Stranger in Town (Dundee, Idaho #5)(55)
Author: Brenda Novak

“No,” she said out of stubborn resistance. She didn’t care if it was a lie. She resented the intrusion. Russ certainly had his nerve calling Patti after what he’d done last night. Fortunately, Hannah knew he didn’t really have any proof, except that Gabe had visited with a pot of flowers.

“Gabe dropped by to talk to Kenny about the game on Friday. The flowers are a simple thank you for cooking for him,” she explained. “They don’t hold any special significance. Whatever else Russ told you—”

“I haven’t talked to Russ,” Patti interrupted. “Deborah Wheeler and I walk together every morning. She just said—”

Suddenly, Hannah knew that the car she’d almost hit coming out of Gabe’s driveway yesterday belonged to Deborah. That was why Hannah had felt a spark of recognition even though she hadn’t seen the driver’s face.

Dropping her head in her hand, she rubbed her temples while Patti finished exactly as she expected “—she saw you at Gabe’s cabin yesterday.”

Hannah remembered what Shirley and the others had said about Deborah in the beauty shop and knew it had to be true. Why else would Deborah be skulking around Gabe’s remote cabin? “I went to pick up my dishes.”

“Hannah, she saw you in Gabe’s backyard without a shirt.”

Oh God… “She must be mistaken. That…She couldn’t have—”

“She did.”

The front door slammed and Kenny appeared. “Who is it?” he said curiously.

“Patti.” Hannah kept her tone as light as possible, but her stomach had tightened into a hard ball.

“Is that Brent?” Patti asked.

“Kenny.”

“Does he know?”

Recognizing the futility of trying to keep up the charade, Hannah closed her eyes and let her breath seep through her lips. “No.”

“I take it you don’t want him to know.”

“Of course not.” Clearing her throat, Hannah looked up at Kenny again. “Would you mind turning off the sprinklers for me?”

“You’re done watering? Already?”

She wasn’t, but she needed another moment alone, so she nodded.

“Okay,” he said and left.

She turned her back to the rest of the house and lowered her voice, just in case Brent was starting to stir in his room down the hall. “Gabe and I are adults, Patti. What we do isn’t anyone’s business, least of all Deborah Wheeler’s.”

“I agree. What she did was nasty, horrible. But she saw him buy condoms yesterday, Hannah. He’s famous and he’s crippled and he’s been out of circulation for three years. Of course a purchase like that would grab her attention.”

“She didn’t go out to his place because of mere curiosity, Patti. She went there because she has a crush on him.”

“So?” Patti responded. “Most of the women in this town have fantasized about Gabe at some point. It’s not Deborah I’m worried about. I don’t want you to be hurt.”

“You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Hannah, I know things have been…strained between us since the divorce. Because I care about you and my brother, I sometimes feel torn in two. I can’t help wishing you could patch up your differences and be a family again.”

Hannah ran her tongue over her swollen lip. “I can’t, Patti. I don’t love him.” She could have added that she’d never loved him, that he’d hit her across the face just last night. But she swallowed the words. It wouldn’t matter. Patti would find some way to excuse him.

“At least he’s willing to love you, Hannah,” she said. “At least he’s willing to be a husband and a father.”

“Some love,” Hannah grumbled, but Patti didn’t seem to hear her. She was too busy making her point.

“Gabe’s not the type to settle down. He was aloof before the injury—now he’s even worse. Besides, he could have almost anyone—despite the wheelchair.”

“You’re saying he would never settle for me.” Patti’s words hurt almost as much as her brother’s blow.

“It’s not you, Hannah. You’re a wonderful woman, and you’re very attractive. Almost any single man in this town would be happy to be with you—any regular guy, that is. But this is Gabe we’re talking about. You’re a thirty-seven-year-old divorcée with two children. And have you forgotten that you’re the one who put him in that chair?”

“How could I ever forget that?”

“Exactly. Do you think, even if you got together with him, that it would last? Resentment would have to crop up at some point. What are the chances that you’d be able to hold on to him?”

Next to nil, Hannah thought. She doubted she could catch him in the first place. But that didn’t stop her heart from wanting…

“Hannah?” Patti said when she didn’t respond.

“I’m still here,” she replied.

“I’m sorry to be so blunt, but I don’t want to see you suffer. And I don’t want Russ or Kenny and Brent to suffer.”

“Right.”

Kenny came back in and stood in the doorway, watching her curiously.

“I’ve got to go,” Hannah said numbly.

“That’s it?” Patti asked.

“What else can I say?”

There was a long silence. “I’ll call you later.”

Hannah wished she wouldn’t. She didn’t want to talk to Patti or Russ or even Violet. “Okay.”

“What did Aunt Patti want?” Kenny asked as she hung up the phone.

Hannah studied the marks the fight had left on her son’s young, handsome face. “She thinks I should get back with your father.”

“Why?”

“So everyone can be happy again, I guess.”

He frowned at her response.

“Don’t you agree with her?” she asked. She knew in the past Kenny and Brent had both hoped she and Russ would reconcile and thought he’d probably tell her the same thing.

But Kenny surprised her. “No,” he said softly. “You deserve to be happy, too.”

WHEN GABE HEARD the bell, he flipped off the football tapes he’d been watching and followed a barking Lazarus to the door. It had to be Hannah. He hadn’t heard from her all day.

But he should’ve checked the window. When he opened the door, he found a woman on his front porch, but it wasn’t Hannah—it was his sister, Reenie.