“Danny want choke.”
“You’ll turn blue and keel over in your chair,” Gabe said. He clutched at his throat, pretended he couldn’t breathe, then collapsed on the table. Danny crowed with laughter.
“Danny choke.” He grabbed his throat, made gagging noises and tilted over in his high chair. He waited a moment, opened his eyes, sat up, and waited for the expected praise. Gabe rewarded him with a laugh.
“Now see what you’ve done,” Dana said. “I’ll never understand you men. You do the dumbest things. What I understand even less is why women let you get away with it.”
“It’s part of our charm.”
“It must be. I can’t think of any logical reason for it.”
“Do you think I’m charming?” he asked. Laughter turned to desire.
“Don’t fish for compliments.” Color tinged her cheeks. “I’m sure women have flattered you shamelessly for years.”
“I don’t believe everything I hear.”
“I’m sure you’d believe that.”
“No more readily than you believe you’re attractive.”
More color tinged her cheeks. “Do you think I’m attractive?”
“No. I like women with thick legs, huge hips and a nose like a carbuncle.”
Dana burst out laughing. “No woman alive would admit to looking like that, not even to catch a prize like you.”
The surge of heat through his body threatened to take the little reason left to him. “Do you think I’m a prize?”
“Salome’s description,” she said, truly blushing this time. “She said I’d gotten a prize in his prime, not to waste it.”
Gabe’s last shred of self-control vanished into thin air. “Are you going to waste my prime?”
“Danny, you’ve got eggs all over you, the high chair and the floor,” Dana exclaimed. “It’s my fault. He always uses his fingers when I’m not watching.”
She jumped up to get some paper towels. By the time she’d gathered up all the stray bits of egg and sausage and wiped Danny’s mouth despite his objections, she had herself under control.
“I expect your prime will last long past the next few weeks,” she said. “I’m sure you will find someone who can put it to good use.”
Gabe wondered what she would have said if she’d answered him with the heat still in her cheeks. Before he could ask her, the phone rang.
“I’m sure it’s for you, but I’ll answer it,” she said, getting up before he could object. “You need to finish your breakfast.”
When she practically ran out of the room, Gabe felt better. If he had to be broiled like a piece of meat on a rotisserie, he wanted to know he had company.
“I guess it’s just you and me, fella,” he said, turning to Danny. “Do you think you could keep from making another mess until I can get a straight answer from Dana?”
“Eggs,” Danny said pointing at Dana’s plate.
“You’re a pig,” Gabe said as he gave the little boy a bite of his own breakfast. “It’s not very gentlemanly to eat a lady’s food.”
“Sausage,” Danny said pointing at the untouched sausage on Dana’s plate.
“You planning to eat everything before she gets back?” Maybe the telephone call hadn’t been for him. Dana should have been back before now. It was probably her partner wanting to know when she was going back to work. Despite being tied to him by Mattie’s will, he’d never expected Dana to stay in Iron Springs more than a few days. Everything she’d wanted from the time she was a little girl was in New York. What could she find in Iron Springs to interest her?
“I’m afraid not even you can keep her here,” he said to Danny. “Once they get worldly success in their blood, they’re ruined for the likes of us. You don’t care what’s going on around you as long as I stuff your mouth full of food, do you?” Danny answered by opening his mouth for another bite.
“That’s it, fella. Any more and you’ll pop. Dana will have a bigger mess than ever to clean up, and she’ll blame it on me.” He laughed. “Listen to me talking to you like you understand. I wish you did,” he said after getting up to take the empty dishes to the sink. “Maybe you could explain it to me.”
But he didn’t need an explanation. He knew. Despite being made uncomfortable by the intensity of his lust for Dana, he’d been more relaxed and at ease with her than with any other woman he’d known. He’d liked the feeling of having someone to come home to, to talk to about his day, to be able to play with Danny, to help feed him and put him to bed. Having a small, defenseless, dependent child in the house filled a deep need inside him. He wanted to play with Danny, feed him, even learn to give him his bath and put him to bed. He liked having Dana sitting across the table from him. He liked helping her fix meals, clear away, worry about Danny.
How ironic he should find what he’d wanted for so long in Dana. Of all the women he knew, none could be less likely to fit into his world. And he’d be a fool if he even considered trusting his feelings to her. She wouldn’t leave him because she didn’t like him; she’d leave because she couldn’t do anything else.
He’d already had his heart torn up once. He’d sworn he’d never let it happen again.
Dana came back into the kitchen, her face white. “I’ve got to leave for New York immediately,” she said. “My father’s had a heart attack.”
That was it. Once she got to New York, she would never leave again. He didn’t have to worry about keeping himself from doing something foolish. Her father had done it for him.
Chapter Thirteen
“I don’t care if Mattie’s will did make you joint custodian of her child,” Dana’s mother was saying, “there’s no reason for you to stay in that godforsaken place a minute longer. I don’t understand why you went in the first place.”
“I couldn’t just turn Danny over to Gabe and leave.”
“I don’t see why not. He’s not your child. He’s not even related to you.”
