Small-Town Moms (10 page)

G
eorgetta McKennon cocked her sandy-blond head to the side and eyed Gabe suspiciously. She was alert since she knew he only called her Georgetta when he was really unhappy about something she'd done. “
Gabe,
are you going to step out of the way and let me see who you're hiding on the other side of that door?”

He was looking over his shoulder at her, blocking her vision, though he knew it was a losing battle. His mother wasn't much bigger than a powder keg but just as explosive as they came. “I'd rather not,” he grunted. “But since you're responsible for her being here, I guess I have no choice.”

His mother's eyes lit with enthusiasm, and she clapped her hands together. “Wonderful! Olivia is here,” she gushed—actually gushed—as she swept past him. She proceeded to completely ignore his bad mood by greeting Olivia like she was her long-lost best friend.

“What a pleasure to have you here.” Pink with excitement, Georgetta bypassed a handshake and wrapped her arms around the woman. “This is wonderful. Just wonderful!”

Looking a bit overwhelmed, Olivia stepped back, smiling warmly. “I'm glad to be here.”

The genuineness of her smile hit him in the gut, and instantly Gabe felt his hope sinking—no way was he going to get his way here. Nope…his mother had taken sides against him in this situation, and that wasn't good. It was also wholly unexpected.

“I've got your rooms ready, and we are so excited you are here to stay with us for a few weeks.”

“Rooms? Stay!” Gabe rambled as his temper shot up.
“Weeks.”
His mother had been busier than he realized—how could she have invited Olivia and her daughter to spend a few weeks with them on his ranch—in his house? “She isn't staying here.”

He put his foot down.

“Yes, she is.”

“Mother.
Georgetta—
”

Georgetta cut him off with an exasperated look. He'd received that look many times growing up. It was the “I've-taught-you-better-than-that” look.

“It's okay,” Olivia interjected, giving him a glare of her own. “We can stay in town.”

Good. He'd rather her not stay at all—but staying in Mule Hollow was better than nothing.

“You will do no such thing.” Georgetta shot him a stern look. “This house is plenty big, and I invited you. You are my guests.” She pointed toward Olivia's truck. “
You,
grab Olivia's suitcases,” she ordered Gabe. To Olivia she spoke softer. “Let's get Trudy out of that truck. Wes will be out any minute—”

“You will say nothing to Wes about this. And you won't, either,” he demanded to Olivia.

“I wouldn't think of saying anything to hurt Wesley—
Wes,” she corrected. “But surely he knows about his mother.”

Georgetta gave a quick nod. “He knows about her, but he never knew her. She—”

“She didn't hang around long enough to hold him at the hospital.” Gabe had no forgiveness in his heart for Dawn. She'd been tired of pretending that she had any kind of love in her heart by the sixth month, and when the baby was born she'd refused to even look at Wes. How did a woman not look at her son?

Olivia's eyes widened. “She didn't hold him? I don't understand.”

“Join the club.”

“That's enough, Gabe. Olivia, we'll talk about this more later.” Trudy had gotten out of the truck and was walking up the steps. She didn't look any more thrilled at being here than he was that they were here.

The girl resembled Wes if Gabe looked hard enough. They had the same face shape, same eyes. Except Trudy looked guarded right now. Or just plain uncomfortable like him.

“Trudy,” Olivia said. “This is Georgetta and Gabe McKennon.”

“Hello,” Georgetta said, totally enthralled with the situation that she ignored the clear signs of trouble here. “I'm so excited that Wes has a cousin! You are lovely. How old are you?”

Trudy's gaze slid from Gabe's mother to him, pausing on him before she looked down. “I'm ten.”

Olivia placed her arm around Trudy's shoulders. “She just had a birthday.”

“I'm sure that was fun.” Georgetta smiled.

