The Lawman's Yuletide Baby

by Ruth Logan Herne

  Tee crossed the room and hugged her tight. “I will never do something that stupid again. I was so mad that we live on the water and almost never take the boat out. I felt like I never get to just sit and fish since Great-Grandpa died. And the weather was so beautiful.” She sighed and laid her head against Corinne’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Mom. You can lock me away. I deserve it.”

  “How come I get All-County in baseball and you get the newspaper headlines?” Callan pretended to be insulted as he came in with an armload of firewood and the daily paper. “You’re all over the news, Tee. Well. You and Coach.”

  “We’re in the paper?” She squealed softly, then shifted gears again, total Tee. “I have to thank Coach. He knew where to come because we talked about it before, and he sacrificed his boat. I’ve got to pay him back, somehow. I can’t believe he did that for me, Mom.” She raised her gaze to Corinne’s. “He didn’t even hesitate, he just jumped into the water, came aboard and brought me home.”

  “Well, that’s how Coach is,” Callan offered. He slung his arm around Tee and gave her a sideways hug. “He always puts the other guy first. That’s where I learned it from.” He shrugged. “Glad you’re okay.” He tipped his gaze down to Tee. “But try not to do anything stupid again. At least for a while. Okay?”

  “Deal. And I’ll figure things out with Coach at Grandma’s today. Should I save him some of my pie?” She looked back at Corinne, and Corinne shook her head.

  “I made another one for dessert. I’ll make sure he gets some.”

  “Okay.” She took the pie into the living room and turned on the Thanksgiving Day Parade, and for a few minutes she was the little girl Corinne had worked so hard to raise alone.

  But she wasn’t that little girl anymore. She was almost a teenager, and Corinne had been so busy trying to be perfect, she’d forgotten how important it was to just “be.”

  God and Gabe had given her a second chance yesterday evening. One way or another she wanted to make the very best of this new opportunity.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Gabe knocked at Susie and Mack’s door shortly before eleven on Thanksgiving morning. He had a diaper bag slung over one shoulder as Jessie gurgled and batted her hands in the car carrier he clutched in the opposite hand.

  Mack opened the door. He looked tired at first glance, but when he saw it was Gabe, he threw the door wide. “Come on in, we’ll give you a hero’s welcome! I’m so glad you’re all right, man!” Mack clapped him on the back as Susie came through from the kitchen area. “Happy Thanksgiving!”

  Susie echoed Mack’s words, proud of him despite their grievous loss. She came forward, smiled down at the baby, then hugged her old friend. The hug didn’t seem forced, even after their recent hardship. It seemed sincere and good, Susie to the max. “Happy Thanksgiving, Gabe. I’m so glad you’re all right, and that Tee is okay.” She winced in empathy. “That had to be such a scare for Corinne. I’m not sure I could handle that kind of thing. I’d have been turned inside out.”

  “I think she’d agree with that assessment one hundred percent,” Gabe told her. He motioned to the living room. “Can we sit?”

  “Yes, of course, you’re probably tired.” Susie moved forward. Gabe followed, set the baby seat on the couch and undid Jess’s straps.

  The beautiful, perfect baby gave him a happy, blue-eyed stare, as if pondering their earlier conversation, then grinned.

  He grinned back, kissed her cheek and gently touched his forehead to hers, hoping and praying he could do this right. He took one deep, lingering sniff of Jessie’s sweetness, then turned and set the nearly five-month-old baby into Susie’s arms. “Here you go.”

  “Oh, Gabe.” Susie’s eyes went damp as she dropped her gaze, but not before he read the longing in her eyes. “She’s growing.”

  “She is. And she eats a lot. And she still likes to wrestle me awake at night, so prepare yourselves to take the occasional nap.”

  Mack frowned. “Do you need us to babysit?”

  “Here’s what I need.” Gabe set the car seat onto the floor and sat down. “I need you to take her and be the best parents you can possibly be to her. I’m pretty sure you can do that, right?”

