“I’m not sure what my plans are.” She picked up the mail and flipped through the stack of letters.
“Did you receive your check?” Rose turned toward Rebecca, concern in her expression.
Frowning, Rebecca tossed the letters on the table. “No. He’s late again. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“Is there something I can help you with?” Gabriel took the seat across from Rebecca, an urge to protect inundating him. In his line of work he often helped strangers, but this was different. He didn’t like to see distress dull her eyes and wished he could erase it.
“No.” Her gaze found his. “There isn’t anything that you can do. My ex-husband is late with his child support. That’s all.” She shrugged as though it were nothing.
Gabriel seriously doubted it was that simple, but he saw the do-not-trespass sign go up and he didn’t pursue the topic. Instead, he said, “I’d like to have Peter come out for the baseball team. I think he has potential.”
“Baseball?”
“He’s quick, and the guys on the team are a great bunch of kids. I help coach a Little League team after school.”
“I doubt you’ll get him to agree. All he wants to do lately is stay in his room and listen to music.”
“Does he like music?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe he could join the church choir. I’m the director. The children perform at the early service and the adults at the later one.”
Rebecca stiffened, her jaw clenching. “You sound like a busy man. When do you have time for yourself?”
“Baseball and music are things I do for myself.”
“Rebecca, you should see the children perform at church. Ever since Gabriel took over a few years back, the crowd of people attending our service has doubled. The choir is wonderful, and Gabriel’s quite a singer. Rebecca used to be in her church’s choir in Dallas.”
He dropped his gaze from Rebecca’s face, feeling the heat of a blush tinge his cheeks. He had never been comfortable with compliments. Singing was a gift God had given him, and he wanted to share it with others, use it to spread His word. God had been his salvation when he had hit bottom after his wife and child died.
Gabriel shifted in his chair. “We could always use another voice. Even if Peter doesn’t want to sing, you’re certainly welcome to join the adult choir.”
Rebecca came to her feet. Feelings of being railroaded into doing something she wasn’t ready to handle overwhelmed her. She had forgotten about how small towns were. All she wanted to do was hide and lick her wounds. She was afraid people like Gabriel wouldn’t allow her to. “I think I hear Josh crying,” she murmured and rushed from the room.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Gabriel said, frowning, not sure what had just happened.
Rose opened a can of kidney beans and one of tomatoes, then dumped the contents of both into the skillet. “I guess I shouldn’t have pushed. Rebecca’s faith has been shaken ever since Craig left her. I know I’m supposed to forgive that man for what he did to my family, but I’m having a hard time. He walked out on Rebecca, Peter and Josh when they needed him the most. All he left her was a note on her pillow. She woke up one morning, and her marriage of twelve years was over.” Rose snapped her fingers. “Just like that.”
How could a man walk out on his family? Gabriel wondered, continually surprised by how easily some people discarded their children and wives when he would give anything to have a family. Memories of his loss engulfed him. Pain constricted his chest, making it difficult to breathe. In a few seconds, three years before, his whole life had been changed because a man had decided to drink and drive.
Gabriel started to say something when he heard footsteps approaching the kitchen. When Rebecca entered, she held a baby in her arms close to her chest. She placed the child in a swing set up in the corner, adjusted some tiny pillows to prop the boy up, then started it. When Gabriel saw Josh’s features, he knew something was wrong.
Rebecca caught him staring at the child. “My son has Down’s syndrome. His second birthday will be in six weeks, and yet he doesn’t look a day over one.”
Gabriel didn’t know what to say to her announcement. She made it sound almost a challenge. Was the child the reason her husband had left? If so, how could he turn his back on one of God’s creations? He would have given anything to be able to hold his own son, to cradle him to his chest. That wasn’t possible, never would be.
“I hope you’re planning a big party. Birthdays are important to children,” Gabriel said, as though he was an expert on children when he had never really experienced the joys of fatherhood. His son had only lived a few hours. A tightness gripped his throat.
Rebecca went to the cabinet to get bowls. “I haven’t thought that far ahead. I’ve been a little preoccupied lately with the move and all.” She heard the defensive tone in her voice and winced as she withdrew the bowls and closed the cabinet door.
“If you need any help—”
“No, I’m fine.” She cut in, not wanting to hear his offer of assistance when she had never been able to get Craig even to change Josh’s diaper. Again she experienced the stifling need to be alone to deal with the emotions threatening to overpower her. If it had been possible, she would have been better off staying in Dallas where she could get lost in a crowd.
“Rebecca!” Granny turned from the stove with the wooden spoon in her hand and a frown of disapproval on her face.
Rebecca immediately regretted her cool interruption. She attempted a smile that she knew didn’t reach her eyes and said, “I’m sorry. It’s been a long day.”
“Go get Peter. Gabriel will set the table for us,” her grandmother interjected.
Thankful to escape the kindness she glimpsed in Gabriel’s dark eyes, she rushed from the kitchen and didn’t slow her step until she was upstairs and outside Peter’s bedroom. Pausing, she inhaled a steadying breath, then knocked on his door.
All she heard coming from the room was the blare of music. She knocked again, louder.
The door swung open, and Peter scowled at her. “I’m not hungry.”
“Then you don’t have to eat. But you do have to come down to dinner and sit while we eat. We have a guest tonight.”
“Who?”
“Chief Stone.”
Her son set his mouth in a firm line. She didn’t know if she had the strength to fight him if he refused to come downstairs. She did need help, but she was alone in this world except for her grandmother whom she didn’t want to burden with her problems. Granny wasn’t in the best of health, having suffered a mild stroke several years before.
Peter pushed past her and stomped down the stairs. Rebecca released her pent-up breath, then took a deep breath and blew it out through pursed lips. She needed to believe everything would work out, but each day she felt the weight on her shoulders growing.
Tears sprang into her eyes. She swiped at one that rolled down her cheek. She didn’t have time to feel sorry for herself. Both Josh and Peter depended on her. Somehow she would hold this family together.
When she entered the kitchen and saw Gabriel sitting at the head of the kitchen table, she came to a halt inside the doorway. He looked at home, holding Josh, supporting his small body in the curve of his arm. Her heart slowed, then began to race at the sight of him smiling at her son. Josh smiled at Gabriel. The large, muscular man dwarfed her son, but the picture of the two of them seemed so right that Rebecca blinked as if she had been caught daydreaming the impossible.
For a few seconds Rebecca allowed herself to wonder how it would feel to have a man like Gabriel Stone supporting her emotionally, loving