I keep thinking she’ll get her comeuppance, but so far, she just goes along, giving everyone a hard time along the way.” There was more silence.
“So tell me about your...Abby. How are things working out?” Gabe asked, in an attempt to keep the struggling conversation going.
“Very well. She’s a wonderful person and a great mother.”
Gabe saw a gleam in his brother’s eyes he’d never seen before. Happiness.
“I love her very much,” Caleb added, almost, Gabe thought, as if his brother expected him to make some sort of snide comment about the situation. “We had a son born two days before Christmas.”
“A son! You have a son and a daughter?” Caleb nodded and Gabe smiled, unexpectedly pleased for the brother who had borne the brunt of their father’s domineering personality. “I envy you.”
Caleb looked up to meet Gabe’s smiling gaze. “You do?”
“Even I had to grow up eventually, Caleb,” Gabe said, poking a bit of fun at himself. He knew what most people thought of him.
“Why have you come back, Gabriel?” Caleb asked, done with idle chitchat.
He shrugged. “I’m not sure I can explain. A while back, I realized that I’d done just about everything and seen all the places I wanted to see, and Lucas Gentry’s shadow was still hanging over me. I was as miserable away from Wolf Creek as I had been here.
“Believe it or not, I’ve given our childhood a lot of thought the past several months, and I came up with some reasons why I felt that way. A few months back, I got the notion to come and see if there was any way for us to make sense of our past. I even hoped that maybe I could make up for the things I’ve done.”
Caleb’s eyes reflected his impatience. “Words are fine, Gabe. You were always good with them, but actions speak a lot louder. It’s easy to come home when you’re down-and-out. It’s easy to claim regret and say you’re sorry and then saddle up and leave again, convinced you did all you could or should to fix things.”
For the first time, Gabe realized just how deep the chasm was between him and his brother. “I know what you’re saying is true, and that I’ve given you plenty of reason to feel the way you do, but I have no intention of leaving.”
“What!”
Gabe met his brother’s astonished gaze. “I’m staying in Wolf Creek. I’m twenty-nine years old. Wouldn’t you say it’s time I found a good woman and settled down?”
“What will you do? How will you live with no money?” Caleb asked, unable to hide his shock.
“You’re the one who said I was down-and-out, not me. I have a bit stuck by. As for what I’ll do, I have no idea.” He managed a wry smile. “It’ll be a while before I’m able to do much of anything, but when the time is right, something will come along.”
Another silence ensued. Finally, Gabe gave a heavy sigh, grimaced in pain and curved his arm around his battered ribs as if to protect them.
“Look, Caleb. I’m truly sorry for the way I acted when we were kids. I think I was trying to get Lucas to notice me, to acknowledge I was alive. If it took acting up to do it, so be it. I’m sorry my behavior left most of the work and responsibility on you. In a strange sort of way, though, I think you actually benefited.”
“How do you figure that?” Caleb snapped. “I was the slave who worked and you were the spoiled brat who got by with everything and did next to nothing.” His lips tightened with the stubbornness he was known for. “I’ve hated you for that.”
“I can’t say that I blame you,” Gabe said. He understood Caleb’s feelings, but just as Rachel’s disgust had been hard to swallow, Caleb’s words hurt, far more than Gabe had expected.
“Just think about it a minute. You were the one learning how to work, how to become a productive citizen, while I learned nothing except how to goof off and finagle others into doing my chores. I thought it was funny then, but not now. I cheated myself out of a lot of lessons.”
Caleb stared at Gabe as if he’d never seen him before.
“I know it’s a lot to ask, and I’ll understand if you say no, but I’d like to ask your forgiveness. I’d like the opportunity to get to know you and your family. Believe it or not, I want to be an uncle, and I’d really like it if you and I could find some common ground to build a relationship on.”
* * *
Rachel returned from a visit with one of her patients just before noon. She found her father sitting at the kitchen table in his wheelchair, slicing a skillet of corn bread into wedges.
“Hey, Pops!” she said, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “How is everything?”
“Just dandy. How is little Jimmy doing?”
“As well as can be expected.”
“Good. Food’s ready,” he said, indicating a pot of pinto beans and salt pork Rachel had set on the back of the woodstove before she left earlier in that morning. “Will you get Danny and Gabe while I finish up here?”
“Of course.”
“Rachel,” he said, his voice stopping her.
“Yes?” she said, turning.
“Caleb came to see Gabe this morning. I have no idea what they talked about, but I thought you’d like to know.”
“Yes,” she said, nodding. “Thank you.”
Thoughts of what might have transpired between the brothers filled her mind as she went to fetch Danny. She found him reading one of the books he’d received for Christmas and more than ready to eat, since there were cookies to be had afterward.
Rachel went to Gabe’s room, knocked on the door and opened it at his summons.
“Pops has dinner ready,” she said, noticing that he was dressed in the extra clothes she’d found in his carpetbag instead of Edward’s castoffs. She couldn’t help noticing how well they fit his lean, broad-shouldered body. No doubt they’d been tailor-made for him.
“Thank you,” he said. “I’ve been waiting to talk to you.”
“Oh?”
He nodded. “I wanted to tell you that I’ll be leaving after we eat.”
“Leaving?” she echoed, disbelief in her voice. “You’re in no condition to be on a horse.”
“I don’t plan to be. I’m not leaving town, just checking into the boardinghouse. I think I’m well enough to take care of myself if I don’t do anything stupid.”
Though she’d wished him gone a hundred times, now that he planned to go she was filled with something that felt far too much like disappointment for her peace of mind.
“And how do you propose to pay for it?” she said, her voice sharper than she’d intended as the nebulous
