Daddy Next Door (Hometown Reunion)

by Ginger Chambers

  But this! This was wholly different. Where before Gabe had been a slender, athletic boy on the brink of maturity, he now was a fully grown male—still slender, still athletic, but harder, with sculpted muscles in his shoulders and chest and abdomen. His lean look when dressed was deceptive, Raine realized, running her eyes down his frame, to slim hips and long, powerful thighs. His shirt and slacks hid the body of an excellently conditioned man. A fire fighter who could, if need be, throw a person over his shoulder, make his way through a smoke-filled building, climb out a window and down an extension ladder—all without blinking an eye!

  He seemed just as startled as she. Frozen, almost. Neither of them spoke. Then, sounding slightly rattled, he said, “You need back in the bathroom?”

  “N-no, I—I was just...” Ridiculously, she felt herself blush. She was a pregnant woman, for heaven’s sake. She hadn’t gotten that way through osmosis! She knew what a nude man looked like. Yet, with Gabe... “...brush my teeth,” she mumbled disconnectedly.

  Gabe smiled tightly. “I forgot something. I’ll be out in a minute. Want me to tap on the door?”

  Raine couldn’t collect her thoughts well enough to do anything but refuse. When in doubt, say no—that was what her mother used to tell her. Possibly if she’d paid proper heed to that advice in the previous months she wouldn’t be in such a predicament now. “No,” she said, “I’ll hear you. No rush.”

  Gabe smiled that special Gabe smile and Raine felt her heart give a little flutter. She immediately closed the door. With her pulse still pounding, she waited a full five minutes after hearing him close his door before she again ventured into the hall.

  * * *

  RAINE WAS SURE the dinner was up to her mother’s usual standard, yet she couldn’t have sworn to it in a court of law. She went through the motions of eating, but didn’t register the taste of anything. She smiled and made all the appropriate responses to the conversation taking place around her, but it might have been someone else sitting in her chair, borrowing her body.

  Why had she reacted as she had to seeing Gabe in such an intimate light? Yes, he was a man. Yes, she was a woman. But that didn’t automatically elicit a physical attraction. She was accustomed to seeing beautiful bodies on both men and women. Dancers honed their physiques as they perfected their abilities. Muscles had to be trained and conditioned and then kept in shape. Body-hugging clothing allowed free movement, kept working muscles warm. Very little was left to the imagination.

  So why had she reacted so strongly to Gabe? Was it the unexpectedness of coming upon him wearing so little? The fact that he was Gabe...and yet not Gabe, because he no longer had the body of the boy she remembered. Because, to her shocked surprise, that boy had changed into a very sexy man?

  Gabe?

  She remembered the way she had scurried back into her room, the way her heart had pounded. From shock? From surprise? She hadn’t been prepared. It was like suddenly realizing that a person you thought you knew wasn’t really that person, after all!

  She chanced a quick glance down the length of the crowded table. Gabe was near the end, talking with Joe Santori. Compared to Joe’s workman brawn, Gabe’s slimness was pronounced. So, too, were his gentler features. Joe was vibrant, with curly black hair, black eyes and a strong Italianate face. His voice boomed in a mellow baritone; his laugh was strong, infectious. Gabe was naturally quieter, in looks and personality.

  Joe’s wife was seated on Raine’s immediate left. Leaning close, Susannah murmured, “Joe is so proud of the remodeling work he did on this house. It was a joy for him to work with your mother and George. If you and Gabe and Gabe’s dad should ever want to add on to your place—”

  “Joe will be our first choice for contractor, of course,” Raine replied.

  Susannah grinned. She was a small, dainty woman with a delicate face and huge, thickly lashed blue eyes. “I’m not trying to drum up business, even though it sounds like it, doesn’t it? It’s just... Joe likes to see families stay together. And there’s been so many break apart recently.”

  “Because of the F and M?” Raine asked.

