Daddy Next Door (Hometown Reunion)

by Ginger Chambers

  Another awkward moment had occurred immediately after Gabe pulled the Explorer into his drive. He’d invited her to his house, but she’d refused. She could tell that he didn’t really mean it—that he needed time on his own, just as she did. Later they could come together and talk, but at that point the ceremony was still too close, the promises to love, honor and cherish.

  Someone knocked on the back door, drawing Raine from her reflection. She assumed automatically that it was Gabe, forgetting to use the private taps. But it wasn’t. When Raine opened the door, it was Patricia Sikes who stood on the patio.

  Raine recovered quickly, even though the visitor’s identity was a jolt. She kept her smile in place. “Patricia!” she exclaimed.

  “So you are back in town!” Patricia cried, reaching out to give her a quick hug.

  “Yes...yes, I am,” Raine agreed.

  Patricia’s eyes were bright with interest. “I heard, but I just couldn’t believe it! You and Gabe! I wanted to be the first to congratulate you! Am I? Am I the first?”

  Raine’s heart sank further. Word was out, not only about her return to Tyler, but about the marriage. “Yes,” Raine confirmed, “you are.”

  Patricia tried to peek beyond Raine into the house. “Is Gabe here? I thought you both might be over at his place, but when I didn’t get an answer there, I came over here. I wanted to see you quickly so I wouldn’t interrupt...well, you know. I didn’t, did I?”

  Raine had known Patricia Sikes when she was still Patricia Matthews, long before she’d married Richard Sikes, the insurance man’s son. Raine and Patricia had never truly liked each other, although both pretended differently on the surface, for the sake of small-town convention.

  Raine’s fingers tightened on the doorknob. “As a matter of fact...” she began. Let Patricia think what she wanted, then maybe she would leave.

  “Well, I won’t stay,” Patricia said in a rush. “All I wanted was to say hello.” She tipped her head. “I suppose this means you’re moving back to Tyler? I can’t imagine Gabe going to live in New York. Are you, ah, planning to start a family soon? I have two children now, both boys. They’re a handful, let me tell you, but I wouldn’t trade them for the world. My suggestion is that you should start a family right away. Why wait?” she finished brightly.

  Her entire line of questioning had been dripping with distasteful curiosity. It was everything Raine could do not to slam the door in her pert, petty little face. She watched as Patricia hurried away, obviously bursting to pass on the information she’d gleaned.

  “Who was that?” Gabe asked. He had crossed the yards without Raine noticing.

  “Patricia Matthews, or rather, Sikes. She wanted to know if I’m finally going to admit I have no talent, and to see if I’m already pregnant.”

  “She asked you that?” Gabe was incredulous.

  “In her own way.” Raine pulled him inside, just in case Patricia might look back. “Gabe, the whole town’s going to know about the wedding by morning.”

  Gabe smiled slightly. “I expect it will. It’s not something we can keep a secret. If it was, there’d have been no need to—”

  “But I didn’t want it to happen yet! I wanted... We need time to get used to the idea ourselves.”

  “It’s probably best to get it over with. You can’t hide in your mother’s house forever, Raine.”

  “But it will look so... And you—”

  “You aren’t going to give me that bit about my reputation, are you?”

  His blue eyes danced and Raine made herself relax. What he said was true. The news had to come out sooner or later.

  “Where were you just now?” she asked. “Patricia said she tried your place first. You weren’t hiding in your house, too, were you?” she teased.

  “Getting you this.” He brought out the hand he’d been holding behind his back. “A woman should always have flowers on her wedding day. Even if the wedding...” He stopped. “They’re a little late, but...”

  “Oh, Gabe, they’re beautiful!” Raine exclaimed as she accepted the small bouquet of pale pink roses. The blooms were buds, barely open, still waiting to fulfill their promise.

  He shrugged, but she could tell that he was pleased by her reaction.

