href="#litres_trial_promo"> Chapter Fourteen
This couldn’t be happening.
Corinne Gallagher watched as the Realtor tacked a Sold sign on the year-round lakefront home less than a hundred feet from hers.
It wasn’t the sign that made her heart take notice.
It was the man shaking the Realtor’s hand.
New York State Trooper Gabe Cutler stood facing the real estate salesperson as if he’d just clinched the deal of a lifetime.
She swallowed hard as his gaze shifted from the Realtor to her.
Her heart ground to a painful stop.
So did her breath.
He stared at her, then her house, then her again.
She stood rooted to the ground, unable or maybe just unwilling to move.
Her twelve-year-old daughter had no such qualms. “Coach!” Theresa, known to the world as “Tee” Gallagher, streaked across the yard beneath a canopy of late October color. The blend of breeze and tinted leaves signaled another change of seasons.
Corinne was determined to ignore the passage of time.
It’s what she did best.
Day by day, year by year, she looked forward, making sure her children were grounded, faithful, safe and kind. She purposely didn’t look right or left. It was a job she did well because Corinne Gallagher did everything well.
“Coach, are you moving into the Penskis’ house for real? Callan won’t believe it!” Tee leaped at him, hugging the man who’d been coaching her brother for the last three years. Three very long years for Corinne to pretend she wasn’t attracted to the decorated state trooper. Three years of watching him counsel and teach youngsters the rules of the game...and the rules of life. Three years of maintaining a distance because she would never willingly put herself in the position to bury another man in uniform.
He couldn’t be moving in next door.
He lived nearly fifteen miles away, toward the south end of Canandaigua Lake, surrounded by vineyards. She’d Googled him on purpose during a weak moment.
Look at you. Stalking the baseball coach.
She hadn’t stalked him. Not really. She’d just been curious. And lonely. And possibly wondering about the man behind the uniform, behind the stubborn set of his jaw as they met weekly to firm up the plans before the upcoming holiday-themed Christkindl festival.
And here he was, one arm around Tee, gazing her way.
This couldn’t be happening.
And yet...it was.
“Coach, is that you?” Fourteen-year-old Callan poked his head out from the sliding glass door leading to the deck. “Are you kidding me? You’re moving in next door? That’s awesome!” The high school freshman loped across the yard, all arms and legs, a boy in the thick of adolescence. He pumped Gabe’s hand, excited, then shoved his hands into his pockets as if unsure what to do with them.
Tee had no such qualms. She kept her arm linked through Gabe’s as if she’d just acquired a new BFF. “Can you believe it, Mom?” She screeched the words as Corinne moved their way. “Coach is here! He’s moving in! Right next door!”
Tee lived in a world full of exclamation points. Nothing stagnated in Tee’s world. Her roller-coaster personality kept life humming around her, a total contrast to her more sober older brother.
Callan took after Corinne, focused and cautious and steadfast.
Tee was total Gallagher, a feminine image of the father she’d never known. She was a spontaneous, fearless know-it-all, and there wasn’t a day that went by when Corinne didn’t thank God for these kids. They were a piece of Dave to keep close by her side, but that honor came with mega responsibility, a task she never took lightly.
“So.” Gabe watched her approach.
Caramel-brown eyes, with hints of gold that brightened when he smiled. Medium brown hair, always cut short. Strong shoulders, a broad chest, made broader by his protective vest when he was in uniform.
But protective vests could only do so much. She’d found that out the hard way.
“We’ve just become neighbors.” He didn’t shift his gaze as she walked, and she didn’t hurry her steps because she needed every single second to grab hold of the calm facade she’d need for this new bend in the road.
She nodded to the Realtor to gain a few extra seconds, then faced Gabe directly. “So it would seem. I had no idea you were looking for a house, Gabe.”
He lifted one brow and paused, and when he did, her heart paused, too. “I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. I’ve always wanted to live in a quiet spot on the water. To throw my boat in now and again and drop a line. When this came on the market three weeks back, I knew it was perfect.”
It wasn’t perfect.
Having the strong, stoic trooper next door was the exact opposite of perfect.
Perfect was her safe, sound world, surrounded by Gallagher family and friends, a low-risk pool of normal.
Perfect was her administrative position at the hospital, where she’d graduated from the ups and downs of crisis pregnancy care to being a very capable paper pusher.
Ideal was having as much quiet control as she could get while not appearing to be one of those helicopter parents, hovering around everything their children did, thought or tried.
She’d tucked herself into this quiet corner of the lake, her grandparents’ old house, determined to do things her way without appearing crazy neurotic.
Gabe Cutler’s arrival just rocked a boat she’d kept calm for a long, long time.
* * *
Gabe Cutler had spent years purposely keeping himself on life’s outer edges. He worked, he coached, he fished and he took good care of Tucker, his dog.
It was enough because he made it enough.
And now he’d managed to sign papers tucking him next door to Corinne Gallagher and her delightful kids, Callan and Tee.
How had this happened?
Corinne and the kids didn’t live on the water. They lived in a simple split-level just off Route 20A. He’d dropped Callan off there a couple of times the year before.
And yet...
Here they were.
The kids looked delighted to see him, because they’d been buds for several years. He’d coached Callan, and laughed over Tee’s antics.
Corinne looked surprised and maybe chagrined about the whole thing.
She