Montana Mornings (The Wildes of Birch Bay Book 3)

by Kim Law

  “But does making one mistake mean Jenna can’t even talk with her? It’s her mother, Gabe. You could take Jenna for visits? A girl needs—”

  “One mistake?” His words came out deadly calm. “You’re not hearing what I’ve been telling you. Michelle’s mistakes started years ago. This wasn’t one mistake. And even if it had been, she made her decision when she first left without a word. You don’t know what you’re talking about with this one, Erica. I’ve already told you that. You might be a great teacher, but you’re out of your element with this one.”

  “But Jenna didn’t get to make any decisions for herself,” Erica argued back. “She had no say in anything. You moved her back here, turned her world upside down, and now she’s trying to figure out where she fits in. Don’t you get how shattering that can be?”

  “She is not you.”

  Shock had her taking a step back. “I never said she was.”

  “Yet you’re seeing parallels all over the place. Only, the difference is that you merely pretended to be fine after your ex ripped your world apart, whereas my daughter is fine. Or she will be.”

  She pulled in several breaths until he heard them even out. “Jenna needs to deal with reality, Gabe. You can’t make up for all the bad things in her life by buying her candy or taking her to her favorite restaurants. You can’t shield her from it, either. Let her call her mother, at least. She needs to be able to process this change in her own way.”

  “She needs to forget certain things ever happened,” he snapped out.

  “Forget her mother exists?” She didn’t back down. “Have you forgotten yours?”

  He glared at her. The lady knew how to hit below the belt. There was no forgetting the woman who’d raised him. “Back off this one, Erica. Jenna’s mother doesn’t really want to talk to her, no matter what she recently claimed. She’s up to something. I promise you that. Michelle doesn’t care about Jenna—about anyone—unless there’s some benefit in it for her.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “Then let your daughter figure that out on her own.”

  “My daughter is only seven. It’s my job to protect her from such things.”

  He reached for the doorknob, disgust filling him to the point that he needed to be away from her. Now. Thank goodness they hadn’t brought up the idea to Jenna of them being together. He couldn’t have someone in his daughter’s life who couldn’t see straight enough to keep from hurting her.

  He yanked open the door. “Time to go, Jenna.”

  “I think you’re making a mistake,” Erica said quietly behind him.

  “And I’m telling you that I’m not.”

  Erica stood at the window in her bedroom looking out over the front of her house. Gabe had been gone for several hours. He and Jenna had climbed into his truck after they’d left her place, and she hadn’t seen anything from them since. She’d spent the time replaying their fight in her head, unable to fathom the kind of mother he’d talked about. It was a known fact that such people existed. But thankfully, she hadn’t had direct dealings with anyone like that in her personal life.

  Yet Gabe had spent his childhood with a mother who couldn’t be pleased. Dani had, too.

  As had all of the Wilde children.

  She would have never guessed that when she’d known them before. Anytime she’d visited, they’d all seemed well adjusted. Sure, they’d each had their quirks, some with more anger than others, some getting in trouble here and there. But the other boys had all been teenagers at the time. Teens ran synonymous with issues. Yet hearing Gabe’s story, she now wondered about her ability to read people. As well as her capability to understand them.

  She still thought she was right about Jenna. That’s why she hadn’t backed down. Someone needed to have that child’s back.

  But could she really understand what Jenna was going through?

  Jenna’s mother was a narcissist. Which, by definition, meant that Jenna came low on her mother’s priority list. But still . . . she was her mother. Didn’t that count for something? Even Dani had stated how difficult it was to have your mother suddenly not there.

  She leaned her forehead against the window as she continued to let the questions churn, but in the end, she maintained belief that Jenna needed the chance to be around her mother. If only to figure out on her own that not being around her was a better plan. She needed to not be silenced.

  Walking away from the window, Erica grabbed her phone and paced to the other side of the room. She was tired of looking out at the empty house and wondering what all of it meant. There was Jenna and her issues, Michelle and hers, and then there was Gabe and her. Had her refusal to back down during their argument sealed the deal on any possible future for them?

  Even if it had, she’d do it again if she had to. For Jenna.

  She settled in at the floor where the pole came up through it, dropping her legs over the edge to dangle from the ceiling below, then leaned forward and put a shoulder against the metal. She’d likely overstepped her bounds again, but she wasn’t yet ready for her and Gabe to end.

  Scrolling through her contacts, she paused over Maggie’s name, but in the end, Erica wasn’t sure she was ready to share this part of her life with her new friend. She and Gabe were still new themselves. Possibly they were over. So it was best to keep it to herself.

  Yet, she needed to talk to someone.

  Locating Bree’s number, Erica punched the FaceTime button before she changed her mind. On the third ring, her sister answered, her face flushed.

  “What are you doing?” Erica asked.

  “Jogging.” Bree bent over at the waist, and Erica saw a view of her red face against a blue sky backdrop.

  “I didn’t know you ever exercised.”

  Bree had one of those metabolisms that people would pay their life’s savings for. “I don’t,” her sister confirmed. “I met this guy today, and he suggested we meet up for jogging before going to breakfast in the morning. I needed to see if I could do it before I agreed.”

