Gabe’s youngest stared after Mallory as she headed to the door of the red-brick bungalow with her stepsons and Abby. After hugging Teddy, she’d said a brief and polite hello to his in-laws before excusing herself to deal with the movers.
“Do you think Mallory wants to meet Santa with me tomorrow? Abby knows him, and she promised I could be at the front of the line.”
“Hey, what am I, chopped liver? You’ve been gone two nights. I missed you, you know.”
Teddy leaned back in Gabe’s arms as they headed home, his in-laws trailing behind. “I brought home a really big container of all your favorites, Dad.” He cupped his hand over the side of his mouth and whispered into Gabe’s ear. “I snuck a whole pecan pie off the counter. I had to put it at the bottom of the bag so Grandma wouldn’t know. It might be a little squished but it’ll still be good.”
Gabe looked into Teddy’s earnest little face, and his heart squeezed. His youngest was his mini-me in looks, but he’d inherited his mother’s goodness and light. Gabe wasn’t exactly sure when it had happened, maybe around the time Teddy turned four, but his youngest had appointed himself his family’s caretaker. And while Gabe might not be able to pinpoint exactly when Teddy had assumed the role, he knew why. Lauren’s death had devastated Gabe, Dylan, and Cody but Teddy had been too young to understand what was going on.
Gabe worried about the weight his little boy had taken onto his narrow shoulders, and it must have shown on his face. Except Teddy assumed that he was concerned about him taking the pie without asking. “It’d just go to waste, Dad. Grandma doesn’t eat sweets, and she kept telling Grandpa he has to watch his waistline. So really, I’m saving Grandpa from the wrath of Grandma.”
Gabe had to work to keep the laughter from his voice. “Wrath? Is that your word of the week?” Since he’d started kindergarten in the fall, Teddy had decided to learn a new word a week. But not an easy word like the ones his teacher gave to the class. Teddy had been reading since he was three. He read more than Gabe and his brothers combined. The kid was off-the-charts smart, which made him a little bit scary.
Teddy giggled and Gabe caught the sound of an underlying wheeze. His stomach clenched. Teddy’s asthma scared him far more than his brainpower did. Gabe, Dylan, and Cody were as healthy as horses; Teddy wasn’t and had never been.
“Theodore, it’s impolite to tell secrets,” Diane said, coming up the front door steps behind them.
Gabe swallowed a sharp rejoinder. She was right, but he didn’t like her shaming his son. And shame was the only emotion anyone could feel when Diane corrected them in that condescending tone of voice. He winked at his youngest. “Good word.”
Teddy grinned. “It’s not my word of the week.”
“No? What’s your word of the week, then?” he asked as he unlocked the front door. Setting Teddy down, Gabe walked in and turned off the alarm.
“I’m going to have a theme for the rest of this month and next, and my theme is Christmas.” His brothers’ voices joined in on Christmas but with a groan in their voices instead of Teddy’s smile.
Her lips pressed together in disapproval as she took off her coat, Diane obviously felt the same as Dylan and Cody. So did Gabe, but he wasn’t about to put a damper on Teddy’s excitement, no matter how much he wanted to. “Good idea, buddy.”
Teddy smiled up at him as he sat on the hardwood floor to take off his boots. “This week’s word is Santa, and I’m going to come up with more for every day of the week. I’ve got Father Christmas for Tuesday. Maybe Santa will be able to give me some other ones.”
“Père Noel,” Karl, who’d been a diplomat in France years before, suggested.
“Thanks, Grandpa. But it’s kinda the same just in French.”
“You got me there, partner,” Karl said as he hung up his jacket and Diane’s coat while his wife fussed over the mess the boys’ boots had made on the floor.
“Don’t worry about it, Diane. I’ll clean it up later,” Gabe said, frustrated that his in-laws had decided to hang around.
“Might as well save your breath, son,” Karl said.
He was right, of course. Diane headed for the kitchen. As she did, she called out instructions to his sons: “Put your boots on the mat, boys. And Dylan and Cody, you both need to have a shower before you get ready for bed.”
“Dad, do we have to?”
“Yes, you most certainly do,” their grandmother answered for him. As though she sensed Gabe might go against her directive, she said for his benefit, “Despite being told not to leave the yard, after searching for them for over an hour, we found Cody and Dylan at the park behaving like two hooligans with a group of boys.”
“Now, Diane, they were just having—” Karl tried to intervene on the boys’ behalf.
