“Where’s your coat?” he asked Sophie. “Would you like to go look at the stars?”
When she nodded vigorously, he set her on her feet and watched as she ran to her bedroom, reappearing immediately with her coat, socks and a pair of shoes. “Smart girl!” he said, returning to the living room to help her dress for some stargazing. He grabbed a blanket from the back of the sofa, and in minutes, she was ready and buckled into her booster seat in the car.
It was a beautiful, though chilly, night as he drove out of town, away from the street and porch lights. They were surrounded by darkness lit only by the headlights, a few distant farm yard lights and the stars above. It was late enough that there was no traffic on the dirt road where he parked.
Astronomy had been one of his favorite classes in college, and as he wrapped Sophie in her blanket and placed her on the warm hood of the car, he searched for the constellations that immediately came to mind. He pointed out Ursa Major, the Big Bear, containing the Big Dipper, one of the most recognizable of all constellations.
“Then see the Little Dipper? That bright star at the tip of the handle is the North Star.” He spoke as if she understood and hoped someday she would remember this moment. “If you ever get lost at night, just look for the North Star, and it’ll help you find your way.” He turned and pointed to the east. “There’s Gemini and Taurus, and those stars in a line are Orion’s Belt.”
Sophie said nothing, but he hadn’t expected she would. He was enjoying sharing something that had meant a lot to him when he was younger. Maybe someday she would remember and discover her own interest in the sky.
She pointed to the Milky Way, and he explained what he knew about it. There was a lot he didn’t remember, but he doubted she noticed or cared.
“Are you cold?” he asked, pulling her closer to him as they leaned back against the windshield. If anyone else had dared to sit on his car, he’d have done them bodily harm. For the little girl he’d met only a month ago, he’d do anything.
He wasn’t sure when she fell asleep, but it was sometime after his arm had lost all feeling from keeping it around her. Easing her away enough to get a good hold on her, he moved her off the hood and into the car. As he drove home, he wondered what Libby would say when he told her about his night of stargazing with Sophie, and he suddenly realized he wouldn’t tell her.
Libby was popping into his mind too often. He was relying on her more than he’d planned to. He’d never expected they’d see so much of each other. But he couldn’t have allowed her to lose her job, and he didn’t regret suggesting they share child care, not one bit.
She wasn’t the Libby he knew from Lou’s. Not the sassy, flirty Libby. He’d recognized that the moment she stepped into his office the day Sophie arrived. She was different then and different now.
It wasn’t a bad different, just…different.
Was it because of him? He couldn’t imagine why.
He’d hoped that taking her to the O’Briens’ and just being with a group of people would bring back that lively Libby. It hadn’t. And it didn’t really matter. He was still attracted to her, maybe even more. He wasn’t sure what to think. There’d been only one visit to Lou’s since they’d started sharing child care, and he couldn’t say that he missed it all that much. Maybe if he was honest, a lot of the reason he’d gone there was because of Libby.
Now that he understood a little of what her life was like, working nights at a tavern and raising a young son, he admired her even more.
And Sophie adored her, had from the very beginning. He owed Libby a lot.
But just how much should he allow himself to feel the things he was feeling for her? They weren’t simple feelings. They weren’t feelings he’d had for anyone before.
Pulling his car into the driveway, he shut off the lights and turned off the engine. A strange sensation came over him, and he admitted to himself that he was falling for Libby. He couldn’t do that. In addition to her being a single mom, now he was a single dad and he had no business having a relationship with anyone. He knew she’d understand if he told her, but he didn’t believe it was right to do that. Instead, he’d just have to make sure that they kept their focus on their kids, not on each other.
He felt better, now that he’d faced his feelings for Libby and had some kind of plan about how to deal with them. As he carried Sophie into the house and to her bed, he was almost tempted to let whatever this thing with Libby was play itself out. But doing so might lead to things he’d never considered, and he wasn’t a man who jumped into anything without being fully knowledgeable.
