“As quiet as you’d expect Comfort Creek to be,” he replied with a shrug. “Come on, Zoey. Let’s start the pile.”
The afternoon sun shone down on the yard, warming the day just a little bit. Harper stood back and watched as Gabe raked big swaths of leaves together into a pile and Zoey launched herself into them before they were even worthy of the jump.
“No, no,” Gabe laughed. “You’ve got to wait! Stand there—don’t move.”
And he raked up another four lines of leaves before Zoey couldn’t hold herself back anymore and came careening toward them. Gabe caught her with one arm about six inches above the pile and hauled her back.
“I said wait.” He laughed. “You’ll see. When the pile is good and big, it’ll be way more fun.”
Gabe carried Zoey over to Harper and deposited her into Harper’s arms. Zoey squealed and laughed, wriggling to be put down.
“Wait!” Harper laughed, and she put Zoey down, but caught her by the coat.
Gabe raked for a couple of minutes—those strong shoulders going to work as he pulled together a pile of crunchy leaves. He raked with a rare enthusiasm she hadn’t seen in this man until now. And when he’d gotten most of the leaves into a nice, tall pile, he shot Harper a grin.
“Okay, let her go,” he said, and Zoey took off toward the pile with a shriek of delight. She did a belly flop into the center, then flipped over and flailed.
“See?” Gabe said, grinning down at her. “Better, right?”
“Yup!” Zoey agreed. “Do it again!”
Gabe laughed and shook his head. “You’re a lot of work, you know.”
“I’m worth it!” Zoey shot back, and Harper felt tears mist her eyes. Yes, Zoey was absolutely worth it, and she’d done something right if the girl knew it, too.
“How about you do some raking,” Gabe said, handing her the rake.
“No way!” Zoey shook her head. “That’s not my job. My job is the jumping. You do the raking.”
“What if I want to jump?” Gabe asked with a mock seriousness.
“Tough!” Zoey retorted. “Come on, Gabe! You gotta rake!”
Gabe chuckled and started raking again, this time piling the leaves on top of Zoey, who still lay in the flattened pile.
The next hour went on like that, and Harper took her turn raking, too. When they were done, the yard was no neater than it had been before, but Zoey’s cheeks were red with cold and exercise, and Gabe looked a whole lot more relaxed, too. They were getting somewhere, and for a few minutes in the front yard, they’d felt like a family.
Who said they had to be like everyone else? When a mom and a dad loved a little girl—that was a family. And they were getting a start at it.
“I’m cold,” Zoey said at last. “Can we have a snack?”
“Sure.” Harper turned to Gabe. “Are you coming in?”
Gabe shook his head. “No, I’ve got more to investigate. I’d better get back to it.”
She nodded, a feeling of disappointment washing over her. She liked having Gabe around—but it went deeper than that. It soothed a part of her heart that she hadn’t known existed until now. It was the part of her that swelled with warmth when she watched Gabe playing with his little girl in the leaves.
Harper opened the front door for Zoey, and the girl clattered inside to take off her shoes and coat. Gabe stayed outside.
“Are you staying in tonight?” Gabe asked.
“Why?” Harper asked with a small smile. “Do I have to report that, or something?”
Gabe smiled, but it didn’t reach those steely eyes. “I’ll put it this way. If you promise to stay in, I’ll get more sleep tonight.”
Harper swallowed. This was serious, and she shouldn’t be joking.
“Yes, we’re staying in. We have big plans to bake cookies. My parents are coming by tonight, so...”
Gabe nodded. “Good. That makes me feel better.”
“We’re making cookies?” Zoey demanded, her little face appearing in the open door behind them.
“Yes, we’re making cookies!” Harper chuckled.
“Gabe, are you okay?” she asked. He’d relaxed with Zoey in the leaves, but he was looking stony and reserved again.
“Yeah. I’m good.” But it wasn’t convincing. “I’ll patrol your street today, and around your store. You stay home tonight, and hopefully the thieves will try the store again and we’ll catch them.”
