Читать книгу Passion Ignited - Kayla Perrin - Страница 13

Chapter 4

Gabrielle drove as if the devil were chasing behind her. Why on earth had Omar Ewing come to see her?

Her stomach was tight. Her heart was pounding. And it was aggravating.

Good Lord, Omar was sexy. While looking at him, a part of her came alive. She didn’t understand this intense and idiotic attraction to a man like him.

“Forget him,” she told herself.

She turned up the music as she continued driving to her parents’ place. They still lived in the childhood home she had grown up in. It was a house overlooking the water, close to the beach. Her parents—Joe and Gina Leonard—had both worked two jobs when she’d been young, building the American dream for their children. Her mother used to work in a daycare during the day, while her father did construction. At night and on weekends, they cleaned office buildings. Their hard work had paid off.

Gabrielle had been ten when her parents had bought the house that ultimately became their home. It had been small, a split-level ranch house, with a huge backyard. The plan had always been to renovate the house and make it their own, something her father could do well because he worked in construction. The first order of business was to expand the house into the backyard. Her father had built his wife a dream kitchen. After that, the bedrooms had gotten bigger. An additional den had been added. Her parents had been able to renovate the house exactly to their liking. Because it had needed work and a lot of TLC, they had been able to purchase a house in a prime real estate location for an incredible price. But they had turned the house into something spectacular.

Gabrielle still remembered the celebration when the house had been finished. Her parents had been so proud. She and her sister, Grace, had been elated. And finally, her parents had stopped working quite as hard, allowing them to all spend more time together as a family.

Everything her parents had done had been for Gabrielle and Grace. She knew that. Joe and Gina had come from far more humble beginnings, and wanted their own children to have more.

Her parents had successfully conquered two goals. Raising two children, and having a house you could call a home. Now they wanted to spend their later years building another dream.

Just last year, her parents had decided to finally invest in something for themselves. For years, they had dreamed of opening a restaurant. Given that they had worked so hard to build a home for their children, her mother had not been able to follow her culinary passion when she’d been younger. Finally feeling financially secure, later in life, her parents took out some of the equity they had built up in their home to invest in opening a restaurant.

Gina’s Steakhouse.

Gabrielle smiled sadly as she remembered the day the doors had opened. Her mother had beamed with such pride. Her father had insisted that the restaurant be named after his wife. After all, she had given up going to culinary school to raise a family and work to make sure food stayed on the table. Her father had wanted to make sure that her mother finally fulfilled her lifelong dream. And seeing her name on the side of a building had brought her mother incredible joy.

As Gabrielle drove, tears misted her eyes. She had been moved to tears by her mother’s emotion on the day of the grand opening. Gabrielle knew that her whole life her mother had worked extra hard to make sure that she and Grace would have everything they needed in life. Finally, she had had something for herself.

But only six months after opening, the restaurant had gone up in flames.

Torched by the arsonist.

And two weeks after that, her father had his near fatal heart attack.

Gabrielle pulled into the driveway of her parents’ home. She looked at the house where she had spent her happiest years. And wiped the tears from her eyes.

As she made her way to the door, she looked at the wood exterior that her father had repainted just last year. A mix of blues and yellows gave the house a cheery feel. How ironic that inside, so much sadness existed.

Gabrielle rang the doorbell. A minute later, it opened, and her mother smiled at her. “Hello, sweetheart.”

“Hi, Mom,” Gabrielle said. She stepped into the house and put her arms around her mother. She held her tightly, noticing that her mother seemed to shake beneath her touch.

“How’s Daddy?” Gabrielle asked.

“He’s hanging in there, but he’s the same.”

Meaning he was depressed. Gabrielle didn’t know if he was more upset about the heart attack, or the restaurant burning down.

“He’s upstairs?”

“Yes,” her mother answered.

Ever since the heart attack, they had adjusted their master bedroom so that he could be comfortable in it and not have to move around too much. Before that, he used to love to spend time in his man cave. With her and Grace gone, her father had taken over the den. He had put a huge-screen TV in there so he could watch his favorite sports up close.

But since the heart attack, he had been spending more time in bed. Part of the reason was that he had an oxygen tank he had to use for several hours, and it was set up beside the bed. Due to his heart disease, the doctors believed his body was not getting enough oxygen, so he had been prescribed oxygen therapy.

Gabrielle had made sure that her parents had a bigger TV in the bedroom. She’d also helped her mother order a bed that could be adjusted so that her father could sit upright. Gabrielle hated to see him stay in bed all day, because to her it seemed as though he was giving up.

Gabrielle wandered through the house to the back that led up to the split-level. Her parents’ bedroom was the first one on the left. Gabrielle knocked softly, then pushed the door open.

“Daddy?” she called out.

“Come in, darling.”