  Susannah nodded. “Things were starting to get better. People were actually beginning to gain a little ground. Then the fire happened.” She sighed. “Has Gabe heard anything that the rest of us haven’t? Has the insurance company made a ruling yet?”

  Raine shook her head. “No.”

  Britt leaned over from Raine’s right. “This dessert of your mother’s is fabulous,” she said. “She’s not planning to go into competition with Yes! Yogurt, is she?”

  Marge overheard. “Absolutely not! This is just something I found a recipe for and wanted to try.”

  When they moved from the table to the living room, Nora Gates Forrester sat on the couch next to Raine. “What do you think of your mother’s new look?” she asked.

  “I like it,” Raine said, watching her mother laugh at something Jake Marshack said.

  “She’s a new woman since she married George,” Nora continued. “It was a good thing. Even the worst of the gossips agree about that now.”

  “Gossips!” Raine said disparagingly under her breath.

  Nora, a woman who had always been fiercely independent, nodded, her ash-blond hair swinging. “I love Cece, but her mother has to be the worst...” She paused and looked at Raine closely. “Try not to let it bother you, all right?”

  That was the nearest anyone had come that evening to mentioning the gossip swirling around town. Everyone had acted happy to see Gabe and her and were accepting of their marriage. If they had questions about the suddenness of the act, they kept them to themselves.

  A short time later Gabe came over and, taking Raine’s hand, pulled her from the couch. “It’s time we left,” he said quietly.

  Raine couldn’t stifle a yawn. For the past fifteen minutes she’d been fighting a mostly losing battle to keep her eyes open.

  “Oh, wait!” Britt cried, jumping up. “The present. Don’t leave until...” She motioned Byron forward.

  Byron, a transplant from New England, whose innate quality of educated sophistication had yet to be pierced by life in a small Midwestern town, reached into his pocket and withdrew an envelope, which he handed to Gabe.

  Gabe undid the flap and pulled out a greeting card. Tucked inside were mock-ups of two airline tickets and several shiny tourist brochures of hotels in the Bahamas. The card seemed to have been signed by a majority of the people in Tyler. Names and personal remembrances covered it, front and back.

  “It’s a honeymoon!” Britt said excitedly. “All you have to do is let Peggy, over at Tyler Travel, know when you want to go, and she’ll take it from there.”

  “We tried to think what you might like,” Nora said, “and this was the result.”

  “It’s good for a year,” Susannah added.

  There was a tiny silence as all waited for a reaction from Gabe and Raine. Raine swallowed and blinked.

  “This...we’re overwhelmed!” she claimed.

  “All these people?” Gabe asked tightly, skimming the multitude of names.

  Britt grinned. “That’s what you get for being such a great guardian angel, Gabe.”

  “An archangel,” Marge corrected. “Gabriel, the herald of good news.”

  The men thumped Gabe on the back. “Think you’ll be able to tear yourself away from Tyler for a week?” Joe Santori joked.

  “But this is too much!” Gabe protested.

  A short time later, after more good wishes, they escaped from the house.

  “The Bahamas!” Raine murmured as they crossed the yard.

  “For a week,” Gabe said.

  “We’ll hurt their feelings if we don’t go, and yet...”

  Gabe opened the kitchen door and held it for her. He said nothing. Once inside the house he still said n
othing, and as the silence lengthened, Raine’s nerves grew more taut.

  This had not been a particularly great day for her, either. She paced from one side of the room to the other.

  “So what do you want to do,” she challenged him, irritated with his seeming withdrawal, “give it back? What will we tell them? ‘Sorry, we can’t accept this because our marriage is a sham’? And sham marriages shouldn’t be celebrated with expensive wedding presents?”

  Gabe looked at her, his clear eyes steady. Then he said huskily, “Come here, Red,” and held out his arms.

  Raine slipped into place against him, like a lost puppy finding refuge in a storm. Her emotions were in turmoil. She wanted to cry, she wanted to laugh, but was afraid either could turn into hysteria.

