A Sweet Magnolias Novel

Mitch leveled a long look at him. “Do you need a strategy?”

Gabe thought about the question. It was fraught with all sorts of implications. “No way,” he said candidly. “I only came here with the intention of getting back on my feet, maybe making amends.”

Mitch frowned. “You did nothing wrong, Gabe. You don’t owe anybody in this town a thing.”

“But my mother was a piece of work. In my zeal to defend her, I made my share of mistakes.”

“Okay, let’s say you make amends. Then what?”

Gabe hesitated, pondering the question, then shrugged. “I’ll probably move on. I can’t see myself putting down roots, here or any place else.”

“Then a word of advice. Be careful with Adelia, my friend. We all recognize how strong she is, but she doesn’t see it just yet. Give her time to get there and don’t do anything that might lead her to believe you’re staying. And if you think that word of warning is coming just from me, think again. You ever heard of the Sweet Magnolias?”

Gabe shook his head. “Who are they?”

“It’s not an official organization or anything, but a lot of the women in town have formed this deep bond. They look out for each other, and heaven help anyone who messes with them. You probably remember Maddie Maddox?”

“Doesn’t sound familiar.”

“She would have been Maddie Vreeland in school. Then she married and became a Townsend. When that ended in divorce, she married the high school baseball coach. Anyway, she, Dana Sue Sullivan and Helen Decatur-Whitney started calling themselves Sweet Magnolias way back in high school.”

Gabe held up a hand. “Slow down.” He described the three women who’d been entering the bakery as he’d fled to get away from Lynn’s teasing on the afternoon Selena had gone missing.

“They’re the women who started it,” Mitch confirmed. “Over the years, they’ve included a bunch of other women, Lynn among them. I’m not sure what they do beyond the occasional margarita night get-together, but they sure do stick up for one another. I wouldn’t want to tangle with them or get their backs up, that’s for sure. I’m not sure I’d be married to Lynn right now if they’d objected to it.”

Mitch grinned. “Fortunately, Maddie, Helen and Dana Sue and I go way back. They jumped on my side. In addition to any wooing I did, Lynn got the full-court press from the Sweet Magnolias, too.” His expression sobered. “I’m just saying, if you do anything to hurt Adelia, they’ll be all over you. I have a hunch her recovery’s going to be their next project.”

The advice was perfectly reasonable, but Gabe took offense just the same. “Whatever my flaws might be, Mitch, they don’t include a trail of brokenhearted women. Listening to my mom cry her eyes out at night taught me to be honest and never offer something I don’t intend to deliver.”

His cousin nodded. “Good to know.” A grin spread across his face. “Something tells me, though, that battling wits with you could be just what Adelia needs to get her confidence back.”

Gabe waved those yellow pages in his cousin’s face. “So, I was right. Despite all those warnings you just uttered, you do have some crazy idea about pushing the two of us together for more than fixing up that house of hers.”

Mitch shrugged, his expression innocent. “The work needs to be done. You’re good at what you do. If a few sparks fly in the process, all the better.” He gave Gabe an amused look. “For both of you. Just keep in mind those boundaries I warned you about.”

Gabe scowled at his cousin, suddenly wondering if coming back to Serenity had been as smart a move as he’d once thought it was. “I’m not likely to forget.”

* * *

Chic closed promptly at six on Saturday, though it was usually closer to seven by the time Adelia wrapped up all the chores she felt were necessary before locking up for the night. When she stepped outside, she was stunned to find Gabe leaning casually against the building. He straightened at the sight of her.

Adelia regarded him with confusion. “Were you waiting for me?”

He grinned. “What was your first clue? You know any other pretty women in the neighborhood?”

“Gabe!” she protested. “You have to stop doing that.”

“Doing what?”

What was he doing exactly, other than rattling her, that is? Was he flirting? It had been so long since any man had teased and flattered her, she couldn’t be entirely sure.

“Saying things like that,” she told him finally, then started striding down the block with the crazy idea that she might be able to shake him if she walked away quickly enough.

He easily fell into step beside her. “Hasn’t anybody ever told you how beautiful you are?” he inquired curiously.

“Not in a long time,” she admitted wistfully before she could stop herself.

