LITMIR.BIZ

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happened, then you wouldn’t have been trapped with a man who cheated on you every chance he got.”

      Adelia closed her eyes, trying to gather her composure. She’d hoped this conversation would never be necessary, but Selena had clearly overheard way too many arguments with Ernesto and the accusations that had been flung about.

      “It’s true that I was pregnant when your Dad and I got married,” she confessed, then forced Selena to meet her gaze. “But you need to believe me, sweetheart. I don’t regret that decision, not for a single minute.”

      “How can you not regret it?” Selena asked angrily. “Dad did.”

      “No, he didn’t. Not really.”

      “I heard him, Mom.”

      “People say things in the heat of the moment that they don’t really mean, even your dad. But let’s focus on how I feel for now. How can I regret marrying your dad when I have you and your sisters and your brother because of that decision? The four of you mean everything to me. I may hate what’s been happening, I may be really angry at him right now, but I can’t regret being married to him, sweetheart. One of these days you’ll discover that things are never as black-and-white as we might like them to be. There’s a lot of gray in the middle. Good just happens to come with bad sometimes.”

      Tears streamed down Selena’s cheeks. “I’m never getting married,” she declared.

      Her determined words were as painful for Adelia to hear as her own had probably been for Elliott on Sunday night. She didn’t want her daughter’s future to be shaped by the divorce. She pulled Selena close and Selena actually allowed it, resting her head on Adelia’s shoulder as she had when she was younger.

      “That’s not a decision you need to be making now,” she told her daughter. “And it certainly isn’t one you should base on what happened between your father and me. Look at your uncle Elliott and Karen and how happy they are.”

      “But Karen’s first husband was a real jerk,” Selena reminded her. “So was Raylene’s. I heard all about how he abused her and then came here and tried to kill her.”

      “But Raylene has Carter now and they’re expecting a baby,” Adelia reminded her. “She found real happiness this time, the kind that will last.”

      “But there’s no way to know for sure,” Selena protested. “I’ll bet you thought Dad was great at first or you wouldn’t have fallen in love with him. The same with Karen and Raylene. They’re smart, too, and look what happened to them.”

      “Okay, here’s what I know,” Adelia said, brushing a lock of hair back from Selena’s damp cheek. “People make mistakes. And sometimes people change. Human beings are flawed, but that doesn’t mean you should never take a risk. The important thing is that it be an informed risk, one you only take after very careful thought. And even then, if you get it wrong, you pick up the pieces and move on.”

      Even as she said the words meant to reassure her daughter, Adelia realized they were very similar to the sentiment that Elliott had expressed to her. She wondered if she was any more capable of hearing them right now than Selena was.

      “How do you do that, though?” Selena asked. “Move on, I mean? You make it sound easy, but it’s not.”

      “No, it’s not,” Adelia said. “But you do it because you must and you do it one day at a time. Some days will be easier than others.”

      “I made today harder, didn’t I?” Selena asked, real regret in her voice.

      “You did,” Adelia said, unwilling to gloss over the effect her behavior had. “But I understand why you came here. Sometimes I forget that you’re not a grown-up and that all these decisions your dad and I have made affect you in ways I might not even realize. But, baby, you need to talk to me about it, not take off.” She tucked a finger under Selena’s chin and forced her to look into her eyes. “Deal?”

      Selena nodded slowly. “Deal.” Her expression turned worried. “How much trouble am I in? Grounded is a given, huh?”

      “Grounded is a given,” Adelia agreed. “But I imagine we can smooth things over at school, even though they have a very low tolerance for skipping classes. You’ll need to apologize to your teacher and to the principal for worrying them.”

      Selena didn’t look happy, but she nodded. “Anybody else?”

      “Raylene and Carter for inconveniencing them,” Adelia said. “Mitch Franklin, who dropped everything to help look for you, and his cousin Gabe, who drove me around to all the places I thought you might be, then brought me here.”

      “I don’t even know him,” Selena protested. “Why did he help?”

      “Because that’s what people do in Serenity,” Adelia told her. “I know you think this town is way too small and old-fashioned and that you can’t wait to get away, but the positive side of living here is that we look out for each other. We pitch in when anyone’s in trouble.”

      It was something she was just coming to realize for herself, and in the past few months, when her world had been turned upside down, she’d been grateful for all the support, sometimes from the most unexpected people. Gabe Franklin, she was forced to concede, fell into that category.

      * * *

      Gabe stayed on the job until after eight, running the numbers Ronnie Sullivan had given him for new steel support beams until he had a proposal ready to pass along to Mitch first thing in the morning. While he’d told himself it was the responsible thing to do, he knew the real reason he was still at the construction site was to keep himself from heading over to Swan Point to check on Adelia and her daughter.

      “She’s not your responsibility,” he muttered to himself on more than one occasion when he found his thoughts straying to her panicked expression when she’d first found out her daughter was missing.

      For the entire hour he’d been with her, though, she’d lost control only once when what-if calamities had crept into her head. He thought he’d done an okay job of diverting her attention before she could sink into real despair. Other than that moment, she’d shown admirable strength. After his own childhood, it had been eye-opening to see how a good mother handled things.

      He was about to turn out the lights, lock up and head for Rosalina’s, when the door opened and Elliott Cruz walked in. Gabe stilled at the sight of him. He’d seen the protectiveness in the other man’s eyes earlier and couldn’t help wondering what had brought him here now. A warning to stay away, perhaps? Gabe was ready to reassure him on that point. He intended to steer clear of Adelia as much as possible for his own peace of mind.

      “Elliott, right?” he asked, seizing the initiative and holding out his hand. “We didn’t really meet earlier.”

      Adelia’s brother looked startled, but he shook his hand.

      “What brings you by?” Gabe asked.

      “I came to apologize,” Elliott told him.

      The statement took Gabe by surprise. “Why?”

      “Because you pitched in to help this afternoon and I came on too strong and all but attacked you when you came into the gym with my sister.”

      Gabe shrugged. “You didn’t have all the facts.”

      “No, I certainly didn’t,” Elliott said. “Adelia would be the first to tell you, jumping to conclusions is a bad habit of mine. In my family I was the only son with three sisters. They were all older, but I took on the role of protecting them when our father died. Sometimes I’ve been known to get carried away.”

      “Seems to me they’re lucky to have someone looking out for them,” Gabe said.

      “Tell them that,” Elliott replied, his expression rueful. “I don’t get half the gratitude you might expect, especially from Adelia. She’s the oldest and always thought she should be protecting

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