  She rummaged in a kitchen cabinet for a vase, filled it with water and added the flowers. She touched one of the creamy petals and looked at him, her eyes alive with affection and gratitude. For the flowers, for all that he had done.

  “There is one thing,” he said a moment later. “If people know we’re married...isn’t it going to look funny if you stay here?”

  “Is it?” she murmured, but she already knew the answer. Marriage to Gabe provided a refuge, but it also brought with it certain expected behaviors.

  He nodded. “You can use Dad’s room...at least until he comes back. After that, we’ll find someplace else to live. The housing market in Tyler is wide open right now, what with the F and M being shut down. Lots of people are putting their houses up for sale.”

  “I don’t want to deprive you of your home, Gabe.”

  He chuckled. “You won’t be depriving me. I’m right at thirty years old. I should have my own place by now. It’s unusual that Dad and I get on so well we can stand to live together.”

  “Still—”

  “Stop worrying. We’ll face that problem when we come to it.”

  Raine suddenly frowned. “What am I going to tell my mom, Gabe? I hadn’t thought before, but... And what about your dad? Do we tell them the truth or—”

  “Let’s don’t worry about that right now, either.”

  Raine agreed, but she remained uneasy. Her mother would see through their falsehood in a second. She knew her daughter far too well to be put off by any kind of pretense. Raine might be able to fool other people when she wanted, but she could never fool her mother. There weren’t enough acting classes in the world for that.

  Raine traveled back across the yards, Gabe following close behind her with her suitcase.

  As they passed the rental car parked in his drive he said, “I’ll turn it in for you later this afternoon, if you like. I’m going to Sugar Creek anyway, and I’ll have a friend bring me home.”

  “Thanks,” Raine murmured. She held on tightly to the small vase with the pink rosebuds. So much had happened so quickly. If she thought about it too long or too deeply at this point, it could easily overwhelm her.

  They went into the house and down the hall, to Charles Atwood’s bedroom. Here the presence of Gabe’s mother, Denise, was more pronounced. The room still retained a definite feminine touch, from the collection of delicate porcelain “Lady” figurines on the mahogany vanity table to the fine Nottingham lace doilies that protected the surface of the matching nightstands and bureau. Denise Atwood had been a discriminating collector. She’d bought only what she loved. And after her untimely death her husband had been unable to part with anything she’d chosen. Raine hadn’t fully understood his reasoning when she was younger. Now that she had matured, she sensed that when Charles Atwood entered this room at night, he returned to the loving heart of his wife. In here, even after twenty-three years, something of her still lived.

  “Are you sure your father won’t mind?” she asked, turning to Gabe.

  “If we had a spare room, we’d set you up there. But since we don’t...” He smiled. “Anyone else, Dad might mind. You? He won’t mind at all.”

  Raine examined one of the porcelain figurines. The woman’s dress was caught billowing in the breeze, while a tiny dog played at her feet. Her face was pensive, strikingly beautiful. As children, Raine and Gabe had been forbidden to play in Charles Atwood’s room, and they’d respected that order, except for the one occurrence.

  The wedding band gleamed as Raine put the figurine back in place. “I’ll be very careful,” she promised.<
br />
  “We’re grown-up now, Raine,” he murmured.

  “I know, but I still wouldn’t want to break anything.”

  Gabe smiled in understanding, then he turned to survey the room at large. “We’ll make space in the closet and empty a couple of bureau drawers. You don’t exactly have a lot of clothes, do you?”

  She looked down. “I left in a hurry.”

  “You’ll probably want to get some new things.”

  “I’m going to have to get some new things...later on.”

  “What about a doctor?” Gabe asked, following her line of thought. “An obstetrician.”

  “Is Hank Merton still at Tyler General?” Her eyes fluttered shut. “This is like some kind of terrible nightmare, Gabe! What am I doing here? How could I possibly have let this happen? How could I...?”