He stared at her incredulously. “Then the men of Serenity are idiots,” he declared.

She smiled at his vehemence. “Or maybe they just had good instincts for self-preservation,” she suggested. “Until recently I was married, remember?”

“So compliments were reserved for your husband?”

“Something like that.”

“And did he lavish you with a lot of them?”

She frowned. She had a hunch he already knew the answer to that. “We’re divorced. What do you think?”

“Then I get to lump him in with all the other idiots,” he said.

Adelia stopped in her tracks and turned to face him. “Gabe, why were you waiting for me? And why are you walking home with me? If we were sixteen, I’d say you were angling to carry my schoolbooks.”

He laughed at that. “If I’d known you back then, I probably would have been.” He pulled the now-rumpled yellow pages from his back pocket. “I thought I could look over these projects of yours and try to get a handle on what needs doing first.”

For a few minutes, Adelia had forgotten all about the renovations and his assignment to take them on.

Gabe was studying her with unmistakable amusement. “Did you forget about these?”

“Temporary lapse,” she assured him.

“Is this a bad time? If you have a date or something...” His voice trailed off as he studied her speculatively.

“No date,” she responded tersely. “And this is as good a time as any. I should warn you, though, that my mother’s at the house with the kids. That might ensure that you’ll get an invitation to a good meal, but it will also come with a lengthy interrogation.”

“I made it through your brother’s. I imagine I can handle whatever your mother asks.”

Adelia regarded him with alarm. “Elliott interrogated you? When?”

“On the day we were looking for Selena. He came by the construction site that evening. He told me he was there to apologize for the way he’d reacted when we stopped by the gym, but it was evident he wanted to clarify a few things for me.”

“Such as?”

“My intentions. His concerns. That sort of protective guy stuff.”

Adelia groaned. “He didn’t! I may have to kill him. He had no business getting in your face like that.”

“Oh, he thought he was being subtle about it, but men are rarely as subtle as they’d like to think when they’re warning people off. I got the message.” He shrugged. “Then we went out for pizza.”

“Men!” she said, shaking her head.

“He just wanted me to know you have someone looking out for you. I don’t imagine he realizes he’s not the only one.”

“Who else?” she asked before she could stop herself.

“Mitch chimed in just a couple of hours ago. He also said there’s some group of women in town, the Sweet Magnolias I think he called them. He said they’d have my hide if I hurt you.”

Adelia actually laughed at that. Though she wasn’t an actual member of that unofficial group of women, she certainly knew them all. She also knew their reputation for protecting their own with a ferocity that was a little terrifying to any rational man in town.

“And yet here you are,” she said. “Risking life and limb by walking through town with me.”

“Darlin’, there are some things worth taking an occasional risk for,” he said.

Then he very deliberately added a wink that rocked her nice, safe world. Adelia actually thought her heart might have come to a complete standstill for a few seconds.

And that, she concluded, should be sufficient warning to send her right back to where her day had started, knowing that she needed to avoid this man at all costs.

CHAPTER FIVE

Gabe got one whiff of the aromas coming from Adelia’s kitchen and decided that any interrogation that might lie ahead would be well worth it, as long as he was invited to stick around for dinner. Adelia must have noticed that he was practically drooling, because she chuckled.

“Let me put you out of your misery,” she said. “Would you like to join us for dinner?”

“Yes,” he said so quickly that it immediately brought a deepening smile to her lips.

“You haven’t even met my mother yet,” she reminded him. “Are you sure?”

“Not a doubt in my mind.”

“Either you’re sick of pizza or you’re a very brave man.”

Gabe laughed. “Probably a little of both with some curiosity thrown in.”

“Curiosity?”

He nodded. “I find myself wanting to meet the woman who can fill this house with such incredible aromas and yet make grown men cower. That’s an impressive combination. It’ll be interesting to discover if you two are anything alike.”

Just then the very woman in question, diminutive in size but with the regal bearing of a matriarch used to respect, came out of the kitchen.

“I thought I heard voices,” she said, regarding Gabe speculatively. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“Mother, I’d like you to meet Gabe Franklin,” Adelia said.

Mrs. Cruz’s eyes narrowed. “I believe my son has mentioned you.”

