Married By High Noon

She got out of the car and opened the back door.

“I’ll get you out of this nasty old car seat. You’ll soon be able to run around to your heart’s content.” There had to be some advantages to living at the ends of the earth. There were plenty of safe places to play.

She took Danny out of his car seat and carried him up the steps of the tall, stark-white house built in the shape of an L. It used to be mostly hidden by trees and vines, but the trees had been trimmed, the vines pulled down and the overgrown boxwoods pruned to a manageable size. Marshall Evans opened his door before she could ring the bell.

“You’re late,” Marshall said.

“Sorry, but I can’t gauge the exact length of a trip from New York,” she said as she stepped inside.

Dana had forgotten that Marshall’s house was filled with Victorian furniture as valuable as it was ugly. She wondered if he would sell her a few pieces. She had a client who was heavily into Victorian. She told herself to forget antiques. She had come to fight for Danny’s future. She was also on vacation. Her doctor had ordered her to take a complete break from business.

“Where’s Gabe?” she asked as her eyes adjusted to the dimly lit interior. Marshall had pulled the heavy, floral print curtains together to shut out the sunlight.

“In the kitchen,” Marshall said, turning in that direction and leaving her to follow.

Everything was backward here. In New York people entertained in the living room. In Iron Springs, only strangers sat in the parlor. Dana passed through a second parlor, a dining room and an old-fashioned butler’s pantry. Enough antiques to set up an entire showroom.

Dana didn’t get a chance to look at the kitchen. Gabe Purvis rose from the table when she entered the room, banishing all thoughts of antiques from her mind.

Shock sent the past thundering down on her like a rock slide. One summer, when she was eleven and Gabe seventeen, he had winked at her as he handed her a cone of butter pecan ice cream. She had fallen in love then and there and made up her mind to marry him when she got out of college. She’d spent countless hours fantasizing about him, prying details about him from his sister. Mattie had laughed at the notion of her best friend marrying her brother, but Dana thought he was the most wonderful boy in the world.

Gabe looked better than she remembered. He had grown taller and had filled out. He looked more rugged, more solid. Despite the season, he wore a checkered shirt rolled up at the sleeves, tight jeans and heavy work shoes. But it wasn’t his clothes that riveted her attention. Nor was it his broad shoulders and powerful forearms, which she supposed came from lifting heavy lumber and wrestling with large pieces of furniture. It was his face that defined his character, his powerful jaw and wide forehead, shaggy brows and weather-roughened skin, thick, nearly black hair that refused to be tamed. And black eyes that stared into her until she wanted to run away.

But she wasn’t a little girl now. Even though she hadn’t wanted to come back, she hadn’t the slightest intention of running away.

Gabe’s gaze moved from her to Danny. “Is that my nephew?”

“Of course.” She shouldn’t have snapped at him, but her nerves were on edge.

She hadn’t been unduly upset when she first learned Mattie had made Gabe Danny’s joint guardian with her. She’d assumed a thirty-six-year-old bachelor wouldn’t want to be burdened with a small child. She would agree to take Danny to Iron Springs to visit Mattie’s family during vacations, might even let him spend a few summers there, but she had every expectation of having the child to herself.

Gabe had exploded that belief.

Not only had he insisted that she bring Danny to Iron Springs the minute the boy recovered from his fever, he said Mattie’s stipulation that Danny be raised near his family meant he had to live in Iron Springs. Dana’s lawyer had advised her to work out a compromise with Gabe, but Dana doubted she could. She had come to Iron Springs ready to do battle.

But right now she had to calm down before she upset Danny. He’d had more than enough change in his life. “Sorry,” she said. “It was a long trip to make with a small child. On top of Mattie’s death…well, I’m still strung out.” She couldn’t think of Mattie without wanting to cry all over again.