“Let’s face it,” he whispered to his sleeping daughter when he’d tucked her into bed, “I don’t know anything about love.”
“GARRETT, JOIN US,” MORGAN called out when Garrett stepped inside the Chick-a-Lick Café for lunch.
Garrett smiled and nodded to several other people in the café as he made his way to the booth where the sheriff and Tucker were sitting. “It’s busy today,” he said, looking around, as he slid into the booth next to Tucker.
“This time of day, it always is,” Morgan replied.
“I’d rather come in the late morning,” Tucker said, “when there aren’t so many people and just enjoy the coffee. Sometimes even the company.”
Before he could comment, the café door flew open, the metal bell on top clanging loudly.
“Sheriff, you need to arrest Agatha Clayborne,” Letha Atkins announced as she breezed inside.
Morgan rolled his eyes before turning to the woman, who had stomped her way to their booth. “Now, Letha—”
“Don’t ‘now Letha’ me, Morgan Rule,” she announced so the whole café could hear. “I want something done, and done right now.”
Morgan glanced around the room with an assuring smile, nodding to the café patrons. “What is it that I’m to arrest Aunt Aggie for doing, Letha?” he asked, his voice lowered.
Letha harrumphed. “She’s parked that old truck in two parking spaces out there.” She pointed to Aggie’s pickup truck, parked in front of the café. “I couldn’t get my car door open and had to scoot to the passenger side of my car to get out.”
Garrett had to cover the smile on his face with his hand, as he imagined Letha, who was not a small woman, scooting across the bucket seats of her car. If nothing else, the people of Desperation were always entertaining.
“Just because she’s your wife’s aunt,” Letha continued, “doesn’t mean she’s above the law. I want her arrested. This minute!”
“Simmer down, Letha,” Morgan said quietly.
Letha’s chin went up as she looked down her nose at all three men. “Then I’ll take this up with the mayor.”
“Be my guest,” Morgan answered, totally unconcerned. “I heard what he told you the last time. But I will go out there right now and make sure Aggie’s truck is within the white parking lines. If it isn’t, I’ll issue a parking ticket. That’s what I can do.”
Both Tucker and Garrett were quiet as Morgan pushed from the booth and strode through the café and out the door to Aggie’s pickup. Tucker let out a loud sigh and shook his head. “I don’t know what has Letha in an uproar, but she’s been on the warpath for months. Usually it’s Hettie that Letha’s making a fuss about, but now it’s spread to Aggie, and neither woman deserves it.”
“Women are a strange lot,” Garrett said, thinking of the change in Libby.
As if thinking of her had made her appear, Libby walked into the café with Sophie. Instead of looking for a place to sit, she stepped up to the cash register and waited.
“There’s no question that little girl is yours,” Tucker said.
Garrett turned to look at him. “Do you think so?”
“Yeah. But then I don’t know her mama, so I notice the things I see that are like you. The only difference is that she looks like an angel. You? Not so much.”
Garrett laughed at the friendly dig and watched as Libby took a paper sack from Darla, then pointed to the jar of st
ick candy that was always on the counter at the register. Once again, he was struck by her kindness and the way she cared for his daughter as if she were hers.
Morgan walked in, his hat pulled low over his eyes, and headed straight for the booth. “Some people,” he muttered.
“What happened?” Tucker asked, as Morgan slid onto the seat across from them.
“I gave Aggie a ticket,” he answered, keeping his voice low, “but I’m going to tell her to tear it up. I’ll admit she was parked a bit close to the white line of that space, but she wasn’t over the line. I think Letha Atkins pulled in as close as possible, just so she’d have something to complain about.”
“Some people are like that,” Garrett said.
Before they could say anything else, Darla arrived at their table to take their orders, and the talk then changed to other things, Letha Atkins not among them. Garrett enjoyed his lunch, aware that good company could always make the best of any situation.
Later that day, when he picked up Noah and Sophie to take to his house so Libby could go to work, he mentioned that he’d seen her in the café.
