Married by High Noon Read online

  “We haven’t had time to plan a honeymoon,” Gabe said.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave Danny just yet,” Dana added.

  “You should go somewhere,” the minister said. “Why not take her to Harrisonburg to dinner?”

  “Then you could find a motel and stay overnight,” Salome added.

  “Young people in my day didn’t need no motels,” Solomon Trinket said. “A man had enough sass about him to take his woman anywhere they be.”

  Dana couldn’t believe she was standing in the midst of a sea of virtual strangers discussing arrangements for her honeymoon. She didn’t want to go to Harrisonburg for dinner or anything else. She wanted to get back to the house, make certain Danny was okay, then lock herself in the bedroom.

  They didn’t pose for any more pictures, but Gabe kept his arm around her. She supposed that was the smart thing to do, but it took every bit of control she had left to keep from moving away from him. Their bodies made constant contact, her breast against his chest, her hip against his hip, his arm across her back and around her waist. Every time Gabe moved the slightest bit—and he seemed to be in constant motion—their bodies rubbed together. It caused Dana to forget the ends of her sentences, to lose threads of conversation.

  Whenever this happened, Salome would wink at her and grin. The sight of that blue eyelid moving up and down, like a beach house awning in a hurricane, intensified the unreality of the past hour.

  Finally, when she’d begun to think the reception would never end, the ladies started gathering up their cakes, pies and melting ice cream.

  “You don’t have to hurry back,” Salome said. “I can sleep over with Danny.”

  “Danny stays with me,” Mrs. Purvis said.

  “We can both stay,” Salome said, giving Gabe a broad leer. “It’s the only way I’m going to get into Gabe’s bed.”

  Everyone laughed, no one harder than Salome. She pinched Gabe’s arm but turned to Dana.

  “You got a good one in his prime,” she said. “Don’t waste him. Most men around here go to seed real fast. Except my great-granddad. He’s just as randy as he was seventy years ago.”

  Dana wondered how she’d missed knowing Salome during the summers she visited her grandmother. She must have been a small child. But it was hard to imagine anyone like this woman had ever been a child. Despite her outlandish makeup, Dana felt drawn to this candid, brash, even rude, young woman. She just might be irreverent enough to befriend an outsider.

  “You better treat him real good,” Salome whispered in her ear. “After what his first wife did to him, we thought he’d never get married again.”

  Involuntarily Dana turned to look at Gabe. What could Salome mean by that?

  “I never thought to see you back in the shop today,” Sam said when Gabe arrived shortly after two o’clock.

  “We’re still behind on orders,” Gabe said.

  He hadn’t returned to the shop because orders had piled up or because he hadn’t worked more than a few hours since Dana had pulled into town yesterday.

  Yesterday. It seemed impossible so much could have happened in such a short time. Yet in less than twenty-four hours, he’d let this woman turn his life upside down.

  No. Circumstances stemming from Mattie’s death had caused the disruption of his life. Dana just happened to be caught up in the mess with him. If it had been anybody but Dana, he could have shrugged it off, done what he had to do and moved on.

  He would still move on—he didn’t have any choice—but things would never be quite the same. At least, he wouldn’t be. He had let himself become infatuated with a woman he’d once hurt badly. And he’d become that way despite the fact she didn’t want such a complication any more than he did.

  “It’s your wedding day. You ought to be celebrating with your wife,” Sam said.

  “We’re going to Harrisonburg this evening.”

  “You should be with her now.”

  “And watch her feed Danny then watch him take a nap?”

  “There’s other things you could be doing instead of watching that kid sleep.” Sam winked and gave him a broad grin.

  That’s exactly the reason Gabe had returned to the shop. He couldn’t get his mind off those other things. He didn’t understand that. He hadn’t thought about her in years.

  But as he moved to the sideboard he’d been sanding in preparation for the first coat of shellac, he realized that wasn’t true. Every letter from Mattie contained news of Dana. She appeared in more than half the pictures. He couldn’t help but notice that she’d become even more attractive with maturity. He used to think that had no more effect on him than looking at pictures of some supermodel or movie star.

  But seeing Dana in the flesh had changed all of that. Being married to her could turn into a razor-sharp, two-edged sword.

  “There’ll be time for that tonight,” Billy told Sam. “I’ll bet you five dollars we have to open up tomorrow.”

  “Hell, I’ve got better ways to lose my money than that,” Sam said, grinning and winking back.

  Both men broke up over their own jokes, but Gabe didn’t laugh. Thoughts of Dana’s body had been driving him crazy from the moment during the reception he’d taken her in his arms and kissed her. The feel of her body against his, her sweet mouth and soft lips, had destroyed the barrier he’d built in his mind against her attractiveness.

  Then that damned lawyer had arrived.

  His presence irritated Gabe, but it was the kisses, the standing for what seemed like hours with his arm around Dana, their bodies pressed close together, that had been his undoing. He could kill Salome and Reverend Pike for insisting they have a honeymoon.