  Susie swallowed hard, staring at him with wide eyes, instinctively holding the baby a little closer. A little tighter. “What?”

  Mack leaned forward, concerned. “Gabe, you can’t be serious. If this is because you think you can’t do a good job with a kid, man, you’re wrong. So wrong.” He got up and paced away, then back. “You’ll be a great dad to her.” He nodded to Susie. “We both know that. You need to kick the self-doubt to the curb and believe in yourself again. You saved a kid’s life yesterday, Gabe. That’s got to be worth something, right?”

  Gabe had watched Mack run his hand through his hair, pace the floor and then stop in front of him, face-to-face. He held Mack’s gaze. “Are you done?”

  Surprise furrowed Mack’s brow. “Yes.”

  “Good. Listen.” He turned to include Susie in his line of vision. “I love you guys. You’ve been with me through thick and thin, you stuck by me through the bad years and the worse years, and I know I can always count on you.”

  Susie reached out and touched a hand to his leg. “That’s what friends are for, Gabe. That’s kind of like the meaning of the word, isn’t it?”

  Gabe knew it didn’t always work out that way. Their special brand of friendship was a rare jewel. Seldom found and always treasured. “Yeah, but you know that runs amok for lots of folks. Anyway, Jessie needs a home. Her grandparents will do everything they can to undermine her happy existence within our family, and what way is that to start a beautiful new life?”

  “There are jerks in every family, Gabe.” Mack uttered the words, but Gabe heard the note of hope and wonder in his voice. “You can’t be serious.”

  “I’m quite serious. You’ll have to go through the proper channels with the county for adoption, and I’d like to be considered as her godfather when the need arises, but if you’d like to become parents sooner rather than later, I’ll be glad to have the lawyer draw up the change of custody papers on Monday and we can get the process going.”

  “Sooner, meaning...?”

  Gabe stood, leaned down and kissed Susie’s cheek. They were tear-stained once more, but this time for a very different reason. “How does now sound?”

  “You’re serious.” Mack stared at him, openmouthed, while Susie rose with a now-fidgety baby.

  “Come help me unload the portable crib.”

  “You packed it?”

  “I figured if you said yes, you’d need it, and you can return it to Drew and Kimberly when you’re done because I’m willing to bet the kid’s going to get a really cute nursery makeover.” He grinned at Susie.

  “Gabe, are you sure? Really sure?” She gripped his arm, then hugged him, baby and all. “I don’t even know how to talk you out of it, because I’d much rather just scream ‘yes!’ and be done.”

  “She doesn’t like screaming, so just love her, okay? Love her like her young mother wanted her loved, in a way my cousin never knew in all of her twenty-one years. Just love her the way God loves his people.”

  “We will.” Susie gripped his arm tighter as tears streamed down her cheeks. “Oh, we will do that so happily, my friend.”

  “Good. What are you guys doing for Thanksgiving?”

  They exchanged guilty looks that Gabe had anticipated because celebrating Thanksgiving had probably been the last thing on their sorrowed minds.

  “I thought as much. I’m going to see if the Gallaghers have room for two more. I expect they do. I promised them we’d have Thanksgiving together, but I think it would be nicer to have all of Jessie’s family there. Me. Her Auntie Corinne. And her new mom and dad.”

  “Dad.” Mack ran his hand through his
hair again, clapped his hands together, then paused. “I’m a dad.”

  Susie nodded.

  Did she know she was crying? Did she care?

  Gabe had no idea as he and his best friend unloaded a car full of baby things into Mack and Susie’s living room.

  They set up the crib and arranged the necessities, and when things were somewhat organized, Gabe squared his shoulders.

  This was the hard part.

  He’d done the easy part because he knew it was the right thing to do. He’d known it when the wind and ice and snow pelted his face and arms the day before. And when he’d gone to Kate Gallagher’s to pick up the happy baby, he knew it would be his last time doing it, and not because he wasn’t capable.

  He’d learned his lesson about that.

