Comfort And Joy

Next came a scene Olivia never tired of watching. When a new parent first sank onto a kindergarten chair. Would the adult handle it with nonchalance, with self-deprecating humor, or with a sense that this was a deliberate assault on his ego? Over the years, Olivia had come to view it as a remarkably accurate test of character.

Gabriel Brant sat warily. As he’d sat many years ago on her aunt’s antique wicker porch furniture. Aunt Lydia had served them homemade lemonade and gingersnaps. The memory tugged at Olivia now. She remembered how, at the end of the summer, Aunt Lydia had said, “He’s a fine boy with a good imagination. Let’s hope Walter Brant doesn’t drum the imaginative part clear out of him.”

As Olivia showed the twins how to twist brown pipe cleaners to form the turkey’s head, legs and feet, and then demonstrated how to secure them in the pinecone’s “tail feathers,” Gabriel helped. Remarkably, his large hands were adept at this, his patience—with the boys—infinite. He never seemed to become more comfortable, though, only more determined. To accomplish this small task for his sons. Only when they’d finished shaking glitter onto the cones, and both Justin and Jared, who’d looked so sober upon entering her classroom, were smiling shyly, did Gabriel appear to relax.

She handed him the second demonstration bird she’d made today. “Now you can each have a turkey at your place tomorrow.”

“What about Grampa?” Justin asked. “He’ll need one. We’re staying with him. Every day we’re gonna walk from his house to school.”

Interesting. When Gabriel had left town after high-school graduation, Olivia had heard rumors that it was because Walter and he were such polar opposites they couldn’t stand to be in the same room. What had happened to bring Gabriel back?

He offered no explanation.

“I’ll give you another one I made earlier with the class,” she said, rising. “That way no one gets left out.” Returning to the table, she handed a fourth turkey to Gabriel and then spoke to the boys. “So do you think you’re going to like coming to school?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Justin replied, but Jared only stared at his turkey.

“Jared,” Gabriel said gently. “Look at Ms. Marshall when she’s talking to you.”

Jared did. Self-consciously. There was intelligence in his eyes, but deep uncertainty, as well. Although he made the requisite eye contact, he didn’t speak.

“Well, I’m looking forward to having you both in my class. Let me get your dad a list of the supplies you’ll need.”

As if glad to be dismissed, Gabriel rose. When she handed him the list of pencils, crayons, glue sticks, tissues, change of clothes and more that was the standard request of kindergarten parents, he blanched. “They’ll each need all these?”

“Yes,” she replied. This was always the ticklish part. “But if, for any reason, you can’t provide the supplies, I do have a discretionary fund….”

“I’ll see they have what they need by Monday.” His expression hard, he looked her in the eye. “Don’t do me any favors. Don’t offer any charity.”

She was stung by the vehemence of his words.

As he turned to leave, it was as if he’d thrown a switch, shutting her out completely. In retreat, the set of his broad shoulders was stiff. The light touch of his hands on his sons’ heads was gentle, but nothing else about Gabriel Brant was soft or yielding. Nothing that indicated the return to Hennings was the least bit pleasant for him.

What had life dealt her childhood friend to harden him so?

CHAPTER TWO

AFTER GABRIEL LEFT with his boys, Olivia didn’t have time to puzzle over his prickly behavior before Kelly poked her head around the door frame.

“So did you like the early Christmas present I sent you?” the perpetually cheery clerk asked.

“I haven’t had a minute to eat it,” she replied, indicating the cupcake Kelly had sent to the classroom earlier. Olivia deliberately misunderstood the question.

“Not that, silly! Gabriel Brant.” The clerk entered the room with a mischievous grin. “He didn’t want the twins split up. I could have put them in Megan’s class. She has the same number of students as you. But she’s married.”

Matchmakers. Hennings was full of them. “Are you forgetting the odds are fairly high Mr. Brant is married, too?”

“Oh, no,” Kelly countered. “On the registration form he left the space for the twins’ mother blank. I’m assuming he’s unattached.”

“That’s a pretty dangerous assumption.”

It wasn’t that Olivia wasn’t looking for love. Her aunt Lydia, the town librarian for many years, had raised her on a diet of fairy tales and adventure stories. Princesses in towers and princes on stallions. And happily ever after. They were the same tales she shared with her kindergarteners. Only now she occasionally changed the endings to have the princess do the saving.

