Wolf Creek Homecoming

by Penny Richards

  Mollified, Gabe decided to soften the blow somewhat. His smile grew wider. “They’re so ridiculously happy, I’m sure they’ll be forever grateful for the little push you gave them.”

  Knowing she’d met her match, Sarah turned away and pretended to give her attention to the rack of dime novels, while he finished arranging the cloth and sneaked another look out the window. Several children were wandering from the east end of town, which meant that school must have let out for the day. He watched Danny and Ben enter the restaurant.

  He was placing canned peaches on the shelf when he saw Danny bound through the open portal, a wide smile on his face. “Hey, Gabe!” he said, running toward the counter.

  Before Gabe could reply, Sarah shrilled, “Master Daniel Stone! That is no way to behave in a place of business!”

  Danny skidded to a stop and stared at her with wide, frightened eyes.

  Gabe set the crate of canned peaches on the counter. He knew what it was like to be full of life and excitement and to have that joy squelched with a few well-chosen words. “Danny.”

  Danny turned to look at him. “Sir?”

  “It’s all right. Come get one of the molasses cookies Abby made.”

  “Mr. Gentry!” Sarah barked as Danny moved to stand next to Gabe. “You do the boy no favors by encouraging him to act like a...a hooligan and then rewarding him for his behavior!”

  “Have no fear, Mrs. VanSickle. I hardly think Danny committed any grave social faux pas by running in the store, and I doubt seriously if my...influence will turn him into a hooligan.”

  Expecting another retort, Gabe was surprised to see a thoughtful expression creep into Sarah’s eyes as she stared at him and Danny. He was sure it wouldn’t be long before she regrouped and came at him in another verbal assault. She must be a miserable human being.

  Gabe gave Danny a cookie and opened a bottle of sarsaparilla for him. If he was going to reward the boy for his bad behavior, he might as well do it up right. “Here you go,” he said, lifting Danny onto the counter.

  Danny’s broad smile was all the thanks Gabe needed. “Wow! Thanks, Gabe.”

  Gabe gave a sideways glance at Sarah, who looked as if she wanted to say something about Danny’s lack of respect by calling Gabe by his given name. Instead, she clenched her jaw and smiled a smile that could only be described as cunning.

  While Gabe worked at placing the rest of the peaches on the shelf, he asked Danny if he wanted to go fishing one evening after the store closed. The invitation sparked a smile of such brilliance it was staggering.

  “That would be great, thanks. How about Friday?”

  “Sounds fine.”

  Smiling, Danny took another swig from the bottle of sarsaparilla. “Oh! I almost forgot. Mama wanted me to pick up that box of medicine and stuff she ordered.”

  “Sure thing. It’s in the back,” Gabe told him. “You finish up here, and I’ll get it.”

  He gathered Rachel’s items into a crate and was on his way back to the front of the store when he heard Danny call a greeting to his mother.

  Rachel. Gabe paused and took a deep breath before pushing through the curtain that separated the store from the supply room. He hadn’t spoken to her face-to-face in more than a week.

  “Why, hello there, Rachel, my dear,” he heard Sarah say in a sickeningly sweet tone that sent a chill of apprehension down Gabe’s spine.

  “Good afternoon, Mrs. VanSickle,” Rachel said politely.

  “I suppose you’re aware that Mr. Gentry is spoiling your boy, but I guess that’s to be expected...under the circumstances.”

  “And what circumstances would that be?”

  Gabe decided it was time to get in there and explain to Rachel about the cookie and carbonated drink. He didn’t want Danny getting into trouble. He shouldered the curtain aside and met Sarah’s spiteful gaze.

  She looked from him to Rachel. “There’s Mr. Gentry with your order now,” she said with artificial pleasantry.

  Rachel turned to Gabe, who smiled from the pleasure of just seeing her.

  “Hello there. I just went to fetch your supplies.”

  “Thank you,” she said, almost looking nervous. “I started thinking the box might be too heavy for Danny to carry to the wagon.”