  She didn’t finish, but she knew Gabe would have no trouble completing the thought. How could I have married you? But she didn’t mean it in the way it would sound, as if he were somehow lacking.

  She glanced at him, and when she saw the telltale tightening of his jaw, she crossed over to him and placed her cheek against his shoulder. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Gabe,” she said softly, trying to make amends. “I’m so afraid sometimes. I’m afraid to watch my body balloon, I’m afraid of the actual birth, I’m afraid of being a mother...me? I’m afraid of being alone....”

  Some of the tenseness left his body, and he began to stroke her hair, softly, sweetly, reassuringly.

  “You’ll never be alone, Raine,” he said.

  She snuggled closer, grateful for his strength.

  * * *

  THE TELEPHONE RANG several times that afternoon. At each instance Raine braced herself for prying questions, but each call had been for Gabe. Twice he’d left the house and been gone for at least an hour. Both times when he’d come back he’d brought her little presents.

  “You need cheering up, Red,” he’d explained.

  One present was a key chain, on which he’d hung copies of the key to his car as well as a key to his house. A bright green four-leaf clover encased in clear resin also dangled from the chain. “For luck,” he said.

  The other present was a goldfish, which swam in a small glass bowl.

  “I tried to find one that looked like Fred,” Gabe said, recalling the fish that Raine had won at a fair as a child and loved for many years. “But this guy...” He shook his head.

  “Maybe this one’s a girl,” Raine suggested, smiling as she peered into the bowl. Gabe was doing everything he could to make the situation easier for her. It was the least she could do to play her part. “Let’s call her Frederica,” she suggested.

  Gabe straightened. “What if it’s not a girl?”

  “What if Fred wasn’t a boy? I never knew, and he never minded.”

  “Frederica it is, then,” Gabe agreed.

  The telephone rang again and Gabe groaned. It had been an eventful day. Raine knew he had to be tired. “Do you want me to tell them you’re not in?” she volunteered.

  He shook his head. “It might be the station.”

  But it wasn’t. She knew that from the funny look that settled on his face seconds before he said bracingly, “Dad!” and turned away from her.

  A lively conversation ensued, and not once did Gabe mention her. After hanging up, it took him a moment to turn around.

  “How is he?” Raine asked.

  “Fine.”

  “You didn’t tell him,” she stated quietly.

  Gabe rubbed the back of his neck, a gesture he often made when uncertain. “I couldn’t. He’s still in the Dakotas. If I told him now, he’d come straight home. And that’s not what we want—at least, not yet. Not to mention his ruined vacation...”

  “I agree.”

  “But he’s not going to like it when he does find out.”

  “Tell him when he’s far enough away—in California or Oregon,” she suggested.

  “He’s still not going to like it.”

  “Yes, but by then he’ll have had most of his vacation.”

  Gabe relaxed enough to smile. “Since when have you learned to be so devious?”

  “From all my years of survival in New York.”

  Gabe’s smile held, but Raine sensed that it was forced. Because New York reminded him of her predicament? Because he didn’t think that she had “survived” particularly well? To divert his mind she leaned forward and spoke to the fish. “Where shall we put you, Frederica?” she asked. “How about over there on the table by the window?”

  “Do you think she needs a view?” Gabe asked dryly.

  “Everything needs a nice view, even a fish.” She moved the lamp a little to one side to make room for the bowl.

  “You’re going to be a good mother, Raine,” Gabe said as he watched her work.

  “I hope so,” she said softly.

  “You will,” he insisted.

  * * *

  GABE WENT BACK on duty at the fire station the next morning. He’d warned Raine before they separated the night before that his shift was for twenty-four hours—from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. He’d gone over his entire work schedule with her, showing her the calendar where he kept track of his days. One on, one off, one on, one off, one on...then four straight days off, after which the cycle started all over again. He’d also made sure she knew where to find the nonemergency telephone number of the fire station, and told her to call anytime she wanted. She’d listened, nodding, but he could tell that she was having a hard time staying awake.

