“Sleepy equates walk?” Seth stepped closer. “Usually the way to conquer tiredness is to nap.”
“Fresh air works, too.” She grabbed a thick jacket from a hook around the corner and donned it quickly. “I’ll be back soon.”
She was out the door in a flash, and when Carmen poked her head through the connecting door, Seth just shrugged. “She went for a walk.”
Carmen waved it off as if it wasn’t outrageously rude behavior. “She can’t sit too long working. She’s an action-motivated girl.”
“Who sews for a living.” Seth hiked a brow in Carmen’s direction. “Odd, right?”
“Not at all,” Carmen answered smoothly. “Come on in here, I’ve got chicken soup, and your mother brought homemade bread. We’ll have a quick lunch before we get back to work.”
He shouldn’t, even though Gianna had left. He’d promised himself he’d keep their relationship professional. Distanced. Being caught in the shop with Gianna so close showed him the unlikelihood of that. Just knowing she was there, sewing, humming now and again, made him feel at home.
He couldn’t afford to feel at home here.
Why not? His conscience scoffed. She’s nice, funny, talented and creative. Did I mention drop-dead gorgeous?
Seth got all that. What he didn’t get was the vibe she emitted, keeping him at bay. He’d obey his instincts—his other instincts—and maintain degrees of separation, no matter how much his heart softened in her presence. Soft hearts led to one thing: soft heads. And he’d been in the fire too much of late. He had no desire to get burned again.
* * *
Fifth disease.
Gianna hurried across the road, turned left at the first of two traffic lights and climbed the steps to the library. Warmth greeted her.
She barely felt it.
Children laughed in a semicircle off to her right as the librarian held up a funny-looking puppet and squawked, “Hi! I’m Skippy Jon Jones!”
The children giggled as the librarian continued the story. The puppet interrupted regularly, his raucous voice teaching on a kid-friendly level. Their joy of learning without knowing they were learning flooded Gianna with anticipation, but the thought of this childhood disease concerned her.
She sat at one of the computer screens, clicked it on and waited until she could do an internet search, then sighed in relief when she saw that most people contracted the virus as youngsters and carried that immunity into adulthood. A simple blood test would tell her if she was susceptible to the disease or had already had it.
That meant she needed to find a doctor, and that was something she would do first thing Monday morning. She’d relocated her grandmother and herself by promising her family that she’d look after Grandma. None of them were aware that Grandma was currently the caretaker of the two.
They’d know soon enough. She shut down the computer, then grabbed a couple of books so she wouldn’t look like a complete idiot when she walked back into the shop. She signed up for a new library card and headed back down the road, wondering if Seth would think she was totally whacked.
Some days she wondered herself.
“You’re back!” Her grandmother’s bright smile said everything would be fine. Just fine. “Jenny has brought us homemade bread, and I just put on water for tea. And I do believe there’s a tray of chocolate-walnut brownies in that pretty basket.”
“My weakness. Well. One of them,” Gianna admitted as she slung her jacket back onto the hook. She set two books down on the counter, trying to make it look like her trip to the library had been crucial.
“Raised Bed Planting and Turn-of-the-Century Patterns, Volume 2.” Seth surveyed the books once he stood up. He pulled out a chair for her, then carefully slid it in behind her as she sat. “No time like the present to ponder June’s gardens, I guess.”
His gaze skimmed the snow-filled front window.
He wasn’t buying her library excuse for ducking out. He might not know why she’d left in a hurry, but he wasn’t about to believe it was to grab two obscure books before the midafternoon library closing.
He probably thought she was darting away from him. And since that was exactly what she should be doing, she let it go. “This looks wonderful,” she told Jenny as she reached for a thick slice of fresh bread. “And Grandma made herbed oil to dip it in? This is a treat.”
Seth started toward the door.
Gianna turned, surprised. “You’re going back to work already?”
He indicated the wall clock with a jut of his chin. “Play-off game today at four. I’ve got a date with my recliner.”
