hugely. He wore a plain, snug-fitting white T-shirt and faded jeans.
Gina swallowed hard. Okay. Yeah. He was handsome. At least, if you didn’t look into the abyss that seemed to live permanently behind his eyes.
“How’s everyone this morning?” he asked in a forced, cheerful tone.
Lacey pointed at Gina with her coffee cup. “She offered to cook breakfast.”
“Sounds good to me,” Buck said. “I’ve got comp time at the clinic from last night, so I’m gonna work on the house today. Could use some fuel, for sure.”
Lacey waved a hand toward the refrigerator and stove. “Knock yourself out,” she said to Gina.
Gina shifted Bobby and walked over to Lacey. “Any chance you could hold him? His name’s Bobby, by the way.”
Lacey scooted away so fast that the chair leg scraped along the freshly polished wood floor, leaving a raw scratch. “No, thanks. I... My hands are full with Mr. Whiskers.”
Buck was there in a fraction of a second, concern all over his face. “I’ll take him.”
Gina cocked her head at the two of them, curious. She’d never met a woman who wasn’t charmed by her son, especially when he was newly fed and changed, cooing and smiling.
Buck, on the other hand, held Bobby like a pro, bouncing him on his knee and tickling his tummy to make him laugh.
Gina rummaged in the refrigerator and found eggs, some Havarti cheese and green onions. It was enough to make a good-tasting scramble. Thick slices of bread went alongside, and she found some apples to cut up as a garnish.
When she placed the plates in front of the two of them a few minutes later, they both looked surprised, and when Lacey tasted the eggs, she actually smiled. “Not bad.”
“I like to cook.” Gina cleared her throat. “Is there any work you need done today? I have to find a way to get some gas out to my car, but other than that, I’d love to spend a few hours working around here in exchange for your letting me stay last night.”
Lacey waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. This breakfast is payment enough.”
“Truth is,” Gina said, her face heating, “I might need to impose on you for another night. So we could consider it advance payment.”
The other woman studied her thoughtfully. “Can you handle an honest answer?”
“Of course.”
“I have a hard time trusting someone who can’t afford a hotel but can afford shoes like that.” She gestured at Gina’s designer loafers.
Gina looked down at the soft leather and felt a moment’s shallow regret. She wouldn’t be wearing shoes like this anymore, that was for sure.
“She could work this morning while I’m here,” Buck interjected. “We need cleanup help, and anyone could do that. And this afternoon, she can work on getting her car and whatever else she needs to do.”
Gina gripped the edge of her chair for courage. Asking for favors wasn’t her favorite thing, not by a long shot, and she hated pushy people in general. But for Bobby, she’d do whatever was necessary. “What do you think about our staying tonight?”
Lacey’s jaw hardened. “I’m not going to throw you out into the street right away,” she said, “but you need to figure things out. Surely there’s people you can call, things you can do. I don’t want this to become permanent. The last thing either Buck or I needs is a stranger with a baby around here. You’re poison to us right now.”
Gina recoiled, shocked by the harsh words.
Buck held up a hand. “Lacey—”
“What? You know that’s why you had a nightmare last night. Because she looks like Ivana and she’s got a kid. It’s too much for either of us.”
“I’m sorry,” Gina said, her heart going out to them. Underneath Lacey’s brusque exterior was real pain that kept peeking through.
As for Buck, he’d looked down at his plate, but the set of his shoulders told her he wasn’t happy. Something had happened to him, maybe to both of them, and Gina couldn’t help wondering about it.
“I’ll help this morning, if you’ll allow it,” she said, “and then work on doing what I can this afternoon with my car so I can move on. Maybe there’s a police officer who can run me out to where it is. I’ll need to take some gas.”
And she’d need to rely on God, because twenty dollars wasn’t going to buy much gas or baby food, and it was all she had.
* * *
Buck heaved a sigh as he put the last stroke of paint on the breakfast-room wall. Having Gina here was even more difficult than he’d expected.
She worked hard, that was for sure. She’d single-handedly cleaned one of the guest rooms that had been finished but a mess. Carried out vinyl sheeting and masking tape, swept up nails, scrubbed the floor on her hands and knees, polished the bathroom fixtures to a shine. Now she was removing the tape from the area he’d painted yesterday.
The only time she stopped working was when Bobby cried. Then she’d slip off, he assumed to nurse the baby or to change his diaper. She’d put together a makeshift playpen from a blanket and pillows, and he crawled around it and batted at a couple of toys she had in her diaper bag.
She was resourceful, able to compartmentalize in a way few women he’d known could do. Certainly, in a way Ivana hadn’t been able to do.
Unfortunately, in other ways, it was way too much like having Ivana around. Some of their best times had been working around the house together with the baby nearby. They’d felt like a happy family then.
So having Gina and Bobby here now brought back good memories, but alongside them, a keen, aching awareness of all he’d lost. All he’d thrown away, really.
He shook himself out of that line of thought. He had a mission, and he needed to stick to it. Find out what you can about her, Lacey had told him.
He was curious enough that the job didn’t rankle. Not only would they find out whether she could be trusted to stay in their house another night, but he could maybe get rid of the crazy impression that this woman was just like Ivana.
“Do you want me to help with the trim?” She came in now, a little out of breath, with Bobby on her hip. “Or I could work on the kitchen cabinets. I noticed they need cleaning out.”
“I’d stay out of Lacey’s stuff. You’d better work on the cabinets in here. Do you know how to use a screwdriver?”
“Sure.”
She set Bobby up in the corner of this room and went to work washing the cabinet fronts, removing the handles, humming a wordless tune.
It was a little too domestic for him. “So, how are you gonna punt here?” he asked, his voice coming out rougher than he’d intended. “You got a plan?”
She looked
