Montana Mornings (The Wildes of Birch Bay Book 3) Read online

  Gabe worked side by side with Ben for fifteen minutes as they got the food going, and all the while Gabe kept his gaze diverted from the center of the crowd. Or he tried to.

  “You’re going to burn the dogs if you don’t quit glaring at her.”

  Gabe ripped his gaze from Erica. “I was looking at her sister,” he lied.

  Ben snorted. “Right. Because you always had a thing for underage girls with pink hair.”

  Gabe frowned. “Bree is of age.”

  “Yet she’s still not who you were looking at.”

  He ignored his friend and returned his focus to the meat. However, bright laughter coming from the densest part of the gathering kept his ears attuned elsewhere. He should have overridden Dani’s invite. Erica and Bree would have been fine on their own.

  Because seeing Erica now suddenly made him angry with her all over again. As well as thinking things a single father with a seriously mixed-up kid should not be thinking.

  Chapter Six

  Later that evening, as the sun headed far to the west, the crowd in the backyard had thinned and the fire roared. Gabe and his siblings remained, as did Harper’s, but everyone else had gone home. Erica kept telling herself that she and Bree should leave, too. It was down to family now. Only, the afternoon had been so enjoyable that she couldn’t force herself to move.

  She rested on a handmade quilt, having inched closer to the fire when the temperature began to drop, and listened to Bree as she laughed at something Cord said. The two sat just outside the main circle of people, and had been talking together for the last thirty minutes. Erica had the thought that she should go over and break it up. Whatever it was. But she wouldn’t embarrass her sister in front of people that way. Cord was a flirt. He’d made the rounds that day, charming every female in the group—married or not—and Bree had to recognize his actions for what they were.

  And if she didn’t, Erica would make sure to point it out to her when they got home.

  Tilting her chin down, she peered covertly at Gabe, who’d settled in a chair on the opposite side of the fire. He was kicked back, one canvas-sneakered foot on the rim of the fire pit, with Nick on one side of him and Jewel’s husband, Bobby, on the other. Gabe seemed engrossed in the three-way conversation, in a fashion similar to what she’d seen the entire afternoon. Every time Erica had caught sight of him, he’d either been fully absorbed in talking with someone else—or he’d been turned away from her, looking in the completely opposite direction. Basically, whatever he’d been doing, he’d been making sure that she understood he was ignoring her. And it had seriously begun to get on her nerves.

  Yes, she’d overstepped her bounds Friday. She shouldn’t have said the things she’d said to him. But she hadn’t been wrong! She believed that completely. With eleven years of teaching kids under her belt, she’d learned a thing or two over the years. But more significant than that was that she recognized a heck of a lot in seven-year-old Jenna, and it pointed right back at her.

  Rejection. Not knowing exactly where she fit in.

  Having her life ripped away from her.

  Erica got all of that, and she’d been doing her best over the last couple of weeks to strike a chord with the girl. Little progress had been made, however, and there’d been zero opportunity to add to it that afternoon since Jenna had also steered clear of her.

  Her cell phone buzzed in the back pocket of her skirt, and she pulled it out.

  This picnic isn’t the same without you.

  With a sigh, she punched out a quick reply, not in the mood to deal with her ex.

  I wasn’t a part of it last year, either. Did you forget that?

  Though she’d promised Bree that she’d get over him once and for all, JC had actually been on her mind more in the last couple of days than normal. She’d spent a lot of years going to the Bird Labor Day picnic, being front and center with the Birds. Everyone in town showed up.

  You may not have been a *part* of it, but you were still here. You had on those jeans I always liked so much and a green top. You never left your parents’ side. I didn’t go over and talk to you because I figured you wouldn’t want to talk to me, but I saw you. I knew you were here.

  He’d seen her while he’d been standing next to Lindsey—and while they’d been side by side with his parents.

  A lump formed in her throat as she thought back to the year before. Yeah, she’d been at the picnic. It had been easier to make an appearance and to act as if all was right in her world than to be the only one in town who stayed home. But she most certainly hadn’t been there with him.

