Reunion (24 page)

G
abriel leaned inside the doorway. “Hey, Mrs. Connor, aren’t you ready yet?”

Laura turned and then grimaced as she turned back around. “You try looking beautiful with a belly the size of Manhattan.”

Gabriel caught her up in his arms, kissing at the frown lines on her face until she broke into giggles.

“No fair,” she muttered, wallowing in the love he so freely offered, while still feeling sorry for herself.

“You don’t have to try,” Gabriel said. “You are always beautiful. Besides, I like women with big bellies. You know what they say. The bigger they are…”

Laura rolled her eyes. “Yeah, the bigger their clothes have to be.”

He laughed. “That’s not what I was going to say, but I won’t argue. Not today.”

Laura sighed and then wrapped her arms around Gabriel’s neck. “You’re right,” she said softly, and planted a kiss near the edge of his mouth. “Especially not today.”

She reached for her purse on the way out the door. “What time are we supposed to be there?”

“Uncle Mike said two o’clock.”

“Is he coming for dinner tonight?” Laura asked.

Gabriel shrugged. “Probably, it’s Saturday.”

She grinned. Mike Travers was definitely a man of habit. But they loved him dearly, and Matty would have been insulted if he hadn’t shown up.

Gabriel took her arm as they started down the stairs. “Easy does it, sweetheart. The only thing I want broken around here is the ground at the ground-breaking ceremony for the new wing at Reed House. And, since it’s going to be the Garrett Connor wing, they won’t start till we get there.”

Thankful for Gabriel’s firm grip on her elbow, Laura nodded and slowed to a more normal pace. After they were in the car and on their way, she gave him a nervous glance. He looked so solemn, his expression so drawn. The past few months had been difficult, but he’d seemed to take great heart in anticipation of this day, as well as the imminent arrival of their first child. It hurt her soul to think of this man suffering any more pain.

“Gabriel?”

“Hmmm?”

“Are you sad?”

He maneuvered through an intersection and then gave her a sweet, sidelong glance.

“Why? Are you offering me comfort? Would it benefit me sexually in any way if I said yes?”

Her eyebrows arched dramatically. “You know, there’s something I can’t decide. Either you’re awfully sweet…or awfully hard up.”

He wiggled his eyebrows and then blew her a kiss. “Put your hand in my lap and then
you
tell
me.
”

She laughed.

They rode in comfortable silence for a few blocks more, each thinking of the past few months with thanksgiving. Maybe Garrett had never gotten to go home, but every one of the people Althea Good had turned out of Reed House had been found and brought back. That was something. Something to be thankful for.

When they stopped for a red light, Gabriel began digging through the CDs. Laura glanced out to her right, staring absently at a man and woman walking hand in hand across the crosswalk. She looked back at Gabriel, watching his tan, supple fingers as he laid a disc on the player.

Touch. It was all about touch. Touching hands, touching minds, touching lives, touching hearts.

She laid her hand on her burgeoning stomach, touching as best she could the child they’d made from their love. She closed her eyes as the car began to move. Letting her thoughts go free, she soared above the traffic, above the trees, above the clouds.

“Laura, baby…are you all right?”

Gabriel’s voice intruded, yanking her back into the present. She nodded, letting the gentle motion of the car rock her baby in a way she could not while she searched in her mind for the place that she’d been.

There it was. Just as she remembered. She listened, waiting for a sign, for something or someone to tell her what came next, just as she’d done since the day she was four.

Love well.

The words came without thought, without strain or confusion. Just two clear, simple words, but for Laura, they were all that she needed.

“I do,” she said softly, unaware that she’d spoken aloud.

“You do what?” Gabriel asked.

She reached out and took him by the hand. “Oh, nothing, sweetheart. I was just talking to myself.”

He smiled. As long as Laura was fine, he was right with the world.

Love deeply.

Gabriel’s image slid into focus, and she sighed. “Oh, I do,” she said, again unaware she’d spoken aloud.

This time Gabriel only gave her a quick glance, but had she looked, she would have seen a twinkle in his eyes.

Love me.

She opened her eyes with a jerk. Gabriel was sitting at another red light, wearing a satisfied smirk. She hit him on the arm.

“Gabriel Connor, what were you doing in there?”

He raised an eyebrow. “In where, baby?”

“You know what I mean,” she muttered, and thumped him on the shoulder.

He turned and looked her square in the face. “All I did was knock. You’re the one who let me come in.”

A car honked. Gabriel looked up. The light had turned green. He accelerated through the intersection, leaving Laura to ponder his words. At first it bothered her that he’d been able to get inside her mind as easily as that, but the longer she lived with the fact, the more sensible it became.

Of course she had let him in. She splayed her fingers across the surface of her stomach. He was in her heart and would be forever, and right now there was a part of him growing inside her. It only stood to reason that he would see—
should
see—the rest of her, as well.

A short while later, Gabriel began slowing down to make the turn to Reed House. The baby kicked, and Laura sighed. Soon. She would be here soon.
She?
The moment she thought it, her heart skipped a beat. Before she’d only guessed, but now she was certain.

“Gabriel?”

Aware that he’d trespassed on a very private part of her world, he was glad to hear happiness in her voice. He grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze.

“Am I forgiven?”

She squeezed his fingers back. “There’s nothing to forgive.”

“Good, so what’s up?”

“We’re going to have a baby, and it needs a name.”

He laughed aloud. “Honey, that’s real sweet of you to tell me, but I figured that fact out for myself some time back.”

“No,” she sputtered. “I said that all wrong.”

His grin widened.

“I’ve picked out a name for the baby,” she said.

“Don’t you think you should wait until after it’s born?”

She shook her head.

The smile slid off his face. “Do you know something I don’t?”

She nodded.

He arched an eyebrow but never broke a sweat. “So, this is one of those things you just know? Is that what you’re trying to say?”

She nodded.

“Well then, okay,” he said, his grin a little off center.

“Do you want to know?” Laura asked.

Before he could answer, Mike Travers was opening her door and helping her out.

“It’s about time you got here,” he said, fussing with the sleeve of her dress and holding on to her arm as if she might fly away if he dared to let go.

“They can’t start without us,” Gabriel said. “And give me back my wife.” Then he winked at Laura and laughed at Mike, who was starting to grin.

“Was I hovering again?” Mike asked.

Laura smiled. “Only a little, but I like it. I always like it when you fuss.”

The old man gave her a kiss and then grinned. “Good, that means you’re going to name him after me.”

Laura glanced up at Gabriel. “She already has a name,” Laura said.

Gabriel’s heart skipped a beat as his uncle Mike crowed with delight.

She?

Laura pulled his hand across the swell of her belly and heard his intake of breath as the baby gave a swift kick.

When Gabriel felt the tiny reverberation against the palm of his hand, he couldn’t speak. His thoughts slid to the past, to the brother he’d known only briefly, and all he could think was, Please, God, let her be all right.

Then Laura leaned close and whispered in his ear, “Don’t worry, my love. Angela Rose is going to be just fine.”