“Tori, I—”
“Can we call him? Make sure he’s all right?”
They couldn’t, of course. “If we take his attention away from his job, we might put people in danger, Tori. Including him.”
Tori’s dark eyes searched hers. She met the child’s fear with a strength and resolve she’d thought long gone. Tori’s gaze darted from the television screen to Gianna and back again. “How will we know he’s all right? What if he’s hurt, Gianna?”
“We pray.” Using the remote control, she switched off the coverage and grabbed Tori’s hands. “Borrowing trouble is never in anyone’s best interests. We’ll pray for those hurt and for those trying to be peacemakers.” Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...”
Tori’s shaky voice joined hers. Gianna held tight to the girl’s hands, hoping and praying peace would win the day.
“There is trouble?” Carmen came into the room and appraised their situation with a quick look.
“A police situation in Clearwater.” Gianna let her lifted eyebrows explain the gravity of the situation.
“Then soup would be good,” Carmen declared. “And brownies, they are quick and delicious when warm. You two can do the baking.” Carmen crossed to the kitchen with typical quick, decisive movements. “I will cook. And then we can deliver them to the substation for when the men and women return.”
“Dad loves peanut-butter brownies.”
“Well, who doesn’t?” Carmen smiled at the girl and reached into a cupboard. She withdrew four boxes of brownie mix and nodded toward the table. “I’ll use the counter for my work. The table is all yours. And if we get a customer, we will take turns in the store.”
Busy hands.
Carmen Bianchi was a champion of busy hands, and her ploy worked. With an occasional break for customers, they had a big pot of chicken-noodle soup and two half-sheet trays of peanut-butter brownies ready in just over two hours. The sheriff substation was located outside the current restricted zone, and the empty parking lot when they pulled in said the deputies were still out in force.
A lieutenant greeted them as they came through the door. “Can I help you, ladies?”
“If you would carry the soup pot in, that would be good!” Carmen took him to the car while Gianna and Tori set up the trays of brownies on an empty side table in the back room. Once done, Tori placed the sign she’d made to welcome the deputies back to the station: We Love You Guys! Thank You For Keeping Us Safe!
She’d used a rainbow array of markers, distinctly feminine, and signed her name at the bottom right. When the lieutenant lugged in the twelve-quart pot of soup, the chocolate-filled table drew his attention. He smiled. “They’ll be grateful, ladies. I promise.”
“Gianna?” Carmen moved closer, solicitous, covering the bases as usual, the perfect policeman’s wife even this late in the game. “Are you all right?”
She was, Gianna realized. After years of hurting and avoiding anything to do with police work, the sights and smells of a substation seemed familiar and comfortable. Her father had toted her into their mountain barracks on his days off. And she’d often met Michael there when tight scheduling didn’t allow him time to come home after a shift.
She thought she’d hate coming here, but the normalcy of the small and neatly appointed headquarters calmed her. “Fine, Gram. We’ll head back home.” She turned and nodded to the lieutenant. “We know you’re busy.”
His face said her words were an understatement, but Tori’s presence kept them from saying more. “Thank you so much.”
“God bless you.” Carmen shook his hand roundly before they left, and as they were driving back home, Tori’s phone buzzed an incoming text: All well. Home late. Love you.
Gianna fought tears of relief as Tori recited the message out loud. Sneaking a glance toward Carmen, she saw a similar gleam in her grandmother’s eye.
Seth had sounded an “all’s well,” letting them know he was okay.
Her heart sang with joy, and as Tori texted her father about the brownies, Gianna realized two things. First, she’d made it through a police crisis without falling apart.
And second, she never wanted Seth Campbell to have to face another without knowing he was beloved. Which meant she’d better come to terms with her past and pave a new road for her future.
* * *
“A winter-storm warning? In April?”
Carmen directed Gianna’s attention to the television set where the weather crew was taking particular delight in the anomaly of the late-winter storm barreling toward them on the cusp of an Alberta clipper.
