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Olivia gave him a “gee, thanks” look before turning to the boys. “When we get snow—which we should by Christmas—you’ll see that the snow on the sides of the road gets pushed into big humps called banks.”
“If there’s money in them,” Justin replied solemnly, “maybe Daddy can get some for us. We need money.”
Gabriel felt a sudden rush of shame, not at his son’s honesty but at the fact that Justin—five years old—knew they were strapped.
“Everybody needs money,” Olivia said, as if the statement was no big deal. “But you can’t get it out of snowbanks. They’re not regular buildings.” Gabriel liked how she looked at Jared, as well as Justin, when she spoke. Including him, although he let his brother do all the talking. “Maybe they’re called banks because that’s where the snow gets saved until spring comes.”
“I don’t know,” Justin said, shaking his head. “I’m just gonna hafta see one of these things.”
Olivia laughed, and the sound on the crisp, cold air was genuine and refreshing. “After the first snow, your dad is going to have to take you sledding on Packard Hill.”
“That’s what I told them,” he said, suddenly imagining how she’d looked on the Radio Flyer. Her gap-toothed smile lighting the way. Pigtails flying.
“What if it doesn’t snow?” Justin asked. “What are we gonna do then?”
“Well, not sledding,” she replied, “but there are lots of other fun things to do here. In fact, I was just about to ask your dad if he’d let you be in one of them.”
“One of what?”
“It’s our community winterfest pageant,” she said, massaging her head. Her forehead had to hurt as much as Gabriel’s did, but it was apparent she was trying to minimize the pain in front of the boys so as not to worry them. “You get to dress up and sing and celebrate the first day of winter and our famous cold weather. This year, we’re going to have animals, too.”
“Elephants?”
“No elephants, but farm animals like—”
“We’re not theatrical,” Gabriel said. Brants never had been. Walter, maybe. But only for a home audience. “Thanks, anyway.”
“I wouldn’t consider Ty Mackey theatrical,” she replied, with an edge of determination Gabriel found challenging, “but he’s the one providing the animals. Just think about it.”
“Omigosh, we had to chip this out of the concession-stand cooler!” One of the face-painting girls returned with two paper cups of ice. “It’s so cold today nobody’s ordering anything but cocoa and coffee, and the ice had turned to one big lump.” She handed a paper cup each to Gabriel and Olivia. “Whoa, I’m just in time. You guys have matching goose eggs.”
“Thanks for the first aid, Sheria,” Olivia said, pressing her cup to the lump on her forehead.
“No problem.” Sheria waved to Justin and Jared as she melted back into the crowd, which now swept along in the wake of the racers. “Have fun, little Spidey dudes. Hope you like the webs we painted.”
“How do we look, Dad?” Justin asked, turning his cheek for inspection.
“Awesome.”
Sitting in the wagon, the boys threw their shoulders back and their chests out in minimacho postures, clearly pumped by their new superhero markings.
“Are you going to be all right?” Gabriel asked, turning to Olivia. She’d been so plucky as a girl, but there was something unexpectedly fragile about her as a woman.
“Of course,” she replied, as if she read his thoughts and still wanted to appear tough as nails. “You’d better get going. I hear the lawn mowers revving up. And I think Ty’s brought his llamas. The boys won’t want to miss them.”
“Are you going home?”
“No.”
“Then you’re coming with us. So that we can keep an eye on you. I feel partly responsible for that crack on your head.”
“Believe me, I have no intention of passing out on the parade route.”
“But what if I do?” he replied, trying for lightness. An unaccustomed tone for him. “Then who’s going to pull the boys in the wagon?” He didn’t know why he suddenly wanted her company, but he did. “Don’t you feel partly responsible for the lump on my head?”
“Daddy!” Justin pointed to a man on stilts, dressed as Uncle Sam and walking through the crowd, tossing candies to the kids. “That man is almost as tall as a house.”
Olivia reached up, and one-handed caught several candies, which she gave to the twins. “Okay, boys, your first field trip in Hennings. Let’s go.”
Gabriel suddenly wondered if Olivia’s unflagging fortitude was an act. If so, why did she need to have one?