  “It could be,” Gabe said, setting the small wooden box on the counter. He gestured toward Danny, who was finishing his drink. “I hope you don’t mind that I gave him a little something. I used to be starving when I got out of school.”

  Rachel shook her head. “That’s fine.” Her gaze clung to his.

  “Danny is such a handsome young man,” Sarah commented, her loud voice shattering the sweetness of the moment. “That dark, dark hair, those beautiful blue eyes and that cute little dimple in his chin.”

  “Thank you,” Rachel said, turning to the older woman with a genuine smile. “I think so, too.”

  Sarah tapped her lips with her finger and let her gaze move from Danny to Gabe and back again. “You know,” she said with a little trill of laughter, “it’s quite amazing, really.”

  “What’s that?”

  “How much Danny and Gabe resemble each other,” Sarah said. Speaking over Rachel’s gasp of surprise, she added, “Why, they look enough alike to be father and son.”

  From where Gabe stood, several things seemed to happen at once, and at first none of it made any sense. Danny’s horrified gaze flew to Gabe’s. Rachel’s face drained of color and her panic-stricken look found his for just a moment. Then, with a strangled sound of torment, she snatched Danny from the countertop and set him on the floor. Grabbing his arm, she rushed for the door. Danny cast Gabe a worried look over his shoulder, and the truth exploded inside his mind.

  Danny was his.

  Rachel’s expression and subsequent actions gave the claim all the validity Gabe needed. He suspected that Danny had known and had been afraid of his reaction. If he needed any further proof—which he didn’t—it was there on the gossipy woman’s triumphant face. She gave him a smug smile, and looking like the cat who’d just come upon a saucer of spilled cream, she turned and began to look through the fabric again.

  Gabe turned away from her, his mind racing through a dozen facts and questions. First, the husband he had been so concerned about, the man he thought she’d loved, did not exist and never had. No wonder no one knew anything about him. The notion pleased him more than he could say.

  Why hadn’t Rachel told him she was expecting his child? Why had she told Danny and not him? And why hadn’t he suspected the truth long before now? He felt worse than dim-witted. He possessed above-average intelligence and could add and subtract. In his defense, he had no way of knowing exactly how old Danny was. He was certainly no expert on children, but he did know they could be the result of what he and Rachel had done. His supreme arrogance and unending quest for pleasure had blinded him to the possibility that it could happen to him.

  His stomach churned with a sick feeling that rose from his very soul. What a fool he’d been! So many things made perfect sense now—Rachel’s anger and bitterness toward him, her unwillingness to forgive. He didn’t blame her.

  More questions surfaced. Where would the three of them go from here? Would God give him a chance to set things right, or would he be punished for his past? Gabe knew that Abby would tell him that he had been cleansed of his past sins, yet as much as he wanted to believe that and told himself he did, it was a hard concept to comprehend. Nevertheless, he hoped with all his heart that she was right.

  First things first. He had to talk to Rachel and make sure she and Danny were okay. He shook his head in disbelief. That was ridiculous. Of course they weren’t okay. Still, he had to go and see what, if anything, he could do to make things easier.

  * * *

  Rachel nearly ran to her buggy that was hitched
to the rail in front of the restaurant where just moments ago she’d been enjoying the company of her best friends. Clutching Danny’s hand, she pulled him along behind her, unaware that he had to run to keep up.

  She fought the urge to bawl. No doubt about it, in a few hours her life would be in shambles...again. By dinnertime Sarah would have told half the town Rachel’s revealing reaction to the casual comment about Gabe and Danny. She wanted to scream at the unfairness of it, and she wanted to throttle Sarah.

  She was afraid to look at Danny to gauge his reaction, and even more afraid of Gabe’s, whatever it might be...whenever it might come. But come it would, and there was no longer any hope of escaping or delaying a reckoning.

  “Get into the buggy, Danny,” she snapped, untying the reins.

  “It’ll be okay, Mama,” Danny said with supreme confidence as he clambered up into the seat. “Gabe likes me. I know he does. He asked me to go fishing with him on Friday.”

