Mimi laughed. “Not a man’s best qualities. Wasn’t he nice at all? He just seemed sort of shy to me.”
Laura went to fix them both an iced tea. “I suppose I compare every man to my husband.” Her gaze was reluctantly drawn to the framed, fingerprint-covered photo of Dave. Penny liked to look at the picture of her father, enjoyed hearing stories about him.
Dave had been such a kind man. Warm. Funny. Easy to talk to. Nothing like the man she’d met today. Laura wrinkled her nose and tried not to think so tears wouldn’t spring into her eyes. Heaven only knew Dave had his moments; he was no angel. They’d had their spats. But he’d been her first love and that counted for so much. It had been such a shock to lose him.
At least she had his children.
“I suppose it would be hard for me not to compare every man to Mason.” Mimi smiled. “No one would measure up.”
Laura nodded, appreciating her friend’s understanding.
“Some would say there never was a tougher nut to crack than Mason Jefferson.”
“Really?” Laura found that hard to believe. Mason loved his wife, loved his kids. Was always looking at Mimi, or holding her hand.
“Suffice it to say he was really difficult to get to the altar. Sometimes I even wondered why I wanted him there.” Mimi laughed. “Talk about stubborn and hard to get along with.”
“Dave was easy,” Laura murmured. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking to replace Dave in my life at all. But I was hoping for a connection with Gabriel, something like the one I’d had with his father. I miss the old gentleman.” She smiled sadly at Mimi. “I can’t understand why his boys don’t want to be close with him.”
“Mr. Morgan was a different person with us than he was with his sons. They say people show themselves differently to everyone, and we probably saw his best side. He was a good man.”
“Obviously his sons believe they understand him better, and they probably do.” She and Mimi moved to the kitchen table. Penny came into the kitchen and crawled into her mother’s lap. Laura handed her a vanilla wafer from a box left out on the table since yesterday. “I swear I do keep house. We don’t always have food left out from the day before.” She glanced at the sink where the pots were piled up from making the welcome meal for Gabriel.
“Try living in a house where grown men come and go all the time. They make a bigger mess than the kids.” Mimi sipped her tea. “I’ll help you clean it up in a bit.”
Laura shook her head, appreciating the offer but not wanting the help. She didn’t mind washing dishes. It was soothing to have her hands in warm dishwater, and somehow comforting to submerge dirty dishes in suds and then pull them gleaming from the water. “I didn’t want him to misunderstand my relationship with his father.”
Mimi nodded. “Men don’t always temper their thoughts before they speak. Anyway, nobody tells Josiah Morgan what to do. Gabriel knows that.”
Gabriel, too, struck Laura as the kind of man willing to fight any battle life threw at him.
“Besides, it’s really none of Gabriel’s business.”
That was also true. She’d only told him about his father’s gift to her children because she wanted him to know up front. “Okay, I give up on being mad. It’s a waste of time.”
Mimi got up from the table. “Let’s wash these dishes.”
“No, you go on home to your family. You’ve done enough for me, Mimi. I really appreciate you watching Perrin so he could nap.”
“Did the doctor say how long it would take for the medicine to do some good?”
Perrin had colic, long bouts at night that worried Laura. Someone had suggested that the colic was stress-induced, and that Perrin was sensing his mother’s sadness. It had been a shock when Dave had died, and she certainly had grieved—was still grieving—but it was an additional guilt that she was causing her son’s pain. “The doctor said babies sometimes go through colic. The medicine might help, and putting him on a different formula. Or he could grow out of it.”
Mimi patted her hand. “I’ll come by to see you later at the school.”
Laura nodded. “I’d like that.”
She closed the door behind Mimi. Penny handed her a vanilla wafer, and for the first time that day, Laura felt content.
ON FRIDAY NIGHT, THREE days later, Gabriel finally drove into the small town of Union Junction. He could see what had drawn his father to this place. For one thing, it looked like a melding of the old West and a Norman Rockwell card. There was a main street where families were enjoying a warm June stroll, ice-cream cones or sodas in hand. A kissing booth sat in front of a bakery. Other booths lined the street in front of various shops.
He glanced at the kissing booth again, caught by a glimpse of blond hair and the long line outside the booth. All the booths had lines, but none as long as the kissing booth, which Gabriel figured was probably appropriate. If he was offered the choice of getting a kiss or throwing rings over a bottle, he’d definitely take the kiss.
“What’s going on?” he asked a young cowboy at the back of the line.
“Town fair.” The young man grinned at him. “You’re Morgan, aren’t you?”
He looked at him. “Aren’t you too young to be buying kisses?”
He got a laugh for that. “Get in line and spend a buck, Mr. Morgan.”
“Why?” He wasn’t inclined to participate in the fun of a town fair. He’d just been looking around, trying to figure out why Pop had settled near here, trying to stave off some boredom.
“We’re raising money for the elementary school. Need more desks. The town is certainly growing.”
“Shouldn’t the town be paying for that from taxes or something?”
“We like to do some recreational fund-raising, too.”
Gabriel reluctantly fell into line. “So who are we kissing?”
“Laura Adams.”
“We can’t kiss her!” He had to admit the idea was inviting, but he also wanted to jerk the young man out of line—and every other man, too.
The line kept growing behind him.
“Why not?” His companion appeared puzzled.
Gabriel frowned. “She’s married. And she’s a mom.”
The young man laughed. “Mimi Jefferson was working the booth an hour ago. It’s the only time any of us can get near Mimi without getting our tails kicked by Mason, so most of us went through twice.”
Gabriel’s frown deepened.
“It’s for a good cause,” his new friend said. “Besides which, Laura’s not married anymore.”
Gabriel’s mood lifted slightly. He felt his boots shuffling closer to the booth behind his talkative friend. “She’s not?”
“Nah. Her husband died shortly after she gave birth to Perrin.” His friend looked at him with surprise. “You should know all this. Your dad loved Laura’s kids. Said they were probably the only—”
“I know. I know. Jeez.” Gabriel rubbed at his chin, trying to decide if he liked how quickly the line was moving. And the young man was right. The gentlemen were leaving the line to catcalls and whistles and hurrying to the back of the line for another kiss. It was a never-ending kiss line of rascals. “I’m pretty sure I don’t belong here.”
“No better way to get to know people,”