by Lois Richer
Blair looked for signs that she was all right, then squatted to smile at Daniel. She shoved the lock of hair from his forehead and brushed at the smudge of dust on his nose. “Willie and I have a surprise,” she corrected.
“Do you?” He frowned. “So do we! I’ll tell mine first.”
“No, I meant it’s improper to say me and Willie.” Blair sighed at the confusion on his little face. “Go ahead, tell me.”
“Can I tell her, Willie? Can I?”
It was clear to Blair that he would tell whether or not he was granted permission, but she kept her lips closed.
“You tell her, Daniel. I have to catch my breath.” Willie huffed and puffed in an exaggerated fashion that made Daniel laugh.
“Okay,” he agreed. He turned to Blair, hands on his hips, a gleam of barely suppressed joy flickering in his green eyes. “Mr. Bart—” He frowned, glanced at Willie, then started over. “Mr. Bartholemew from the Super Mart said he wants to buy four hundred pounds of honey!” He grinned with delight.
“Four hundred?” Blair looked at Willie for confirmation. “But that’s double what he ordered last year!”
Willie nodded, her breathing having slowed fractionally. “He said he’s had requests ever since he sold out, and he wants to make sure he doesn’t run out this time. He’s willing to pay a bit more to guarantee his supply.”
When she named how much more, Blair sagged onto a chair. “Oh, my!” She glanced at the two local women Gabe had hired to help out. They grinned, raised thumbs up and kept right on working. “Four hundred pounds!” She could hardly believe it.
The telephone’s urgent peal broke through the rush of excited voices. Blair hurried to the office.
“Yes, this is Mind Your Own Beeswax. I see. Yes, I think so.” She listened for a moment, then frowned. “May I ask how you heard of us? Oh, I see.” She glanced across the tiny room, searching for and finding Gabe lounging in the doorway. She couldn’t help the smile that rose to her lips.
“Yes, that brochure was my husband’s creation. If you’ll fax me the particulars, I’ll get back to you with an estimate. Is that all right?” Assured that it was, she sat holding the receiver until the recorded message asked her to hang up.
“Is everything all right?” Gabe frowned at her lack of response. In two strides he was beside her, his hand gently covering hers. “Blair? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She blinked, seeing anew his beloved face, closely cropped head, large powerful hands. “I think I’ve just hit the big time. Some chain of boutiques saw that flyer you helped me design and wants to carry our Christmas candles. They also want me to think about creating a special line just for them.”
He grinned. “I knew those colors would go over big if you just spread the word. Good for you! You’re going to have to hire some more help, you know.”
She gulped. “I know. But there’s no room here.”
“Then we’ll add on.” He winked at her. “These are good problems, Blair. Everyone wants these kinds of problems.”
“I guess.” She let him hug her while her mind whirled with the potential of it all. “I just thought it would take longer. I’d never have managed it if you hadn’t made me see the possibilities.”
He brushed a kiss over her forehead, his hand smoothing her hair. “It’s the very least I could do,” he murmured, arms linked around her waist. He leaned in close and added, “For my wife.”
Blair couldn’t stop the smile that caught at her lips on hearing those words. They weren’t exactly the words she longed to hear, but she wouldn’t complain. Gabe had changed so much, a little more wasn’t impossible for the Lord, was it?
“Of course your work is selling, dear. I knew it all along. Just took a bit of the right kind of management.” Willie moved beside Gabe. She beamed at him proudly. “Didn’t take much sense to see that Gabe is the man who helped make those dreams come true. I knew the first time I met him.”
So did I. Blair wanted to agree loudly, but not here in front of everyone. She wanted to tell him herself, in private. Later.
“I guess this means your machine will get a real workout, Albert. Thank you so much for thinking of it.” She gave him a hug and a kiss on his bald spot. “Now if I could just get the wax purified and treated a little easier. There is a machine, you know. But it’s terribly expensive.” She fell into thought.
Blair didn’t hear anything until Mac’s voice cut through the chatter in the room and flew straight to her ear.
