Where the Heart Leads (13 page)

“Among other things.” Leigh swept across the kitchen in her rose-colored dress, dark curls bouncing with her gait. “Maybe you and Miss Aumaleigh have a second chance.”

He rolled his eyes and closed the door. The last thing he wanted was Leigh involved. She would get her hopes up for his sake, and he didn’t want her disappointed if this didn’t work out.

His own disappointment would be enough to handle.

He knew better than to take the time to saddle up Barney. Aumaleigh was a fast worker. If he wanted to get there and save the day, then he’d better hurry. Which is why he rode through the fields, jumping fences and a bubbling creek.

“I saw you coming.” Aumaleigh was still on the roof, her drenched coat and skirts clinging to her. Her hat was waterlogged, right along with her dark hair. “You can do us both a favor, turn right around and go back the way you came.”

“We called a truce, remember?” He halted Barney at the porch and tied him to the rail. “Or aren’t you a woman of your word?”

“Don’t even try using that on me. I’m in no mood this morning.”

“So I see.” A ladder leaned against the side of the house, so he climbed it. “Then just think of me as a neighbor, some fellow you don’t know who just stopped by to help you with your roof. It’s the kind of thing neighbors do.”

“Is there any way to get rid of you?”

“Not until the roof is fixed.” With a grin, he set foot on the wet roof. A shingle crumbled beneath his boot. “You had someone look at this roof before you bought, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but a tree limb came down in the night. I rolled it off—” She gestured toward the edge of the roof.

He glanced over to see a rather large bough on the ground. That had to have done some damage when it hit, and it was big enough that she had to have really worked to get it off the roof.

His ribs constricted with a suffocating sadness. The impact of her life hit him hard. As Josslyn had told him, she’d been alone ever since, with no one to take care of her and no one to love her.

All the things he’d wished for her had never happened. Not one.

With a mix of sympathy, maybe some pity, and definitely some love, he held out his hand. “Give me the hammer. I’ll take care of this.”

“If I do, will you go away?”

“Eventually.” He watched the hint of a smile play along the corners of her mouth. That sweet, soft mouth he’d spent more hours than he could count kissing tenderly.

And he wanted to again.

“All right, if it will get rid of you. But that’s the only reason. I want to make it perfectly clear.” She held out the hammer, handle first, as if she didn’t want to get too close to him.

But he saw everything she didn’t say, perhaps the things she never could. His soul came to life as she left him standing in the rain.

Aumaleigh listened to the pound of the hammer overhead, wishing she hadn’t given in. But he
did
want a truce between them, and he was her neighbor now. Not to mention Rose’s uncle by marriage. That meant Gabriel would be at certain family functions and events.

She would have to figure out a way to get along with him. Might as well try now.

Not that she liked it. She added cream and sugar to her coffee cup and took a sip, keeping an eye on the bacon sizzling in the pan.
Thump, thump, thump
went his footsteps high over her head. At least the hammering had stopped. Was he done? More importantly, would he leave?

She could have predicted he’d show up at her back door. Rain dripped off his black Stetson and sluiced down his black duster. The spark of that old caring flared to life within her, a ghost of what had once been.

She set down her cup and crossed the room, aware of that faint brightness within that remembered, that would always remember the man who’d gone to such trouble to court her. The man who’d made her feel special and valued like a new and improved Aumaleigh McPhee, not like her mother’s daughter at all.

“I’m done.” He opened the door and propped one brawny shoulder against the frame. “You’re going to need some new shingles up there, but the patch job should hold for a while.”

“Yes, the dripping has stopped.” She tried not to care that he looked cold and wet. She wanted to have no sympathy at all for him. “The least I can do is send you home with a hot cup of coffee. I’ll fetch you one.”

“I’d appreciate that.” His baritone moved over her like a caress.

She shivered, and the little hairs on her arms stood on end.

Do not let yourself be attracted to him, not again.

She whirled around and paced to the cook stove, but her hand shook as she reached a cup off the shelf.

“Here, let me.” His large hand settled over hers, male-hot and familiar.

He stood behind her, his big body just a breath away. Heat radiated off him, and she went rigid, fighting an attraction she had to deny.

“I don’t remember inviting you into my kitchen.” She tried to be bold and self-confident, a woman utterly unaffected by him, but her voice wobbled. She couldn’t pull it off. Not even when she sidestepped away from him, just to escape the magnetic pull of his closeness.

He knew it too. The corners of his mouth tipped up. The storm gray of his eyes gentled. He had to know how hard this was for her, and that upset her most of all. He knew this was upsetting her and yet he was here anyway, wanting—well, she didn’t know what he wanted. Certainly he didn’t want to try again. It was impossible. They were no longer young. He was no longer the man of her dreams.

“The c-coffee in on the trivet.” She gestured toward the stove. No way was she stepping around him to get to the coffeepot. “Help yourself.”

“All right.” Good-natured, he left her standing at the counter. His gait was slow and relaxed. “Your bacon is starting to burn. Let me flip it.”

The bacon! She silently groaned. How had she forgotten the bacon? See what the man did to her? He turned everything topsy-turvy, especially her common sense. There was only one solution. She had to get him out of her house as quickly as possible.

“Stop that.” Really, it infuriated her to see him casually turning the bacon as if he belonged in her kitchen and in her life. “You can’t come in here and make yourself at home.”

“I’m just trying to help, that’s all.” The low tones booming in his voice were different from the Gabriel she’d once known. That Gabriel had been like a note in a song, steady and true. Now he was harmony—a multifaceted sound, one of depth and light.

She remembered the letter he’d written to her she’d found in her mother’s things, a letter that had never reached her back in the day. Leave it to Mother to steal her daughter’s mail. Gabriel had written about being a solider in the war, fighting for the Union. He’d talked about being happy with a wife and children. She remembered that now, that he’d been to war, and he’d also buried a wife. Those honors and hardships, sorrows and strengths had changed him.