“But how can we get to Edgerton for Easter?”
Carmen sent her a look and Gianna slipped into the chair. “We can’t.”
“Not worth the risk, even if you weren’t pregnant. They’re talking nearly two feet of snow in some areas, poor visibility and drifts blocking east/west highways.”
“Which says I-90 and I-86 are out of the question.” Gianna stared at the set, then swung back to her grandmother. “Any chance of it missing New York?”
“There is not. Do you want to call them or shall I do it?”
Gianna reached for the phone, but an incoming call from her mother beat her to it. “There’s a storm coming in,” Sofia reported quickly. “I hate to miss you on Easter, but I don’t want you and Mother traveling in a storm. Once things clear up, I’ll come see you again, okay?”
Her mother sounded delightfully normal. And sweetly protective, looking out for her daughter and her two unborn grandchildren. “You don’t mind, Mom?”
“Mind? Of course not. I’d be frantic thinking of you on the roads in the snow. That doesn’t mean I won’t miss you, but it’s only one Easter Sunday out of so many. And next year we’ll have the babies to dress. And I will buy a bonnet for my granddaughter—”
“Which she’ll most likely pull off and toss to the floor,” Gianna interjected.
“No matter, I will get one picture of her with it and be happy. You stay there, I will come and cook lamb for you next week. I love you, Gi-Gi.”
Delight threaded its way up Gianna’s spine. Her mother hadn’t used that childhood nickname in years, a name her father had coined when she was a baby. “I love you, too, Mom.”
She hung up the phone and stared at the western horizon. The distant band of gray seemed innocuous now, but if the meteorologists were correct, by tomorrow morning they’d be in the thick of a storm that would then bounce off the coast, spiral around and rehit them on Easter Sunday as a nor’easter.
“A quiet Easter in the village,” Carmen remarked. She pointed to the prettiness of yellow-and-white daffodils edging houses and shops dotting Lower Lake Road, Overlook Drive and Main Street. “By the time the snow melts, they’ll be gone, so we’d better get our fill of looking now.”
“Gianna?”
“Seth.” Gianna moved to the kitchen door and wondered if he read the delight in her eyes. “What’s up?”
“Snow.” He pointed west. “Coming quick and heavy by morning. I know you were supposed to go back home tomorrow, and I’m on my way to work, but I wanted to make sure you saw the forecast.”
“You were worried about me.”
His shrug said he wouldn’t pretend otherwise.
“I’ve canceled the trip home.” When he looked relieved, she added, “Gram and I are going to have a quiet Easter right here.”
“Actually, I was hoping you’d join Tori and me at my parents’ for Easter dinner.” He hooked a thumb toward the far side of the lake. “There will be a bunch of local Campbells there, but the storm is keeping some away. Having you and Carmen there would make the table seem fuller.”
Kind. Sweet. Sensitive. And to-die-for good-lo
oking. “Seth, we’d love to come.”
Her warp-speed reply deepened his grin. “I don’t have to convince you?”
“No.”
“Beg?”
She laughed out loud. “Not in the slightest.”
“Progress.” He tipped his deputy’s hat with the curve of his pointer finger and sent her an approving grin, a totally manly gesture that made her think of old movies and ride-the-range cowboys. “I like that, ma’am.”
“Me, too.”
* * *
“Well, now we know that Christmas will be quite beautiful here,” Carmen chirped as they walked to the church for Easter services. Thick, wet snow clogged the old-style sidewalks. The plows had cleaned the roadways, but the walkways would stay impassable. And tomorrow’s weather promised rain and mid-forties, so the return to winter would be short-lived.
“Dad, this is unbelievable.” Tori gazed around the snow-filled town and made a face. “Have you ever seen this much snow on Easter?”
“Once. When I was little. We sledded down Cranberry Hill on Easter afternoon. After the egg hunt.”
“Can we do that today?”