“And you seem to forget,” she added, “he’s the parent of my two newest students. There must be a clause in my contract prohibiting a teacher from entering into a relationship with a parent.”

“No. You can’t date an administrator. And you can’t engage in public lewdness. Otherwise, what you do in private is pretty much your own business.”

Olivia slipped her arm around Kelly’s shoulders. “I’ll cut you some slack because this is your first year in the system. But FYI, the written rules and the unwritten rules can be poles apart.” She didn’t want to sound like a prude, but ten years’ experience had taught her that teachers were still considered the most public of public servants. And single teachers? Their extracurricular activities were always scrutinized. “Besides, you’re kind of jumping the gun, aren’t you? Married or not, the guy just walked through the door.”

Kelly shrugged. “The early bird, and all that. Hey, maybe he’s separated. Maybe he needs a soft shoulder to lean on.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

None of Kelly’s musings answered the question of Gabriel Brant’s marital status. He did have two sons. At some point there must have been, or else there still was, a significant other in the picture. Quite frankly, Aunt Lydia’s lovely fairy-tale fantasies—and fantasies they were—made it hard to settle for anything less than magic. Olivia did know one thing with certainty, however. There was no fairy dust on affairs with married men.

“Well, what are you going to do?” Kelly pressed.

“What I’m going to do,” she replied, “is catch a late lunch, then come back and straighten up this classroom. Want to join me for a bowl of chili at the diner?”

“I’d love to, but Don’s parents are driving in tonight. If I don’t get home and run a vacuum cleaner and a dust cloth around the house before then, his mother will drop not-so-subtle hints all weekend about my housekeeping skills. As if her only child and heir apparent shouldn’t share the responsibility.”

“As if you had nothing better to do with your time. Just how many are you having for dinner tomorrow?”

“Eleven. So one more wouldn’t cause any more stress. You know you can change your mind and join us.”

“Thanks.” Olivia was tempted. “But the Meals on Wheels volunteers count on us holiday subs.” And the elderly they served counted on a smiling face and a little company on a day when they knew others would be inundated with friends and family. Olivia understood the feeling. “And the diner’s doing the turkey dinners this year. At the end of my shift, I get take-home. Marmaduke will see that I don’t go hungry.”

“If you say so. But you can always stop by for dessert.”

“I might do that. Just to run a white glove over your dusted surfaces.”

“Don’t encourage my mother-in-law.”

When Kelly left, Olivia put on her coat, scarf and gloves. She couldn’t find her hat, and she wondered whether one of her students had worn it home. Finally giving up the search, she headed for the diner, not a block from the school. The biting air made her wrap her scarf more tightly around her neck. Although the temperatures had been right for the season, there was still no sign of snow. A big disappointment, in Olivia’s mind. What were the holidays without snow? The skeletal tree limbs arching overhead appeared downright spooky, as if Halloween still lurked. The branches needed at least a light dusting to flip the calendar to the appropriate page. This is the famous New York snow belt, she silently reminded the leaden sky. So produce!

She pushed through the diner’s doorway into the crowded and steamy interior. “Olivia!” several people called out as she made her way to an empty stool at the counter. Ignatz, the ancient cook, winked at her from his side of the pass-through.

“The usual?” Maggie, one of two midday waitresses, asked from behind the counter, her Christmas bell earrings tinkling cheerily.

“Yes, please.” Although, suddenly, Olivia wanted something unusual. It was such a strange and overwhelming sensation. A craving. An itch. A nameless longing. For something she’d never experienced before. She couldn’t even tell if what she wanted was food or something bigger. Some adventure right out of a genie’s lamp.

But what she got was chili and a large glass of milk.

“Thanks, Maggie.” The odd feeling lingered as familiar voices around Olivia hummed in conversation.

“Who knows what your usual will taste like come Monday,” Maggie said. “Ignatz’s last shift is Saturday.”

“That reminds me, I have a little retirement present for him. I’ll bring it by Saturday afternoon. So who’s the new cook?”