“Uh-oh,” Adelia murmured under her breath.

“He probably has,” Gabe said easily. “Elliott and I had dinner just the other night.”

Mrs. Cruz’s eyes lit with amusement at his interpretation of the encounter. “I hardly think my son’s choice of a dinner companion would have stuck in my mind. I believe it was his comment that we needed to keep an eye on you around Adelia. Do we?”

“Mother!” Adelia said, blushing furiously. She turned to him. “I warned you. There’s still time to make a run for it.”

“Not a chance,” he replied. Since Mrs. Cruz didn’t seem to harbor any particular biases toward him, Gabe figured he’d passed some sort of test with Elliott, if not yet with her. He was eager to see how the evening might play out. He couldn’t help it. Challenges always caught his interest.

“Gabe is here to check out the work I want to have done on the house,” Adelia explained quickly. “I’ve invited him to join us for dinner.”

“If it’s not an imposition,” Gabe told the older woman, drawing on manners he’d picked up from watching the way civilized people behaved, rather than any examples that had been set in his home.

“It’s not an imposition at all,” Mrs. Cruz said. “I have a large family. I cook accordingly. There’s always more than enough for company. Dinner will be ready in a half hour, if that will give you time to look around at the renovations my daughter has in mind.”

“Absolutely,” Gabe said, relieved to have passed the initial screening at least.

Somehow, though, he wouldn’t be one bit surprised to find Elliott and heaven knew how many other members of the Cruz family joining them at the table.

* * *

Adelia took one look at her mother’s face and decided that giving Gabe a personal tour to go over her notes would be preferable to the cross-examination she was likely to receive if she joined her mother in the kitchen, even long enough to apologize for bringing home a last-minute guest. She realized there was a certain irony in the fact that she was more intimidated by the thought of answering her mother’s penetrating questions than Gabe was. Of course, she’d had experience that he didn’t share.

“Let’s start outside,” she suggested to Gabe. “I think I saw a ladder in the shed, if you want to check out the roof. Mother, you don’t need my help, do you?”

Her mother gave her a knowing look. “Of course not. The girls are helping. It’s time they learned their way around a kitchen. I left Selena stirring the sauce for the enchiladas. Knowing how distracted she gets by those text messages she receives every couple of minutes, I’d better check on it before it burns.”

Adelia frowned. “She’s not supposed to be using her cell phone these days.”

Her mother looked startled. “I see. She didn’t mention that.”

“I’d better go in there and deal with this,” Adelia said.

Her mother waved her off. “I can handle it.”

“Thanks,” Adelia said, relieved not to have to force yet another confrontation with her daughter or get caught in her mother’s crosshairs.

Adelia avoided Gabe’s gaze as she led the way to the backyard. When she finally risked a glance, she found his eyes sparkling with barely concealed mirth.

“When did I become the lesser of two evils?” he asked.

“In the past five minutes,” she said, not even trying to pretend he hadn’t hit the target with his observation. “If I’d had any idea she and Elliott had been chatting about you and me, you wouldn’t have gotten within a hundred yards of this place while she was here. I don’t need the aggravation.”

A smile spread across his face. “You’re scared of your mother,” he taunted.

“Terrified,” Adelia admitted, seeing little reason to deny it. “Why do you find that so amusing?”

“Because you’re a pretty formidable presence in your own right.”

“Formidable? Me?” she said, laughing. “Hardly. As you just heard, not even my own daughter takes my rules seriously.”

“Maybe you need to see yourself from where I’m standing,” Gabe said, his expression turning serious. “Seems to me you could hold your own with anybody, even Selena. She’s just testing the limits.”

Adelia wished she could see herself that way. After years of Ernesto’s criticism and neglect, she had a very low opinion of her own worth. She was determined to get past that, but she wasn’t there yet.

“So, what is it about your mother that intimidates you?” Gabe asked.

Adelia gave the question a moment’s thought before responding. “She has some very rigid and old-fashioned ideas about the role of women, the sanctity of marriage and in general about the relationships between men and women. I’ve been a disappointment.”

He looked skeptical. “I didn’t hear even a hint of judgment in her voice, just concern.”