  He knew because this was the right thing to do after seeing his aunt and uncle last weekend. Jessie MacIntosh would start life with a new name and a clean slate, a gift bestowed on her by the mother and cousin who loved her enough to put her needs first.

  “Bye, pumpkin.”

  His eyes grew moist as he bent to kiss her.

  She reached up for him, to play with his face. His nose. His eyes.

  And then that sweet baby made everything easier by smiling at him, then burrowing her tired little self into Susie’s loving arms.

  It would all be fine.

  He’d been sure of it mentally, and now he was sure of it completely. “I’ll see you guys later.”

  “Three o’clock?”

  “That’s what Kate said. Just in time to eat before the late-game kickoff.”

  “Gabe.”

  He turned.

  Mack grabbed hold of Gabe’s hand, then hugged him instead. “I love you, man. We both do.”

  “It’s mutual. I’ll see you in a few hours, for the best Thanksgiving I’ve had in a long time. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  He strode to the empty vehicle, refusing to dwell on what he’d just given up because he’d figured out yesterday that none of this was about him.

  It was about others, just as it should be, and just like his mother taught him years ago.

  He climbed into the car and didn’t look at the suddenly empty space. Instead, he steered the car toward the lake because it was time for him and his neighbor to have a little talk. He wasn’t sure what her side of the conversation would be, but he knew what he wanted to say...and then he’d take it from there.

  His sound system advised him of an incoming call as he took the turn toward Canandaigua Lake. He recognized the name in the hands-free display and pulled onto the road’s shoulder. He hadn’t talked to Elise’s sister in a long time. That made him fairly certain that whatever she had to say after all this time was better with his full concentration. “Amelia?”

  “Gabe.” He noted the hesitancy in her voice and waited.

  “I saw the news report about you today,” she continued. Now anxiety mixed into her tone. “How you rescued that girl, caught in the storm.”

  It was the kind of story the press ate up on a holiday, so the downstate coverage wasn’t a big surprise to him. “I’m just glad it worked out the way it did. How are you, Amelia?” She’d taken the loss of her niece and sister hard, and she hadn’t talked to him since a few months after Elise’s funeral. And that discussion hadn’t gone well for either of them.

  “I’m okay, Gabe. I’m—” She drew a harsh breath then raced on. “I’m calling to apologize. I should have done this a long time ago, and I didn’t and that makes me a horrible person, Gabe. And I’m sorry about that.” Another short gasp indicated she was fighting tears and losing. “So sorry.”

  “Amelia, you’re not a horrible person.” Hadn’t God been teaching him that same lesson lately? To unleash the shackles of the past and move on? To embrace the future God laid so lovingly before him?

  “I am, Gabe,” she went on in a stronger voice. “Because I’m the only one who knew what really happened that day, and I never told anyone because I promised my sister I wouldn’t. I said nothing, not to my parents, my husband or my friends. It’s been eating me alive for years, and when I saw that picture of you after that rescue yesterday, and that look in your eyes...” She stopped, and he heard her trying to catch her breath. “I realized you hadn’t moved on like I hoped. That you still wore that guilt like a weight around your neck, and it wasn’t fair. Not one bit fair.”

  “Amelia.” He kept his voice soft but firm. “It’s a long time ago. We’ve both got to go forward.”

  “But I can’t. Not until I tell you the truth, Gabe. You didn’t leave that car door open that day. Elise did.”

  Every hair on the back of his neck stood straight up. What did she say? That Elise had left their car door ajar the day they lost their beloved child?

  An adrenaline buzz kicked in. He gazed out the window, seeing the upper curve of the lake in front of him. Yesterday’s waves had calmed to a placid blue, lapping the sand along the north-end beach in a gentle give-and-take while his pulse roared like a wild ride in his ears. “What do you mean, Amelia?”

  “She confessed to me, Gabe.” Her voice went soft. “I told her she should come to you, that you’d understand, but she couldn’t face the truth. She knew you’d be disappointed in her, and that you didn’t like her drinking when she was with the other moms.