“Marmaduke’s talking to him now.” Maggie nodded to a booth in the corner. “I know the boss is relieved to finally sit down with him face-to-face. He got so many responses to that Internet ad, but he hired this guy on his reputation and his connection to Hennings.”

“His connection to Hennings?” It couldn’t be.

“By way of New Orleans. He’s definitely easy on the eyes, but it’s anyone’s guess what the specials are going to taste like. Spicy, I’m betting.”

Olivia turned to see the owner of the diner in conversation with a man who had to be Gabriel Brant. His back was turned to her, but she could see the crowns of two small heads beside him. Justin and Jared. Someone had put crayons on the table. She could see a small hand coloring a place mat.

So this was the job Gabriel had taken until something better came up elsewhere. From the short interview they’d had in her classroom, she suspected he wasn’t thrilled about the opportunity. Why not? Marmaduke, who’d started out as a short-order cook himself and still worked the breakfast shift, was known to be an excellent employer. One who hadn’t forgotten his roots. One who prided himself on providing his employees with jobs that could actually pay the bills.

At that moment, Sasha, the second waitress, brought a tray to Gabriel’s table and began to clear dishes. Stretching out his arm, Marmaduke rose to leave. The two men shook hands. The twin on the outside of the bench seat turned around and spotted Olivia. His tentative wave melted her heart.

She ate her chili and drank her milk and wondered—for the umpteenth time—if she would ever have children of her own. After getting her degree, she’d turned down a more lucrative teaching position in a bigger system to come home and help her aunt as that extraordinary woman’s health began to fail. It was the least Olivia could do, after all her aunt had done for her.

Plus, she loved Hennings. Loved the big, old Victorian house in which she’d grown up, loved the small city’s quirky rhythms, loved knowing her contributions made a difference. Her students became her children for ten months, and although she enjoyed watching them grow beyond kindergarten, she always felt a sadness at the end of the school year, when she could no longer pretend they were hers.

Someone tugged at her shirttail. “Teacher?”

She looked down to see Justin and Jared standing next to her stool, colored place mats in hand. Their father, serious and eagle-eyed, watched from the booth.

“Hello,” she said. “I can see you’ve both been busy.”

“We want to give you our pictures,” Justin said. Olivia had determined that Justin was the twin who did all the talking. “Mine’s a dog. If I could have a dog, I’d want him to look just like this.”

Olivia took the picture and examined it. Two primitive figures cavorted across the drawing space. One, an obviously happy child, the other, an enormous dog. “This is very good, Justin. Do you know the story of Clifford, the big red dog?”

“The bookmobile lady read it to us.”

“Well, we have that book in our classroom. On Monday, when you come to school, I’ll find it for you. In fact, we’ll read it together.”

As Justin’s eyes grew wide with anticipation, Olivia felt a fairy godmother pleasure at being able to grant this simple favor.

“So, Jared,” she said, turning to the quiet twin, “let’s look at your picture.”

Silently, he handed it to her. In the corner, three sad circle faces peered out of a tiny car. A swirl of brown and black and blue covered the rest of the paper, threatening to engulf the travelers. Stick figures floated in the deluge.

“Tell me about your drawing, Jared,” she said ever so softly.

“It’s what he experienced during Katrina,” a deep voice replied, equally softly. Gabriel stood over his sons. “It’s all he draws, in one variation or another. I figure if I let him get it out on paper, the nightmares will eventually stop.”

And he’ll eventually talk again, Olivia thought. She’d watched CNN, horrified as the hurricane had devastated a city. But that was two years ago. Evidently, to this little boy, the horror still hadn’t diminished.

“Maybe I’m wrong, though,” Gabriel said. “It hasn’t happened yet.”

“I don’t think you’re wrong,” she replied, looking into adult eyes that held a world of pain. “Now that the boys will have the structure of home and school, I think you’ll see a marked improvement.”

The set of his jaw told her he wasn’t convinced, and made her wish she could offer him a guarantee.

She turned to the boys. “Thank you for my pictures. Would you like me to hang them in the classroom or on the refrigerator in my house?”

“In your house,” Justin said. “So you won’t forget us.”

“It’s not likely I’ll ever forget you two,” she replied, placing a hand on each twin’s shoulder. Every kindergartener who walked through her classroom doorway needed her, but clearly these two were special. Their needs ran deep, maybe deeper than a single teacher could or should explore. Would she be able to help? She looked into the wary eyes of their father. Would he let her?