  “I told you the people here were basically good,” he said softly, above her ear.

  “It was easier when I thought they were awful!” she moaned. “Why did they have to do that, Gabe? Why did they have to do something nice? And I’m not meaning the people we’re close to. I mean the others. The ones who... I feel terrible now.”

  Gabe shrugged, having no answer.

  His arms felt so comforting wrapped around her, his body so... Raine pushed away abruptly. She kept her gaze down.

  “Red?” he murmured, obviously surprised.

  “I’m tired, Gabe. I want to go to bed...to sleep. It’s been... Today...”

  He backed away, arms extended widely in a gesture of capitulation. “Whatever you want,” he said.

  She turned, only to stop and glance back. “I’m sorry, Gabe. I just...I’m really very tired. I—I enjoyed our walk at the lake today.”

  He nodded, but she could sense his confusion. He knew something had happened, but he didn’t know what.

  Raine closed herself in the bedroom, only to resume her pacing. She knew the “what,” but not the “why.” It involved her earlier recognition of Gabe as a man who had feelings, emotions and needs. A sensual man...sexual, attractive to women. Like discovering that your youngest brother was sleeping with his teenage girlfriend, it came as a shock to the system. Only in this case, Gabe wasn’t her real brother. And just now, when he’d held her...

  Raine hurried to the closet, where she tore off her dress and exchanged it for a nightgown. She’d have liked to brush her teeth again, but she wasn’t about to take the chance of meeting Gabe in the hall. SUNDAY WAS Gabe’s last shift before he had four days off. He hadn’t disturbed her sleep when he left for work shortly before seven that morning, but she found a note in the kitchen. “Hope you feel better today. Gabe.” Beside the note was a plate of fresh sweet rolls that he must have gone out early to buy. The coffeemaker was also set up and ready to go. All she had to do was switch it on.

  Dear, sweet Gabe, she thought.

  Today she wasn’t going to think about last night. This was another day. A time for new thoughts, new experiences, when shimmers of emotion could be ignored. When looking ahead was far and away the best...

  Yeah, right! her more cynical self asserted.

  Raine sighed and a short time later, poured herself a cup of coffee. It still didn’t make sense to her. How could she possibly feel what she had for Gabe? Was the tingle of physical attraction another side effect of her pregnancy? Was it because he was the father figure to her baby and she was unconsciously trying to bond to him? Was it loneliness? Was she missing Joel? Once, she’d thought she loved him. Now her feelings were taking on a distinct aura of anger. She’d given six months of her life to him! Subjugated her wants for his. She must have been temporarily insane! Even though he was Joel Hastings—big man in the New York theater, highly talented, deeply charming—he hadn’t stood behind her when she’d needed him. Hadn’t supported her.

  The telephone rang, interrupting her thoughts. The answering machine switched on and she heard Gabe’s voice give its usual message. After the beep, a woman spoke.

  “Ah, hello...Raine? Raine, this is Maureen Wilson. I work with Gabe. I don’t know if you remember me, but we went to school together. We were in a couple of talent shows. I sang and did the hula.” She laughed uncomfortably. “Not very well, but I did it. What I’m calling about is...do you think you could come by the station around three this afternoon? If you can, and if you can let me know soon enough, I’ll call the others who are off duty and they’ll come in, too. We want to give Gabe and you a little party. Gabe doesn’t know anything about it. We’d like to surprise him.” She paused, as if running through a mental checklist. “Well, I think that’s it. Call me at the station.” She hung up, and a few seconds later the machine switched off.

  Raine stared at the blinking light that indicated a recorded message. Now there were even more people who wanted to be nice to them. She was tempted not to return the call, but that would only cause a postponement in their plans, not a cancellation. She dialed the number of the station Gabe had posted prominently on a notepad, apologized to Maureen for missing her call and agreed to be present at three. Maureen’s glad response was in direct contrast to Raine’s disquiet, but Maureen never knew it.

