena asked.

"Look in your crystal ball, Songstress," Zack replied, laughing.

"I'm clean out of crystal balls." After she answered there was a long silence from her end.

"Serena?" he typed. "Are you there?" He watched the screen intently for her answer, a lump in his throat.

"Sorry, had to let dogs outside right away before my carpet turned yellow. LOL. Are you really a flyboy? A jet fighter pilot????" Serena asked.

Zack breathed a sigh of relief. "Yesiree! I'm really a jet fighter pilot, keeping your friendly skies friendly. An Officer and a Gentleman." He felt as if he'd just spewed an ad for American Airlines or whichever of the giants promised Fly Our Friendly Skies. Right! They didn't have real live MIGs on their tails during a routine mission. They could afford to be sugar coated friendly. One of these days when his stint for Uncle Sam came to an end, he'd get himself a cushy pilot's job for one of the biggies and rake in the big bucks and not have to worry about feeling like the Red Baron with Snoopy on his tail.

"One of our boys in blue!" Serena exclaimed.

"You got it. Look at my picture. What you see is what you get!" Zack answered, opening his locker to glance at Serena's beautiful face. How I long to wrap myself in that glorious long blond hair of yours, gaze deeply into your china blue eyes. How did he get so lucky on the roll of the dice? Why did a girl that looked like Christie Brinkley -- all blonde, tanned and long-legged -- spend her nights playing Multi Techno Battle Wars and cybering online with him?

"Are you looking at me, Ser-e-na? <<rasping in your ear, nibbling your sweet ear lobe, driving you wild with desire>>." He decided to stop wondering why she wasted her time on him and thank his lucky stars she'd stumbled into his gin joint. One day, when he got leave or as soon as he was sent state-side, he'd find his beautiful blonde honey and give her her just rewards.

"I'm looking, handsome flyboy! Believe me, I'm looking. <<kissing your sweet lips, gazing into your black eyes>>. Hold me close darling Zack? Dance with me under the moonlight tonight? Turn on Hotel California," Serena rasped. He imagined a sweet, husky voice full of longing and desire and his insides melted.

Zack reached for his CDs, shuffled through them and took out his Eagles greatest hits volume two collection. He slipped it into his CD player and turned on Hotel California. "It's on Songstress. Come into my arms. Lean your head on my shoulder. Hold me tight." Zack put his fingers to his lips, deposited a kiss on them, then placed it to the lips on Serena's picture.

Marriage might be heaven to an angel like his Songstress. She was beautiful, bright, and funny. What more could a guy ask?

He tried to shake the image, but he couldn't. Why had Bulldog and Black Jack put that dangerous idea in his mind? Sabotaging friends didn't seem very friendly in his book. Persuading a guy to think marriage seemed like the worst kind of sabotage.

Looking around him at the stark, cement walled barracks in the middle of nowhere, Zack grimaced. What was so great about this set up that marriage looked so dangerous?

Nothing! This place reeked loneliness, boredom, stagnation.

Marriage to his soulmate would be Heaven. He knew the idea would plague him no matter how hard he tried to erase it from his mind and his heart...

"Lift your sweet lips to mine, Ser-e-na. Kiss me! Never let me go!" Zack meant every word with all his heart. He leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes.

Laughter taunted him from behind. His eyelids opened instantly, he swiveled around in his chair.

The laughter silenced immediately. Thick tension hung in the air. Empty space greeted him. He looked around his small cubby perplexed. Then he spied it.

A mirror.

One little mirror angled toward a larger mirror where the guys read his every word, watched his every move, read Serena's every heartfelt word unabashedly.

"This is war!" he lifted his voice to the air. "You'll be sorry you were ever born when I finish with you miserable..."

"Promises, promises." Cobra chuckled. "We're really scared," he drawled in his thick Texas accent.

They all knew he was a bunch of hot air and macho innuendo. He leaned back in his chair steaming. Now he couldn't even chat to his girl in private.

He needed release, real release. Shooting down migs just didn't satisfy him completely anymore. He needed a soft, beautiful woman in his arms, pliant to his every whim and fantasy. A beautiful woman like his Songstress.

Taking off his shoe, he flung it at the mirror. Glass cracked ominously.

Seven years bad luck. Good thing he wasn't superstitious!

"Bullseye!" he muttered.

"Do you believe he just did that?" Voices echoed in unison.

"The guy's a goner," Black Jack mumbled. "He's lovesick alright." Cobra chuckled.

"Leave the Captain alone, men." Bulldog stomped into Zack's cubicle, clapping him resoundingly on the shoulders. "Enough's enough. Hit the showers. Twenty minutes to lights out."

Zack turned staring into Serena's smiling blue eyes, wishing for a normal life where he didn't have someone telling him when to shower, when to hit the sack. "I'm a goner alright," he mumbled unhappily. "What am I to do about it?"

The picture smiled at him blandly, no answers forthcoming.

"Don't want to leave you my Ser-e-na, but Bulldog's flicking the lights. Shower time!" Zack typed against his will. He felt like a prisoner in a POW camp.

"Sweet dreams, flyboy! Dream of me."

"Wish you were with me!" The image of her beautiful face and hair floated before his eyes.

Bulldog flicked the lights again. "Fifteen minutes left! Tell your girlfriend goodnight and get your butt in the showers, loverboy! If you don't get in there, we're not letting you stink up the joint. You can go find an igloo to bed down in."

"I gotta go sweet Serena! BULLDOG's barking. Meet me tomorrow night with a yellow rose in your teeth, your long blond hair flowing down the balcony?" Zack hoped, needed for her to meet him. "Dream of me, Ser-e-na. Till tomorrow. {S Goodbye}," Zack said. His computer gargled, all tinny and scratchy.

"{S Goodbye}," Serena's farewell sounded identical, like a robot.

Songstress blocked her Instant Messaging. She must be designing more web pages or making more wav files.

His fingers ached to touch her in the flesh, to know her sweet, sweet charms.

CHAPTER FIVE

"Have you heard from your parents, Serena? How are they enjoying Europe?" Gladys Brown, Serena's neighbor and cashier at the local five and dime bustled up to the cash register in her hot pink smock, pushing her butterfly rimmed glasses back on her too thin nose when they slipped forward. They looked silly with her coiffed silver curls. Serena had to bite back a smile and avert her eyes, pretending to check out the price of the 33 millimeter film hanging by the checkout desk.

Laying several blank video tapes, Entemann's cookies and bags of chocolate chips that she'd found on sale in the center aisle and a couple of doggie toys on the checkout counter, she debated whether or not to give in to the temptation to buy one of the magazines so conveniently displayed next to the register. She had to stretch as they were over her head. A pushover for computing magazines, she picked a PC World off the shelf. She thumbed through it, an article on web page design catching her eye, then slid it onto the counter. She could afford it, she made good money, her parents didn't charge her rent, and she never went anywhere to spend anything. One little magazine wouldn't break her bank.

She dug around in her purse for her wallet and ATM card, promising herself for the umpteenth time that she'd clean out her bottomless pit of a purse and organize it better. It felt as if she carried rocks and could be used as a dangerous weapon.

Serena glanced up shyly at the matronly woman, returning her smile. "We received a picture postcard yesterday from Belgium. Want to see it?" Serena rooted around in her purse and finally found the colorful postcard only slightly crumpled around the edges. She pulled it out and slid it across the counter.

"What a beautiful castle!" Gladys exclaimed, picking it up and turning it over. "May I read it, dear?"

Serena nodded her head in consent. She tried to read the French explanation on the back of her card but couldn't remember much of her high school French class. It had never been her favorite class even though French was supposedly the language of love. She'd always preferred the language of computers to anything human. HTML was her favorite language now.

"They're loving every minute. By today, they'll be in Madrid. Next week, they're going to Greece. Mom's dragging Dad to every museum, garden and cathedral she can find. In return, he's making her attend the bull fights and races," Serena ticked off the list of her parent's European vacation like a travel log.

"Make sure you show me any pictures and videos they bring home. I always wanted to see Europe, visit the Eiffel Tower, stroll down the Champs Elysse," Gladys sighed deeply, a wistful gleam in her eyes, a dreamy smile curving her lips. "My Stanley was going to take me for a second honeymoon but then he up and died two months before his retirement. I'll never forgive him." She chuckled, taking the bite out of her words. Gladys's pudgy hands grabbed each item, sliding them over the scanner until it beeped. She bagged up Serena's purchases and stapled the receipt to the plastic bag that rustled loudly in the sleepy little store.

Serena's total lit up on the digital screen and she calculated what that would leave her in her checking account, satisfied that she still had plenty of money for the week.

"Want me to slide your card for you?" Gladys held out her hand. The sun gleamed brightly through the window like fountains from heaven.

The ATM machine was bolted too far back on the counter for her to reach from her chair. Once again, she was annoyed by such reminders of her limitations. She couldn't even use the ATM machine without help. Swallowing her irritation at yet another inconvenience, she hid it with a smile. Handing her card to Gladys, she said, "Please." When the machine was ready for her secret number, Gladys leaned over and Serena whispered in her ear as articulately as she could, "Forty- two twenty-three."

"Any cash back dear?" Gladys asked, looking over her glass rims after she punched in the code.

Serena pursed her lips and thought for a moment. "Give me twenty." She brushed her heavy bangs out of her eyes with a casual sweep of her hand. She scratched a little tickle at the base of her nose.

"Ready for me to push the enter button?" Gladys rooted around her cash drawer and pulled out a twenty. The cash register dinged and two electronic receipts printed out. Promptly, Gladys ripped them off and handed them to Serena with a crisp, new twenty.

Serena took them out of the woman's outstretched hand then wrote the amounts in her check book before capping her pen and stuffing her wallet back into her crowded purse.

"How's Saundra doing? I see that young man of hers at your place a lot this summer, don't I?" Gladys's smile widened. She picked up the bag and handed it to Serena. Her ample hips pressed against the back of the counter as she leaned slightly forward.

"Saundra's just great. Enjoying the summer off from teaching at the Jr. High School. She says she needs at least three months break before she can face her delinquents again. Personally," Serena leaned closer to Gladys, whispering conspiratorially even though they were alone in the front of the store, "I think she's counting the days till school starts. She's getting bored."

"And what about you, dear? I rarely ever see you come out of the house. It's so good to see you here today. You should get out more often." Gladys patted her hand where it lay on the counter.

Serena stuffed her wallet in her purse and zipped it shut. She put her purse in her lap. "Me? I'm fine. I signed a few new clients this summer: Spritzy Soda, Zodiac Vans, Crazy Cookies, High Energy Vitatabs...So I'm busy designing web pages."

"What's a web page again, dear? I know you've told me, but they didn't have computers and all these electronic gadgets around everywhere when I was pretty young thing like you." Gladys's eyes were as blank as reflective sunglasses.

Serena wrinkled her nose and hung her head slightly -- just enough so that her hair swung over her scarred cheek. She always felt uncomfortable at any mention of her looks, even when they were complimentary.

"It's an advertisement on the world wide web -- on the computer," Serena murmured.

Gladys smiled vacantly. "That's nice dear. Your mother tells me what a wonderful artist and web page designer you are."

"Thank you," Serena mumbled, smiling noncommittally. "It's nothing really." She backed away slowly, rumpling her bag, hoping to make good an escape before Gladys remembered she hadn't filled her in on the Dillon thing. She didn't doubt Gladys would give her parents an ear full about Darling Dillon when they got home as it was. Why add to the fuel? The last thing she wanted or needed was to have Saundra angry with her.

"It's good seeing you dear!" Gladys waved goodbye. Her glasses slid down the bridge of her nose again and she pushed them up absently. "Stop by and visit me more often."

"I will. Promise." Serena smiled, pushing the door open with her chair. Little bells tinkled over her head. She squinted again when bright sunlight pierced her eyes.

The wheels of her chair squish-squished on the snowy white sidewalk. Warm sunlight felt good on her face and she leaned her head back, letting her hair tickle her shoulders. A gentle breeze washed over her, making the hot July day bearable.

Strawberry Point was still the same sleepy little town it had always been and probably always would be. Too far away from Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus for the suburbs to push out, it lay just close enough to drive downtown to any one of the three cities for a nice evening out or a day of heavy duty shopping -- something she'd only done twice since Doug died, and then only at her mother's insistence. Strawberry Point and the little town down the road, Knobb's Corner, carried most everything she needed and what she couldn't get here in town, she ordered through the web, which she'd started doing more and more. Recently she'd even found a place to order pet food and supplies online.

Farm trucks chugged onto Main Street carrying hay for work horses and fertilizer for the local corn crops. Little boys out of school for the summer skateboarded down the opposite sidewalk. One little boy wearing a white and blue wide striped T-shirt and blue jean jodhpurs blew a huge pink bubble. His friend poked a finger in it, bursting it over his face and the boy gave chase.

Old Joe Bob Crowley and his favorite salt and pepper crony Bill Landau, leaned forward on rickety wooden stools engrossed in a game of checkers. Bill leaned back and took a swig from an old fashioned Coca-Cola bottle looking like a picture from an old Norman Rockwell painting. Peonies and gladiolas lined the sidewalk profusely, one of her mother's Rotary Club inspirations to make downtown more inviting. They hadn't thought about all the bees they would attract that buzzed too close to bare summer legs, but Serena enjoyed watching the butterflies that flitted from one bloom to another. She brushed against a snowball tree in full bloom. Picking a large snowy bloom, she twirled it in her fingers and sniffed it, delighting in their heady scent.

My but the day had turned into a scorcher. The July sun glared steadily upon her from a perfect blue sky, nary a cloud or a bird in sight. They knew when it was too hot and when to take a siesta. When a jet rumbled overhead trailing a long white stream of smoke, she shaded her eyes with her hand and tilted her head in awe, wondering if it might be Zack piloting it, wondering what he was doing while she shopped for his videos and cookies. It must be wonderful to soar through the Heavens, coming so close to God, looking down over all creation and defying all laws of gravity. The next time they chatted, she'd have to ask him what it felt like to pilot a jet plane. She watched in wonder until it became a mere speck on the horizon, a giddy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Perspiration trickled down her brow and she swiped it away with the back of her hand. A rush of cold air swept over her mercifully when an elderly couple bustled out of Jewel's Drug Store. Turning to let it wash over her, she spotted the old soda fountain and a wave of nostalgia engulfed her and a sudden yearning in her stomach.

A butterscotch Sundae would hit the spot perfectly right now.

Not of her own volition, she propelled her chair through the soda fountain door, then parked at the end of the counter. Putting her purchases and her purse beside her on the counter, she took in the antique Coca-Cola advertisements, the red and white checkered table cloths and the old fashioned telephone hanging proudly on the wall.

"Hi Jewel. Business slow today?"

"Well how are you doing, Miss Serena? It's certainly nice to see you, child." Jewel half turned from her spot at the grill where she flipped a sizzling burger with one gnarled hand and dunked a batch of french fries with the other. The old grease hissed angrily when the frozen fries hit the dark oily looking liquid. But the old woman beamed at Serena, her sloe brown eyes twinkling. "Will you have your usual?"

Jewel dropped the spatula on the counter with a clank then wiped her hands down the front of her soiled white chef's apron. She limped to the counter where Serena waited patiently, taking her time.

Serena's lips curved upward softly and she nodded her head shyly. "Yes please and can you double the butterscotch, Jewel?" Her mouth salivated just thinking about all that gooey butterscotch over creamy vanilla ice cream. Her belly rumbled, reminding her she'd skipped lunch as if she was twelve again when she rushed in here every Saturday afternoon after her softball games. She didn't come into town often anymore and it wouldn't hurt to have a sundae for lunch just this once.

"Why certainly, Miss Serena. Have you heard from your parents recently? Have they been to London yet?" Jewel hobbled over to the freezer. "You know, my oldest brother Willie was stationed in London during the Blitzkrieg. He met his bride there, you know. It's hard to believe that was over fifty years ago. Mind you, I was just a little thing at the time. Only ten." Jewel scooped a generous portion of vanilla ice cream into a sundae dish, then hobbled over to the syrup dispensers where she squirted several long ropes of thick butterscotch on top, swirling it with a flourish.

"London was their first stop. Mom swore she saw a ghost in the castle where they stayed outside London." Serena chuckled, propping her head on her hands. "Then she caught a glimpse of the Queen. She was very excited about that and talked Dad's ear off. Then they went up to Loch Ness but didn't see the monster. Mom made Dad go up the Eiffel Tower with her -- he's scared of heights, so he says he'll never forgive her -- with her. They visited Notre Dame after that. They should be in Madrid now so Dad's making Mom watch the bull fights with him."

Serena rambled quickly, watching Jewel as she peeled a luscious banana and sliced it lengthwise deftly with four long chops of her butcher knife. Her eyes widened when the old woman arranged them around the ice cream, slid a spoon on the side and plopped the gooey concoction on the counter in front of her.

"Well, it sounds like they're having a wonderful time. I want to see their pictures when they get back. You be sure to bring them here and show me." She winked. "I might even give you a sundae on the house." She turned and picked up the spatula. She flipped the burger, then pressed it into the metal. Grease oozed out, blackening the ancient grill.

"I'll put you on the list. Everybody wants to see their pictures." Serena spooned a heap of ice cream and butterscotch onto her oversized spoon and slid it into her mouth. She closed her eyes, savoring the scrumptious treat. The ice cream slid down her throat while the butterscotch stuck to the roof of her mouth and her lips. She licked them with the tip of her tongue to get every last gooey drop she loved so much. She really should pamper herself like this more often, she decided, taking another big bite. Any moment, she'd start moaning in ecstasy.

"When will they get home?" Jewel lifted the burger off the grill, slapping it onto a fluffy sesame seed bun with a couple of pickle slices and a juicy slice of beefsteak tomato. She plopped it onto a long white oval plate. Without missing a beat, she leaned over the grill and took the french fries out of the deep fryer. Grease dripped off them and Serena sniffed appreciatively. She could get fat just smelling this food, forget the million calories sitting in front of her. It was a good thing she didn't come in here too often anymore, even if she missed her talks with Jewel.

"They're planning to stay in Europe all summer. After Spain, they're going to Greece. Mom wants to see the Acropolis. Then onto Rome, the Vatican and the wineries. I think they'll finish up in Germany and visit Mom's cousin, Petra, for a couple of weeks."

"Are you girls okay by yourself in that big house way out in the country?"

"Me and Saundra?" Serena's spoon poised at her mouth. "Of course. I'm twenty-seven. She just turned thirty. She teaches Junior High kids. No one will mess with her. She's too wicked."

Jewel laughed a deep belly laugh. "You know I keep thinking of you as that little girl that used to run in here with braces and pig tails wearing a baseball cap and glove. I can't get over you and your sister being full grown."

"Neither can Mom. Dad barely convinced her we'd be okay at home without them all summer."

Jewel waved her hand in the air and screwed up her face. "Shucks, Miss Serena. My Melinda is only twenty-four and she's raising that grandbaby of mine alone, you know. A twenty-seven year old and a thirty-year-old..."

"Are old maids?" Serena smiled despite herself.

"There you go putting words in old Jewel's mouth, child. I was gonna say that you and your sister are plenty old to take care of yourself...and somebody else." She looked slyly at Serena out of the corner of those big brown eyes.

Serena averted her gaze. She was well aware of the towns folks opinion that it was high time she started dating again, although she didn't agree. Doug died two years ago. Mourning time had come and gone. Yet, none of the local young men seemed inclined to be the first to ask her out. None of their mothers tried to fix their sons up on dates with her. No one wanted a crippled, scarred daughter-in- law. The sundae lost some of its flavor and she set the spoon down in the dish.

"I'm not ready to go there yet, Jewel. I might not ever be," Serena whispered, biting her lower lip, thinking of Zack. She stared into space, her eyes focusing on a picture of a pretty blonde girl with a high pony tail and poodle skirt slurping Coke from a long straw sitting at a soda fountain, much like the one she sat at. Her fingers trailed down the length of her scar, stopping at the corner of her mouth where the scar was thickest and most visible. What would Zack think if he saw her scarred face? What would he feel? Betrayal? Disgust? Pity?

Would he fall over himself to get away from her as all men had since her accident?

She blinked her eyes several times, trying to stop the vision of his tortured face when he saw her true appearance -- were she to let him see it.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Miss Serena. The scar isn't nearly as visible to anyone else as it is to you. You're a beautiful young woman. Here." Jewel put her fingers around Serena's wrist, removing her hand from her lips and cupped her own fleshy hand over Serena's imperfect cheek. Then she pointed to Serena's heart with her other hand. "And here. Don't you ever, ever feel ashamed of yourself."

Sudden hot tears burned Serena's eyes. A sob stuck in her throat. Serena tried to smile at Jewel, but it proved a feeble attempt. "Thank you. I just wish everyone were as kind as you." Serena's voice broke and she fought to keep her composure.

"You have to give them a chance, child. Stop hiding from everyone. Bring that guitar of yours to church this Sunday and play for us the way you used to. I miss hearing that lovely voice the good Lord gave you."

Serena lifted her head and stared into Jewel's serious eyes. She remembered how much pleasure she used to get playing her guitar for the congregation on Sundays, how the energy flowed through her in that tiny little country church out on the edge of town. Doug's beautiful tenor voice accompanied her hesitant alto, giving her the strength and courage she needed to open up and sing to the heavens.

Now, she sang alone in her room, gazing at the moon and the stars. The only person who had heard her play since that fateful night, besides her own family, lived a thousand miles away in some forsaken frozen wasteland, perhaps just a computer generated fantasy.

She frowned, realizing she hadn't sang for God, nor even spoken to him much since that fateful night Doug died. It was almost as if her faith died in that car with her fiance. She lowered her eyes in deep shame.

"You'd better finish your ice cream before it's all ice milk." Jewel lowered her hands. She tapped the counter next to the sundae with her fingernails then turned away to see to the customer who had ordered the burger and fries.

Serena spooned some butterscotch into her mouth, turning the spoon over and licking the sticky syrup off. Time tended to slip away in Jewel's store and she had felt like the happy little girl she'd been, for a little while anyway. But even butterscotch induced fantasies couldn't last forever. Her business in town beckoned. The streets rolled up early in Strawberry Point and she still had to get to the computer store and grocery before the local merchants closed up shop for the night. Of course she could drive into Dayton where everything stayed open till nine or ten p.m., but then she might miss her rendezvous with Zack and that would never do.

Hurriedly, Serena devoured her sundae, chewing her bananas last. She threw a couple of crumpled dollar bills and some coins on the counter and called out "I've got a million and one things to get done today, Jewel. It's getting late, so I'll see you later."

"I meant what I said about playing that guitar of yours and singing for us in church this Sunday morning. I mean to see you there, child! Be ready at eight sharp."

"I'll think about it, Jewel." Serena picked up her packages, patting the video tapes, smiling secretly when she thought of those six big he men gathered around their television set drooling over Erika Kane while stuffing themselves silly with her homemade chocolate chip cookies. No one would ever believe her if she told them that six dashing Air Force pilots' burning desire was to watch daytime soap operas.

"Should I send the preacher around to collect you and Miss Saundra at eight?" Jewel quirked a wiry eyebrow.

"My truck's working just fine." She chuckled. "No need to make Pastor Thorpe come all that way for us. I think I remember the way."

"I hope you do. I hope you do." Jewel smiled. Then her smile faded and Serena turned her chair away.

Intent on escaping before Jewel extracted a promise from her she wasn't prepared to make, she collided into a woman carrying several packages. Dropping her packages, the contents spilling around her feet on the black and white checkered linoleum floor, the woman muttered under her breath.

Searing air scorched Serena's lungs. Her heart thumped dangerously fast when she recognized Doug's mother, Monica Jenkins staring at her as though she were a hideous monster that had crawled out of the late late show. The woman sprawled in the middle of the floor amidst her day's shopping, her mouth agape, her eyes narrowed and fixed on Serena's scar.

Sucking in more scorched air, Serena held out a shaking hand to the woman and apologized in a stuttering voice, "I-I-I'm s-sorry. Let me help you up."

The woman flinched and drew further back, scooting backwards. She gasped as if burned. "N-no. That's alright. I can get up on my own."

Serena grabbed her purchases haphazardly, uncaring that a package of video tapes lay beneath a stool, turned her chair and spun away as fast as she could, mortified.

CHAPTER SIX

Serena couldn't wait until she reached her Ford Ranger. Wrenching open the door, it seemed to take forever for her chair lift to help her inside and then to fold up her chair. Starting the ignition, the truck screeched away from the curb, heading out of town, away from the computer store, away from the grocery. Her only thought was to get as far away as fast as she possibly could. She gulped in more air than anyone had a right to, feeling that her lungs would burst any second.

Hot tears burned her eyes like nucleic acid. She'd given up swiping them off her cheeks as new ones kept replacing the old and now the collar of her shirt was soaked.

Her heart thumped like a Congo drum in her chest. Her hands shook uncontrollably and she wove all over the road.

Any minute, she'd hyperventilate.

Now she remembered why she never went into town anymore, why she avoided people. Today's expedition had been one giant mistake.

She pressed the accelerator hand control of her car and rocketed down the winding country road toward the middle of nowhere just as fast as her trusty truck could manage. Her whole life seemed to be heading in the same direction, she realized, chuckling mirthlessly. Her tears subsided a little and she hiccoughed. She leaned forward and flicked on a hard rock and roll radio station. She turned up the bass, then the air conditioning, letting both wash over her, cleansing her.

Right or wrong, as sure as she would breathe her next labored breath, Doug's mother blamed her for Doug's death. The accusing look in her slate gray eyes spoke more clearly, more painfully, than any words could ever do. The woman's antipathy ripped her heart to shreds.

Serena's fingers stroked her scar, remembering the horrid wreck as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. The blaring horns, Doug's screams mingled with her own, the screeching tires, the shattering glass, the crunching metal, the shooting flames, then blessed, blessed darkness. She'd awakened in an antiseptic, sterile hospital room full of white sheets, white uniforms and bright white lights three months later. Doug had already been long buried. She'd missed his funeral.

For a few minutes, she thought she'd gone to Heaven.

Instead, she'd been plunged into the depths of Hell.

Doug, her parents told her, had died instantly, his neck snapped from the force of the head-on collision. Some kind Samaritan had risked his life to pull her away from Doug's burning car, undoubtedly saving her life.

She'd spent the next several months in the hospital, recovering from internal injuries, undergoing painful plastic surgeries and spinal surgeries, spilling her gut to one psychologist after another about Doug, about her face, about her crippling disability, about her future, going through physical therapy in the hopes she could walk again some day.

Trying to calm herself down, she gulped in several deep cleansing breaths, clutching the steering wheel until her knuckles turned ghostly white. When she approached the sharp curve just before Carson's "Killer" Hill at the base of Devil's Backbone Road, she backed off on the accelerator hand control.

She felt plenty upset but not crazy. The hill and the road both got their names legitimately like that old Jan and Dean song, the one about Deadman's Curve. California wasn't the only place that boasted killer hills.

It seemed a good thing, too, when Old Shep Shepherd's fertilizer truck barreled around the corner at twice the speed limit, taking up more of her lane than his. Locking up her hand brakes, she swerved to the narrow shoulder on the side of the road, thanking God for the little strip of grass before the long, steep drop off down to the gully below. She leaned her head on her steering wheel, her hair falling over her face, her chest rising and falling too quickly.

This wasn't a good day to die. Despite the shock of seeing Doug's mother out of the blue like that, in spite of the woman's reaction to her, in spite of her instinctive gut wrenching reaction to run for the hills -- literally -- she wanted to talk to Zack.

Correction. She needed to talk to Zack, even if she couldn't open up and tell him her deepest, darkest soul wrenching thoughts. Just knowing he wanted her, was there for her, calmed her more than any amount of Prozac or Ritalin calmed Saundra's worst juvenile delinquents.

Glancing at her watch, she muttered, "It's almost time to talk to Zack."

She turned the truck around as soon as she found the first straight stretch of road. If she hurried, she'd have a few minutes to take the dogs out first. The poor darlings had been cooped up inside all day without her. They'd be clawing holes in the walls by now.

Maybe they'd forgive her when they saw the new doggie toys she'd bought for them at the five and dime.

***

Serena signed online a few minutes early to check out her web page for Spritzy Soda, and regarded it with a critical eye. She debated what she could do to make Spritzy Soda as common a household name as Coca-Cola. She reached for her can of complimentary Spritzy Soda, flipping the ring top and staring down into the dark cola swirling in her hands.

Five cases of assorted flavors of Spritzy Soda awaited on her doorstep when she'd pulled the Ranger up to the door tonight. Personally, she preferred regular cola, but they were about as creative as Shasta with all their kool-aid type flavors ranging from Appalachian Mountain Blueberry to California Valley Orange. Heck, they even had a flavor called Mardis Gras Confetti whatever in the world that might be.

Maybe she could make a page advertising each and every flavor. If she added a hyperlink here and another there...She nibbled the end of her pencil thoughtfully and frowned when inspiration eluded her again.

Reaching for her stack of CD's, she flipped through them inserting the Righteous Brother's Greatest Hits. Something slow, romantic and ultra sexy seemed just right for her mood which had calmed down considerably from a couple of hours before. She plugged in the ear phones, stuck them on her head and turned up the volume. Closing her eyes in ecstasy, she leaned back in her chair and let it flow through her. Music made everything better.

Music made everything better.

Music made everything better...The phrase taunted her, playing over and over in her head.

Her eyes flew open and she bolted upright in her chair. Donny yipped and jumped up startled when the chair's rolling wheels rolled over the tip of his tail.

Bending over in her chair, Serena puckered her lips sending a loud smooch to Donny who licked his wounds. "I'm sorry Boy. I didn't mean to hurt you."

When the little dog lifted his big sad eyes to her, she leaned forward and scooped him into her arms. She crooned to him softly, scratching behind his ears the way he liked. "I love you. Are you okay?" She sat back, positioned the little dog in her lap and inspected his tail. The very end tip was slightly pink, but no broken skin, no bruises and no blood. She rubbed the injured tail soothingly.

"Good. You're okay. The chair just nicked you," Serena crooned.

Donny licked her hand with his scratchy tongue, thumping his silky tail against her bare thigh. His fur tickled her skin and she laughed.

She scooched closer to the computer, peering at the Spritzy Soda ad. "Music makes everything better," she whispered to herself. Looking down at her little dog, Serena asked him, "Don't you think so, boy?"

When he yipped excitedly, Serena smiled. "I think so, too."

Computers became more sophisticated by the day. So did computer users. If she could send a wav file to Zack, why couldn't she make an interactive web page with music? Animated computer greeting cards not only played music, they moved. Why, Zack had just sent her that card with the dancing mice in a Conga line balancing baskets of fruit on their heads. She'd gone into peels of laughter when she'd opened his E-mail card to her last week. She'd thought it absolutely hilarious.

The proverbial light bulb lit up in her head.

She would animate the Spritzy Soda ad, too!

Inspired fingers flew over her keyboard, manipulating data bites into musical notes and animated graphic design. So excited was she that she forgot the time until ZackAce blinked on screen, interrupting her thoughts.

"Sweet Ser-e-na! Have you been waiting for me long? Are you working on your web pages?" Zack greeted.

"Only an eternity, my darling. And yes, I'm working on my web designs." Serena typed back, biting her lower lip, feeling the heat rise in her cheeks. Quickly she saved her web page and tucked it away into cyberspace for safe keeping until later.

"That long? Do you have a yellow rose in your teeth? <<eyebrows quirking, lascivious grin, twirling mustache>>," Zack asked and Serena imagined Simon LaGree leering at her.

Serena's heart raced so fast she thought it would fall right out of her chest. Her fingers trembled.

"And a song in my heart, for you and only you my darling Zack. <<heart beating wildly, pulse fluttering>>"

"Can I climb your balcony and come in my fairest Serena? <<climbing the trellis, heart beating fast, arms aching to hold you...>>" His words drew a smile to her lips as she envisioned the latest film version of William Shakespeare where he climbed the balcony to his love, the ravishing Violet. Zack was her very own dashing rogue, ready to risk life and limb for her and her alone.

"What are you waiting for? I'm waiting impatiently. <<swirling rose in my teeth, letting my long golden fragranced hair flow over the balcony>>." Serena sipped her soda, wrinkling her nose when the fizz tickled it. She fingered her shoulder length dark brown hair in front of her face, scowling at her lies.

For all she knew, he had an iron gray beard down to his knees, a big bulbous nose with a wart on the end, a wooden peg leg and he was three inches shorter than herself. She couldn't see his true appearance either.

But her gut told her he was on the level.

She sighed deeply despite her resolution that this was just a computer generated fantasy. A time out from her everyday humdrum existence, so to speak. She didn't like lying to people. It went against her straight arrow nature.

"I'm here my darling Serena. Let me take you in my arms. Let me plunder your ruby red lips. Let me run my fingers through your golden silky hair...<<feel my lips on yours my darling, hold me tight, rake your long fingernails down my back...>>"

Serena hugged herself, closing her eyes. Her eye lashes fluttered and her fingers paused on the keyboard. What now? How did she respond? How did she want to respond? Everytime he brought up her blonde hair, she wanted to cringe at her lies.

"Hold me tight my darling. Never let me go. Kiss me forever and eternity. I'm yours, all yours, forever and today," Serena typed and whispered along. Behind her, she heard the gurgle of her fish tank. Outside, the cicadas started their nightly serenade.

"I'm in Heaven when you hold me in your arms, crush your chest against mine, run your long fingers through my hair. I can hardly breathe just thinking of you, my darling," Zack rasped.

"Am I crazy, my darling Zack? Are you really real? Or just some computer generated fantasy, some figment of my over active imagination, some unrequited longing in my heart?"

"You mean are you going to wake up from the best dream of your life and find out that's all I am, a beautiful dream? No, my lovely Serena. I'm real and I'm all yours! <<but are you a dream?>>."

Serena fingered her scar and frowned. She peered into the reflection of her computer screen and studied her face, focusing in on the long, puckering, discolored scar and missing the heartshaped contours, the high cheekbones and the huge glittering eyes staring back at her. "Trust me. I'm not a dream. And I'm all yours for as long as you want me. For eternity and a day...<<trembling in your arms, lifting my lips to your kiss>>".

Leaning over, she hit the CD player button until she heard the first haunting strains of Unchained Melody flow over her. Gently, she rocked back and forth. Sonny's soft fur tickled the undersides of her arms where they rested on his back. He stretched and yawned on her lap, and rolled off her knees with a soft kerplunk onto the carpet. Whimpering only slightly, he lifted his head for a second, opened one groggy eye then laid his head back on the floor and went back to sleep at her feet.

Serena chuckled softly and rubbed his soft underbelly with her toes. Her little dogs provided her with a constant source of pleasure and love. She didn't know how she would have survived the past two years without them.

"Can you see the stars in the Heavens where you are right now? Is the moon shining on you?" Zack asked.

Serena gazed out her bay window into the twinkling setting sun. It peered at her through the leafy tree tops, sinking slowly beneath the horizon. No stars were visible in the sky yet but the sunset was full of pinks and purples with little streaks of orange swirling through it tonight like a child's swirl art painting.

"Not yet, but the sunset's absolutely gorgeous. I'll wish on the first star that lights in the sky tonight, for you, fly boy. Will you dance with me under the moonlight? <<snuggling against your warm chest, rubbing my cheek against you hearing your strong heart beat, running my hands up your broad, powerful chest...>>

"How tall are you my sweet Serena?"

"Five foot five inches. How tall are you, fly boy?" Well, she used to be that tall. Did her spinal injury subtract inches from her? Should she measure her height now by how tall she sat?

"Six foot one inch. The top of your head fits perfectly into my shoulder. I thought so. We're a perfect match."

"You look even taller in your picture." Serena cradled his picture in her hand, getting worn around the edges from all her handling. With the Icelandic sun behind his back and sunlight glinting off white snow drifts, he looked taller than the gods at Mt. Olympus. She blew it a kiss.

"The flight suit makes me look taller."

"What does it feel like to fly in a jet?" She traced the outline of the jet in the picture lightly with one fingertip.

"We-e-el let me see how I can describe it to you. It's really INDESCRIBABLE. It's probably the closest I'll ever get to Heaven before I actually die," Zack said, opening the window to his soul.

"That good?" Serena smiled dreamily, rolling her eyes Heavenward. The song ended and she hit the button again, making it play a second time. She could listen to the haunting melody over and over and never tire of it.

"Soaring through the clouds, looking down over the earth, almost touching space and beyond. There's only one way to get closer to Heaven without being there..." Zack taunted.

"What's that?" Serena hoped she knew, longing to see him say it. She leaned closer to her screen as if she could draw closer to Zack this way.

"Holding you in my arms. Kissing your sweet lips. Need you ask sweet Se-ren- a?"

Serena shivered deliciously, imagining his becoming one body, one mind, one heart, one soul...

"Oh yes, yes, yes, fly boy. I ache to be yours, all yours!!!!!! When will you take me up in your jet, to fly to the Heavens?"

"How about now? Close your eyes sweet Serena. Let your mind drift. There are wisps of clouds all around, a sea of silky blue sky. Our jet is gliding through the Heavens and we are all alone...<<I'm holding you, your name is on my lips, your long blonde hair is covering us...and nothing else...>>"

"I can't take any more Zack. You're torturing me. I want to be held in your arms for real! I want to feel your lips on mine for real!"

"Someday my sweet Ser-e-na. Someday."

She just had to ask something that had been bothering her for awhile now. "Zack, do you have a sweetheart back home, or a wife?"

