Her dad had been right. Dan hadn’t been good enough for Beth. He’d come to North Fork for work—the oil fields about three hours north providing a lot of employment opportunities for large-equipment mechanics. When he’d seen Beth around town, he’d been drawn in by her effortless charm. She came from a respected family—her father being the Rick Thomas of literary fame—and she’d gone to University of Alberta for a degree, something that felt wildly out of reach for a guy like him. He’d never been terribly scholarly. He was a skilled worker and he loved his trade, but she had a way of talking that exposed a world he knew little about—a world with books and theories, history and primary sources. Her dad had written weighty masterpieces that were studied in Canadian literature classes the country over. There were three of them, and a fourth that he’d been working on for the last decade.
Beth sighed. “So what are you going to do with this place?”
“I’m going to open a tool shop,” Dan said. “A lot of guys in the trades have to drive into the city to get their tools, and it’s a waste of fuel and annoying to boot. I want to open a tool shop that carries most of the basics. I’ll order in the specialty tools on demand—”
Beth was staring at him, tears misting her eyes. Shoot. Okay, maybe she hadn’t wanted to hear his business plan, but what did she expect him to do with the place?
“I can’t keep it a corner store,” Dan qualified.
“I know.” She sucked in a breath.
“And the price was shockingly low—”
Beth shot him another pained glance, and he kicked himself. He wasn’t trying to hurt her here, but when the store had come up for sale at that price, the timing had been perfect. He’d been selling tools out of his garage for months, and he was making a pretty good profit. There was a demand for tools in this town, and this could be his first retail space. Lucky for him the bank agreed.
“I’m sorry about your dad,” Dan said, softening his tone. “I know he worked hard to build the business, and losing it all like that is horrible. I feel for him.”
She didn’t answer at first, and then she rubbed a hand over her stomach. “Well, he’s had more than one big shock in the last few months.”
“Linda leaving,” Dan clarified. That divorce had taken North Fork by surprise.
“Oh, no. They planned it out so they could separate ‘amicably.’” She did finger quotes around the last word. “Dad says it was coming for a while. Linda’s nothing if not detail oriented. I was referring to me.”
“The baby,” he confirmed.
“He worries a lot,” she said. “And he’s got a lot going on right now, so the timing could have been better.”
“So how’s your brother?” Dan asked.
“Perfectly successful in Illinois, thanks,” she replied with a wry smile.
Her older brother was a professor at a state college—the bar had been set quite high for the Thomas family. He could sympathize with Beth’s position right now. She’d deserved better than being left on her own for the biggest challenge of her life.
“Don’t know if this is rude to ask, but who’s the dad?”
“None of your business,” she retorted with a cool smile, and Dan laughed.
“You haven’t changed a bit,” he said.
She smiled and rolled her eyes. “You’d be surprised, Danny.”
Danny... He hadn’t been called that in a long time.
“Look.” He cleared his throat. “If you see anything that you want in here...I bought the whole place, contents included. But I don’t need any of it—” He was doing it again, minimizing a lifetime of Thomas family memories in this old place, which wasn’t his intent. “What I mean to say is, if there is anything that you want from the store, it’s yours. I only got the keys today, so I’m looking at everything for the first time, too.”
“Thank you.” She nodded. “There will be things. Like the bell over the door.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He nodded. “Take it.” He glanced up and realized it was high over her head, and in her current state a stepladder would be a bad idea. “Or I can get it down for you.”
He caught her eye, and he felt a swell of sympathy. Things had been hard for the Thomas family lately, and he was just an added insult.
Beth was beautiful and smart, with a sharp sense of humor. He’d always imagined that she’d gone to Edmonton and met some bookish type who would be impressed by her father’s name. Then she’d get married and drive a quality SUV, have some beautiful babies... She was making good on that last one, and for that he was grudgingly glad.
Parenthood had a way of improving a person. It carved them out and deepened them. It took a heart and stretched it farther than a person thought possible. It changed weekend plans from drinks or watching the game into cartoon movies and playing in the snow. Luke’s arrival had been a shock, but he’d changed Dan’s life for the better in every way possible. Dan had always hoped that he’d be a successful business owner here in town, and that when people saw him coming they’d call him “Mr. Brockwood.” Turned out that his deepest satisfaction came from being called “Dad.”
He glanced at his watch. Luke would be out of school soon.
“So how is your grandmother doing?” he asked.
They both instinctively looked over to where Granny was arranging the shelf, wiping dust off the packages with her palm.
“Not so good,” Beth said softly. “She keeps slipping into the past. And apparently, she’s been wandering off a lot.”
“I noticed that,” he agreed. He’d driven her home a couple of times when he’d found her on the street looking confused.
“And she keeps asking about Grandpa.” Beth’s eyes glittered with emotion.
“What do you do?” he asked.
“We tell her that he’s gone out for milk,” Beth said with a shrug. “It sure beats breaking her heart fourteen times a day telling her that he died. So if she ever asks—”
“Yeah, right. Milk...” He nodded.