He made it sound so simple. Like picking up pizza. She forced a smile.
“Okay. We’ll stay in.”
Gabe stepped back onto the grass. “Inside. Locked door. Then I leave.”
He had a way of making her feel both safe and uncertain at the same time. She knew that Gabe was going to do whatever it took to keep them out of harm, but something was wrong, and he wasn’t opening up.
She didn’t have much choice, though, so she stepped inside and scooped up Zoey’s coat from the floor where she’d left it. When Harper looked back, Gabe hadn’t moved a muscle—arms crossed over that broad chest. He looked...sad.
She raised a hand in a wave. “Thank you, Gabe.”
“Yeah. No problem.”
Harper closed the door and slid the deadbolt into place, then looked out the window to see Gabe headed back toward his car. Gabe wasn’t okay, but he was putting it aside to take care of them.
“Mommy?” Zoey’s voice pulled Harper away from the glass.
“Yes, sweetie?”
“Cookies?” Zoey had the look on her face that Harper knew was a dead imitation of her when she was reminding Zoey of something she’d forgotten...mostly brushing her teeth. She chuckled.
“Yes, yes. I’ve got a tube of cookie dough in the fridge. Wash your hands, kiddo.”
Harper’s parents came to visit that evening, and brought her car back from Blessings Bridal—for which she was incredibly grateful. It was a relief to have her parents here to distract her from worrying all evening. They had pizza—an easy solution that reminded Harper of happier days when the Kemps would all be together on a brisk fall evening like this one.
While Harper and her father discussed the situation, Harper’s mother, Grandma Georgia to Zoey, played games with her granddaughter on the living room floor.
“But they didn’t get into the store,” her father was saying, keeping his voice low. “Something must have scared them off.”
“True,” Harper agreed. “But no one noticed, either!”
“Neighbors aren’t what they used to be,” her father said with a shake of his head. “Used to be, you could count on the entire street to snoop into your business! A loud sneeze would get everyone’s attention.”
Harper chuckled at the imagery. “Well, once this is taken care of, we’re going to upgrade the security system and hire more staff so that no one works alone.”
Her father nodded. “And what about Gabe? How is he doing with—you know?”
She did know. “He said that he’s decided to go back to the city and be a more distanced part of Zoey’s life.”
Her father raised his eyebrows, but remained silent.
“I don’t think that’s a bad thing, Dad. We were afraid he’d try to take custody of her, so considering that he’s willing to leave well enough alone—”
“It’s easier for you,” her father replied.
“This isn’t about me, and I know it.” She sighed. “It’s about Zoey. But fatherhood was a big shock. He never planned on having kids. He has a lot of issues to sort through, and he doesn’t want to be a hands-on father.”
“He’s missing out,” her father said sadly.
It wasn’t just Gabe who was missing out, but Zoey, too. Harper had seen Gabe and Zoey playing together in the leaves, and they’d started to bond. Not only that, Gabe wasn’t quite as bad with kids as he seemed to think. He’d been every bit the dad that afternoon
—right down to the protective streak when it came to Zoey’s safety. But Harper’s heart was heavy, too...
“As a man, it’s hard to process becoming a father—even when you planned it,” her father said quietly. “Fatherhood is a different beast. In every other role in your life, you’re expected to be tough, strong, rugged...but being a dad puts that on its head. You’ve got to be tender, gentle, quiet...you have to nurture. It’s hard to switch gears.”
“Especially with little girls,” Harper agreed.
“Oh, that’s for sure. I tried to get all rough and tumble with you exactly once. You screamed at me, cried and stomped off to your mother. I felt like a monster.”
Harper chuckled. “You’re an amazing dad.”
“I grew into it. Gabe hasn’t had the chance to grow into having a four-year-old daughter.”
Harper still couldn’t forget the sadness in Gabe’s eyes when he drove away that afternoon. Such deep, murky emotion.
“He seems...sad,” Harper confessed.