  “And are you going to agree?”

  She shook her head, finally beginning to catch her breath. “No man is worth this. I’ll just stay home and have ice cream for breakfast instead.”

  That sounded about right. “You still in Mexico?”

  “Drove back over the border two days ago. I got some great inspiration while down there, though. I’m in Texas now, but I probably won’t stay for too long.” She straightened. “So what’s up with you? Still knocking boots with your neighbor? Need me to send condoms?”

  Erica gave her a wan smile. “Condom levels are good, but thanks.”

  Though she’d called to talk about the situation with Gabe, she now found herself reluctant to bring it up. Maybe it would be enough to simply spend time talking to her sister.

  “How about the other box I sent?” Bree asked. “Get any thanks from him? I did mention that I signed your name to it, didn’t I?”

  Erica’s face fell. “You didn’t?”

  The last thing she needed was JC thinking she’d sent him the box of condoms.

  “Bree,” she warned. She should have never sent her sister that picture.

  Bree rolled her eyes. “Geez. Quit stressing. I’m kidding. I sent it anonymously, though he totally deserved to know it came from you.” The look in her eyes changed then, and concern masked her face. “Did you hear?”

  “That he’s getting married?” Erica nodded. “I saw it on Facebook.”

  “You’re okay, right?”

  Erica allowed herself a moment to think about her answer before giving it, and in that moment, she was pleased to find out that yes, she was okay. Completely. “I’m good. It’s time he finally married her.”

  “Then what’s with the sad face?”

  She looked away from the phone, her gaze once again landing on the window, and beyond it to the other house. Her heart was breaking inside her chest. “I had a fight with Gabe,” she squeezed out.

  “Ah. I’m sorry.”<
br />
  Erica brought her gaze back.

  “Want me to send him something, too? Something for erectile dysfunction, maybe?”

  She shook her head, letting out a sad chuckle as she did. “I love that you’ve always got my back, you know? You make being a big sister easy.”

  “Oh, man. You’re not going to get all sappy on me, are you?” Bree tried to pull off sarcasm, but Erica didn’t miss the worry in her eyes.

  “I won’t get sappy.” She looked at his house again. “I’m just sad. I really like him.”

  “Want to tell me about the argument?”

  “No. I just”—she shrugged—“I don’t know. I just wanted to call.”

  “I get it. And if I weren’t at the very bottom of the country right now, I’d come over and let you not talk about it in person.”

  She gave her sister a small smile. “Thank you.”

  “Was it bad, though? Can I at least ask that much?”

  “I think it might have been.”

  Bree went quiet for a moment as she stared at Erica, and the directness of her gaze seemed to shake something loose. There was really no need to sit around moping, because they’d never even officially been dating. It was what it was, she supposed. And that was likely a couple of good rolls in the hay and nothing else.

  At least it had helped her see the light with JC.

  “Don’t worry about it,” she told her sister. “I shouldn’t have even bothered you. I’ve only got two more weeks that I have to be here, so if things don’t improve by then—” She clipped off her words because her voice had begun to shake.

  “Come see me,” Bree said.

  “What?” Erica shook her head. “It’s Sunday afternoon. I can’t come see you. I have school tomorrow.”

  “I mean in two weeks. If things don’t improve.”

  Erica stared at the screen, at the complete love and compassion on her baby sister’s face. This girl might have the biggest case of wanderlust Erica had ever seen, but she also had the largest heart.

  Could she just go to Texas, though? She’d love to hang out with her sister for a while. Maybe she could even catch a flight to North Carolina before coming back home, as well. Have dinner with Annalise.

  The reality, though, was that she should be working. And if she and Gabe didn’t work out, she should probably go home. The idea of returning to her parents’ house, however, had zero appeal. If she ended up going back to Silver Creek, she would at least find her own place to rent.

  “What would we do?” she asked, not yet willing to give up the idea.

  “We’d see the country. A road trip. And we’ll do it right. We’ll take at least a month.”

  “A month?” Erica was shaking her head before she’d even realized she’d moved. “I can’t be gone for a month, Bree. You know that.” Hopefully her dad’s contacts would come through with something before then.

  “You can do anything you want to.”

  “I know that,” she defended. But she couldn’t do a month. Her parents really wouldn’t understand her then. Quitting her job was one thing, but roaming the country for a month?

  There was a certain appeal to the idea, though.

  She nibbled at the corner of her mouth as she pictured the tourist sights she could see. Something more than the national parks she’d once visited with her parents. But the appeal of just going where the wind took her quickly disappeared. She was no Bree. Plus, she wasn’t quite ready to give up on the potential of what she was building here. Maybe a few days apart from Gabe would change things.

  “A lot can happen in two weeks,” she told her sister. Possibly she could find some way to work things out with Gabe.

  And if she didn’t, chances were high that her heart might just get broken.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Saturday morning rolled around, and as Gabe and Jenna sat across from each other at their favorite booth at the Pancake House, Gabe continued to stew over the argument he’d had with Erica the weekend before. They hadn’t talked all week, and though it had taken everything he had not to pound on her door that very morning and demand they have their Saturday morning after-game talk, he hadn’t let himself. First of all, her blinds had been closed.