Gabe listened and tried to process the fact that these
strangers were supposed to be staying in his home. His mother lived here, too, and had a right to invite whomever she wanted to stay. But still… Wes strode out of the house, breaking into Gabe's thoughts. His son gave a wide smile the instant he saw Olivia and Trudy. Gabe felt the situation tilting their way.

“Hi,” Wes said, older than his four years. “I don't know you.”

Olivia chuckled, bent down and held out her hand. “I'm Olivia and this is my daughter, Trudy.”

“I'm Wes McKennon.” He shook their hands, beaming—Wes was a friendly little guy and had never met a stranger. Gabe felt his heart twist with love and pride at how he proclaimed who he was. This was his son. He loved him more than anything. “I've got a horse. You want to see him?” he asked Trudy, who looked startled but nodded.

“That's a great idea,” Georgetta said. “I'll take the children to look at Pony Boy. You two can get better acquainted, and you can show Olivia where the guest rooms are.”

It was a clear day in May, but Gabe felt the storm of the season rolling in around him as he watched his mother follow the kids. Trudy looked back at them as she walked away; her troubled eyes connected with his and his unease grew.

“I have a right to meet my nephew.”

Gabe wasn't a mean guy, just protecting what was his, but even he couldn't ignore the woman's confusion. “Look, I'm sorry I'm coming off so hard. But this is my son and I don't want him hurt. He's beginning to ask questions about his mother. Questions that tell me he's
realizing there's a hole in his life where she's supposed to be.”

“I don't see where that concerns me. What about your mother?”

“My mother is great. But he understands that she is his grandmother. The other boys have younger mothers. He's noticing. You're his aunt, and I just don't want to confuse him any more than he already is.” Not to mention at some point Wes was going to also learn he had a sister. Gabe had only recently located Lilly but hadn't had a chance to make contact. And frankly, hadn't been sure if he should.

“I'm here to get to know him. Not to harm him. If that's what you're afraid of, you can relax. My sister was about his age the last time I ever saw her.” She swallowed hard and blinked as if to ward off tears. “I just need to know him.”

Oh, no…not tears. Gabe shifted uncomfortably, trying to figure out what to say or do.

She met and held his gaze straight on, all brightness that could be tears gone. “Don't get nervous, Gabe. I don't cry.”

He locked his spine. “I wasn't nervous.”

“Oh, yes you were. I saw terror in your eyes.”

Terror
. “I wasn't terrified.”

She gave a husky chuckle. “Yes you were. But most men are terrified of crying women. So relax. Around me you're safe.”

 

This was far more uncomfortable than she'd dreamed it would be. Olivia couldn't figure out why Gabe was so hostile about her being here. She was determined to make the best of it. She was determined to hold on to
the joy she'd felt upon finding out about Wes. She followed Gabe down the hall of the spacious ranch house. He carried their large suitcases and led the way to her and Trudy's rooms. She couldn't help but wonder about the man her sister had fallen in love with. He seemed hard…but then, he was probably just feeling protective of Wes. After all, he didn't know her. Then again she knew she wasn't a threat unless he wasn't being a good father. She got the feeling, despite their differences, that Gabe McKennon was a great father.

She liked that. Justin had been a great father, too. He would have protected Trudy from anything he thought had potential to hurt her. Sadness filled her momentarily, as it always did when she thought about living life without Justin. It had been three years since he'd been killed in a boating accident, and she was making progress. She'd filled her life with all kinds of things to keep her busy. Homeschooling Trudy kept her fairly busy—but it wasn't enough to take up all the hours in a day. She'd begun volunteering every leftover spare moment to some sort of organization so she wouldn't feel the loneliness that tried to overtake her when she wasn't moving.

She was the head of the women's group, the secretary of her Sunday school department, a member of the landscape crew and the hospital auxiliary, a volunteer at the senior citizen center—and they were a busy, busy group. Anyone needed a volunteer, she was it! You name the organization, she was there.

She hated to admit it, but after clearing her calendar for the next few weeks and heading out here to Mule Hollow, she'd actually felt a sense of freedom. There still remained, even with the gruff cowboy so adamantly
against her being here, a sense of relief for the break from responsibilities.