  The mere sound of the word had nearly knocked the pins out from under him. It was inhuman to hold out to a man something Mother Nature had ordained he should want and need, while decency and morality decreed even more firmly he couldn’t have it. Gabe felt like a muddy field after a hard-fought football game, chewed up and hardly recognizable.

  But what bothered him the most—well maybe not the most, but it bothered him a lot—was the fact he could be so desperate to make love to a woman he’d told himself for years he didn’t like or respect.

  It wouldn’t be making love. It would be sex, plain and simple. And while he wasn’t opposed to that now and then, that wasn’t an option with Dana. If he ever once let down the barriers, he’d never again get the situation between him and Dana back the way it ought to be. The way it had to be.

  “Thank you for dinner,” Dana said to Gabe as they neared Iron Springs. “I didn’t know you could find such good food in Harrisonburg.”

  “A few people in the wilderness do know how to cook.”

  They’d both been snapping at each other, taking everything the wrong way. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “Actually, I think the cook moved here from Massachusetts. So I guess we can’t claim credit for him. One more point for New England.”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “What?”

  “Taking everything I say the wrong way.”

  “I don’t know how to take the things you say. I don’t know you. I only know you wouldn’t have come back to Iron Springs without being forced, that you don’t think much of us.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Then you admire us. Good, I guess, but I hope you won’t try to convince your friends to move to Iron Springs. The place won’t be the same.”

  “At least it would wake up. I think it’s been asleep longer than Brigadoon.”

  Now she’d done it. She’d disparaged his town. That was only a hair’s breadth less terrible than making rude comments about his relatives. “Look, I didn’t mean that, but you’ve been jumping on me all evening. If you thought you were going to hate being married to me so much, why did you do it?”

  “To keep Danny.”

  She knew that. He didn’t have to keep saying it from between gritted teeth

  “I don�
��t hate being married to you,” he said.

  “You sure had me fooled.”

  “I’m nervous about being married.”

  “Why? We’ve agreed on everything. I won’t go back on my promises.”

  “It’s not that.”

  “Then what is it?” She couldn’t picture Gabe being nervous. Even harder to think anything she had done could have caused it.

  “Maybe it’s having my routine upset. Having you and Danny in my house doesn’t really bother me, but I’m not used to it.”

  He wasn’t telling the truth. She had been the one to flounder about, rudderless and incapable of organizing her thoughts or controlling her feelings. He had known what he intended to do from the first.

  “It could be the lawyer,” she suggested. “I know Marshall warned us he was coming, but his showing up at the reception shocked me.”

  “It’s a shame you can’t jail a man for doing something like that.”

  At last they were in agreement on something. But as the car rolled across the tiny bridge and entered Iron Springs, she felt the tension between them escalate further.

  The entire evening had been tense. There had been times when she wondered how she’d managed to swallow food. When they got in the car to drive home, it became even worse. She wanted to get as far away from him as possible, but she forced herself to sit exactly in the middle of her seat.

  But even that had been too close. She didn’t need to touch Gabe to be acutely aware of his presence. Energy flowed from his body like light from fire. She’d dated a couple of men like that, but never one with the power to attract that Gabe possessed.

  “I wonder how your mother and Danny got along,” she said. When they left for Harrisonburg, she’d thought she’d be worried about Danny all night. Though she had thought of him frequently, her concern lacked the urgency she’d expected. Elton had agreed to come over. Danny showed signs of hero worship when it came to Elton.

  “I’m sure they got along fine,” Gabe said. “Ma has a knack for dealing with children. She loves them, and they love her right back.”

  Love had a way of overturning barriers. It was hard to distrust someone you loved or who loved you. You just naturally sensed you’d be safe with them. Odd she should feel perfectly safe with Gabe in one sense, practically terrified of him in another.

  No, it’s yourself you’re afraid of.

  That didn’t help. She trusted Gabe to keep his word. She didn’t know about herself.

  They pulled into the driveway. She got out of the car ahead of Gabe.

  “We ought to go in together,” he said. “The way you sprinted for the door, somebody might think we’d just had a fight.”

  “I’m worried about Danny.”

  She made herself wait. It felt funny, his opening the door for her, allowing her to enter first, coming into a hall that practically had his name stenciled on the walls. She could almost feel the house sending her an unspoken message. Alien territory. Keep out!

  Mrs. Purvis came out into the hall from the den before they reached the door. The sight of her smiling, cheerful face banished some of the tension that had permeated the evening. No world filled with people as uncomplicated and straightforward as Gabe’s mother could be entirely out of balance.

  “Did you have a nice time?” she asked.

  “How’s Danny?” Dana asked. “Where is he?”

  “He’s asleep.”

  “When did he go to bed?” It hurt a little to know he’d gone to sleep without her reading to him. Another piece of the fabric of her life shredded. By the time Gabe divorced her, there wouldn’t be anything left.

  “I put him down at seven-thirty just after Elton left. He fretted a little at first. He missed you, but I read to him until he went to sleep.”

  She ought not be grateful that missing her made Danny unhappy, but she was selfish enough to feel better that he did. “I’ll just go check on him.”

  “I’ll see Ma home,” Gabe said.