He laughed and slung an arm around Tori’s shoulders. “If you’d like. The twins and Aiden will be at Grandma’s house. They might get a kick out of sledding on Easter. Gianna?” He turned her way and hiked a brow. “What about up in Edgerton? Snow on Easter?”
“A dusting,” she replied. She waved a hand to the snow-covered roofs, the heavy drifts slanting east to west. “Nothing like the lake effect you get here.”
“It’s not a deal-breaker?”
“For?” She met the question in his eyes straight on.
“Staying?”
Staying here, near Seth, forging new paths in this cozy, lakeside town. It would take a whole lot more than snow to send her packing. “Definitely staying. Right, Gram?”
Carmen waved a greeting to Tina and started up the snow-framed church steps. “Without a doubt.”
As they stepped into the white clapboard church, a lone trumpet called the service to order, the sweet notes proclaiming Christ’s empty tomb.
The tones rang simple and true, a note-by-note musical tribute. As voices joined in the second time around, Gianna felt the press of Seth’s hand on her lower back. She turned.
He held out a book of hymns and leaned in. “We never have enough, it seems, and it’s even worse on holidays. Personally, I think it’s the reverend’s way of getting folks to talk together. Sing together. Pray together.”
“Does it work?” Gianna whispered.
Seth held up the book in his hand and smiled when she reached out to grasp her side. “It appears so.”
Chapter Seventeen
Densely forested hills surrounding the eastern shore pushed most of the Easter-day snow to the far side of the lake. “A natural windbreak with a nor’easter,” Seth explained as he parked the car in his parents’ shoveled driveway. “But Friday’s snow came from the west and dumped on this shoreline big-time before going up mountain, so it all evens out in the end.”
“An equal-opportunity snowstorm.” Carmen and Tori climbed out of the backseat as Gianna retrieved a cookie tray from the hatch of Seth’s SUV. “You still thinking of sledding, Tori?”
“I can’t wait,” she exclaimed. The pure joy in her young face had come a long way from the woebegone child left in the cold at Seth’s back door. “It’s light out until almost seven-thirty, and that never happens in the winter.”
“Good point.” Seth pretended to be matter-of-fact, but Gianna sensed the growing satisfaction within him.
“I want to go sledding, too,” Gianna added. “It would be great fun.”
“Next year,” Seth told her, sounding gentle and protective. He took Gianna’s arm to keep her steady on the slick surface and added, “We’ll make it a family outing.” He grazed her rounded form with a meaningful look and reached ahead of them to pull open the storm door. “And while it wasn’t necessary for you ladies to bring anything, I can’t wait to dive into those cookies.”
“Life’s short. Eat dessert first.” Gianna exchanged a knowing grin with Tori.
“Don’t listen to her, Tori Elizabeth. Veggies are crucial to life.”
Tori laughed as she propped the door open. “I like Gianna’s way better, Dad.”
“And why wouldn’t you?” he muttered, teasing her. “I think you consider cookies and cake a foundation food group all by themselves. But if that’s roast lamb I smell, I’m about the happiest guy alive right now.”
“It’s that easy?” Gianna teased as Carmen preceded her up the stairs. “An afternoon of good food puts you over the top?”
He bent and brought his mouth close to her ear. Really close. Whisper close. “The company I’m keeping puts me over the top,” he answered softly, so no one else could hear. “The food’s just a nice addition.”
His face, so dear. The rumble of his voice, deep and distinct. His gaze on hers as he straightened, saying so much in the silence of an exchanged look.
“Gianna, let me help you with that.” Seth’s father reached out to take the cookie tray from her hands. “You might think I’m doing this to be nice while you lose the coat, but it’s really to give me an advantage over my sons and grandchildren when they see this tray. Are those little cannoli I see?”
“They are.”
“Well, you’ve won this man’s heart.” Charlie nipped a cannoli from the tray as he set it on the old oak server in the dining room and took a generous bite.
Gianna watched, waiting, not removing her jacket until the verdict was in.
Charlie’s grin said she’d done well.