"You, my sweet Serena."

"Anyone else?" She really needed to know. She bit her bottom lip so hard she tasted salty blood. Her hands clenched and unclenched awaiting his response. Her heart stopped beating and she felt faint.

"No. Just you. I'm not the type of guy to play around. I'm an officer and a gentleman. Can't you tell, my sweet Serena?"

"I thought so. But one thing bothers me..." She drummed her fingertips on her keyboard and it reminded her of fluttering bird's wings in the wind.

"What's that, Songstress?"

"You're so handsome, so smart, so fun. Why are you all alone?"

"For one, I'm stuck in Iceland where we have no women."

"But what about back home? Is someone waiting for you there?" Serena pushed. She had to know. She'd never forgive herself if she learned she was a homewrecker.

"Back in Idaho Falls? Not anymore, sweet Serena. Not anymore."

"What does that mean?" Serena held her breath, wanting to yell through cyberspace to give her a straight answer now! Her fingers drummed her computer desk loudly.

"I could ask you the same question. Do you have someone else? Why is a gorgeous, intelligent girl like you wasting your time online with a guy stuck a thousand miles away in Iceland?"

Serena sucked in a deep breath and held it till she thought her lungs would burst. The hour of reckoning had come. Did she confess? Did she dare tell him the truth, the whole truth? Did she take a chance on losing him?

She stared at the computer screen dumbfounded, trembling. She hated lying, but could he live with the truth? Would he politely disappear into cyberspace and never talk to her again, never hold her in his arms or kiss her into submission?

She shook herself. She was losing it bigtime. When had he ever really taken her in his arms or really kissed her lips? This was all just one giant fantasy! This was all make-believe! At most, it was an interactive virtual reality computer game.

She positioned trembling fingers on her keyboard, leaning over it agitatedly. She drummed her fingers lightly on the keys, not hard enough to make even one letter come up on the screen.

Sucking in a deep, deep breath, she typed a half truth, half lie. "I was engaged to be married to a wonderful man named Doug. He died in a car wreck about two years ago. You're the first man who's touched my heart since his death." She poised her fingers on the keys, wondering whether or not to hit the send key. She stared at it for awhile, in a trancelike state.

"Songstress? Are you there?"

"Ser-e-na? Are you okay?"

She hit the send button with one swift, ferocious jab.

There was a long pause. Serena stared at her words.

"I understand, my love. <<taking you in my arm, holding you tight, stroking your hair with my strong hands>> I'm here for you, forever and always. You can talk to me. I'm a good listener." Zack words were soothing but she was inconsolable. Maybe if his warm, strong arms were really around her, not just pretending to be around her, and she could feel their consoling warmth, it would help.

Tears slid down Serena's cheeks, part for Doug, part for omitting an important part of the truth and part for what could never, ever be. She dabbed her eyes ineffectually with the back of her hand.

"Thank you my darling Zack. You are too, too good to be true. How did I ever get so lucky to find you?"

"We were meant to be. The fates brought us together."

"You mean, my darling, that out of all the cybergin joints, in all the cybertowns of all the cyberspace world, I walked into your very own little microbite of cyberspace?"

"Something like that!!!!! ROFLOL!!!!!!!!!!<<chuckling at your hacked up version of a formally very romantic line.>>" His humor cracked through her sadness, coaxing a smile from her lips.

"Hey! Don't laugh at me! I'm trying to be romantic."

"Ser-e-na! Put the rose back in your teeth and let your long blonde hair hang down the balcony. Shut up and kiss me!"

"With a rose in my teeth? We'll get thorns in our mouths!"

"You're no fun! Play along with me here, woman!"

"Is this just a game?" Serena pounded the keyboard so fast she thought smoke rose. Her breath caught and held in her throat, waiting for his answer.

"Never. You're my soul mate. I'd die if you ever left me, my sweet Ser-e- na!"

Serena let out a deep sigh, lifting her head, closing her eyes. Was he telling the truth? Did he really mean that? And what if he did? He wouldn't feel the same when he truly saw her. An officer couldn't have a wife like her, incapable of being hostess to his superiors and colleagues.

Typing with her eyes shut, she asked, "What did you mean when you said you don't have anyone special back in Idaho Falls anymore?"

"I was married to my college sweet heart. I thought we were happy...<<guess I was dead wrong>>"

"What was her name?"

"Carolynn Ann-Marie Clayton."

"Are you still married to Carolynn?"

"Carolynn. No. We're divorced. Don't worry. I'm a free man. You're not busting up a happy home."

"I'm relieved...but sorry -- -- > about your marriage I mean. What happened?" Serena chewed her lip.

"Life. I really can't go into that right now. Maybe some other time. It still hurts like hell."

Oh no. He wasn't heart-whole then? "I'm so sorry. Can I do anything to make it better?" Her heart ached for him. She prayed he could love again, that he was over his ex-wife.

"Just don't ever lie to me, my sweet Ser-e-na. Don't ever, ever lie to me. I can't forgive lies."

CHAPTER SEVEN

Serena closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She hadn't seen what she had just imagined she'd seen. When she opened her eyes, those words would not be in front of her. They couldn't be real. Absently, she stroked her scar, the pad of her thumb resting on the thickest part at the edge of her lips. Inhaling deeply, she opened her eyes, willing those words away. She licked her dry lips with the moist tip of her tongue.

"Don't ever, ever lie to me. I can't abide by lies..." taunted her. They glared at her, pulsated eerily, daring her to tell the truth and take her chances. Maybe if she came clean now, confessed her sins and begged Zack's forgiveness, they'd have a chance. Maybe he'd understand why she'd lied to him.

But what would they have a chance at? A future? A real relationship? A life together? More nights playing Multi Techno Battle Wars and pretending to climb cyber balconies?

Get real. She drummed her fingers on the keyboard lightly and breathed deeply. This was all just some computer generated fantasy like old reruns of Max Headroom. A virtual reality love affair. Barely more than a Sega television game.

"Songstress? Are you there? Are you composing more music?"

"Ser-e-na? Is everything alright?"

Swiveling in her chair, she turned to look at the stars that were twinkling distantly in the night sky. The last wisps of sunset mocked her. As hard as she peered into the Heavens, there was no shooting star tonight to wish her problems away on. No comets trailing magical cosmic dust.

She was on her own.

She had lied, she had perpetuated the lie and now she had to face the bittersweet music. She bit her bottom lip hard.

"Ser-e-na? Did I say something wrong sweetheart? <<anxiously waiting to hear your sweet words, to kiss your sweet lips>>"

Leaning her head back she looked at the ceiling, lifting her eyes Heavenward. She couldn't do it. She couldn't tell Zack what she'd done. He'd hate her forever. She'd lose him and as much as she hated lying, as much as she knew this was only a game, she couldn't bare not having Zack in her life. He had come to mean everything to her.

Pursing her lips determinedly, she leaned over the keyboard and typed furiously. "I'm here darling Zack. Hold me tight. Dance with me under the moonlight tonight? <<pulling you against me, leaning my head against your shoulder, snuggling close...>>."

"<<Dancing cheek to cheek, caressing your soft skin, snuggling closer...>>" Zack crooned.

"Tell me your dreams. Did you always want to fly?" She smiled at Zack's picture tacked onto her desk, and blew it a kiss. "You are soooo handsome," she whispered, half to the picture, half to the computer where the real Zack waited just a fingertip away, yet so very, very far.

"Always and forever, my sweet Ser-e-na. I wanted to soar in the Heavens, rise above the problems of this troubled planet, reach for the stars..."

"Do you want to be an astronaut?" Serena sighed dreamily. Zack would make such a dashing astronaut, even more so than a pilot -- if that were possible.

"More than you know Songstress. More than you know. You must be my soul mate. You know my deepest desires. <<smiling>>. Tell me your dreams, sweet Ser-e-na. What did you always want to do? Work with computers?"

"No." Serena gazed at her guitar longingly, remembering forgotten dreams, reliving the best times of her life. Leaning over, she caressed its gently curving neck, ran her fingertips along its sleek polished wood. Picking it up, she cradled it on her lap and strummed a few soft chords, humming a tune that played over and over in her mind but had no particular name.

Marie rolled over on the window seat, yawning loudly, stretching her paws in the air, shoving Buddy off the edge of the seat where he had snuggled against her back. He yipped frantically, clawing at thin air then cartwheeled awkwardly onto the floor. Yipping, he leaped back onto the seat and pounced on Cher playfully. The little dogs rolled around in the flickering light of day. Serena wrinkled her nose at the little dogs then turned her attention back to Zack and his question.

"No. Can't you guess? I wanted to be a musician. A singer. I wanted to be the next Sarah MacLachlan. Tour the country. Make people happy."

"<G> I should have known sweet Ser-e-na. You have an enchanting voice. You could have been a siren. You are a siren. What's stopping you?"

Serena stared out the window wistfully, focusing on a star that twinkled particularly bright. It glistened in the distant heavens above the tree tops and gently rolling hills. Perhaps Doug sent that star to remind her of him, of their love. Perhaps, he wanted to tell her he approved of Zack, of her loving again, going on with her life.

"Besides no talent? Life. Guts. My fiance died -- Doug was my partner. What's Mary without Peter and Paul? Tenille without the Captain? Ginger Rogers without Fred Astaire?" A sad smile played around the corner of her lips. Images of Doug singing for the church congregation dressed in his Sunday best taunted her. She couldn't quite remember just how deep, how rich, how resonant his voice sounded. Time worked its awesome magic, dimming love's unrequited pain, healing shattered hearts...

But she didn't mention the real reason. Not the entire reason, anyway. She couldn't face people with her hideous scar. Meeting one new person made her pulse rate skyrocket and sent her into paranoia. Parading herself in front of scads of strangers would kill her.

No, performing was absolutely, positively out of the question. No one wanted to go to see a crippled, scarred woman in concert. The wondrous dream had died with Doug on that fateful night on a dark country road in a burst of flame. Softly, slower than it was ever meant to be played, she picked the strains to the last song she and Doug had performed together at the little country church on the edge of town. It haunted her, reminded her of her fiance, made her feel guilty that she had fallen in love with another man when she thought Doug had been the only man in the world for her...her soul mate, so she had believed.

Now Zack called her his soul mate.

"You leave me speechless. What a big oaf I am sticking my foot in my mouth that way. I didn't mean to hurt you my sweet Ser-e-na. I'd never, ever do that. <<holding you tight, stroking your long blonde hair gently, whispering sweet nothings in your ear>>."

Serena sucked in her breath and held her guitar tighter, pretending she held Zack instead. Donny rubbed against her feet, his long floppy ears tickling her tender flesh, sending shivers up her legs. Goose pimples rose on her forearms.

"Do you still love him sweet Serena? Is your heart still broken?"

A tear slid from her eye. Her lips trembled slightly. Poking keys with her index finger, she typed, "I'll always love him. But I'm not "in love" with him anymore. I love you, my darling Zack. You make me whole again. You complete me. You give me reason to live."

She peered at the computer screen, awaiting his response. "Of all the cybergin joints, in all the cybertowns, you had to waltz into mine...I'm ALL YOURS, sweet Ser-e-na. Forever and always."

Impossible yearnings sizzled in the pit of her belly. Her arms longed to hold him close. Her lips tingled imagining his warm ones capturing hers in a kiss so searing, so seductive they would surely catch aflame should they ever meet for real.

She closed her eyes and dared to dream. What if she could have Zack in the flesh? What if he could love her despite her disfigurement? What if they weren't a thousand miles apart?

What if?

Her life was consumed with what-ifs.

What if she and Doug hadn't gone for a ride out in the country that fateful night? What if the windshield hadn't slashed her face? What if Doug hadn't died? What if she hadn't been crippled?

"Ser-e-na? Are you there?"

"I'm here <<dreaming of you, of us>>." She sighed deeply, patting the base of her guitar. It rang hollow, just like her relationship with Zack.

"Are you dreaming of butterscotch and yellow roses and moonlight ...and me?" Zack asked.

Serena quirked her eyebrows, scandalized, and took a double take at the screen. "<G> Uhmmmmmm! Butterscotch! How delicious. How sinful! (^.^)"

"What about me? (^~^)~~~~" Zack still wanted to know.

"Absolutely scrumptious! ROFLOL!" Serena laughed aloud, her mood brightened considerably.

"<<bowing humbly, kissing your soft hand, extending two bouquets of yellow cyber roses>> (^-^)~."

Warmth stole around Serena's heart and she felt giddy as she hadn't felt in years. Zack had a way of making everything better, of making her forget her problems, of making her smile despite herself. He must be magic. Maybe some of the Heavens had rubbed off on him while he soared through the azure skies at Mach three.

"Have I captured your heart yet? Did my plan work sweet Ser-e-na?"

Serena chuckled delightedly and she tingled all over, even down to her little painted, pearly tipped toes. "LOL. What plan is that, my mischievous darling Zachary?"

"To seduce you and make you fall deeply, madly in love with me...<<anticipating butterscotch delight>>."

"ROFLOL!!!!!!!"

"That was not the reaction you were supposed to have. I'll have to polish up my act...<<bowing head in shame. slinking away quietly into the cold night.>> You really know how to deflate a guy's ego. (^~^)..."

"Your act is just fine the way it is. And you'd better not cyber with anyone but me. You're all mine. all mine. You said so!"

"Alas, sweet Ser-e-na. I am a fool, head over heels in love with you and you shatter my heart into a million tiny pieces! "

"How about if I bring the butterscotch, wine and roses and order a full moon?" Serena asked smiling at the finger nail moon just coming into focus outside her window. Twilight was giving away to the black velvet night.

"It's a miracle!!!!!! I'm all better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <<Anticipating tasting your sweet lips, exploring your hidden treasures...>> Drat, BULLDOG's flicking the lights. It can't be that late yet."

Serena drug her mouse to the bottom right hand edge of her computer screen to check the time. eight p.m. flashed up -- meaning 11 pm his time.

Deflated, she wrinkled her nose. "(^~^)~~~. Tell Bulldog to get a girl of his own and stop bothering us."

"LOL!!!!! His wife wouldn't like that very much."

Serena scrunched her face, wished she could still stomp her feet, and yelled "Ooooh!!!" frustrated beyond words, frightening Donny who jumped to his feet and scurried to the far side of the room regarding her with curious eyes, tucking his tail between his legs. "It's okay boy. I'm not going crazy. Not yet, anyway."

"Can he be bribed? Peanut butter cookies? Cigarettes?...he must have some weakness."

"He's an officer and a gentleman, like me. No he can't be bribed!!!!!"

"Surely, he has a chink in his armor?"

"<<thinking hard, smoke coming out of ears>> Uhmmmm!!!! <<light bulb lighting up idea!!!!>> Tootsie rolls! The man loves them almost as much as you love butterscotch," Zack said.

"Done deal! I'll put some in the next care package." She made a mental note to remember. Tootsie roles for Colonel Bulldog.

"Don't forget Erika!" Zack reminded her.

"What? and disappoint my little honey? Although, come to think of it, you're only supposed to dream about me, not some sexy, beautiful soap opera queen!" She leaned back in her chair and smiled dreamily.

"I do dream of you Songstress. Only you."

"Uh-huh! What about Erika?"

"She's for the other guys..."

"Likely story <<do you want to sell me beach front property in Omaha next?>>! ROFLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can be reasonable. We'll make a deal." She could be reasonable if given the right incentive.

"Deal? <<ears perked, fingers twitching>>," Zack said.

"You can look, but not touch!!!!!!! And I get to ogle Mel Gibson."

"You're a closet Mel Gibson fan. I should have known."

"No closet...I admit it openly. And Brad Pitt. And Patrick Swayze. And Kevin Sorbo <<the new Hercules>>..."

"I can see I have a lot to learn about you sweet Ser-e-na...<<E-mail me your resume Songstress!>>"

"LOL. Ditto. I'll only show you mine if you show me yours first!" She changed the music in her CD player and then quickly added, "Or did you want it to see if I could be a G.I. Jane like Demi Moore? I promise you right now I'm not shaving my head!"

"You are wicked!"

"You must be in the dark by now." She glanced out her bay window at the orange sun resting on the distant horizon, pine trees sticking straight up like fingers.

"Alas, I'm always in the dark. And I do have to go. Otherwise, I'll have to go outside and shower with the polar bears."

"I don't want you turning into a popsicle. I want you all warm and cuddly -- for me only -- not for any polar bear (sure you didn't mean some Eskimo dish?)." Her fingers drummed the keys lightly. She stared at her monitor, awaiting his reply.

"The only woman I want to rub noses with and snow bathe with is you, sweet Ser-e-na. Dream of me Songstress. <<Write another song just for me.>> <G>."

"Dream of me, my darling flyboy." She wrinkled her nose, leaning her head back letting the gentle summer breeze from her open window cool her heated flesh.

"Sing me a song?" Zack asked.

"I will. I will." Serena chuckled. She glanced at her guitar lovingly.

"Bulldog's serious this time. It's now or never...(^~^). Don't forget his tootsie rolls..."

"ROFL. I won't. But they might arrive a melted chocolatey mess! No money back. No guarantees!"

"ROFOL. You make me laugh sweet Ser-e-na. You healed my soul when I thought no one could ever touch my heart again...You complete me. <<sending you long wet cyber kisses>> We'll name our first child HEATHR123..."

"<G> ROFLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or ZackAce88."

"Await me on your cyber balcony under the moonlight tomorrow (same cybertime, same cyberchannel), Sweet Ser-e-na!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let your long blonde hair flow down for me."

There he went with the blonde hair again. She wanted to scream! She never wanted to hear about blonde hair ever again. "I'll bring my guitar and serenade you!" Serena felt a twinge of guilt and brushed her very dark brown hair out of her eyes and chewed on one end staring at it as if it was a traitor. "I'll bring the butterscotch and yellow roses!"

"Till then, Songstress! I love you! {S Goodbye}"

"Till then, handsome flyboy! I love you too! {S Goodbye}"

ZackAce blinked off the screen.

Serena stared at the void he left, rereading his last words like a man dying of thirst in a desert. On a whim, she flicked on her printer, and copied his declaration of sweet love. The printer flashed it out while Serena waited impatiently. Snatching the hot little copy from the printer's mouth, she kissed the paper and tacked it to her wall.

"What nice names! ZackAce88 and HEATHR123!"

Donny opened one groggy eye and lifted a bushy eyebrow at her as if asking what kind of nonsense she spewed.

Chuckling happily, Serena hugged her guitar, wheeling to her windowseat where she repositioned Marie and Buddy against the far corner. She cradled her faithful guitar against her.

That tune played over and over in her mind. Zack's tune. It wanted to be written, to be sung for her brave flyboy protecting the northern skies so far away from home, so far away from her loving arms. It wanted to be a monument to his dedication, his bravery, his love.

So far, it was only a few bars repeating in her head, a couple of stray notes that taunted her, whispered to her that it wanted to be more, should be more.

Picking a few notes, strumming a few chords, humming softly with it, Serena experimented with different keys and arrangements until a concrete melody began to form. She pushed her heavy hair off her neck, letting the cool night breeze tickle her heated flesh.

Elvis meowed insistently outside her window. Serena glanced over and met his satisfied grin, eye level.

"What have you been doing tonight, boy? Out catting around? Now you're up a tree? Literally?"

She opened the window and pushed open the screen at the corner. Elvis squeezed inside, his tail held high, his ears perked, licking his chops and twitching his whiskers. He strolled in regally, rubbing against her legs with his fluffy orange fur.

Bending over, Serena scratched behind the big tabby cat's ears, and crooned to him softly, "I can't help falling in love with you, Elvis!"

Elvis purred like a motorboat and curled up half on her lap, half scrunched between her legs and the side of her chair under the neck of her guitar. His warmth seeped into her while she composed Zack's song.

CHAPTER EIGHT

The next morning, a persistent ringing woke Serena from a wonderfully delicious dream filled with butterscotch delight and moonlit fantasies. She tried to ignore it but it rang insistently refusing to be ignored.

Reaching over groggily, she forced one rebellious eye open to check the alarm clock. "It's only eight a.m.!" she moaned, frustrated. "Who would dare call so early?"

Grabbing the phone, she knocked the clock onto the floor making Buddy jump out of the way hurriedly. "Hello?" Serena picked up the phone, her voice husky with sleep, greeting warily. When the phone gave her a dead signal, she blinked sleepily then realized that someone leaned on the doorbell.

She sat up, throwing the ivory lace covers off her, reached for her burgundy robe and struggled into it. Slipping into her old mule slippers, she struggled to lift herself into her chair next to her bed, her hair in disarray. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes with her fists. All three dogs chased after her chair, knocking each other over in their hurry, anxious for their morning walk.

"Can you get the door, Serena? I'm in the shower." Saundra's voice was muffled behind running water.

"Yeah, I'm getting it," Serena called back from the middle of the hall.

Wary of unannounced visitors, Serena peeked out the heavy peach curtains by the front window, surprised to see Jewel and Reverend Thorpe dressed in their Sunday best standing on her door stoop.

Serena scurried to the door, finger combing her hair into some semblance of neatness. "Sit!" She turned, shaking her forefinger at the dogs. "Stay!" They plopped their plump haunches on the floor, their tails wagging, their tongues lolling expecting doggie treats.

Sucking in a deep breath, Serena rubbed clammy hands down the sides of her robe, then opened the door with a friendly smile.

"Morning Jewel, Reverend Thorpe," Serena greeted as cheerily as she could muster. "What an early and unexpected pleasure!"

"Good morning, Serena." The Reverend held out his hand to shake hers. Serena shook his obediently, then gave Jewel a quick kiss on her withered cheek.

Jewel clucked her tongue and shook her head. Her short silvery curls bounced up and down. "Good morning to you too, Miss Serena! I thought I told you to expect Reverend Thorpe to pick you and Saundra up at eight a.m. this morning."

"We've missed you, Serena." Reverend Thorpe smiled kindly. His eyes twinkled, the little creases in the corners of his eyes crinkling. Behind him, birds chirped joyously, flitting from branch to branch in the cherry tree by the circular driveway. The brook babbled gently in the background. The fresh cut summer grass smelled heavenly as did the honeysuckle climbing the side of the house.

Elvis rubbed Serena's legs on his way out the door, his tail held regally high. His ears twitched when he heard the birds twittering. Serena watched the big tom cat jounce down to the brook, his favorite place to sun himself and watch birds.

"I totally forgot." Thoroughly embarrassed, she glanced down at her robe and slippers. A self-conscious hand stroked her tangled hair. Her other hand stroked her scar. "I can't face people." Frantic terror clutched her heart.

"Psshaw! Only Jesus is perfect, child. Look at me, gnarled and older than sin itself and I drag myself to church." Jewel reprimanded softly. "Besides, they'll hear that beautiful voice of yours and forget everything else. It's high time you started using your God given talent to praise the Lord again, got out with young people and mingle a little."

Serena rolled back opening the door wider, realizing how amiss and discourteous she'd been making them stand on the stoop. "Please come in."

They stepped over the threshold of the lovely Georgian style home, exclaiming over it as everybody always did. "Won't you sit down?" When they nodded their silvery heads, Serena led them to her mother's sunny parlor filled with overflowing ferns and bougainvillea. The little dogs followed at Serena's wheels, their tails thumping the carpet like a drummer in a rock and roll band.

Jewel sat on the edge of a flowery overstuffed love seat and smoothed her long skirt around her legs. She curled her feet encased in antiseptic white orthopedic shoes to the side awkwardly. Then she looked up directly into Serena's steady gaze. "I'm going to tell you something I haven't told nobody but the Reverend and I'm only doing it 'cause I know I can trust you."

The kindly Reverend took Jewel's gnarled hands in his and squeezed gently, drawing Serena's gaze.

Perplexed, Serena stared at Jewel raptly. She drew her brows together in a slight frown. She didn't like the tremor she thought she detected in the old woman's voice. Something was very wrong.

"I'm dying, Miss Serena. The doctor says I have no more than six months to live, maybe less."

"No, Jewel." Serena gasped, grasping the old woman's hands. "What's wrong?" she whispered, her voice breaking. A tear slid down her cheek. This couldn't be real. Not Jewel.

"I have cancer, child. The Lord's calling me home," Jewel stated matter of factly.

"But how, why, where?" Serena spread her hands before her, upset with this news. "How long have you known?"

Removing her hands from the Reverend's, Jewel placed hers over Serena's comfortingly. "It's not my place to question Him child. I do worry about my Melinda and my grandbaby though. And I worry about you!"

"About me?" Serena rasped, her heart breaking.

"Yes, about you. You didn't die in that car wreck Miss Serena! Yet you entomb yourself in this house, in that room of yours pining for a man you can never have. You're a lovely young woman with your whole life ahead of you, yet you've turned your back on God!"

Ashamed, Serena felt heat rush into her cheeks. She averted her eyes.

"Serena," Reverend Thorpe spoke lowly, hesitantly. "We miss having you sing for us at church. Would you sing for us today?"

"I can't get up in front of everybody. I-I can't," Serena whispered. "I haven't sung for anybody since Doug died..." Except Zack -- but he couldn't see her real face.

"Doug would want you to be happy, Miss Serena. He wouldn't want to see you this way. Come to church. Let the Lord heal you. He loves you, Child. He loves all of us."

"I d-don't know, Jewel." Serena turned her head to stare out the window where the sun's rays shined through an ancient fern making shifting patterns on the thick carpeting. "I haven't even worn a dress since before the accident. I don't know if I have anything to wear." The computer didn't see her old blue jeans. Neither did Zack.

Jewel squeezed Serena's hands. "You would make me so happy if you came back to church and used that beautiful voice of yours to praise the Lord, child. And I have another favor to ask you."

Serena lifted eyes that ached with unshed tears to meet Jewel's sloe brown gaze. "What?" Serena whispered.

"Befriend my Melinda. Take her under your wing. Make her part of your family. I know it's a lot to ask, but she has no one except me to help her with her little boy." Jewel raised bright eyes to Serena's. "You're so good and so strong, I know you can do it."

"Me? Strong? I'm so scared of everything...of everybody..." Serena's voice trailed off.

Strongly, with her heart in her voice, Jewel said, "Yes, you Miss Serena. You are strong. You have a good heart and a good head on your young shoulders. With you and the Reverend here looking after my babies, I can go to the Lord in peace. Say you will?"

Serena stared at Jewel speechless for several moments, her lips parted. How could she say no to such a heart-felt plea? How could she turn down a dying wish?

"I'll do it," Serena whispered. "I'll do it for you, Jewel."

"Do it for yourself child, and for the Lord." Jewel pulled Serena to her ample bosom and hugged her gently. Serena coiled her arms around the old woman and squeezed back.

"Does Melinda know yet?" Serena had to know.

"I think she suspects," Jewel said softly, heaving a deep sigh. "I wanted your assurance before I told her. I want to be able to tell her she won't be alone. Of course, with the Lord's good grace, I am able to leave her the drug store free and clear and a little nest egg. I started a college fund for little Darnell, too, which I pray she'll continue. She can live in my apartment above the store free. It's all paid for."

Serena smiled crookedly, playing with a long finger of fern that fell to the floor. She felt so lucky that her parents were relatively young and in good health, even if it was nice to have the house to herself for the summer.

"You'd best be getting dressed for church. And getting that sister of yours up. The good Reverend can't be late greeting his flock. They might think he went on vacation and mosey on down to the Baptist Church in Knobb's Corner."

"Can I get you anything to drink while you wait?" Serena asked. "Coffee, milk, juice, water? I think we have a box of donuts in the kitchen."

Jewel waved her hand in the air. "No, Miss Serena. I rose with the sun and ate early."

"No dear. I can't give a sermon on a full stomach." The reverend smiled gently, his eyes twinkling.

"We'll be fine as long as you and Miss Saundra hurry along so we can get to the church. We'll wait right here in this lovely parlor."

Serena let the dogs out the front door to do their daily business. They'd stick close to the house. Serena didn't worry as there was no traffic this far out in the country. Gladys, the nearest neighbor, lived a quarter mile east, toward town. The dogs wouldn't stray that far without her.

Serena threw Saundra's door wide. "Jewel and Reverend Thorpe are waiting for us downstairs. We're going to church. Get dressed."

Saundra stuck her wet head out of the shower, her eyes wide. "They're here?" It sounded like she'd swallowed a frog.

She shook her head. "I need you to help me put on my hose and I really need your moral support. Jewel says I have to play the guitar and sing today."

Saundra spied Serena suspiciously. "You're going to sing today?"

Serena nodded her head, her hair falling about her face in a heavy curtain. She wrung her hands and smiled tentatively. "That's what Jewel tells me. I don't know if I can do that."

"You can do it. Jewel and I will be there with you." Saundra peered at her bedside clock. "We'd better hurry. Go pick out your dress. I have some hose you can borrow." Saundra closed the bathroom door and Serena heard the blow dryer come to life.

Serena flung open her closet door a moment later, quickly going through her old dresses. Looking down at her body, she grimaced when she saw how thin she'd become. Downright bony, in fact. Except for the occasional butterscotch sundae, she hadn't had much interest in food since Doug died.

She found a lavender Gunny Sack creation that was supposed to hang straight, covering any number of faults and tugged it over her head. Her fingers shook while she tried to slip the tiny buttons through tight holes.

She searched in the bottom of her closet for some decent white or lavender high heels. Did she still have any? It had been ages since she'd worn them. Could she still get them on or would her feet be swollen or too crooked now?

After she managed to get the dress buttoned, she rooted through the vanity drawer for make up. None. Well, she hadn't worn any in over two years. Surely her sister had some. She didn't even sunbathe without wearing make-up. Gathering her shoes and guitar, she rolled down the hall in search of her sister. She spied her slipping into her heels. "Can I borrow your mascara?"

"It's in my bathroom. Go and get it!"

Serena found the tube of black mascara in Saundra's make-up drawer. She twisted open the tube and pulled the wand out, then swept her long eyelashes carefully until they stood thicker and made her eyes stand out more than they had in a long, long time.

"You look pretty. Do you want to borrow my lipstick?" Saundra held out a tube of very red lipstick.

Serena looked into the mirror, grimacing at her reflection. She shook her head slowly, her eyes staring back at her big, dark, and luminous. Her fingers touched her scar, pulling at her lip. "I don't want to draw more attention to my scar than necessary."

"Nonsense!" Saundra took Serena by the shoulders and turned her gently. She held out the gold tube of creamy lipstick and painted it on Serena's lips. "Look in the mirror," Saundra turned Serena back to the mirror, peering over her shoulder. "See? It gives you nice color, and it lights up your whole face."

Serena stared, turning her head slowly, peering at herself closely. "I don't know." She spread her straight luxurious hair over her scar and smiled at herself. "If my hair would stay like this, I wouldn't be too bad. Maybe if I used a ton of hairspray..."

"You're just fine. Let me brush your hair before they think you're Phyllis Diller, and we'll get going." Saundra chuckled. "Hand me that brush by the sink, will you?"

Serena picked up Saundra's new styling brush and handed it to her sister. "Don't forget. Plaster it with hair spray so it won't budge an inch."

"Thanks," Saundra mumbled, pulling the brush through Serena's thick hair reverently until it gleamed. "You're just a worry wart like Grandma Johnston. There! Now you're gorgeous. Let's go!"

Serena couldn't move. She felt glued to the spot, just staring at her reflection.

Saundra turned from her bedroom door and called over her shoulder. "Are you coming? We're going to make the Reverend late."

"I don't know," Serena whispered. She sprayed more hairspray and the aerosol fumes almost choked her. She coughed and spluttered, grabbing her throat.

"Careful little sister! You'll deplete the ozone layer," Saundra murmured. She came back and took hold of Serena's chair propelling her forward. "Jewel and I will sit with you and no one will dare say a word while I'm by your side. I dare them."

Helpless to stop herself, Serena cracked a smile. "No one would dare cross you."

"You heard?" Saundra laughed jubilantly. "News travels fast in small towns."

"News? Sorry to burst your bubble, Sis, but I knew since before I could walk and talk."

Saundra lifted a finely sculpted eyebrow. "Am I that bad?"

Serena squeezed Saundra's arm affectionately. "No. I couldn't ask for a better big sister."

Saundra smiled, pushing Serena into the parlor where their guests waited.

The Reverend stood, pumping Saundra's hand enthusiastically. "Good morning, Saundra. You look lovely this morning."

"Where is your guitar, Miss Serena? I distinctly remember telling you to bring it with you today. You're going to sing for us."

"Really," Serena hesitated, "I-I don't think I can sing in front of everybody."

"You look lovely. Of course you can sing for us. You were born to sing child," Jewel declared.

"She's right little sister. I'll get it for you." Saundra's eyes danced with laughter.

"You're ganging up on me." The idea of getting in front of a crowd, even in church, maybe especially in church, scared her to death.

"Only for your own good child. You need to get back up on that horse. We were wrong to let you wait so long. I want to make sure you're back on the right track before I leave." Jewel kissed her on the cheek. "You look very beautiful by the way. You have nothing to worry about."

Serena looked at Jewel, melting. She couldn't disappoint Jewel. She expelled a deep sigh. "All right." Sending a sly glance her friend's way, she asked with a hint of mischief. "Can I get a double butterscotch sundae later?"

"That can be arranged. After I make lunch for you at the store," Jewel said.

"I'm taking all of you out for the best chicken fried steak and home made apple pie this side of Columbus. This is your day to rest, Jewel. I don't want you slaving over a hot grill or waiting on us hand and foot."

"Why, that's awfully sweet of you Reverend!" Jewel smiled. She tugged at her paisley silk dress, straightening it. "Now that you mention it, I have a hankering for good apple pie."

"We'll help you into the Reverend's car while Saundra gets the guitar."

The little dogs ran in when the Reverend opened the door, shooting through his legs, almost making him stumble. They made a beeline for Serena, jumping up on her legs.

"Sit! I'm dressed up. You'll tear my hose." They sat, staring at her as if she'd hurt their feelings and she felt guilty.

Saundra rejoined them momentarily and handed the guitar to her. It was in it's protective case. She cradled the instrument all the way to church, breathing deeply, unable to prevent the faces of the congregation from haunting her.

When the Reverend opened her car door at the church, she felt helpless having to wait for Saundra and the Reverend to help her. Panic assailed her when she saw several faces she didn't recognize.

"I don't think I can do this," Serena whispered, freezing in her spot when they tried to help her move to her wheel chair.

Saundra whispered in her ear. "You can do it. Imagine everybody in their underwear. I do it on the first day of school every year and it really works."

"I thought that was an old wife's tale," Serena said out of the side of her mouth.

"Try it. I wouldn't lie to you in God's house." Saundra chuckled.

"Technically," Serena whispered, "we're not inside God's house yet." Serena looked at a group of people decked out in their Sunday finery and stripped them down to their skivvies. Imagining suspenders and girdles and panties with lace and little pink flowers covering big derrieres, she couldn't help but laugh aloud.

"See what I mean? It works. You can do this!" Saundra whispered.

The reverend held out his hand and Serena put her in it. He squeezed it. "You'll be fine, my dear. We're glad to have you home where you belong." Painting a smile on her lips, she tilted her head so that a heavy curtain of her hair fell over her scar, hiding it, so she hoped. She sucked in her breath and stared straight- forward, her focus on getting herself into that church. If only she could sit in a pew flanked by Jewel and Saundra, where nobody truly noticed her, it wouldn't be so bad. But she'd have to park her chair in the aisle and she'd be the center of attention.

Dillon's soft voice floated behind Serena and she turned to see him escorting her sister, their heads bent together intimately. They looked good together. Really, really good. Saundra looked soft but happy by his side.

Jewel clasped the handles of Serena's chair, propelling her forward. "You'll be just fine child. I'm with you. Saundra and her young man will join us."

Gripping her guitar case tightly, Serena let herself be propelled trying to look normal, poised, and composed.

Several people she hadn't seen since before Doug died came up to Serena, telling her how glad they were to see her. They told her they were looking forward to hearing her sing for them again.

Her voice stuck deep in her throat, Serena gulped and smiled widely, nodding her head in the appropriate places.

Finally, finally, Jewel led her up to the second pew in the front. Saundra and Dillon slipped onto the bench and Jewel sat on the end seat next to her. She felt like the President at a parade with his Secret Service escort.

Serena expelled a deep, pent up sigh of relief. So far the church hadn't swallowed her whole and God hadn't struck her down as a hypocrite.

When organ music filled the church, Rita McEntire, the choir director lifted her hands for everybody to stand and sing the first hymn.

As the last strains of the hymn faded, Wendell Morgan walked reverently to the pulpit and led the congregation in opening prayer. Reverend Thorpe thanked Wendell and Rita then made opening announcements. To Serena's horror, he asked her to come to the pulpit with her guitar and sing a song of praise for the congregation. She thought she'd have longer to prepare herself.

Sucking in a deep, deep breath that scorched her lungs, her hands shaking. she turned looking at the sea of faces staring back at her, smiling. Smiling. They actually smiled at her. Serena breathed a little easier.

Opening her guitar case, she took the guitar by the neck and cradled it on her lap. "Will you go up with me, Jewel?"

One step at a time, she told herself. If Zack could fly through the heavens at mach three, she could do this. Zack thought she had a lovely voice. Zack thought she sang like an angel. Zack thought she looked like Saundra -- all blonde and tanned and the all-American perfect model.

Reverend Thorpe strolled to her and pushed her to the place of honor next to the pulpit, in the same exact spot where she and Doug used to perform. Jewel stood by her as promised, her hand resting lightly on her shoulder.