Olivia felt his scrutiny. Would it have been more prudent to go home? But now they were moving forward, and there were so many people that it didn’t look as if she and Gabriel were together, as in “couple” together. They were just part of the crowd, walking off too much turkey. Although after that little misstep back at the face-painting station, she couldn’t help wondering—for just an inappropriate second—what it might be like to be paired up with him.
They hadn’t gone more than a block when both Olivia and Gabriel ditched their ice cups in a trash container. It was easy to forget about a bump on the head when you were so busy watching happy five-year-olds reacting to the sights and sounds of a town gone silly. Sheria had even doubled back to hand them a couple of kazoos, which the twins quickly mastered.
“This was a good idea,” Gabriel said. “It was getting a little tense at Walter’s.”
“And you don’t want the boys to suffer.”
“Actually, Justin and Jared get along fine with my father. I can’t figure that out, but I’m thankful for small miracles. It’s Walter and me. We’re the ones sniffing round each other like mistrustful dogs. I don’t want the boys picking up on that.”
She was surprised at his admission. Unfortunately, even if he didn’t know why, she knew the root of his and Walter’s disconnect. But it wasn’t her place to explain it. Besides, she didn’t want to say anything now and have Gabriel close down again. “You might talk to Marmaduke,” she replied instead. “In addition to the diner, he owns some rental properties in town. I’m sure he’d make you a fair deal.”
Despite the fact she thought of what she’d said as a neutral statement, he seemed to withdraw.
“Daddy,” Justin interjected. “Jared’s thirsty. Me, too.”
“The concession stand’s up ahead,” Olivia offered. “I’ll treat.”
Gabriel glowered at her. “Don’t.”
“I just…”
“I can buy my boys a couple of drinks.” His voice was low. Almost a growl. A warning. Then, more calmly, he said to the boys, “Do you want something cold or hot?”
Olivia was struck by how Gabriel’s frustration simmered so close to the surface. How he had to exercise control to interact civilly with anyone other than his sons. If he hadn’t been the parent of two of her students, she might have called him on it.
“We want a hot drink,” Justin said. “Our noses are cold.”
They stood in front of the refreshment stand, where Greer Briscoe waited to take their order. Olivia could have wished for anyone else. Seventy-two-year-old Greer was kindhearted, but she often exercised her right to behave as a self-professed “magnificent crone.” The advantage of old age, she always said, was that you could dispense with conversational filters. You were old, and you were supposed to tell it as you saw it.
“Your nose looks cold, too, Ms. Marshall,” Gabriel said, before turning to Greer. “Four hot chocolates.”
“Whipped cream or marshmallows?”
“Whipped cream,” he replied, without consulting Olivia. “But before you top the two for the kids, can you add a little milk to cool the hot chocolate?”
“You got it.”
When Greer slid the drinks for the boys across the counter to Gabriel, she looked at Olivia.
“Olivia, hello. I’ll be with you in a minute,” she said, as if the fourth drink wouldn’t be for Olivia. As if, of course, Ms. Marshall would be unattached.
“I’m with them,” she replied without thinking.
“Oh?” Greer glanced at Gabriel and the boys with interest. “Wait a minute. I thought you looked familiar. You’re Walter Brant’s son. The Hurricane Katrina refugee.”
Olivia saw Gabriel flinch at the loaded word.
“I prefer to be called a survivor,” he said, his jaw tight.
“Well, you’re certainly in the right company,” Greer declared, passing the other two hot chocolates their way. “Olivia has the softest heart in all of Hennings. Why, as a little girl, she brought home every stray cat and injured bird…”
Gabriel didn’t wait to hear the rest. He picked up the handle of the wagon and stormed away up Main Street, leaving Greer still rambling on and Olivia smarting.
The day could not end this way.
She picked up the two abandoned drinks and hurried after him.
When she caught up, he didn’t slow his pace.
“Hold on!” she implored. “The boys will spill their hot chocolate.”
He stopped abruptly to face her. “I was wondering what your game was.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ve met other women like you, who get their kicks doling out pity. Taking on the downtrodden. Feeling so satisfied when you save one of the hopeless from the brink.”
Both boys were staring at the adults, worried expressions making their young faces seem much older.
“That is not what’s going on,” she insisted with a significant nod toward his sons.
