Daddy Next Door (Hometown Reunion)

by Ginger Chambers

  Gabe tramped on, torturing himself with the knowledge that at that very moment Raine could be in Joel’s room at the lodge, making up with him and giving her assent.

  * * *

  RAINE WAITED FOR Gabe to return home. She tried to stay awake, but with no sleep last night and barely an hour this morning, she found her effort doomed.

  Little by little she got more and more comfortable on the couch, and before she knew it, she was stretched out fully on the cushions.

  She had no idea what time the sirens awakened her. They seemed to fill her head, coming at her from all sides. But as she shook off the latent grogginess, she realized that they were converging a distance away.

  She struggled to her feet and went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Then she realized that she was hungry. She’d had nothing to eat all day. As she toasted a piece of bread and spread peanut butter on it, she wondered about Gabe. Where was he? What was he doing? Had he eaten? Was he still upset?

  Raine wished he’d come home. She wanted to talk to him, to tell him what she’d done about Joel and how she felt as a result. Tell him of the newfound strength she’d discovered inside herself. Tell him...what? That she loved him?

  Raine still shied away from the word. It seemed so odd to think like that in connection with Gabe, to think in anything more than a sisterly way. But she had been freed this afternoon. She could see so many things clearly now. The way in which, in the past, she’d thought herself to be in love, yet always found something lacking in the men she chose. Had she unconsciously been comparing them to Gabe? Looking to them for his kindness, for his strength of character, for his genuineness?

  Had she been blinded by the years they’d spent together as friends? Kept up the old way of seeing him in order not to have to face the truth?

  She wanted him to come home, so they could talk about it. So she could tell him...

  Raine stopped herself. She was acting too much like Joel! Concentrating on what she thought, on how she felt, on what she wanted. But what about Gabe? Didn’t he get a choice? Would it be fair for her to reveal her newfound feelings for him when she knew that, in all likelihood, it would cement him to this marriage...whether or not it was what he truly wanted?

  When they’d first entered into this arrangement it had had a finite life. One day the marriage would end—probably not so long after the baby was born. How could she, on her own, alter that?

  Gabe deserved better. He deserved to marry someone he loved, someone who wasn’t carrying another man’s child. She couldn’t allow him to continue this farce from a heightened sense of obligation. She had to free him as well.

  Loving someone was knowing when to let go. Where had she heard that before?

  The familiar series of taps sounded on the kitchen door, and when Raine went to answer it she found her mother and George standing outside. Both were unusually pale.

  Raine frowned. “What is it?”

  Marge came inside and made her sit down.

  “What is it?” Raine whispered, a cold hand closing around her heart.

  Her mother answered quietly, tersely. “We’ve just had some news...from Joe. Raine, there’s been a fire at Mrs. Franklin’s house. You remember Mrs. Franklin? Your teacher in second grade?”

  Raine nodded. “I remember her. Mom, what is it?” Her voice had gone all wavery from fear.

  “Gabe must have been driving by her house when he saw the smoke. He put in a call, then ran inside. I’m sure it was to find Mrs. Franklin...”

  Her mother continued to talk, but Raine was no longer able to follow. Her brain had started to spin.

  “...All right...alive.” She caught individual snatches of her mother’s words.

  “Gabe...or Mrs. Franklin?” Raine interrupted at last. “Who’s alive? Who?”

  “Why, both of them, dear,” Marge replied. “Mrs. Franklin wasn’t at home. She was down the street at a neighbor’s house. But it might have been better for Gabe if she had been home, because he wouldn’t stop looking for her. No, wait!” She intervened when Raine started to get up. “Like I said, Gabe is alive, but he’s been taken to the hospital.”

  Raine’s gaze jerked to George. “How bad is he?” she breathed.

  Marge answered for her husband. “Joe couldn’t tell. He was at Granny Rose’s and ran down the street when he saw the smoke and heard the fire engines stop. He saw some fire fighters administer oxygen to Gabe, then they put him in an ambulance.”