Gabrielle stepped into the room, saw her father sitting upright in the bed. He looked exactly the same as he had the last time she had visited. A knit bedspread was thrown across his lap. His head rested on a pillow. The oxygen tubes connected to his nose.

Gabrielle’s heart ached. Her father looked so darn frail. His face was worn, and his eyes were glum. Gabrielle hated this.

She walked over to her father and leaned down to give him a hug and a kiss. “Hey, Daddy.”

He offered her a faint smile, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Hi, Gabby.”

Gabrielle eased onto the bed beside her father. “How’re you feeling today?”

He made a sour face. “I hate all this crap I have to eat and drink.”

He gestured to the right, and Gabrielle looked on the table beside the bed. There was a tray with congealed oatmeal, a banana and a cup of nuts. “You’re not eating?”

“Not that stuff.” He made a face. “I made your mother get me real food.”

“And what was that?” Gabrielle asked.

“Pizza.” He smiled. “From that pizza place I like down the street.”

“Daddy,” Gabrielle said, an exasperated sigh escaping her lips. She knew exactly why her father liked that food. It was greasy and delicious—and exactly the kind of food her father had been told to stay away from. “You know you’re supposed to cut out the fatty foods.”

“He thinks vegetables and food cooked with less butter is torture.”

At the sound of her mother’s voice, Gabrielle looked over her shoulder. Her mother stepped into the room. “I’ve been trying to get him to follow the doctor’s advice, but you see him. He’s wasting away to nothing. I have to feed him.”

“I know,” Gabrielle said. Though she wished her mother wouldn’t cave to her father’s demands. Eventually, he would have to eat what was in front of him if she didn’t give him an alternative.

“I need you to get better, Daddy.”

“I want this arsonist caught,” her father said, speaking passionately. “That’s what’s going to make me better. He took away my livelihood.”

Her father made a pained expression and tried to adjust his body in the bed. Gabrielle’s mother quickly hurried to his side. “Joe, you can’t do this. You can’t get yourself worked up.”

“That man took away our livelihood! Our dream!”

Gabrielle took her father’s hand in hers. “Daddy, you’ve got to take it easy. Do you want to give yourself another heart attack?”

He frowned, and huffed. But he didn’t say a word.

Gabrielle squeezed her father’s hand. “I’m working on finding out who did this.” She looked at her mother briefly before looking at her father again. “I was close yesterday. Real close. You heard about the fire last night? Well, I was there. And I saw someone in the crowd, and—”

“You what?” her mother asked.

“I went to the scene of the fire. I wanted to look at the people, see if someone there seemed suspicious.”

“Oh, my goodness,” Gina uttered.

“I know I saw him,” Gabrielle pressed on. “It was dark, but I tried to get a few pictures. Then, when he was leaving, I tried to follow him.”

“Gabby,” her father chastised. “You can’t be doing that.”

“There were a lot of people there. I was fine.”

“I don’t want you getting yourself hurt,” her father scolded.

She thought of Omar, how he had echoed the same concern. Gabrielle offered her father a brave smile. “I won’t get hurt. I promise you.” She paused. “What matters to me is that I get this situation fixed for you.”

“You always think you can fix things, don’t you,” Joe said. “But, Gabby, you can’t. Some things you need to let the authorities handle.”

“I hate seeing you like this,” Gabrielle said to her father. “All the stress of what happened... I just want you to get better.”

“You want me to get better, get me a chocolate fudge sundae.”

“You’ve already had pizza today,” Gabrielle said. “That’s enough veering from your diet for one day.”

“Joe.” Gina shook her head with disdain. “You know you can’t have a chocolate fudge sundae.”

Joe scoffed and waved a dismissive hand. “It wasn’t my diet that did this to me. It was the stress.”

Gabrielle figured it was a bit of both. But mostly the stress. To lose your life’s work in a flash and for no good reason was exactly why she was determined to make things right for her father. She wanted to see the light in his eyes again. And in her mother’s. She couldn’t walk into this house and feel this cloud of negativity hanging over all of them for much longer.

“Gabby,” Gina began. “Can you come to the kitchen with me for a moment?”

Joe looked at Gina with suspicion. “What’s going on?”

“I just want to talk to Gabby about dinner.”

“Rib eye,” Joe said as Gabrielle and her mother began to walk out of the room. “With some mac and cheese. Or maybe fries and gravy.”

Gabrielle looked over her shoulder at her father. She shook her head. “Not tonight.”

“Then a T-bone,” Joe called as Gabrielle and her mother stepped into the hallway.

Gina turned toward her daughter. “Do you see what I have to deal with? It’s so hard. I try to make him healthy meals, and he acts like I’m trying to poison him. I made him some quinoa last night, and a beautiful garden salad. He threatened to go on a hunger strike.”

Gabrielle groaned. “He’s acting like a petulant child. Good grief, he knows you’re trying to keep him alive.”