  Rachel looked into the too-serious eyes of her son, realizing for the first time that she and Gabe were not the only ones who would suffer from Sarah’s spiteful tongue. Childlike, Danny saw only what his own limited perception perceived. How could she tell him that Gabe’s liking had nothing to do with the reality of the situation?

  She climbed up next to him, clucked to the horse and took off toward the house at a fast trot.

  They were almost home when Danny asked, “How did Mrs. VanSickle know about me, Mama? I thought just you, me and Pops knew.”

  An image of Sarah’s gloating smile edged into Rachel’s thoughts. She ground her teeth together. “Mrs. VanSickle is a very clever woman, Danny,” she said, trying her best to hold her fury in check. “I suppose she saw how much alike the two of you look and figured it out.”

  “Do you think Gabe knew she was right? When I looked back at him, he just sort of stood there with his mouth hanging open.”

  “Oh, he knew,” Rachel said with firm conviction. “Your father is very clever, too.” It was the first time she had ever called Gabe Danny’s father...at least to his face.

  “Well, at least now you won’t have to wait for the right time to tell him.”

  Danny actually looked pleased. She offered him a cynical half smile. “No,” she replied with a hint of sarcasm. “I suppose there is that.”

  * * *

  Anxious to close the store for an hour so that he could talk to Rachel, Gabe was debating whether or not to lambast Sarah for the misery she’d caused, or at the very least to ask her to leave, when she gave up the pretense of shopping and sashayed to the door, where she turned and gave him another sly smile.

  “Well, I must say, Gabriel, this has been a most illuminating afternoon. I’ve learned so much.”

  “Yes, it has, Mrs. VanSickle. I’ve learned a lot, too, like just because a person goes to church every time the doors are open doesn’t mean their hearts are right.”

  Looking as if she might have a fit of apoplexy, Sarah gave a mighty “humph!” and swept out. Gabe sighed, knowing he shouldn’t have given in to his anger but feeling a certain satisfaction nonetheless.

  With Sarah gone, he grabbed Rachel’s box of supplies, turned the sign in the door to Closed, locked up and headed toward her house. Her buggy wasn’t in sight, but Danny and Edward were sitting on the porch, which was edged with purple irises. Two pairs of eyes regarded him with thoughtful guardedness.

  Gabe got down from the buggy and carried the box up the steps. “Danny. Edward.”

  “Hey,” Danny said. Seeing the caution in his eyes, Gabe smiled. None of this was Danny’s fault, and there was no reason for him to feel fearful or guilty. The tension in the boy’s face relaxed.

  “Good evening, Gabe. Have a seat,” Edward Stone said, indicating the rocker next to his.

  “I brought Rachel’s supplies. Is she here?”

  “No. She said she was going to talk to the preacher.” He turned to his grandson. “Why don’t you take that box into the office, Danny?”

  He complied without a word.

  “She told me what happened,” Rachel’s father said once the child was out of earshot.

  “Did you know before?”

  Edward nodded. “All these years, she refused to breathe a word about what happened or with whom, but when Simon brought you in and I saw how she reacted to you, it didn’t take a genius to figure out why. My daughter isn’t one to be so...hard and unforgiving.”

  It was Gabe’s turn to nod. “Danny knew, too?”

  “Yes, but only recently. I told Rachel she should tell him before something like today happened without him being prepared.”

  That explained a lot about the way he often caught Danny staring at him and the way he hung around wherever Gabe was. What must Danny—his son—be thinking?

  His son.

  The full impact of that hit him for the first time. Until now, his mind had been filled with his own shock and the embarrassment Danny and Rachel must be feeling.

  He had a son. An unexpected and fierce love for the boy flowed through him at the same time the burden of responsibility his new role demanded settled like a stone in his heart. Danny would soon grow into a man, and Gabe’s own experience had taught him that the influence he exerted in the boy’s life would help determine the kind of man he grew into.

  If Rachel let him have any influence in Danny’s life.

  He plopped down in the rocker next to Edward with the heaviness of an old person. “They must both hate me.”