  And second, nothing had changed.

  He couldn’t let Erica into his daughter’s life with any sort of permanence, because at some point, either Erica would wear him down or she’d simply go behind his back. And she was wrong about this one. She couldn’t be right about everything.

  He eyed his daughter, who sat clutching a doll that had arrived earlier that week.

  A doll from her mother.

  He frowned. If he’d been home when the thing had arrived, he’d have tossed it in the trash. But Hannah hadn’t known any better, so she’d let Jenna rip into the box. And Jenna hadn’t put it down since.

  Aside from getting the doll, nothing much had changed that week. He hadn’t been able to get Jenna to talk to him, and right now, instead of eating the breakfast on the plate in front of her, she was using a fork to push a bite of pancake around in the syrup. When she tired of playing in the syrup, she reached for the salt shaker, and in a quick motion, she had the top off and the bottle tilted, with salt now pouring freely into a tiny white pyramid on the table.

  Gabe held in a sigh. “What are you doing? You know better than that.”

  She ignored him and continued pouring.

  “Jenna. Stop it. This behavior has gone on long enough.”

  Again, no response. His entire week had been this routine played on repeat. She’d completely ignore him, while at the same time doing anything she could to get a rise out of him.

  When she unscrewed the lid of the pepper shaker and lifted her head to stare at him, daring him to make her stop, Gabe snapped. He slapped a hand down over hers before she could pour out the pepper, sending the glass shaker rattling across the scratched surface of the table until it tumbled to the floor. Glass shattered, and fury steamed out of his daughter’s ears.

  “Stop being mean to me,” she said, her voice way too loud for a public place.

  “I’m not being mean to you, Jenna. I’m trying to get you to behave.”

  She smacked the empty salt shaker and sent it flying in the direction the pepper had gone, and when one of the waitresses rushed over, worry coloring her features, tears suddenly appeared in his daughter’s eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “My daddy was yelling at me, and I didn’t know what else to do to get him to stop.”

  Giant hiccupping sobs were the only sounds filling the room as all eyes turned to him.

  “We’re leaving,” he told the waitress as he reached for his wallet. But before he could pull out enough bills to cover their meal, the woman squatted in front of Jenna and wiped at her tears.

  “Are you okay, sweetie?” The waitress cast an evil glare his way. “He’s not hurting you, is he?”

  “Oh, for crying out loud.” He tossed down a twenty and reached over to lift his daughter from the bench so they could make their escape. She immediately wailed as if he were beating her. “Stop it, Jenna.” He moved quickly toward the door, wanting to get out of there and put an end to the madness. “This isn’t a joke, nor is it even mildly funny.”

  She wailed louder.

  Two customers blocked his exit, and Gabe could do nothing but stare at them in shock. They weren’t going to let him walk out of there with his own child. He looked down at her, still in his arms, and saw the surprise on her face as well. But at least she’d stopped crying.

  “I called the police,” the waitress informed the customers as she hurried up behind Gabe, and with those four words, Gabe understood that his bad week had just gotten worse.

  He and Jenna moved to an unoccupied booth, and as they waited for the police to arrive, he noted that Jenna never uttered a single word. No more tears, either. She’d pulled her shoulders in on herself, and she neither looked at nor spoke to anyone. No matter how many well-meaning customers tried
to rouse her out of it.

  When the officers showed up, Jenna’s entire body began to shake, and finally Gabe got it.

  He moved to the bench to sit beside his daughter and pulled her into his lap, no longer caring about anything or anyone else in the restaurant. Not even the officers. And when Jenna buried her face into his chest and real tears began to fall for the first time in months, all he could do was hold her.

  The police had shown up that other day, too. And now, with officers standing in front of them once again, blue lights flashing outside, and every customer hovering around whispering to each other—as if they were nosy neighbors outside a Hollywood apartment complex—he had zero doubt that his daughter was reliving her biggest nightmare.

  “You’re fine,” he whispered in her ear, soothing her as best he could. “You’re always going to be fine. I’ve got you, and I’ll never let anything happen to you.”

  “I miss my mom,” she sobbed, and at her words, Gabe froze.

  She missed her mom?

  Her mother was the reason she was having a flashback in the first place.

  Her mother was the reason both their lives were in complete upheaval.

  Yet . . . she missed her mom?

  “She’s the best mom in the whole wide world,” Jenna whispered to herself, her words wobbly with her tears.

  And at that, Gabe set personal feelings aside and dealt with the officers. He recognized a deputy who’d been around for years, and explained the situation. The divorce, Jenna being in therapy to help her with all the changes, and even the past incident with the police. All of it. It shamed him to reveal so much personal information, but he had to get his daughter out of there as soon as possible.

  Since Gabe had never been in any trouble, and due to the officer having known the Wilde family for years, he and Jenna were soon free to go. He assured both the eavesdropping customers and restaurant staff that he and his daughter had just had a bad week and that they were going through a rough time, then he walked out of the restaurant with Jenna’s hand in his. He moved on wooden legs to his truck and helped Jenna into the backseat, then he closed her door and turned his back to the vehicle.