  Her phone buzzed again, and though she didn’t want to look at it, she did.

  I’ve never stopped missing you, E. I love you.

  No, he didn’t. At least not enough.

  Leave me alone. I’m in the middle of a cookout right now, anyway. I’ve moved on. And we’re not doing this again, JC. It’s time you move on, too.

  Three dots appeared as he began to type once again, but after only a few seconds they disappeared. She watched for another half a minute, but nothing else happened on her screen, and when a chair was plopped down beside her, she looked up. Dani was lowering herself into the seat, so Erica shoved her phone back into her pocket.

  “Thanks, honey.” Dani smiled up at Ben once she’d settled in place.

  “It’s what I’m here for.” Ben winked and dropped a kiss on his wife’s forehead before joining Gabe and the other men on the other side of the fire.

  “So,” Dani began. She peered down at Erica before tossing a quick glance through the fire, then she leaned to the side and spoke from the corner of her mouth. “My brother seems to be ignoring you today,” she whispered conspiratorially. “Any idea what that’s about?”

  Exhaustion suddenly swept over Erica, her ex forgotten. And mixed in with the exhaustion was a hefty dose of irritation. She was so tired of being ignored by Gabe, and even more fed up with not being given the chance to apologize. And she’d tried! But any time she’d gotten within ten feet of the blasted man, he’d headed in the other direction.

  “I said some things to him the other day that I shouldn’t have,” she confessed.

  “Really?” Both of them stared at the men. “Can I ask what?”

  Not wanting to risk being overheard, Erica climbed to her knees and propped an elbow on the chair’s armrest. Possibly she shouldn’t talk about Gabe’s daughter behind his back, but Erica had watched the little girl throughout the day, and her worries hadn’t lessened. Jenna had ignored her father for hours, she’d sat by herself more than with anyone else, and Erica was pretty sure there’d been tears in the child’s eyes when they’d passed in the house earlier in the day.

  She needed to talk about Jenna to someone, because the child had issues. And she very much doubted that Gabe would listen.

  “It was about Jenna,” Erica said. “She’s fighting so hard, every step of the way, yet I’m not sure she has a clue what she’s fighting against. Or why.” She glanced at Dani. “I’ve been assuming it has to do with her parents’ divorce. Perhaps also with the upending of her life given that she moved from California back to here. But . . .” Erica paused as her heart crushed a little more at the sight on the other side of the flames. Haley had crawled into her dad’s lap, her energy clearly spent, and Jenna now stood alone once more. “I want to help her,” Erica added in an urgent whisper. “I want to be a solid wall for her for the time that I’m here. And part of being that means I don’t bend on classroom rules. I let the kids make their own successes and their own failures, and some kids have to fail before they can stand up.”

  “Ah,” Dani murmured. “Jenna messed up and Gabe tried to fix it for her.”

  Erica looked at the other woman. “Does he do that a lot?”

  “It’s his mission at the moment to make everything right for his daughter.”

  She nodded, understanding the helicopter parent and how they couldn’t tolerate letting their kids trip up even the tinies
t amount. But having known Gabe in the past, that wouldn’t have been the picture she would’ve painted of him. “Is there a particular reason why?” Erica asked.

  “Guilt is my guess. Regardless of the need for divorce, it can’t be easy.” They both turned back to the fire, looking beyond it to the strong-willed men sitting as a group, the night sky now dark behind them. The Wilde brothers were all tall, dark, and handsome, and the flicker of the flames did nothing to detract from their looks. However, Gabe stood out from the others. It was as if he had no curved edges at all. And she didn’t mean his physical hardness. His nature was unyielding.

  And now that she thought about it, she realized she saw the same thing in Jenna. His daughter was mirroring what she got from her dad.

  “But does the guilt extend beyond the divorce?” she asked. Parents going through divorce often beat themselves up for not keeping the family together, Erica understood that, but for some reason, she’d lay odds that Gabe’s guilt was placed elsewhere.