“I feel like he’s my child,” Dana said. “That’s why Mattie gave me joint custody. She knew I’d see to it Danny didn’t get lost in those mountains.”
“She did nothing of the sort,” her mother snorted. It was an elegant snort, but it was definitely a snort. “She always wanted to get you and her brother together.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Mother. Mattie wouldn’t—”
“Everybody knew you were besotted with him when you were a teenager.”
Dana blushed. “I got over that long ago.”
“Maybe, but Mattie didn’t forget it.”
“Why would Mattie want me to go back to Iron Springs when she wouldn’t go back herself?”
“Maybe she thought you could coax her brother into coming to New York. How am I supposed to know what she thought?”
Dana found herself wishing herself back in Iron Springs. After the doctors declared her father was in no immediate danger, her mother had turned her attention to the aspects of Dana’s life she considered unsatisfactory. Dana’s friendship with Mattie and her subsequent assumption of responsibility for Danny topped the list.
“You shouldn’t let anything keep you from being here with me at your father’s side.”
Her mother meant that to be the clincher. It might have been if Dana hadn’t known her father liked to have his family around him when he was feeling mortal but didn’t want to be bothered when he felt fine. She loved both her parents, but that didn’t blind her to the fact she wasn’t essential to their lives.
“I’ll stay as long as Dad needs me,” Dana said, “but I have to go back as soon as he’s better. I haven’t finished teaching Gabe how to take care of Danny. Besides, I still haven’t decided what to do with grandmother’s house.”
“Sell that place,” her mother said. “I’m sure the roof is about to fall in. There’s nothing out there but trees and field mice.”
“I’m going to fix it up so I can stay there when I go to visit Danny.”
Both parents looked at her as though she’d taken l
eave of her senses.
“You’re not going back to that place,” her father declared.
“I have to.”
“No, you don’t. That child has his uncle and the rest of his family to look after him. He doesn’t need you.”
“I’m his joint guardian. I’m responsible for him.”
“I can’t see any reason—” her mother started.
“I forbid you to go back,” her father said. “I’m surprised you’d even consider it.”
“Danny’s father is trying to get custody.”
“I don’t see why you shouldn’t want the boy’s own father to have him,” her mother said. “Besides, if the uncle isn’t married, there’s practically nothing you can do about it.”
“I have done something about it,” Dana said.
“What?” her father asked. “You don’t know any judge. If it were New York, I could—”
“Gabe is married,” she said.
“I distinctly remember you telling me he wasn’t married,” her mother said.
“He wasn’t married then,” Dana said, knowing what had to come sooner or later.
“Who could he have found to marry him on such short notice?” her mother asked.
“Me.”
Both parents stared at her in stunned silence. If her father didn’t have a fatal heart attack now, he wasn’t likely to have one for a very long time.
“The lawyer told us the only way we could keep Danny would be to get married,” Dana explained, hoping to take the edge off what she was certain would be a torrent of anger. “He said courts almost always sided with the natural parent. He said we only had to stay married until Gabe had been awarded official custody. Then we can get a divorce, and I can come back to New York.”
The explosion was worse than she’d expected. Dana let both parents say what they had to say without interruption. She owed them that much.
“I won’t divorce Gabe until he has custody of Danny,” she repeated when they had finished. “I know you don’t like it and you don’t understand it, but my mind is made up.”
But the pressure they put on her became intense and unrelenting. When they brought in the family lawyer to convince her to be reasonable, she got on a plane back to Iron Springs.
The minute the plane’s wheels left the ground, a weight fell from her shoulders. She could literally feel the tension uncoil inside her. By the time the plane reached cruising altitude, a series of deep breaths had loosened the muscles in her shoulders. When they served beverages she had ceased gripping the seat handle. By the time the plane landed in Virginia, the muscles in the back of her neck had relaxed sufficiently for the pounding headache to pass. She leaned back in her seat, a smile on her lips. Gabe and Danny would be waiting for her.
Gabe spotted her the moment she stepped out of the tunnel. He nudged his mother, pointed her out to Danny. All three broke into huge smiles and waved excitedly.
The smile on Dana’s lips turned to marble. With a suddenness that was terrifying, she realized she cared for Gabe. Not the way she’d cared for him as a teenager. She cared for him as a man she lived with, shared meals with, parented with, a man whose thoughts and worries she shared. She cared for him as a woman cares for a man she finds attractive, appealing, desirable.
And that threatened everything she was, that she thought she wanted to be.
Instinct warned her to turn around and run back to New York. Even though she didn’t know how to go about doing it, she had to find out if Gabe cared for her, and if so, what she wanted to do about it. Her life had been made up mostly of opposites to his, but regardless of what she did in the future, she knew her career would never be as important as it had been before Mattie came to live with her.
She wouldn’t consider giving up everything to become a typical Iron Springs housewife. Yet the appeal of being part of such a loving and supportive community gripped her strongly. Her parents had never met her at the airport nor looked nearly so happy to see her. Neither had any of the men she’d dated. After years of being too busy, of not finding a man who could give her the love and acceptance she craved, of dating men too busy or too uninterested to commit, she’d found a man who’d conquered the citadel of her heart despite the efforts of both of them to keep it from happening.