She smoothed her long skirt over her legs and sat up straight, cradling her guitar to her. Shifting in her seat, she pretended to tune her guitar while she thought of a hymn to sing, one she still remembered all the way through. It would be ultra embarrassing if she faded out in mid song because she forgot the tune.

The congregation hushed in anticipation. All eyes turned on Serena, waiting, watching, listening. Even the babies stopped crying.

Knowing she couldn't stall any longer, she strummed her guitar softly and played the first strains of Amazing Grace before she opened her mouth. Without Doug's rich tenor to carry her or his strong hand on her shoulder lending his strength, she didn't know if her voice would carry alone. So she imagined that Zack sat in the front pew cheerleading, watching her with his intense hazel gaze, smiling that enigmatic smile of his and getting his strong arms ready to hold her tight and make the world go away at the end of the song no matter what happened, good or bad.

When she opened her mouth to sing, her voice came out thin and hesitant. She looked up, straight into the anguished gray eyes of Mrs. Jenkins who stood alone in a center pew, excusing herself before running out the back of the church, her skirts flying behind her.

Serena's hands froze on the guitar, her jaw dropped open. She watched Doug's father excuse himself to the congregation and follow his wife out the back door.

Saundra stood and scooted out of her pew. Hurriedly, she joined Serena and Jewel and stood on her other side. Bending over, whispering in her ear, Saundra murmured, "Play Serena. We'll sing with you. We're here for you." Saundra put her hand on Serena's right shoulder, lending her strength.

Serena closed her eyes and played while Jewel and Saundra sang like guardian angels beside her.

CHAPTER NINE

No wonder Elvis liked to sun himself by the babbling brook.

Serena sat in her chair by the brook letting the afternoon sun kiss her all over and the gentle breeze lick her heated flesh. She spread her heavy hair behind her shoulders and sniffed the deep summer scents appreciatively. Fresh cut grass smelled more erotic than any perfume she'd ever tested at the Merle Norman's boutique in Dayton. The honeysuckle attracted more hummingbirds than any Chanel No. 5 attracted male admirers. She could practically taste the fresh cherries in bloom on the trees lining the circular driveway a few feet up the gently rolling hill.

Overhead, birds chirped and flitted from tree to tree, fluffy white clouds formed, broke apart and reformed forming castles in the skies, sugar plums, unicorns, ice cream sundaes and all manner of magical things that were good and mysterious.

The brook bubbled and ran lazily along its ever changing course. Bass and catfish leapt out of the water to catch flies. Deer wandered gracefully down to the banks to lap cool refreshing water. Squirrels scurried up the sides of the fat oak trees, boys chasing girls, playing a lover's dance. Their bushy tails fluttered in the breeze and Serena smiled watching their playful antics.

Could Heaven get any better?

If Zack were with her and they had free butterscotch sundaes at every corner, it could.

Just the thought of Captain Zachary Elias Kane soaring somewhere in the far northern skies, almost touching Heaven and beyond, lit elicit fires deep in her belly.

Dear, darling, sultry Zack who touched her heart like she thought no man ever could, not even her beloved Douglas. That dashing, dangerous Air Force pilot spelled sex appeal, allure and love more than any old Clarke Gable or Humphrey Bogart movie ever could -- and they were supposedly the definition of sexy, dashing and debonair.

Her Zachary had them beat hands down. If only he could have a five o'clock shadow to rub against her sensitive skin, he would be perfect. Of course, military men weren't permitted, but he was still the sexiest man alive.

Dreamily, she hugged herself, tingling all over. How she longed to squish mud through her bare toes. Two deer that had been watering at the brook finally noticed her and bounded away in graceful leaps. She watched their cottony tails disappear in the thicket across the brook. The squirrels, a little more social minded than the skittish deer, stared at her avidly for a few moments, not flicking a muscle or squinting an eye, then went about their business of flirting and playing.

She'd forgotten how pretty daytime could be. Daytime and sunlight definitely had its advantages, not that she still didn't love her nighttime world of moonlight and fantasy.

She still had to finish Zack's song and record it for him before she spoke to him tonight.

First, she just had to sing out here by her babbling brook. She'd been wanting to do this for awhile, she had come out here today with the intention of doing so and she was going to do it.

She was her own boss, remember? Well, sort of. Spritzy Soda and Kamakazi Vans had a lot of input as long as they paid her commissions.

But they could wait till tonight. Her deadlines stretched weeks away and she only had finishing touches to put on their web pages.

She ran her fingers lightly along her guitar's gently curving slopes and resined wood. It wasn't the newest, most expensive guitar on the market, but it had more class and character than any guitar in the showrooms in the Wurlitzer Music store in downtown Cincinnati. She remembered the day Doug had presented it her and another day when he had nicked it accidentally while transporting it for her. She stroked her thumb along that gouge lovingly.

Sometimes, the dents and gouges of life meant far more than perfection. Memories, dreams and fantasies made life interesting.

Gently, she strummed a few chords of Zack's song and hummed the words that poured from her heart whenever she thought of him. It was a good song, good lyrics, good melody. Music flowed from her soul.

She sang of yellow roses and moonlight, of impossible dreams and scrumptious fantasies, of butterscotch delight and climbing balconies. Most of all, she sang of love and longing, her voice strong and bittersweet, blending with the babbling brook, chattering squirrels and chirping birds.

She sang with a dreamy smile curving her lips, watching the setting sun twinkle through the trees. The clouds drifted lazily overhead, creating mystical, magical castles of dreams.

She sang out all the desires filling her heart, all the dreams clamoring in her soul, all the fantasies waiting at her fingertips waiting for the sun to dip under the horizon and the magical moon to rise in the heavens, signaling the bewitching hour when she would rendezvous with her love.

That time approached swiftly and she still hadn't recorded Zack's song. Placing her guitar on her lap, she leaned back in her chair, her head hung back so that her thick hair tickled the small of her back. Wouldn't it be heavenly if Zack could join her, right here, right now? How she longed to be held in his arms, to feel his firm lips on hers.

She took one last longing glance at the brook, quirked her eyebrows at the hard working squirrels, then slowly drove her chair to the Georgian style mansion looming on the hill above her where her teal Ford Ranger sat parked by the front door where she'd left it earlier that morning after her run into Strawberry Point for a gallon of milk and some fresh fruit.

Laughter greeted her when she opened the front door. It hushed suspiciously when she slammed the heavy oak door behind her.

Wrinkling her nose, she followed the hushed sounds to the den where Saundra and Dillon lay clenched in a lover's embrace on the family couch. Saundra's hair lay disarrayed on the cushions behind her like a naughty angel's who's halo had slipped. Dillon's shirt was thrown halfway across the room and lay in a heap on the floor. Their shoes lay haphazardly tangled, upside down and sideways, obviously kicked off in glee.

The couple struggled to a sitting position when Serena rolled through the room on her way to the kitchen to grab a cold Spritzy Soda and slice of chilled watermelon to take to her room to snack on while she chatted to Zack. She averted her eyes discreetly, but couldn't keep the corners of her lips from twitching.

"Spritzy Soda called while you were out. Michael Henderson needs you to call him ASAP. His number's on the note pad by the kitchen phone," Saundra spoke huskily, running fingers through her tangled hair. She curled elegant long legs beside her on the couch. Dillon slipped his fingers through Saundra's then squeezed tightly. He slid her a secret look that made Saundra blush like a schoolgirl.

"Thanks. Any other calls?" Serena smiled noncommittally at the couple, deeply embarrassed at having interrupted an obviously intimate moment.

"Just Jewel. She said she owes you a butterscotch sundae and tomorrow would be a good day to collect on it." Saundra gazed deeply into Dillon's eyes.

"OK. I need to pick a few things up in town anyway. I forgot my software today again and one of the strings of my guitar is going bald," Serena said.

"Can you pick up my prescription while you're at Jewel's?" Saundra flipped her long corn silk hair behind her shoulder.

"Sure." Serena backed her chair toward the kitchen, ill at ease. "I'm just going to grab a snack and I'll leave you two alone." She scrunched her nose and bit her lower lip. Before long, she'd be a bridesmaid and the town's most eligible bachelorette would be no more. Countless teenage hearts would be broken.

Serena backed into the swinging kitchen door, careful not to bang her guitar. As soon as the door shut, she heard intimate giggles and she covered her hot cheeks with her hands. "I hope Gladys isn't peeking in the windows!" she whispered.

Quickly, she cut a thick slice of juicy cold watermelon, grabbed a Spritzy Soda, tore the phone messages off the wall, stuffing them in her jeans pocket. Going out the rear kitchen entrance, she balanced her food on her lap.

She was anxious to speak to Zack. He was becoming an obsession. A sweet obsession, but an obsession nevertheless.

She petted the dogs and made over them when she entered the room. Then she dropped a few flakes of fish food into the bubbling tank behind the computer desk. "Eat up babies." Colorful fish wiggled their tails, swimming to the top to grab a flake of the golden food and gobble it up. "That's it. Get your fill." She peered into the tank at her neons and Angel fish. The scuba diver on the bottom of the tank waved to her and bubbles rose from his mask.

She rolled back to her computer, taking a large bite of watermelon where she'd put down her food. She spit the seeds back onto the plate. She grabbed her guitar where she'd set it against the computer desk.

She cradled her guitar to her, tuning the strings so she'd be in perfect harmony for her recording session. Turning to her little dogs, she shook a finger at them, "I want you three to be perfectly quiet while I'm recording. If you are, I'll give you a doggie treat. Understood?"

Donny, Marie, and Buddy Holly perked their ears and yipped excitedly, their tails thumping Serena's bed where they huddled together, their pink tongues lolling out the sides of their mouths.

Serena leaned forward and flicked on her apparatus to record Zack's song in a wav file. She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. She worked better with her eyes shut, pretending Zack sat beside her, ready to love her at the end of the song.

Slowly, letting the spirit move her, Serena picked the opening notes to her haunting melody, letting her fingers work their very special magic. She let the music flow over her, around her, into her until it became part of her. When she opened her mouth to sing, she poured out her heart, her soul to the man she loved. She sang to Zack and only to Zack, telling him of her innermost desires, her dreams, her fantasies.

Tears streamed from her ears, her voice shook.

She held her finger on the last note, moving it back and forth so that it faded out hauntingly.

By the time she'd finished Zack's song, she felt completely, utterly drained.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and breathed in deeply, smelling the sweet summer honeysuckle wafting in through her open bay window.

She put her guitar back in its place and turned to her computer, flicking it on. She had to make sure her wave file had uploaded properly before she sent Zack thin air, or worse, a garbled mess.

Only perfection would do for her flyboy.

She played her wav file and cried. That couldn't be her voice, that bittersweet, haunting voice blending so harmoniously with the lilting guitar. A few night birds chirped in the background, but that was okay. In fact, she couldn't have choreographed the song any better. God must have sent them to give her a hand.

ZackAce blinked onscreen early. Serena's heart soared, her pulse skyrocketing.

Her emotions rode one bumpy rollercoaster today.

"Hello my sweet Ser-e-na!!!!!! <G> <<climbing your cyberbalcony, moonlight shining overhead>>."

"Hello my darling Zack!!!!!!! Did you protect our skies today? <<letting down golden hair, twirling yellow rose in my teeth, batting long, black eyelashes at you under the silvery moonlight>>."

"For you my Songstress! I soared to the Heavens and all I could think of was you!!!"

Serena smiled dreamily at Zack's picture. She blew it a kiss and placed a quivering fingertip to his lips. "My prince," she murmured huskily.

"Zack darling. Tell me about your family."

"About my ex-wife? (^~^)~~"

"No!!!!!!!! Your parents, sibs, aunts, uncles, cousins, Idaho Falls...<<don't tell me curiosity killed the cat -- -> I love cats!>>."

"We-e-el. It's not very exciting. I'm just a good ol' country boy, from a good ol' country town on the outside of Idaho Falls that always wanted to be Tom Cruise in Top Gun. My Dad died last year in a boating accident, my mom's doing pretty well, dating a nice, but boring banker. I have two younger brothers, scads of cousins <<the whole population of Rapid Falls and Little Springs, Idaho practically>>, three horses, two dogs and dozens of barn cats. Your turn Ser- e-na. Tell me about your family."

"We-e-el. I have a younger sister named Saundra and my parents are disgustingly healthy. They look like an ad for VitaTabs. They're touring Europe right now. They should be in Cyprus by today. I have a nosy neighbor named Gladys who's pretty nice most of the time. Elvis, Buddy Holly, Donny and Marie, Rocky and a bunch of his pals live in my room...<G>."

"What? Come again? You mentioned Elvis and Buddy Holly before. Please explain! ROFLOL!"

"Elvis is my big orange tom cat. Donny, Marie, and Buddy Holly are my little dogs. Lhaso Apsos to be precise. They're soooooooooo cute! You'd love them. Rocky is my zebra fish. Were you jealous?"

"Ahhhhhhhh! You keep a menagerie in your room. What else do you do? Play the guitar, sing, animal lover and computer whiz. You love butterscotch, yellow roses and moonlight. Did I miss anything, sweet Ser-e-na?"

"I like to skip stones at the brook. I like my church. I love you, my darling Captain Zachary Elias Kane! <<to distraction!>>."

"A good ol' country girl! Right down my alley! I knew we were soul mates, sweet Ser-e-na. Is my care package ready?"

"Almost. Almost. I have to bake your chocolate chip cookies and get Bulldog's tootsie rolls. <<bowing head in shame, I forgot>> (^~^)~~. Ohhhhh! I almost forgot to tell you. I have a surprise for you!"

"<G> Surprise? <<ears perking up, finger tips twitching, chills racing down my spine>>"

"Tell me <<driving me to distraction!>>"

"Life is never a dull moment with me. I have magic potions for every occasion."

"ROFLOL. You're a tease, Songstress! Tell me!"

"I recorded a song for you. your song. I wrote it for you. I'm sending it to you E-mail now." Serena clicked the mouse button, pressed tab-space bar simultaneously and sent her special gift winging through cyberspace to her love. She bit her bottom lip hard.

"I just sent it. See if you got it and tell me what you think! <<waiting on the edge of my seat, biting my lip, wringing my hands together>>."

She waited for an eternity with her fingers poised on the keyboard. She stared at the still screen, reading and re-reading Zack's prior words. The room grew darker as night fell and a quarter moon rose overhead.

"It's absolutely lovely Serena. You wrote that for me? I'm very, very honored! I'll treasure it always! Thank you! <<from the bottom of my heart, taking you in my arms, dipping you backward, capturing your sweet lips, tasting the music in your soul...>>."

"You're very welcome, my darling Zack. I meant every word I said. I love you!"

"I love you too, Songstress! I almost forgot to tell you, sweet Ser-e-na..."

"Tell me what? <<surprise for me?>>," Serena asked.

"I'm leaving tomorrow morning early. I'll be gone for a month. I'll be out of computer touch."

***

"You're going on a Top Secret mission? Tomorrow? Are these secure air ways?" Serena's heart dropped to her knees. Her hands shook. She didn't think she could live through tragedy twice.

"Probably not, so let's not mention it again or I could end up in the brigade. And you wouldn't want that, would you sweet Ser-e-na? They don't have GlobalServ. I wouldn't be able to talk to you...(^~^)~~"

"Will you be in danger, my dearest Zack? <<worried to death>>. Will you be up against terrorists?" Serena mouthed the words as she typed, then crossed her chest. She took Zack's picture off her desk and held it to her heart. Hot summer air scorched her lungs like a raging inferno. Fear weighed like lead weights on her chest. She fingered the silver double Captain's bars on his lapel.

"Quite possibly, but don't worry about me, my Songstress. I'm very resourceful and full of surprises. I can handle ALL eventualities that come my way. I'm the best pilot in the Air Force!!!! Better than Bulldog and Gator combined."

"You sound mighty sure of yourself, Captain Flyboy...<<eyebrows quirked, heart pounding in awe>>." Serena brought Zack's picture in front of her, studying the arrogant tilt of his head, his dark penetrating eyes, his insolent grin, his broad shoulders. Yes. He could probably take on the world and then some. Heaven watch out. ZackAce would be in the skies protecting his girl, his country, the world...Serena went icy cold, all the way to her fingertips. The hair on the back of her neck prickled.

"I wouldn't climb in the cockpit of a plane if I weren't, now would I? Unless I were crazy, and believe me, Songstress, I'm only crazy when it comes to loving you. Will you wait for me?"

"With baited breath my love. Forever and always. <<heart pounding rapidly, worried to death, sad at missing you already!>>." Serena bit her bottom lip, a fat tear falling down her cheek. She swiped it away angrily with the back of her hand and swiveled in her chair to stare at the moon and stars. Did Zack see the same constellations overhead? Did he gaze at the moon and think of her? A bright star flickered and again she wondered if Doug were trying to tell her something. She stared at it for several long seconds trying to solve the mysteries of her heart, the mysteries of the universe.

"I have to pack my gear and get a good night's sleep. I'm leaving at dawn's first light...<<I will hold you in my dreams, dance with you under the moonlight, hear your sweet song play in my heart>>."

"Why did you tell me to mail you another care package if you were leaving?" Serena asked.

"This came up suddenly. I'm not in a position to question my superiors, just to follow orders and serve my country."

"<G> Yessir!!" Serena typed, a sarcastic grin splitting her face. She pounded the exclamation points.

"Don't get insolent, Songstress. I don't think I've seen you this way before. <<thinking, chewing on end of pencil, coming to rapid conclusion>> Are you moody?"

"What kind of question is that to the woman you love? I am the woman you love, aren't I?"

"Indubididly. Always and forever. Till the end of all eternity...<<longing to take you in my arms, kiss you, never let you go>>. But alas, sweet Ser-e-na <<rasping your name, burying my face in your beautiful golden hair, touching your soft flesh>>."

She hung her head in shame and bit her lower lip hard. A tear fell from her eye, sliding down her rough scar. Once her cheeks had been as soft and flawless as a newborn baby's. Doug had always loved the bloom of her cheeks, the sparkle in her eyes, or so he had delighted in telling her on many an occasion.

She sighed deeply, and pounded her fist on her computer desk, her computer shaking and her screen blinked warningly. Why had she suggested taking a romantic ride out in the country that night? Why had such enchanting moonlight lured her to disfigurement and death?

"In other words, you have to leave me now, my darling flyboy?"

"I'm afraid so, sweet Ser-e-na. I need to be wide awake and alert. I'll hold you in your dreams. Hold me, too? <<dance with me under the moonlight, kiss me goodbye>>."

"Sweet dreams. Fly safe, my darling Zack. Don't be a hero..."

CHAPTER TEN

Twin suns flared through thick foliage grabbing Serena's attention. The lights grew brighter.

Shading the glare with her arm, she wished to God she hadn't. Monster headlights snared her.

She didn't want to see anymore. Despite her wishes, they swirled into hypnotizing vortexes, casting a spell over her, drawing her into their whirlpool. Attached to them was a five ton produce truck that hurtled around the bend of the old country road, clinging to the side of a crumbling precipice at heart stopping speed. Burnt rubber scorched her nostrils. Pungent oil burned her eyes.

Her heart pounded so incredibly hard, she was sure it would rupture any moment. She could barely pull air into her lungs and what little she managed, she couldn't exhale, so that it expanded her chest like a balloon.

"Doug!" was all the coherent speech she could muster between her suddenly parched lips, and then it came out in a hissed whisper. Shaking hands clenched her fiancé's upper arm as he yanked a hard left on the steering wheel in a futile effort to avoid certain doom. The old Chevy swerved over the double yellow lines into the southbound lane, but the headlights wouldn't release her, as if they were magnetic north and the truck, magnetic south.

He's going to hit us head on.

She never knew for sure if she spoke the words aloud or if they just echoed in her mind. But a loud, piercing scream split the night air. Human? Or rusty, squealing brakes?

Probably a duet.

"Duck, Rena!" Doug shoved her head down in his lap preventing her from slamming into the windshield, just before the impact crumpled the car like an accordion, wrenched her from his grasp.

She sailed through the air, her limbs, her hair flailing as if a naughty giant child shook her. Unmerciful gravity yanked her to the ground, whacking her head on sharp-edged rocks, punishing her spine, shoving air from her lungs, stealing her consciousness for vital seconds.

Excruciating millimeters at a time, she forced an eyelid open. Then the other. Where am I? Even her hair, her fingernails felt bruised and battered. She winced and her cheekbones throbbed as if a thousand tiny needles used them for pincushions. At first her vision blurred so badly, the pulsating light didn't phase her -- she couldn't recognize what she couldn't see. Then slowly, her vision, if not her full faculties, came into focus.

Ravenous flames consumed Doug's car.

Fear triggered her memory. Doug was trapped in the car! Those flames were living things as if they possessed a soul, dreadfully dark despite their blinding light. They hadn't reached the driver's seat yet, but at their steady rate, they would. Any second.

Sitting proved one of the most valiant struggles of her life. Muscles and joints screamed at her. They stretched and contorted in ways they were never designed to. More than one bone bemoaned inhuman punishment. More than one hamstring snapped when she flexed her toes, then straightened her legs. She nursed several sprains, maybe worse.

But she couldn't let pain, nor even broken bones stop her. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, vaulting her toward the car that glowed like the inside of a porcelain kiln. When she spied Doug's head lolling against the windshield at a geometric angle no human head should ever lie, her blood froze. Her feet tripped over exposed roots and she stumbled.

Through the smoky, sweating glass, she stared into his beloved eyes, unblinking and unseeing. There was no trace of recognition, no hint of their usual delight at seeing her. The only movement reflected in their depths was the frolicking, taunting fire.

Hysterical screams gurgled in her throat, but she managed to harness them into language, albeit, at least an octave higher than her normal warm alto. They wound their way up her throat, pushing past her teeth, rolling off her tongue. "Doug! Wake up! Open the door!"

Frantic fingers clawing at the door handle, trying to wrench it open, made no difference. Throwing all her weight into her efforts didn't make an ounce of difference. Nothing mattered. Not the heat. Not the searing flames. Not even the danger.

Only Doug.

But nothing in her power made the bent, twisted metal budge. Not even fervent prayers and promises made frantically to God.

Taunting flames climbed higher and higher in the sky. Oily smoke billowed, searing her lips, throat and lungs, making her cough and choke, nauseating her. Soot coated her and the forest. Fiery embers threatened to set the dry timber ablaze.

The whir of distant fire trucks perforated the night. She hoped to God, they brought an ambulance. Then her eardrums burst from the loudest explosion they'd ever heard and she was thrown backwards.

Glass and metal hailed through the air. Futilely, panicky, trembling hands flew to her face. She screamed her outrage at God whom she blamed for forsaking her. Forsaking her fiancé. For taking away all reason for living.

Finally, as the cries wracked her frame, as her heart broke, she petitioned God to take her too, as he had taken her fiancé. Then mercifully, blessed darkness wrapped itself around her, permeating her cells, sucking her into a black morass of emptiness.

***

Heavy pounding yanked Serena rudely awake from her afternoon nap, pulling and tugging her by painful inches out of her dream world. Or did it revive her from an injury-induced coma? Maybe she'd only dreamed she'd awoken from the deep sleep that had submerged her into a blissful, empty oblivion for several months after the accident.

She bolted up in bed, the room spinning crazily around her; it took several moments until the dizziness left her.

A myriad of images flashed before her in a jumble. Doug. The car on fire. The explosion. Searing pain.

A strangled cry shrilled deep in her throat, fighting its way from the bottom of her soul to the surface of her consciousness as she started to hyperventilate, breaths struggling to escape the tightness of her lungs. Kicking and writhing, she fought the numbness in her legs that felt like prison cuffs, much as she'd once fought against glass, metal, and fire.

Still shrouded in the remnants of sleep, or was it mind-numbing grief caused by dreams so realistic she wondered if she had really been transported through time and space, several moments passed before she realized the accident that had changed her life forever, hadn't just occurred, but was well over two years ago. Now dreams took her to that alternate plane of reality where that fateful night still hovered. Or was it guilt? The guilt of being unable to save the man who'd meant more to her than life?

Tears streamed down her cheeks, wetting her pillow, matting her hair.

Caught in sleep's web, it was several moments before she could escape its silky threads. Pulling her warm covers over her head, she tried to shut out the ear splitting intrusion, tried to stay wrapped in the strange cocoon that was both tormentor and protector. But whoever demanded entrance remained adamant. Her dream dissipated, leaving her weak and shaky, leaving only remnants of misery.

It faded so swiftly, she could only remember vague, unsettling images, which she pushed away as she'd pushed away life since the fateful accident that left her bereft, emotionally and physically scarred.

Grimacing, she flung the thick coverlet on the floor. She tugged a tight fitting T- shirt over her head. Tucking it into old blue jean shorts with a few swift jabs of her hand, she stifled a huge sigh. She rolled to the edge of the bed where she maneuvered herself into the wheel chair that parked by her side when she wasn't in it. Her elbows dug into the mattress as upper arms flexed, bulging, and commanding muscles and tendons to help her upper body drag her lower body into the chair. As many times as she'd done this in the past two years since the accident, it still felt alien, as if she'd stepped into someone else's life, as if she stuffed herself into a corrugated box. Her back was sore and weak from yesterday's physical therapy. Her therapist, Tess, had pushed her to her limits and now, she was quivering and shaky having been roused after too few hours of rest.

The huge wheels sank into the plush pile carpeting of her floor, leaving tracks behind her. Grudgingly, she drove the chair down the hall to the front door. She finger combed her heavy tresses into some semblance of order, and wiped the last of the dampness from her cheeks with the backs of her hands. Then as was her long-forged habit, fingertips massaged the thick scar that trailed from the corner of her eye to the corner of her lips. She felt like a mess.

Yawning, she yanked the heavy door open, sarcasm dripping from her lips, "Pound on the door like you really mean it next time, Dil..."

Lounging insolently against the doorframe, a sandy haired man clad in Air Force blues held out a bouquet of the largest golden roses, she'd ever laid eyes on. Straightening to his full height, squaring broad shoulders, he blocked the sun from her vision, looming over her. His gaze fell to her low seat. Penetrating hazel eyes bored through her. Slowly as the dawning sun, he unleashed a smile full of charm, stealing her breath.

Stifling a gasp, her hand flew to her caustic lips as they formed an 'O' of astonishment. She stared in amazement at the tall man framed in her doorway, recognizing him instantly, yet pushing away the reality of his presence.

This wasn't supposed to happen. He couldn't really be here. He was her safe friend, words on a screen, a face in a picture, but nebulous as a ghost, companionship, but never truly in the same sphere of existence. Non- threatening.

Some ghost. He looked very, very solid. Very warm. And very threatening.

Her jaw fell a notch. Her hands trembled. She rotated her neck so that her heavy fall of hair would curtain the scar disfiguring her face, so that he might not notice it, at least not all of it. Unfortunately, it wasn't long enough to cover the chair or her useless legs. Not even Lady Godiva's hair could hide something so large, so obvious. Maybe she really wasn't awake yet. Maybe her dream had mutated.

"You're not Dillon," was the brightest thing she could think to say, then proverbially kicked herself for voicing such nonsense. The man looked at her as if he questioned her sanity. Feverish heat rushed up her cheeks, invading parts of her body she didn't know she had. In all the times she'd fantasized meeting this man, the scenario had never played out like this, as if she didn't have a wit of intelligence, as if simple language eluded her.

Captain Zachary Elias Kane, her special online friend. Her secret companion of the night times, that she had thought remained at a safe, innocuous distance, had shown up out of nowhere. No warning.

And now he stood not more than a foot from her, within touching distance, his after shave wrapping itself around her, his shadow blocking the sunlight.

Her head spun at dizzying rates, accessing stored information on a memory cell tucked away in the back of her mind. Had he in any way, shape or form hinted he'd planned to meet her face to face? Had she missed an email? Had a vital line of text gone astray?

Or had he neglected to tell her, not knowing what a heart attack his unexpected appearance would cause her? He'd told her he'd be away from his post on a Top Secret Mission. So she was to presume now that she was the Top Secret Mission? So the captain was a fast mover, and more than just an online friend? Or at least, he wanted to be.

What havoc had her harmless on-line flirtation caused? Her hand drifted to her mouth. Her heart lied absolutely still in her chest. Her mouth so dry she could barely swallow, she stared at him, her eyes open so wide, they hurt. Much as she'd longed to meet him face to face, much as she'd fantasized about this moment, she knew now with sudden, cruel clarity, she wasn't ready for it. After the way she'd let Doug down, after the way the accident had stripped her of everything she held dear and left her lame, she feared she had nothing left to share with another man.

"Morning, Ma'am. Is this where Serena Gregory lives?" A mischievous twinkle lit his greenish-brown eyes. His lips curled into the ghost of a grin and his sharply etched features relaxed.

He didn't recognize her. But how could he? Not unless he had x-ray vision into her soul and she didn't think even the Air Force had that kind of technology yet. Not even the CIA. Her fingers trembled on the door.

"May I see her?" When her voice stuck in her throat threatening to choke her and she couldn't answer, the silence stretched between them. His question mocked her but not as much as his eyes, devoid of recognition. He expected a tall, svelte blonde like her sister. Like the picture she'd sent him in a moment of insanity. Not someone in a wheel chair. Not a monster with a disfigured face.

What could she say? How could she explain months of outright lies? How could she redeem herself in his eyes, the eyes of an officer and a gentleman? He'd only see her lies as flimsy excuses.

She considered her options and found them lacking. There was nothing else she could do. She slammed the door in his shocked face.

"This can't be." Trembling hands covered her mouth. She turned the chair so that her back was to the door, her eyes squeezed tightly shut to keep the tears in, to keep the light of harsh reality out. The staccato beat of her heart pounded so loudly in her ears he must surely hear it.

She felt as small as an amoeba. He'd come half way across the world to meet her, expecting a gorgeous blue-eyed, blonde to fling herself into his arms, probably vow undying love. Her hand fluttered to her cheek, stroking it gently. In his worst dreams, he'd not expected to meet a monstrously scarred, dark eyed, brunette that had lied through her teeth. He wouldn't have bothered to make such a long journey if he knew her real self. Nobody would.

The doorbell shrilled in her ear and she wondered what she could do to fix the terrible mess in which she found herself. She'd never dreamed he'd show up in Ohio. Not all the way from his base in Iceland.

"Serena! Get the door, would ya? Dillon said he'd drop by early," her older sister Saundra, yelled, rounding the corner from the kitchen, clad in her workout leotard and tennis shoes. Saundra's sun ripened hair was held back by a white terry cloth band around her forehead. She spritzed water over her flushed face. Cornflower blue eyes glittered from anticipation of seeing her boyfriend.

Saundra's expression turned to one of concern when she spied Serena hyperventilating in her chair.

Zack continued to lean on the doorbell, banging so loudly, she'd surely lose her hearing or her mind. It was just a matter of which went first.

Her mind worked furiously as no obvious answer to her dilemma surfaced. If only she'd stayed true to Doug's memory, she wouldn't be in this fix. If only time had stood still and she could live in the kingdom of yesterday. If only she hadn't given into her loneliness, her inner need for friendship, for companionship. She wouldn't be in this fix.

Jogging to Serena, Saundra placed a solicitous hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong? Who's out there?"

Under her breath, Serena mumbled something that sounded like an ancient mantra.

Saundra's hands clasped her shoulders, shaking her gently. "You're so pale! Who's out there? What's going on?" The blonde tried to peek out the window but she pulled her back. Saundra whispered, "Should we call Sheriff Miller?"

The mention of the sheriff shook her out of her stupor. She sucked in a deep, ragged breath, shaking her head vigorously. "No. No, don't do that." Her voice warbled. The flat of her hand covered her heart that palpitated out of control.

The knocking grew louder, more insistent.

Saundra glanced at the door with a worried frown and bit her lower lip. Eyebrows drew together in one furrowed line. "Should I open it?"

"Yes! No!" She wailed uncertainly grabbing Saundra's arm when she reached for the doorknob. Her fingernails dug into the soft flesh of her sister's forearm. She slumped a little further in her chair. "I don't know." Indecision ate at her, turmoil in the pit of her stomach churning. Whatever she did, she was doomed.

Then an outrageous idea penetrated the fogginess that clouded her brain. She fixed her gaze determinedly on Saundra, circled her, assessing her like a vulture. "Will you help me, sweetie? Pretend to be me?" She whispered her outrageous proposal even though her voice wouldn't have carried through the thick oak door if she'd spoken at normal volume.

Saundra's brows drew together, perplexed. Her smile turned upside down. "Why? Whatever for? Did you double cross the mob? Or the town founders?" With a lop-sided grin, she muttered, "Same difference."

"Not far from it." She hung her head in shame. Sighing deeply, she lifted her head, jutting her chin determinedly out. "A to-die-for Air Force Captain is outside that door with a bouquet of yellow roses and candies for me, but he thinks you're me and he doesn't know me and I can't tell him I'm not you, and ooh," Serena clamped her fists tightly in total frustration. The banging against her back increased and she glanced over her shoulder despairingly.

"You're joking!" Saundra peered at her closely, watching for signs. Indicators.

Closing her eyes tightly, she tried to regain some inner peace, some confidence, before her sister had her committed. Slowly, she opened them, meeting her sister's gaze squarely. "I wish to God I were."

"What in the world did you do? You're me? I'm you? You're not making any sense." Saundra's complexion paled, turning almost an ashen gray.

"Just pretend to be Serena and pretend that I'm Saundra. His name is Captain Zachary Elias Kane. I call him Zack." She ran out of breath and drug more air into her overtaxed lungs. "He came all the way from Iceland to see you -- Serena. Let him down gently but get rid of him fast! Please be a dear." Save my life. She let her eyes do her pleading, knowing her big sister could rarely refuse her anything when she adopted her hang dog expression.

"He came all the way from Iceland to see you?" Saundra's face lit up. She flicked a long strand of flaxen blonde hair over her shoulder then clapped her hands together. "That's wonderful! You've not been interested in anyone since Doug died."Doug's name still detonated emotional land mines. Guilt. Love lost. Emptiness. Pain seared through her, burning like acid.

"No, no, no, no, no, no!" Serena wailed again, opening her eyes to plead with her sister. "He thinks he's here to see you."

"But your hair is black as a raven's wing and shoulder length. Mine is long and blonde." She paused to twist several strands of her cornflower hair around her fingers. "My eyes are blue eyes like Dad's. Yours are chocolate brown like Mom's. Face it, doll. We don't even look like kissing cousins. He won't think I'm you."

"I sent him your picture and told him it was me." She made a concentrated effort not to touch her cheek when she explained, but she turned her deformity away from her sister, presenting her with the cheek that still retained a shadow of her flawless complexion. If only she could hide the evidence of her paralysis, too. "I couldn't let him see what I really look like."

"You didn't!" Saundra gasped. The horrified look on Saundra's expression reminded her of her recurring nightmare.

She lowered her eyes. Heat rose up her neck, suffusing her cheeks.

"You did!" Saundra looked at her as if she'd betrayed the family and all womankind. "I never thought you'd lie. I thought you'd be the next Mother Teresa."

"Thanks," she drawled sarcastically, so tense now, she was about to be ill. She blew a kiss to her sister. "I love you, too."

The ringing persisted. The knocking grew louder. Luckily they weren't in

California or the San Andreas would open up and swallow them.

"He'll give up and go away any minute. Is that what you truly want?" Saundra tipped a blonde eyebrow and reached for the door.

"I don't know. He can't see me this way." Her throat felt ragged and sore. Her gaze pleaded with Saundra to help her.

"Please pretend to be me. He's supposed to be on a Top Secret mission -- some Top Secret mission." Grumbled, she didn't know if Saundra caught them. She couldn't get over his ruse. "He knows I adore yellow roses and butterscotch." Straightening, she pushed off the door with her foot. She rolled for the kitchen where she could watch everything through the Venetian doors. "And you play the guitar. Acoustic!"

"I don't play the guitar. I don't play a single note of anything except CDs!" Saundra's hands clenched into fists. Her shoulders stiffened. Accusing eyes followed her, making her arms goose bump.

"Tell him the guitar's broken!"

"Where did you meet him?" Saundra practically hissed the words.

"In GlobalServ's singles' chat room." She tried not to wince, to keep her

voice steady as she yelled above the din.

Saundra froze, her eyes wide. "You've been having an on-line romance? Have you flipped?" Her fists rose to her hips, riding them. Her eyes rolled back in their sockets. "Is that why you've cloistered yourself in your bedroom every night?"

She tried not to flinch, but it was incredibly hard when she agreed with every recrimination. She couldn't believe it herself. Not now that the reality of what she'd done stood on her doorstep with two dozen roses and her favorite candy.

"It's no different than writing to a pen pal. Get the door before he leaves. Please!" She held her breath. Her intestines tied themselves into a billion knots. Now would be the time to offer a silent prayer if she still believed God listened to her. But she hadn't believed that since the night Doug died.

"You owe me." The expression on Saundra's face mirrored her words. The blonde brows melded into one as they puckered over a nose that crinkled. Serena would pay tenfold for a favor of this magnitude.

"Lecture me later." Her fists clenched. Sharp nails dug into the soft flesh of her palms so violently they pricked blood. "Get the door." She commanded her chariot to wheel her into the kitchen where she could watch the scene play out incognito.

Saundra tore off the terry cloth band soaking up her perspiration, threw it behind a large potted fern in the entry hallway. She primped her hair quickly, and finger combed it. Then she opened the door with her sunniest smile plastered to her face, the one that always lured men to their doom. "Hello!" Saundra exclaimed in her best come-hither voice. "Zack! What are you doing here?"

