He reached for her hand, lacing his fingers through hers. Warmth sparked her skin at his touch.
“So how would knowing about your jerk of an ex-husband make me think differently of you?”
“I don’t want you to think of me as a fragile victim. Damaged goods.” She looked up and met his eyes.
“Oh, you’re no victim in my eyes, Abby Sinclair. Anything but.”
She looked off over the lake, then at the ground. “I’ve had too many people ask me, Why did you stay, Abby? Like the fact that he used to beat me up is because I chose to stick around. I tried to make my marriage work. We had a child. I owed it to Cooper to try make it work if I could. But the way people would ask me that, it was as if it was somehow my fault. That’s insulting.”
Making sure to keep hold of his hand, she reached down with her free hand and picked up a stick, tracing shapes in the dirt.
“Don’t let ignorant people get to you.”
His voice was so quiet, so gentle, she found solace there. “You ever been married, Gabriel?”
He sighed, sat back and tipped his plastic chair on the back two legs. “Almost.”
“But?”
“Didn’t work.”
“Why?”
“I suppose it has something to do with finding her in bed with my best man the night before the wedding.”
Abby winced. “Ouch.”
“Yup. Not a whole lot more one can say about that.” He set his chair upright again. “Except that they got married.”
Abby winced again. “Double ouch!”
“Yup. They’re divorced now, though. He did the same thing to her with someone else.”
“Karma.”
They talked for another hour, exchanging distant past—and some not so distant—stories until she felt the presence of someone behind her. She reluctantly let go of Gabe’s hand, turned to see Cooper as he leaned against her chair.
“What are you doing, Mom?”
His tone was ripe with accusation. If he wanted her to feel ashamed, he wasn’t successful. A wee bit guilty perhaps, but only because Cooper had seen them holding hands. Not for any other reason. She needed Gabe. And the best part of it was, she enjoyed their time together more than she had ever remembered enjoying the company of anyone ever before.
“Visiting with Gabriel.” She looked at Gabe, smiled, then looked up at Cooper, taking his hand in her own, his feeling so tiny after holding Gabe’s. “Do you need me, sweetie?”
“Grandpa said he’s going to his room.”
Abby looked at her watch and startled. “Man! The time has flown.” She stood and looked at Gabe. “See you tomorrow?”
“I sure hope so.” He grinned at her, his eyes twinkling, then looked at Cooper. “What do you say you and me go out in one of the paddle boats tomorrow?”
“Yeah!” Cooper said, all evidence of displeasure with his mother gone.
Abby let her gaze linger on Gabe over Cooper’s head before she draped her arm over her son’s shoulder and turned toward the house.
“Mom, what’d the fire guy say when he was here?”
”He said to tell you it’s nothing for you to worry about when you asked me.”
“Mom!” He pulled away.
“Sorry, bud,” she said. “The fire investigator is doing an investigation to see if he can find any clues leading to the cause of the fire.”
“Someone did it on purpose?”
“It would appear so,” she said.
“If my dad would have been here, he would know who did it. And how it started.”
This again? She decided it was time to just come right out and ask. If he wasn’t going to tell her, so be it. At least she had to ask. She stopped and turned to look at him.
“Coop, is there something you need to tell me?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you. Has your father contacted you by any chance?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
Her heartbeat picked up pace. “Has he?” She struggled with all her might to calm her anxiety as she waited for Cooper to answer her. “Coop, it’s imperative that you tell me the truth.”
“What’s imperative mean?”
“It means it’s critical.” He didn’t say anything, but rather looked at the ground. “Coop, what has he been saying?” Cooper wouldn’t look at her but shifted his weight. “Cooper,” she said, bending over and lifting his chin so his eyes met her own. “I need you to level with me here. Is your dad here?”
“No,” he said quickly. “But …”
“But what, sweetheart?” She searched his eyes, trying to read what was proving so difficult for him to say.
“He’s still in Oakland but wants to come get me when the time is right. He said he misses me and you won’t let him see me. He said you told me things about him that aren’t true and that he wants to prove to me how much he loves me and that—”
Abby tried to focus but as Cooper continued talking, the seal on his silence broken, letting everything spill out, his voice seemed to be getting further and further away. She snapped back to the present when she noticed he stopped talking.
“Do you believe what he’s told you, Coop?”
“Which part?”
“Any of it.” She saw him stare at the ground between them. “It’s okay to tell me the truth. You’ve got to be feeling pretty confused about now.”
“How come you won’t let him come and see me? I want a dad like other kids have.”
Her heart broke in half as she saw the pain and loss in his eyes, sadness that ran deep.
“Honey, it’s—it’s complicated. It’s stuff kids your age shouldn’t have to deal with.”
“What if I want to, Mom? What if I want to deal with it? If it means being able to see my dad, I want to.”
She led him over to the steps of the deck and sat down, gently pulling him down beside her. Gus plopped at their feet, and Cooper withdrew his hand from hers to scratch behind Gus’s ear.
“What do you remember about your dad?” She asked him quietly, looking off into the distance, seeing nothing at all. Her mind begged to take her back to a time she didn’t ever want to go back to. Ever.