“Do not undermine me in front of the children, Karl,” she said, returning with a mop and a bucket. “My grandsons are running wild, and if their father won’t put a stop to it, I will.”
“Diane,” Karl murmured, casting Gabe an apologetic glance.
“Hey, guys, do your old man a favor and take your overnight bags into your rooms. And don’t just leave them on the floor. Unpack and put your stuff away. You too, buddy,” he said to Teddy, who’d sidled up next to his leg.
His youngest reached into the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out his blue inhaler. It was his security blanket. He carried it wherever he went. Except school, where it was against the rules. If Teddy hadn’t wanted to go to kindergarten so badly, Gabe imagined he would’ve had a hard time getting him to go. It helped that his teacher, an asthmatic herself, had shown Teddy where she locked up his inhaler in the classroom in case he needed it. Gabe patted his son on the butt to get him moving.
“Dylan and Cody, do me a favor and run a bath for Teddy.” The boys looked ready to protest until Gabe gestured to his chest. The last thing any of them wanted was Teddy to have an asthma attack. They’d nearly lost him last January.
“But, Dad, I had a bath last night, and Grandma didn’t let me out to play,” Teddy said, casting a look at Diane from under his long lashes.
“I’ll have a shower,” Dylan offered. “Come on, Teddy. I’ll let you play with my boats in the bathroom sink.”
“Me too,” Cody said.
His sons were the best. They knew that the steam from the shower helped their baby brother breathe easier.
Gabe waited until the boys were out of earshot to say to his mother-in-law, “Probably best if we continue this conversation in the kitchen.”
“I agree. A conversation about the boys’ behavior is long overdue. That’s why Karl and I are here. We’re concerned, Gabriel. Very concerned about our grandsons.”
“Now, Diane, you’re making it sound like…” Karl trailed off as she pushed the bucket and mop toward the kitchen as if he hadn’t said anything.
“I’m sorry, son. It’s the same thing every year around this time. Holidays get the best of her. Just let her talk and don’t pay any mind to what she says. I’ll have a word with her when she’s in a better frame of mind.” He handed Gabe the bag filled with Tupperware as if it were a peace offering. “I think Teddy was afraid you were wasting away up here without him looking after you. Little bugger took my pecan pie.” He chuckled and patted his rounded stomach. “Not that I need it.”
“They’re good kids, Karl. And I don’t like Diane making them feel like they aren’t.”
“I know they are, son. It’s just Diane’s not used to raising boys.”
“Then it’s a good thing she’s not raising them, isn’t it?” he snapped. He briefly closed his eyes. It was fear that put the bite in his voice. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long day.”
“No need to apologize. Diane’s not an easy woman, but her heart is in the right place. She just wants the best for the boys. We all do.”
“If this were the first time, I might be able to let it go. But I can’t. If this doesn’t stop, I won’t allow the boys to spend weekends with you and Diane. I don’t want to do it, Karl. But she’s forcing my hand.”
“Don’t go there, son. I’m only saying this for your own good. You try to keep those boys from her, and there will be hell to pay. She’ll fight you with everything she has. And she always wins.”
There it was. The threat was out in the open. He hadn’t been wrong. She’d go after custody of his boys, and even his father-in-law believed she’d win. “And you’d support that, Karl? You’d support her taking my sons from me?” he said, his jaw so tight it felt like it would pop.
His father-in-law put his hands on Gabe’s shoulders. “Gabriel, please. It doesn’t have to be this way. Just let me smooth things over.”
Diane rounded the corner, seemingly surprised to see them there. “What’s going on? I’ve put the tea on.”
“Hey, Dad! Can you come here for a second?” It was Dylan, and there was something in his voice that made Gabe wonder if they’d gone to their bedrooms as he’d asked. Or had they sensed something was up and stood huddled in the hall together?
He handed his father-in-law the bag of leftovers. “Give me a few minutes.” He needed to go to his boys, but more than that, he needed time to calm down and weigh out the consequences of going up against Diane.
His sons’ bedrooms were empty and so was the bathroom. “In here, Dad,” Dylan whispered, waving him into the master bedroom. Teddy, with his inhaler clutched in his hand, sat beside Cody on the end of Gabe’s bed. One look at their worried faces told him he was right. They’d been listening in on his conversation with Karl.