  She nodded and climbed the stairs to Danny’s room. It gave her an odd feeling to enter the unfamiliar room. She had known every inch of Danny’s old room, could put her hand on anything she wanted even in the dark. Light from the street lamp—one of the few signs Iron Springs had entered the twentieth century—illuminated all but the darkened corners of his room.

  Danny slept on his side, his teddy bear clutched lightly to his chest. He had his thumb in his mouth. He always did that when he was upset. Being very gentle so she wouldn’t wake him, Dana pulled it out of his mouth. The released pressure caused a tiny pop. Danny stirred restlessly. He hugged his teddy tighter, pulled his knees up higher.

  She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. His skin felt so soft and warm. He looked heartbreakingly angelic.

  “He looks real peaceful.”

  Dana started, took a noisy breath. She turned to find Gabe at her side. “You scared me half to death,” she whispered. “I didn’t hear you come up.”

  “I didn’t want to wake Danny.”

  She still couldn’t imagine why she hadn’t heard him. Though he didn’t carry any fat on his tall, well-muscled body, he had to weigh more than two hundred pounds. She couldn’t believe that not a single board in the wood floors squeaked.

  “How did you get back so fast?”

  “I never left. Ma took my car.” He looked down at Danny. “He looks so little and helpless.”

  “He is little and helpless.”

  “It didn’t feel that way when he wanted the train.”

  “Never come between a child and his toys. Especially after they become men.” Now she was making the unnecessary needling remarks. “We’d better go before we wake him.”

  They tiptoed back into the hall. Gabe’s shoes made no noise. Hers did.

  “I want to leave the door open in case he wakes up,” she said.

  “You’d better close it until we’re ready for bed. Sounds travel in this old house.”

  All the tension of the evening came hurtling back with a vengeance. The notion of getting undressed and slipping into bed collided with the realization Gabe would be doing the same thing in an adjacent room. The resulting explosion sent her temperature through the roof.

  “I have only one bathroom upstairs,” Gabe said. “You’d better go first.”

  Chapter Nine

  Dana didn’t move.

  “I can go first,” Gabe said.

  “That’s probably better,” she said. “I’ll probably take longer.”

  “I shower and shave at night.”

  “You go first, anyway.”

  A little while later she wasn’t sure she’d made the right decision. The sound of water running in the shower brought images of Gabe’s naked body to mind. Before the water stopped running, she’d turned him into a cross between Michelangelo’s David and one of the chariot drivers in Neptune’s Fountain at the Palace of Versailles. The image of bulging muscles, powerful torso and classic beauty—all stripped of inhibiting clothing—made her so hot she couldn’t sit still.

  But she could do nothing but wait for him to finish. She’d gone through her night bag twice, rearranged everything, trying to keep her mind off Gabe, but she couldn’t banish the image of him standing before the sink, still unclothed, shaving. The play of muscles across his back, the slimming of his torso to his waist, the swell of his bottom, the contour of his powerful thighs—

  She got up with a muttered curse. She had to think of something else, or she would melt into a puddle right there.

  Or jump Gabe when he came out of the bathroom.

  The thought startled her so, she sat back down. Had she forgotten the past so thoroughly she could actually contemplate getting into bed with him—worse, want to go to bed with him?

  Yes…and no.

  That answer didn’t help. Her body lusted after him, but her mind said he was incapable of seeing past her outer shell. Somewhere in the space in between, her emotions wandered lost and confused, desperately trying to bring about
a compromise. If she could have foreseen the events of the past thirty-six hours, she’d have escaped with Danny to her mother in Switzerland and dared Gabe or Lucius to find her.

  She almost laughed aloud. It mortified her mother to admit she had a thirty-year-old daughter, especially an unmarried one. But she would have had an apoplectic fit if Dana had showed up with Danny.

  “Your turn. I left the window open to clear out some of the steam.”

  Dana started violently.

  “Are you all right?”

  “You startled me.”

  “You acted like you were scared to death.”

  “I was just thinking.”

  He looked doubtful, but she didn’t intend to explain. She felt at a major disadvantage already.

  “I’ve got space laid out for a bathroom between this room and the next,” he said. “But with just me living here, I didn’t see going to the bother of putting it in.”

  “That’s no problem. It’s not as though I’m in a hurry to go anywhere.”

  She just wanted him to leave. He probably considered himself modestly dressed. But a bathrobe open at the throat and barely reaching his knees wasn’t nearly enough for her. She thought the Islamic rule of covering their women from head to foot ought to be applied to men like Gabe.

  “Are you sure you have everything you need?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you know where everything is. I can show you if—”

  “It’s a bathroom, Gabe. We have them in New York. I’ll figure it out.”

  A strained smiled lightened his expression. “If there’s nothing else, I’m going to bed. I get up at six-thirty. Want me to wake you?”

  No. She wanted him out of the house before she woke. “I suppose you’d better. There must be things we need to talk about.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know. I’m too tired to think. Just wake me up.”

  He lingered. She didn’t move. She didn’t want to have to walk past him, to come so near she could touch him. She might do it.

  “If there’s nothing else…”

  “I can’t think of anything,” she said.