  Before leaving that morning he’d left her a note, repeating his schedule and telling her that since it was his usual practice to walk to work, she had free use of the car.

  Gabe strode easily down the street, listening to the sounds of Tyler as the town came awake to the new day. The air was cool and fresh, with a light touch of spring. Birds twittered in the trees and a few daffodils were starting to bloom. Here and there he could hear snatches of conversation, as well as the cry of a baby wanting to be picked up.

  A baby. Raine’s baby. His and Raine’s baby? He shook his head in fierce denial. His only role in this arrangement was one of support! He couldn’t let himself think beyond the pregnancy to the living child! To his relationship with the child. To his continued relationship with Raine.

  He knew he was treading on dangerous ground, that he was opening himself up to tremendous pain—exactly what his father would have told him if he’d known. Which was another reason Gabe hadn’t told him about the marriage. His father had long ago guessed Gabe’s true feelings for Raine. And he would worry about him...about them.

  The usual joggers ran by as he skirted the town square. As was habitual, he exchanged brief greetings with each. Other people he knew waved from cars, off to an early commute to their jobs in Madison or Milwaukee.

  At the fire station the previous shift, consisting of four fire fighters—some paid full-timers, some volunteers—was preparing to leave as the new shift of four straggled in. Coffee and rolls were available for all in the dayroom, encouraging them to mingle.

  As Gabe entered the big living room/kitchen combination, his co-workers, who had been either seated at a long dining table or sprawled on couches and chairs watching the morning news on TV, greeted his arrival with shouts and whoops of jubilation mingled with moans and groans of frustration.

  “Hey! I won!” one cried.

  “Me, too! I told you Gabe’d be here!”

  “Dang!” someone else grumbled.

  “Come on! Pay up! Gimme my five!”

  Gabe knew instantly what was happening, but he pretended ignorance. “What’s up?” he asked, strolling over to the counter to help himself to a cup of coffee.

  “Wait a minute...wait!” one of the losers cried. “Maybe it
’s not true. And if it’s not, all bets are off! Nobody wins, nobody loses.”

  Gabe took a sip of hot coffee and leaned back against the counter. “Have you people gone completely nuts?” he asked.

  Several of the group approached him. Maureen Wilson, a solidly built young woman with sharp features and short, silvery-blond hair, was first to speak. “We’ve heard something,” she said.

  “Yeah, and I, for one, don’t believe it,” Bill Nance exclaimed, butting in. “You, married? To Raine Peterson? How could you be married to Raine Peterson when everybody here knows she in New York?”

  “Do you have a question?” Gabe asked.

  “Yeah,” David McGregor, one of the losers, snapped. “What’s the truth?”

  Gabe took another sip of his coffee before he said, “It’s true.”

  For a moment all present were stunned. Then shouts broke out and five-dollar bills were snatched from unresisting fingers.

  “Then what the hell are you doing here?” David McGregor demanded, his bushy eyebrows forming a straight line as he frowned. “Why didn’t you call in sick or something? Isn’t this supposed to be your honeymoon?”

  “To Raine Peterson?” Maureen Wilson echoed, ignoring David’s questions.

  “But she’s in New York!” Bill Nance tried again to understand.

  “She’s come back,” Gabe answered.

  “But—”

  Chief Sorenson poked his head out of his office. “What’s going on out here?” he asked with deceptive mildness.

  “Gabe’s got married, Chief!”

  Gabe could tell that the information wasn’t new to Chief Sorenson. He’d heard the rumors as well. “To Raine Peterson, right?” the chief asked as he strode over to thump Gabe on the back.

  “Yes, sir,” Gabe confirmed.

  “Well...congratulations,” he said, then he seemed to run out of words. Finally he asked, “You, ah, want some time off?”

  Gabe was prepared. “Not now,” he said. “We just want to keep things quiet for a while. Take things easy.”