Gina linked arms with Gabrielle and walked with her toward the staircase. “Can you go to the store and pick up some groceries for me? I hate to leave him here alone. The last time I left, I came back and found him downstairs eating ice cream from the tub.”

“What I can do is help you clear out the fridge,” Gabrielle said. Her father wasn’t an invalid. Sure, he was staying in bed a lot to rest, but he was smart enough to know that when her mother left the house, it was his opportunity to raid the fridge for the foods he really liked. “You can’t have any bad stuff in the house if you don’t want him to eat it.”

“Later, I will clean out the fridge and cupboards of all the junk,” Gina said. “In fact, I’ll do it tonight.”

Gabrielle doubted it. It was hard to see someone you loved beg for something and deny them. She was probably keeping the cookies and treats in the house, knowing that at some point she was going to have to placate her husband.

Her mother could no doubt use some help. Another person here to help alleviate the stress.

“Have you spoken to Grace?” Gabrielle asked.

“She says she can’t get away,” Gina said, answering the question Gabrielle hadn’t even asked.

Gabrielle gritted her teeth. Her mother was always ready with excuses for Grace. Grace could never get away. Not unless it was something she wanted to do.

“Is she working?” Gabrielle asked.

“Not right now.”

“So it would be perfect timing for her to come here and spend some time with you and Daddy,” Gabrielle pointed out.

“I’m sure she’s going to come here as soon as she can. She loves your father.”

This wasn’t about Grace not loving her father. This was about Grace being selfish. She’d been raised as a spoiled kid, and had always felt that the world revolved around her. Now her father had had a life-threatening heart attack and she didn’t even have the decency to come see him? What if he had a second heart attack and died?

Gabrielle prayed that didn’t happen, but there were no guarantees in life. And with her father determined to eat a diet that would kill him... You just never knew.

“It’s not like we haven’t heard from her,” Gina said. “She’s called, spoken to your father.”

“Isn’t that nice?” Gabrielle said sarcastically. “She should get on a plane and come down here. Portland isn’t on the other side of the world.”

“Don’t be so hard on your sister,” Gina said.

“You always defend her, Mom,” Gabrielle said, exasperated. “But she’s never here when we need her.”

Gabrielle refrained from pointing out that her parents had always been there when Grace needed them. Grace had had one financial disaster after another in her life, and had always called her parents when she needed help picking up the pieces. While Gabrielle had adopted her parents’ work ethic, her sister had not. Whenever she had money, she spent it carelessly. She liked to party, and even do the occasional recreational drug.

Though maybe it was more than occasional. That would certainly explain why she could never hold down a steady job.

“She got fired from her last job,” Gina said.

“So she has no money,” Gabrielle said. Of course, she added silently. Her sister could never keep a job. It wasn’t the first time she’d been fired. And it wouldn’t be the last. Grace liked to stay up late, and sleep in late. Which only proved her to be unreliable. Employers wanted to know that you would get up in the morning and go to work consistently.

But when you had Mommy and Daddy bailing you out all the time...

Gabrielle knew this wasn’t the time to get into Grace’s situation with her mother. So all Gabrielle said was, “Well, hopefully she finds another job and gets herself down here to see Dad.”

“Will you go and pick up the groceries for me?” Gina asked.

Gabrielle put an arm around her mother. “Of course.”

This was so hard on her mother, and she could see it in her eyes. If only Grace would come back home to help her parents out and ease the stress on their mother.

As Gabrielle descended the stairs with her mother, she tried to push Grace out of her mind. It hurt thinking about her sister. So many disappointments... She and her sister were not even on speaking terms anymore.

Grace had stopped talking to her because Gabrielle had refused to give her more money. The first few times Grace had called her in crisis, Gabrielle had lent her money. And when she hadn’t gotten it back, she’d been okay with it. In her heart, she wanted to believe the best about her sister. Grace’s hard-luck stories were always compelling. This or that bad thing had happened to her. Eventually, it became clear to Gabrielle that Grace had been making excuses.

She had a safety net. And it was the family.

So when Gabrielle had told her she would not give her any more money the last time she had called, Grace had been livid. She hadn’t spoken to her since. Not truly spoken to her anyway. Gabrielle had seen her at the occasional family get-together, and Grace had always been distant and cold.

“Sweetheart?”

Her mother’s voice pulled Gabrielle from her thoughts. “Yes?”

“This is a list I made. And here’s some money.” She stuffed several bills into Gabrielle’s palm.

“I don’t need the money,” Gabrielle said. “I can certainly buy my parents some groceries.”

“I don’t know what I would do without you,” Gina said and smiled.

“And I don’t know what I would do without you and Daddy,” Gabrielle said.

It was why she was determined to see the arsonist caught.

Because only then might some normality return to her family.