He scooched in between them. “Get over here,” he said to Dylan and then wrapped his arms around the three of them. “This is why kids aren’t supposed to listen to grown-ups’ conversations. They get all worked up because they don’t hear the whole—”
“We did so, Dad. Grandma thinks we’re bad. She thinks we’re out of control, and we’re going to end up in jail, and that it’ll be all your fault for letting us run wild.”
“Cody, she doesn’t think—” Gabe began, only to be cut off by Dylan, who was close to tears.
“She does. She said it right to our faces.” He knuckled his eyes. “But we never meant to get you in trouble, Dad. We were just hanging out with some guys in the park and trying out their skateboards. It’s so boring at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house. She’s always telling us to be careful that we don’t break anything and how we need to start behaving like gentlemen.”
They’d already heard him talking to Karl, so he couldn’t pretend everything was fine. He’d never wanted to put them in the middle of this or force them to take sides. Somehow, he had to walk a fine line of being truthful without hurting their relationship with their grandparents, while at the same time alleviating their fears.
“You guys know better than to go off without telling someone. I’m sure half of what Grandma said to you came from fear that they’d lost you.” He should know. It was fear that had him snapping at Karl. But they were impressionable kids, not adults.
Dylan shook his head, and Cody said, “Nuh-uh. She says stuff like that to us all the time.”
Anger stirred inside him when they bowed their heads and their shoulders slumped. “Not anymore. I’m going to talk to Grandma right now and get this straightened out.” He kissed the top of Dylan’s and Cody’s heads and went to kiss Teddy’s before heading out to confront his mother-in-law.
But his youngest slid off the bed. “You can’t, Dad. You can’t make Grandma mad.”
The worry on Teddy’s face made Gabe as angry as the sense of defeat he was picking up from Cody and Dylan. “I promise, I’ll do my best not to upset your Grandma, Teddy. But we have to stand up for the people we love. And right now, Grandma’s making your brothers feel bad, and that’s not okay.”
“Teddy’s right, Dad. We don’t want…” Dylan glanced at his brothers. “Me and Cody will just ignore her when she says mean stuff.”
They were as worried she’d go after custody of them as he was. And apparently just as worried she’d win. He didn’t know what to do. Confront Diane and maybe lose his sons? Or go on as they had been and pray she didn’t permanently damage the boys’ self-esteem? If he went with the second option, there was still the threat that he’d do something she didn’t approve of and she’d sue him for custody anyway.
“At school, when kids aren’t being nice to each other, Mrs. Moore puts them in a time-out. Ben couldn’t play with Sammy for a whole week at recess, and now they’re best friends again. We just have to put Grandma in a time-out,” Teddy said.
“Yeah, but you heard Grandpa. If Dad doesn’t let us visit…” Dylan trailed off.
“Dad doesn’t have to say anything. There’s only three more weekends until Christmas, and Grandma and Grandpa are going to their friends’ in Florida for the holidays.”
Gabe hadn’t realized how much he’d dreaded the thought of spending the holidays with his in-laws until that moment. He leaned over to grab Teddy, pulling him in for a hug. “Anyone ever tell you you’re pretty smart for a five-year-old?”
“Yeah, you. And I’m almost six.”
Dylan, who tended to be the more pessimistic of his sons, said, “But if Grandma and Grandpa are going away for Christmas, they’ll want us to spend the weekend before with them.”
“We can’t go. I made my calendar already. We have Christmas stuff to do every weekend, and Grandma hates the holidays so she won’t want to come here and join in the fun.”
Dylan and Cody fell back on the bed and groaned. Clearly his sons were torn over which was worse, taking part in Teddy’s Christmas fun or going to Grandma’s house. All Gabe knew was it gave him some time. As today had proven, he needed to talk to a lawyer.
“And that’ll give us lots of time to find you a new wife,” Teddy said.
Gabe groaned and fell back on his bed with Dylan and Cody.
After sharing a father-and-sons wrestle on his bed, Gabe oversaw the boys’ unpacking and showers. As they got into their pjs, Gabe headed for the kitchen. His hope that his in-laws would tire of waiting and head back to Atlanta didn’t pan out. He’d barely stepped into the kitchen when his mother-in-law began complaining about the noise. He’d opened his mouth to defend his boys when he realized she wasn’t talking about the noise in his house. The sound was coming from Mallory’s. The bass was so loud it practically shook the house.