She pressed her nose to the latticework. She strained her ears to hear every last syllable, every last nuance of tonal inflection in their voices.

Sharply, she berated herself, wishing she had the courage to be the one out there with Zack. She strained for a better view, curiosity eating at her insides, almost but not quite driving her from her hiding place.

"Serena?" Zack asked, his voice incredulous. "Who was that who slammed the door in my face?"

"Come in! Come in!" Saundra pulled Zack into the house, her fingers curled around his upper arm, her body soft and willowy.

Opening the lattice shutters as much as she dared, she practically pushed her face into the blinds, drinking in the vision she'd never dreamed she'd see in person. His black and white picture didn't begin to do him justice. Firm chin, lean cheeks, a high forward, a hawkish nose and charming smile. A mischievous twinkle sparkled in deeply intelligent eyes, an intelligence and wit she knew well from their many midnight rendezvous.

He offered the roses to Saundra, smiling lopsidedly. He only had eyes for her. Regret washed over her. The smile, like the roses, should be for her and her alone. But she just couldn't reveal her deception. She couldn't risk breaking her heart a second time. No man in his right mind could love a lame, disfigured woman. So she stayed hidden, watching in morbid fascination. "For you, Sweet Serena. Your favorites."

"How absolutely gorgeous!" Saundra almost swooned, taking the beautiful blooms in her arms. Dark lashes caressed the curve of her high cheekbones. Her lips pouted prettily.

Serena drew in a shuddering breath and watched the convoluted scene play out, soul searching for the answer to her dilemma. What did she want to happen? Why did the notion of another relationship or men in general, scare her to death?

She wasn't sure but a huge lump blocked any sound from eschewing from her throat. Her gaze was drawn to Zack against her will. She studied every movement he made, every expression of his ruggedly handsome features, searching deep in her soul for answers that remained elusive.

Sweeping off his dress uniform hat in one roguish sweep of his arm, he tossed it on the hall table. His fingers unbuttoned the top of his dress blues shirt.

"What are you doing here?" Saundra's bright gaze slid to him, assessing. "Aren't you supposed to be on some Top Secret Mission? Chasing MIGs or something James Bond-ish?"

"I thought I'd surprise you. I've a month's leave accumulated. It was my turn to escape that hell hole, so I caught the first military hop off that iceberg." His expression turned quizzical, his lips twisted wryly. "I'd hoped for a warmer welcome."

"How wonderful." Saundra spoke slowly, her Academy Award winning smile pasted to her lips. "Where are you staying?" Saundra took his hand in hers, leading him into the parlor, closer to Serena. Behind Zack's back she waved to Serena to move out of sight, her expression fierce.

She cranked the wooden slats down enough so as not to be noticed and swiveled the wheels as quietly as a mouse. Her ears strained to catch every word, every sound. One part of her shied away from him while another longed to be the one in there with him. Her two sides waged silent battle, too evenly matched to declare a clear winner. But she didn't move from her sanctuary.

Even if she could admit her lies, show her scarred face not to mention her scarred soul and her impotent legs, could he forgive her blatant lies? Could he look her straight in the face? Could he possibly love someone as deformed and crippled as she? Could he kiss her lips, feeling the scar tugging at the corner so tightly? Could anyone?

He deserved better. A man like that deserved a flawless beauty like her sister. He deserved someone that could stand and walk beside him.

Besides, could she truly forget Doug and all he'd meant to her? Doug-who still visited her in the dreams. Doug-who still retained a hold on her, however tenuous.

Zack folded himself onto the love seat, perfectly positioned for her to watch him, to torture herself. Just because she'd decided to sit tight and not reveal herself didn't mean her inner anguish diminished.

"What's your poison?" Saundra's hair billowed around her slim waist as she turned to their parent's well stocked bar in the corner of the room. Lightly, she ran her finger along several bottles of indeterminate age. "Jack Daniels? Scotch? Rum?"

"I'll pass." He leaned back against the couch, crossed his ankle over his leg, showing a long expanse of black sock. Grasping Saundra's hand when she moved into his radius, he turned her to face him. "What's the story with the door? Who is she?"

Her sister looked as if she were about to swallow her tongue whole. A surge of pity and guilt ran through her for putting Saundra into such an unfair position. She'd owe her the moon and the stars if they pulled this off. Even if they didn't. "That was my sister, Se-, Sa, Sa, Saun-dra." Her glance slid apprehensively toward the kitchen, x-raying the spot Serena sat glued to the blinds.

She cranked them further shut, then wheeled back as if burned. Every guilty breath she dragged into her lungs burned. This wasn't going well. Not well at all. Why was he asking about her? Did he suspect?

But he couldn't. He'd only seen her for five seconds and she'd not said word one to him. He'd never seen her picture.

The only saving grace in their favor thus far was that their parents had christened them with similar names. Never in a million years would they have imagined what a blessing their choice would prove.

"Why'd she do that? I've met friendlier Iraqis," Zack drawled, his brows drawing together, his smooth brow marred with deeply etched lines.

Saundra waved her hand in the air. "Don't mind Saundra. She's a law unto herself." She turned toward Serena, shrugged her shoulders apologetically and pulled her lips downward exaggeratedly, clicking her teeth.

"Why?" Zack persisted. He leaned forward, his torso bent over his knees, his eyes narrowed to mere slits.

Serena opened the slats a tiny bit wider. She wanted a ringside seat to this unfolding soap opera.

Saundra paused, as if choosing her words carefully. "It's not my place to tell her secrets." Her winning smile took the bite out of her words. Then she half chuckled, pulling her hand out of Zack's grip with the ease of someone well versed in the art of playing cat and mouse with men.

"I'll have that drink now." Zack's eyes narrowed. He released Saundra's hand. When she turned to get his drink. "I'd like to meet her."

"Stranger things have happened." Saundra licked her lips nervously. She glanced sideways towards the kitchen where Serena almost fell flat on her face, where she debated an exit stage rear out the back door. But her traitorous hands wouldn't turn the wheels. Her curiosity imprisoned her. "Please tell her I'd like to meet her. I'd like to show her I'm not a monster." He flashed a dazzling smile at Saundra that she could see through the slats clearly. Her pulse leapt dangerously. Why did he have to be so handsome? So perfect? Why couldn't he have lied like she had? Didn't everyone exaggerate his or her attributes online? Wasn't it a law or something? Not officers and gentlemen, she supposed unhappily. It would have been far easier to deal with this debacle if he'd been an ordinary Joe who'd embellished his assets as she had hers. Then they could've laughed at the mutual joke, shook hands and come out laughing. And maybe, they'd have had a chance at something more. But if anything, Zack had understated his appeal. Life wasn't fair. She knew it, but she didn't have to like it.

"Okay. I'll tell her, but I can't promise anything. What's your poison?" Saundra posed by the bar, her hip extended, her arm casually draping the bar. Every move she made was unconsciously sexy, unlike Serena who felt bullish and awkward so much of the time since the accident.

"Cola. Caffeine free, if you have it." He shifted in his chair looking around the room decorated in Early American oak, lacy Victorian trimmings, and ferns gracing every table top, every corner. He fingered one that decorated the table next to him.

"One soda coming up. I'll see if I can persuade Saundra to apologize." Saundra slid a hopeful glance toward the kitchen.

He just smiled, staring at Saundra's backside contemplatively when she disappeared through the swinging door. Long, powerful fingers tapped a march- like cadence on the arm of the love seat.

"He can't see me," she hissed, pulling Saundra into the kitchen, closing the slats tightly for privacy.

"He already did," Saundra said wryly. A pitying light dwelled in her eyes. Pity which shamed her and slammed through her. She knew she should stand tall and face the world, but she wasn't ready and didn't know when, if ever, she would be. It was one thing to know it in her head. Another to know it in her heart and her heart just wasn't in it. "Obviously, you made quite an impression."

"Not the type I'd like to make. Not even on my worst enemy." Miserable with her fate, she slammed the ice tray on the counter. An ice cube jumped out and slid across the brick-patterned linoleum floor, leaving a wet trail behind it.

"Don't blame me. I didn't go ballistic slamming doors...or luring him here in the first place." Her lips softened into a small smile. "You drafted me to do damage control. Remember?"

Saundra opened the cupboard, stretched high, standing on her tippy toes, and pulled down three glasses. "Get out the ice and a Spritzy Soda."

She ground her teeth, but acted the dutiful servant and poured the glass of soda, her movements agitated. After all, she owed her sister now and this was a small price to pay.

"Meet him. Face to face," Saundra said in a singsong voice, elbowing her in the rib cage. "I dare you."

"I can't." She shook her head, pursing her lips. "I lied to him. He'll hate me if he ever finds out."

"The poor man came all the way from Iceland! I'm supposed to tell him to get lost? Turn around, go home, Soldier Boy? Tell him sleep in the Roach Motel in Knobb's Corner?" Saundra turned sharply, grimacing. "I don't have the heart -- or the bad manners -- to be so cruel."

"I have bad manners now?" She wrinkled her nose, freezing to the spot, feeling lower than she had even moments before, wishing she'd never heard of computers, the Internet or chat rooms.

Saundra turned, her hand perched on her hip in her most regal, how-dare-you attitude. "You'd better make up your mind what you want to do. Or you'd better brush up on your Chinese."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Saundra spun on the ball of her heel, facing off against her, her voice sharp. "You're digging a hole so deep, you'll be in China by tomorrow. Hope you like moo-goo-gai-kitty and climbing walls."

She pulled her lips down at the atrocious thought. "Now you're going overboard."

"He flew all the way from Iceland to be with you." Her eyes blazed brazenly. "If you want to disappoint him, that's your business. But I will not show him the door!"

"He can't stay here! He's no dummy. He'd figure it out."

"So? You want to throw him back?" She clucked her tongue in a 'tsk-tsk'. "What a shame." She leaned her back against the counter. "What a waste of delicious man. There aren't many like him." A dreamy smile played on her lips. "Except for my Dillon." She wagged her forefinger at Serena. "And you're not laying hands on him. And if you don't grab this delicious hunk of man, you might end up an old maid."

She stopped herself from yawning at the mention of Darling Dillon or from looking horrified at the other admonition. "Believe me, you've no worries there." She preferred her men slightly more cerebral. They at least had to have a brain to pique her interest.

A motorcycle roared into the yard. Seconds later, loud banging rocked the house again. Someone leaned on the doorbell insolently.

She peeked out the kitchen window, her gaze falling on her sister's boyfriend's lanky form. He didn't look happy at being kept waiting. "God's punishing us, isn't he?"

"He's punishing you. I'm not here out of my own free will." She swirled the opaque liquid in her glass before taking a swig of her soda. "If anyone catches you, I'll tell them I was coerced."

"Traitor," she muttered under her breath. "Just wait till you need a favor."

Dillon didn't take the hint that no one answered the door. He pounded on the door while ringing the bell. It must be a typical male trait.

"What do we do now?" Her eyes widened with the fear that gripped her anew.

Saundra's lips quirked. Her back stiffened and Serena thought she heard mumbling under her sister's breath. She heartily concurred. "Good question. This is your show. You figure it out, ringmaster."

"Thanks," she drawled sarcastically. "You're loads of help."

"You bet your sweet -- -guitar. I saved your neck out there with your boyfriend," Saundra retorted dryly, facing off with her. "Your scheming just might lose me mine."

She bit her lower lip. She had to think fast. She needed a miracle. Only problem was, she had stopped believing in them years ago. But she couldn't let her personal problems wreck her sister's life, even if she wasn't thrilled with her choice of boyfriend.

An impossible thought struck her. Maybe she could make her own, with a little luck.

Sucking in a deep breath, she gathered her flailing courage, squared her shoulders and primped her hair. Rolling her shoulders, she prepared for the impossible. Courage of this magnitude didn't come easily. She had to wrench it from deep within and force herself to follow through by telling herself there was no other way.

"What're you going to do?" Saundra hissed when she strolled toward the door purposefully.

"Watch and see." Afraid to stop for fear of backing out of her highly hazardous plan, she lifted her chin high and kept the forward momentum. However was he going to react to her chair? Even considering he thought her to be his girlfriend's sister?

Pushing open the door with her outstretched hand, she wheeled though the door flashing a smile at Zack that practically strangled her, praying a spark of recognition didn't flash in her eyes and that she didn't wear her traitorous heart on her sleeve. "Hello, how are you?"

Zack stood and held out his hand dutifully, a smile curving his lips. She stared at his hand as if it contained hot coals. If only she read his thoughts, to know if her chair abhorred him.

But she broadened her smile, steeled her nerve and touched his hand briefly. His touch sent electric currents through her and she snatched it back as if burned, although not entirely surprised.

"I'm Se-Se-Sa-Saundra. Sorry about that earlier." Great! Now she'd almost sabotaged herself.

She glanced at the door apologetically and tilted her head at it. "Excuse me a moment," she said in her most honeyed voice.

Backing up with what felt like a stupid grin plastered to her face, her chair glided over the floor. When she reached the door, she fumbled for the knob. When she turned it, Dillon's fierce pounding slammed the door inward, pushing her backward.

Dillon stumbled into the room, his face flushed, his expression grim. "Saundra, I need a word with you now! This nonsense has to stop."

Summoning her courage, she crooked her finger at him, hoping her eyes didn't burn with the fire that engulfed her soul. When he leaned down within whispering distance, she flung her arms around Dillon's neck, dragging him to her. She kissed him hard on the lips, preventing him from saying another condemning word, risking all out war with her sister.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Dillon struggled to escape her death grip on his neck, his whipcord strength at least twice hers. Strong fingers wrapped around hers, prying them loose, one at a time. Yet she held on tightly, kissing him soundly on the lips for her audience's benefit. She could leave no room for doubt.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spied Saundra leave the kitchen and flailed her hands behind Dillon's neck, to ward her off.

"Excuse me. I forgot something." Saundra's voice was pinched, but not nearly as much as her mouth. Pivoting on her heel, Saundra returned to the kitchen, ignoring Zack. Her steps were heavy, as if she hammered her feet into the floor.

Zack looked perplexed but perched silently on the edge of the overstuffed sofa, staring at the swinging door. He unbuttoned his dress coat, shrugged out of it and threw it across the back of the couch without a glance. He loosened his dark blue tie, then unbuttoned his top two buttons, shrugging it loose, the cords in his neck straining to be freed of his blue collar.

Dillon pulled away from her, looking at her half curiously, a wild coyote glint in his eye. He tucked his black T-shirt securely in his tight fitting blue jeans, swept his handy comb out of his shirt pocket and slicked back his dark blonde hair.

"Come here!" Serena mouthed, wagging her finger, darting a worried glance around Dillon to see where Zack was and what he was doing. She could use a ton of Tylenol or a gallon of cherry wine about now to alleviate the monstrous headache forming behind her temples. At least to dim reality which wasn't playing out in any Cinderella fairy tale. Grimm had done every romantic woman a severe disservice.

To her dismay, Zack stared out the window a few feet away, his wide shoulders presented to her. It'd be a miracle if the men didn't see each other and a catastrophe if they did.

She crooked her finger at Dillon to follow her into the den opposite where Zack waited, tapping his patent leather dress shoe on the thick carpet.

When Dillon lifted an insolent brow, she grabbed his hand and pulled him after her. "You'll ruin everything!" she whispered conspiratorially, wondering what in the world would be convincing enough to make him leave the house without seeing Saundra or noticing Zack. The man acted as if her sister had slipped him a love potion, he was so dewy-eyed over her.

Think fast, she told herself, biting her lower lip, pulling the sliding wooden doors securely shut behind them.

Dillon quirked his eyebrows again, and taunted, "I know I'm irresistible but I belong to Saundra." He combed his hair again, striking a pose that would make James Dean drool.

"You're impossible." She put her hands on the arms of her chair, and looked him up and down, wondering what in the world would keep him away from her sister.

"Need a refresher course from the champ?" Dillon chuckled, leaning toward her. "Pucker up." Intense desire to wipe away the mirth that danced in his eyes, devoured her and she had to restrain itching fingers from shoving him away.

"I'm not that hard up." Ducking, she chuckled, shaking her head. She couldn't believe she was engaged in such intrigue with not only one man, but two. She'd not related to a man since Doug died.

"You're great for a guy's ego." Sarcasm dripped from his voice.

She shot him half a smirk. "Stroking your fragile male ego falls under Saundra's job description."

His bright blue gaze narrowed speculatively. "What was that smackeroo about in the foyer?"

"Nothing, really." She inched away, eager to escape. Honestly nothing. Only Zack's kisses would make her sizzle.

Dillon pushed himself off the wall lazily, closed the short distance between them and towered over her. "Tell me what's going on this minute, little sister, or I'm marching in there and blow whatever little scheme you two have cooking."

Embarrassing heat rose in her cheeks as she shook her head. "Saundra will skin me alive if I tell you. It's a surprise for you." But a surprise on who? Really?

Dillon's hot breath scorched her cheek. "A good surprise or a bad surprise?" Humor tinged his deadly quiet voice and she felt one step closer to her grave.

"A good surprise." She smiled hopefully, crossing her fingers behind her back, prepared to bolt, if necessary.

"The truth!" Dillon growled in his best drill instructor voice.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, sweetie." Serena improvised, squealing her tires on her mother's polished wooden floor, clenching and unclenching her hands. "Saundra's planning a surprise p-party for your birthday. Everything's all over the parlor. You can't spoil her fun by barging in on her." Serena clutched his hand in a death grip.

"You won't tell her I cracked under interrogation?" she implored huskily, her eyes wide with very real fear.

Dillon cracked a sunny smile and slapped his thigh. "That's my girl! But my birthday isn't till next month."

"She needs time to plan it. We're going to invite all of Strawberry Point for your birthday party and barbecue. Caterers are coming all the way from Dayton, musicians from Columbus, the photographer from Cincinnati..." She threw her hands in the air, and shrugged her shoulders. Saundra would scalp her when she had to follow through with this crazy scheme. She wrinkled her nose wondering if she should pack her bags and disappear into the far reaches of Canada. Maybe New Zealand. Maybe a different dimension.

"What should I do?" Awed, a silly grin fluttered around the edges of Dillon's mouth. She wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he started passing out cigars.

"You'd better sneak out of here so she doesn't catch you. Give her some space this week to plan your party. If you see us around town, don't sneak up on us." The ground beneath her feet broiled and she wondered if her nose sprouted several inches.

"I can do that." Dillon fidgeted with his hair again. She clutched his forearm, strong muscles bulging beneath her fingers.

The little table clock on her mother's end table ticked away her future with Zack. She'd better get back where she could keep a close eye on Zack and Saundra. No telling what crazy stunt her sister might pull in her absence.

She led Dillon to the back door, turned the knob and pushed it wide. Hot summer air rushed in on her, bringing with it, the scent of flowering cherries. She rolled back into the air conditioning, lifting her heavy hair off her neck, then let it sift through her fingers.

"Here. Go out this way and I'll distract her while you sneak away," she promised, conspiratorially, even though she had a sneaking suspicion that everything was going to blow up in her face sooner or later. But as long as there was a chance things would work out, she was committed to trying.

"This is cool. I can dig it!" Dillon's face lit up at least a hundred watts.

"I'll bet you can," she grinned, doing her best to keep up the charade, intensely uncomfortable.

Dillon turned and swooped suddenly, pecking her on her smooth cheek. His hands leaned heavily on the chair's armrests as he held her captive. As he lifted his eyebrows, a phantom of a grin playing around the edges of his lips. "Make it the best party Strawberry Point's ever had, little sis! Do a good job of surprising me."

"We'll surprise you all right." She smiled wider, feeling her face would crack any second or God would strike her down on the spot. The scar tugged at her lips, straining her smile. This lie was tumbling downhill like a little snowball that became an avalanche. And she was about to be completely buried in it.

"I can't wait!"

"I can!" she mumbled under her breath, her stomach turning to tapioca, her nerves on edge.

Dillon jogged out the door, whistling a happy tune, then leaped on his turbo charged Harley and put on his black helmet and shades. He tilted the kickstand up with his cowboy boot, revved the engine and waved to Serena and smiled into the wind.

She waved back, her smile cracking her face, till she felt sure he could no longer spy her in his rearview mirror. Her energy drained, she slumped further in her chair.

Buddy, Donny and Marie yipped and yapped frantically from her room at the back of the house.

Her hand flew to her mouth, her eyes wide. She'd forgotten to feed the dogs or take them on their afternoon walk. Checking her watch, she moaned. Two o'clock. They should have been let outside at noon.

Rolling to her room, she sped down the hall. Elvis shot out the door like lightning before it had cracked open five inches. His tail sprung straight up as if he'd been hit by lightning. The dogs must have been getting on his nerves. From the looks of him, the Tomcat could kill a mouse with a single glare.

Buddy squeezed through the door, racing for the front door. Donny jumped up on the door, banging it into her the huge wheel of the chair, nearly hitting her knees.

"Settle down. I'll take you out now. Don't go into a tizzy."

When she spun her chair to follow the boys, Marie shot through her legs. She put her hand on the wall, steadying herself. She glared at Marie's wagging white tail and flouncing rear end and the pink ear ribbons trailing in the wind behind her.

The dogs shot down the hall, making a huge commotion.

Great! Zack couldn't miss them if he were totally deaf. Her crew of munchkin dogs could wake the dead.

What was so great about chasing butterflies and bumblebees anyway? Or eating grass and bull frogs? Blech!

She guessed she'd have to be reincarnated as a dog to figure that one out.

As casually and gracefully as she could muster, Serena glided down the hall mindful that Zack might be watching. She painted a wide smile on her face, on show for whoever might be looking, wishing she'd resemble Scarlet O'Hara making a grand entrance for Rhett Butler -- in blue jean cut-offs, sling back sandals, and a wheel chair.

Feeling the hair on the back of her neck prickle, Serena looked down straight into Zack's penetrating black gaze. He leaned insolently against the banister rail at the end of the hall, gazing at her. Light streaming in through the window behind him made his honey colored hair gleam like sunshine. It looked supremely soft and springy, her fingers dying to run through it.

She paused, sucking in a deep breath, steadying her emotions. Marie bounded back to her, licking her ankles, tickling her with her sandpapery tongue. Serena glanced down, annoyed. "Shh, girl. I'm on my way."

"What happened in there between you and Rebel Without a Cause?" Zack asked in a deep, resonant voice, a thick black eyebrow arched. "He sounded pretty ticked off. You okay?"

She looked at him, completely perplexed, tilting her head.

"Your boyfriend." His features lay in craggy shadows.

"My boyfriend?" Serena's brows started to pucker. Then her faux pas dawned on her. Horrified, she laughed self-consciously, forcing her expression to look normal. "Oh, you mean Dillon?" She forced herself to move forward, doing her best to make the chair glide smoothly. Acting, it seemed wasn't her forte. She felt too self-conscious under Zack's penetrating gaze, wondering if he could read her mind as easily as the radar on his plane.

Zack nodded his head, his eyes narrowing. She glanced at his hand poised on the banister. Strong, large, and dexterous, it could do many, many things besides maneuvering a jet over enemy airspace, driving Soviet MIGs crazy. She noted his gold Air Force Academy ring, large, solid and strong, like Zack. His nails were clipped short and neat.

Heat rose in her cheeks thinking of all her elicit fantasies about what those strong hands could do to her under the moonlight, how exquisite they would make her feel.

When Serena didn't answer, Zack spoke lowly, "Yeah, Dillon. Trouble without a cause. The tall blonde guy who burned rubber out of here?"

She reached him, poised not a full foot from the man of both her day and night dreams, and she did her level best not to swoon or throw herself in those strong arms. Compelled to look into Zack's eyes, she saw flecks of gold spark around his irises. When he smiled enigmatically, he stole her breath.

Mesmerized, time stood still. Unable to stop her treacherous body, she swooned, leaning dangerously near him. His aftershave, some scent that seemed incredibly dangerous, yet devastatingly sexy, filled her nostrils. She sniffed appreciatively, unable to break her gaze away from his. Those probing eyes delved into her soul. They sparked her senses to life, almost electrocuting her.

He must know, must have sensed the impossible deception. He just baited her, waiting to see if she'd come clean.

Surely his soul could recognize her? Surely they shared a cosmic link?

She opened her mouth to confess. Coming clean would do wonders for her soul if not her dignity. No words came out. Just an embarrassing guttural sound.

Wanting to crawl into the nearest hole, she tore her gaze from his, pretending to study her pets.

Elvis poised in his most regal stance, his paw levitating in the air, daring the irritating dogs to jump on him. Orange ears and tail stood at attention. Donny, the bravest canine in the group, taunted the bad tempered Tom cat, darting at him, pretending to get ready to leap on him, then cutting a ninety degree angle at the last second when lethal claws unsheathed.

Mumbling, "Excuse me. I've got to prevent World War Three." She sighed deeply, wheeling to the door to let the little dogs and Elvis out.

"Zack! Where'd you go?" Saundra bounded into the entry hall.

The animals jumped on Serena's legs, scratching her bare skin. Elvis meowed loudly at the door, his tone impatient.

Zack looked pointedly at the animals. "Aren't you going to let them out?"

"What?" Serena looked at him like she would a Martian. The room started to close in on her, growing stuffy and claustrophobic.

"Aren't you going to take them outside?" Zack drawled.

Sensing a trap, but not knowing precisely what or how to out-maneuver him, she regarded him silently for several seconds, trying to read the enemy, her hand poised on the knob. Her lips tilted into a lopsided grin. "That was the plan."

"I'll join you." Turning, Saundra smiled at Zack, some of the tension draining out of her stance, her tones saccharinely sweet. "Do you mind? I'll be back in a sec. I just need to ask my sister something. Privately."

When Saundra's gaze returned to Serena, it could have smelted steel.

Serena pulled the door open, her eyes lowered, careful not to drive over the dancing animals. She stopped dead, half an inch from a fist raised to pound on the front door.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Gladys Brown, the girls' nearest neighbor, held out a tray of million-calorie brownies, eyeing Zack inquisitively. A soft summer breeze lifted freshly permed gray curls off her neck, and made tree limbs sway gently to and fro behind her.

"Good morning, Gladys. It's so good to see you." She tilted her head, smiling, commanding her hands to stop shaking, her heart to start beating.

Gracefully, she accepted the tin tray laden with the gooey

Concoctions and placed them on her lap. "Thank-you." She picked one off the tray to sample. Taking a small bite, she closed her eyes in ecstasy. Double Dynamite. They were filled with rich cream cheese. "Scrumptious." She took another bite. "Are these the ones that won first place at the county fair?"

A blush rose in Gladys' cheeks as she smiled self-consciously. "For the past three years." Pride swelled in her voice.

Turning to Saundra and Zack, she held up the tray and offered them each one. "These are the best brownies in the world." Zack dug into one without further prompting.

Saundra shook her head, passing. She was constantly dieting and exercising. "None for me, thanks."

It was a sure bet Gladys was here to check out the situation. Two single girls alone with a handsome man would raise many an eyebrow. It was a foregone conclusion that the small town would be abuzz with speculation. As self-appointed guardian while their parents vacationed in Europe, Gladys just might try to park herself in their house as chaperone, archaic a notion as it was.

She had to be thwarted. But how to do it without being rude?

"I wanted to meet your houseguest," she crooned sweetly, pushing her glasses up on the bridge of her nose. Holding out her hand for a neighborly handshake, Gladys zeroed Zack in her sites. "I'm Gladys Brown, the Gregorys' nearest neighbor. Pleased to make your acquaintance young man."

Zack extended his hand, shaking Gladys' hand firmly, his fingers closing over hers. "Pleased to meet you Ma'am. Captain Zachary Elias Kane of the United States Air Force. At your service." He bowed deeply, not before Serena caught the mischievous glint in his black eyes. She caught her breath when he turned up his charm to broiler level.

Gladys tittered. She clasped Zack's strong hand much longer than necessary, gazing into his eyes with faded longing.

Finally, self-consciously, Gladys blushed and pulled her hand back slowly. Her eyes blinked too rapidly. Her fingers fluttered mid-air.

"You're staying here?"

Zack grinned, the dimple in his cheek positively to drop dead for. His smile, his lethal charm, was the stuff dreams were made of. It made the world go round since the dawn of time. Her world at any rate. "Yes ma'am."

Her heart somersaulted. She couldn't exhale. She was in major trouble now.

Breathe, she commanded herself, squeezing her abdomen to start the process. Think. She racked her brain for a distraction, sliding a sidelong glance to Saundra for help.

Looking almost as miserable as she felt, Saundra shrugged her shoulders and grimaced. Their eyes talked behind Zack's back.

"Would you like some cherry lemonade or a tall glass of iced tea?" Although her voice sounded sing-song and cheery, she hoped her neighbor would remember something urgent she had to do elsewhere. "We have Spritzy Soda, if you'd like a glass," Serena offered, then all but kicked herself for all these little clues she seemed to be dropping right and left. Zack knew very well that Spritzy Soda was one of her major clients. After all, he'd helped her design the web page.

Lowering her eyelashes, Serena studied him through their thick veil to see if he'd pick up on her mistake. He smiled as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, lounging against the doorframe, tall and lethal, his eyes fixed on the bubbling brook.

"How are those adumacallits? Web..." Gladys beamed at Serena.

Zack's gaze ping-ponged back to the girls, his expression inscrutable.

Eyes wide, her heart pounding in a staccato rhythm, she couldn't breathe. Her pulse raced. He must surely suspect. She nudged Saundra's hips, tilting her head at Gladys when she and Zack weren't looking.

Saundra's honeyed voice filled the awkward gap. "Web pages. They're doing very well."

Gladys' eyes didn't reflect the smile on her face.

Almost collapsing with relief, Serena gave her sister the thumbs up sign behind Zack's back where Gladys couldn't see it either.

Saundra nodded her head almost imperceptibly, her smile strained.

Gladys peered hard at Serena. "You'd better snap this one up before someone else sees him. He's a charming fellow."

Flames licked up her cheeks and she averted her eyes from Zack, as she inched next to Saundra so the old woman's gaze would envelope both of them. Her heart couldn't take much more. She wasn't any better at confrontation than she was at deception. She'd been out of practice dealing with people since Doug died.

Family didn't count.

On-line friendships didn't count. The anonymity lent her a courage that deserted her when she was face to face with people, where they could see her Frankenstein face.

Her fingers fluttered to her cheek, tracing the scar that had ruled her life for the past couple of years. Her bottom felt the hard chair beneath her. Unrelenting, it reminded her of why she had no right to reach out and grab the happiness for which she yearned. Of why she couldn't have a love of her own, or even lead a normal life.

No man would take damaged merchandise. Not even an officer and a gentleman. At best, she'd elicit his pity, which would be far worse than his anger. Far more humiliating.

She couldn't take pity. Especially not Zack's. That would make her even more of a pathetic figure than she was already.

"Will you be in town long?"

"I don't know yet." Zack smiled lazily, his charm utterly captivating. "We'll see what happens."

She almost melted at his feet. How could she want him to leave when she wanted him to stay so badly?

Was there a sliver of a chance he could look beyond her face, into her heart, and see her soul? Could two hearts touch? Could love flourish without a physical attraction? She'd thought they'd shared a pure love. But she'd not seen the slightest flash of recognition in his dark eyes. Of love.

And he should have recognized her! His heart should have known her, picture or not. She'd have known him the first time he spoke. She'd have felt the electricity flow between them.

She shuddered as a deep sigh escaped her lips. If only...The two loneliest words in the English language.

She reminded herself that he wouldn't want to stay if he knew her true identity. It didn't matter what she felt. Her life had ended the night Doug died, in so many different ways. This defective shell trapped her spirit. Tortured her. Mocked her. Punished her.

"Make sure you look me up at the Five and Dime if you come into town." Gladys turned to amble down the narrow gravel road that led to her house, her hips swaying awkwardly from carrying too many years of brownies on her hips

"Thanks for the brownies."

She let out a long deep sigh, then stopped cold, the air about ready to burst her lungs. What an awfully close call in a day full of close calls.

There was a lightning bolt somewhere with her name on it. It was just a matter of time before she reaped her just reward.

She could feel Zack's searing stare rove over her. Tingles chased down her spine. Self-consciously, she tilted her hair to let it curtain her scarred cheek. She couldn't stop fingering the thickest skin at the corner of her mouth. She looked anywhere but at him. Even though she knew Doug wouldn't begrudge her a new love, she felt a twinge of guilt as she watched the captain from beneath the veil of her lashes.

She watched appreciatively as Zack handled the hose like a pro. "Call the dogs up here. Let's hose the little rascals down."

Serena looked around the yard, perplexed, realizing for the first time that they had wandered off. In all the commotion she hadn't noticed their absence. She frowned.

Zack nodded at the brook. Following his gaze, Serena saw her three wayward puppies splashing in the water, not a splotch of white visible under their coats of mud. She groaned deeply.

"Buddy! Donny! Marie!" When they didn't look up, she stuck her fingers in her mouth and whistled as loud as she could.

Three muddy heads popped up, looking straight at Serena as if she held raw meat. Without warning, they bounded from the brook, making a beeline for her, shaking mud everywhere as they ran.

"Oh no!" They ran straight for her, their tongues lolling out of their mouths, their eyes beady and feverish. "Heel!" she screamed, terror washing over her. She knew they planned to jump into her lap and fling their mud all over her.

They put on the brakes, their hind legs digging into the earth, their claws out for more traction.

When Serena rejoined him, he fell into a companionable pace beside her wheelchair, his hands held loosely behind his back. "Those little dogs sure love you."

"And I adore them, too." Smiling affectionately, she glanced over her shoulder at them, sending another smooch in their direction. "I don't know what I'd do without you, my little darlings."

"I thought they were Serena's pets," Zack drawled, his gaze drawing hers. His narrowed gaze held hers, his expression inscrutable.

Oh no! A trap. She couldn't exhale. She couldn't breathe.

Think fast. Don't hyperventilate. Don't blow this, she told herself, willing herself to calm down.

"W-well. T-they're our f-family pets," Serena spluttered out finally. "We're all c- crazy about them!" She smiled normally, then ruined the effect by lifting her eyebrows as if in question.

"Hmm." Zack said leaving it at that. He readied the hose, aiming it at the mud caked dogs whose tails wagged at light speed.

"Sit." Serena commanded.

The dogs skidded to a halt not two feet from her, their tails wagging happily, their tongues lolling out the sides of their mouths.

Zack glanced at her, mischief dancing in the depths of his eyes. His Adam's apple throbbed. "Will they sit still for a squirting?"

"I don't know." Serena shrugged her shoulders. "I've never hosed them down before."

"There's always a first time for everything. Let's hose them off." Zack pushed himself off from the doorframe, stretching to his full height, his gaze steady on her, not her sister. Slowly, he unbuttoned his dress blue uniform shirt, shrugging out of it. The white T-shirt underneath hugged his perfect physique. Casually, he tossed the blue shirt next to his uniform cap on the entry hallway table then tucked his white T-shirt back into his dark blue slacks.

Serena couldn't help but look up at him where he towered over her. He blocked the strong summer sun from her vision. What incredibly broad shoulders and lean hips! What spectacular arms. Arms made to hold her tight, to pull her close, to embrace her and never let her go.

What impossible thoughts, she chided herself. But her errant heart wouldn't stop hammering in her ears. If he had looked impossibly handsome and debonair in his dress blues, now he looked drop-dead gorgeous in an ordinary white cotton T-shirt! Serena couldn't tear her eyes away from him. Sandy blond hair gleamed twice as bright as the sun.

Surely he must hear her heart thundering in her chest, her chest rumble from gasping for breath. Couldn't he sense how he affected her? How close she was to swooning into those arms?

After an eternity, Zack broke eye contact, swaggering past her to the hose. "Ready?"

"Ready for what?" she asked, perplexed.

"To find out. To get soaked." Laughter danced in his hazel eyes, that gleamed more green than brown at the moment. He pointed the hose at the dogs.

"No!" she screeched but Zack stuck his thumb over the end of the hose anyway, spraying the dogs that yelped, stumbling over each other in their hurry to back off. Wind caught the water, redirecting it at her.

"Ooh!" She jerked back, fumbling with her chairarms, but too late. Her clothes were saturated. Her hair hung in clumps around her shoulders and over her eyes. Rivulets of water poured down her legs. "Look what you've done!" She tried to wring out her hair, twisting it over her shoulder as she leveled a dirty look on him.

"You shouldn't have stood so close to the water." His deep chuckle infuriated her. Embarrassment flooded her when she realized how she looked in the wet T- shirt. She crossed her arms across her chest and backed the chair into the house. Relief washed over her that the chair seemed to be okay.

Serena raced into the house, straight for her shower, knowing that if he could navigate through the blue skies he could find his own way inside.

"Rena," Saundra hissed, pulling her into the kitchen. "You've got to tell him!"

"I-I w-will." Soon as she could get up the courage. Her fingers clutched the arm of her chair so tightly, they turned milky white. Twin trails of muddy tire tracks followed her and she grimaced. If that got on her mother's white carpet, she'd be in big trouble.

"You've got to," she murmured in a husky voice. "We can't keep this up." Saundra sidled up behind her, lifted her hair off her neck and stroked it, stepping into their mother's consoling shoes.

Serena shivered from the rush of air conditioning rushing at her from the ceiling vent. Her teeth chattered.

"Dillon and Gladys both almost blew us out of the water. I probably don't have a boyfriend anymore." A wry grimace tinged her voice and Serena didn't have to look at her sister's face to see her nose wrinkled.

"Don't worry about Dillon." Serena breathed slightly easier. "I fixed that."