“He’s planning on walking away from his little girl. That’s bound to break a heart—even if he pretends it doesn’t.”
“He’s trying to protect Zoey and me, but I’m worried about him, Dad.”
“Feeling sorry for the guy, are you?” Her father smiled ruefully. “That’s a new one. You’ve never been a fan of Gabe Banks.”
“I was never a fan of Andrea lying to him, either,” Harper retorted.
“I know, I know... Has he turned out to be human, after all?”
“It appears so.” She sighed, her gaze moving toward the doorway that led to the living room. Zoey’s laughter filtered into the kitchen—fueled by cookies and the bag of chips her parents brought along with him. Zoey was loved, but would they be enough for her? A father—a real dad—he’d be incredibly hard to replace.
“You’ll be co-parenting with him for the rest of your life,” her father said thoughtfully. “It’s good he’s turned out to be human.”
“He has no one to talk to,” Harper said after a moment.
“Oh, that can’t be true,” her father replied.
“I’m not joking, Dad. He doesn’t have any support here. He’s keeping to himself. He only ever had his grandma here, and she’s gone, so...”
His grandmother was also a different person than any of them suspected. But that wasn’t her tale to tell.
“He has you, Harper.”
She looked over at her father in surprise.
“You’re raising a child together—and whatever that balance is going to be, you’ll be in each other’s lives for the next...forever.” Her father heaved a sigh. “Harper, I’ve never raised a child with someone I wasn’t in love with, but that act of child rearing with another person—it’s beyond friendship. It’s like an ally in battle. You’re in the trenches together. You’re making plans, trying to out-think this little person you’re responsible for. Love or not—that’s a relationship. And you’ll be a support for each other that no one else can be.”
Gabe wasn’t quite as alone as he imagined—her dad was right about that. And if he needed someone to help him through the shock of this, who was better than her—the one raising his daughter?
“What would you think about babysitting tonight?” Harper asked.
“You going to go check on him?” her father asked.
“Someone has to.” She smiled ruefully. “You’re right. He and I are going to be allies, at the very least. We’re Zoey’s parents. So we’d better start acting like it.”
“Your mother and I would be glad to spoil our granddaughter rotten.” Her father smiled indulgently. “Do what you have to do, Harper. We’ve got your back.”
* * *
Gabe could hear the toddler crying through the floorboards. Bryce was downstairs in the kitchen—Gabe knew that much. And little Emily was howling. Outside, the sun had set, and Gabe had come upstairs to his bedroom to read. Normally, Bryce and Lily stayed in the guesthouse, but for whatever reason, the toddler seemed to be in the main house today.
Gabe rubbed his hands over his face. He couldn’t think like this. Kids crying...he wasn’t the kind of guy who dealt with this very well. Dads seemed to roll with it. Him? His head was pounding.
“I’ve got to get out of here,” he muttered to himself, tossing his Bible onto his bed and grabbing his jacket off the back of a chair. He’d get a coffee, or just drive. Anything was better than this.
As Gabe came down the staircase, the crying came toward him, and he found himself face-to-face with Bryce.
“Hi,” Gabe said awkwardly.
“Sorry, this isn’t ideal,” Bryce said with a wince. “I’m going to start dinner, and she’s got an upset tummy. Don’t you, Emily?”
Emily’s cries stopped for a moment, and she hiccuped. Then the tears started once more, and Bryce adjusted the little girl in his arms. He seemed so natural, as if a howling toddler was no big deal.
“Where’s Lily?” Gabe asked.
“She took her little brothers to a movie,” Bryce replied. “So I’m manning the fort.”
“And left you to babysit?” Gabe asked with an awkward laugh.
“This isn’t babysitting,” Bryce replied. “This is parenting.”
As if on cue, Emily promptly vomited all over the floor. Gabe closed his eyes for a moment, grossed out.
“And this—” He felt a small, warm body thrust into his arms “—is babysitting. Thanks, man. Just hold her for a couple of minutes while I wipe up the mess.”