“What did I tell you, Karl? I knew that family would be trouble the moment I laid eyes on them.” She looked up from where she sat at the kitchen table with her husband. “There you are, Gabriel. I was going to send Karl over to tell your neighbors to turn down the music but it’s probably best if you do. I’ve read too many stories about confrontations with neighbors ending in violence.”
“That’s not a problem we have in Highland Falls, but I’ll go.” He went to the pantry and pulled out the treats he’d bought the boys for movie night. At Diane’s sharp intake of breath, he braced himself for a lecture on healthy eating and what sugar does to a child’s brain. He’d heard it before. But his father-in-law covered her hand with his, and instead Gabe’s mother-in-law simply pursed her lips.
“Guys, I’m just going over to the Mai—Mallory’s,” he corrected himself. “I won’t be long but go ahead and start the first episode without me.” Otherwise they’d be stuck making conversation with their grandmother, and who knew what she’d say.
He went out the side door. The moving van was gone, and so was Abby’s truck, but Mallory’s car was in the driveway. A definite concern given that the music was eardrum-shatteringly loud. He’d never tell his mother-in-law, but at that moment, he shared her concern that the Maitlands were trouble. Gabe banged on the door. After the third time with no response, he tried the knob. It turned, and he eased open the door.
“Anybody home?” he yelled into the house. It was dark except for a gleam of light from the back hall so he couldn’t make out much else than that they still had some major unpacking to do. Getting concerned now, he walked into the house. “Mallory, boys, are you home?”
The music shut off, and then, seconds later, Brooks and Oliver appeared in the living room.
“Where’s Mallory?” Gabe asked, shutting the door.
They shared a nervous glance, then Brooks pointed down the hall on his left. “In the loo.”
“Is she sick?” Gabe asked as he walked around piles of boxes to reach the boys. In his mind, she had to be at death’s door to have allowed her stepsons to play the music that loud.
“No. She said she was taking a bath.”
With a bottle of wine? he wondered. Not that he really blamed her but it certainly wouldn’t help her case if he were to find her passed out drunk in the bathtub. He nudged the boys out of the way and knocked on the closed door with light pooling beneath it. “Mallory?”
“She won’t be able to hear you,” Oliver said, and Gabe’s concern kicked up a notch.
“Why’s that?” he asked, fighting the urge to bust down the door.
“She has on her headphones.”
He didn’t know if it was Oliver’s British accent that made it sound like the kid thought Gabe was an idiot, but either way he was not a happy man. “They must be damn good ones for you to be playing your music that loud and for her not to shut you down.”
“Why would she? It’s still early.”
“Well, around here it’s just as much about consideration for your neighbors as it is time of day. You broke a noise ordinance. Next time you do, I’m throwing you in jail,” he said, because Diane had put him in a foul mood and this kid was testing more than his patience with his attitude.
Oliver looked like he was going to spout some smart-ass remark, but his brother tugged on his arm, then said, “I’m sorry, sir. We didn’t realize our music was that loud. We won’t do it again.” He held up his phone. “I’ll text Mallory. She has the phone with her in case we need her. She’s very responsible.”
Brooks reminded him of an older version of Teddy. They were the peacemakers in their families. And to a certain degree, like his boys, the threat that someone could come in and tear their family apart also hung over Oliver’s and Brooks’s heads. In their case, he was that someone.
“Thanks, Brooks. I appreciate it.” Sounds of water sloshing and then the thud of something hitting the floor came from the other side of the door. “Mallory, are you okay?”
“Yes. I’ll be right with you. I…ow. Ow, ow. Oh crap. No, no, no.”
“Mallory, what is it?” he asked through the door.
“I’m stuck.”
“What do you mean, you’re stuck?”
“My toe is stuck in the faucet.”
“Seriously? How is that even possible?”
“I don’t know. I guess I have a fat toe. I was trying to push up the lever to let the water out, and my foot slipped and my toe went up the spout and it won’t come out.”
“Try turning the water on high and see if the pressure causes it to release your toe.”
There was the sound of splashing, grunting, and then groaning. “I think it’s making it worse.”
“Okay, turn off the water. Do you have any butter or oil?”
“Yes, but I don’t know how that’s going to do me any good. I’m in here, and it’s out there.”
“Boys, do me a favor and find me some butter or oil in the kitchen.”
Brooks nodded and took off, while Oliver gave Gabe a narrow-eyed look before following his brother.
“Ah, Gabe, you’re not coming in here.”