“Here they are. Take your pick,” Gabe said, stepping into the second room he'd indicated. The rooms were neat, decorated in Southwestern décor like the rest of the house. The furniture was rustic, bold like the man in front of her. She had to admit that she could see why her sister would have been attracted to Gabe before she fell in love with him. The man was easy on the eyes. Not that she'd noticed that anymore. So many of her friends had tried to fix her up in the past two years. This year had been the worst. The busyness of her life had not only warded off the loneliness she felt, but it also gave her more excuses for not dating. Looking at Gabe, she couldn't help seeing the craziness of her situation. She volunteered to keep the loneliness at bay, and yet she had no desire to date someone to try and take that edge off. She wasn't going to say she would never remarry. She was only thirty…but she wasn't looking. She was searching for a connection to her sister right now.

“The house is wonderful,” she said. “I love the décor. Did Dawn help decorate?” She didn't miss the flicker of anger in Gabe's eyes, and she almost wished she hadn't asked the question.

“Dawn wasn't here enough to decorate. This is what the place looked like when I married her. Look, I have work to get to. I obviously can't stop you from being around Wes since my mother set this ball rolling without consulting me. So I'm just going to have to trust you to take care.”

Olivia started to tell him that she wouldn't dare do anything to hurt Wes, but Gabe didn't give her the
chance. The man said his piece and then was gone. Turned on his boot heel and strode down the hall.

She stepped into the hallway and watched him march out the front door. His boots clomped on the porch as he went. The screen door slammed, and within seconds she heard his truck door slam, too.

Of all the rude, hardheaded men she'd ever encountered, Gabe McKennon topped the list!

G
abe wasn't sure why he went to town instead of the pasture, where he could have been alone. Finding solitude probably would have been the smart thing. But his truck had turned left, and here he was, pulling up in front of Pete's Feed and Seed.

Like the rest of town, the feed store was a colorful sight. Bright yellow with green trim, it stood out almost—
almost
—as much as the outlandish pink hair salon across the street. If it wasn't for the array of colors, Mule Hollow would have resembled an Old West town the way it stood out on the horizon like a beacon. Of course, it was far brighter than any place he'd ever seen, each clapboard building painted a different color.

Wes was an old Western movie buff at the ripe old age of four. He'd asked Gabe if there were men with guns hiding up on the roofs the first time he saw the vividly painted town. Gabe smiled as he thought about Wes looking for outlaws on the rooftops. His son had an imagination and would hide behind the green picnic tables sitting on the plank sidewalks and pretend he was shooting the bad guys off the roofs.

Not today though.

Today Gabe was buying supplies by himself—nothing that really couldn't have waited. He'd just needed to get out of the house before he said something to either his mother or to Olivia Dancer that he might regret.

What
had his mother been thinking? The question dug in like a thorn in his side, even now. When Dawn left the hospital and he'd had to bring Wes home by himself, his mother had never faltered. She'd left her life in the small town he'd grown up in and moved in with them. Recently, when he'd relocated to Mule Hollow, she'd moved right along with them. She'd been a life-saver for him and Wes…

But she'd stepped over a boundary here.

She'd forgotten that Wes was his son, and if he hadn't wanted Dawn's family involved in Wes's life, then that was the way it should be.

But she'd given up so much for Wes and she was, for all intents and purposes, his mother. She'd raised him right alongside Gabe. He wouldn't have been able to do it without her. So why was he so aggravated with her?

Because Dawn had been a piece of work like nothing he'd ever seen before nor wanted to see, or be involved with, again. The last person he wanted messing up his comfortable life was her sister. It didn't matter that they hadn't grown up around each other; Dawn's hurtful ways could have been genetic. It scared him to think there was a chance that Wes would take after his mother. It scared him to think there was nothing he could do to change the inevitable.