  Dani’s jaw worked, likely as she considered what to say or whether to say anything at all, and Erica wouldn’t have been surprised if the conversation ended there. But then Dani’s eyes left her brother and sought out her niece. Jenna had walked over to the birdbath sitting near the edge of the property, and was now headed back, head down, arms swinging loosely at her sides. Gabe watched his daughter at the same time, and anyone looking could see the abject loneliness in the child.

  “Gabe won’t really talk about it with me,” Dani admitted softly, and Erica turned back to her. “He holds too much in. Thinks he has to handle everything on his own. But Jenna hasn’t seen her mother since February. Nor has she talked to her. And don’t get me wrong, I am not a fan of Michelle’s. She wasn’t a good mother before, and I’m a firm believer that she never will be. But she is still Jenna’s mom. And though I’d prefer Jenna never lay eyes on the woman again, I also know that having your mother suddenly ripped from your life is very difficult.”

  Erica soaked in the information, remembering that Dani and Gabe’s mother had died right before Gabe graduated high school. “When did Jenna and Gabe move back to town?”

  “The middle of June.”

  “And Michelle is still in California?”

  Dani nodded.

  “Then why would Jenna not see her for months before they moved away?”

  Worry now seemed to mix with guilt for Dani—probably for talking about her brother—as she locked her gaze with Erica’s. “I don’t know. But Gabe is handling things. That’s all he’ll say to me. He’s doing what he believes is right, and is determined to see Jenna through this time in her life. And he’ll make it work. I don’t doubt that. He loves his daughter and would take any pain of hers on himself if he could. But he’s struggling. He’s winging this single dad thing the best he can, but it’s not like he had the best example from either of our parents.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Dani shook her head. “I’ve said too much already. It’s Gabe’s life and his business. I’m doing my best to respect that. Yet at the same time, I’m worried about Jenna. She’s so different than she used to be.”

  So much of what Dani had just said seemed to reverberate inside Erica, making her want to work doubly hard to find a way to break through Jenna’s barriers. But what had Dani meant about her parents?

  Knowing nothing more than that, Erica now found herself worried about Gabe, as well as his daughter.

  Dani crooked a finger in a come-here motion, and Erica followed her gaze to Jenna. The girl had made her way back near the fire and looked with longing at her aunt. Her eyes, seeming so dark and lost in the night, shifted briefly to Erica, but the normal hardness didn’t appear. Instead, she seemed to be considering Erica in a new light. Not a particularly good light, per se, but not necessarily as if Erica were pure evil, either. Then Jenna lowered her gaze, but made her way to Dani’s side.

  “Want to sit in my lap, sweetie?” Dani patted the tops of her thighs.

  “If you don’t care.”

  Dani shot her niece an are-you-kidding-me look. “Of course I don’t care. I always love having my best girl sitting with me.”

  A tiny smile flickered across Jenna’s mouth, and Erica held her breath when that smile was suddenly directed at her. “I got my math homework done, Ms. Bird.” Jenna climbed into Dani’s lap and rested her head on her aunt’s belly. “I even double-checked it like you told us to.”

  Surprise filled Erica. “That’s terrific, Jenna. I’m very proud of you for doing that.”

  The child’s eyes drifted down almost immediately, and Erica forced herself to once again look to the other side of the fire. Gabe now watched her. His eyes remained hard, but Erica read the questions in them, as well. At the same time, she wondered if he could read the ones in hers.

  Jenna had done her homework. Gabe had taken her book home for her.

  Maybe there was more than one way to accomplish a task.

  Erica had all four windows of her little beige sedan down, wind whipping strands of her hair around her face as she took the curves to her apartment Tuesday afternoon. She’d been expecting the school day to be a rough one after the long weekend, but the kids had surprised her. For the most part, they’d been well-behaved, polite students. Even Jenna. Gabe’s daughter had come up front that morning to pass out the reading workbooks without offering a single complaint. Of course, afterward she’d returned to her seat and sunk down low and sullen. As if just then realizing that she’d been pleasant.