“Unless you have a better idea, it looks like I am.” He hoped she did have a better idea. He might’ve fantasized about Mallory Maitland naked but the last thing he needed right now was having his fantasies about her come true. “Just cover yourself with a towel or something.”
His suggestion was met with more grunting and groaning, a couple of ows, and a son of a nutcracker.
He fought back a laugh. “Don’t hurt yourself trying to get your toe out. I promise I won’t look.” He bent over the lock. The boys arrived with a container of margarine just as Gabe got the door unlocked. “Are you decent? I’m coming in now,” he warned as the boys shared a look and then headed for their rooms.
“As decent as you can be lying naked in a bathtub.”
He paused with his hand on the knob. “Maybe I should get my mother-in-law.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Right.” The last thing they wanted was to give Diane the time and opportunity to figure out who Mallory was.
Gabe braced himself as he walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. The small space was warm and filled with the scent of lavender. He spared a glance for the woman in the tub. She was gorgeous, breathtakingly so. Her hair was piled on top of her head, and her skin was flushed and glowing. All of her skin except what was covered by a white towel was flushed and glowing. The towel was molded to her body, showing off her feminine curves and…
Face, look at her face. No, look at her legs. Not her legs, dumbass, her toes.
He dragged his forearm across his sweaty brow. “It’s warm in here, isn’t it?”
“Not really. I’m actually cold.”
He knew that already. The white towel wasn’t only molded to her incredible curves. It was practically see-through. He sat on the side of the tub with his back to her and removed the lid of the container he held.
Scooping out a glob of margarine, he placed the container on the floor. “So what were you listening to?” he asked as a way to distract himself from her shapely long leg and delicate foot with the sexy, siren-red painted toes.
“My book.”
He glanced at the bamboo bath tray on the tiled floor. There was a glass of red wine with a lipstick stain near the rim and her phone. No book. She must’ve been listening to one on her phone. If it was the same one she’d been listening to earlier today—the one they’d all gotten a preview of when she started up her car at the diner—maybe she was flushed for an entirely different reason. The thought had him shifting uncomfortably on the edge of the tub, and he nearly fell in.
“I’m sorry about the boys playing their music so loud. They won’t do it again, I promise. I know how bad me locking myself in the bathroom with a glass of wine and my book looks, especially when the house is in shambles. I can’t even promise it won’t happen again. Sometimes I just need a few minutes to decompress. And a glass of wine, a steamy bath, and a book help me unwind.”
So he’d been right about the book. Do not think about the book, he told himself when he began feeling a little flushed himself. Naturally, the book was all he could think about now. The book and the fact that Mallory had been married to a man she’d never had sex with. He swore at himself in his head for letting his mind go there and bent over her foot.
“We all need to de-stress once in a while,” he said in an attempt to alleviate her guilt and distract himself from thinking about the fact that he was slathering margarine on her feet and toes. Why the hell was he spreading it on her feet and toes? It was her big toe he had to unstick. Her big, fat toe, he thought in an effort to make himself stop admiring her sexy toes.
“What do you do to alleviate your stress?” she asked, sounding breathless.
Not surprisingly, the first thing that popped into his head was Have sex. It used to be how he relieved stress. His favorite way to relieve stress, actually. But he hadn’t had sex in three years. Almost as long as Mallory. Except, maybe she had. “Go for a run. Work on my car. Play football with the boys or binge-watch Netflix.”
She squirmed and released a tiny gasp. He looked down at his hands. He was massaging her calf. “I just, uh, thought that might help relax your foot.”
“That was a good idea. A very, very good idea,” she said with an audible swallow. He glanced at her, and she gave him a weak smile and fanned her face. “You’re right. It’s getting really warm in here.”
Their eyes met and held like they had that day last July when he first saw her in Highland Brew. His pulse began to race and the sound of his heartbeat pounded in his ears. And then he thought he heard one of his sons calling for him from a long way away.
Before he realized his son actually was calling for him, Teddy burst into the bathroom, and his eyes went wide. Mallory gave a panicked squeak, and Gabe let go of her leg like he was a vegan who’d been caught with a rack of BBQ ribs in his hands. Twisting at the waist, he made a grab for the shower curtain to yank it closed, but it slipped through his fingers like a greased pig, and he fell backward into the tub.
“I found him, Grandma!” Teddy dragged in a puff of his inhaler. Then he yelled, “He’s in the bathtub with Mallory.”