“Of course.” She smiled, and didn’t think of how nice it would be to spend the late afternoon watching football with him while the current storm blustered outside. She wouldn’t think about the coziness of a shared afghan or steaming hot coffee and a big bowl of chips.
She’d sew.
That was what she’d come here to do after all. To build a business with her grandmother’s help, to work toward summer with one eye on the clock and one foot on the sewing machine treadle. She had goals. Timelines. Objectives. Nothing could get in the way of that. But seeing Seth move into the shop area to continue his work made part of her wish she’d been invited to watch the late-day game with him.
Would she have said yes?
Probably not, although she’d like to.
But she would have enjoyed knowing she’d been welcome.
Chapter Four
“Oh!”
“Easy now.” Seth gripped Gianna’s arm to keep her from falling, fairly certain that if she went down on the icy walk, he and Carmen would most likely follow. “Keep hold of Carmen, there.”
“I’ve got her.” Gianna huffed a breath up to get a stray lock of hair out of her face, one arm clutching her grandmother, the other held tight in Seth’s grip. He used his free hand to tuck the errant curl back behind her ear, and if his hand lingered there a few seconds too long, well...
He smiled down at her because her expression said she got what he was doing and didn’t mind it near as much as she made out, even if she meant to offer total resistance to his charm. “Better?”
He released her arm and indicated the hair by switching his gaze. “It seems to have a mind of its own.”
“I should cut it,” she grumbled as she tested the footing beneath them. “I had no idea this was black ice.”
“Don’t cut it, it’s gorgeous. And this side of the street is notorious for black ice this time of year because the sun hits it just long enough in the late afternoon to melt things and leave the surface slick. Then it takes its own sweet time to melt the following morning.”
“Seth, thank you.” Carmen aimed a bright smile up at him. “We could have fallen.”
“My pleasure.” He fell into step beside them and touched his hand to Gianna’s elbow a couple of times, ready to grab hold if she faltered again. She didn’t, and that made it tough to figure out a reason to hold her in the short minutes before church services began. “Would you ladies like to sit with me?”
“We’d love it!” declared Carmen. Her decisive nature sounded a great deal like his late Grandmother Campbell. Tough, strong, caring, the kind of woman who did what was needed, whatever it took.
“But we can’t.” Gianna refused his offer with a slight frown at her grandmother.
“There’s no harm in sitting with a neighbor to share the Lord.” Carmen met Gianna’s grimace with a wise smile that only made the younger woman’s frown deepen. “Seth, do you sit on the right or the left generally?”
“The right, but I’m becoming a creature of habit too much of the time.” He pointed to the church and then stepped back. “You pick. No one in their thirties should be this predictable already. It’s wrong on multiple levels.”
“Gianna said t
hat exact thing before we moved here,” Carmen agreed. “How about this? Right in the middle. And I did like Reverend Smith’s sermon last week about allowing children to grow. Stretch. Reach.”
“Taking chances worries parents,” Gianna reminded her.
“Taking chances once you’ve hit thirty shouldn’t worry anyone,” Carmen retorted. “God gives us one life, one vessel. Our job is to live it well and take care of ourselves.”
“I can’t find fault with that,” Seth told her. He allowed the ladies to enter the pew, and wasn’t sure how Carmen maneuvered it, but he found himself sitting on the aisle next to Gianna, with Carmen tucked to her right.
Candlelight flickered across the front of the historic church. The Christmas decorations had been removed. Part of Seth liked the uncluttered look of the sanctuary and altar, but another part lamented one more holiday gone. A Christmas past.
A light tap on the shoulder pulled his attention. His parents slipped into the pew behind him, followed by his brother Luke, Luke’s fiancée, Rainey, and three five-year-olds. His mother tempted Dorrie to her side with a book about Noah’s Ark. Aiden snugged himself between his father and his future stepmother, still looking a little peaked from the virus he’d had that week. Sonya spotted Seth and crept around the edge of the pew. “May I sit with you, Uncle Seth?”