  “Was he burned?” Raine asked tightly.

  “We don’t know,” Marge said. She rubbed Raine’s arm, trying to give solace. “What do you want to do, dear? If you want to go to the hospital, George and I will take you. If you want to stay here, George will go alone, I’ll stay here and he’ll call as soon as he learns anything.”

  “I’m going,” Raine said, standing up.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  HOSPITALS ALWAYS MADE Raine highly uncomfortable—the smells, the unfamiliar images, the doctors and nurses with godlike power.

  George, however, was in his element as they stepped through the doors of the emergency department. He consulted with the head nurse before sweeping them through the halls and onto an elevator to an upper floor. “He’s been moved,” he said tersely.

  The doors popped open and they stepped out. George led them to the nursing station of the intensive care unit. “Gabriel Atwood?” he demanded.

  “Yes, Doctor.” The nurse on duty checked a file. “This way.”

  Raine didn’t let her gaze stray from the pattern of floor tiles that were eaten up as they walked. Three whites, a tan, and three whites again. She knew when they moved into a room filled with equipment and stopped at the side of a bed. But she was afraid to look up. Afraid to see how badly Gabe was hurt. Tears glistened in her eyes as she gathered her strength and slowly lifted them...and met Gabe’s clear blue gaze.

  “Hi, Red,” he rasped, grinning.

  Raine stepped closer. “Gabe?” she whispered.

  “Just a little singed,” he teased, then he started to cough—hard, racking coughs that he found difficult to control. “Sorry,” he apologized when it was over.

  “We were so worried, Gabe,” Marge murmured.

  Raine examined him as her mother spoke. His face and hands were reddened, as were his neck and ears. Black soot still clung stubbornly to his skin in places in spite of the nursing staff’s best efforts.

  “I’m all right,” he said. “I’ve been...worse.” He started to cough again.

  A nurse asked them to step outside, and Raine led the way into the hall. As soon as they were out of Gabe’s hearing, she turned on George. “Has he?” she demanded crisply. “Has he been worse than this? Why is he in intensive care if it’s not—”

  George spoke calmly. “He’s in intensive care because the doctor wants to keep a close eye on him. It’s obvious he’s breathed in a lot of hot, smoky gases. He also has some burns. They don’t look bad right now, but the doctor will want to wait and see. Sometimes the true nature of a burn doesn’t show up until the next day. The breathing passage to his lungs is also irritated. It can swell and cause problems. If it does, or if the burns need more attention, it’s far better for him to be here.” He paused. “Then again, everything could be exactly as it looks at first glance and he could be released tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?” Raine echoed hopefully.

  “If everything is satisfactory. Gabe’s a strong young man in top condition, and he doesn’t smoke...which helps a lot.”

  “You can go back in now,” the nurse said from be-hind them.

  “You go, Raine,” Marge urged her. “George and I will wait out here. You and Gabe...well, you need to be alone.”

  Raine walked slowly back to the specialized-care room. This time she saw all the machines. Gabe was hooked up to a couple
of them.

  A cough racked his body. “Ow,” he complained when he was done, rubbing his chest. He gave her a deprecating little smile.

  “I wish I could do something to help,” she murmured.

  “Occupational hazard,” he said. “Happens all the time. Sometimes even when we’re wearing...our equipment. All it takes is one...wrong breath.”

  “You weren’t wearing any equipment.”

  “Well, no.”

  “Why did you do it, Gabe? Why didn’t you wait for the others to arrive?”

  “Mrs. Franklin.”

  “I don’t know how to tell you—”

  “I’ve heard. She was down the street.”

  “So all this—” she indicated his injuries “—was for nothing.”

  He caught hold of her hand and changed the subject. “He doesn’t love you enough, Raine.”

  Raine didn’t trust herself enough in that moment to discuss the situation. Not with him lying there looking so vulnerable. Not with the fear she’d carried with her to the hospital still ricocheting in her mind. She might say something she’d later regret.