  Edward offered a wry smile. “Mind you, Rachel thinks she hates you, but she really doesn’t. She’s too much of a healer to hate, but I’d be lying if I told you your coming back hasn’t taken a toll on her.”

  In a gesture just like his brother’s, Gabe scraped both hands through his hair. “I can only imagine.”

  “She went through a tough time when she came home after medical school, and it’s taken years for her to feel as if she’s done enough to make up for her wrongdoings.”

  Gabe was surprised by Edward’s lack of anger. He couldn’t begin to imagine what it must have been like to come back to Wolf Creek with a child born out of wedlock. No wonder she’d been so upset when he’d opened his eyes and seen her standing at his bedside. What had seemed like the culmination of a dream to him had been a nightmare to her.

  “I’m sorry. I know it isn’t enough and never will be, and I have no excuse, except that I wasn’t a very good person back then. I think I’ve changed the past few months. I pray I have.”

  Edward smiled. “Oh, there’s no doubt about that, and Rachel knows it. The forgiveness will come, I promise.”

  Gabe leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thighs, his hands clasped between his knees. “What about Danny? How did he take the news?”

  “A funny thing, that,” Edward mused. “Danny has been drawn to you from the first, almost as if he felt a connection between you, or maybe because he could picture you as the father he never had. I don’t know. He’s been asking questions about you ever since you arrived.”

  “Like what?” Gabe asked, both pleased and surprised.

  “Like what you were like as a boy, what you enjoyed doing, that sort of thing.”

  Gabe’s mouth twisted into a disparaging smile. “And what did you say that made me sound...decent?”

  “I told him you were plenty ornery, always getting into things you shouldn’t and going places you had no business going...all pretty innocent.”

  “Thank you.” They were silent for a moment before Gabe raked up the courage to say, “And what about you, sir?”

  “Me?” Edward looked surprised.

  Gabe’s eyes met Edward’s. “You must hate me for what I did to your daughter.”

  “Hate? No. I was disappointed. Heartsick. Selfishly, I thought about what people would say about m
e and her mother and how we’d brought her up.” A crooked smile claimed Edward’s lips. “Human nature, I suppose. If you’re looking for someone to cast the first stone, you’ll have to look elsewhere. The truth is that no one is perfect. We all make mistakes, some more than others. You and Rachel have made things right with God. If He’s forgiven you, how can I do less?”

  “Thank you.” Gabe heard a noise at the screen door and saw Danny standing there. “Do you mind if I have a minute with Danny?” he asked.

  “Certainly.” Edward stood with his canes and went to the doorway. “Danny,” he called, “your father wants to talk to you.”

  Wearing an expression that straddled the fence between apprehension and anticipation, Danny came out, held the door open for his grandfather and went to sit on the step. Gabe rose and sat down next to him. Where to start?

  Before he could decide on how best to approach the subject, Danny said, “Mrs. VanSickle isn’t very nice, is she?”

  Gabe shot him a sharp sideways look, a bit surprised by the boy’s grasp of the woman’s character. Though he would like to say just what he thought about Sarah, he realized this was his first chance to exert a positive influence. “I think Mrs. VanSickle is a very unhappy woman, but you’re right—many of the things she says and does are hurtful.”

  “You’re not mad at her?”

  “No.” Gabe was a bit surprised to realize his heart was filled with so much regret that there was no room for anger.

  “What about Mama? Are you mad at her?”

  “Why would I be mad at her?” Gabe asked, taken aback by the question.

  Danny looked away. “For not telling you about me.”

  Reaching out, Gabe turned Danny’s head back toward him. “I left before she had a chance to tell me, and she didn’t know how to find me. The truth is that I shouldn’t have left her the way I did. I can’t be mad at her for something that wasn’t her fault.”

  “Why did you go? Where did you go when you left her?”

  “I went to—” Gabe searched his memory “—to New Orleans, I believe. Why did I go? That’s easy. I’d been in St. Louis for a few months, and back then, that was a long time for me to stay in one spot. I was ready to move on to new places and new people. I was always looking for something different back then, Danny. The next fun place, the next good time. I suppose I was looking for happiness.”