“You did?” she asked, a note of surprise in her voice as she scrambled to help Noah find his coat. “It was a last-minute decision when I saw that the weather might get colder tonight, so we picked up some sandwiches at the café to make it special and had a picnic in the park.”
“And I missed it?” Noah asked, obviously disappointed.
“Next time,” she told him and handed him his coat. Turning to Garrett, she said, “I hope I’ll be off a little earlier tonight, since I worked a little later last night. No promises, though.”
“Sounds fair,” he answered. “We’ll look for you when we see you.”
When she’d told them goodbye and was gone, he and Noah locked up the apartment, and then he drove the three of them to his house. Once they were inside, Noah shared his latest school news, while Sophie listened with what seemed to be awe. Garrett wasn’t sure if it was Noah or simply talk of school, but she hung on every word.
Noah asked Garrett if he knew how to play checkers. “Sure,” Garrett answered. “Do you know how?”
Noah nodded. “But I don’t play often. Nobody else seems to like to play.” He glanced at Sophie, who was listening, but was silent, as usual. “Do you think she’s big enough to learn? I could help her. If it’s okay, I mean.”
“Let me see if I can find my old board,” Garrett told him. In his office, he finally found the old set he’d had since he was a child, shoved into the back of a cabinet.
He returned to the living room and sat on the sofa, where he moved a few things on the coffee table, then set up the board. “Do you want red or black?” he asked Sophie, spreading the chips on the table. She pointed to the red ones, and he helped her move them to her side of the table. “Now you put them on the board. We’ll use the black squares for this game, so you put all of your red checkers on the black squares on your side, and I’ll put my black checkers on my side. Can you do that?”
When Noah offered to help her, she shook her head and placed her checkers correctly on the board. When she was done, she smiled proudly at Noah.
“Noah’s going to help with the rest, okay?” Garrett asked her.
She looked at Noah and nodded. When she scooted over to give him more room, he reached for one of the red checkers. She put her hand on his and shook her head.
Noah released the checker, looked at Garrett and grinned. “I think she wants to do this herself.”
“It’s okay, honey,” Garrett told her. “Noah is just going to show you how to jump and which direction you can go.”
As he and Noah moved the checkers around the board, he explained slowly and carefully what she could do and what she couldn’t. When they were done with the demonstration, he asked if she was ready.
She nodded, bouncing up and down, an eager light in her eyes.
“She’s good,” Noah said, fifteen minutes later.
Garrett looked at the last of his checkers on the board. “Yeah, she is. Go ahead, Sophie, take my last one, and then it’s time for bed.”
Her lower lip slowly slid out, and she refused to look at him. He was saved by the arrival of Libby. The wind had picked up, making the night seem colder, and she was eager to get home.
“Looks like fall is finally here,” she said, while waiting for Noah to help a still-pouting Sophie put away the checker set.
Garrett stood with her near the door, without offering to take her coat. There was a brief in his office he needed to go over after Sophie was asleep, so unless Libby had something important to talk about, he didn’t intend to keep her. “It’ll warm up again,” he said. “You’ll see.”
“It’s colder than I’d thought it would be. I came from a warmer climate.”
“Phoenix, wasn’t it?”
She looked everywhere but at him. “Tucson.”
“Definitely different weather there than we have here.”
“And you’re accustomed to even colder.”
He noticed that Noah was now putting on his jacket. “Right. Chicago winters can be brutal.”
She nodded, and her smile was nervous. He didn’t mean to be unfriendly, but he hadn’t found a middle ground yet, where he felt he was safe. Just standing near her made him extremely aware of her presence, and that was something that shouldn’t be happening.
Noah joined her at the door, and Sophie moved to stand by Garrett. “Well,” Libby said, reaching for the door handle, “I guess we’ll see you in the morning when you bring Sophie by.”
“Right,” he said again. He was silent as they walked out, then called to them as they reached her car. “Drive safely.”