Saundra's hand stopped and she felt her tense. "May I ask how you managed that?"

"W-well..." Serena grimaced, tilting her head, scrunching her face. "Sort of," she finally admitted, lowering her eyelashes.

"What did you tell him?" Saundra's hands rode her hips, her expression very grim.

"Nothing much, not really." Serena stalled for time, tracing a petal with one finger, fascinated at the way the sunny yellow pigment gradually changed to dusky pink on the edges. It had been forever since a man brought her flowers. Doug was the last.

"How nothing? How much?" Saundra asked.

"I told him you're planning a surprise birthday party for him and that Zack's a party planner from Columbus." Tension sizzled in the air making her acutely aware that her sister stood at a strategic position at her back, about three inches from her heart.

Saundra chortled. "Did he buy it?"

"Hook, line and sinker! He couldn't wait to ride out of here so you could surprise him."

"I'm getting more and more worried about you."

"Why?" Serena caressed the open rose with the back of her finger. She lifted it from the sink, wiping away a big water droplet, luxuriating in its silky texture.

""You're getting much too adept at lying. What happened to my shy, sweet little sister? Who are you and what'd you do with Serena?" She peered at her closely.

She laughed at that. "Desperation. Shock." Lowly, she whispered, "Fear..."

Saundra glanced Heavenward. "He's the one you should fear."

"If God even exists, He forgot me long ago." Bitterness laced her voice. She rubbed the rose petal along her scar.

"You weren't always like this. What happened to your faith? Your testimony? You went to church with us last Sunday. I thought you wanted to be there. You asked me to go with you."

"I couldn't very well not go when Reverend Thorpe and Jewel came to collect us. My faith died in the wreck." With Doug. "If there was a God He'd have saved Doug." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "He wouldn't have let this happen."

Saundra leaned into a hug then drew back. Instead she touched Serena's chin. "You're beautiful in every way there is. And you can't second guess Him. You'll probably hate me for saying this, but it's been over two years and you need to get on with your life and stop dwelling on this." Then her eyes narrowed. "Just how big a party did you promise Dillon, by the way?" Saundra asked suspiciously.

"Not too big," Serena hedged, keeping her gaze glued to her roses.

"How big! 'Fess up! Now!"

"I told him we're inviting all of Strawberry Point." Serena winced. When fury gleamed in her sister's eyes.

"You didn't..." She gnawed her lower lip. I don't earn that kind of money on a teacher's salary. What else did you tell him?"

"That you're hiring caterers out of Dayton and musicians out of Columbus," Serena grimaced, shrugging her shoulders. "It's going to be a barbecue," she added the final touch.

"I hope you're going to pay for all this. And you can explain it to Mom and Dad."

"They won't be home yet." Thank the stars for small favors.

"Gladys'll tell them..."

Taking in a deep breath, Serena promised, " I'll pay for it and plan it. But first, we have bigger problems..."

"Your Captain," Saundra sighed, her smile softening a touch. She wondered what brought on the change? Could she be as taken with the sexy pilot as she? A spark of jealousy flared and she eyes her as a rival and found herself wanting.

"Exactly!" Serena clutched the rose to her chest. Bringing it to her nose, she sniffed its extraordinary scent appreciatively. "Where is he going to stay? The Coach Motel? The Dayton Hilton?"

"I think he had somewhere else in mind..." Saundra looked pointedly above her and pointed down the hall toward the bedrooms with her thumb.

Serena groaned and lowered her head in defeat. "That won't work. I didn't even think of where he'd stay."

"The man just flew all the way from Iceland, Rena. You tell him he's got to bed down in Couch Motel or leave town. I'm not. We have two perfectly good guestrooms. Put him in the master suite."

"That's suicide," Serena whispered. "That's right across the room from me. He'll figure everything out, if he hasn't already."

"Well, you're going to come clean anyway, aren't you? You can't let tall, dark and handsome jet out of here without telling him who you are. Can you?" Saundra peered hard at her.

She stared back dumbly, uncertain what she would do. Heat rose in her cheeks. She was still in shock, still reeling.

On the one hand, she wanted to throw herself in Zack's strong arms and plead for mercy. But on the other, she feared his reaction and the town's spin on recent events. A handsome, dashing pilot like Zachary Elias Kane could have any woman he wanted: beautiful, gorgeous women like her very own sister! Why would he bother with one that looked like the Bride of Frankenstein? One that had lied to him for several months to boot?

She had dug herself into one heck of a mess! Maybe she should keep digging all the way to China.

"Serena, you've got to! You really like him, don't you?" Saundra asked. "He's the first man you've even looked at since..." A mask cloaked Saundra's face, but not before she saw a flicker of alarm, a tension tightening her shoulders.

"Doug." She allowed herself a sad smile. "It's okay to say his name. I don't fall apart anymore when I hear it."

"I'm glad to hear it." Still, a sad smile played around Saundra's lips.

She lifted her chin bravely. "Life goes on. He wouldn't want me to grieve forever." She wondered if she spoke the truth. She hoped so.

"No," Saundra whispered, her voice watery. "He wouldn't. He adored you."

A lump blocked her throat and words wouldn't come right away. She'd loved Doug. She'd not only lost him but herself in that long ago car wreck. Zack had been the only man to touch her soul since and if she'd ever dreamed he might show up in the flesh, she'd have turned him off as fast as she could have reset her computer.

But she hadn't seen the danger till much too late. And now she was trapped in an impossible situation.

She nodded miserably. "What do I tell him now? What do I say? How do I explain," she held out her hands wide, "all the lies I've told him over the past months?"

"That's a toughie. I always tell my kids that honesty's the best policy. Cleanse the soul." Saundra perched her lips, looking completely school-marmish, sounding much more mature than her thirty years.

Serena closed her eyes, clutching the rose as if it were a lifeline. "I know you're right, but I-I can't!" She opened her eyes, knowing the misery of the world since the beginning of all time would be reflected in them. A tear fell down her cheek. Her shoulders shook.

Saundra pulled a tissue from a box on the counter and dried Serena's tears.

"Sh! We'll figure this out. You just need a little more time. Zack can hang out here in the guestroom until you get your courage up," Saundra promised. "Gladys will have a field day."

She looked into Saundra's eyes admiringly. "Thank you," she murmured with all her heart.

Saundra squeezed her shoulder. Moving away from Serena, Saundra opened the refrigerator and removed a can of Spritzy Soda. She popped it open and handed it out to her. "Here, take a swig. This stuff will fortify you like nothing will!"

"Don't ever say that to my client!" Serena warned, laughing, clasping the can, downing a huge gulp. It sizzled all the way down, making her cough. "I won't be able to pay for your boyfriend's party if I lose their commission."

Her adrenaline kicked into action. This flavor tasted more potent than recycled motor oil.

"I'll keep my mouth shut," Saundra promised. Drawing her eyebrows together, she added as an afterthought, "For now! Be thinking about what you're going to tell that fly boy of yours."

Feeling a little better, she smiled. Maybe after a good night's sleep, she'd be able to tell Zack the whole, untarnished truth. Maybe somehow courage and inspiration would come to her in her dreams.

Maybe, she'd die in her sleep tonight before she had to confess all to Zack.

She stuck the rose in her teeth, unable to resist it's lure any longer. She'd been itching to do this since she'd wandered in here. In truth, she'd been dying to do this since Zack had thrust them in her face.

"Till next the moon rises. I'll be the one with the yellow rose in her teeth," she'd promised. Climb our cyber balcony...Visions of those nights when only their hearts could touch filled her mind. She could almost smell the honeysuckle bloom outside her moon-drenched window, feel her guitar cradled in her arms, and hear its sweet song.

"What are you doing?" Saundra asked perplexed, looking at her curiously as if she'd gone around the bend, snapping her out of her mooning.

How long had she dreamed of could-have-beens and should-have-beens in the middle of her kitchen? She smiled impishly and twirled the rose in her teeth.

The kitchen door swung wide open. "Can I get a refill? I'm parched." Zack stopped dead in his tracks, his glass held out. His penetrating gaze pierced Serena who froze in her tracks, the incriminating rose held in her teeth. "What are you doing?"

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Serena stared at Zack dumbfounded, the rose dangling from her lips. Her normally peachy complexion turned ashen and fear made her eyes almost topaz. She'd look comical if she didn't look so scared.

He almost felt sorry for her. Almost. If it weren't so evident she was lying through her perfect teeth.

Only Songstress would hold a yellow rose in her teeth. After all the months of their emails, he knew that much. What kind of scheme were the lovely Sisters Gregory pulling on him?

Opening her mouth to speak, the rose fluttered to the floor, a tiny thorn pricking her lip on its way down, drawing a drop of blood. "I-I've heard Serena's stories so many times, I-I wanted to see what it felt like to -- to hold a rose in my teeth," she stuttered apprehensively, her weak explanation sounding implausible to his keen ears. "It's not all it's cracked up to be," she whispered. "Thorns," she added by way of explanation when he lifted his eyebrow. "Tangible evidence that love hurts."

Zack sauntered over to her, stooping before her to pick up the fallen flower. Stretching to his full height, he loomed over her. He whipped a white handkerchief out of his pocket, stooping to tenderly dab the drop of blood from her lip. When he withdrew, she drew her injured lip into her mouth and sucked on it, tasting the salty blood.

Her luminous eyes gazed at him like a puppy dog. A strong desire to kiss her trembling lips overcame him. But he stood his ground. He needed to know what kind of game the sisters were playing with him and why. And what had put her in this wheel chair and scarred her cheek? Why she acted so gun-shy and scared to death of him? Why she was afraid to be -- Serena?

Serena sat glued to the spot, unable to stop trembling. His traitorous fingers brushed her lip, sending electric sparks through him. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut. When she opened them, he held the rose out to her and gazed deeply into her eyes. "Your rose," Zack murmured, his voice sultry, husky, despite his resolve to remain cool.

Where had all his special training gone?

With a dazed gleam in her beautiful brown eyes, Serena took the delicate flower from his outstretched hand.

Behind him, Saundra cleared her throat, speaking up, "I hope we can persuade you to stay here with us, Zack. We have a guestroom down the hall that you're welcome to use."

"I appreciate your offer. And I'd love to stay here if I'm not putting you out. I know I should have called first to let you know I was in town..." he drawled, quirking a smile. He allowed his eyes to roam over the dark haired beauty.

Saundra grasped Zack's arm proprietarily from behind, her perfect nails standing out starkly against his naturally swarthy complexion. "No problem. We've got two guest rooms, and neither one is in use. I'll show you to your room now. It's right next to mine." She spoke in her lowest, huskiest voice. "Ready to go?"

Zack set his glass on the counter. "I'll get that drink later." He turned to Saundra without a word to Serena. Saundra's head just reached the tip of Zack's nose. Zack glanced over his shoulder. Tears glistened in Songstress' beautiful brown eyes.

Did he dare go to her and comfort her? Would she let him hold her or comfort her?

Somehow, someway, he'd figure out this mystery. Why would they be trying to trick him? What scheme were the Songstress and her pretty sister up to anyway?

He had a nagging suspicion that a Soviet MIG wouldn't lead him on such a merry chase as these two. And he could never decline a challenge or a mystery.

"I guess I'll see you later," Serena whispered, her heart in her throat, choking back a sob. She watched the golden couple leave the room together, watched the kitchen door swinging back and forth until it stopped.

***

Time stood still.

Heaving a deep sigh, Serena turned her chair, making her way to her roses in the sink. She took a cut glass vase out of the lower cabinet, filled it with water, arranging each rose in it lovingly, fingering each one. What tantalizing shades of yellow and gold with a delicate line of pink curling from the bud toward the petal's fluted edge. She put the last bloom to her nose, sniffing it appreciatively. It's heady fragrance wrapped around.

Moving back, she gazed at the profuse bouquet blooming before her eyes, taunting her, telling her what an utter fool she was. A fool for having opened up to a stranger. A fool for lying.

She sighed.

No use staring at roses she couldn't claim. No use crying over sharp thorns or spilled chocolate.

She stole one of her butterscotch confections, plopping it into her mouth. Closing her eyes in ecstasy, she let it melt on her tongue. She threw the crumpled foil wrapper in the trash masher to hide the evidence.

Shower time. She felt like an icicle. At least she would be if she didn't get into dry clothes soon with this air conditioning blowing on her.

She made her way to her room in a daze. All she wanted to shower and fall into bed, even though the sun wouldn't set for another three hours at least.

It wasn't like she had a date with Zack tonight.

The object of her affection would be cuddling up to her big sister, fingering her long blonde hair, whispering sweet nothings in her ear and dancing with her under the moonlight by the brook unless and until she got up enough courage to tell him the truth.

Maybe after she'd rested for a spell she'd work on Spritzy Soda's web page. If she had sufficient energy and inspiration, she'd try to finish up the Zodiac Van page, too. Anything to take her mind off other troubles.

She turned on the radio then shed her wet clothes in the middle of the tile floor. Turning on the shower spigot, she waited until warm water steamed the mirrors before she shifted her weight into her special shower chair and wheeled it into her specially built shower under the pulsating water.

She squirted green lavender scented shampoo on her hair and scrubbed it with her fingertips until a thick lather covered her head. Warm water beating on her flesh felt exhilarating, taking away the chill. She closed her eyes and bent her head back into the spray, letting it wash away the suds.

Watery shampoo dripped into her eyes, burning like acid. Squinting, she stuck her head out the shower stall as she reached for the fluffy towel.

The news blared on the radio. She was about to continue her shower when she heard an important news bulletin. "...In world news today, there's another Internet Lothario stalking unsuspecting women, ensnaring them in his tangled web of love and romance."

Serena's ears perked up. She glanced at the black box, and froze, the towel in mid air.

"To date, three young Ohio Valley women have foolishly opened their hearts and their homes to an unknown assailant after succumbing to his dubious charms over, get this, GlobalServ Internet Service."

Serena gasped, her towel slipping through her fingers.

"Fortunately, all three women escaped the man's clutches alive, but not before they discovered their homes ransacked and their virtue compromised. FBI, Cincinnati, Dayton and the Columbus police urge caution when using the Internet and World Wide Web. In a continuing investigation, they have tracked the accused perpetrator to online names such as Loverboy5051, SugarDaddy#1 and DonDJuan, but not to his true identity."

Serena stared at the radio dumbfounded. Don't open your heart or your home she mouthed, then closed her eyes feeling suddenly sick to her stomach.

"Whoever this Internet thief of hearts is ladies, it's a sure bet, he's still out there, stealing an unsuspecting heart and wallet, perhaps this very moment..."

What had she done? Maybe she'd let a thief or worse, into her family home. Maybe his name wasn't even Zack.

She should know well enough how easy it was to lie over the Internet.

"Composite sketches of the man show him to be every woman's dream. Makes you wonder why he resorted to Internet romance," the announcer chuckled unkindly. "Tall and handsome with dark blonde hair a muscular build. Every woman's dream."

The announcer had just described Zack to a 'T'. Every woman's fantasy and her dream man.

"Ladies beware of this Millennium Don Juan, out to steal not only your heart, but your wallets and everything else he can lay his sticky hands on. Perhaps a moral should be learned from these unfortunate victims. If you're going to flirt with danger, don't give him your address! If you think you have been contacted by this 'Don Juan', call your local authorities or FBI office immediately. Better be safe than sorry, ladies."

Her mind reeled. Surely Zack couldn't be this Thief of Hearts even if the physical description fit.

Saundra jumped headfirst into romance and trouble so often she didn't have enough fingers to count all the times. But not normally shy, afraid-of-her-own shadow, Serena.

Yet Zack had crept into her heart so easily, so sneakily without her realizing it until she was hooked. What seemed a completely harmless flirtation had suddenly turned her world upside down.

So what did she do now? Call the FBI? The Strawberry Point police?

What if Zack weren't guilty and a swarm of gung-ho policeman swept a net over him? She'd never see him again. He wouldn't give her the time of day.

She rinsed off the soap and maneuvered out of the shower, shifted into her regular chair.

Unsure of what course of action to take about Zack, she knew one thing. She had to tell Saundra. Maybe Saundra would know what to do.

Taking a dry towel, she dried herself off, and slipped into her underwear, then opened the bathroom door. She moved out, fluffing her hair with the towel.

She gasped in horror. The little dogs jumped on her legs, almost making her drop her towel.

Zack stood with his back to her, bent over her computer, studying his black and white image pinned to her computer desk, flipping through her stack of CDs, Hotel California turned over in his hands. He'd opened her private filing cabinet and she cursed herself for feeling so invincible. She'd taken off the password controls to save log-on time.

She froze, her chest heaving, her throat constricting. Her gaze was glued to the screen as he dragged the mouse to an Email from himself, saved in her computerized hope chest.

Idiot, idiot, idiot! How could she have been so stupid!

Zack's black gaze found hers in the reflection of her computer screen. She clutched her towel closer to her, quelling the urge to turn and speed away and she did her best to smile without fainting.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Serena's eyes widened incredulously. Her heart pounded so swiftly against her ribs she thought Zack could surely hear it or she would pass out. Now it looked like prime time to confess her sins. No one in Heaven or on Earth could explain away the man's picture on her computer, could they? She chewed her lower lip thinking furiously, coming up with complete total blanks.

Slowly, Zack drew himself to his full height and turned around, clutching the Hotel California CD case. His thumb rubbed it absently.

His accusing gaze pinpointed her. He arched one imperious brow. "This your room, Saundra?" He seemed to emphasize the Saundra.

Or maybe her guilty conscience supplied the emphasis where none was. Now would be the perfect opening to confess her deception -- if she weren't in her underwear. If she hadn't just heard that news cast.

She froze, the towel held so tightly to her it would meld to her skin. Her gaze scanned the room where bits and pieces of her life told her life story. It wouldn't take much for him to piece the truth together.

He seemed content to wait forever for her answer, crossing his arms across his chest.

Goose bumps blotched her arms as if she had poison ivy.

Absurdly, her gaze alighted on the curling dark hair on his forearms. He had strong arms. Those arms looked strong enough to hold her close -- or wring her neck for lying to him.

"Y-yes," she finally spluttered. "This is my room."

"Is this your computer?" he pressed on, his hazel gaze steady, his tone flat.

Was this her own private Judgment Day? "Not only mine." She struggled to keep her voice level. "My sister uses it, too. Mom and Dad have no use for computers." She told the truth. Sort of. Saundra used it occasionally. Well, very seldom, but she surfed the web or did her school lesson plans on it from time to time. She wasn't obliged to go into that much detail.

Then she heard her Sunday school teacher's unwelcome voice. A sin of omission is still a sin.

She pushed it away, unwilling to listen to further recrimination. Wasn't Saundra stimulating her conscience too much already?

"Why's it in your room? Why the CDs?" Zack shot out questions like a court martial trial attorney.

Serena adopted her most innocent smile, hoping she wouldn't burn as Saundra predicted. "Why not? Lots of people have computers in their room," she stated logically.

Her head began to pound with the complexity of this situation, with her lies and her suspicions.

She eyed him warily, hating herself for the doubts, calling herself all kinds of a fool for letting a stranger, even a drop dead gorgeous stranger, into her house, near not only herself, but her sister.

"You let Serena take over your room for hours every night, play your CDs?"

" I-I work nights." Implying she worked outside of her house wasn't really lying, was it? Now she'd have to leave the house to convince him. Great.

"What do you do?" He moved around, picking up this and that, looking at her things, examining her life.

"I'm a salesperson." Which was the truth. Sort of. Her web pages advertised products for sale, thus her job title could be advertiser or marketing. Extrapolated, marketing and advertising boiled down to sales. Voila, salesperson!

She danced a thin line between truth and fantasy. Saundra spoke the truth. She was becoming too adept a liar.

"Uhm," Zack murmured. "Do you mind if I use this to let my friends that my plane didn't crash and burn?"

"S-sure," she choked on her reply. "L-let me just get my clothes and I'll get out of your way." She'd change in Saundra's bathroom, maybe drown herself while she was at it. "Do you need help to get online?"

"I think I can figure it out." He folded himself into her chair, cracked his knuckles before him, then ran his fingers along the side of the computer looking for the on switch. Serena watched him surreptitiously from beneath her lashes, one hand on her chin, the other maintaining a death grip on the towel.

"Don't you have to get ready for work?" Zack looked up smiling.

"I'm off tonight." She averted her eyes so he couldn't read the lies staring at him blatantly.

He stared at her towel pointedly and tipped his eyebrow. "Aren't you getting cold?"

She rolled into her walk-in closet where she grabbed a one-piece short outfit off a hanger. It had been remodeled so that she could reach everything she needed to. The clothing rod hung only a few feet from the floor and there were low shelves on the opposite wall. This helped her to be as independent as possible.

On her way out of the room, she rummaged in her dresser drawer, heat inching up her neck to her cheeks when she balled up her bra and panties in her hand to hide it from his intense scrutiny. She wrinkled her nose. It smelled like mothballs; not that she usually cared, but that was not the way she wished to smell for him.

Why she bothered, she didn't know. He'd just seen her wearing her bra and panties, but acute shyness overcame her nonetheless.

Curiosity got the better of her. She needed to know if he was snooping under her sign on name, the "Songstress", for clues to her real identity, not that he didn't have more than enough pieces of the puzzle to put the whole sordid mess together perfectly. If he got into her email, into her other files, he'd have all the evidence he needed.

She peaked in her door to see if Zack still occupied her room, surfing the web. She stuck her head around the door, ensuring he wasn't wandering around searching through her things or using her bathroom.

Satisfied he had vacated her domain, she went in, locked her door behind her. Spying her guitar still half-hidden by the pillows, she went to it, intending to put it away in its case and hide it behind her clothes in the closet.

When she picked it up, an impossible longing assailed her. Peering out her window, she made sure no one wandered in the back yard. Seeing no one, she parked near the window and cradled the instrument against her. Donny stretched, rolled over and curled up on her feet. Marie yawned, wagged her tail gently, brushing Serena's legs.

Softly, so softly she almost couldn't hear herself, she played Zack's song, humming to herself, torturing herself.

She closed her eyes against the pain that filled her and let the haunting melody drift over her.

Sighing, she pushed herself up, retrieved the guitar case from under her bed and locked the precious instrument away.

Wheeling softly through the house, all three dogs bouncing at her heels, Serena searched for Saundra.

The Cincinnati Enquirer lay on the entryway table, catching Serena's eye. Glancing around her surreptitiously, she ensured she was alone. Flipping through the pages hurriedly, she looked for world news.

The word Internet caught her eye and she read on. Sure enough, this article explained in detail that a new Internet Lothario, dubbed the 'Thief of Hearts', stalked unwary Internet users, specifically GlobalServ customers.

The description of the Thief of Hearts fit Zack perfectly. But if the authorities had this guy's description, why didn't they know who he was?

Of course, a description didn't prove a thing. Millions of men fit the description, tall, dark, handsome and thirty-something.

But she couldn't entirely discount it either.

The cold truth remained. She didn't really know Zack. She couldn't prove Zack was the man's real name and he'd just moved into one of the guest bedrooms.

Prudence, better late than never, was called for. She folded the article into a small square and stuck it in her pocket.

Voices drifted to her from the den and she entered as silently as she could.

Rounding the corner, she stopped on a dime when she saw Saundra snuggling up to Zack on the couch, the same couch where she and Dillon had cuddled.

Unnoticed, she stared for several seconds, jealousy raging through her when Saundra's tinkling laughter washed over her and her sister's well manicured hands roamed over Zack's strong arms and swept his hair back from his eyes where an errant lock kept falling.

Unable to witness more, Serena cleared her throat angrily, not thrilled with the emotion she heard in her own voice. "Can I have a word with you, Sister Dear?"

"Later," Saundra mumbled, brushing her off.

The dogs milled around Serena's ankles, panting.

Nothing, not even dynamite, would move her from this spot, until Saundra joined her in private where she could tell her about her discovery.

Saundra sighed deeply, pushing herself off the couch reluctantly. Turning to Zack, she smiled. "Excuse us. I'll be right back."

"I'll be here." Zack's voice waxed smooth as honey.

When they reached the kitchen, Serena peeked through the slats to make sure Zack stayed on the couch and didn't sneak up on them again. Satisfied he was well out of earshot on the far side of the room, she took the paper out of her pocket, unfolded it and stuck the incriminating article under Saundra's nose, lowering her voice, "I just heard about this on the radio and it's in the paper, too. Do you think Zack could be the Internet Thief of Hearts?"

"Let me see." Saundra paled as she accepted the paper from Serena. She scanned the article quickly, a frown marring her pretty forehead.

The little dogs yipped and yapped excitedly picking up on the thick tension. Their tails thumped the floor. Serena scooped Marie into her arms, cuddling her close, rubbing her cheek against the dog's soft head.

"Look at the description." Jabbing her finger at the composite police artist's sketch, Serena whispered, "It could be him." She moved to the blinds, opening them ever so slightly to peek at Zack. Standing, he stretched, muscles rippling. He raked his long fingers through his sandy colored hair. She wanted to rake her fingers through that soft, thick hair so much she trembled. Impossible longings melted her frosty reserve, making her stomach weak.

"Do you really think it is? What's he doing?" Saundra lifted troubled eyes, glancing past her toward the den. Tiptoeing to the shutters, she peeked through also.

"I hope not," she murmured with all her heart, shaking her head. Zack seemed so strong, so good, and too handsome to be real. "I don't think so. But can we afford to assume without checking it out?"

"It says here to call the FBI or the local police if you think you've seen him. Do you think we should?" Saundra glanced at the kitchen phone, clutching the paper tighter, wrinkling it.

"What if he's not the Thief of Hearts? What if he is who he says he is?" she whispered. "He'd never speak to us again."

"His uniform looks authentic," Saundra said in a distracted voice. "I don't imagine it's easy to get an officer's bars and medals."

"Do we really know what a real Air Force officer's uniform looks like? I've never really seen one except on television," Serena said, the voice of reason.

"Wright Patterson Air Force Base isn't that far away. Maybe we can check that out tomorrow." Glancing at her slim gold Rolex, Saundra frowned. "It's probably too late tonight to get on base."

"Tomorrow?" Serena nibbled her lower lip. "Will we be safe tonight?"

Saundra's troubled gaze met hers across the room. She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Dad showed me where he keeps his revolver -- for emergencies."

"He showed me too," she said breathlessly. "You aren't thinking..."

"One of us should carry it, don't you think? Just in case." Saundra held the paper up as evidence.

"If it's that bad, shouldn't we just call the FBI?" Serena eyed the phone.

"And be the next headline? Let Gladys tell the parents 'I told you so? You shouldn't have left the girls house-sit?'" Saundra heaved a deep sigh. "I'm thirty years old. What will Reverend Thorpe think? What will the School Board say if they see my picture splashed all over tomorrow's front page? I'll be lucky if they let me teach adult ed."

"So what do we do?" Serena scratched Marie behind her ears.

Saundra looked thoughtful, her eyes narrowed. "I've got it!"

"I don't like that gleam in your eye. It always means trouble. Like when I was seventeen and you took Dad's car, I got blamed. Or the time I got blamed when your college mascot missed homecoming? Or the time I was blamed for ruining Mom's Rotary Club soiree when Old Man Green's goats got onto the patio and ate the hor d'oeuvres and butted Mrs. Haggarty into the punch bowl..."

"That's ancient history!" Saundra waved her doubts away with a royal flick of her slim wrist.

"What's your plan?" she asked despite knowing better. Judging from the wicked grin curling Saundra's beautiful lips, she wasn't going to like it one little bit. The FBI looked better and better already.

"Stop frowning!" Saundra commanded. "Nothing so complicated this time. We just have to search Zack's bags when he's not around. Get a look at his identification."

"You can't be serous." Serena squeezed Marie so hard the dog barked and struggled out of her arms. "Ransack his bags? That's crazy!"

"It's the only way," Saundra pushed her point. "Unless you want a swat team descending on us." Saundra sidled closer to her, her tone flat. "Unless you want Gladys to tell Mom and Dad we aren't responsible." Twisting the knife, Saundra went for the jugular. "Unless you want to chase away the most handsome man you've ever laid eyes on. What if he's your soul mate?" Saundra flicked her hair over her shoulder, straightening to her full height. "It's your choice, Rena. He's your friend. How do you want to handle this?"

Zack pushed the swinging door to the kitchen wide, leaning nonchalantly against the doorjamb. "Is this a private conversation or can anyone join in?" His gaze pierced both women in turn.

Quickly, Saundra stuck the newspaper article in her back pocket.

Serena searched for a suitable reply, something she was getting too good at. "Nothing to worry about." She tried to stifle a yawn, but didn't quite manage to hide it. She needed time to think about this latest development, plus she tended to tire easily since the accident. Perhaps if she took her normal afternoon nap, she'd be refreshed in a couple of hours and better able to think this through. As far as Zack knew, he was Saundra's guest anyway so he wouldn't think her rude if she left him to her sister for that long.

"I hope you don't mind, but I need to lay down. If you'll excuse me."

"Are you feeling all right?" Concern flickered in Saundra's eyes and she laid a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Nodding, Serena smiled at Saundra and Zack. "I've just skipped my daily nap today. You know how easily I tire these days. I'm sure I'll feel better once I lie down for a bit."

Zack was all concern. "I guess my arrival changed your routine. Don't worry about me. I could use some rest myself after that long flight. I'll walk you to your room."

She wheeled to her room slowly, Zack by her side.

He bid her a good nap at her door. "Are you sure you feel okay?"

"I'm just a little drained of energy, is all. As long as I take things slow and easy and not push myself too hard, I'm fine. I guess I overdid it a little today skipping my afternoon rest." They stopped by her door, and there was an awkward silence. He was so tall, so handsome, and he was being so sweet, she wanted to confess all to him. But as she'd just admitted herself, she was tired and stressed and not thinking straight. She needed to think over the slim possibility he wasn't who he said he was and formulate a plan of action.

"Sweet dreams," he murmured. "Call me if you need anything. I'm right next door."

Her mind was too active to let her fall to sleep. After half an hour of trying and still being wide awake, she fetched her guitar from its case, feeling a little better just feeling it's polished wood beneath her fingers, how its gently curving neck fit into her grasp. Rolling to her bay window, she nudged the little dogs over to make room for herself. Protesting such rude awakening from their evening naps, they opened their mouths wide and whined.

Glancing out the window, she watched the setting sun spreading its rays over the horizon in wispy strands of cotton. A gentle breeze whispered through the window, rustling her curtains, cooling her heated flesh. She never tired of watching the sun set. It was one of her favorite activities.

Inspired by the sheer beauty of the sunset, she did something she'd not done since before Doug died -- talk to God. "Father, if you are up there, if you exist, why have you forsaken me? Why did you let Doug die? What am I to do about Zack?"

She waited in silence for some sign. For answers. But the night was silent.

But the dusk wasn't really silent.

Cicadas started their nightly serenade. The wind whispered, but nothing intelligible. An owl hooted and there were other animal calls she couldn't identify.

She tried to block out the woods sounds but all she heard was a void in her ears. When no answer came, she shifted uncomfortably, sighing.

"I guess you aren't there, God. Or maybe you just aren't talking to me." Still no answer came. No signs. No special feelings. Just a black, depressing void.

***

While her sister and Zack slept in the next morning, the dogs jumped on her in the bed, wagging their tails, licking her face and prancing on her chest.

She moaned into her pillow, trying to pull the covers over her head. "You know I don't do mornings." Marie didn't care. She rustled under the covers, her wet nose cold on Serena's neck.

"Oh, all right." She tossed the covers back, dragging one foot off the bed, then the other with great difficulty, her back aching from having tossed and turned all night. She kneaded her neck with her fingers, working the kinks out of stressed muscles.

What was that strange tinkling type sound outside her window? Birds chirping? She never awoke this early. It was obscene.

But she dragged on her robe, lifted her dead weight into her chair and wheeled down the hall. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, yawning so wide, her face felt as if it were cracking.

The dogs yipped and yapped frantically, jumping on the front door.

"Sh! You'll wake up everyone."

Once she'd herded her tribe back inside, she was wide-awake and troubled, her thoughts churning in her mind. Nothing made sense. Not Zack showing up without warning. Not Saundra. But most of all, not herself.

Pain throbbed behind her eyes and she pushed them with her fingertips. What she needed was a friend. A special confidant. Jewel.

She longed to spill her heart to Jewel as she'd done when she was a child and all through her teen years. Before she could change her mind, she threw on day clothes and rushed to her truck that was specially equipped with a chair lift to hoist her inside. Outfitted with handgears, she could operate the vehicle from her wheelchair. The regular driver's seat had been removed and a fold-down version had been installed in case someone else wanted to drive. She had just recently started to drive again and found in it more freedom than she had expected, especially after the wreck a year ago. In a matter of moments, she pulled the pick up into a space in downtown Strawberry Point between Jewel's store and the Five and Dime. When the old neon sign blinked at her, she remembered she was almost out of dog food and that it was on sale.

The bell rang over her head when she pushed the door open. She waved at Gladys, then ducked into the nearest aisle to avoid a barrage of questions. She'd forgotten she'd have to face fifty questions if she popped in here.

With the help of the nice Jacobs' boy who carried her things, she got her dog food and a few other essentials and waited in line for the register. The young man, all of sixteen, put the heavy dog food bag on the counter for her and waited, promising he'd carry it to her truck also. She'd get Serena or Dillon to haul it inside when she got home.

"Have you heard from your parents, Serena? How are they enjoying Europe?" Gladys bustled up to the cash register in her hot pink smock, pushing her butterfly- rimmed glasses back on her too thin nose when they slipped forward. They looked incongruent with her coifed silver curls. Serena had to bite back a smile and avert her eyes, pretending to check out the price of the 33-millimeter film hanging by the checkout desk.

Laying Zack's favorite Entemann's chocolate chip cookies and dog food and several doggie toys on the checkout counter, she debated whether or not to give into the temptation to buy one of the magazines so conveniently displayed next to the register. A sucker for computing magazines, she picked a PC World off the shelf. She thumbed through it, an article on web page design catching her eye, then slid it onto the counter. What the heck, she made good money and her parents didn't charge her rent. One little magazine wouldn't break her bank account.

She dug around in her purse for her ATM card, promising herself for the umpteenth time that she'd clean out her bottomless pit of a purse and organize it better. It felt as if she carried rocks and could be used as a dangerous weapon.

Serena glanced up shyly at the matronly woman, watching her closely.

"What a handsome young man that is visiting you. Is he one of your cousins?"

She almost spilled the contents of her purse on the floor when she let go of it for a second, staring dumbfounded at her neighbor.

"I hadn't noticed," she lied, barely audible. She felt a blush creep into her cheeks and she bent her head letting her hair fall over her face. "He's a fr-friend of my sister."

"Do you think your parents would approve of having young men at your house when they're away?" She spoke in conversational tones but with a warning in her voice nonetheless.

"Oh, they don't mind. After all, I'm twenty-seven. Saundra's thirty. And -- it is my home, too."

Gladys patted the top of her hand condescendingly and tutted. "So it is. And yes, you certainly are old enough..."

Last week Gladys had practically told her she was an old maid and at thirty, Saundra was hopeless. Was there no winning?

"We received a picture postcard yesterday from Belgium. Want to see it?" Serena rooted around in her purse and finally found the colorful postcard only slightly crumpled around the edges. She pulled it out and slid it across the counter. That should distract Gladys.

"What a beautiful castle!" Gladys exclaimed, picking it up and turning it over. "May I read it, Dear?"

Serena nodded her head in consent. She tried to read the French explanation on the back of her card but couldn't remember much of her high school French. It had never been her favorite class even if it was the language of love. She'd always preferred the language of computers to anything human.

"They're loving every minute. By today, they'll be in Madrid. Next week, they're going to Greece. Mom's dragging Dad to every museum, garden and cathedral she can find. In return, he's making her attend the bull fights and races," Serena ticked off the list of her parents' European vacation like a travel log.

"Make sure you show me any pictures and videos they bring home. I always wanted to see Europe and stroll down the Champs Elysse," Gladys sighed deeply, a wistful gleam in her eyes, a dreamy smile curving her lips. "My Stanley was going to take me for a second honeymoon but then he up and died two months before his retirement. I'll never forgive him," she chuckled, taking the bite out of her words. Gladys' pudgy hands grabbed each item, sliding them over the scanner until it beeped. She bagged up Serena's purchases and stapled the receipt to the plastic bag that rustled loudly in the sleepy little store.

Serena's total lit up on the digital screen and she calculated what that would leave her in her checking account, satisfied that she still had plenty of money for the week without dipping into her savings. Savings for what?

For one, Dillon's birthday bash. And maybe a shrink when all this played out.

"You can slide your card now, dear." Gladys waited patiently. The sun gleamed brightly through the window like fountains from heaven.

She squinted her eyes then slid her card through the machine and pushed the appropriate buttons.

"Any cash back?" Gladys peered over her rims. Her bulk shifted uneasily under her shapeless flowery dress.

Serena pursed her lips and thought for a moment. "Give me twenty." She brushed her heavy bangs out of her eyes with a casual sweep of her hand. She scratched a little tickle at the base of her nose.

"Just push the enter button for me, then." Gladys rooted around her cash drawer and pulled out a twenty. The cash register dinged and two electronic receipts printed out. Promptly, Gladys ripped them off and handed them to Serena with a crisp, new twenty.

Serena took them out of the woman's outstretched hand then wrote the amounts in her checkbook before capping her pen and stuffing her wallet back into her crowded purse.