And Gabe was paying good money for this pleasure. He squinted down into the toddler’s face and she smiled weakly.
“Feel better now?” Gabe asked dryly.
The little girl leaned her head against his shoulder and sighed.
“You aren’t upset to be left on your own with the sick kid?” Gabe asked as Bryce came back into the room with a spray bottle, a bucket and a cloth.
“Nah.” Bryce put down the bucket and wrung out the cloth. “A hundred good days don’t add up to one bad day.”
“What does that mean?”
“I mean, at the end of the day, holding her when she’s sick means a whole lot more than pushing her on a swing. It’s about the bonding. The hard days give you way more points than the good days do. In a little girl’s heart, at least.”
Those words stung. He’d be leaving all those hard days for Harper.
“You get better at it,” Bryce said, spraying some disinfectant onto the freshly wiped floor. “Don’t look so spooked.”
“Yeah, right.” Gabe tried to smile. He wasn’t going to get better at it. He was going to back out and let Harper continue with her plans. For the most part, at least.
There was a knock at the front door, and Bryce went to open it. Gabe looked down at Emily’s flushed little face, and he wondered what Zoey had been like at this age. It would have been Andrea holding her when she was sick...and maybe Harper would have lent a hand sometimes. But he hadn’t even known that she existed...or that there was a point system where he was severely behind.
“Hi, Harper,” Bryce said. “Come on in.”
Harper? Gabe looked up in guilty surprise. Where the guilt came from he wasn’t even sure, until he realized he was standing here holding someone else’s daughter.
“I’ll be back in a second,” Bryce said, heading back to the kitchen with his cleaning supplies.
Gabe eyed Harper for a second. “I thought you were staying in?”
“Changed my mind.” She shrugged. “Looks like you made a friend.”
Gabe looked down at the little girl in his arms. “I’m, uh, just holding her until all the vomit is cleaned up.”
Harper laughed softly. “Oh, a sick tummy?” She reached out and touched Emily’s cheek. “Poor girl.”
Bryce returned to the foyer and scooped his daughter out o
f Gabe’s arms. “Thanks, man. Carry on with whatever you were going to do. Much appreciated.”
And without another word, Bryce headed back into the kitchen, talking softly to his daughter about having her first taste of ginger ale, and wondering if Mommy would have a good reason against it.
Gabe looked over at Harper helplessly. “That was intense.”
“That?” Harper shook her head. “It’s vomit. You’ll see a lot of that.” Then she stopped, her smile slipping. “Or not. I just meant—”
“Kids. Yeah, I get it.” He sighed. This wasn’t helping. He didn’t need more reminders about how he was failing. He was pretty clear about that part. It was like his grandmother’s voice drilling into his skull all over again. He was a walking, breathing disappointment to women countywide.
“What do you need?” he asked. She’d come here for a reason.
“Oh...I just—” Harper’s cheeks tinged pink. “I was worried about you.”
“Me? You’re the one defying police orders.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, yeah. But my dad pointed out that having paternity sprung on a guy can be a pretty intense experience. And I’m your partner in this—we’re Zoey’s parents. So I thought I’d come in a gesture of—”
“Defiance of a police officer’s solid advice?” He couldn’t help the teasing smile that twitched at the corner of his lips.
“Friendship.” She smiled weakly. “We’re in this together, Gabe. However we sort it all out—it’s you and me. We’re the adults in the situation. And if we do this right, we’ll always be able to rely on each other.”
“Starting now, I take it?” he asked, trying not to sound quite as bitter as he felt.
“That was the thought.” Her lips parted as if to say something more, and then she pressed them shut. Her hair was pulled away from her face making her look softer, somehow more open. She was right—he could use a friend about now. He glanced back toward the kitchen. Bryce was busy with his daughter. Parenting—he’d been set straight on that one.
“You want to go outside and talk?” he asked after a beat of silence.
“I really do.” She smiled gratefully, and Gabe nodded toward the door.
“After you,” he said, reaching for the doorknob and pulling the door open.
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