But he didn't like to think that way. Wes was sweet, kind and loving…and as open and honest as they came, even at his early age. Surely that would remain. One
thing was certain—Gabe planned to do whatever it took to keep his influences positive. He'd thought Georgetta was on the same page with him on that, but apparently he'd been wrong.

“Yor shor mad at somethin',” Applegate Thornton said, striding out of the feed store, looking like he was on a mission. Gabe was used to seeing App down at Sam's diner, sitting with his buddy battling it out on the checkerboard. Even as aggravated as Gabe was, it struck him as funny that the dour man would ask him if he was mad “or somethin'.”

“I've got something on my mind, App.” App was hard of hearing so Gabe spoke loudly.

“It looks serious, that's for shor—it ain't nothin' bad about yor momma, is it?”

Well, it was, but he wasn't sharing that with App. If he did, the whole county might hear about it. “I just have an unexpected houseguest,” he said instead. Everyone was going to know about Olivia and Trudy staying with them anyway.

“Yup, been wonderin' when she was gonna get here.”

Gabe had been about to walk through the door into Pete's, but now he stopped practically midstep. “What did you say?”

A bushy brow shot up. “Yor houseguest. We been wonderin' when she was gonna show up.”

Storm clouds had receded a little just by putting distance between him and what was going on at home. But now they rolled in over him again with a vengeance. “You knew I was having visitors?”

“Shor we did. The women been yabberin' about it down at the diner.”

About him? About Olivia? How did they know about them? His mother had not only invited Olivia and Trudy to the house, but she'd been telling “the women” about it behind his back. He knew App was talking about the three older ladies in town—Norma Sue, Esther Mae and Adela.

“Why was my mother discussing Olivia with them?” He asked the question before his good sense could kick back into gear.

“Oh, believe me, they had plenty ta discuss. They ain't known as the matchmakin' posse because they don't talk. Or didn't ya know that? I forget you ain't been here all that long.”

Gabe groaned. Surely not. “What exactly did they discuss
after
my mother joined them?”

Enjoying this far more than Gabe was, App grinned mischievously, yanked his thin shoulders back and drawled, “Well, Gabe, that ain't rocket science—they was discuss'n
you
.”

 

“This is Duke.” Wes sat down on the wooden steps on the side of the barn and tugged the cinnamon-splashed puppy into his arms. The dog was as tall as he was sitting down and filled his lap. He grinned over Duke's shoulder. “He's a doozy, ain't he!”

“Yes, he is.” Olivia petted the puppy's head. “He looks like a good doozy though.”

“Oh, he is.”

Trudy was standing over near the pen, watching the horse in the stall. Wes scrambled out from beneath Duke and hurried to stand beside her. “You wanna pet him? Here, see.” He reached inside the gate, and the horse instantly came to have his nose rubbed. “He likes it.”

Trudy stepped close and hesitated, then reached and petted the horse's neck. Olivia smiled at the sight. Trudy loved books about horses, so this might be good for her, despite the fact that she hadn't wanted to leave her friends to come here.

“Would you like to grab a glass of tea and talk for a minute?” Georgetta asked as Wes began chattering away to Trudy.

“I think that would be wonderful.” Olivia had been having fun getting to know Wes, but there was no denying that she needed to find out what was going on behind the scenes. “We're going up to the house, Trudy. Will you watch Wes?”

Trudy cut uncertain eyes her way but nodded reluctantly. Trudy had good moments and bad ones. This wasn't the best of moments, but it also wasn't the worst.

Olivia followed Georgetta back to the house at a fast clip. Georgetta might be short, but she wasn't slow. In any sense of the word.

“Wes is a great little boy. My sister would have been very pleased.”

Georgetta looked troubled. “One would hope she would be. But, I hate to say it—I honestly don't know what your sister would have felt.”

This was too confusing. Olivia couldn't fathom the picture being insinuated about her sister. Or their attitudes.

“What do you want to know?”