She still found it hard to believe anyone as young, vital, and healthy as Mattie could be diagnosed with cancer one day and be dead three weeks later. For twenty-five years, they’d been closer than sisters. Mattie had come to live with Dana when she’d learned she was pregnant. They’d gone through morning sickness together, doctors’ appointments, lectures on prenatal care, Lamaze classes, endless discussions about what to name the baby. Dana had been at Mattie’s side in the delivery room. She’d placed Danny in Mattie’s arms. They’d sat up together on nights when he had the croup or a fever, had taken turns walking him when he couldn’t sleep, had shared the tasks of feeding, bathing, changing diapers.

Danny had become part of Dana’s life, her soul, but now everyone expected her to hand him over to his uncle and go back to her old life as if these past three years had never happened. Losing Mattie had been like losing part of herself. That made her all the more determined to hold on to Danny.

“Let me have him.” Gabe held out his arms, but Danny buried his face in Dana’s neck.

“Not yet. He doesn’t know you.”

“He’ll have to get used to him sooner or later,” Marshall said. “He might as well start now.”

“He’ll start when I say.” She could hear the anger in her voice. She tried to control her tone, the rigidity of her body, but she couldn’t help it. The thought of giving Danny to anyone filled her with an anger at the whole world that was as red-hot as it was impotent.

A knock at the back door came as a welcome distraction. A woman accompanied by a young boy let herself in. “I’m Naomi Ferguson,” she said, introducing herself. “This is my son, Elton. I suggested to Marshall that Danny might be happier if I took him off to play while you and Gabe discussed business. Would you like to play with Elton?” Naomi asked Danny.

He hid his face in Dana’s shoulder again.

“I’ll look after him,” Elton said, swaggering like a little man.

Trying not to grin, Dana squatted down until Danny and Elton were eye-to-eye. “Danny’s a little shy. He doesn’t have anybody to play with at home.”

“He don’t have to be scared,” Elton said. “Won’t nobody say boo to him if I tell ’em not to.”

“I’ll keep an eye on both of them,” Naomi said with a wink.

As reluctant as Dana was to let Danny out of her sight, she knew it would be better for everybody if he were at least in another room while she talked to Gabe.

“Do you want to go with Elton?” Dana asked Danny.

The child eyed Elton curiously but didn’t relinquish his hold on Dana’s neck.

“You can have some of my cookies,” Elton offered. He reached inside one of the deep pockets of his baggy pants and withdrew a plastic bag full of chocolate chip cookies. “Mama made ’em,” he said as he took one out of the bag and offered it to Danny. “Can’t nobody make better cookies than Mama.”

The cookie was a sad little thing, bent and twisted from its time in Elton’s pocket. Apparently its sad state didn’t bother Danny. He reached for the cookie.

“I got more,” Elton said reaching into another pocket and drawing out a second bag of cookies. “I’ll get some milk, and we can go sit on Marshall’s porch and eat the rest of them.”

The lure of two handfuls of cookies was too much for Danny. He loosened his grip on Dana and slid to the floor. Elton held out his hand, and Danny took it. “You don’t have to worry about your kid, lady,” Elton said to Dana. “He’s safe with me.”

Naomi laughed as Elton and Danny headed toward the back door. “No child can resist chocolate chip cookies,” she said as she opened the cabinet and took out two glasses.

“I think it was Elton,” Gabe said.

Naomi took milk from the refrigerator. “I’ll keep them on the screened porch.”

Dana couldn’t stop herself from looking through the window. Danny had settled next to Elton, munching on a cookie, looking up at the older boy with wonder in his eyes.

“Your son is an angel,” she said to Naomi.

“Only sometimes,” Naomi said, then closed the door behind her as she joined the kids on the porch.

Dana took one last look, turned to face Gabe.

“Why don’t you leave now?” Marshall asked. “You could be halfway to the interstate before he finishes his cookies.”

His suggestion was so unexpected, so completely without any regard for Danny’s feelings, Dana couldn’t think of the words to tell him what an unfeeling idiot he was.

“We have some things to talk over,” Gabe said.

“A lot of things,” Dana said, recovering her speech. “Not the least of which is this absurd notion you have that you can take care of Danny as well as I can. You don’t know anything about children. Why did you force me to bring him to Iron Springs?”

“Because Mattie wanted him to live here.”