Everyone loved Beth’s grandmother, whom most people called Granny. She was that sort of lady. And when Beth had agreed to marry him, when a furious Rick had kept encouraging his daughter to think this through a little more, Granny had been happy for them. Dan would never forget that. She’d taken his hand in hers and smiled up into his eyes and said, “Marriage is a blessing, Danny. May you two be brilliantly happy.” For a guy who’d grown up with minimal encouragement, her words had meant the world.
“Granny, we should go,” Beth called. “We need to get back.”
“No, I’d better mind the store,” Granny said with a decisive shake of her head. “It’s too early to close.”
Beth and Dan exchanged a glance.
“Danny will mind the shop, Granny,” Beth said. “Right, Danny?”
“Yeah, of course,” Dan said. “Don’t worry, Granny, I’ll take care of everything.”
Granny brushed her hands off and came back toward them. “Are you sure, Danny?”
“I’m sure,” he said earnestly.
“Do you know how to use the cash register?” she pressed.
“Yes, ma’am. Beth showed me.”
Granny didn’t look convinced, but eventually she smiled. “Well, you are going to be part of the family very soon, aren’t you? I think it’s only right that we trust you with a few responsibilities.”
In Granny’s mind, Dan and Beth were still engaged, he realized, and his throat suddenly felt tight. Of all the days to go back to, those were happy ones. Too happy to last, but happy.
Granny smoothed her hands over her jacket.
“Can I help you zip up?” Beth asked.
“Oh, my...” Granny’s eyes grew large as she focused on Beth’s round belly. “Look at you!”
Granny glanced back at Danny with a look of shock
, and he was forced to hide a smile. Yeah, there’d been a time when he’d have loved to take the credit for Beth’s glowing pregnancy, but not now.
“Okay, let’s just go,” Beth said hurriedly.
“The sooner the better on that wedding, my dear,” Granny said pointedly, and Beth shot Danny a look of exasperation.
“Beth, I’m cleaning this place out over the next couple of weeks. Come by and take anything you want,” Dan said.
“Thank you,” Beth said. “I’ll come by tomorrow, if that’s okay.”
“Not a problem. I’ll be here.”
Beth pushed the door open, and she and her grandmother left the store, the soft ding of the bell echoing in the stillness as the door swung shut again.
Beth Thomas was back, and Dan wasn’t sure how he felt about that. All those old memories—all those old feelings—came in a flood. But fatherhood had changed everything for Dan, and there was no going back.
CHAPTER TWO
“DANNY BROCKWOOD?” Rick exploded. “That twit has my store? He never said a thing to me. How fast did that sale go through?”
Granny came inside and unzipped her coat, then proceeded into the middle of the kitchen with her snowy boots still on her feet.
“I’m not sure,” Beth said, peeling off her jacket. “Granny, your boots.”
“Oh...silly me...” Granny came back to the door and bent to take her boots off. She was still physically spry, and while it seemed horrible for Beth to wish such a thing, if Granny would just get a little creaky in the knees or something, she might not make it so far when she wandered off. It was worse when the mind went before the body did, because there was so much more that could go wrong.
“He said the price was too good to refuse, so it looks like Danny had some money in the bank,” Beth said, hanging her coat on a peg. “Millwrights make a good wage.”
“Where is Ralph?” Granny asked as she stepped into her slippers. “Ralph!”
“He’s gone for milk, Granny,” Rick said. “Why don’t you go get settled in the living room? Warm up.”
“Oh...” Granny nodded. “Yes, that’s a good idea.”
They waited until Granny had retreated to her favorite recliner and the footrest popped up. Beth shot her father an apologetic look.
“I thought it would be better if you heard it from me,” she said.
“It would have been better if he’d been man enough to tell me himself,” Rick snapped.
“No, it wouldn’t,” Beth said with a sigh. “You hate everything Danny does. It would have given you a chance to yell at him, that’s it.”
“And that’s too much to ask?” Rick muttered something under his breath. This was a personal loss for Rick—the store he’d helped his father build up. He’d set his last novel in a family-run corner store, just like theirs, and the critics had deemed it “important” and “layered.” They’d said they could feel the “regional heartbeat” in his work.
“Dad, I hate this, too,” she admitted. “Our family used to be respected.”
“We are respected. Hard times don’t change that.”
He had a point, but this wasn’t what any of them had expected. If the town were to place bets on which of them would hit bottom, they’d have all put their money on Danny to slide down into ruin. Not the Thomases. But her father wasn’t the man he used to be since Linda had left, and Beth hadn’t decided if that was a good thing or not. That was ironic, considering how much she’d disliked her stepmother. They’d never gotten along, not that Linda was entirely to blame. Beth hadn’t been easy on her.
“Have you met his son?” Beth asked after a moment.
“You mean Danny’s son?” Rick asked. “Yeah, I’ve seen him around. Luke’s a good kid.”
She nodded. “Funny to think of Danny as a father.”
“Funny to think of my little girl as a mother,” her father retorted. “Some of these things creep up on a person.”