  Erica chuckled to herself. Even with the tiny setback, they’d taken a nice step forward. It made her hopeful that more would soon follow. The night before had seemed like the first tiny breakthrough, though there’d been no additional talking due to the girl falling asleep on her aunt’s lap. But the door had definitely been opened, and there was no way Erica wouldn’t work like a pack mule and keep pushing through it.

  She took her foot off the gas pedal as she rounded the last bend in the road, anxious to get home to her sister. She and Bree had stayed up talking until late into the night. It was really good to have her sister around, and Erica had spent her lunch break mapping out plans for the weekend, hoping to entice Bree into staying at least that long.

  As she pulled into her parking spot, she saw Jenna and Hannah sitting on the small bench on Gabe’s front porch. She’d seen the pair coming and going over the last couple of weeks, but this marked the first time the three of them were outside at the same time. So when she stepped out of the car, she waved.

  “Hello, ladies. How are you two this afternoon?”

  “We’re doing great, Ms. Bird,” Hannah tossed out. “Just enjoying some lemonade and doing a little homework before Jenna’s dad gets home.” Both girls had books open on their laps with tall glasses of lemonade on the small tables on either end of the bench. Jenna’s dog lay half under the seat and half under Jenna’s table. His head was on his paws, but at the sight of Erica, his tail flipped in the air.

  Hannah glanced at Jenna, as if waiting for her to speak, and Erica decided to take the moment to force the issue. She didn’t move from her spot. Didn’t look away from Jenna.

  Finally, Jenna’s small hand lifted. “Hello, Ms. Bird.” The words actually came out polite.

  Erica nodded with pleasure. “Hello, Jenna. Good to see you both. Have a great evening.”

  She grabbed the bags of groceries from the passenger seat and turned for her front door, but before she could step inside, Jenna added, “This is my dog, Mike.”

  Erica stopped, and once again faced the little girl. She hadn’t been formally introduced to the dog yet. “Nice to meet you, Mike.” The dog waved his tail in the air once again. Then Erica looked straight at Jenna. “And you must be so proud. Mike is a very beautiful and smart dog.”

  Jenna smiled broadly, and Erica shared a knowing glance with Hannah. Progress.

  “You have a good evening, too, Mike.” Erica turned once again and entered her apartment, and when she
stepped inside, the first thing she saw were the pages of a newspaper spread across the bar top. Bree stood behind the paper, one foot off the floor and flattened against the side of her opposite knee as if caught mid yoga pose, while at the same time she held a quart of ice cream in one hand and a spoon in the other. The spoon was hooked in her mouth, her eyes glued to the paper.

  She looked up at the interruption, licking the utensil clean. And then her expression bottomed out.

  “Khakis?” Bree yelped. She stabbed the spoon into the container. “What happened to the pink skirt? To the other clothes we picked out Sunday afternoon?” She sighed and shook her head. “I swear, I should never have slept in this morning and let you dress yourself.”

  Erica closed the door and tossed her keys to the countertop. “Those clothes weren’t for teaching.”

  “Well, they could be.” Bree moved to the living room, newspaper and ice cream in hand.

  “No. They couldn’t be,” Erica corrected. She kicked off her shoes, dropped the bags of food she intended to use for that night’s dinner beside the stove, and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. “I might be willing to branch out and wear a hot-pink, too-tight skirt to a casual get-together once in a while, but—”

  “It wasn’t too tight.”

  Erica groaned. This was a repeat argument. “Fine. It wasn’t too tight. But it was tighter than I’m used to.”

  “And it looked freaking fantastic on you. Everyone totally saw how hot your ass is in that thing.”

  “Stop it.” Erica held up a palm. She didn’t want to argue with her sister tonight. Not over her butt or her clothes or anything else superficial. “We’re not talking about my behind right now, got it?” And she was pretty sure Gabe hadn’t taken one look at her rear the night before, anyway, so not everyone had seen it.