“Maybe you should just buy the wax outright. Spend your time on producing candles, not cleaning beeswax. You could sell your rough stock and buy the finished product. You might even design some colors of your own and commission someone to make them for you.”
He scratched his head, his tanned forehead furrowed. “Of course, I don’t know much about that sort of thing.”
Blair stared at him as the idea took shape. “On the contrary, Grandpa. You are smarter than you give yourself credit for.” She raced across the room, flung her arms around his neck and hugged him with delight. “Smarter than anyone I know.”
She began dreaming of possibilities right there in the workroom. So immersed was she, Willie, Mac, Albert and Daniel had wandered off to get a cool drink at the castle by the time she blinked at the snapping fingers in front of her and saw Gabe’s laughing face.
“And you say I get involved!” He hugged her. “Something’s brewing, isn’t it?”
“Yes!” She hugged him hard. “I can do this, Gabe! Thanks to you and Albert, Mac, Willie and Daniel, I believe I can really do this.” She giggled as he swung her around the room, giddy with joy.
If the inane smirks of her employees hadn’t shoved reality into her face, Gabe’s cell phone pealing its high-pitched call would have. He made a face but let her go and pulled the tiny phone from his pocket.
“Sloan.” His forehead pleated. “Hey, Rich! What’s up?” He frowned, his fingers rubbing against Blair’s. Suddenly, all motion stopped. His face grew cold and hard. “He what?”
Blair stood waiting, knowing from the tenseness of his neck, the rigid straightening of his backbone, that something was terribly wrong.
“I’ll be there.” He clicked the phone closed and shoved it into his pocket. “I have to go to L.A.” The clipped, hard tones brooked no discussion.
Blair took his hand and drew him from the room into the freshness of the summer afternoon air. “What’s the matter, Gabe? Please tell me.”
He lips turned upward in a smile, but no flicker of joy lit his gorgeous eyes. Cold and hard, they stared straight ahead.
“My father’s back. He’s buying up Polytech shares and offering my employees bigger and better profits if they will sell their stock to him, or at least back him in a takeover.”
“A takeover?” She whispered the words, aghast at the man’s temerity. How could he do this to his own son? How could he deliberately sabotage the happiness Gabe had found in this one small area of his life?
“I’ll have to leave immediately. Rich has already ordered a local chopper to take me to the airfield. That’s how badly he wants me there.” His jaw clenched and unclenched.
“I know. It’s okay. We’ll manage, Gabe. We’ll be waiting.” She stroked his arm, hoping to infuse her words with assurance and calmness. “Do you need me to come with you?”
His head jerked up, his eyes wide. “You’d do that?”
“Of course. I told you, I love you. If you want my help, for whatever it’s worth, you’ve got it.”
He stared at her for a long time before his arms reached out and drew her near. He held her against his chest, his head resting on hers. “Thank you, Blair,” he murmured at last, the distant purring of the chopper drawing him from his contemplation. “It will be easier to fight knowing that.”
She moved slightly to study his face. “Is that what you want to do?” she asked quietly. “You want to fight him over this?”
The air chilled immediately. His arms dropped away
. “You don’t think I should fight my own father for a company he’s only ever tried to destroy?” He shook his head. “No, I suppose you don’t. You couldn’t possibly understand.”
Blair knew she had to force him to look at what was ahead. Part of their problems had stemmed from his inability to get love from his father. He had to come to terms with that.
She gripped his hands, rubbing her thumbs tenderly over the work-roughened knuckles. “I’m not asking about him,” she whispered. “I’m asking what you want. Truthfully, honestly. Do you want to fight your father on this?”
“Yes!” The affirmative burst from him in heated vehemence. “I want to show him that I will never again be the sissy, the wimp that he terrified all those years. I want him to know that I can take him on, anytime, and win.” He paced back and forth.
“You want to punish him.”
His head jerked up, his eyes flashed, and his jaw was clenched in a ruthless line. “Yes.”