Jenny rolled her eyes, reached for Gianna’s jacket and made maternal noises over the breadth of her belly as Seth helped her release one stubborn sleeve. Gianna looped her hands around her tummy and met Jenny’s eye. “Huge, right?”
“Delightfully normal for two beautiful babies, I’d say. And you look wonderful, Gianna. Oh, Cass, can you hang Gianna’s jacket on a hook? Or in the closet? Anyplace you find room, actually.”
Cassidy. Gianna pivoted and came face-to-face with one of the most striking women she’d ever seen. Adding tall and willow-whip thin to the descriptive mix made her long to see her feet again, but while Cassidy looked nothing like her siblings or parents, the smile she flashed Gianna was Campbell friendly, through and through.
She disappeared with Gianna’s and Seth’s coats, then reappeared within seconds and extended her hand. “I’m Cass.”
“Gianna, my sister Cassidy. Cassidy, my neighbors and tenants, Gianna Costanza and her grandmother, Carmen Bianchi.”
“Nice to meet you.” Cass took Gianna’s hand and pulled her forward. “Come on out here. It’s not quite as crazy as the kitchen at the moment, but give Mom fifteen minutes and it will all wind down to some degree of normalcy.”
“I’d love to help.” Carmen arched a brow to Seth’s mother. “Back East I was used to doing the big dinners, organizing, planning. It’s different now, just the two of us, so if you wouldn’t mind?” She swept the kitchen a hopeful glance.
“I’d love a hand out here.” Jenny shooed the younger people toward the door. “Go. Talk. Relax. Carmen and I will load up the buffet in a few minutes.”
“Not that I mind relaxing after this past week’s never-ending shifts, but are you sure you don’t need me, Mom?” Cass lingered near the pass-through, waiting for her mother’s reply.
“I’ll grab you for cleanup,” Jenny promised.
“Addie and I can double-team the dishes.”
A shorter young woman stepped up into the living room from the enclosed front porch. “Hey, if Mom feeds us, I’ll be glad to split cleanup with you. I’m so sick of anything that tastes like my own cooking that I came up early to
beat the snow just so I could eat real food.”
“Addie, this is—”
“Gianna.” The petite Asian woman filled in the blank before Seth could say more. “I’ve heard all about you from Tori. Seth brought her down to Bonaventure a few weeks ago, and all she kept talking about was Gianna this and Gianna that. I’m the youngest Campbell.”
“And the shortest.” Seth rumpled his sister’s hair and she made a face at him.
“You’re such a kid, Seth. Hey, you’d better double-check your Lego castle on the porch. Somebody might have touched it since you were here last. The pieces could be out of order.”
“You’re funny, Addie. For a short chick.”
“Uncle Seth lets us play with his Legos all the time!” Aiden streaked in just then, followed by the twins, and the burst of five-year-old energy hiked the noise level.
Addie hugged the kids, directed them toward Seth’s pristine castle, then flashed him a grin. “I’ll fix it later. Promise.”
“If it keeps them occupied before the egg hunt, I’m okay with it.”
“What a beautiful family.” Carmen’s voice drew attention to her vantage point in the dining room. She smiled at the two young women surrounded by blue-eyed, fair-haired Campbell men. “You are blessed to have each other. And so many!”
“My own personal United Nations,” Jenny quipped as she carried a tray of twice-baked potatoes to the server. “Our families had been pretty much Celtic for way too long. It was time to mix things up a bit.”
“No argument here.” Cass laughed and chucked Seth on the arm. “It was almost always nice to have big brothers stand up for you.”
“And scare your dates away.” Addie sent Luke and Seth scolding looks.
“Only the unworthy ones,” Luke countered smoothly. “Which was ninety-nine percent of them, Addie.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“I think we’re ready.” Jenny glanced back at the kitchen, nodded and motioned to the elongated table. “Cass, can you call your father in, please? And Rainey? Then we can join hands for grace.”
Loving the Lawman Page 19