“You haven’t had the practice I’ve had at reading between the lines,” Adelia told him. “It’s ironic really, because on many levels, I don’t even disagree with her.”

“So you’re an old-fashioned woman at heart?”

She considered the label. It actually fit better than she’d realized. She might chafe at it, but she’d done nothing in her life that would indicate she’d broken that particular mold. Until very recently she hadn’t even been sure she wanted to. It was only lately that she’d come to appreciate the value of independence and self-sufficiency.

“In some ways, I suppose I am old-fashioned,” she said. “I liked being a stay-at-home mom and wife. I thought marriage vows meant forever.” She shrugged. “I’ve just come to accept that some marriages can’t be saved.”

She shuddered at the memory of the day she’d broken the news of her intention to divorce Ernesto. “You have no idea how much courage it took for me to tell my devoutly Catholic mother that I was leaving my husband. That brought on a huge family intervention that entailed quite a bit of yelling and a host of recriminations about how I’d failed the test as a dutiful wife.”

Gabe regarded her with surprise. “She disapproved, even under the circumstances?”

“At first I was too humiliated to admit the reason, so she vehemently disapproved. When I was finally persuaded to tell her everything, it took some adjustment on her part, but she actually turned out to be surprisingly supportive.”

“And the rest of the family?”

“Elliott and his wife have been incredible,” she said. “The others, not so much.” She held up a hand. “Could we drop this? It’s more than you ever really wanted or needed to know about my personal life, I’m sure.”

Gabe looked as if he wanted to argue about that, but he nodded and gestured toward the shed. “The ladder’s in there? Is it locked?”

“No, it’s open.”

She took a deep breath and fought for composure while he got the extension ladder and put it against the side of the house. No sooner had he started up to the roof, than Tomas spotted him and came running across the yard.

“Who’s that?” he asked, staring after Gabe. “Can I go up on the roof with him?”

He already had one foot on the bottom rung when Adelia clamped a hand on his shoulder. “Not now,” she said firmly. “Let Gabe do his job.”

Tomas stared up at the roof, his disappointment plain. “But what’s he doing?”

“Looking to see what kind of shape the roof is in and what it will take to fix it,” she said.

Tomas frowned. “Do we know him?”

“I do,” she said. “You remember Mitch Franklin?”

“The man who’s fixing all those stores on Main Street,” Tomas said. “He’s married to the cupcake lady.”

Adelia smiled at the characterization. Clearly baking cupcakes was more memorable to Tomas than Lynn’s name. “Exactly. Gabe is his cousin. He works for Mitch.”

“Is he gonna do anything else here?” he asked, his curious gaze still fixed on Gabe, who was scrambling over the steep roof with the agility of a mountain goat.

“Lots of things,” Adelia said. “He or the people who work for him are going to do all those things on that list we made.”

“Like paint my room?”

She smiled at his sudden eagerness. “That’s definitely on the list,” she agreed.

“Will he let me help? Mitch let Jeremy help when he was working at Raylene’s.”

“I’m sure he’ll try to find some things you can do,” Adelia said, hoping that would be the case. She was sure Tomas would start to feel better about this new home if he had even a tiny role to play in making the necessary improvements. “You have to promise, though, to do exactly what Gabe or any of the other professionals tell you to do and never to do anything involving tools without supervision.”

“Promise,” Tomas said, his attention already wandering as he saw Gabe descending the ladder. He scampered over to wait for him.

“Hi,” he said, startling Gabe so badly he almost missed his footing. “I’m Tomas.”

Gabe steadied himself, then held out a hand. “I’m Gabe,” he said. “Are you the man of the house?”

Tomas looked surprised by the question, but Adelia saw his chest swell just a little as he realized that was exactly what he was. “Since my dad’s not here, I am.”

“Then I’ll be sure to talk things over with you when I start working around here,” Gabe promised him, winking at Adelia over his head.

“I don’t imagine he’ll give you much choice,” she told Gabe. “Tomas wants to be part of your crew, that is, if you can find anything for him to do that isn’t too dangerous.”

“Mom! I’m not a baby,” her son protested.

“Of course not,” Gabe was quick to say. “But you are inexperienced, or am I wrong about that? Have you built a house before?”