“I remember you guys yelling a lot.”
A sad whimper escaped her. How pathetic that that was his most vivid memory of his parents.
“Anything else?” she asked, encouraging him to remember more, yet desperately afraid of what he might. She had been so mired in trying to keep the ugly truth from him, she hadn’t even thought about the fact that he might remember things on his own.
“Not really. Just that—well, Dad said you’re the one who made him go away.” She saw him steal a glance at her, looking away quickly when he saw her watching him. “Why would you make him leave? He said if wasn’t for you, we’d be together.”
“We?”
“Me and him.”
“Is that what you want?” She fought back tears.
“I want my dad here with us. But you won’t ever let that happen.”
“Do you know why, Cooper?”
“Yeah, because of him.” He jerked his thumb toward the campground.
“Because of who?”
“Gabe.”
He had completely taken her off guard with that one. He may as well have struck her for as shocked as she was.
“I thought you like Gabe.”
“I do. But that doesn’t mean you have to.”
Without knowing why, or where it even came from, she chuckled. Now is not the appropriate time to find something funny. You, Abigail Sinclair, are losing your mind.
Cooper shot her a look of pure hatred. “It’s not funny, Mom.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and tilted her head back, exhaling long and slow. “No. No, it’s not. There’s nothing remotely funny about any of this.”
“Then why are you laughing?” Abby could hear the contempt mixed with confusion in his voice. “I hate you!”
She felt him get up and the hot tears that she’d been holding back began to trickle down her cheeks.
“Cooper Hunter Sinclair, you can say most anything you want around here. In fact, you get away with saying too much if I had my say about it, but you will not say you hate your mother.”
Abby startled at his voice and quickly wiped her face with the palms of her hands.
“How long have you been there, Pops?”
“Long enough.”
She turned to see his hand on Cooper’s shoulder.
“Sit down, son,” he said, his voice quiet but holding all the authority she couldn’t feel right now.
She felt Cooper sit back down beside her, his body rigid. Jeremiah sat on the other side of him, one foot on the ground, the other up on the step. He brought a can up to his mouth, spit into it and held it loosely in his hand.
“Grandpa, that’s just gross,” Cooper grumbled.
“No one asked you. I’m going to tell you a story, Coop. And you’re going to listen carefully.”
Abby wanted to listen carefully, too. Her father used to write stories, but she couldn’t remember him ever telling one. He never said enough words at one time to tell a story.
“Is it about my dad?”
“Yup.”
Cooper looked up at him, suddenly all ears. Looking at him impatiently waiting to hear something, anything about his father, made Abby realize the grave mistake she’d made by intentionally not talking about Hunter. She absently bounced her leg up and down nervous about the story her father was about to tell.
“Well?” Cooper asked, impatient. His arms were crossed over his knees as he leaned forward, looking over at Jeremiah.
“Keep in mind not all stories have happy endings.” He spit again, and Cooper grimaced. “When your mom was too young to know what was good for her—”
“Wait a minute,” Abby interrupted. “I don’t think I’m going to like this story.”
“Don’t suppose you would. Now hush, this is between me and the boy.”
“You’re the one who made it about me by telling me I didn’t know what was good for me.” She sounded like a petulant child. By the look her father shot her, apparently he thought so, as well.
“Your mom and dad had no business getting married, but your grandma and I couldn’t tell them a thing back then. They insisted they were in love, but neither of ‘em knew what love was.”
“Did you love him, Mom?”
Cooper’s eyes looked expectantly toward her.
“At first, yes,” she said quietly.
“Your dad had a problem with his temper,” Jeremiah continued. “And boy could that man get mad.” His voice was low and even, almost a growl.
“What did he do when he got mad?”
“How much do you remember?”
“Just them fighting all the time.”
“Them?” Jeremiah asked.
“He used to yell at her. Dad said it was because mom wouldn’t leave him alone.”
“How well do you know your dad, Cooper?”
Abby could see Jeremiah tremble ever so slightly. She knew it was taking all of his willpower not to tell Cooper exactly what he thought of Hunter and prayed he could keep it together.
“I’d know him better if Mom wouldn’t keep him away.”
Jeremiah’s eyes grew hard and she could tell Cooper was fighting back tears of frustration and confusion. Though she suspected he had no idea that’s what it was.
“That’s what he told ya, is it? That your mom won’t let him come around?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, that ain’t entirely the truth.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your dad isn’t allowed to come around your mom or you. But not because your mom won’t let him. The court won’t let him.”
“How would the court know? And what business is it of theirs?”
“They’d know because I’d make sure of it.”
Cooper’s eyes grew wide. “So you won’t let me see him, either?” Anger sparked from him as if he were a sparkler on the fourth of July.
“That’s right. Because I saw what he did to your mom.” He spit again, not even bothering with the can this time. “He put her in the hospital for weeks. I almost lost my little girl because of that punk.”
“Pops!” Anxiety filled her. Why, she had no idea. She’d been protecting Cooper for a long time and look where it got them.
“My dad said he was protecting me from her. He was trying to get her to stop hurting me.”