“Where will that leave you, Gabe?” Blair ignored the wild gusting wind from the chopper blades. She knew time was precious, but so was his spirit. “Will you allow yourself to be crushed by unforgiveness? Because, we both know it’s only you who will be hurt. A man like that doesn’t understand what he’s done.”
One corner of his mouth tipped in a sneer. “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. Is that what you mean?” He waited for her nod. “Well, this opportunity is heaven-sent. I don’t intend to throw it away. Then I’m coming back here, Blair. For good.”
Blair sighed, her soul troubled but her face smiling. “Then go, do what you must. I love you, Gabe. I’ll always love you. No matter what.” As the pilot raced across the road, she stood on tiptoes and kissed Gabe, trying to express all that lay in her heart. “We’ll be here, waiting, Daniel and I. Hurry home.”
He grabbed her and hugged her close, as if afraid he’d never have the chance to do that again. When he set her free, Blair threaded her hand in his and walked with him toward the chopper.
“You’ll call me? Every day? Do you need anything?”
He grinned and tapped his forehead. “It’s all in here.”
“You’ll call me if you need me? Promise?” She waited anxiously for his agreement.
When they were less than fifty feet from the helicopter, Gabe’s hands on her forearms forced her to stop.
“Thank you for offering,” he said directly into her ear. “But this is something I have to do. I’ve been waiting for this chance my whole life. I’m going to make him see what he missed.” He studied her eyes to be sure she understood. “You need to stay here, take care of our son. Say goodbye to Daniel for me.”
Blair held his gaze, imprinting every detail in her memory. Then she nodded solemnly. “Go with God, my love,” she murmured as he strode across the grass to the waiting pilot.
Gabe sat tall, silently staring at her, as the craft whirled into the air. She lifted a hand, pressed it to her lips and then held it aloft. Blair told herself he smiled and then mocked her own foolishness as the tears welled and the worry engulfed her.
“Rocks don’t smile,” her conscience reminded her as she plodded to the work shed. “They don’t have feelings.”
She bypassed the building and headed up the hill, tracing the steps she and Gabe had taken such a short time ago. When she got to the top, she collapsed on the grass and stared at the shimmering beauty before her.
Why, God? Why did You take him away, just when I was beginning to believe in happily ever after?
Heaven stayed silent.
Chapter Thirteen
“Mommy?”
“Yes, Daniel?”
“Where is my daddy?”
The same words he’d asked months ago, but oh, the wealth of meaning they contained now.
Blair tucked her son into his captain’s bed, then brushed a hand over his disheveled hair. “Your daddy loves you very much, Daniel.” Of that much, at least, she was certain.
“Why doesn’t he come home?” The little eyelids dropped over sad green eyes, reminding Blair of another wounded child and the vengeance he now sought.
“Daddy will come as soon as he can, sweetheart. He just has to finish his work. He doesn’t like being away, but it’s very important to him. I think we should pray for him.”
Daniel nodded and squeezed his eyes closed. His hands folded reverently. “Me first,” he insisted, opening one eye to check for her nod. “Dear God, this is Daniel Sloan. That’s my name now, remember, ’cause I gots a daddy, just like the other kids. He’s a good daddy, and I love him a lot. Did you see the kite he sended me from the big city? I love kites.”
Blair smiled, but kept silent. This was Daniel’s petition. He should offer it in his own way.
“My daddy’s been gone an awful long time.” He pried one eye open. “How long?”
“Eight days,” Blair told him, suppressing a grin when he shut the eye and continued blithely as if there’d been no pause.
“You prob’ly already know he’s been gone that long, and maybe that isn’t a long time to you ’cause you made the whole earth and everything in six. But it’s a horrible long time to me. I want my daddy back. I want him here, with me. We gotta be a family. My daddy needs a family. He never had none. Amen.”
The abrupt ending caught Blair off guard and she hurriedly composed her own prayer. Though it was shorter than Daniel’s, it was just as direct and to the point. She wanted her husband, the man she loved, home.
Daniel added another amen after hers, then wiggled under the coverlet. “I know God’ll send him pretty soon.” He yawned. “I hope I’m not sleeping when Daddy comes home.”