Her endearing entreaty made his heart stretch open. So did his arms. She climbed onto his lap and slanted an uncertain smile toward Gianna and her grandmother. She blinked twice, slow and sweet, then snuggled into his chest as the music began.
Gianna smiled back at her. Carmen did likewise, her broader face crinkled in joy. The joy of a child, a gift from God. Holding Sonya made his heart ache more and his soul ache less, his very own personal enigma.
Seth lifted her as he stood, holding her close to his side, not caring that she was five years old and perfectly capable of standing, sitting and kneeling as the service required. It felt right to hold her, to show her the correct passages and tilt the hymnbook just so, as if she could read the words with him. She couldn’t, but she liked pretending, and that was okay by Seth.
* * *
Joy and sorrow, seamed together. Gianna read Seth’s expression as he held the little girl, and she wondered what created the mix of emotion. Would he tell her if she asked?
Maybe. Maybe not.
And yet she longed to know. Longed to soothe, to comfort. And when a miniature quarrel broke out between the two little kids behind her, this little girl burrowed farther into Seth’s shoulder.
Endearing.
Her head filled with what-ifs. Thoughts of boys and girls, babies and children, cradles and car seats vied for mental attention. And when a baby started crying at the back of the church during the kind reverend’s sermon, the comforting sounds of the mother’s murmur made her wonder if she truly had what it took to be a mother.
Her phone vibrated on the short walk home after the service. She pulled it out, recognized her former mother-in-law’s number and was tempted to let it go to voice mail, but she couldn’t. She stepped to where a parking lot met the freshly plowed sidewalk and said hello.
“Gianna, how are you? How is your grandmother? Is everything well, everything all right?” Marie Costanza spoke in rapid-fire sentences 90 percent of the time. The other 10 percent was spent sleeping.
Gianna drew a breath and offered reassurance. “We’re good, Marie. In fact, we’ve just finished church and we’re heading home so it’s not a good time to talk. The walkway is icy, and I need to hold on to Grandma. How is Fort Myers?”
“Cold! Wicked cold. I wonder what I’m thinking spending all this money to come down here and it’s cold, no matter! What about there? Is it bad? Snow? Ice? Cold? Too cold?”
Gianna had learned that when Marie fired too many questions, the best line of defense was to attack the middle ground. “To be expected, right? It’s winter, this is Western New York. One plus one equals cold around here. But I hope it warms up there for you. And you’ve got friends around, right?”
“Friends, yes, friends are good, but they are not the same as famiglia. Not the same as being around my brother, my sisters—although all they do is yak, yak, yak! And you, my Gianna. Whenever I think of my Michael, on those nights when I miss him so much I cry, I think of you and how happy you were together. That wedding, so beautiful. Never have I seen a happier bride, and why not?”
Her words claimed Gianna’s heart because she’d been absolutely blissful back then. So much change, so much gone, a bend in the road she’d never expected. And now another.
“And you made Michael happy, you made his life good.” Marie put heightened emphasis on the word good. “This is what a mother wants for her son, what we pray for, night and day. A woman who will stand beside him and love him all the days of her life, no matter what. I thank the good Lord that he had that with you, Gianna. If only...” Her voice trailed off.
Gianna understood “if only.” If only she hadn’t miscarried twice. If only Michael hadn’t made a convenience store run to buy ice cream for his pregnant wife. If only he’d been home asleep, in bed, like most people were at eleven o’clock at night.
But no, he’d taken her request to heart and drove five miles to get her a quart of her favorite flavor, mint chocolate chip.
He’d lost his life trying to keep her happy, and it had taken a long time before the heavy guilt of that eased. And she hadn’t eaten ice cream since. “I know.”
“Ach, I should not speak of sadness, I know. I know. I just wanted to see how you are, how your grandmother is doing. You will open your store soon, I think?”