"What does Saundra's other young man think of her new friend?" Gladys's smile widened while Serena's heart almost dropped to her knees. She took the bag Gladys held out to her. Her ample hips pressed against the back of the counter as she leaned slightly forward.

"I wouldn't know. I really must be running. I wanted to say hi to Jewel while I'm in town, also."

"How nice, dear. I rarely ever see you come out of the house. It's so good to see you out during the day." Her gaze pinpointed her legs which made Serena squirm. "You can't hide yourself away forever in your room."

This was her cue to leave. Taboo space had been broached. She couldn't talk about her deformity or her lameness to Gladys.

Serena stuffed her wallet in her purse and zipped it shut. She held it in her lap with Zack's cookies.

"I really must be going." She rolled back slowly, rumpling her bag, hoping to make good an escape before Gladys remembered she hadn't filled her in on the Dillon thing. She didn't doubt Gladys would give her parents an ear full about Darling Dillon and her sister's dashing, mysterious pilot when they got home as it was.

The Jacobs' boy followed her, the dog food hoisted over his shoulder.

"It's good seeing you out and about." Gladys waved goodbye. Her glasses slid down the bridge of her nose again and she pushed it up absently. "Stop by and visit me more often." To the boy, Gladys instructed, "Carry her other bags, too, Andy."

"I will. Promise." Serena waited for Andy Jacobs to hold the door wide for her to pass through. Little bells tinkled over her head. She squinted again when bright sunlight pierced her eyes, relieved to escape the inquisition and well meaning advice.

She inhaled deeply, letting the claustrophobia ebb away with the fresh air. She instructed Andy to toss the dog food into the back of the truck, not afraid anyone would steal anything. Nowhere was safer than Strawberry Point. She carried the cookies with her on her lap so they wouldn't melt.

Today was already a scorcher and it was barely noon. August was the hottest month in the Ohio Valley and it would be here in just a couple of days. Late July was almost as hot. It must be in the upper eighties but the humidity made it feel much warmer. Her wheels made a hissing sound on the sun warmed concrete.

She couldn't wait to talk to Jewel. She always seemed to help her put things in perspective. She was a mentor or a surrogate grandmother. "Hi Jewel. Business slow today?"

"I was so proud of you for going to church with us on Sunday, and singing in front of all those people my heart just about popped." Jewel poured herself a steaming cup of coffee then poured in a smidgen of cream. "Would you like a cup?" She stirred two heaping teaspoons of sugar into the brew and soon the coffee was almost white.

"I'm not a coffee drinker. Cola's my poison of choice." She gave her small smile as she wheeled up to the booth closest to the counter and parked her chair on the outside lip. "Do you carry Spritzy Cola?"

Jewel poured a fountain cola into an hourglass shaped cup for her and slid it across the smooth table to her. "Can I fix you a burger or a sundae?"

Serena shook her head, her hair brushing her cheeks. "I'm not very hungry, but thanks anyway."

"Care to keep me company for a bit?" Without waiting for an answer, Jewel set a small coffee pot and her coffee cup on the formica table top and ambled around to join her. "You look like something's on your mind, child. Care to tell old Jewel?"

Serena suppressed the sigh building in her chest as she stripped the paper cover off her straw. She balled the discarded paper between her fingers and tossed it at the ashtray sitting between the salt and pepper shakers at the far end of the table. The carbonation tickled as the drink slid down her throat.

Jewel sat patiently, waiting for Serena to speak, slurping her coffee. Before long, the steam stopped swirling up from the cup.

Staring off into space, stirring the ice cubes in her glass with her plastic straw, Serena spoke slowly. "Remember that man I told you about?"

Jewel nodded, her gaze intent on Serena. "Sure do. The man you met over the Internet?"

Serena pursed her lips. "He's here."

Jewel clapped her hands, a smile dawning over her face. "Here in Strawberry Point? That's wonderful! Can I meet him?" Jewel looked over her shoulder then around the store as if looking for something. "Is he here with you?"

The corner of the lip on the undamaged side of Serena's face lifted as she struggled for the words to express her confusion, fear, and hopes.

Jewel rested her gnarly hand on Serena's lower arm. "Isn't it wonderful? Don't you like this young man after all?"

"Oh Jewel, he's everything I ever dreamed and more. He's a hundred times more handsome than his picture. He's smart. He's funny. He's nice."

"Well I can certainly see why you would be disappointed." This was the closest to sarcasm Serena had ever heard Jewel get. Jewel's brows puckered and she peered into Serena's eyes.

A snort escaped Serena's lips and she glanced at her chair. "I didn't tell you this before, but I didn't tell him about me."

Her friend's brows returned to normal as illumination dawned in her eyes. "And now he knows." She took another sip of her coffee before continuing. "What was his reaction, if you don't mind my asking?"

Ashamed of herself all over, she fidgeted in her seat and averted her gaze as heat crept up her neck. "Well...no reaction really..." Her finger traced the rim of her glass, wiping away the condensation collecting on it. When she looked up, Jewel's expression was bland, unfathomable. "You see, I never expected I'd really meet him, I mean not in person." If she was botching this with non-threatening Jewel, how would she ever talk to Zack about this? "I-I sent him Saundra's picture and told him that it was my picture." She winced inwardly at the sound of her own words.

Jewel sucked her teeth. "Well, you set him straight when he showed up, didn't you? How did he take the news then?"

Serena gazed deeply into the old woman's wise eyes. "I've not been able to tell him. I-I can't find the words. I'm afraid he'll reject me..." Choked up, she couldn't go on. Closing her eyes against the pain washing over her, she tilted her face towards Heaven.

When she opened them and brought her gaze on a level with Jewel's again, the woman's lips were pursed so that her upper lip virtually disappeared and the cleft in her chin was pronounced. "If he thinks Saundra's you, who does he think you are? And does this mean Saundra's pretending to be you?" The silvery curls bounced on her head with each word she said. "Does this mean your sister's going along with you on this?"

Serena nodded. "She's not happy about this, but she's playing along with me for now. She wants me to tell him the truth."

"You have to tell him the truth." Jewel's words were firm, more firm than Serena had ever heard her speak before. "Lies only beget lies as I'm sure you're finding out. Nobody's happy with a passel of lies."

"I know," she whispered. "I want to tell him, but I can't find the words. And I'm scared to death. He came here expecting to find a gorgeous, healthy blonde, not me. He'll hate me when he finds out how I lied to him."

"Mayhaps. Lies never did a body good. But that doesn't make more lying acceptable. That won't make things better. Tell me something."

Serena's glass stopped midair on the way to her lips as she waited for Jewel to ask her question.

"Do you love him? Would you want to be with him if he could accept you the way you are? Or were you just leading that poor man on to break his heart?"

Serena gasped. "I'd never do that to anybody! Not intentionally." The glass was suddenly too heavy to hold and the arm holding it floated toward the table. "You know I would never do that!"

"Then what were your intentions? Did you think this out? Did you think about his feelings?"

If that didn't make her feel lower than low, she didn't know what would. She'd never wanted to hurt Zack, never intended to break anyone's heart. "We had an innocent online flirtation. No one takes these things seriously..."

"He did or he wouldn't have come for you. So you're telling me that you don't love him? That this was a virtual reality video game for you?"

She plodded through emotional landmines now, trying to look into her own heart. "I honestly don't know. I wanted the impossible. I wanted a special friend, someone I could talk to. Someone I could play with..." She remembered their games, their playfulness, and smiled wistfully. "I wanted someone I could dream with. I think I wanted to find a Prince Charming to fall in love with me in spite of everything. Before I knew it, it had turned into something more, something very special. But I knew I was only dreaming, even deluding myself. I didn't think it would hurt anything or anyone -- especially not Zack. I thought my heart was the only one at risk."

"Sometimes dreams come true, child. It sounds to me like you're in reach of your dream. What's stopping you?" Her fingers curled into Serena's tender flesh on her arm, pinching slightly but not hard enough to hurt. "What do you truly want?"

Jewel was prodding her into some deep soul searching just as her sister had tried. Hiding from the world didn't seem to be an option anymore. The world wouldn't let her. Life was reclaiming her like it or not.

"I want to be happy again." Looking deeper into her soul, she dusted off dreams buried since the accident. "I want to be with Zack. I want to sing again. I want to walk again. I want to trust God again."

Jewel grabbed the coffee pot she'd put on the table and poured herself another cup and took a sip before answering with a thoughtful expression. Deep lines etched her forehead and the corners of her eyes crinkled. "What's stopping you, child? I heard you sing Sunday and it sounded real pretty. Your mama tells me that you've all but given up on walking again. You've exiled yourself and become a recluse from all accounts I've heard and I ain't seen no differently. No one's stopping you from going after your dreams except you." She clucked her tongue. "And you can always trust God. You used to."

Pushing her glass around the table, watching the trail of water it left, she avoided looking into Jewel's eyes. "I'm not even sure there is a God anymore. If there was, he wouldn't have let Doug die."

"It was Doug's time to go and you can't blame God for taking him home. But it wasn't your time. It's time you realize that and get on with your life."

Serena's eyes widened at the chastising. She'd never expected this from Jewel. She'd always comforted her before. This was the first time, other than a gentle nudge here and there, such as to return to church, or to sing at the Sunday services, that Jewel had ever spoken so bluntly to her. It left her speechless.

"You've given up and you're breaking my old heart. Someday you'll be old and out of time like me and you'll regret letting your life pass you by. If you don't reach out and grab what you want, such as that young man of yours, or relearning to walk, even if it causes you some pain right now, you might never forgive yourself. I can't sit back and bite my tongue anymore, watching you hurt yourself like this. I love you too much for that."

Turning her hand so that it faced upward, she clasped Jewel's hand in hers and squeezed. Her voice barely a whisper, she asked, "What do I do?"

"I think you know what to do." Wisdom vibrated in the warbly voice. "First of all, you tell that boy the truth. Then you give it all you got to walk again and even if you never do, you'll at least know you tried. Meanwhile, you get yourself out into the sunshine and stop hiding from everyone by locking yourself in that room of yours. You've got a lot to share, such as that beautiful voice of yours. And I want you to come to church again with us this week."

In a tremulous voice, Serena said, "I will. I'll try."

"Good. I want a report Sunday after church at latest. And I want to meet that young man of yours. What's his name?"

"Zachary. I call him Zack."

"That's a good strong name. And I'm sure if you picked him out, he's a good man."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The next morning after a leisurely evening spent grilling out with Zack doing the honors of preparing the meat, Saundra sauntered up to Zack and tapped him on the shoulder. "Zachary would you do me a big favor?"

Serena eyed her sister warily. There was something in her voice, in her eyes, that didn't bode well.

Zack turned with a friendly smile. "What d'ya need?"

Saundra winked at Serena escalating her trepidation levels. "Could you take my sister to her therapy? I'd planned to take her but something's come up."

"No need to bother Zack. I can drive myself." Serena waved her hand, shaking her head.

"I'd be happy to do it."

"I don't want to trouble anyone." Nor did she want the Captain to see her fall flat on her face and thoroughly embarrass herself.

"But it wipes you out and I worry about you driving afterward. Plus you should stay and swim afterward and you'll try to ditch it if you go alone." Saundra adopted her stern school teacher tones and shot an equally stern look at her. To Zack, she said, "Did you bring a bathing suit?"

"I tucked a pair of trunks in my duffel bag. I've been looking forward to swimming in one of your lakes. Those penguins and polar bears back at the station don't like to share their swimming holes."

"I don't swim as well as I used to." She glanced at her legs and patted them. "They do a little better than on dry land, but they still need help." The thought of Zack's hands spanning her waist, of his breath on her neck, of his body touching hers spewed molten lava through her veins. Such exquisite torture taunted her. It loomed worse in her mind than the physical torture Tess and the machines would inflict on her. "If I can spot the guys at the gym, I can surely hold up a lightweight like you in the water. I'd like to help and meet your therapist."

Trapped, she gulped. Further protest would be churlish, especially when she longed to be with him anyway. "Thank you."

Saundra glanced at her watch. "She has to be there in two hours. You should leave by ten to be safe. Her session's for eleven o'clock." She tucked her hair behind her ears. "So you're all set."

Serena beckoned to her sister behind Zack's back to meet her in the kitchen alone. When she was sure Saundra understood her gestures, she turned her chair. "I'll meet you here in half an hour?" she asked Zack. Simultaneously she dreaded and anticipated the time alone with him. She'd dreamed of being in his arms and here was her chance. She should embrace it, cherish it.

Zack checked his watch. It was a big black monstrosity loaded with gadgets men didn't think they could live without, including a phone book, calculator, schedule, and indicators for every time zone. "O nine-thirty then. The appointment's at eleven hundred hours?"

Saundra paused as if calculating military time. "You got it. I appreciate the help."

"No problem." He saluted smartly to both women, bowing from the waist before he pivoted on his heel and jogged to his room.

Serena watched him go, then met her sister in the kitchen. The moment the door swung closed, she groaned and said, "You know I've still not told him the truth. Nor have we found out for sure he's not that thief person, yet you set me up to be alone with him? To go to my therapy where everyone will be calling me Serena?" She crossed the room so she could pour herself some much-needed water. Her throat was so dry it was getting scratchy. Her parents had remodeled the house after her accident while she was still in the hospital so that she could be as independent as possible. They'd gone to such an extent as to have sinks and counters ripped out and new lower ones installed so she could reach everything she needed. The independence it gave her was wonderful and she deeply appreciated their thoughtfulness. "What were you thinking? What is this ultra important appointment you have to go to?"

Crossing her arms across her chest, Saundra leaned back against the fridge. Her legs crossed at the ankles. "I'm going to Wright Pat to get the low down on the Captain for you. Besides, maybe you can come clean with him on the drive to your therapy. You'll be all alone without any interference from anyone else."

Aghast, she stared open mouthed at Saundra. "I can't tell him something like that when he's driving. What if he gets so upset he wrecks?" It had taken her a long time to get into a car again after the accident much less drive herself so now she believed in being extra careful. Distracting a driver as such amounted to suicide in her opinion.

Saundra shook her finger, then seemed to realize what she was doing and crossed her arms again. " I'll call Tess and put her on alert for you, but you have to tell him soon. I suppose you should wait till I check him out with the Air Force, but if he checks out, you have to stop stalling. The longer you wait the worse it'll be."

"I know. And I'll tell him." She gulped down the water and poured another glass. When she got nervous, she got thirsty. "Promise."

"I don't want you to blow this. I like Zack and I think he'd be good for you." She crossed the room and hugged her sister. "And I think you'd be good for him. Give him a chance. He might surprise you." Tapping her finger to her mouth, she said thoughtfully, "I think you should borrow one of my bathing suits today. No offense, but yours has seen better days. Let's go get one."

When Saundra tossed a brightly flowered suit with high cut thighs to her a few moments later, Serena's eyes almost bulged out. "I can't wear this! Don't you have something with more material?" Wadding it up she tossed it back.

Her sister scrunched her nose and sighed. "Let me see what I can find." She pulled out another one with pretty lace on it, not so high cut around the legs. "How about this one?"

Holding it up to the light to examine it, Serena eyed it critically. "This is pretty. It'll work." It was a lot better than her own faded suit that looked as if she'd had it for a decade.

Saundra glanced at her watch. "Time to meet the Captain. You'd better get out there. But first." She eyed Serena. "Let me fix your hair for you. It won't take but five minutes. I'll make you gorgeous for your Flyboy." True to her word, Saundra brushed and twisted her hair so that it gleamed and looked elegant. A little bit of expert make-up and she barely recognized herself.

Zack whistled when she met him in the foyer, making her blush to the roots of her hair. She almost turned right around to return to her room. "Hey gorgeous. Ready to go?"

Not trusting her voice, she nodded, handing him her keys to the truck. They jingled mid air as he reached for them. When his fingers brushed hers, electricity flared and she jerked her hand away almost dropping the keys. He caught them deftly and quirked his brows but he didn't comment otherwise. Surely he'd felt that surge of awareness, too? He had to have.

When they reached the truck, he opened the door and then turned to her. Without warning, he bent and scooped her out of her chair and lifted her into the truck. His broad chest was firm and warm against her. His heart hammered against her and his breath tickled her throat and ears. Their eyes met and held and she caught her breath, unable to exhale. Her gaze settled on his lips, those lips she'd dreamt about for so long. Firm, chiseled, sultry lips that were meant to kiss her senseless. Lips she'd teased him about before she'd known just how devastating they really were.

Caught in her own web of fantasy and longing, she leaned toward him, closing the gap between their lips. His gaze lingered on her lips, too, and it wasn't the look of a man who was revolted by her scar. Barely leashed passion blazed in his eyes, exciting her beyond reason. Every atom in her being wanted to fuse with those lips. She longed to find out how they tasted, how they'd make her feel. She quivered against him, her arms curling around his neck, her fingers playing with the soft hair at the back of his head.

Just as he dipped his head, blocking the sun from her view, the front door closed, jarring her back to reality, to the truth that he believed her to be someone else. Jerking back, she almost threw him off balance making him lean against the side of the truck.

Saundra blushed and tried to turn back to the house when she caught sight of them but it was already too late. The spell was broken.

"You all right?" Zack regained his footing and placed her gently on the seat, fastening her in.

"I-I'm fine," she murmured, not feeling fine at all. Her entire insides were one big jumble of nerves and unrequited longing -- to get so close to her heart's desire and then to be yanked away -- didn't seem fair.

It was several miles down the road before her heart rate returned to normal and she was able to speak in a normal tone of voice. "Take the next exit, turn south, and the hospital's at the first light. You can't miss it."

"I take it you don't like these sessions? You scared of water?"

"I love water. I just have an aversion to pain. I'm funny that way, I guess."

He chuckled, mischief dancing in his eyes. Then they sobered. "How painful is it? How often do you have to come?"

"Very painful. I come every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. Tess isn't happy that I missed Monday..."

"Because I showed up unexpectedly?"

She was able to avoid answering the question. Pointing forward, she said, "Take the second driveway and go to the Outpatient entrance. We'll go in there."

Moments later, she held her breath as she approached the clinic, expecting someone to call her Serena. This was crazy. She was certifiable. The whole gig was about to be up. She plastered a smile to her lips and greeted the receptionist. "I'm here for my eleven o'clock with Tess."

"Good morning, Miss Gregory," Penny the receptionist said, a twinkle in her eye. But her gaze was firmly on Zack who stood just behind her chair and not on her at all. Not that she could blame her. "I'll let Tess know you're here."

Tess must have heard her name for she strolled out to the waiting area. She was a short, rather plump brunette with red highlights in her hair. She wore glasses that were almost as nondescript as the rest of her. But she wore a friendly smile and radiated energy. Everyone liked Tess, even Serena except when she was torturing her. "Are we ready?"

Serena wondered how she'd feel if she said no but behaved and said, "Ready. Let's go." She realized her rudeness in not introducing her therapist to Zack. "Tess Campbell, this is Zack Kane, a friend of mine."

Tess extended her hand to shake his. "Nice to meet you Zack."

Zack shook Tess's extended hand. "May I watch?"

Tess looked at Serena. "Is that okay with you?" She led them back to Physical Therapy.

For Zack's benefit presumably, she said, "She goes in the harness here where we manually manipulate her legs." Tess motioned to another therapist named Cliff, a strong fortyish something man with graying temples and a gray mustache. He stepped forward and lifted Serena from her chair. With Tess's expert help, he strapped Serena into the harness, which was hooked up to a computer.

Zack stepped back two paces, his hands on his hips as he stood at parade rest, a quizzical expression on his face. "What's the prognosis? Will she walk again?"

Tess looked up from what she was doing to meet his gaze. "We wouldn't do this if there wasn't a possibility she'd walk again. However, it will be a long process that requires a lot of dedication from both patient and therapist." Tess raised her eyebrows at Serena. "Are you ready to get dedicated?"

"You mean," Zack said, "that if she works harder, she may walk again?"

Tess nodded as she flexed Serena's legs and then massaged them. "Exactly. I can't promise, but there's a good chance."

Zack looked thoughtful and remained watchful as they went through the grueling routine, asking pertinent questions as they moved to each new machine.

"Here's your reward." Tess prepared the whirlpool as Cliff adjusted the harness around her. To Zack, Tess said, "She likes this. It helps ease the muscles we just stressed."

Tired of being talked about as if she wasn't there or as if she were a mere five years old, Serena said, "This is wonderful. Are you sure we can't just skip the rest next time and let me do this the whole session?"

Tess clucked her tongue to the roof of her mouth. "I'm not going to answer that again." She turned to Zack. "She asks this every time. She needs to help us out more. Maybe you can talk to her."

Zack nodded. "She goes to the pool next? I was told I could go in with her? Is that so?"

"Sure. I'll take you down to the pool and show you some simple exercises that you can help her with." When they reached the pool, Tess pointed to the men's dressing rooms. "You can reach the pool from there after you change. We'll see you in there."

"I'll catch up with you in a sec," he told Serena, squeezing her hand. "You feel okay?"

A Tylenol chaser would be wonderful about now. A wistful smile played around her lips. "I'm a little achy and shaky. Guess I'll live but I'm not exactly up to dancing."

Zack's expression became inscrutable. Then his cheeks relaxed and his face eased into a grin. She thought she heard him mumble, "Dancing," under his breath as he turned away, but she couldn't be sure. He was whistling tunelessly by the time he pushed through the locker room door.

"Did you get a new suit? It's very pretty." Tess helped Serena dress. "Is Zack your boyfriend? He seems very interested in your therapy."

Serena wasn't sure how to describe Zack. "He's a family friend."

Zack waited for her by the harness. He was the picture of masculine beauty with legs that looked as if they could run a fifty-mile marathon without effort. They were sleek and sinewed, covered with a thick mat of curly dark blonde hair. Her gaze followed them up to slim hips and a trim waist. A well-honed chest looked as if he worked his upper body frequently. Sparse golden hair curled upon it. "Here, just hand her down to me," he said when Cliff reached for her. Without waiting for a reply, he lowered himself into the pool and held out his arms for her.

Cliff scooped her up and lowered her into Zack's waiting arms. Her arms enjoyed curling around Zack's neck and she knew she could get used to this. The water was warm today, just the way she liked it. Saundra always compared it to bath water and claimed it made her sleepy, but it felt good on Serena's achy muscles. They deserved this after the torture they endured in physical therapy.

Tess led them through a gentle water exercise routine, which Zack seemed to enjoy. She certainly did. Zack's arms held her when she wasn't floating. But too soon it was over.

"We encourage her to swim and relax for another thirty minutes so you're free to stay. I have a lunch date so I've got to go." Tess smiled at the couple. "Remember what I've been telling you -- keep up the good work. I'll see you Friday at the normal time? Will you be able to change by yourself?" she asked Serena.

Serena nodded. "I'll manage." If she had problems, there was always a therapist around to help if need be. "Enjoy your date."

Tess grinned. "He's just an old friend." But her self-conscious smile made Serena wonder if there wasn't more to it. Tess deserved to find her special someone. She was a wonderful lady. Putting her hands on the pool ledge, Tess pulled herself up by her arms. Grabbing a fluffy white towel she rubbed her hair then patted her limbs. "Nice to meet you, Zack."

Zack waved in almost a salute. Serena supposed habits died hard. But it was cute. "Likewise."

***

As soon as they were alone, Zack looked down at her, still in his arms. "Do you like to dance?"

A wry smile twisted her lips as she glanced at her legs. "I used to love it. But I can't anymore..."

"Sure you can." Before she could ask him how, he pulled her up against his chest and glided around with her in the water, dipping and swirling gracefully.

Delightedly, she smiled up at him. "This is wonderful. I didn't think I'd ever dance again. I missed it so much." Tears of happiness burned the backs of her eyes and only with supreme effort did she hold them at bay.

His lips nuzzled her ear and she almost swooned against him. Against her ear, he murmured, "It'd be even better with music."

She had to laugh. "You want to improve upon perfection?" Well, as near to perfection as she could hope to get.

"When is your favorite time to dance?"

Without thinking, she said, "At night. Under the moonlight." Soon as the words escaped her lips, she knew she'd erred. She waited for him to call her on it, but he just gazed into her eyes.

"Maybe you should get your own pool at home so you can?"

"I'd never thought of dancing in the water before. Nor have I had anyone to dance with. I mean swim."

"What a shame. You're so good at it." His chest pressed against hers was intoxicating. His lips bare inches from hers were too tempting.

"I'm good when I have a good partner. You're doing all the work."

"This isn't work. It's pleasure." His magical hands massaged her back, mesmerizing her. His fingers felt so good she didn't want him to stop ever.

The way he gazed down at her she thought he was going to kiss her. She realized now would be a good time to tell him the truth. She needed to before they went any further. "Zack, I need to..."

Cliff picked that moment to bang into the pool area. "It's time for the next class. Sorry but time's up." Sauntering to the side of the pool by the harness, he lowered it into the water. To Zack he said, "Can you strap her in that and I'll lift her up?"

Zack squeezed her to him and sent her a smoldering look that sent her pulses soaring. "We'll dance again. Promise." His voice was husky.

She prayed he'd still want to after he learned the truth. Why couldn't Cliff have given them five more minutes? Even two more minutes? That would've done it. Then she remembered that she needed to wait on Saundra's findings at Wright Pat anyway. She hoped they had word soon, as she didn't know how much longer she could keep up this charade.

***

Glancing out the window, she smiled sadly at the setting sun spreading its rays over the horizon in wispy strands of pastel cotton. A gentle breeze whispered through the window, rustling her curtains, cooling her heated flesh. Saundra still hadn't returned from the Air Force base nor had she called. She was still playing a waiting game and it wore on her nerves.

The night wind beckoned her, the stars mesmerizing her, the cicadas hypnotizing her. A crusty old bull-frog croaked in his deep bass. As if in a trance, Serena turned her chair on a puff of wind, and followed the path to the creek.

Following her heart, she sought solace by the brook, its song soothing her. Parking on a soft incline overlooking the softly running rapids, she covered herself with the blanket and cradled her guitar once more.

How long she gazed at the Heavens she didn't know. She only knew that the lavender sky dotted with blinking fireflies faded into a deep velvety canopy of twinkling stars. The occasional silvery finned fish poked its head out of the water. Crickets chirped, viola sawing their legs. Spotty owls hooted. Cats meowed. Night birds twittered.

Nature's orchestra played its haunting melody for her and her alone. Night blooming flowers bathed her in their heady perfume. It was ethereal and blissful beyond compare.

Shuddering deeply, Serena placed her fingers on the bars to Zack's song and leaned her head back, closing her eyes. Softly, soulfully, she strummed the haunting melody teasing her heart. Closing her eyes, she sang a spiritual offering from the depth of her very soul.

She forgot everything, losing herself in the song, in thoughts of Zack and his penetrating black gaze that seemed to probe her very soul. When she finished Zack's song, she crooned a medley of her favorite songs, singing loud, clear and sweetly into the night. When she opened her eyes, she gazed straight into the deepest, most soulful eyes she'd ever seen.

"I thought I heard a siren so I followed the wind." A dreamy smile curved his lips. Dropping to her side and leaning on his elbow, he stretched his long legs beside her. His features lay in deep shadow, the moonlight haloing his head.

Her jaw dropped open, stunned. The breeze blew her hair in her face, covering her eyes, blowing in her mouth. Before she could raise her hand to smooth it away, Zack's hand brushed it back. His fingertips traced her scar ever so gently and she shivered deliciously, closing her eyes.

"I'm not such a monster. You don't need to be scared of me," he murmured, his voice barely a whisper above the brook.

She opened her eyes to find his face mere inches from hers. Her flesh goose pimpled. Her heart fluttered. She knew she should move away, protect herself if he wasn't who he said he was, but she couldn't move a muscle. Trapped breath scorched her lungs.

"Will you sing for me?" he asked huskily.

"What do you want to hear?" she whispered, barely able to speak, positioning her guitar in the crook of her arm to play for him. She shook her hair behind her neck. It felt thick and silky on her heated flesh.

"Whatever you want to play for me. Something for a sultry, moonlit night." He gazed deeply into her eyes, his smile stealing all the glory away from the stars in the Heavens.

She sucked in a deep breath, desire tiptoeing along her nerve endings. He leaned so close all she need do was edge forward slightly to touch her lips to his and lose herself to sheer bliss.

Instead, she swayed back, cradling her guitar closer, averting her eyes.

Sweetly, clearly, she sang from her heart. Songs she'd cherished since childhood. Melodies she herself had composed. Serenading her love, her voice vied the nightingales. She poured it over him lovingly. She wrapped it around them like a gentle cocoon, making a little world for just the two of them, where nothing, no one could intrude.

Zack trailed languid fingers down her cheek, over her scar then cupped it with his hand. "Did anyone ever tell you that you sing like a Siren? That you possess the most exquisite eyes? That a man could get lost in your sweetness, forever and eternity?"

Silently, she shook her head, lost in his words, his voice, his intense charm. All pretense was forgotten and only longing remained.

Swaying, she leaned toward him, her lips parted gently, invitingly. Turning her face, she kissed his warm palm.

Behind her, the brook babbled serenely. A night owl hooted.

His eyes sparkled, probing hers. Slowly, he moved closer, his lips so close, she could feel his breath scorch her soft skin, longing to know the feel of him on her. As inevitably as the earth circled the sun, he was going to kiss her.

An eternity passed, or a mere second. She didn't know. She didn't care.

He lifted her chin with his finger. Their gazes locked. Slowly, he lowered his head.

Her gaze fused to his lips. She lifted her lips to meet his, to surrender to his greater strength, his potent, lethal charm.

Against her lips he breathed, "I came here to seduce Serena, to make her my wife." Pulling away, he dipped his hand in his shirt pocket and pulled out a velvet box.

She nibbled her lower lip. Her heart stopped in the midst of a beat.

He opened the box slowly, a dazzling diamond solitaire set in antique gold twinkled at her. "I want your honest opinion. Do you think Serena will like it? Do you think she'll have me?"

Conflicted, confused, she blinked, her heart shattering.

She stared at him dumbfounded, unable to move, unable to breathe. How could she have been so stupid? So foolish?

He didn't recognize her at all! He still believed her blonde sister was the real Serena. What game was he playing?

She jerked away, her heart breaking and the guitar she forgot she held slipped off her lap. "Oh no!" When she grabbed for it, she didn't have enough range of motion and missed. The wood cracked on the rocks.

Zack jumped up, grabbing it. Holding it up to the moonlight, he examined it, scowling.

"Is it broken?" She dreaded the answer, sure it must be. She'd heard the thud.

"It's smashed pretty badly."

"Is it repairable?" That guitar was her last tangible link to Doug. Even though she loved Zack now, the love she'd shared with Doug would always mean a lot to her. The instrument represented that love.

"I don't know much about guitars, but there's a hole in the back. I don't think you can fix it."

A tear fell from her eye, trickling down her cheek. She sniffed back more without success. "Someone very special gave that to me. Someone I loved very much." She held her hand out for it and he held it so that the moonlight shone full on it, illuminating the gaping, jagged hole. She accepted it and cradled it reverently in her lap, rocking back and forth with it, mourning its loss. Forgive me Doug. How could she have been so clumsy?

Another tear splashed on her hand, rolling down to the guitar. She watched it slide across the resined wood. More tears threatened and she wasn't sure she could hold them back. She needed to be alone.

Zack stood over her, not saying a word, watching, the moonlight at his back silhouetting him.

In a trembling voice, she said, "I need to be alone. Excuse me."

***

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, staring after her until she disappeared. Who was this special someone who had given her the guitar? Why did thoughts of him make her cry? Was it Dillon? Was she still in love with him?

Since his arrival, he'd been twisted into knots, confounded by yet another woman. He'd thought this visit would solve all his problems, not create more.

He was 99.9 percent sure the dark haired sister was really Serena -- his soul mate. They shared fire and electricity. She made his heart sing -- just like the Songstress. She had to be the Songstress! But then he wasn't sure...driving him to distraction was this game that she and her sister were playing.

Agitated fingers raked through his hair. His mind raced like lightning, traveling down back alleys and detours, that all led to the same condemnatory conclusion.

Just when he thought he'd figured them out, assumed that Serena was scared of her own shadow because of some terrible trick of fate that left her scarred and lame, he found out what could be her true motivation for this elaborate deception was -- Dillon.

For God's sake, he'd been in the middle of proposing to her! Of confessing he knew of her little deception, forgiving her and admitting he loved her anyway.

What a fool he was!

Scowling deeply, he trudged up the hill to the house, wondering what he would find. Serena in Dillon's arms? Her sweet lips on his? Confessions of undying love under the moon he thought belonged only to them?

Zack shook his head to alleviate the torturous image, schooling himself to take control, to be the Officer and the Gentleman the Air Force had spent so much money to form into their perfect image of Tom Cruise. Their die-hard, devil-may- care pilot.

This pilot, however, had a wild streak running ten miles wide! And fool that he was; he was too trusting, even now. He cared too much!

"What a beauty!" he mumbled under his breath. His eyes sparkled with pleasure when he spotted Dillon's Harley Hog gleaming under the moonlight next to Serena's truck. Nearly as large, it beckoned him to hop on and peel out on open back-country roads under the moonlight.

If circumstances were different, he'd ask Dillon to let him take Serena for the ride of her life, her arms wrapped around him so she'd never let go.

Trailing envious fingers along its smooth chrome, Zack admired it immensely. Sometime during his thirty-day leave, he'd rent or borrow a motorcycle, somewhere, somehow.

High speeds always cleared his mind, salved his soul. If he couldn't fly at mach three in the heavens, he could sure as tooting fly down the open highway at ninety mph, the wind in his face!

What was the use? He was getting tired of waiting for the Songstress to reveal her true identity, to confess the truth. They were so close at the pool earlier that day, dancing in the water, he thought they really had something. At one point he was sure she was going to tell him. Then the therapist had interrupted them and she'd clammed up. He feared that if she didn't open up to him very soon, it'd be too late for them. But maybe she hadn't told him because he wasn't the only man in her life.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

A tear slid down Serena's cheek when she cradled her shattered guitar to her chest. Angrily she swiped the runaway off her cheek with the back of her hand, sniffling.

Lightly, her fingers caressed the polished wood, trailing across it as she would caress an injured child.

Doug had given her this beauty for her twenty-third birthday. It was the only memento she had left to remember him, to cherish their love.

Saundra padded to her door so silently Serena didn't hear her. "How'd therapy go today?"

Serena lifted teary eyes. She tried to smile but failed dismally.

Seeing her, Saundra's expression grew troubled and she rushed to Serena's side. "What's wrong?"

Choked up, Serena lifted her guitar, turning it over so her sister could see the damage. "I dropped it. This is all I had left of Doug. And now it's gone -- just like he is."

Saundra knelt next to her, putting her arms around Serena. "I'm sorry, honey. But maybe it's time to move forward. Maybe it's time to let Doug go -- completely. Make room for someone else in your life."

"Zack." It was a statement.

Saundra nodded, smiling sadly. She took the guitar and put it on the bed. "We'll get you a new guitar."

"Did you find out anything about Zack at Wright Patterson?" She swiped at an errant tear that refused to stay put. "Is he who he says he is?" Please say yes.

"It's going to take a couple of days to find out. They're going to call soon as they have an answer for us."

Serena's heart plummeted. "I need to know now. I can't wait. Time's running out, I can feel it."

"You might just have to look in his wallet. I don't know what else to do without involving the police or FBI."

"No! We can't do that yet. He'd never forgive me for doubting him like that."

"Then you'll have to wait for Wright Pat to call us. Wait till he's in the shower. He'll never know you looked."

"I don't know..." But she was thinking about it. Her options were running out.

***

"Hey, I'm sorry about your guitar," Zack said softly after breakfast the next morning, grabbing her hand.

She stared at their linked hands, stunned. Hers looked so tiny, so dainty in his huge paw. "If you let me borrow your truck, I'll go into town today and buy you a new one." She lifted startled eyes to his. "You don't have to. It wasn't your fault."

He made a nice gesture, but no one could replace Doug's gift. Not even Zack.

Of course, he could buy her a bigger, nicer, more expensive guitar in Cincinnati or Dayton, but he could never replace the memories, the soul of her guitar.

A lock of stray hair fell over his forehead. Her fingers itched to brush it back.

Zack squeezed her hand. "I insist. I want to."

Serena's heart fluttered. She smiled tremulously. "I'd like that. Thank you." Why not let him replace it if it made him feel better? Maybe in time it would feel like hers. She had to get a new one anyway.

"Just let me shower and dress. Then we'll go into town now."

Heat crept from her chest along her neck and tingled in her cheeks. She couldn't stop envisioning that strong body no matter how hard she tried to banish the image from her mind.

"I'll get ready, too." She left him to get ready.

***

Although he marched purposefully, not trying to sneak up on anyone, the deep pile carpeting muffled his footsteps. When he reached the Songstress's door, he spotted her intently working on the computer. Stepping back where he could spy through the crack of her door without being observed, he watched her working intently on the World Wide Web, two little dogs sprawled on her feet, one with pink bows on its floppy ears, curled on her lap, its silky tail fanning her leg.

She tipped a can of Spritzy Soda to her mouth, taking a sip. He spied her FTP provider open and the words Spritzy Soda floating and spinning across her CRT. The haunting strains of "Hotel California" washed over him, reminding him of their illicit clinches and moonlit dances over cyberspace. The dark haired sister was definitely his Songstress, not the blonde haired sister. If he'd had any doubts left, which he didn't, this clinched it. He might not know if her name was truly Saundra or Serena, but the dark-haired sister was definitely the Songstress.