He nearly groaned at the way it sounded, but there was nothing he could do. Until he found that middle ground, he had to be careful.
“Bedtime,” he told Sophie, picking her up and taking her to her bedroom. There wasn’t a sweeter sound in the world than her giggle as he tossed her to bounce on her bed. That was what he needed to focus on.
Later, as he pored over legal papers in his office, he rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. Why was it that he’d wanted to be an attorney? But he knew the answer to that. Time and again, he’d been able to help people who needed someone who understood the law and could speak up for them.
Leaning back in his chair, he smiled and stretched. But his smile turned down when he thought he heard the siren to alert the town’s volunteer fire department. He was stand-by only, but he hadn’t missed a call yet. He wouldn’t tonight, either.
He’d grabbed his jacket and was putting his arms into it when he remembered he had Sophie. He couldn’t leave her there alone, and he didn’t want to take her to the fire, either. Glancing at his watch, he thought Libby, being a night owl, might be up. If not, he hoped she’d understand that he had no choice. He went to Sophie’s room, bundled her in a blanket and grabbed her slippers, then carried her out to his car. The wind was still blowing, which was not a good sign, but it didn’t seem to have gotten any colder.
As he drove to Libby’s, he hoped it wouldn’t take long to drop off Sophie. He still had to drive by the fire station to get his equipment and ask where the fire was.
But as he drew nearer to Libby’s, the glow of a fire became brighter. The closer he got, the more cars he saw, parked along the side of the street. And then he saw the flashing lights of the fire engines and police cars. When he was as close as he could get, he realized what was on fire—the duplex where Noah and Libby lived.
Fear left him frozen and unable to think. His chest tightened with almost unbearable pressure and his head began to pound. When someone knocked on his window, he jumped, then looked to see Morgan gesturing for him to roll down his window.
“It doesn’t look good,” the sheriff said, his face serious.
“Is Libby—” Garrett began, but couldn’t finish.
“They’re out. I think Libby was the one who called in the fire. But with thi
s wind…”
Garrett nodded. “I have Sophie with me,” he said, his voice breaking. “I was on my way over to see if Libby would keep an eye on her while I went to the fire. I didn’t expect—”
Soft crying turned his attention to his daughter in the backseat. Instead of speaking, she pointed at the fire.
“It’s Libby’s house, honey, but she and Noah are okay.” He glanced at Morgan, who nodded. “Hang on, and we’ll go see them.”
After making sure she was well bundled and her slippers wouldn’t fall off, Garrett followed Morgan to the ambulance, where he finally found Libby standing nearby, a blanket around her shoulders, while someone checked Noah in the back of the ambulance.
“Libby?” he said.
She spun around at the sound of his voice. “Oh, Garrett.”
He hurried to her and, holding Sophie in one arm, he pulled Libby close with his other arm. “Are you all right?”
She nodded and sniffed. “I’m fine. Noah’s fine. They just want to check him over.” She turned to look at the blaze, licking at tree branches. “But we’ve probably lost everything.”
He felt Sophie move, and gave her an encouraging hug. But before he could say anything, he heard a tiny voice.
“Daddy, is my dollhouse all gone?”
Chapter Seven
Even in the dark, lit only by the flashing lights of emergency vehicles and the glow of the fire, Libby didn’t miss the look on Garrett’s face when Sophie asked about her dollhouse, and her heart sang with joy. It had been hard to keep from telling him about hearing Sophie speak to Noah, but it was a secret worth keeping, just to see his face when he experienced it for himself.
“Your son is fine, Libby,” the young female EMT told her. “Now let me check you over and make sure you didn’t breathe in too much smoke.”
“I’m okay,” Libby insisted. “Really,” she added, seeing the frown of disapproval on the young woman’s face. “I was very careful and kept my mouth covered while I woke my son and we were getting out of the apartment.”
“Go on with Lucy,” Garrett told her. “You need to get checked, no matter what you think.”
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