“No? The offer to fund the boys’ school supplies, the loan of the wagon, the willingness to buy drinks…”
“Have you been gone from Hennings so long you’ve forgotten what being neighborly means? Gabriel, this is me. Olivia.”
Something flickered in his eyes—a light that disappeared as soon as it appeared. “Let me make this perfectly clear,” he said. “We’re not refugees. We don’t need your pity. And we don’t want your charity. We’ll borrow the wagon for today, but I’ll return it tonight. If my kids need something, I’ll provide it.”
He pulled the boys away and left her standing with two cups of hot chocolate and a guilty feeling in the pit of her stomach.
CHAPTER FOUR
SUNDAY NIGHT Gabriel lay in bed in Walter’s spare room and stared at the face-shaped stain on the ceiling, which was illuminated by the streetlight outside the window. Before his return to Hennings, he’d never slept in this room. It held no memories for him. It should mean no more to him than some anonymous motel room. Yet his mind wouldn’t quiet, and sleep eluded him.
Tomorrow was the twins’ first day of school. His first day of full-time work in what seemed like ages. A degree of stability after twenty-seven months without any. He should feel an easing of that chronic pain between his shoulder blades. But he didn’t.
As he kept replaying the past week in his mind, he twisted and turned on the uneven mattress, trying to find a comfortable position. But thoughts of living indefinitely with his father, of taking a job that was beneath him, and of Olivia and her patronizing Marshall Plan—especially thoughts of Olivia—made him punch the pillow in frustration.
He’d been so angry over her thinly veiled charity he hadn’t yet returned the Radio Flyer. He didn’t want to see her again. He was even thinking of requesting a transfer for the boys. To the other kindergarten class.
Even more disturbing than his anger had been the attraction he’d felt.
A scream cut through the still house. That would be Jared.
Gabriel sprang from bed, tripped over his shoes, banged his shoulder against the door frame, swore, and then staggered down the hall toward what had once been his and Daniel’s room. Only to find the light already on and Walter kneeling by the edge of Jared’s bed.
“He had a nightmare, Grampa,” Justin mumbled sleepily from the adjacent bed.
“I know, son,” Walter replied, his back to Gabriel.
As his father drew Jared close, Gabriel remained in the shadows of the doorway, prepared to intervene if necessary. Walter had seldom dispensed anything other than cold comfort to his own sons.
“Are you awake now?” Walter asked, his voice gruff but at the same time gentle. “Is that nightmare gone?”
Jared snuffled.
“Do you know where you are?”
“At your house,” Justin replied for his brother.
“Your house, too. So you know what that means. Nothing bad is gonna happen to you here. Either one of you. I won’t let it. So those old nightmares are just gonna hafta find somewhere else to hang out. You understand?”
“Yessir,” Justin said, yawning, as Jared nodded, his eyelids already at half-mast.
“Now close your eyes. I’m gonna stay right here until I hear you snoring.”
Justin giggled sleepily. “Grampa, we don’t snore.”
“You better not. ’Cause I need my beauty rest in the next room. And if you go back to sleep real quick, I’ll let you have Cocoa Puffs for breakfast.”
“Daddy doesn’t like Cocoa Puffs.”
“He won’t be the one eating them.”
Walter remained kneeling between the beds. Only when both twins were fast asleep again did he stand and turn. The look on his face said he didn’t know Gabriel had been behind him. Didn’t appreciate the audience. Wordlessly, his stiff demeanor back in place, he brushed by his own son, switched off the light and then made his way downstairs. Gabriel followed.
In the kitchen, Walter lit a burner, got out a saucepan, honey, lemon juice and whiskey. “You want a nightcap?”
“No, thanks.” Gabriel needed a clear head tomorrow.
“Suit yourself.” Walter added a splash of water to the saucepan, then proceeded to make himself a hot toddy. “How often does Jared get nightmares?” he asked. Belligerently. As if Gabriel might somehow be to blame.
“Once a week. Sometimes more.” This was the first one since the return to Hennings.
Stirring the ingredients in the saucepan over the flame, Walter didn’t reply.
“You don’t have to get up with him. When it happens again, I’ll take care of it.”
