April's Promise (Forever Love Series)

April's
Promise

by

Karen
Rose Smith

Forever
Love
series, Book 1

Published
by Karen Rose Smith

Copyright
2013 Karen Rose Smith

No part of this book may be
used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except
in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction.
 Names, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's
imagination or are used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual events or
persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

http://www.karenrosesmith.com

http://www.karenrosesmithmysteries.com

****

Chapter
One

Gabe
Chronister didn't know how one three-year-old little girl could cause so much
havoc!

His
nanny had left for a family emergency and he'd thought he could handle working
from home and caring for Stephie at the same time.  After all, he was a CEO. 
After all, he took care of his little girl every night after the nanny left.

This
wasn't the same.  This was twenty-four hours a day and much harder than running
his business.

Unexpectedly,
he thought about the times April had been here since Vanessa had died.  She'd
handled Stephie with an aplomb and ease he suspected his wife had never felt.

Two
sisters who were opposites really.  They'd been raised with advantages yet
April treated the advantages much differently than Vanessa had.

Just
why was he comparing?  Because he felt guilty April had always been a shadow in
the back of his mind?

Stephie
pounded her tiny fist on the table.  From her position in her booster seat, she
looked...

"More
sketti!" she demanded like either a princess or a tyrant.  She didn't look
quite like either with pasta in her hair and tomato sauce smeared all over her
face.  Bath time tonight would be a battle.

Wasn't
everything these days?

The
phone rang.

This
time Stephie pointed to the chocolate cookies he'd placed in the center of the
table as incentive for her to eat spaghetti and a piece of broccoli first.

"Cookie?"
she pleaded with one of those smiles that always melted his heart.

He
reached for another forkful of spaghetti realizing he hadn't been quick enough
with it.  "Have some more of this first—"

The
phone rang again.  Putting down the fork, he stood and crossed to the counter,
picking up the cordless phone.  Checking caller ID, he saw the name and
number.  He considered letting the call go to voicemail, but he didn't.  He
answered.

"Hi,
Winnifred," he greeted his mother-in-law who'd sold her house in Cedar
Corners, Virginia, to move with a friend to a retirement village in Florida.

Stephie
pointed to the cookies again and asked in a higher voice, "Cookies,
please?"

How
could he explain she needed to eat more than two spaghetti noodles before she
could have a cookie?

Obviously
hearing her granddaughter in the background, Winnifred asked, "Is this a
bad time?"

"Just
a busy time.  Dinner for Stephie."

"And
how about
you
?"

He
might be warming up spaghetti around midnight.  There were e-mails to return
before he could think about eating.

"I'm
fine," he told her, convincing himself he was.

"Daddee—daddee—daddee!" 
The last "daddee" was practically a wail and he was sure Winnifred
heard it.

"Where's
Evelyn?"

"Evelyn's
daughter is pregnant with twins and now is confined to bed rest.  She went to
Pennsylvania to help her."

"And
what are
you
going to do?"

All of
a sudden Stephie began rocking back and forth on her booster seat.  He was
afraid she'd fall off the chair.

"Winnifred,
I've got to go."  He started around the table to Stephie, ready to end the
call.

"What
are you going to do, Gabe?" his mother-in-law asked again.

Reaching
Stephie, he answered tersely, "Find another nanny.  Stephie, sit
still," he ordered with as much authority as he'd use directing one of his
employees.

His
daughter began crying.

He
thought he heard Winnifred murmur, "Good luck," as he glanced around
at the state of his kitchen and exhaled a long, slow breath.

****

Gabe
needs you
.

April Remmington
could hear her mother's voice as clearly as if Winnifred Remmington were
standing beside her.

Waiting
at her brother-in-law's door in the dimming light, April rang the bell a second
time.  As the October breeze tossed russet leaves around the pillars on the
porch, she tried to lock the secret she carried in a tight box in her heart.

If Gabe
ever found out what she knew—

After a
few more minutes, she turned the knob and pushed the door open.  The sound of 
happy-go-lucky, children's music blared from the kitchen into the foyer.  There
were toys strewn in the living room from one end to the other.

The
half-eaten sandwich on the coffee table and the tilted-over tumbler lying on
its side told April even more explicitly than her mother's words that, since Stephie's
nanny had left to help her daughter, Gabe was having problems juggling being a
CEO and a single parent.

Slipping
off her jacket and tossing it over the arm of the sofa, April crossed the
living room and stopped in the kitchen doorway.  Three-year-old Stephie sat on
her booster seat at the kitchen table, her hands, face and T-shirt covered with
mustard as she finger-fed herself a piece of cheese from her sandwich.  The
smell of a burnt pot or pot handle filled the kitchen, and the top of the stove
littered with pots looked worse than the interior of the living room.  A stack
of dishes toppled over in the sink and cereal boxes, toys and glasses with milk
rings littered the counter surface!

In a
quick glance she took it all in, then focused on Gabe who was sitting at the
other end of the table, a sandwich to his right, a laptop to his left, its
power cord straying from the table to the receptacle on the counter.

He
clasped his cell phone to one ear while he held his other ear shut.  As he
spoke into the phone, he had no idea she was standing in his kitchen.

In his
black T-shirt and blue jeans with his muscular arms, tanned skin and incredibly
broad shoulders, he looked more like a rugged outdoorsman than an
entrepreneur.  His strong facial features drew her gaze to them.  Thick
dark-brown hair fell over his brow, and she longed to brush it back, hug him,
and be enveloped by his strong arms.