“Six weeks, give or take.”
“So long? Why?”
“We’re getting things set up in the shop and we’ve gotten some special orders to do for a local celebration. But most of my vintage-look stock has arrived, we’ve got the wall-mounted display bars in place and I can start unpacking boxes and racks soon.”
“I should come back. Help you.”
Gianna’s heart jumped into high gear. The last thing that could or should happen would be to have Marie here, now. “No, no, no. I won’t hear of it. Grandma and I are doing just fine and there’s only so much room, Marie. You’ll be back before you know it and then you can come visit. Enjoy your time in the sun. Once it shines again, that is. And we’ll be here waiting to see you in the spring.”
Please don’t come, please listen to me, please don’t—
“You’re right, of course. I have Bella with me and I can’t leave her here alone while I run back there.”
“Of course not.” Bella was Marie’s aunt, a nice woman, but she’d never have gone to Florida alone. For Marie to leave meant Bella would leave, too. Or be desperately unhappy.
“I’ll call, then.”
Relief flooded Gianna. “Anytime, please.”
Phone calls she could handle. Having Marie there, in person? She needed more time before facing that reality. Michael’s mother wasn’t a bad person, but life had soured her on some things and jaded her on others. When it came to family matters she was strong, assertive and somewhat aggressive. Losing her only son, the only child God had gifted her, had broken Marie’s heart. Gianna understood that quite well. “Talk to you soon.”
“Goodbye, Gianna. God bless you.”
He had.
Gianna wanted to whisper those words. Better yet, she longed to scale snow-filled peaks and shout them from the tallest mountain. Maybe take out an ad in USA TODAY and announce her blessings to the world, but not yet. Right now she needed to plan, focus and bide her time.
As they passed the family diner, a horrid scent accosted her, assailing her senses.
Her mouth began to water. Her throat constricted, and the rise of nausea quickened her steps. The plowed sidewalks had the familiar crunch of fresh salt to melt ice and aid tract
ion, but even with that, Gianna wasn’t sure she’d make it home before she got sick.
“Gianna?”
Seth’s voice, coming from her right.
“Honey, are you all right?”
Carmen’s tone, warm and solicitous, to her left.
She didn’t dare open her mouth to speak, or turn either way. She hurried into the house, glad they’d left the door unlocked, and rushed to the downstairs bathroom.
Cooking meat hadn’t sat well for weeks, but she’d been better recently. Today?
Not so much.
When she finally came out of the bathroom, Carmen sent her a mixed look of love and sympathy. “My precious girl, I am so sorry. Here.” She took Gianna’s arm and led her to the gray tweed couch. “You sit. Put your feet up. Rest for a while, okay?”
Gianna sent her a watery smile. “I’m okay, Gram. You know how it is.”
“I remember well,” Carmen agreed. “It is not something one forgets.”
“They say it’s a good sign.”
“A well-set pregnancy makes its presence known,” agreed her grandmother. “But, bellisima, I would love for you to just be comfortable and then have this baby. That is my wish.”
Gianna laughed. “Mine, too, but life just sent us a dose of reality, Gram. Can you get me some ginger ale, please?”
“And crackers?”
“No.” Gianna leaned back against the soft pillow, eyes closed. “Just the ginger ale. And tell me again how hungry I’m going to be in a few weeks because right about now? That sounds next to impossible.”
* * *
Pale. Gray. Distressed.
Seeing Gianna like that made him want to help, but what could he do?
Frustrated, he’d watched Carmen follow Gianna into the house and he’d stood silent, at a loss. Should he offer help? Yes? No?
Common sense pushed him home. He needed to get out of his church clothes and make sure his things were ready for the night shift he’d taken to help his commanders out of an influenza-induced shortage of personnel. Then he’d come back across the street to finish the four shorter display bars strategically placed to feature complete looks, according to Gianna.
Loving the Lawman Page 5