Tomas giggled. “No.”

Gabe nodded solemnly. “Then in that case, you’ll learn on the job.”

“I can do that,” her son said with enthusiasm. “I’m a quick learner. I get really good grades in school and I hardly have to study at all.” He made a face. “Except spelling. I’m bad at spelling.”

“We’ve all struggled with that on occasion,” Gabe said.

Tomas looked surprised. “Even you?”

“Even me,” Gabe said. “Why don’t you show me these things that are on your mom’s list? This is man’s work, after all.”

Adelia might have taken offense at that if Tomas hadn’t looked so excited at being included among the men on this particular job.

Smiling, she said, “I’ll leave you to it, then. Make sure you’re in the dining room for dinner in fifteen minutes,” she told them both. “Abuela doesn’t like dinner getting cold.”

Tomas nodded at once, then confided to Gabe. “Abuela makes the best food ever!”

“I’ll bet she does,” Gabe said. “I’m looking forward to it.” He glanced at the list, found the next item—painting the bedrooms—and suggested that Tomas lead the way.

As they went into the house, she heard her son chattering away, sounding happier than she’d heard him in weeks.

Left with no other alternative, she went into the kitchen and found all three of her girls dealing with various assignments while her mother watched over them. Natalia was putting rice into a bowl almost as big as she was. Juanita, her tongue caught between her teeth and a frown of concentration on her forehead, was carefully pouring steaming, fragrant black beans into another bowl.

“Sounds to me as if you just made Tomas’s day,” her mother said, regarding her approvingly. “What do you know about this man? Is he a good role model?”

“I can’t really say,” Adelia admitted. “But he was very kind to Tomas just now. If he hadn’t been, if he’d shown any hint of impatience, I wouldn’t have left them alone.”

“And is he equally kind to you?” her mother asked quietly, the question spoken low enough that she wouldn’t be heard over the girls’ squabbling.

“He doesn’t need to be kind to me. He just needs to get the work done,” Adelia replied.

“I spoke to your brother just now and mentioned that Gabe was here.”

“Thanks for that,” Adelia said dryly. She should probably expect a visit or call from her protective brother no later than tomorrow.

Her mother ignored the hint of sarcasm in her voice and told her, “Elliott still seems to think there might be more to his interest than any work he might do around here.”

“My brother has stars in his eyes these days,” Adelia said in a tone that made light of Elliott’s opinion. “Karen has made him very happy with their life as a family.”

“One thing has nothing to do with the other,” her mother insisted. “He’s concerned for your happiness. We all are.”

“I’m happier than I have been in years,” Adelia said. Even as the words tumbled out just to divert unwanted attention, she realized they were actually true. Her life might not be perfect, but it was a whole lot better than the lie she’d been forced to live with Ernesto. Better yet, her happiness was within herself and not tied to any man.

* * *

Gabe couldn’t ever recall having a meal that came with quite as much commotion as the one he was sharing with Adelia and her family. The good news was that it was impossible for them to share a single private word. That was the bad news, as well.

Still, he liked seeing her up close like this with her family. Her daughters, well, the younger two, anyway, had plenty to say, talking over each other in an attempt to get not only their mother’s attention, but his. To do that, though, they had to compete with Tomas, who’d managed to sit beside Gabe and asked more questions than Alex Trebek in a year’s worth of Jeopardy episodes. Gabe noted that Adelia seemed amused and showed not the slightest inclination to rescue him.

Mrs. Cruz, however, did chime in from time to time to remind her grandson to give Mr. Franklin time to breathe.

Tomas regarded her blankly. “He is breathing,” he said, looking puzzled. “Wouldn’t he die if he wasn’t?”

Adelia laughed, and the light sound echoed in the room in a way that drew the attention of even Selena, who looked as if she hadn’t heard that laugh in a while. The teen stared at her mother with evident surprise, then turned a scowl on Gabe, as if she didn’t like him being even indirectly responsible for her mom’s brighter mood.

Selena started to push back from the table, but at a pointed glance from her grandmother, she hesitated. “May I be excused?” she asked.

Adelia frowned at the request. “You haven’t finished your meal.”

“I’m not hungry. Please.”