“Leigh would be shooing me out of her kitchen, maybe beating me with the business end of a dishtowel if I refused to leave.” Deep crinkles cut in around his eyes, showing his age.

They were attractive, and she hated that she noticed.

Honestly, why did the man have to be more handsome in his fifties than he’d been as a young man? It wasn’t fair.

And here she was, looking like a mess. Her hand went to her hair, which was hanging in wet shanks. Her dress was soaked, her petticoats dripping on the floor. She was an eyesore.

And exactly why was her appearance bothering her?

She lifted her chin. Time to take charge of the situation. “I like Leigh. Especially since you said she beats you.”

“I’ve got to be honest. I deserve it.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be done soon.” He forked the strips onto the awaiting plate.

“You’re pretty good with a fry pan.”

“When Victoria was ill, I did a lot of the cooking.”

“Victoria.” She repeated the name, not liking the catch she heard in her voice. “Your wife.”

The woman who’d been smart enough to say yes to him.

“Yes. Leigh looks a lot like her.”

“She must have been beautiful.”

“Very.” Gabriel stole an egg from the bowl on the counter and cracked it on the edge of the fry pan. “She fell sick when Leigh was still so little. It was especially hard on our daughter. She was close to her mother.”

“I can see that.” She felt like she was strangling, but it was impossible to feel anything but sorrow for the woman. “I’m glad you were happy. Gabriel.”

“It didn’t come easy.” He cracked another egg. “I was a mess after you. You have to know that.”

“I’m sorry.” The words she’d saved up over the years, the truths she’d had to face, they all disappeared now that she was at the moment to talk about them. At a loss, she grabbed the sugar bowl. “I always regretted giving you back that ring.”

“I know that now.” Was that pity in his voice? She couldn’t tell. He’d seen her life, he’d seen the spinster she’d become. What did he think of her? Did he think she was deserving of pity? Her pride smarting, she dipped a teaspoon into the sugar and dumped it into his steaming cup.

“I take my coffee black these days.” He grabbed the spatula from the counter, holding it capably in one hand.

“Oh. I hadn’t even thought.” How foolish. She stared down at the teaspoon. “There’s no way to undo the sugar. Let me get you a new cup.”

“No, it’s okay.” He flipped the eggs one at a time. “I could use a little sweetening up.”

“No argument here. Maybe I’d better put in another teaspoon?”

“Funny.” Deep brackets outlined his smile, made from a lifetime of laughter.

She could see that too. “How did you meet Victoria?”

The question surprised her.

Gabriel looked surprised too as he poked the white of the cooking eggs with the tip of the spatula. “I sold the land I had back when we were courting, so I had cash to get my own place up in Deer Lake. Land was cheaper there, so I wound up with a bigger spread.”

“Good for you. I always knew you would do well ranching.”

He didn’t say anything for a second. A muscle in his jaw worked. “With more land to farm, I needed a second team. My hired hand knew of a good team for sale. I went to see about the horses and rather liked the owner’s daughter.”

“I see.” She concentrated very hard on putting the lid back on the sugar bowl. Did she really want to hear about Gabriel’s love for another woman?

“It was five years after you. Just so you know.” He turned his back to her as he scooped the eggs out of the pan and set it on a trivet. “Five long years. I didn’t know if I could risk trying to court anyone again. That’s how bad you broke my heart. Just so you know. I didn’t get over you easy.”

“But you did get over me.”

“Eventually.”

His admission felt like a fatal blow. She’d already known it, but it hurt anyway. She swallowed, forcing out the words that she meant from the bottom of her heart. “I’m glad you were happy, Gabe.”

“Me, too. I’ve had a good life. I got lucky.”

She read the gratitude in his eyes. “Yes, you did. I caught sight of your son, and I’ve met Leigh. What about your other sons?”

“The oldest is back East finishing up his medical schooling. Liam just joined him. Both of them are going to be doctors.”

“You must be proud.”

“I am proud of my family.” He gave a humble shrug. “They’ve made my life.”

“I can see. It is everything I’ve wanted for you.”

“I’m sorry you never found that for yourself.” He loaded her plate and carried it to the small oak table in the corner. “I heard you had your hands full with your mother. I’m sorry to hear she had a debilitating disease.”

“She required complete care for many years.” She sat in the chair he held out for her.

He breathed in the familiar, faint scent of roses from her hair and skin. “That had to have been hard.”

“Don’t you feel sorry for me, Gabriel Daniels. Don’t you do it.”

“As you wish.” He retreated to the counter where she’d left his coffee cup, a strategic distance away. “Why did you take care of her for all those years? She wasn’t a nice mother to you.”

“But she was my mother.” Aumaleigh stared down at her plate but didn’t touch the food he’d cooked for her.

Her hair had begun to dry, curling adorably in the dry heat from the stove. Those fragile curls reminded him of when she’d been his, with her hair down as she chased butterflies in the meadow.

That time seemed so long ago now, and farther away than it had been. Almost out of reach.

“She wasn’t always like that.” She sounded wistful as she picked up her fork. “It’s probably hard for you to imagine Mother any other way.”

“True.” He paced toward her, cradling the cup in one hand. “She gave me more than one tongue lashing. Remember when I proposed to you?”

“Yes. She came marching out of the house after you’d slipped the ring on my finger and ordered you off the property. That was the happiest day of my life.” Aumaleigh smiled, sad and sweet at the same time. “Why didn’t you answer my letter? Why didn’t you come to me?”

Gabriel blinked. He pulled out the chair across from her and sat down at the table. “What letter? I don’t know what you mean.”