other side of Iron Springs,” Gabe explained.
Under other circumstances Dana might have been intrigued by the possibility of seeing Iron Springs from her grandmother’s maple tree. “Maybe you should wait until the leaves fall,” she said to Gabe. “Then you won’t have to climb so high.”
“Climbing high is half the fun,” Gabe called down.
“Wait until he’s a teenager.”
“Tree,” Danny called to her, pointing to the surrounding branches.
“I see it, darling, but it’s time to come down now.”
“Stay in tree,” Danny said.
“We’d better come down for now,” Gabe said. “I’ve got a bigger tree at my house. Would you like to climb that with me?”
“Me climb big tree,” Danny said.
Dana made a silent vow to cut that tree down herself before she’d let Danny climb it.
Gabe dropped to the ground. When he held his hands up, Danny jumped into them without a moment’s hesitation. The second Gabe set him in the ground, he came running to Dana.
“Me climb tree,” he announced as he threw himself into Dana’s arms.
She grabbed him up and held him tight, relieved to have him safely on the ground. If Gabe thought she was going to leave Danny here just so he could risk his precious little neck by letting him climb every tree in Iron Springs, he had another think coming. She’d take Danny back to New York and fight Lucius herself. If she didn’t win, she could seek refuge in her parents’ apartment in Paris. She could always sell antiques in France. The country was full of them.
“How did things look inside?” Gabe asked.
She didn’t want to talk about the house. She wanted to talk about his callous disregard for Danny’s safety.
“Except for a thick layer of dust, it looks very much the way I remember it.”
“It’s still in no condition for you to occupy.”
“I realize that. I’ll just have to say in your house. You can go to a motel.”
She hadn’t meant to say that. It just popped out of her mouth. From his expression, she guessed it surprised him as much as it did her.
“It’s important for Danny to start getting used to your house. It would be better if he could do it with me close by.”
If you marry Gabe, Danny will always be close by.
She shook her head vigorously, hoping to fling the maddening little voice into the grass where she devoutly hoped it would be nibbled to death by voracious ants.
She managed to get her racing thoughts under control. “I didn’t mean to commandeer your house like that. I was just thinking out loud.”
“No problem,” Gabe said, but he looked as though it were anything but all right. “I can spend the night with Ma.”
“Maybe Danny and I should go to your mother’s house.”
“No. The sooner Danny gets used to his bedroom, the better.”
But he won’t be able to spend many nights in it if you don’t marry Gabe.
Dana began to wonder what part of her mind could take such sadistic enjoyment in torturing her. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Why should it be happening now when she was at her most defenseless?
“We’d better head back to town,” Gabe said.
“Why?”
“Mother’s expecting us for dinner. She’ll worry herself into a fit if we’re a minute late. What did you decide to do about the house?”
“I’m going to keep it.”
“What for? You haven’t used it in fourteen years.”
“I’m going to fix it up for myself. I can stay there when I visit Danny.”
An uncomfortable silence fell. She could practically read his thoughts, but right now she couldn’t take the blame for Lucius getting Danny. She’d had too much to endure these past weeks. One more thing just might be too much.
“Why did you stay in Iron Springs?” she asked.
Chapter Four
She hadn’t meant to ask that. She resented it when anyone asked her such a personal question.
“Why should I leave?”
She could think of a hundred reasons. “Mattie said you did very well in college, that you had two promising job offers.”
“I discovered I’d rather work with wood than be an engineer.”
“But you could do that anywhere. Why come back here?”
“Why go anywhere else?”
“Mattie couldn’t wait to get out.”
She hadn’t meant to say that. She didn’t know if he knew how his sister felt about Iron Springs, but she figured learning wouldn’t improve his attitude toward her. A glance at his profile—the rigid jaw and pursed lips—told her she’d judged correctly.
“Being with people I know and trust is important to me.” Gabe stared straight ahead. “I met lots of people in college who considered me their friend, but it wasn’t the same as with people around here.”
“Why not?”
“Because they only knew me for a few years, a semester, even a month. The people here have known me since I was born. They knew my parents before that, their parents before that. It’s like a large family. If anything happens to one of us, it happens to everybody.”
Dana could believe that. Her mother had made a lot of people in Iron Springs angry before she left for college. Years later, when Dana visited her grandmother, they still remembered. She’s a Yankee, poor thing. You can’t expect anything better of her.
“I wanted to stay near my family,” Gabe said. “After Mattie went away, Ma and Pa didn’t have anyone but me. I liked being able to walk to my parents’ house before breakfast, or have them visit me.”
“Most people don’t want their parents that close.”
“To me it’s a privilege. There’s nobody more concerned for me, more willing to lend a hand if I need it. I can’t always depend upon friends. I can on family.”
Dana’s life had been entirely different. Even in grade school, her parents had been away from home more often than not. When she went away to boarding school, college, started work, they sent cards, talked on the telephone, kept in touch by e-mail, but they maintained their separate lives. Dana couldn’t think of anything more unlikely than her mother showing up at her