“I’m sure Gabe would wake you up if you were.” She pressed a kiss to his forehead, her throat tightening as the chubby little arms squeezed her neck in a hug. “Good night, sweetie. Pleasant dreams.”
“Night, Mommy.”
She snapped off the light, leaving only the sailboat night-light burning. As Daniel’s soft snores filled the room, she slipped out, pulling the door closed behind her.
Blair was about to head to the hot tub in hopes of easing the cramps in her neck when the phone pealed its summons.
“Gabe! How are you? Is everything all right?” She sank onto the grass next to the rose garden and listened to the weariness in his beloved voice.
“Couldn’t be better. Finally got them with their hands in the cookie jar. Legal proceedings, Rich says. That ought to hold off their bid for a while. Stock’s up again. Apparently some people wouldn’t mind seeing Farnover’s takeover.”
“Farnover’s? You’ve been refusing them for a while. Is that who’s backing your father?” Though she’d learned a few of the details, Blair could only pretend to understand corporate maneuvering.
“Yeah. They always did operate out of the back door.” His voice died away. “How are you, Blair? How’s Daniel?”
“He’s fine. He prayed for you tonight, Gabe. He wants his daddy home.” She said it deliberately, hoping he would understand.
“I’m not abandoning him, Blair. I’ll be back as soon as I get that shyster off my case permanently.” Bitterness, harsh and painful, laced his tone. “He’s determined to cow me. To prove he’s a better man. Well, I’m not caving. Not anymore.”
Blair sighed. More than ever, Gabe was sounding like the man she’d left in L.A.
“Daniel doesn’t know corporate America, Gabe. He just knows his daddy isn’t there to tickle him or wrestle with or swim with. He misses you.”
The silence stretched unbearably.
“I miss him, too. And you. And Mac and Willie and Albert. I miss the simplicity of it. The relaxed pace. Time here runs from one day into the next, and I forget whether I called you yesterday or not. Is that terrible to say?” He sounded worried.
“Of course not.” She waited, but when he didn’t volunteer any more information, Blair closed her eyes and pictured him alone, tired, full of bitterness and hatred. “Are you all right, Gabe? Are you eating and sleeping?”
“I’m fine.”
“I miss you, Gabe. I love you.”
“I know.”
Tears squeezed out between her lids. She’d wanted so badly to hear the words. She needed to know he loved her, cared about her, wanted to be there with her. Was that asking so much?
His voice, when it finally came, was thin and sad, making her heart clench with pain. “I wish I could hold you, Blair. I wish I could just hold you, right now, right here.”
She swallowed. At least he’d admitted that much.
“Do you want me to come?” she whispered.
“No! I don’t want you anywhere near him. He’s evil. He ruins everything good in my life.”
As she waited, Blair silently prayed, begging for the right words to say to show him her love.
“Are you still there?”
“I’m here,” she whispered.
“Why did you call my son Daniel?”
The words shocked her for a moment. Then she recalled a newspaper clipping Mac had left for her to read. Daniel—his father’s name. Oh, no!
Help me, Lord.
“Blair?”
“When I was in labor, the contractions came very hard and very fast. It was a long labor, and believe me, labor is the right word for it. At one point I was so tired and discouraged that I was ready to agree to their suggestion for cesarean delivery.”
“But that’s so hard on the mother!” His breathing quickened.
“Mac came in to give Willie a breather. She’d stayed with me all through it, and she needed to relax, so when a quiet period came, in he marched.” She smiled, remembering his rigid posture that belied the fear lurking in his eyes. “I told him I didn’t think I could do it anymore, and he reminded me that my baby was just like Daniel in the lion’s den. The contractions were the lions, and he drew this analogy that if I didn’t fight to get my baby out, to give him life, the lions would squeeze the life out of him.”
Blair grimaced, not totally sure why she’d told him the tale. “It’s a weird kind of analogy, I suppose, but I saw exactly what he was driving at. Some things are worth fighting for. My baby was Daniel to me after that, the whole time I fought to get him into this world. And that’s what he stayed.”