But
she'd forfeited that right years ago when she'd fled her deepening feelings for
him... when he'd become interested in her sister Vanessa and married her.  And
now—

With
each passing day, April was more aware of the vow she'd made to her sister
before she'd died eight months ago and the secret that could shatter Gabe's
world.

When
Gabe clicked off the phone and glanced toward his daughter, he spotted April
standing in the doorway.  A smile turned up his lips until his green gaze met
hers.  Then the smile slipped away.

As he
stood, Stephie glanced over her shoulder and spotted April.  With a whoop of
glee, she slid from her seat onto the floor and ran across the room. 
"April!  April!  I missed you."

April
caught her niece, gathering her into her arms.  "I missed you, too,
sweetie."

Since
Vanessa's death, April had flown from Boston to Cedar Corners, Virginia, at
least every other weekend to check on Gabe and Stephie.  But for the past two
months, her job as a financial analyst had taken her on a special assignment to
Los Angeles.

Gabe
switched off the iPod on its dock on the counter.  "Your blouse will never
be the same," he said with a grimace as he looked at the mustard on
April's white-knit top.

His
gaze as it swept over her, from her light-brown bangs and softly-waved hair,
down her boat-necked top and her practically brand-new sneakers, sent color to
her cheeks.  Was she imagining it, or did there seem to be more than casual
interest there tonight?

April
tickled Stephie's tummy, and her niece giggled.  "A hug from this little
imp is worth it.  The top will bleach."  Meeting his gaze again, she said,
"Mother called me."  Although her mother had sold her house in Cedar
Corners a few months ago, Winnifred kept in touch with Gabe regularly.

Gabe
held out his arms to his daughter, and she went to him.  As he carried her to
the sink, he said, "When Winnifred called, Stephie was crying and
I—"  He stopped.  "I was having a night similar to this one.  Tonight
I started a chicken dinner but the chicken burned—"  He stopped again as
if the explanation was self-evident.

"Mother
said Evelyn went to her daughter's."

Gabe
turned on the spigot.  "She'll be gone the last two months of her
daughter's pregnancy and then another six weeks.  The problem is finding
someone I trust who is as capable as she was.  I haven't had any luck
yet."

"You've
been working from home the past few weeks?"

After
he took a clean wash cloth from a drawer, he held it under the spigot and wrung
it out with one hand.  "It's been hectic, but we're managing."  He
glanced at her.  "I thought you were in L.A."

"I
was, but I finished the assignment there and took the vacation time I've never
used.  I have about six weeks, so if you need me to fill in until you can find
a nanny, I'm available."  She said it lightly as if it were no big deal,
as if it didn't matter if he needed her help or if he wanted it.

Gabe
was a proud man.  She'd hurt him a long time ago, and she couldn't bear the
thought of ever hurting him again.  But to be honest with him, she might have
to.  She wished Vanessa had never confided her secret...or confessed her sin. 
Maybe April wanted to help Gabe out now and take care of Stephie so that she
could make a decision that she had postponed making for the past eight months.

Gabe
had gone still at her words.  "I can't ask you to give up your vacation
time for us, April."

"You
don't have to ask.  I'm offering."

The sound
of slowly running water was the only sound in the kitchen until suddenly the
cell phone lying on the table beeped.

Gabe
gave it a dark look.

Reaching
out to her niece again, April took Stephie from his arms and set her on the
counter.  "Go ahead and take it.  I'll clean her up."

His
gaze held April's for a few seconds, then he moved to the phone.

April
could tell the conversation troubled Gabe from the few remarks he made.  And
the terminology he used told her it was business.  When he hung up, she asked,
"A problem?"

"More
than one.  And I should take care of it now.  But..."

"I
can clean up Stephie
and
put her to bed if it comes to that."

When he
studied April with deep green eyes that seemed to see right through her, she
felt she had to say more.  "I want to help, Gabe.  Really."  He
hadn't let her do much more than play with Stephie on the weekends she'd
visited them.

Rubbing
the back of his neck, he glanced at the laptop on the table.  Then he eyed her
again.  "It would help if I could get back into the office and get caught
up before a real catastrophe hits.  But if I don't find someone to watch Stephie
soon and you want to leave, just say the word.  I don't want to tie you
down."

If
there was a deeper meaning to his words, she couldn't find any hint of it in
his expression.  When she'd left years ago to take an assignment overseas,
she'd told him she couldn't date him any more because she couldn't be tied
down.  He hadn't asked her to stay.  After all, they'd only dated for two
months.  He certainly couldn't have professed undying love.  She wouldn't have
believed him if he had.

She
carefully wiped Stephie's hands.  "You won't be tying me down.  I have no
commitments for the next six weeks."  Then she smiled at him.  "And
my neighbor is watering my plants."

Seeing Stephie
was as clean as she was going to get from the washcloth, Gabe crossed to the
sink and lifted his daughter into his arms.

Pushing
a stray blond curl behind her ear, he explained to her, "April's going to
play with you for a little while and help you get ready for bed.  You listen to
her, okay?"

Stephie
nodded, then asked, "Can she read stories?"  With her sparkling hazel
eyes and blond ringlets, she could have been a cherub in anyone's heaven.