  “She made me promise not to tell, and I thought once she was gone, that you’d move on with your life. I imagined you married, with kids, and everything nice and normal. I convinced myself that keeping my sister’s secret preserved her memory for our family, but it’s been eating at me like crazy lately. When I saw your face in that picture, I realized what losing Gracie did to you, and that I was the only one who could speak the truth and rid you of that horrible guilt. I’m just so sorry it took me this long. Forgive me. Please.”

  Elise left the door open.

  He scrubbed his hands to his face, thinking. It all made sense. Her reaction, the drinking, the guilt and then her untimely death.

  “I’ve felt guilty ever since she told me, because what if I’d come to you, Gabe? What if I’d had the courage to break my promise and tell you what happened? Could we have saved my sister?” Grief deepened her voice. “I’ll never know because I said nothing. And I’ve regretted it ever since.”

  So much guilt. So many regrets. So much pain.

  Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us...

  Gabe swallowed hard.

  A kaleidoscope of images danced through his brain. Elise. Grace. Corinne. Tee. Baby Jessie in Susie’s arms...

  He drew a deep breath. “Amelia.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, then said, “I forgive you. And I’ll ask you to do the same for me.”

  “But, Gabe—”

  “Elise liked to drink too much when she got together with the girls. I knew that. She’d promised she wouldn’t overdo it that day, and it was only at parties, but I should have been double-checking things myself. I had promised to be the designated driver so she could relax, when I should have made it more important to be the designated parent.”

  He paused, then sat straighter in his seat. “We’ve all made mistakes, Amelia. It’s Thanksgiving. A day to give thanks for what we have. How about if you and I make a pact that from now on, on every holiday, we look forward, not back? I think it’s time for us to do that, don’t you?”

  “You don’t hate me?”

  He didn’t. He felt sorry for her, and for himself, that they’d both allowed Elise’s drinking to be treated casually until it was too late. And then everything had snowballed from that moment. “Not at all. I wish she’d told me. Maybe then we could have gotten through it together.” He breathed in. “I’m glad you called, Amelia. I hope you have a blessed holiday.”

  “You, too.”

 
; She disconnected the call.

  He sat in his seat, watching the water ebb and flow against the cream-colored sand on the lakeshore.

  The snow hadn’t lasted on the sand. It rarely did because even oblique sun rays were enough to heat sand quickly, melting the snow.

  This tiny view of the lake offered new hope, a fresh start. And Amelia’s phone call augmented that new beginning.

  And yet it didn’t matter now. Not really. Not like it would have. There was plenty of guilt to go around in any tragedy. He’d witnessed that often in his years on the force.

  The clean slate along the water’s edge called to him. He put the car into gear and edged onto Lakeshore Drive. He knew what kind of new beginning he wanted and needed, and he only hoped the lady in question felt the same way. If not?

  He lived next door, and he wasn’t afraid to use proximity to his advantage. He wanted a wife, and he wanted a family, and he wanted it all with Corinne.

  He didn’t want to give up being a cop. It was who he was, and what he did.

  But he had every intention of convincing her that loving a cop was worth the risk involved.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Corinne parked her car along the narrow stone path of the Grace Haven Cemetery like she always did. She and Tee climbed out one side of the car. Callan stepped out of the other. Together they crossed the shallow incline to the patriotic garden and simple monument marking David Gallagher’s grave.

  Callan moved forward. He set a thick-stemmed pumpkin against the marbled gray stone, then three little gourds alongside it, one for each of them.

  Tee tucked a small American flag into a potted chrysanthemum and set it to the right of the pumpkin. Corinne bent low and added a spray of three red roses, their salute of love for a man gone too soon.

  She stood back up, quiet. They didn’t have to talk or pray out loud when they visited Dave’s grave. Words weren’t necessary. But then Callan pointed to the thin script along the stone’s center. They’d tucked one of Dave’s favorite sayings there, just below his name and above the scripture notation. “Today is someday.”