Married By High Noon

“She didn’t say that.”

“She wanted him brought up with his family. That doesn’t mean New York.”

“I could send him down on vacations.”

“No.”

“Maybe even summers.”

“He lives here. I’ll let him visit you during summers and vacations.”

Dana’s lawyer had already warned her not to expect more than this, but she couldn’t accept the thought of being separated from Danny for months at a time. “He ought to live in one place with somebody he knows, somebody who knows how to care for him. That’s obviously me. How are you going to take care of him? Where is he going to stay?”

“I have a house. Naomi will keep him during the day. He’d have to be in day care in New York. And for much longer hours, considering your job.”

Dana’s lawyer had pointed that out, too

“He doesn’t know you or anybody else here.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Marshall said. “Gabe can—”

“How can I not worry?” Dana said. “He’s lost his mother, he’s been sick, he’s been taken away from the only home he’s ever known, and you want me to turn him over to a perfect stranger and disappear.”

“I don’t see—”

“Then you’re blind,” Dana snapped.

“Nothing’s going to happen to him except you leaving,” Marshall said. “He’ll probably cry, but he’ll get over it.”

Dana fixed Marshall with a look she hoped conveyed what an unfeeling cretin she thought he was. “I’m not relinquishing one bit of my responsibility for Danny. Mattie made me joint guardian. I wouldn’t consider leaving him with Gabe for as much as an hour until I know he can take care of him. And I won’t be easy to convince.”

Gabe opened his mouth to speak, but Dana plunged ahead. “I did my best to convince Mattie to give Danny to me.”

She paused to collect herself, to stop the tears before they filled her eyes. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t lose her temper and wouldn’t cry. She’d done one and was about to do the other. But losing Danny so soon after Mattie’s death would be more than she could bear. After all the worry, love and laughter they shared, she didn’t know how she could stand to be alone again.

She opened her handbag to look for a tissue. Gabe handed her his handkerchief. She hesitated only briefly before taking it to wipe her eyes. Touching him set off a reaction she’d never felt before. He radiated a vitality that drew her like a magnet. She tried to throttle the unwelcome current of excitement that surged through her. She told herself not to be a fool. Her feelings for him were long dead. He’d never had any for her.

She swallowed, took a deep breath, then looked directly at Gabe. “Mattie didn’t give me full custody of Danny because she said a boy ought to have a man he could model himself after. Of course that’s nonsense, but I couldn’t convince Mattie.”

She waited for one of them to argue, but neither did.

“I don’t know why you can’t leave him with me.” Her eyes started to water again, and she buried them in Gabe’s handkerchief. “He’s got his own room. Toys. People he knows.”

“He can have all that here,” Gabe said.

“You could visit him in New York.”

“You haven’t let us see him, not even after Mattie died.”

“I’d have brought him to Mattie’s funeral if he hadn’t been sick.” Though she knew Mattie would understand, Dana couldn’t stop feeling guilty that having to stay in New York with Danny had caused her to miss Mattie’s funeral.

The phone rang. Dana and Gabe both turned to Marshall, but he didn’t move. It rang again.

“Answer it,” Gabe told Marshall. “Dana and I can handle this ourselves.”

The phone rang again, and Marshall left the room. Much to her surprise, Dana felt herself tense. Surely after all these years she could face Gabe without being uncomfortable.

“Before I can think of letting you have Danny for a single night,” she said, “I’ve got to know you can take care of a little boy who’s hardly more than a baby. What do you know about children? Have you ever been around any?”

“I don’t know a lot, but I don’t anticipate any difficulty learning.”

“Well I do,” Dana shot back. “You don’t know what he likes, what he doesn’t, what frightens him, what to do when he gets upset. You don’t know what foods upset his stomach, what he tends to gobble, what he has to be coaxed to eat, when he should go to bed, when to start potty training.” She threw up her hands. “Leaving him with you would be practically the same as leaving him with Elton.”

“I’m a little more capable than that,” Gabe said.

His smile surprised her. She’d expected a snarl.

“Mattie didn’t know how to take care of a child,” Gabe said, “but she learned. I think I can, too.”

“She was a woman. You’re not.” Gabe probably thought if a poor woman could manage, a man would have no difficulty. Just thinking about it made her angry. “Who’s going to take care of Danny while you’re at work?” she asked.

Gabe signed. “I’ve already told you Naomi will take care of him during the week. My mother can help out if I have to be away on weekends.”

“If Mattie had wanted him raised by strangers, she could have left him with me. If you had a wife, it would solve everything. Are you engaged?”

“No.”

“Do you have anybody in mind?”

“I’m not engaged, I don’t have anybody in mind, and I intend to raise Danny without a wife.”

He acted as though having a wife was about as desirable as contracting mumps, but her own reaction upset her more. She could deny it if she wanted, but knowing he was still single excited her.

“I don’t see why you want to know all this.”

“Because you’re expecting me to let you have the child I love,” Dana said. “Did you think I could just drop Danny off and go back to New York as if nothing ever happened?”

“I didn’t mean—”

“Well I can’t. He’s been part of my life since the day Mattie moved into my apartment. You might as well ask me to give up my own child.”

“Are you married?” Gabe asked.

“No.”

“Engaged?”

“No.”