  “Gabe, this isn’t the right time. Your lungs... You shouldn’t talk.”

  “Just promise me you won’t leave before I get home. Before I...” He started to cough again—deep, hard coughs that this time didn’t cease.

  Raine looked around frantically for a nurse. Gabe needed help and she didn’t know what to do! She went to the door and met a nurse already hurrying to the room.

  “You’re going to have to leave now,” the woman said as she made her way to the head of the bed.

  “Gabe...” Raine called earnestly. It was a plea for him not to get sicker.

  “Now!” the nurse directed, not looking back. Her attention was fully with her patient.

  Tears flooded Raine’s eyes. She was so worried for him! She made her way down the hall and into her mother’s arms.

  “Oh, Mom,” she cried, and Marge cradled her gently to her breast.

  * * *

  RAINE WOULDN’T LEAVE the hospital until exhaustion forced her to. “Think of the child,” George had admonished her in his best professional tone. “I’ve spoken to Gabe’s doctor, I’ve spoken to the head ICU nurse. If there’s even the slightest change for the worse in his condition, someone will call and we’ll be here in five minutes. You can’t do anything to help him by stressing yourself or the baby.”

  Raine was an emotional wreck as they drove home. The silent tears she shed were even more telling than if she had wailed and moaned.

  Her mother wouldn’t hear of her spending the night alone. She made up the bed in the spare room and Raine curled into it, too tired to do anything more than sniff as her head rested on the pillow.

  Raine slept past noon the next day and no one disturbed her. Her first thought upon awakening was of Gabe. As she hurried into the kitchen, her mother glanced up from reading the newspaper.

  “Have you heard anything?” Raine asked breathlessly.

  “He’s doing fine, at last report. The burns aren’t serious, and he didn’t have any more trouble with his breathing last night. George stopped off to see him when he visited one of his patients. He said Gabe was still coughing up soot, but that’s to be expected for a day or two.”

  “Coughing up soot?” Raine repeated.

  “From all the smoke he breathed. His lungs are clearing themselves, George says. That’s what they’re supposed to do.”

  “So he’s not...”

  “In any danger? No. You can relax on that score. He’s past the worst.”

  Raine collapsed into one of the barrel-shaped chairs that clustered around her mother’s kitchen table and let her head fall onto her folded arms. “Thank God,” she murmured huskily. “I was so afraid.”

  She sensed her mother’s intense scrutiny, but when Marge spoke, it wasn’t about her and Gabe.

  “Gabe’s quick action probably saved Mrs. Franklin’s house. Chief Sorenson said that with all those newspapers and magazines stacked on her back porch and all those school papers stored in her attic, it was a wonder the place didn’t go up like a tinderbox. Do you know she kept drawings and writing exercises of all of her students from more than forty years of teaching? Chief Sorenson said he doesn’t think she ever threw anything away. He said if the fire had reached the attic before it was noticed, they’d probably still be trying to put out the blaze. As it is, the kitchen’s going to have to be rebuilt—that’s where the fire started. She put something on to cook and forgot it. Just walked out of the house to go visiting. And the back porch—it’s pretty well gone now, as well as the room above.”

  “What’s going to happen to her?” Raine asked, lifting her head.

  “Well, you know her grandson wants her to go live at Worthington House...and so does his sister. But I understand there’s a niece who’s been widowed for several years, and who’s offered to move in with her, but her offer’s never been accepted. Maybe now it will be. A ninety-two-year-old woman can be only so independent. Especially when she’s getting forgetful.”

  “Her whole life is in that house,” Raine said. “All her furniture and keepsakes.”

  “It’s all safe, but pretty smoky right now. Half the town’s volunteered to help clean up.” Marge paused. “What’s upset her most is that Gabe got hurt looking for her.”

  “Gabe wouldn’t want that.”

  “No.”

  “Maybe—maybe I should go talk with her,” Raine murmured.

  “That might be a good idea. It would also give you something to do, to stop you worrying.”

  “You just told me I had nothing to worry about!”