No matter what the consequences, she had to find out what that meant, she thought as Danny pushed his way through the crowd and threw himself into her outstretched arms. Watching the scene, Gabe wondered if two people could hug each other any harder than Danny and Dana. They hardly seemed to be aware when he and his mother reached them.
Gabe had expected to be relieved Dana had returned. The extent of that relief surprised him. He’d dreamed about her, missed the sight and sound of her moving about the house. He called her every night to report on Danny, but he hadn’t expected to feel like a part of him had been restored when she emerged from the tunnel.
No matter how much it frustrated him, he liked having her around. He didn’t understand how she could have become such a necessary part of his days so quickly, so easily integrated into his routine, but nothing seemed right without her. Even his mother had commented on the difference.
“Don’t take all of Dana’s sugar, young man,” Mrs. Purvis said to Danny. “Save some for Gabe.”
Dana stood to face Gabe, Danny on her hip. Gabe felt very self—conscious. He gave her a little kiss on the cheek.
“You don’t have to act like a preacher just because your mother’s present,” Mrs. Purvis said in disgust. “Here, let me have Danny so you can kiss her good and proper.”
Dana hesitated, but Mrs. Purvis took Danny. “You can go back in a minute,” she said to Danny when he held out his arms to Dana. “You’re going to have to learn to share her from now on. Go on,” she prompted when Gabe hesitated. “It isn’t like these people never saw a man kiss his wife before.”
Giving in to the pressure that had been building to the point of explosion, Gabe took Dana in a two-arm embrace and kissed her. His action had been spontaneous, without plan, but he no sooner had Dana in his arms than he knew exactly what he wanted to do. The kiss deepened until he felt Dana’s arms go around his neck. His tongue forced its way into her mouth, searching hers.
Each kiss, each embrace, blew the top off a need he constantly struggled to keep under control. Because he knew the feeling of fulfillment couldn’t last long, he was determined to grab every bit of pleasure he could whenever he got the chance. It wasn’t a hard decision to make.
Her mouth tasted so sweet, her lips felt so soft, he wanted to keep kissing her forever. When she kissed him back with reckless abandon, he decided he just might. The hunger of her kiss shattered his slender supply of calm. Shivers of barely contained desire rushed through him.
“Gabe.”
The kiss was like the soldering heat that joins metals. He took her mouth with savage intensity. Her body quivered its surrender, and he closed in for the—
“Gabe!”
When he released her, Dana didn’t move, just stared at him. She looked quite shaken. Gabe didn’t know whether positively or negatively, pleased or displeased. He felt weak in the knees.
“If I’d known you were going to make a spectacle of yourself, I’d have told you to wait until you got home,” Mrs. Purvis said as she let Danny go back to Dana. “You looked like one of those couples in a movie.”
“I just did what came naturally,” Gabe said, recovering.
“Well next time maybe you’d better act like a preacher.”
Gabe winked at Dana. The stunned look had disappeared, and she smiled in return.
“Why don’t you ask Dana if she liked it,” Gabe said.
“That’s none of my business. Now get her luggage. If you don’t hurry, you’ll be late feeding Danny his dinner.”
Gabe headed off to the luggage counter with a light step. Dana was back.
He didn’t know how he was going to get through the next few weeks, but he decided not to worry about it. He�
��d have to let things happen, he’d worry about tomorrow when it came.
“I didn’t know Yankees knew how to cook.” Salome said as she helped herself to some chicken salad. “You’ve got enough food laid out here to serve half of the town.”
“She’s practically got half the town here,” Liz said.
“I don’t see Josie Woodhouse,” Salome pointed out.
“Josie came to my luncheon,” Mrs. Purvis said. “That’s enough.”
Dana had decided a Saturday morning ladies’ brunch would be one of the best ways to appear to be fitting into the community. Mrs. Purvis had made up a sympathetic guest list, and she’d sent Gabe and Danny off to the park with orders to bring home takeout for dinner.
“Mrs. Purvis did most of the work,” Dana confessed.
“Dana made the chicken salad and the cucumber sandwiches,” Mrs. Purvis said.
“You’ll have to give me the recipe for these sandwiches,” Liz Dennis said. “I want to serve them the next time Matt has a gathering of his snooty doctors.”
The past week had been one of incredible happiness for Dana. Facing pressure from Lucius’s lawyer, Marshall had ordered Gabe to come home earlier for dinner and for Dana to become involved in the community. Dana had volunteered for the crafts fair and immediately been put in charge of getting commitments from as many buyers as possible. She’d attended church and volunteered to help in the nursery. That way she wouldn’t have to leave Danny.
She also volunteered to spend three mornings a week in the clinic. After her first day with Salome, she had reconsidered the situation. By the third, she had confirmed her original impression that Salome could be a real friend—as long as Dana could manage to close her eyes to Salome’s violently clashing colors.
Dana had fallen into the habit of picking up Danny and taking him to share lunch with Gabe. This meant she had to bring something for Billy and Sam, too, but she didn’t mind. Fixing soup or salad for five was just as easy as fixing for three.
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