One part of him wished he wished he had a yellow rose and moonlight this very moment while the other part of him was infuriated at the web of deceit in which he was being cocooned by the lovely sisters Gregory.

Curiosity got the better of him. What was she doing? Flirting with somebody else? He knew how addicted she was to multi-tasking. Just because all he could see at the moment was her web page didn't mean she wasn't hiding something underneath. Maybe she had a whole harem of lonely soldiers far away from home or shy computer geeks pretending to be cyberspace Lotharios seducing them with her Songstress's seductive innuendos. Sometimes women did that: collected men on the Internet, with no real interest in their feelings.

Sticking his nose in the crack of the door to get a better look, reminding himself that curiosity killed the cat but not really caring, he peered hard at the computer screen.

He had her dead to rights. He should march in there right this moment and confront her. But that wouldn't suit his purpose. He still prayed she'd open up and come to him, confessing her deceit, giving them a chance to start over.

Besides, there was still the little irksome matter of Dillon. Was Songstress still stuck on him? Or would she rather fly the friendly skies?

Trouble was, he really didn't want to find out too bluntly, macho as he pretended to be. His ego had been trampled and was still smarting from Carolyn's deceit and treachery.

Retracing his steps, he propped his shoulder nonchalantly against the doorway of the guest bedroom. "Are you ready to go shopping?" That should get any red blooded American woman's juices flowing. He hadn't met one yet that could refuse such nectar. Not even a red blooded American angel.

He waited, confident that his web would draw her in.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Serena trailed her fingertips lightly over the polished wood of a classical guitar that looked like the spitting image of the one Doug had given her.

"Do you like it?" Zack prodded gently, standing behind her shoulder, his heat seeping into her. His closeness made it almost impossible to catch her breath or think clearly. If she leaned back just a millimeter, she'd feel his dangerous whipcord strength. Even at this distance, she could feel the sizzling electricity that flowed between them.

Again she wondered if he felt it, too; and it sliced at her heart to think he didn't.

"It's certainly a beauty." Serena breathed softly, drawing her focus back to the gorgeous instrument, trailing her fingers along it's gently curving body.

"Here," the eager young salesman who was trying to sell her the instrument said, taking the guitar off its stand and holding it out to her. "You've got to play it to feel if it's a match for you."

Serena took it from his hands reverently, awed. "It feels good." Excitement tingled from the tips of her fingers down to her toes. She couldn't help but crack the smile that tugged at her lips.

"Sing for me," Zack whispered huskily in her ear. "Enchant me with your siren's voice." He obviously knew, but she still couldn't wait to tell him herself, cleanse her soul so to say, just as soon as they were alone.

Shivers chased down her spine. She couldn't help but tremble when he stood this close to her or when he murmured such sweet things in her ear. Any moment she'd be crimson from her forehead to points much further south.

"Okay," she whispered, feeling suddenly shy but smiling.

"There's a private booth at the back of the store. It's usually reserved for students but no one's using it now. I can let you use it." He ushered them to a sound proof booth with excellent acoustics, three soft chairs and a music stand. Opening the door, the young man held his arm wide. "The next lesson won't start for twenty minutes." His soft brown eyes locked with Serena's. "Do you need sheet music?"

"No, thank you. " Serena shook her head. "My music's in here." She grinned, pointing at her heart.

He held the door for Zack and Serena to enter, then closed it behind them demurely, disappearing like the wind.

Zack wheeled her chair into the room, his dark eyes smiling, his lips crooked upward. His fingers grazed her shoulder. She trembled like a newborn foal.

Pulling up a chair directly in front of her, Zack folded his lithe frame into it, his knees touching hers.

Serena sucked in a deep breath but didn't move back. She liked touching him, even if only through his thick black chinos.

"Play something romantic, like the other night." Zack's eyes glistened blacker than a raven, deeper than a bottomless pool. Serena feared she would drown in them. He leaned forward, his finger drawing imaginary lines on her kneecap. She closed her eyes in ecstasy.

Why was he teasing her like this?

Was he the Thief of Hearts looking for another notch on his belt? Maybe he thought he could seduce both of them...and really clean house.

But when she opened her eyes, his probing gaze hypnotized her and she forgot he might be anything other than dreamy, dashing Zack Ace, Air Force pilot. Daredevil. Hero of her steamy dreams. Hero of her midnight interactive fantasies.

No one could fly so close to the heavens and not be an angel.

"Enchant me sweet siren," he murmured huskily. "Gaze into my eyes."

Cradling the guitar in her arms, she positioned her fingers on bars and clasped the complimentary tortoise shell pick the salesman had stuck in the strings. At first, she just picked a few notes getting the feel of the instrument, listening to its deep tones, then she sang softly, almost inaudibly, gazing deeply into black impassioned eyes. Eyes that probed her very soul.

Zack smiled dreamily, eliciting brush fires in her belly. Flustered, she missed a chord. To cover up, she kept playing, improvising to hide her error.

He didn't seem to notice her mistake. He nodded his head. "You have a beautiful voice. You should think about going professional."

Heat rose in Serena's cheeks but her voice grew stronger, more confident at his gentle urging. Closing her eyes, she lost herself in the music, pouring her heart into it. Without thought, she played the medleys she so enjoyed, the ones that had kept her company after Doug died and the ones she played after Zack signed off the Internet every evening, leaving her alone in her nighttime world with just the moon and her little animals for company.

Her music consoled her.

Right now, it moved her to the brink of delectable passion.

Seemingly only seconds later, light knocking brought her out of her trance. She opened her eyes slowly, dreamily, her arms trembling and fingers quivering.

"Time's up, sweet siren. That was beautiful. Do you want this one?" He asked, his deep voice sultry.

She nodded, smiling up at him, not trusting herself to speak.

He held out his hand and she put hers in it, marveling again that hers felt so small in his large palm. He wheeled her through the door.

"We'll take it," Zack informed the beaming salesman, reaching for his wallet.

"You're going to love her!" the young man enthused.

"I already do," Zack drawled sliding his glance to Serena, his expression inscrutable.

Serena lowered her eyes demurely, peeking at him through her lashes. She felt embarrassing stain creep into her cheeks.

"Do you need a case for that? We have a special this week."

"I have one at home." Serena declined, shaking her head, cutting him off. "It's not necessary."

"Show us the cases," Zack overrode her objections. "We have to carry it home safely, don't we?" he said logically.

"But you don't need to spend more money." Military captains couldn't make too much money. She didn't want him to spend it on her. His intentions were enough to warm her heart.

"I like to spoil beautiful ladies." Zack ended her objections, flipping open his wallet counting out several crisp bills to the ecstatic salesman who rang up the sale then placed the guitar in its new case reverently.

Serena glanced at the child's picture that faced her, wondering again who she belonged to. Zack's?

The young salesman handed the guitar case to Serena like a newborn babe in the delivery room.

She accepted it like a proud new mother, careful not to hurt it. She cradled it across her lap.

Zack's fingers closed around her elbow possessively. His thumb rubbed her soft skin.

She shivered deliciously.

"Serena Dawn!" a teary voice whispered behind her. "What are you doing here?"

Sucking in a deep breath, stunned, Serena spun in her chair, almost banging her new guitar into Doug's mother.

"Mrs. Jenkins!" Serena gasped, lifting her new guitar, cradling it to her heart. "I just got a new guitar."

Mrs. Jenkins, slim and trim but looking rough around the edges with red rimmed eyes and unruly brown hair tweaked heavily with gray, wiped several tears from her cheeks.

"A new guitar. Can I speak to you -- in private?" Mrs. Jenkins sniffed back a tear, her lips trembling.

Serena glanced up into Zack's eyes apologetically. "Do you mind? I'll be right with you."

He quirked a quizzical brow, shaking his head, standing tall beside her like a sturdy, proud oak tree. "You are the one for private conversations." He chuckled. "If you give me your keys, I'll lock the guitar in your truck."

She dug in her pocket and pulled out her key chain with a guitar imprinted with the name "Elvis" across it's neck -- a souvenir from a long ago trip to Graceland with Saundra and her parents. Dangling it over his outstretched hand, she dropped it into his palm. The keys jingled like Heavenly bells.

His long fingers closed over them tightly. Gently, he took the guitar case from her hands.

"Be careful with this one," she murmured.

"Don't you trust me? I'll guard it with my life." Zack whispered in her ear, his hot breath making her shiver. He turned on his heel, striding out of the store into the bright sunlight.

She hoped she could trust him implicitly. She wanted to. With the guitar and with everything.

Serena admired his retreat, admiring his well-sculpted rippling muscles under the tight chinos. She wondered if he knew how sexy he looked from the rear.

"Um hmm!" Mrs. Jenkins cleared her throat. "If this is a poor time, Serena, perhaps I can stop by your place later? I-I have something I n-need to discuss with you." She almost choked on her words.

Chagrined for making Doug's mother wait so long, Serena turned to her, squaring her shoulders, trying to get her courage up.

"What's wrong," Serena whispered, her compassion overriding her own feelings of inadequacy. Closing the small gap between them, Serena reached out and put a comforting hand over the woman's trembling one. "Did something happen? Do you need help?"

The young salesman hovered uncertainly by Serena's side. He shuffled his feet, his face pinched.

Turning to him, Serena asked, "Could you possibly bring a glass of water to us?"

"Certainly." He brightened a bit, probably thankful he could be of use while getting out of the line of fire.

"He's gone now," Serena said. "What is it?"

"I-I wanted to apologize to you for my childish behavior at Jewel's store a couple of weeks ago -- and at the church." Her tearful eyes widened, inconsolable sadness hidden in their depths. "And I was wondering why you're replacing the guitar my son bought you."

Serena's heart went out to the lady. Whereas Serena's heart had healed since Doug's death, albeit with a small scar or two, his mother's heart would always be shattered.

Serena sucked in a deep breath, closing her eyes. "The guitar Doug gave to me was broken last night." Guilt wrapped around her heart, still bruised whenever she thought of Doug, but a little less so every day since she'd met Zack. Although a small corner of her heart would always belong to Doug and the precious love they shared, Zack had stolen the rest of it and held a stronger grip upon it than Doug ever had. Zack was her soul mate, her heart's desire. "It was an accident," Serena assured Doug's mother.

Mrs. Jenkin's face turned darker gray. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. "I suppose nothing lasts forever." She expelled a deep sigh.

Serena put a hand on Mrs. Jenkin's arm. "It truly was an accident. It meant the world to me, just like Doug did."

The young sales clerk brought a small glass of water to Serena. He pursed his lips when he held it out to her.

"Thank you. We'll be fine," Serena assured him grateful for his concern.

He nodded his head, shuffling a discreet distance away.

Mrs. Jenkins searched her eyes, probing her soul. "I believe he meant a lot to you. I'm so sorry I acted the way I did," Mrs. Jenkins blurted out, swiping away errant tears with the back of her hand.

Serena held the water out to Mrs. Jenkins.

She took it, a tremulous smile playing around her lips.

Serena didn't know what to say. That's all right sounded so ineffectual. Nor was she sure she'd be speaking the truth. Instead, she bit her tongue and smiled.

Digging in her purse, Serena found a tattered tissue. It was clean so she passed it to Mrs. Jenkins, still silent.

"Thank you, my dear. You were always so polite, so well mannered. I was so happy when my Doug announced your engagement. Did you know that?"

Serena shook her head from side to side. She caught her reflection in the plate glass window. Her eyes opened wide and luminous. Her scar slashed her cheek, long and jagged. Self-conscious, Serena hung her head so that her heavy hair fell in front of it like a curtain.

Mrs. Jenkins sucked in a deep breath. She touched Serena's face with gentle fingers. "I never really did tell you how sorry I was for your loss and your pain Serena, did I?"

Surprised, Serena glanced up, locking gazes with Mrs. Jenkins. Unable to speak, Serena pursed her lips, staring at the poor woman.

"You were still in the hospital when we held Doug's funeral, yet you sent flowers and made a donation to our favorite charity. Your parents and Saundra came. I-I wanted to tell them how sorry I felt, how awful I felt that you were left bereft -- and so badly injured. B-but I couldn't find the words." A deep sigh escaped Mrs. Jenkins.

"I understand," Serena said softly, bringing her hand to Mrs. Jenkins, clasping it warmly. She gave it a little squeeze.

"Do you? I handled things so poorly, my dear. So poorly," Mrs. Jenkin's whispered.

"It's my fault Doug's dead. I can understand if you blamed me. I'm responsible." Serena closed her eyes.

"Is that what you thought all this time?" Mrs. Jenkins gasped, her voice growing stronger.

Serena shook her head up and down. She smiled sadly.

"My God, what have I done to you, my dear?" Mrs. Jenkins said. "I don't blame you for Doug's death," she said her voice strong and clear. "I never did."

"But, in Jewel's store, the church..." Serena splayed her hands in front of her at a loss for words.

"I do get upset when I see you, but not for that reason, my dear," Mrs. Jenkins admitted. She sipped water from the cup.

Serena tilted her head, her brows furrowing together. She wrung her hands together. "Then why?"

A fat tear fell down Mrs. Jenkin's cheek. She swiped it away angrily, smiling tremulously. "I am so sorry that you were hurt -- both the scar and losing my son. And I can't help thinking of my Douglas when I see you. But," she sighed, "Doug's not with us anymore and we've got to get on with our lives."

Serena felt embarrassing heat creep into her cheeks. She presumed Mrs. Jenkins referred to her newfound love for Zack.

"I must seem like a traitor..." Serena's voice trailed off.

"Not at all, my dear." Mrs. Jenkins fingered an expensive guitar next to her. Then she locked gazes with Serena. "Doug wouldn't want you to be unhappy. I don't either."

Catching Serena off guard, Mrs. Jenkins leaned forward and kissed her cheek with the scar. "You have your whole life ahead of you. I think he's getting impatient."

If only Mrs. Jenkins were right. How she wished with all her heart.

Rejoining Zack a moment later, she squinted her eyes until they adjusted to the afternoon sun. "I need to get a new pair of sunglasses while we're in town. Dillon sat on mine last week."

Zack lifted an eyebrow. "Is everything all right?" He inclined his head toward the music store.

Serena's lip quirked up on one side. "Everything's great. I feel much better, in fact." And she realized that spoke the complete truth. She felt liberated.

He put his hand on her shoulder. "Lead the way. Nice town you have here. It reminds me of home."

Acutely aware of Zack's slightest touch, shivers chased down her spine. She hadn't been this affected by Doug's kisses. Twinges of guilt assuaged her and she lowered her lashes to hide the expression in her eyes. She silently rolled the chair along the sidewalk.

"Strawberry Point?" she said perplexed. "It's nothing special." She shook her head, watching old Bill and Joe Bob play checkers across the street as they had for as long as she could recall. Bill leaned back in his chair tilting an old fashioned glass Coke bottle to his lips downing the caramel colored liquid. "One of these days, one of those old rickety chairs will break a leg, sending one of them sprawling on the sidewalk. I just hope they don't end up in the hospital," she whispered to Zack. "It's inevitable."

Zack chuckled. "You're wrong about Strawberry Point being a boring town. It's very special." He smiled jubilantly looking around at everything as if he was really interested.

"Come on." She looked around with jaded eyes. She'd have left long ago if not for her debilitating accident. She and Doug might be famous gospel singers by now. "What's so great about this old run of the mill, stuck in the mud sleepy town? Everyone's stuck in the 1950's."

To prove her point, a group of little boys wearing baseball caps backward, blowing huge pink bubbles, rounded the corner in front of them. Two skated on old wooden skateboards, three hopped on pogo sticks.

He chuckled.

She lifted a challenging eyebrow. "See what I mean? The only thing missing is Andy Griffith and Aunt Bea."

"I love it!" He enthused, positively beaming, his boots clicking loudly on the sidewalk.

"For real?" She stopped the chair and turned it, barring his path, challenging him.

Reaching behind her, he picked a fragrant snowball bloom off a tree and stuck it behind her ear.

She gazed at him speechless. She closed her eyes in ecstasy when his fingers trailed down her cheek.

"I couldn't be more serious. People I've met in the rest of the world spend fortunes trying to duplicate what you have right here." Zack tweaked her chin. "Paradise."

Serena looked around her, then turned a puzzled glance back to Zack. "They want to live in Mayberry, RFD?"

"Yep! Baseball, apple pie, Chevy trucks, Coca Cola and blue jeans. And Opie. Small town USA. There's no other place like it in the world!"

"You have to say that! They pay your salary."

"Do you think I'd put my life on the line for a second rate country? Believe me, sweetheart, you got paradise. People kill for this." His eyes looked suddenly bleak, haunted.

Serena touched his arm tentatively, concern welling inside her. "Did something happen? Why are you so sad suddenly?"

"Nothing personal. I've just seen a few small wars, a couple of holes in the wall. The children always get to me. Their eyes are so bleak, so sad, so wise." He stared into space. "Little children shouldn't be so wise. They shouldn't suffer so much." He inclined his head toward the boys jumping on pogo sticks. "They should be blowing bubbles and playing on skateboards and wearing baseball caps -- like those kids." His lips turned up wryly, the smile not reaching his eyes. "I like kids. I fight so that when I have my own, they'll never have to suffer that way."

Her stomach twisted. A huge knot clenched it.

"I must sound like such a jerk," she mumbled, turning away embarrassed, feeling his pain, even if only a fraction.

He turned her around, knelt by her side and took her chin in his firm fingers and turned her face up to his. "I wouldn't expect you to have seen what I have. In fact, I'm glad you haven't. No one should see it. No one should live that way."

"You're an amazing man, Captain Kane." His fingers burned her flesh. She curtsied as best she could in her chair, smiling again.

He smirked, laughter lighting his dark eyes. "Yeah, so my mother keeps telling me." He chuckled. "My commanding officer keeps telling me I'm a bast...Sorry. I almost forgot myself. I've been living with the guys for too long."

"I suppose that's a far different world," Serena speculated. "Do you mind if we stop in the five and dime? It's the closest thing we have to K-Mart. If you want the real thing, you have to go clear to the other side of Knobb's Corner, about 10 miles down the road."

"No problem. Maybe I can find a postcard to send the guys back on base," Zack drawled.

"This isn't Florida where there's postcards of girls on the beach. You'll be lucky if you can find one of the Fountain Square in Cincinnati." Serena smiled. "This is a small town remember? We don't even have a shopping mall."

"As long as it doesn't show snow, the guys will love it," he assured her.

Bells tinkled overhead when Zack held open the door for her. Serena glanced up, wondering if angels were close by. Zack towered over her, smiling down, his black gaze capturing hers.

Entranced, she couldn't look away, feeling like a statue.

Zack took control of her chair again, moving her forward. "Did you need anything besides sunglasses?"

For the life of her, she couldn't remember. She didn't think she needed anything. Being near Zack completely emptied her mind of everything except thoughts of him. She tried hard to focus her thoughts back to why she needed to stop here.

Gladys! She groaned inwardly. She'd forgotten about her and her butterfly frames. She grimaced, her heart dropping to her stomach. If Gladys worked today, tongues would buzz all over Strawberry Point. They probably already were. Good gossip was worth gold around these parts and Gladys usually knew a gold mine worth.

She really hated the gossip mill. Last year they'd practically had Saundra married off to her principal because the man had merely smiled at her at the first football game of the season. Saundra had been steaming. The other teachers hadn't let her hear the end of their jokes until well past Christmas.

"Go get your postcard and I'll meet up with you," Serena suggested shooing him off. Maybe she could check out by herself so Gladys wouldn't notice they were together.

Who was she fooling? If Gladys saw her within one hundred miles of a man, tongues would wag. Her parents would get a complete dossier as soon as they returned from Europe. Why did small town people love to gossip? She just didn't know if she was up to this.

"Are you in a hurry?" Zack asked. "Let me pick out your glasses and you can pick out my postcard." To end the discussion, he propelled her forward.

"No. No hurry," Serena mumbled, defeated. Fate plotted against her.

Zack insisted on paying for her sunglasses as well as the funny, Wish You Were Here postcard he found of a farm girl dressed in old overalls in a cornfield. Serena groaned when she saw the corny card. Had she really expected much better? Not everyone zipped along at light speed over cyberspace.

"Hello there, young man!" Gladys greeted, ignoring Serena. Thank heaven for small favors even if she was a little piqued by the snub. Maybe she nursed a grudge about the chocolate incident?

"Hello." Zack smiled.

"When are your parents due back from Europe? Have you and your sister heard from them lately?" Gladys pushed the slippery glasses up her nose. Her eyes looked huge behind the coke bottle lenses. She must have gotten a new, higher prescription.

"I think they're in Italy by now. Mom really wanted to see the Vatican," Serena said. "Thousands of years of Christianity exemplified."

Digging in her purse, Serena palmed some loose change, enough for a paper. Handing them to Zack, she suggested, "How about you take this out to the truck? I'll be right behind you. You still have the keys."

"It was nice seeing you again." He nodded to Gladys politely. As easily as he would have lifted a feather, he lifted the heavy dog food over his shoulder. He left the glasses on the counter. Serena picked them up, sliding them on her nose.

"How's your young man?" Gladys busied herself ringing up the purchase. Serena clutched the bag tightly, rubbing the cash receipt with her thumb.

"Captain Kane?" Serena played dumb, hoping she wore an innocent expression thankful the glasses covered her expressive eyes. "He's not my young man," she said, hoping she lied. She ruined the effect by biting her lower lip, nervously. "Just a family friend."

Gladys smiled noncommittally but Serena knew her keen mind worked furiously.

"Will he be staying with you long?" Gladys asked

Serena shook her head, unable to speak. Finally, she found her voice. "No. No, no too long," she clutched for answers, feeling dumber than dumb. She ignored the other questions. "He's just...passing through...you know...on leave..."

Trying to make a good escape before Gladys pinned her down more, Serena backed her chair toward the door, not looking behind her.

Bells tinkled overhead. More angels, she mused. She hoped one was her fairy godmother.

Strong hands grabbed her shoulders from behind. Zack must have come back for her. She smiled.

"What's going on, little sister?" Dillon's voice whispered deadly quiet in her ear.

Serena froze, her smiled dying on her lips. Her gaze flew to Gladys who leaned over the counter, staring unabashed at the spectacle they made.

"N-nothing's g-going on," she lied, afraid she was getting too used to avoiding the truth these days.

One of these days, there was going to be a bolt of lightning with her name on it. Or a movie of the week.

Dillon twisted her around to face him. He lifted the glasses from her face so that she had to look him in the eye.

"If that guy's a party consultant, my Aunt Cleo's a nun. And Uncle Harry ain't gonna like that!"

"I know you don't think I'm the brightest guy around, but I know the three of you are scheming something and you're up to something. Are you and Saundra in danger? Is that guy snaking me?"

"Snaking you?" Serena asked perplexed.

"Snaking me," he repeated irritated. "Moving in on my claim," he restated his words.

Serena looked at him blankly.

Irritated, Dillon almost shook her, then let go, obviously angry at himself for losing control. "Is that dude trying to take my girl from me?"

Now who was the rocket scientist? "Zack?" Serena shook her head. "Of course not. I swear to you, he's a high-priced party consultant, that's all. "He felt guilty my guitar got broken last night so he bought me a new one."

"I know he's no party consultant. If you won't talk, I'll just have to figure it out!" he threatened, turning so swiftly he took her breath away. "Tell your sister I'll be by wanting some straight answers!" he threw over his shoulder. He slammed the door behind him stomping down the street.

Serena peeked out the window, watching him stalk away. His every step oozed extreme anger.

Oh God! What had she done now? Blown Saundra's romance?

Why was the truth so hard to tell?

Had she gotten so caught up in lies she couldn't remember how to tell the truth anymore? Maybe she didn't even know what it was anymore.

Bells tinkled again. Looking up, she gazed into Zack's troubled gaze.

"What was he saying to you?" Zack demanded, his stance that of a grizzly bear ready to pounce.

Not again! Her nerves couldn't take anymore.

"Nothing much," she lied. She could feel eyes boring into her back. Gladys must be getting an earful, at least an eyeful! She'd be lucky if she wasn't splashed all over tomorrow's front page of the Strawberry Point Review!

"What is he to you, anyway?" Zack asked.

"Nothing." She glanced over her shoulder, trembling.

Gladys clutched a feather duster, quickly pretended to dust the counter, acting like they weren't even there.

Zack glanced at Gladys and scowled. "Let's go. I have to get back." When the five and dime's door had firmly shut behind them, Zack pushed her chair a little faster than normal. His anger oozed around her.

"What's wrong? Did I do something?" She recounted the events of the past few moments and the only possible thing she could think of was Dillon. Dillon and Zack didn't seem to like each other. Maybe he wasn't angry with her at all.

"Shouldn't you get back so you can eat some lunch so you can get your afternoon nap on time for once? You look tired."

"I am a little." Now that he said it, she couldn't prevent a yawn.

***

Saundra nudged Serena. "Hear that?"

"Hear what?" Serena looked askance at her crazy sister.

"He's in the shower. Don't you hear the water? Now's your chance if you want it."

"Now? He'll catch us!" Serena's heart pounded frantically. "I can't!" Serena paused, listening. Steady splashing like a waterfall drifted to her faintly.

"Now. He's in the shower. Look in his pants, in his wallet for his military I.D. His driver's license. What do you think?" Saundra's delicate brows lifted a fraction of an inch as she tossed her loose hair behind her shoulders.

"Do you think he'll carry an I.D. that says he's the Thief of Hearts?" If Serena's voice grew any drier it'd turn to dust.

"Had you thought that he might not have military I.D. That his name may not be Captain Zachary Kane? That he might have a weapon?"

The blood drained from Serena's face and her blood went cold. "No. That hadn't occurred to me."

"He won't be in there forever. If you're going to do it, you'd better go now." Saundra waved her on, no nonsense.

Her pulse racing, Serena's palms felt clammy, and her hands shook. She didn't like this one bit.

Water still vibrated the walls. Steam seeped under the bathroom door like a spirit.

Serena eyed Zack's bags dubiously. She'd never invaded anyone's privacy before and it didn't feel right now. In fact, she felt downright sick to her stomach!

She acted like the thief!

Still, Saundra made sense. They had to know if Zack was on the level.

Snooping around, Serena searched for Zack's slacks where she presumed to find his wallet...and his identification.

Bending over his duffle bag, Serena looked around, her eyes narrowed. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a thin black leather wallet with Air Force insignia etched on it, lying on the nightstand.

Her fingers itching, her mind in a turmoil, Serena sucked in a deep breath, closed her eyes and screwed up her flailing courage.

She opened her eyes, fixating on the wallet. Could she forgive herself if she went through with this? If she snooped through Zack's things like a common criminal?

If she didn't, and he wasn't really Zack or a Captain in the Air Force, she and Saundra could be in serious trouble out here alone in the country with a handsome thief -- or worse.

She had to peek. She had to know.

Grabbing the wallet, she sat up straight. She opened it carefully, looking through the contents, pausing at pictures. Who were all those cute kids? Zack's? Her heart tumbled in her throat.

God but he carried a bundle of cash. Hadn't he ever heard of an ATM card or American Express?

Cash couldn't be traced -- her mind taunted her. Cash was completely anonymous. But did Iceland have ATM's? Did they accept VISA?

Where was his license? His military I.D.?

Sifting through more pictures and credit cards, she finally found a green and white military I.D. card. Serena took it out, turned it over in her hands, studying it.

The picture was Zack's. The name read Zachary Elias Kane. Rank: Captain.

Suddenly, the door knob rattled and the world paused on the brink of explosion. Startled, she dropped the wallet and the contents spilled over the floor around her.

Serena's gaze flew to the bathroom door. Great! She hadn't even noticed the water had turned off so intense was she on snooping through his personal things and wondering whose kids were depicted in his wallet.

Sunstars glinted on the twisting gold knob, blinding her, mesmerizing her as the door opened. Zack's figure was silhouetted by the harsh light at first, then he entered the room, his gaze riveted to her.

"What are you doing?" Zack leaned insolently back against the door frame between the bedroom and bathroom, his spinal cord steel straight as she only dreamed hers could be, his eyes mere slits. Water dripped from his hair made several shades darker than its normal sandy color.

She was fascinated by the light play on one particular droplet that made it gleam pearlescent as it traced a path from his shoulder to his chest and down his hard, flat stomach before it was absorbed by the towel tied around his waste. Acutely aware that the evidence of his wallet lie all around her and that he watched her every movement she averted her eyes, embarrassed by where her gaze had been led as well as her own covert activities.

Her tongue peeked out her suddenly dry as dust lips, wetting them. She tried to answer him but her throat was even drier than her lips and she croaked instead. Only her -- Miss Poise and Grace. After several moments of being caught with her hands caught down his pants -- literally -- she inhaled deeply and forced words out as she folded his slacks, slid them into his duffle bag and patted them. Splaying her hands over her lap she shrugged, not making any brownie points in the grace area. "I was checking your military ID."

He folded his arms across his chest, stretching muscles that fascinated and excited her. Even this slight movement jiggled his towel and her heart fluttered for a second when she thought the precarious knot would slip loose.

"Do you doubt my identity? Do you think I'm lying about who I am?" A mirthless chuckle burst from his lips a moment later. "I can assure you sweetheart, that if there's a deception going on here, I'm not the one perpetrating it."

Every muscle froze. Every nerve ending screamed. He knew! He had to know.

Her eyes felt as if they enveloped her entire facial surface they were so wide they ached. The muscles in her jaw worked several moments before any sound matched up. "Wh-what do you mean?" She tried to bluff her way out of this situation but she'd never been good at poker. She'd been downright lousy in fact. "I was looking for dirty laundry." She pointed to his wallet and its contents dumped all over the floor. "That fell out. I was just trying to pick it up, but..." She looked at her useless legs helplessly, pursing her lips.

Shaking his head, storm clouds brewing in his darkened eyes, he sauntered over to his wallet, bent nonchalantly and picked it up. The towel opened, showing a long expanse of sinewy, hairy legs that stopped her heart dead. He tossed the wallet on her lap before she gleaned his intentions, making her jerk backwards. The chair groaned and rolled a good inch before her hands flew to the wheels to stop the backwards motion. "You want my name, rank, and serial number?" He proceeded to quote it verbatim to her horror. "What else do you want to know?" Looming over her, hands on his hips, he was quite intimidating at such a disparity in height, especially when he spoke in such deadly quiet tones.

"You know I'm divorced. The kids in the wallet are my sisters kids -- my niece and nephew. I don't have any children. I've never been arrested. I'm a hard worker. I don't use illegal substances. I'm not rich but I'm not poor. And I'm in good health. Did I leave anything out?"

She couldn't very well ask him if he were the Thief of Hearts, could she? But she hesitated too long or her eyes flickered away from his too fast.

"You don't trust me, do you Serena."

She stopped breathing and the blood froze in her veins. They felt about to implode. A firing squad would be friendlier, easier to talk to than Zack right now. "Wh-why do you call me that?"

"I'm only calling you by your name. The question is, why have you been lying to me?"

His state of undress really bothered her. So did the clean, soapy smell of him so close. Her head spun making rational thought impossible. There was no way she could keep her thoughts let alone her senses straight with him like this and she needed her wits about her. "Would you mind getting dressed and then we'll talk?"

He eyed her suspiciously. "You won't run off on me?" He winced when he caught his faux pas. "I didn't mean it like it sounded."

She tossed him a sympathetic smile although she'd heard hundreds of faux pas, each wounding her heart. But it was getting tough from all the scar tissue that must cover it. "I know what you meant. I'll wait."

He hesitated as if he didn't believe her. She knew she deserved his mistrust for lying to him before.

Almost instantly she regretted her promise not to leave. She dreaded what was coming, what she'd hoped would never materialize. But where could she go? Or what good would it do?

Zack deserved the truth. She wondered how long he'd known about her deception? Why hadn't he said anything until now? She worried her lower lip with her teeth and smoothed imaginary wrinkles from her slacks.

Too soon her time was up. Clad in soft faded denims, he jabbed at the tails of his black t-shirt tucking it smartly under the waistband. He'd slicked his hair back with a comb, but an unruly lock fell across his forehead which he shoved back. Accusing eyes roamed over her and she tilted her chin high as she searched for any trace of disgust or pity.

Fury scorched her, and there was something else she couldn't fathom, something that kept her gaze riveted on him. But it wasn't pity or revulsion, the two kinds of looks that had sent her into self-imposed exile.

"Why'd I lie? Is that what you want to know?" Caustic eyes glanced down at her legs dangling limply. Her fingers fluttered to her scar, tracing it as she was wont to do out of nervous habit. But this time, she was aware of her actions. She exaggerated them.

He propped himself against the door to the hallway, his thumbs hooked in empty belt loops. Bare feet peeked out from beneath the rolled up jeans. Dark blonde hair curled on his toes.

"Isn't it obvious?" A small snort escaped her lips, but he didn't help her out by saying anything. He just watched and waited, his eyes even more narrowed.

"What you see is what you get. No one would be interested in me." Her voice deepened and lowered. "I can't walk and I may never walk again. And even if by some miracle I could..." she paused, treating him to a full, unhindered view of her marred cheek, pale and puckered around the mangled flesh. Twisting her neck, she clasped her hair at the nape with one hand while the other stroked the mutilated skin. "Who would want a hideous monster like me?"

Those words had been festering in her so long, they overflowed with venom. Venom and rage against God for letting this happen to her. Against Doug for dying. Against herself for surviving but merely existing for the past two years in this broken shell of a body since the accident. She hadn't come back to life until Zack had entered her life and she'd been too terrified to reveal her real self.

"Don't you think I deserve some credit? Do you think I'm so shallow I fall in love based on only what a woman looks like?" He curled his leg at the knee and pushed off from the door with his foot. In three strides, he was by her side, his hand cupping her chin as he examined her damaged flesh.

"But -- you asked for my picture..."

"Sure. I was curious. I wanted to visualize you as you sang to me..."

His words heaped shame upon her already large mountain of guilt. Had she not given him enough credit? "I didn't think we'd ever meet face to face, that you'd ever find out."

In a tightly leashed voice, Zack asked, "And you think that makes everything okay?"

She shook her head and blinked back sudden scalding tears. "N-no. I know that's no excuse. I was just scared of losing you. Th-then you showed up without warning and I was so ashamed..."

"Ashamed?"

"Of my appearance. Of my disability. But mostly of lying to you all that time. I couldn't stand the thought of how you'd hate me, how you'd look at me when you found out who I was." Dragging a huge cleansing breath into her lungs, she searched his eyes. To her dismay, she found confusion and pain. "Do you hate me?"

He rose to his full height, blocking part of the sun's rays falling across the carpet. Mites sparkled in the rays on all sides of him. "Hate you? No."

Her heart danced a little jig of joy and her lungs relaxed a fraction.

"But I don't know you like I thought I did either. I don't trust you to tell me the truth." Turning his back on her, he paced in front of her, raking unsteady fingers through his hair. "I thought if I was patient with you, if I was kind and caring, you'd open up to me like you did online. Instead you kept weaving your web of deceit around me until I barely know who I am, much less who you are."

His words started clicking together, answering some questions, generating others. She moved her chair forward and touched the back of his hand.

He flinched as if stabbed and she withdrew, hope shriveling inside her. "Do you mean my being crippled doesn't bother you? My scar doesn't matter?"

He gazed down at her for a long time before speaking, mesmerizing her with his masculine beauty. "None of that matters to me. I loved you. Your heart. Your soul. Your humor. Your intelligence. Your sweetness..."

"Loved?" She grabbed a hold of that deadly past tense verb and shuddered when she turned ice cold.

He heaved a huge sigh and the energy seemed to drain out of him. "How can there be love without trust?"

Bile rose in her throat. Saundra had been right. She should've been honest from the beginning or if not from the beginning, at least from the time he'd shown up on her doorstep.

Flashbacks of his tenderness and his caring flooded in on her. The times he'd carried her so gently. The way he'd spoken to her as if she were a normal person. His teasing. "I was a fool," she muttered more to herself than to him, but he lifted his head, his gaze piercing her. "Can you forgive me?"

Muscles worked in his jaws and his throat long before he spoke. "I've been trying. "I've been waiting for you to come to me and tell me the truth. But you didn't until you had no choice, just like Carolyn..." His gaze shifted so that he stared off into the distance, as if he saw something more than the blinding sunlight streaming in through the window.

"Like your ex-wife?" The way he uttered her name, full of depth, brimming with emotion scared her. She hadn't been able to hear that tremor in his voice over the Internet, or see the flood of pain in his eyes at mention of her name. She must've been very important to him. He must've loved her very much. How could she compete with that even if she were whole and gorgeous as her sister? Her ears straining to catch every syllable.

"I never told you the whole story." Each word was as a knife in her heart, but she must be a masochist as she listened with dread fascination.

"What happened?" He sounded so bitter, so sad. Was he not over her? That possibility had never once occurred to her until now.

"I had to spend a lot of time away from home once I joined the Air Force. First OTS..."

"What's that?" She scrunched her nose, unfamiliar with all his military terms.

"Officer training school. Then there was the flight academy. And then several long term TDY's..."

When she opened her mouth to ask what a TDY was, he said, "Temporary duty assignments. We get temporarily assigned to different bases for weeks, even months at a time." His jaw clenched and then he punched his fist into the palm of his other hand. "She got lonely and tired of waiting for me. She met someone else."

"I'm so sorry, Zack I..."