  Her mother smiled. “I know, and you don’t, but that’s never stopped someone who loves a person from being worried until they can see him or her with their own eyes.”

  Raine felt a shiver run down her back. “What makes you think that I—”

  “I’m not blind, Raine. And you practically told me the other day, remember? You should have seen the way you looked last night. Why, if I’d had any doubt...”

  Raine stood up. “I’m going back to Gabe’s house,” she announced, cutting her mother off before the fateful word could be uttered again. “Then—then I’m going to go see Mrs. Franklin.”

  “Richard brought the Explorer home last night. He thought you might have need of it.”

  Raine paused. “Richard?”

  “He came to the hospital yesterday evening. So did other friends of Gabe’s. You don’t remember?”

  “No.”

  “Joe, Britt, Nora...”

  “No.”

  Raine’s mother could only shake her head.

  * * *

  SO SHE DIDN’T REMEMBER anyone coming to the hospital yesterday evening! So what?

  Why not? her conscience challenged.

  Because she’d been tired, she answered. Because of what she’d been through that day and for numerous days before.

  Because she loved Gabe? her conscience insisted. Because she loved him and was worried sick about his well-being? Because when she’d seen him, looking so gallant and so incapacitated in that hospital bed, her heart had twisted and squeezed to such an extent that it had become impossible for her to deny her true feelings for him any longer?

  Yes, yes...yes! she admitted. She loved him! She loved him! Maybe she’d always loved him and just hadn’t known it. Gabe had played such a large part in her life—been there when she needed him, been there when she didn’t!

  But how did he feel about her? There’d been that kiss...but could she deduce anything from it? He didn’t want her to go back to Joel, but was that anything more than him acting as Gabe the protector?

  Raine put the finishing touches on her makeup. She was going to go see Gabe bef
ore she saw Mrs. Franklin. He was the most important person in her life now, whether he knew it or not. No matter if he ever knew it.

  She turned away from the bathroom mirror and gasped. Because Gabe stood in the doorway.

  “Beautiful as ever,” he murmured, his voice still raspy from the smoke.

  The room suddenly didn’t seem large enough. Nor did it contain enough air. She took a gulping breath and tried to remain steady.

  “Gabe! I was just coming to see you.”

  He smiled slightly, that same sweet smile that now made her heart skip a beat.

  “The doctor let me go early,” he said. “I think the staff got tired of all the telephone calls.”

  “But are you...? Should you...? Just because they got tired...”

  His smile deepened and he stepped back out of the doorway so she could pass, which she did, holding herself under rigid control.

  “I’m fine,” he said. “I didn’t mean that literally. The doctor wouldn’t have discharged me if he didn’t—” he paused to cough, then looked sheepish “—didn’t think I was ready to be let go.”

  “You don’t sound fine.”

  “It’s just a cough. Par for the course with smoke inhalation.”

  Raine led the way into the living room and to the couch, her thoughts scattered to the four winds. What had she planned to do? To say? How had she intended to handle this? She fell back on yesterday’s decisions.

  “Gabe, I—”

  He allowed her to get no further. He took her hand and rested it on his thigh. Then he studied her fingers, as if suddenly they were of great interest. “Raine, yesterday I asked you to promise me something. I’ve been thinking about it. And I realize now that my request wasn’t fair. Just because I don’t think Joel loves you enough, it doesn’t mean you feel the same way. I’m certainly no expert on love, that’s for sure.” He laughed lightly and coughed again.

  “I’ve decided to make you another proposition,” he continued determinedly. “If the baby is what’s causing all the problems, if Joel still doesn’t want it and you want to go back to him and to the stage...after the baby’s born, you can leave it here with me. I’ll give it my name and raise it as if it were my child. It won’t make any difference to me that it’s not. A child is a child. Children can’t help how they come into the world.” He paused to breathe carefully, as if what he’d said before had been a strain. “Your mother will be right next door. She’ll help me. So will my dad. The baby won’t want for attention.”