  * * *

  RAINE WAS DETERMINED to be bright and effervescent at the fire station that afternoon. These were Gabe’s friends, his co-workers. The last thing she wanted to do was embarrass him in front of them by behaving as if something had upset her.

  She was just being silly, she told herself as she clawed her way back to a more positive frame of mind. She shouldn’t look at the situation too closely. Just let it be. Nothing had changed in the balance of her and Gabe’s friendship.

  She washed the dress she had worn to dinner last night, altered the look slightly with a pair of white sandals and a white hair band and set off for the fire station.

  It was a beautiful spring Sunday afternoon, one of the best Tyler had to offer. The sun was shining, birds were singing, a few people were mowing their lawns. Without her being fully aware of it, Raine’s forced pose of relaxation became reality. Several people driving by tooted their horns and waved at her; others working in their front yards called their hellos. No one looked at her rudely or pointedly. Either the wonderful weather had affected them, too, or their ministers had delivered a morning sermon about the ills of passing judgment too quickly and they had taken it to heart.

  Maureen met Raine at the rear of the fire station and sneaked her inside while someone distracted Gabe.

  “All we can hope is that we don’t get called out in the next half hour or so,” Maureen said, grinning.

  Raine had remembered Maureen as soon as she saw her. She hadn’t changed all that much since high school. One grade her junior, Maureen had always given Raine the impression of extreme competence along with a keen sense of fun. The mock hula she’d referred to in her message had been the hit of the talent show because it had been done with rollicking good humor.

  “Raine...hello!” Chief Sorenson came out of his office to greet her. “It’s been years since you and Becky used to run around together. Has Gabe told you what Becky’s up to now? Wants to be a helicopter pilot. I had a fit when she told me, but her mom egged her on. Now I can see why. The girl seems to have a knack for it. All her evaluations have been excellent! She’s at the top of her class.”

  “We’d better get you hidden,” Maureen murmured, interrupting them. “Richard can’t keep Gabe outside forever.”

  The chief grimaced. “We’ll talk later,” he promised.

  Other fire fighters had started to assemble in the large room, which had many of the comforts of home—couches, chairs, a television, a long trestle table, a kitchen off to one side.

  Maureen and Raine slipped into Chief Sorenson’s office and Maureen shut the blinds. “It’ll only be a couple of minutes,” she said, cocking her head to listen.

  Raine heard even more people gather in the outer room, then the assembly grew quiet. Soon Raine heard Gabe’s
voice. He was talking with another man...then someone shouted, a cheer went up and any number of people seemed to be talking at once. Without waiting another second, Maureen hurried Raine out the door and into the pandemonium.

  Gabe was still recovering from his surprise when he saw her and was surprised all over again. Maureen rushed her over to his side as smiling faces surrounded them.

  “Congratulations!” someone shouted.

  “To Gabe and Raine!” someone else called, holding high a small plastic bottle of mountain spring water.

  Gabe tucked an arm around Raine and pulled her close to his side as more bottles of water were passed through the crowd and raised.

  “Many happy years together!” came the toast.

  “Kiss the bride!” someone urged, a request that was taken up by a number of others.

  Gabe looked at Raine, lifted an eyebrow, then kissed her full on the lips. Not a short kiss, either. One long enough to please the crowd.

  Raine heard the laughter, heard the good-natured catcalls, heard the whistles...then he was drawing away and she was left to smile widely, shake outthrust hands and receive other kisses on the cheek. She tried to tell herself that this entire affair was an act. She was acting right then, trying to pretend that she was a normal bride, that Gabe was a normal groom, that the kiss had been something usual between them. But it wasn’t. And she wasn’t sure how convincing her performance was at that moment.

  Chief Sorenson presented the gift—a silver fruit bowl engraved with their names and the date of their wedding.

  “Some of us wanted to give you one of those portable propane barbecue pits,” a man beside them murmured to Gabe, “but we were outvoted.”