“I need an explanation. Something to help me understand all of this.”

Kind eyes met Olivia's and she braced herself for what she might hear in the next few minutes.

“Start with Gabe. What is so bad that he didn't want me here? Why did you tell me he knew I was coming when he didn't know?”

Georgetta stopped at the door of the house. “First, he'll get over being upset. He was wrong for not wanting you to come.”

“Yes, I think he was. Still, this is going to be awkward. It might be better if I get a room at that bed-and-breakfast we discussed when you first called me.”

“Oh, no, you will not! This is my home, too, and you are Wes's aunt. You'll stay here. Gabe is just, well, he's just concerned for Wes. He's afraid—” She halted and gave a caring smile. “He's afraid you might be like your sister. I'm sorry, that sounds horrible. Come on into the kitchen.”

Her words shocked Olivia, but not so much today as they would have the day before.

“Have a seat. I'll get the tea.” Georgetta indicated the large oak table in the corner.

It was a beautiful kitchen with tile floors and granite countertops. Bright sunshine glistened through the large windows. She could imagine lots of good meals shared by the family here in this kitchen. She was disappointed knowing that her sister hadn't helped with any of the decorating. Even more disturbed by the picture she was piecing together of her sister. What had been wrong with Dawn? How could she have walked out of the hospital and never held her son?

Georgetta looked sympathetic. “I guess you're realizing that things weren't great between your sister and Gabe.” She set a glass of tea in front of Olivia and then sat across from her.

“It's pretty apparent.”

“He was really hurt and angry… I take that back. I think he got over the hurt fairly early in the marriage. I don't know everything, just that things were wrong.”

“Did she just get up and leave the hospital?” She still couldn't fathom such a thing.

Georgetta nodded, her eyes growing sad. “I couldn't believe it. I was there, and that day at the hospital when the baby was born, I realized things weren't right. I'd gotten the feeling when talking to Gabe on the phone, but he wasn't one to tell me much about his personal life. But when she left that next morning, took Lilly with her, it couldn't be denied. I'm sorry for you to hear these things, especially since Dawn is dead. I know my son is no saint, but it's safe to say Dawn had problems.”

Olivia took a sip of tea, hoping to ease the tightness in her throat. “I can't understand all of this. I told Gabe that I hadn't seen my sister since she was about Wes's age. I've thought about her over the years so many times and wished I knew where she was. I prayed that both my sisters were safe and in good families like I was. God really blessed me with the beautiful family who adopted me. And then Maegan finding me was such an unexpected gift.”

“I can't imagine what you went through being separated from your sisters. And you're a widow, too. You've had a hard life. But it seems you've been strong.”

Olivia smiled. “God has given me strength. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. My mom and dad were such great Christian witnesses to me. Still are.” She didn't add that they had a little trouble letting go before her wedding, and then also after Justin's death. But she was fiercely independent and had become more so since losing Justin.

“I hope Gabe will relax. I'm sorry he's been hurt.”

Georgetta reached across the table, laid her hand across Olivia's arm and squeezed. “My prayer is that this works out for the best for all of you. Maybe you are here to help heal some open wounds in my son's heart.”

“Wait, I'm hoping that things ease between us for the good of Wes, but I don't know what I would do to help heal any wounds.” She wasn't sure what exactly Georgetta was thinking, and she wasn't ready to lay all the blame for the bad marriage on her sister. From what she'd seen of Gabe so far, he was a rude, hardheaded man with the basic manners of an adolescent—and that wasn't being fair to adolescents.

For all she knew, her sister might have had a reason for her behavior. Not that Olivia could even begin to understand walking out on a child, but there could have been extenuating circumstances. And if there were, then while she was here Olivia planned to dig them out. And if at all possible, she would be able to see and share with Wes something good about his mother.

She hated to tell Georgetta, but she wasn't here to heal Gabe's heart; she was here for Wes. It was Wes's heart she was concerned with.
Not
Gabe McKennon's.