Suddenly, for Gabriel, the air in the diner was too close. He nudged the boys toward the cash register, but they wanted to linger with Olivia. She’d won them over already, which was a good sign they’d settle into school. If the memory of his own schoolboy crush on one pretty second-grade teacher rang true, his sons would be head over heels in love with doe-eyed Ms. Marshall before next week was out.

He wasn’t certain he wanted the boys to form that great an attachment to anyone or anything in Hennings. The diner job was fine for starters. Knowing the difficulty of getting and retaining good cooks, Marmaduke paid well. Wanting to distance himself from fast-food places, he served traditional comfort food, but he was open to new ideas. Experimentation. Although he wouldn’t change his long-established menu, he’d promised Gabriel the daily specials would be his to play with. Even so, Gabriel planned on using his off time to use the public library’s Internet hookup to find a better position. Most likely an out-of-town position. And that would mean a commute. Or a move.

As he stood in line to pay for his lunch, he watched his boys with Olivia. Somehow, he didn’t think she’d approve of him uprooting the twins again. She seemed like the quintessential kindergarten teacher—sweet, traditional and rooted. But he firmly believed he and his sons could make it anywhere—hadn’t they already?—as long as they were together.

When his turn at the cash register arrived, Marmaduke refused to let him pay. Gabriel fought the urge to insist, but his new boss matter-of-factly told him all employees got one full meal per shift. He should consider today a signing bonus. Finding it almost impossible to regard the act as a handout, Gabriel switched his attention to Jared and Justin. “Ready to shop for turkey day?”

“Grampa says we need more PasgettiOs,” Justin said, waving goodbye to Olivia.

“Oh, I think my leftovers will replace the Grampa Walter special for a few days. Then we’ll think about buying more O’s.”

“I like SpaghettiOs,” Olivia said from her stool as Gabriel opened the diner door.

“Heaven help us,” he muttered, stepping out into the cold.

“When are we gonna see snow?” Justin asked, trudging alongside his father as the three made their way the few blocks back to Walter’s house and their car.

“Any day now. And if it snows enough, I’ll take you sledding on Packard Hill.”

The boys, who’d spent their short lives in a climate that didn’t require winter gear of any sort, gave him puzzled looks.

“Trust me,” Gabriel said, opening their car door so the boys could pile in, “you’re going to love it.” Hey, that was the first positive thing he’d said about the return to Hennings. Maybe Ms. Olivia Marshall’s quiet optimism was contagious.

At Wegmans, they made an “I spy” game out of shopping for their Thanksgiving groceries. The boys were wide eyed at the hustle and bustle, the colors, the choices, the piped-in music and the employees stationed throughout the store, handing out food samples.

For his part, Gabriel was glad to finally feel anonymous. Sure, he was a hometown boy, and a couple of people recognized him. But as far as being a Katrina evacuee, he didn’t register on anyone’s radar.

When the national media and the public at large had reached saturation point with the devastation and the hard-luck images, they’d moved on to the next breaking story, and Katrina—the good, the bad and the ugly—became a continuing reality only for New Orleans and the cities that had taken in the majority of those who’d had to flee. The lack of interest elsewhere was a curse, but at this particular moment in Hennings, it was also a strange blessing.

Back at 793 Chestnut, Walter met them at the door. “I got a surprise for you boys.” The old man looked like the proverbial cat with a canary in its craw.

Gabriel suddenly felt uneasy, but as Justin and Jared dashed up the porch steps, he began to unload the bags of groceries from the car. By the time he made it through the front door, the twins were on the living-room floor, playing with a fleet of Tonka trucks. Brand-new construction equipment. Shiny yellow dump trucks, bulldozers, cement mixers, cherry pickers, earthmovers. You name it, Walter had bought it.

“The set you and Daniel had,” Walter explained, all puffed up and looking proud of himself, “was metal. Pretty dinged up and rusted. Tetanus shots in the making. These are the same brand, but they’re plastic. They’re safer, plus they’ll last longer.”

Gabriel knew he should be thankful Walter was warming to this new role of grandfather, but…“Would you get the rest of the bags from the car?” he said. “I have stuff here that needs to go in the freezer.”