He didn't seem to hear her. "She was going to have a baby. I thought I was going to be a father." His lips twitched into a self-deprecating smirk. "Then she dropped the bomb. It wasn't my child. The baby belonged to this guy she'd been seeing while I was off in Okinawa." His complexion turned gray and patchy now, his eyes glazed and cloudy. His pain overwhelmed her and she had to brush away pesky tears with the backs of her hands.

"I had no idea. You never said a word."

His gaze focused on her then, as if he only just remembered she was still there. "Yeah, well, I don't like to advertise I was cuckolded." His glare burned through her as if he were telling her she'd cuckolded him, too.

Her breath scorched her throat when her muscles constricted. Had her inability to tell the truth really hurt him so badly? Had he cared that deeply that she could mortally wound him? As he was mortally wounding her? "Won't you even try to forgive me?"

Shutters clamped over the pain in his eyes. His expression became stony.

"I'm doing my best, but I can't forget how you didn't trust me. How you were willing to trick me and probably let me leave without ever telling me the truth -- as if we meant nothing to each other."

Blinking back stinging tears, she realized her deadly mistakes, much too late if his stony expression was anything to go by. She couldn't honestly refute his allegations. Saundra had warned her more than once to be upfront and honest. But she'd been waging internal war. She'd yearned to fling herself into Zack's arms hoping he'd love her just the way she was, yet she was scared to death he'd reject her, or worse -- pity her. She couldn't stand pity, as if she had no power, no mind, no worth left to her. Fighting back the traitorous tears, gathering courage, she asked, "So where does that leave us?" She did her best to erect a steel wall around her heart to deflect the arrows in case he said nowhere. Still, she hoped and prayed he'd give them second chance.

After a long brooding silence in which he seemed to stare straight into her soul making her squirm and turning her blood to molten lava, he said on a long drawn out shudder, "I honestly don't know. I need time to think, to regroup."

Fair enough. That was better than nothing. At least he hadn't said he was leaving and never coming back. "We should talk about this."

Tilting his head so that his chin was parallel with the floor, he closed his eyes. His now dry bangs flopped back over his ears. "That's what I have to think about. I don't even know if I want to talk this out. Can I trust anything you say?"

She closed her eyes on his image wishing it were as easy to close out the pain. But the pain clawed at her like a rip current, dragging her under, drowning her. If only she could find a way to walk parallel to shore to get out of its deadly grip. But she couldn't walk any better figuratively than literally. "I was scared..."

"And is that your M.O. everytime you get scared?" He shook his head slowly. "I promised myself I'd never get involved with another lying, cheating woman after Carolynn..."

Being compared to his ex-wife was like being slapped in the face. The insult stung. "I'm not your ex-wife."

"What about Rebel without a cause?" Accusations blazed in his eyes and she wondered if he was really looking at her or superimposing Carolynn's face over hers, transferring Carolynn's sins to her?

Surprise jolted her. "Dillon?" What did he have to do with anything? Her fingers wrapped around the arms of her chair, squeezing so tightly her knuckles whitened.

"The boyfriend?" When she gave him a blank stare, he looked down his long nose at her, his nostrils flaring. "The one you cheated on me with?"

Heat suffused her cheeks as her guilt meter rocketed off the scale. Averting her gaze from his, she mumbled, "He's Saundra's boyfriend, not mine. I pretended he was my boyfriend to throw you off track..."

"More lies?" Scowling darkly, lightning flashed in his eyes. "I thought you were an adult, Serena, not a little girl. I don't know if I can do this. I have to get out of here." He strode toward the hall, eager for escape.

Panic assailed her. If he walked out that door now, he'd probably never cross that threshold again. Everything they had, everything the future promised, would be lost. "Stay." She grabbed for his hand, but he swerved out of her reach. "You were waiting for me to admit my true identity, to talk openly with you. I don't understand why you were willing to listen before if you're not willing to forgive, to work this out now?" She drew in a long, deep breath and held it. He wasn't making sense. What was it he wanted from her? If only he'd tell her she'd have a prayer of making things right.

He paused, looking over his shoulder at her. "You didn't tell the truth. And I caught you ransacking my duffel bag and wallet."

Ouch! He didn't have a high opinion of her and she couldn't blame him. Would she have a high opinion of him if the tables were reversed? What else could she say? He wasn't listening. Defeated, at least for the moment, she smiled sadly. "Where are you going?"

"I don't know. Just out of here -- somewhere I can be alone. I need to think." He tugged on his boots then pivoted on his heel and strode purposely down the hall till he was out of sight.

***

Seething, feeling betrayed all over again, Zack stormed out of the house, not knowing where he was going. It wasn't as if he had wheels, or as if he were in town where he could catch a bus or a taxi. He just couldn't stay with Serena one more moment. He'd hoped against hope she'd tell him who she was before things had come to a head like this. She'd only confessed her true identity after he'd admitted first that he knew who she was. He'd been sure she'd trust him enough, care for him enough to be honest with him even if she was scared.

But he'd been wrong again. Just like he'd been wrong about Carolyn. Why did he fall in love with women who lied as easily as they breathed?

Barreling ahead, intent on his own thoughts, he was surprised when he ran into Dillon heading into the house. The man checked him out with narrowed eyes. "You still hanging around Saundra?"

Zack owed this man an apology and he wasn't too big to admit it. He'd been a victim of the sisters Gregory, too. Only he didn't know it yet. He stuck out his hand to shake Dillon's in a gesture of friendship and was met with a suspicious stare. The afternoon sun glinted off his Air Force academy ring. "Depends on which sister you're calling Saundra."

Dillon cocked his head, his features twisting in confusion. "Do you care to fill me in on all their crazy talk and goings on lately? Or why you're really here?"

"I came to see Serena."

Dillon blinked and put his shades on to block out the killer summer sun. He finally took Zack's extended hand and shook it. Pulling his comb from his pocket, he styled his hair back. "I take it you're not one of her clients or you wouldn't have stayed the night or be hanging around Saundra instead?"

"Funny thing is, Serena sent me a picture of herself that has blonde hair and blue eyes." He didn't like the sarcastic note in his voice, but it slipped out before he could stop it. He'd discovered that reverting to sarcasm was one of his defense mechanisms.

Dillon coughed, putting his hand to his mouth. Spluttering, he said, "The blonde is Saundra. Serena has dark hair and she's in the wheelchair."

Zack dug a hole in the dirt road with the toe of his boot before letting his lips curl into a smile. "Well, they thought it would be cute to tell me otherwise. It turns out Serena didn't want to see me so she dreamed up this elaborate charade and roped her sister into switching places to deceive me."

Dillon let out a long, low whistle. "That's rough man." His brows drew together. "Why'd they want to do that? What's little sister to you?"

Embarrassed, it was Zack's turn to cough. In a low voice, he said, "We met online."

When Dillon didn't move or respond for several moments, Zack wondered if he was stunned or hard of hearing or if the revelation had turned him to stone. With the shades covering the man's eyes, he couldn't tell what he was thinking. Finally a mirthless laugh escaped his lips and he lowered his glasses enough to peer over them at him, revealing an incredulous gleam in his eyes. "We should've known, the way she was glued to that computer all the time." He shook his head. "So little sister was having an affair." It wasn't a question. "Let me guess...she was afraid to face you?"

Zack nodded, his lips twisting into a wry grimace. He didn't like that look of pity he spied in the other man's eyes. He suspected Serena would appreciate it even less. "They played me for a fool. You, too, man." Looking over his shoulder, he peered up at Serena's room wondering if she was watching them, telling himself he didn't care if she was or not. He couldn't tell the way the sun's glare bounced off the glass. "They're pure trouble. I'm getting out of here."

"It's a long walk into town," Dillon drawled in his flat Ohio accent. "Plus I'd like to explain a few things to you about little sister. She's had a rough time..."

Zack clapped the other man on the shoulder. "The scars run deep. I don't know that I'm the one that can heal them." As soon as the words spilled off his lips he felt like a heel, not knowing why, as truer words hadn't been spoken. He didn't have the emotional equipment to deal with someone who lied for any reason, not even to make themselves feel better. He was angry at God for letting her be hurt as she had been and he wanted to help her, but he couldn't help someone who didn't accept his help. If only she'd met him half way, if only she'd trusted him enough to tell him the truth of her identity before he confronted her with it, they would have had a chance. But she hadn't and she probably never would have. "I need some breathing space."

Dillon looked around at the obviously empty drive way and then dug in his pocket, removing his keys. Tossing them to Zack, he smiled. "Know how to ride a cycle?"

"Yeah. Got one of my own in cold storage." Did he ever miss riding! As soon as he got stateside again, he'd go riding every weekend like he used to. It was second best only to soaring through the heavens at mach three.

"Wanna take mine for a spin? Saundra and I are going to have a long heart to heart."

"I owe you. Is a couple of hours too long?" Zack tossed the keys in his hand, grinning for the first time in what seemed an eternity. Donning Dillon's black motorcycle helmet, he straddled the seat. He started the engine, waved to his host, and zoomed into the setting sun.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

After aimlessly zooming around the countryside for hours, letting the wind cool his temper, he realized he was ravenous...and not quite ready to leave Strawberry Point. He had unfinished business.

Although he seethed with fury and was all jumbled up inside, he couldn't get Serena's sensual eyes out of his mind much as he wanted to. He couldn't get her music out of his soul. The wind whispered it in his ears. The birds chirped it in harmony. Even the brook babbled it.

He was about to go crazy.

He cut the engine in front of the local malt shop and strode inside. His sights zeroed in on the fifties style decor. Weary, he just wanted to stop running from demons: real and imagined.

He slid into the first empty booth and stretched his legs out in front of him. He didn't object when the old woman who was working the lunch counter plopped a steaming coffee in front of him without a word and returned to her duties.

His finger traced the rim of his coffee cup absently. He stared into the black brew as if it were a crystal ball divulging his future.

"You look like a man with a problem too big to handle alone," an old black woman said, her warm warbly voice washing over him, seeping into his bones.

He glanced up, into the kindest pair of eyes he'd ever seen. Trying to smile but only managing a wry smirk, he chuckled mirthlessly. "Is it that obvious?"

"Everyone calls me Jewel." She eased a cup on the table across from him, and he watched the black liquid tossing and churning like the North Sea during a summer storm. Sliding her bulky frame onto the red vinyl bench, her gnarled fingers curled around the handle of her coffee cup, raising it to her lips. She slurped some of the steaming brew, smiling warmly at him over the rim. "I thought I knew everyone around these parts, but I don't remember you, Son."

Zack smiled wryly. "I'm just a stranger around these parts. I come from far, far away. You couldn't know me. I don't know myself anymore."

Jewel's sloe brown eyes twinkled kindly. "What makes you think that?"

He leaned back against the vinyl seat, stretching his legs before him. He clasped his hands behind his head letting out a long sigh. "It's a long story."

"Folks around these parts tell me I'm a good listener. You're the only one here. Would you care to run your troubles past old Jewel?" She took another sip of her coffee, her manner serene and trustworthy. Her fingers clutching the cup almost matched the warm color of the liquid. Crows feet at the corners of her eyes crinkled when she spoke. "It usually helps to talk to someone."

He stared at the kind woman for a moment, assessing her. Blue veins swelled in her gnarled hands. Silvery hair crinkled under her food worker's net. Grease stains covered her red and white apron. She didn't look nosy, just friendly and concerned.

"What the hell!" he muttered. "Maybe it will help. I'm probably leaving tomorrow anyway." Unless he decided just to go ahead and leave tonight. What was the use in staying even one more night? There was nothing here for him.

"Hell ain't got nothing to do with this place, son." Jewel chuckled, smiling. "The good Lord's in charge here. I'm just His humble servant."

He raked his fingers through his hair as heat rose in his cheeks. "I'm sorry. I forgot my manners." He lifted his eyes, staring at the ceiling.

"When a man looks the way you do, it's usually his heart ailing him. Is some young lady leading you a merry chase?"

"I wish that's all it were." Zack sighed deeply, locking gazes with the understanding brown eyes across the table. "She's been lying through her sweet little teeth since I met her. She and her sister, not only had me running around in circles, but some other poor slob as well. They had me so twisted up in knots, I wasn't sure who was who."

"I know everybody around these parts. Do you care to tell me who's got you this upset? Mayhap I can help."

If only she could. But no one could help with this. Not unless they could turn back time. "No one can help."

"What's their names? I promise your secret won't leave these old lips."

"Serena and Saundra Gregory. They lied about everything. That's quite an act they have."

"My Serena's lying?" She shot upright, a frown tugging her lips down. "I never knew that child to have a deceiving bone in her body." Jewel stared at him with troubled eyes.

"Believe me. She has several," Zack grumbled. "I was married to a lying woman that cheated on me and I can't live that way." His heart twisted, incredible pain slashing through him. "I swore if I ever married again, it would be to a woman who'd never, ever lie to me."

"There's lies, and then there's lies." Jewel pursed her lips, peering at him. Traces of brick red lipstick lingered around the edges of her lips but the pulp had long worn off, probably the first time she'd leaned over that hot grill behind the soda fountain. They were discolored, even patchy looking. "You've got to figure out which category these fall into."

Zack leaned forward perplexed, his elbows pressing into the formica table top, as the edge of the table pressed into his stomach. "I don't follow you. A lie's a lie."

"I've lived long enough to know nothing's pure black or pure white. And what one person sees one way, another sees totally different." Jewel stirred her coffee with her spoon then tapped the rim of her mug, the clanging ruffling his raw nerves. "Sometimes, there's mitigating circumstances. Sometimes, it's not really a lie -- but a misunderstanding..."

He interrupted, "This was a lie all right. She told me so many lies, she ought to win an Emmy."

"I wasn't privy to your private business. But I've known the Gregory's since Saundra's head stopped at my knees." Jewel smiled into his eyes gently. "Mayhap I can shed more light on your situation if you'd like to tell me about it? Of course, you can tell old Jewel to mind her own business..."

He sighed deeply. "What can it hurt?" he muttered. Leaning forward in his stool, he took a fortifying gulp of the black coffee that had turned to ice, something he knew too well. "Since I met her, she pretended to be her sister. She sent me her sister's picture. They switched places on me. She had me believing Trouble without a Cause was her boyfriend."

"This isn't making no sense. Serena's as honest as they come." Her eyebrows scrunched together and her face puckered in a frown.

"Not the Serena I know." He peered more closely into the old woman's eyes, noticed her gnarled hands clutch the coffee cup tighter. "I don't think she knows what the truth is."

"That child has a heart of pure gold. I don't want to see her hurt again," Jewel stated emphatically, practically warning him off. "She's known too much heartache for someone so young."

"Me hurt her?" He chuckled reliving the pain she'd inflicted on him. "That's a laugh!"

"It is now, is it?" Jewel studied him silently for a few moments. "She lied to you? I didn't think she knew how."

"She must've taken a crash course. She did a number on me!"

"Are you sure you mean Serena? Not Saundra?" Jewel asked.

Zack laughed. "You hit the problem on the head. They tried to switch places on me, told me Serena was Saundra and Saundra was Serena. Those two still have my head spinning."

"That doesn't sound like Miss Serena." Jewel shook her head, her eyes troubled. "Do you know that Serena lost her fiancé in a tragic automobile accident that almost killed her, too? When that child awoke in the hospital after being in a coma for three months, her fiancé had already been buried and her parents had set up her own funeral arrangements."

His jaw dropped. He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I didn't know it was that bad."

"You've seen her scar? And she's confined in that chair and may possibly never walk again."

He nodded. "She said she was scared I wouldn't love her once I saw her scar or found out she was crippled."

Jewel pursed her lips, shaking her head. "I'm not worried about the scar on her face or even her legs. It's her heart that has me worried. But I know," Jewel paused, sipping her coffee, "she has some misguided notion that these things make her unlovable and unworthy of love."

He stared into his coffee. "She wanted to explain to me, but I wouldn't let her."

"She didn't mean no harm to you, child," Jewel murmured gently. "She was scared, scared you'd reject her. But I don't understand something. How did you fall in love with her and she with you if you don't know what she looks like?"

"We met on the Internet." Zack kept his voice low to prevent others from listening. "We've been corresponding for months. I fell in love with her. It's hard to believe I could fall in love with someone I never met."

Jewel laughed heartily. "You spotted a heart of gold when you saw it. You fell in love with the real Serena. Have you told her that?"

He had the grace to blush. "I was too busy not listening to her."

"Tsk, tsk. You young ones are always confusing the important with the unimportant. When you get to be old Jewel's age, you see things more clearly. The Lord gives you clearer perspective." She laid her gnarled hands on the table.

"So tell me, Jewel." Zack clasped her hands in his. "What's important here? What should I do?"

"What does your heart tell you to do?" she asked, answering a question with a question. Even Heaven's angels practiced psychiatry it seemed.

"What do you mean?" Zack asked, perplexed. He stared into eyes almost as wise as Solomon's.

"Does she make your heart sing? Are you happy when you're with her? Do you want to marry her?"

"Yes," he blurted out without thinking.

"Well, that's your answer!" She squeezed his hand. "What are you waiting for?"

Zack just stared at her, scared to death himself. Was the old woman right? Were Serena's lies excusable? Did he want to chance marriage again?

"Time's precious. Don't waste it, child. Take it from old Jewel, we get precious little time here, don't waste it playing games. Go make that girl listen to some sense. Tell her Jewel sent you. She'll listen to me!"

"Why's that? If you don't mind me asking."

"She trusts me. And I know how precious time is." She sighed deeply, a tear trickling down her withered cheek. "Because I'm dying of cancer. Doc Boyd says I maybe have six months left -- if the good Lord doesn't call me home sooner that is."

"Are you ready, Jewel?" Zack observed her closely, putting his hand over hers. He felt so powerless, so insignificant in light of God's power to give and take life.

"I don't much like it, but if that's what the Lord's will is, I'll be doing it. I just hope my Melinda and Darnell won't miss me too much." Her voice shook with unshed tears.

He unfolded himself from the booth, stretched to his full height and gathered the old woman against his heart. "It's okay to cry. Get it out." He lifted her chin with an unsteady finger and smiled into her sloe brown eyes. "The Lord must need more guardian angels."

"Bless you child. I know you're the one Miss Serena's been promised to," she said and somehow, he believed her.

"How can you tell that?" he wanted to know.

"You have a heart of gold, too. Go to her, son. Don't waste more time." She squeezed his hand, her grip amazingly strong.

***

Serena hadn't seen Zack since he'd ridden off into the sunset and she felt raw. He hadn't even returned to say goodbye. She didn't think he would. Nor could she blame him after the way she'd lied to him then had the gall to distrust him.

Had anyone in history fouled up their life so badly? Just a scant hour after she'd searched his wallet, Saundra got the call that Zack checked out with the Air Force. He was who he said he was. She'd searched his bags for nothing.

Probably not, but she was tired of feeling sorry for herself. She wearied of hiding in the dark. She'd survived when Doug died. She'd survive now that Zack had left.

Her heart still heavy despite her brave assertions, she visited Doug's grave on the far end of town. Saundra reluctantly gave her a ride. She unloaded the chair and leaned against the truck door as Serena made her way awkwardly through the uneven grass.

At first glance, the cemetery seemed vacant. No other human presence darkened her vision. She had Doug to herself.

She arranged the flowers she'd brought on the top of his grave stone and leaned down to pick some weeds off the site. She shredded a weed in her hand, letting it flutter to the ground.

Her eyes lowered. She spoke lowly. "I suppose you wonder why I'm here." She laughed nervously and tilted her face to the warm sunshine, inviting it to warm the chill in her soul. Wind whistled through the trees. She looked around to see if somebody invaded her privacy. She looked around several moments but saw no one. Maybe it was heavenly spirits. Or angels she couldn't see.

She brought her gaze back to Doug's gravestone. His name engraved on the marble mocked her. She reached over and traced the deep etching with her fingertips. A tear rolled down her cheek then plopped to the grass, shimmering in the sun until it slid down the wide blade and sank into the earth.

"I've missed you so much. I used to hear your voice rustle in the wind. I thought I felt you watching over me."

She threw her head back with a strangled cry. She paused until her throat was no longer constricted then hung her head so that her hair hid her cheek in a silky curtain.

"I'm in love with someone else now." She shook her head as if to affirm things to herself.

"I met him on the Internet. And then he showed up at my house a few days ago out of the blue. Saundra thinks I'm crazy. You probably do, too." She dragged fresh air into her lungs, smelling fresh cut grass and molding flowers from nearby graves. "Can't say I blame you. I even think I'm going crazy."

A huge sigh escaped her lips. "I lied to him from the moment I met him. Then I had the gall to distrust him. Saundra and Jewel told me I shouldn't have lied. Everyone's been telling me I have to go on with my life."

She gazed into the distance, a small russet colored bird catching her attention. It glided from tree to tree, then dove for a worm, which it took back to its babies in a high nest.

"When he found out I'd lied to him, he said he didn't want anything to do with me and he left. You don't blame him, do you?" She closed her eyes, reliving that dreadful scene as Zack disappeared into a cloud of dust as if he'd never truly existed. "Neither do I. There's a thunderbolt with my name on it somewhere. I'm surprised the ground hasn't opened up and swallowed me. No offense intended."

She sat in companionable silence for awhile until an older woman laid flowers on a grave near her. They smiled at each other, shared pain in their eyes.

"I have to get going. Do you have any words of wisdom for me before I go?" She sat for awhile longer, waiting for a sign. She realized she'd been doing this more and more. A nonbeliever wouldn't sit around waiting for Heavenly guidance or divine inspiration. Did that mean she really did believe in God?

Tingles in her bosom warmed her. It radiated through her body and she knew peace as she hadn't known in a very long time. Words softer than the wind echoed in her mind. Give your problems to me. It's time to forgive yourself.

She felt much better. She knew what she needed to do as surely as she knew the sun would rise tomorrow.

She looked down upon Doug's stone. "If He sees fit to bring Zack back to me, I won't be visiting much anymore. It's time to let go. I know you'd want me to move on with my life. You'd want me to be happy, just as I'd want that for you. You'd like him. He's a good man."

The woman glanced up and their gaze meshed. Commiseration passed between them. Not once did the woman stare at her scar. She didn't flinch and she didn't look disgusted or surprised or pitying.

Serena smiled back.

"I'll see you in Heaven. And I'll always love you." She pressed her fingers to her lips and transferred a kiss to Doug's headstone. "Be good." She realized she still had herself and a lot to offer the world. She also had a lot of repenting to do...starting right this minute.

Jewel's invitation to return to church niggled at her mind all weekend. It didn't look as if Zack were returning, but God had never really deserted her. Nor had her family or friends.

She decided to try church again. When Sunday morning arrived, she shook Saundra awake.

"We're going to church. I don't want to be late."

Saundra stretched, then posed like a high fashion model clad in her silky black teddy. She glanced at the bedside alarm clock that flipped it's tiles to 8:00 A.M. "Have you heard from Zack?"

Serena shook her head. "No. I don't think I will if I haven't by now."

"Try emailing him. Pour out your heart. Maybe he'll pick up his mail before he goes back to Iceland. Saundra shucked her teddy and stepped into a slip. Then she dabbed some lavender scented perfume behind both ears and on the inside her wrists.

"Good idea. I'll do that after church." Her fingers itched to write to him now. But that would make them late.

"Are you ready?" she asked as she wheeled into her sister's room half an hour later.

"You look pretty. Do you want to borrow my lipstick?" Saundra held out a tube of strawberry red lipstick.

Serena looked into the mirror, grimacing at her reflection. She shook her head slowly, her eyes staring back at her big, dark and luminous. Her fingers touched her scar, pulling at her lip and fingers of fear wrapped around her heart. "I don't want to draw more attention to my cheek than necessary."

"Nonsense!" Saundra took her by the shoulders and turned her gently. She held out the gold tube of creamy lipstick and painted it on Serena's lips. "Look in the mirror." Saundra turned Serena back to the mirror, peering over her shoulder. "See? It gives you nice color and lights up your whole face."

She stared, turning her head slowly, peering at herself closely. "I don't know."

Saundra picked up the brush and pulled it through Serena's hair, sweeping it into a side part, catching it with a flowered comb. Whispering in her ear, Saundra said, "You're gorgeous. Zack doesn't know what he's missing..."

Serena squeezed Saundra's arm affectionately. "No. I couldn't ask for a better sister."

Saundra hugged her. "Get that guitar of yours and let's go."

She collected the instrument that reminded her of Zack. It seared her flesh as if it were Zack touching her. She stared at it, telling herself it was an inanimate object that it had nothing to do with Captain Zachary Elias Kane. But she lost the battle. Despite her good intentions, his image sprang into her mind, provocative and mocking. Her breathing shallowed. Her pulse accelerated.

It wasn't fair. The man was too sexy. Too sure of himself for someone out of practice to handle.

"Come on. We're going to be late." Saundra pushed Serena's chair down the hall.

When they arrived at the small country church, Reverend Thorpe strode up and helped Saundra take her chair out of the car and set it up. He pumped her hand enthusiastically. "Good morning, Serena. We're glad to see you back."

"Did you bring your guitar to grace us again with your angel's voice?" Jewel gathered Serena into her arms, hugging her to her ample bosom. She smelled of apples and vanilla as if she'd been baking.

"Yes she did. I'll get it." Saundra returned with the instrument momentarily. Her skirts fluttered about her legs in the slight breeze. A tiny sweat bee buzzed around her ankles then flitted off to nearby Marigolds.

"We were wrong to let you wait so long to return to church or to sing. I want to make sure you're back on the right track before I leave."

Half asleep, her eyes fluttering valiantly to stay open, after a long, dry sermon, she jerked to consciousness when she heard her name.

"Praise the Lord. Our Serena's with us again today. "Serena come to the pulpit and sing for us, please," the Reverend said sotto voce.

"We have a very special treat today," the Reverend announced, sotto voce. To Serena's horror, he said, "Serena, come to the pulpit and sing a song of praise for us."

"I hope you'll all welcome back Serena after the services. We're so happy to have you in the bosom of our family again." The Reverend crooked his fingers at her. Then he flipped through his Bible to about one-third of the way through the scriptures. The fine parchment crackled as he turned the last few pages.

"Thank you," she murmured smoothing her long skirts over her legs. She was happy to realize she meant it. The sea of faces in the congregation no longer scared her. They smiled at her just as they had before the accident. She was one of them. She was home.

This time, she was able to sing without help. Once she started, she couldn't stop, playing a couple of songs she'd written before the accident but hadn't sung since, songs that gave glory to God. In one she sang about faith in God, to hang tight and hold on and be strong no matter what. Good advice she should've been taking these past two years, she knew, advice she made sure she'd heed from now on.

Tingles chased up her legs, crawling up her spine as if someone watched her. Of course people watched her. An entire church full. But this felt different.

She lifted her eyes and stared straight into a pair of enigmatic, hazel eyes at the other end of the chapel. Even from this distance, she detected a wicked gleam that would surely make him burn in the Lord's house.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

She picked out the last strains of her hymn as a huge sob stuck in her throat. She couldn't utter another word to save her soul.

She gazed unseeingly out the open door of the church behind Zack, at the backdrop of distant hills, the sun's rays pouring through the door as if they were Heaven's gates. On this lazy August day, birds twittered as if singing a hymn of their own. Distant engines hummed. The scent of fresh cut summer grass tickled her nostrils.

When Reverend Thorpe closed the service, she couldn't say. As if in a trance, she couldn't take her eyes off Zack, couldn't help the flame of hope from leaping in her heart and tickling her mind. Her legs ached to run to him, but of course running was out of the question.

Zack waited for the crowd to trickle out past him, then sauntered to the edge of the stage where he stopped. He stood at parade rest, his hands on his black clad hips. Her pulse beat erratically and she had to force herself to breathe evenly, to stay calm. "Zack?" Many, many questions filled that one heartfelt word.

"You sing like an angel," Zack's voice floated over her, warm and amused. A slow smile warmed his face and his eyes twinkled. They actually twinkled with some secret joke. Hope flared in her chest.

"I hope I'm welcome. I don't plan to leave until you talk to me," he murmured huskily, holding his hand out to her. Sunlight glinted off his Air Force ring but not as brightly as it bounced off his golden hair.

She stared at it, as if someone spoke a language she didn't understand. Yet, she did understand. Perfectly. But why did he want her to go with him when he didn't trust her? And with good reason.

"Go with him, child." Jewel gave her shoulder a gentle push. "Talk to him."

"I'll take the guitar." Saundra slid it out of her arms and held it by its neck.

"Why? I lied to you. I wasn't honest." The others faded from her view as if invisible. She rose, her skirts swirling gently about her legs and she towered over him.

"Can we speak in private, Songstress?" Zack peered into her eyes and took a step up, his hand thrust further forward.

What she read there made her heart stop, her breath catch in her throat. Her hand floated out to his, as if pulled magnetically. When his large hand closed over her small one, his warmth suffused her entire being.

Dillon tossed his motorcycle keys to Zack then draped an arm about Saundra's shoulders and pulled her against him. "Get out of here. She won't marry me until she knows little sister's taken care of."

Heat flooded her cheeks at such blatant mention of marriage in Zack's presence.

Zack caught them with his other hand. His lips quirked up on the right side. He nodded his head slightly. "Let's go. We've a date with destiny."

She looked first to Saundra, then Jewel, and then at Zack who tugged her closer. His thumb rubbed soft circles on her sensitive inner wrist, making her normal thought process impossible. Every emotion she possessed jumbled inside her, somewhere in the region of her heart.

Saundra's eyes widened incredulously. A slow smile curved her lips. "Are you two going to get married? I get to be a bridesmaid."

"Stay out of this!" Serena hissed, mortified. She implored her sister with her eyes to keep quiet and stop pushing.

"We need privacy for what I want to say." Zack flashed an incredible smile at the group encircling her, then hoisted her into his arms, not stopping until he turned to lift her onto Dillon's cycle.

Serena shivered when Zack's hands burned through the thin material of her dress when they circled her waist. He bent, touching his lips to hers, their breath mingling. His fingers traced her scar almost reverently, so soft they felt like a caress. She snuggled against him, heedless that congregationalists lagging behind to talk to family and friends suddenly stopped what they were doing to stare at them and smile in wonder.

Zack finally pulled back and hopped on Dillon's Harley Hogg gleaming like pure onyx in the bright afternoon sun. "Wrap your arms around me. I'm taking you for the ride of your life!"

He pushed the kickstand back with his foot, revved the engine and slid the helmet over his head. He handed Serena hers and strapped it securely under her chin, his fingers extraordinarily gentle.

She closed her eyes against the spinning sensation in the pit of her stomach.

She coiled her arms around his trim waist, leaning her head against his firm back to stop herself from swooning.

"Here we go!" he shouted above the roar of the powerful engine. "Don't let go!"

"I won't," she yelled back, laughing in glee, the wind whipping her words behind her.

Zack opened up the throttle, speeding down the road, the wind at their faces, the road at their backs.

She loved the feel of him, his heart beneath her cheek, her body pressed impossibly close against his.

She never, ever wanted to let go.

What would he tell her? What did he want to say?

She hoped beyond hope she knew. She hoped he could forgive her lies. She wondered what had happened to make him come back. To change his mood so drastically?

Finally, Zack stopped next to a lake way out in the middle of nowhere, a covey of maple trees providing natural shade. Parking the bike, he threw his long leg over the side. Encircling his large hands around her waist, he lifted her up and off. He unsnapped his helmet then helped her off with hers and strapped them securely onto the back of the cycle.

"Come here Songstress," he murmured huskily, pulling her into his arms. Bending his head, he captured her lips in a long, impassioned kiss, drawing her close to his heart. His tongue delved into her inviting mouth, dueling with her tongue.

How long they kissed, she couldn't be sure, but it seemed when they parted the sun smiled directly overhead.

Carrying her in his arms as easily as if she were an infant, Zack headed for the lakeshore. He found a quiet cove, hidden behind a thicket, where they were sure to be hidden from prying eyes, not that many people ventured this far out into the countryside. He tossed down a blanket, spread it as best as he could with one hand and gently set her upon it before stretching his long frame out beside her on the bed of clover. He helped her curl her legs under her long skirts and he propped his head on his elbow and gazed at her.

She glanced at him covertly from beneath the veil of her lashes. She'd never dreamed a man could be so devastatingly sexy. So purely, divinely male.

"Start explaining. I'm all ears. This should be good!" His deep voice rumbled from the depths of his chest, reaching out to her.

He picked a wild flower, twirling it in his fingers, then held it out to her.

She put it to her nose, sniffing its erotic scent then stared at him for several seconds. Remembering months of deceit and lies to this man, she hung her head in shame.

"You know I'm Songstress." She twirled the flower in her fingers, focusing on it. "You really don't mind that I'm not blonde and gorgeous like Saundra? The woman of every man's dreams? That I can't walk?"

"I figured that out the first hour after I arrived." He nodded, stroking her hair as if it were fine silk and his most prized possession.

"So soon?" Serena's head popped up. She bit her lower lip so hard she tasted a drop of salty blood.

"It was pretty obvious that your sister hadn't a clue. But you did. You dropped clues right and left," he drawled with a hint of a western accent, smiling.

"What clues? Why didn't you say anything till you found me with your wallet? Why didn't you tell me you knew before?" She lifted her troubled gaze to his.

He answered her last question first. "You know how I feel about the truth, how important it is to me."

She nodded, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ears.

"I wanted you to tell me. I wanted you to trust me enough to open up to me like you did online." He peered into her eyes as if seeing her soul. "How could I not know you? I knew you by your music and your web pages and how the animals adored you. I think the yellow rose in your teeth was a pretty good clue."

He paused, while heat crept into her cheeks as she remembered how he'd walked in on her succumbing to overwhelming desire to live one of their fantasies.

"Why didn't you tell me the truth?"

"I didn't think you'd want me if you saw what I really look like...that I can't even walk...or dance..." She picked a wild flower and pulled one petal, then another, off the flower, letting them flutter to the grass. Her heart pounded like wild fire.

Zack grasped her wrist with strong but gentle fingers and brought her hand away from her face. Then he cupped his hand over her scar. "Do you really think that would matter to me? That I wouldn't find you beautiful anyway?" He gazed deeply into her eyes. She sucked in a deep, shuddering breath.

"I didn't know at first. I didn't really know you," she mumbled. "And by the time I did," she looked at the Heavens, seeking solace in cloud castles, "it was too late. I'd already sent you my sister's picture and you raved about how beautiful she was. We spoke for hours of dancing..." She pressed her lips tightly together for several seconds to stop the trembling. Twin tears slid down each cheek.

Zack wiped them away with gentle thumbs. "We found a way to dance, didn't we?"

"Yes. And it was wonderful. I want to dance with you forever and always." His hand on her face felt warmer than the summer sun. Turning her face into it, she kissed his palm, grateful for his understanding thus far.

He closed his eyes for several seconds. Long dark lashes covered his cheeks. It should be illegal for a man to be so beautiful.

When he opened his eyes, they shone brighter than the stars. "And we shall. Soon as we come state side, we'll buy a house with our very own pool and we'll dance under the moonlight every night." He laid his other hand on her far cheek, forcing her to look him square in the eye.

Her breath caught in her throat. "When we come state side? We'll buy a house with our own pool?" He didn't mean? He couldn't mean? Hope crowded her heart but did she dare let it flood her entire being?

"Dance with me under the moonlight every night. Serenade me with your enchanting siren's voice. Meet me at your balcony with a yellow rose in your teeth. Hold me like this every day for the rest of our lives and I'll be the happiest man that ever lived." He breathed against her lips, his tongue dipping into her mouth.

Surely she'd died and gone to Heaven. Nothing this wonderful could be real. She reached out to touch Zack again, to see if he was just a mirage. But her fingers stroked real flesh and felt a very real pulse racing wildly in his wrist.

Lifting his head briefly, he murmured huskily, "Marry me, sweet Serena, before I return to Iceland. Fly to the Heavens with me. You're so very, very beautiful, Songstress."

"I'll fly anywhere with you, Flyboy. I'll never lie to you again...not ever..." Radiance flushed her cheeks, flooding her entire being. If an angel were to fall from the Heavens this moment, she would outshine it.

"Please don't. You can trust me, you really really can. Iceland or Iowa, we belong together." He pulled her fully into his embrace, his strong arms encircling her, the bed of clover softer than any comforter she'd ever laid upon. She laughed huskily, her breasts crushed against his hard chest. Pulling back for a moment, she flashed her most innocent smile at him. "I think I'll like being Mrs. Zack Ace."

Dipping his head, he trailed fiery kisses along her scarred cheek and she trembled exquisitely. Breathlessly, she mumbled, "Do you think we should tell everybody the good news?"

"In time, Songstress. In time. Let them wonder for a change. I like knowing your family secrets first for a change."

"I doubt this is really a secret." She smiled coyly, letting her fingers play in the soft hair at the nape of his neck as she'd dreamed of doing for so very long. This was one of those times when reality was better than dreams.

"I think Saundra and Jewel have the wedding all planned. Just make sure they give my family time to arrive."

"And we'll have to call my parents back from Europe." Heat rose in her cheeks as she thought about their wedding night. Another thought struck her. "Won't they be put out that you're spending all your leave with me, instead of with them?"

"Maybe." Sunshine dawned in his eyes, replacing the earlier uncertainty. He lifted her chin with his index finger, forcing her to gaze into eyes filled with love and adoration. "But my mother will adore you so, she'll forgive me. How can she help but be enchanted by you?"

She saw her own face reflected in his eyes. She'd never looked more radiant. More joyous. The scar on her cheek no longer mattered. Not even her disability. The scar on her heart had been healed by this man's love.

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