“Har har.” She cast her father an annoyed look. When was he going to stop being scandalized over this? She was due in a month. He’d had time to get used to the idea.
“And speaking of parenthood,” her father said, “we need to talk about getting child support.”
“No.”
“Even Luke’s mother came after Danny to do his part,” Rick said with a shake of his head.
“She wouldn’t let him near the kid before she dumped him on his doorstep,” she countered.
“Fine. Whatever. My point is, babies don’t come into the world by accident. It takes a cooperative act between two people, and it isn’t right for the full financial burden to fall on only one of them.”
“Dad, I’m not going after child support.”
What was she supposed to do, try to track down some random Australian tourist who’d happened to drink in a certain bar in Edmonton one spring night after her boyfriend had dumped her? It wasn’t even a possibility, but this wasn’t a story she could tell her father. She’d kept her mouth shut until now, and she was keeping it that way.
“It’s Collin’s baby, isn’t it?” her father pressed. “I mean, obviously it is. I’m not stupid.”
Collin was the accountant she’d been dating in Edmonton until he’d broken up with her. He was taking a job across the country in the Maritimes, and he didn’t feel their relationship would last long distance. He hadn’t mentioned her going with him, either. But he wasn’t the father.
Her father scrubbed a hand through his gray hair. “Beth, the book royalties have been a trickle at best. I’m not in a position—”
“I know,” she said quietly.
“I told Linda she could have the investments and the car. She was the mind behind the investments anyway. I just wanted to keep my shop and this house. I can always write more books.”
On the surface, it sounded like her father had come out ahead in the settlement, except for the fact that the store had been on the brink of bankruptcy and the house wasn’t worth much in a town this size. If they put it on the market, it would be nearly impossible to sell. No one moved to North Fork. People moved out.
“Dad, I’m not asking for anything.”
“You might not be asking,” he retorted. “But the reality is that kids are expensive. You’re going to have day care, food, diapers. And just wait until this kid starts school! School supplies, school clothes...”
Beth knew all of this, which was why she’d come home. But she was a burden around here. Coming home wasn’t the problem—it was coming home pregnant.
“After the baby is old enough, I’ll go back to work,” Beth said.
“See, this is the thing.” Her father’s voice grew gruff. “I want you have a choice. I don’t want you pushed into a corner.”
“But I don’t have a choice!” she countered.
“You could have more of a choice if you made the father of this baby take some responsibility,” he said.
They could argue this in circles all night, and they’d still never agree, because her dad was convinced that Collin was the father, and if that were so, Collin had a job and a stable income. He could easily pay child support.
“I know you think Collin is the father, but he isn’t.”
“He isn’t.” Her father eyed her critically. “Who is?”
“I’m not telling you that.”
“You have to think of your baby,” he said.
“Do you think I don’t?” Tears misted her eyes. “I think of very little else, Dad!”
In four short weeks, give or take, Beth was going to be the mother of a baby girl, and she’d be responsible for this little person’s well-being for the rest of her life. She could feel her daughter move and stretch inside her, and when she lay in bed at night, she’d play games with her by pressing on her belly and feeling the baby
tap back. She’d already named her: Riley Elinor. Elinor since that was Granny’s first name, and Riley because Beth liked it. No other reason than that, and there wasn’t a father to debate with over names.
“Linda would have known how to handle this,” her father said with a sigh.
“Linda was a cold, brittle witch, Dad!”
“Say what you like about her, she was here!” her father snapped. “At least I gave you a stepmother to help with all the girly things I knew nothing about!”
Beth pressed her lips together. This was not the time for this argument. Her father had married Linda about a year after Beth’s mother passed away from cancer. Beth had been twelve, and she’d hated the idea of her father loving another woman from the very start. So, granted, they hadn’t had the smoothest of transitions, but Linda had been a chilly and unsupportive woman. Linda knew what she expected, and she didn’t waver in that: homework done on time, kitchen cleaned nightly, a half hour of TV a night and skirts to the knee. Beth realized that didn’t sound horrible, but there also hadn’t been any softness or understanding. Linda hadn’t liked Beth very much, and she’d never hidden it well.
Beth’s brother, Michael, on the other hand, had been more likable in Linda’s eyes. She’d never been a doting kind of woman, and heaven knew she’d never tried to take their mother’s place. But Michael got off easier on everything, and when he went on to get his PhD and a teaching position, Linda had never been prouder.
“Well, now you don’t have Linda to help you figure it out,” her father snapped. “And I don’t have any answers, either.”
“I’m glad Linda isn’t here for this—” she began, but she stopped when she saw Granny standing in the doorway. The old woman’s eyes filled with angry tears.
“Granny,” Beth said, softening her tone.
“Now listen here, both of you.” Granny’s expression was like lightning. “Beth is pregnant. That’s true. There is no going back and undoing that, but I see no use fighting over it!”
“I know, Mom,” Rick said. “I’m sorry. We’ll keep it down.”
A Boy's Christmas Wish Page 2