Walter narrowed his eyes, paused a fraction of a second and then headed outside.

When the two men came together in the kitchen, Gabriel had curbed his initial negative reaction. “It’s great you wanted Justin and Jared to feel at home,” he said, trying to choose his words carefully. “But let’s not go overboard with the toys. The boys are going to get bombarded with advertising between now and Christmas, and they’ve had so little these past two years, I don’t want them to have unrealistic expectations.”

“Are you finished?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve been buying a truck here and there for the past four years. Ever since I knew I had grandsons. Four years I’ve been waiting to meet them. There might be eight trucks out there. One a piece, for each birthday I’ve missed. So don’t give me any crap now about overloading them with gifts.”

Gabriel had no answer for that. In a tense silence, the two put away the groceries.

“Did you register the boys at school?” Walter asked at last.

“I did.”

“Who’s their teacher?”

“Olivia Marshall.”

“That’s good. She was an orphan—she’ll understand the boys.”

Gabriel felt the anger rise, hot and wild. Trying to keep his words from reaching the twins, he felt his voice come out thin and strained, like steam under pressure. “What are you talking about? My boys are not orphans.”

“Their mother abandoned them.”

“She brought them to me. Their father.”

Only four years ago Gabriel had found out he was a father. Morgana, a woman with whom he’d had a brief affair, had shown up in New Orleans out of the blue and deposited one-year-olds Justin and Jared on his doorstep.

She’d been an exotic dancer when he’d first known her. When she arrived in New Orleans, she was an exotic dancer with a drug problem. But at least she’d had her head on straight enough to realize she couldn’t continue to take care of the twins. His sons, she’d claimed. She’d even put his name on the birth certificates. So he’d taken a paternity test, and the boys were clearly his. As soon as the test results were in, Morgana had disappeared.

“Let’s get this straight,” Gabriel growled. “I’ve done some things I’m not all that proud of. You can beat up on me, but you are not to judge Justin and Jared for anything their father’s done. Understood?”

“I understand you’ve got a burr in your boxers. Always have. And I’ll be damned if I know why. But where your sons—my grandsons—are concerned, I was just stating a fact. Those two youngsters have had hard times to last four lifetimes. But they’re home now. Me, I’m just glad they’ll have a teacher who’ll show them some kindness. Don’t read any more into what I said than that.”

His speech ended, Walter stomped out of the kitchen. Gabriel could hear the La-Z-Boy creak as the television came on.

Maybe he did have a burr in his boxers. After seventeen years of being on his own, of supporting himself, of building a reputation as a chef, he didn’t find it easy starting over. Or coming to his dad, hat in hand. Walter, who’d never believed Gabriel could make it in the restaurant business in the first place. Thank God his boys were too young to understand the comedown.

Maybe this whole direction he’d decided upon was wrong. Maybe Hennings wasn’t the place to regroup.

“I need to get some air,” he said to the living room at large. “Boys, do you want to go for a walk with me?”

“Jared and I want to stay with Grampa and play trucks,” Justin answered. “It’s nice and warm in here.”

Walter didn’t take his eyes from the TV screen.

Outside, Gabriel walked in no particular direction, the low gray clouds matching his mood. He soon found himself standing outside the boys’ school. Lights were on in one of the classrooms, and he could see Olivia Marshall gathering up her belongings. Why was she still at school well after dismissal on the afternoon before Thanksgiving? Didn’t she have a better place to be? In fact, why was she still in Hennings at all?

When he’d hung out with her as a kid that one summer, she’d seemed so adventurous. As if the town wasn’t big enough for her imagination. His friends had felt sorry for him, when they’d heard how he’d spent his vacation. With a girl. Two years younger than him, no less. He’d never admitted it, but it was one of the best summers he could remember. Olivia was smart as a whip. Fearless, too. He’d kind of expected the daring Olivia he knew then to grow up to be more than a demure hometown kindergarten teacher.

“Did you forget something?” Her grown-up voice at his side startled him. Not as much, however, as the very real, very close, very pretty woman’s face that replaced the freckle-nosed girl he recalled.

He looked at the school and saw her classroom was dark now. How long had he been standing here? “Actually, I was remembering something.”