Jeremiah shook his head. His hands trembled. “That pompous a—”
“Dad,” Abby said, her voice warning him. They’d be lucky if they didn’t have a family fight right then and there. Gabriel would run like the wind and never look back. She glanced at his camper, could see his shadow behind the curtain in the light of the window.
“Your dad was in prison for almost killing your mom, Cooper.”
“Nah-uh,” he said, his voice quivering. “He wouldn’t do that.”
“No? You were four years old when you stayed with us while your mom was in the hospital.”
“Dad said she left me with you guys cause—cause—”
“Because she was fighting for her life. That sorry excuse of a man was treating you in a way your mom couldn’t stand by and watch. She intervened and it almost cost her her life.”
Cooper looked at Abby, his eyes glossy from unshed tears. It ripped her heart out to watch him try to be so strong. To think Hunter had been manipulating him for months, and Cooper thought he had to go through it alone.
“Mom?” His chin quivered.
She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and pulled him close, her tears dropping onto the top of his head. She wiped her eyes with the back of her free hand.
“I’m sorry, Cooper. I should have talked about this with you before. I thought I was protecting you.”
“It didn’t go so good for you the last time you tried to protect me, did it?”
She heard Jeremiah chuckle. Saw Cooper run his sleeve under his nose.
“He got ya on that one, didn’t he, Abs?”
“Tell me more.” Cooper’s voice was barely a whisper.
She kissed the top of Cooper’s head. “You mean that wasn’t enough?”
“Did he love me at all?” He sniffed.
Abby pondered the question before answering. Finally, “Yeah. Yeah, I really think he did, sweetie.”
“Did he love you, too?”
“The only way he knew how.”
“I’m glad he didn’t love you more, then.”
Abby chuckled bitterly and planted another kiss on the top of his head, finding peace in inhaling the smell of his shampoo.
“What do you say we go in the house, huh? I’m getting eaten by mosquitoes.”
“I’m sorry, Mom.”
Abby shook her head slowly. She’d never been more proud of him than she was at this very moment.
“You have nothing to be sorry for, Coop. Nothing at all. I’m sorry for the way I handled this whole thing.”
Gus let out a bark, then growled, his attention focused toward the corner of the house shrouded in darkness. Abby jumped and screamed, then laughed, Cooper laughing with her through his tears. Jeremiah, she noticed, was the only one who wasn’t entertained. She caught the look of concern he cast toward the shadows as he gripped Gus’s collar.
“You two go on in. I’ll take Gus to the bathroom.”
“Everything okay, Pops?” Abby asked. She tried to meet his eyes, to read what was there, but he was looking past her, over her shoulder. She turned to see what he was looking at. Nothing but darkness. All the talk of Hunter made him out of sorts, she guessed. One thing was for sure, they all needed a good night’s sleep.
25
The next morning Abby woke earlier than usual. After tossing and turning for most of the night trying to tame her racing mind, she finally gave in. Three nights in a row, good sleep was not in the cards. Two of
those nights it was because she couldn’t get thoughts and images of Gabriel out of her mind. As they appeared, her heart did an unfamiliar, yet entirely pleasant, dance of its own.
Last night, however, resentments piled on top of one another, building an entire skyscraper. Resentments toward Hunter, and even resentments toward herself for being stupid enough to let him into her life. Jeremiah had been right. She didn’t know what was good for her. However, she reminded herself, without Hunter there would be no Cooper.
Finally, she decided she would be more productive putting her nervous energy to good use. She got up, slipped into her robe, and padded barefoot into the kitchen.
She barely got the coffee started when she remembered she’d forgotten to double check to see that her dad closed and locked the door to the store when he closed up last night. She had been so preoccupied with her conversation with Gabriel, then Cooper, that nothing else had room in her head.
She sighed and snaked through the house and unlocked the door that led into the store. It was too late to do anything about it now even if he hadn’t locked the outside door, but she was relieved, nonetheless, when she found it secured.
She crossed her arms in front of her and looked out at the lightening sky as the sun began to announce its arrival promising a glorious day. Her spirit felt lighter and threatened to give the daylight serious competition. She looked toward Gabe’s camper and grinned, feeling like a girl with a crush.
The mountains stood majestically behind the lake, and three elk roamed peacefully in the early morning brush.
From there, her mind traveled to the fire behind her studio. She made a mental note to call the fire investigator today to see if there have been any discoveries. Who would do such a thing? The cause could be one of so many things, but only one of those caused her enormous concern. Hunter had to be lurking around here somewhere. Other than the unsettling thought that the fire would have been much worse and could have potentially been a threat to the house or the entire campground if the ground hadn’t been so wet, she felt oddly grateful. Was it luck on her part or bad planning on the part of the arsonist?
She and Gabriel ran through some possibilities last night. He mentioned that maybe some kids from the resort were smoking and trying to hide it from their parents. She nixed that when she told him that she, as well as the fire investigator, scoured the area for any cigarette butts and came up with nothing. And then there was the smell of accelerant. Exactly what, she wasn’t sure, though she was certain the investigator knew more than he’d told her.
Finding Abby: A Romantic Suspense set in the Colorado Mountains (Whispering Pines Mysteries) Page 22