Stranger in Town. Brenda Novak

disarmed him with a slow smile. “Sorry, man. I didn’t expect to interrupt anything important—especially with Hannah Price.”

      “Mike…” Gabe warned.

      Turning his palms up in mock innocence, Mike shrugged. “I’m just glad to see you don’t blame her for the accident. What happened was Russ’s fault.”

      Except that it wasn’t Russ who’d crashed into him. Had Hannah been two minutes earlier or two minutes later—or simply waited for Russ to bring the boys back…

      “Any caring mother would go after her kids,” Mike said.

      Sometimes Gabe agreed; sometimes he didn’t. Generally, he tried not to think of Hannah, or any other woman for that matter. “Why do I get the feeling you’re trying to drive that point home?”

      His friend’s grin grew more meaningful. “Maybe it’s because I saw the way she was looking at you.”

      Mike was always quick to point out when Gabe turned a pretty woman’s head, but Gabe had no patience for it. Regardless of the sudden awareness he’d felt a moment ago, that part of his life was in cold storage and would be until he could walk again. “Can we get back to football?”

      “You have a lot of years ahead of you, Gabe. There’s no need to live them alone, especially because you’re the only thing stopping you from finding someone to share them with.”

      Mike sounded like an echo of Gabe’s sister, Reenie. Everyone thought he should settle for what he could get out of life in a wheelchair. But Gabe had never been one to settle for anything. Walking again was his only priority. “In case I haven’t made myself clear enough in the past, I don’t want to hear your take on the situation, Mike,” he said.

      Lazarus had dropped the ball in Gabe’s lap a few seconds earlier. Now he barked to get Gabe to respond. “Here you go, boy,” Gabe said and lobbed the ball into the air.

      The dog took off after it as Mike walked up the ramp Gabe had installed on his deck and took a seat in a chair that hung from the rafters. Made of rattan, it was shaped like a bowl—another of Gabe’s recent experiments. “I’m just saying you should ask Hannah out, that’s all. What’s one date? I’m sure she’d go out with you.”

      Gabe was sure of it, too. She felt so guilt-ridden about the accident she’d probably do almost anything he asked of her. But he wasn’t the slightest bit interested in exploiting her pity or anyone else’s. He hated pity. “Forget it.”

      “Come on. Grab a movie with her or something. Lord knows she could use the break. It’s not easy raising those kids on her own.”

      “I don’t think she’s raising them on her own.”

      “For all intents and purposes she is. Russ’s involvement only makes things harder,” Mike said.

      “And you know this, how?”

      “It’s Dundee, Gabe. Everyone knows everyone else’s business.” He hesitated. “Except maybe yours.”

      Gabe recovered the ball, but Mike’s statement about Russ making Hannah’s life more difficult had piqued his curiosity enough that he forgot to throw it. He wheeled a little closer. “He’s still giving her trouble?”

      “He’ll always give her trouble. A week or so ago when Russ had the boys, Kenny caught Brent watching a porn video.”

      “How’d he get hold of it?”

      Lazarus barked, Gabe threw, and the dog took off again.

      “It was called My Little Pussy,” Mike said. “He thought it was about a kitten.”

      “God.” Gabe grimaced.

      “You got it.”

      “Did Kenny see the video, too?”

      “I don’t think so.”

      “How’d you hear about it?”

      “Russ told half the people at the Honky Tonk last Monday. He found Brent’s questions about what he’d seen hilarious.”

      “What an idiot.” Gabe shook his head in disgust. “How’d she end up with a guy like him?”

      When Mike propped his arms behind his head and put his feet up on a nearby footrest, Gabe almost regretted asking. It looked as if his friend was planning to stay awhile, and having company wasn’t in keeping with Gabe’s plans. He needed to mentally prepare himself for his first practice with the team. After being out of circulation for three years, he’d be dealing with a lot of people. He’d face an onslaught of questions, an avalanche of curiosity, and plenty of rude, blatant stares. Being famous made him an attraction already. Now that he was crippled and famous, he couldn’t go anywhere without conversations falling to a hush and people whispering behind their hands.

      But he suspected Mike knew it wouldn’t be an easy day for him and had come over to keep him company—probably so Gabe wouldn’t back out. And as long as they were talking about Hannah, Mike was unlikely to bring up Lucky.

      “You don’t remember what happened between her and Russ?” Mike asked.

      “I’m not sure I ever knew.” He’d been away at college, too busy making his dream come true to pay much attention to what was happening in Dundee.

      “They got married a few months after she graduated from high school. She was pregnant.”

      Gabe glanced across the lawn, expecting Lazarus to come charging back to him, and saw him chasing another squirrel. “I can’t see her sleeping with Russ in the first place.”

      Mike shrugged. “Who knows how it happened? She couldn’t go away to college like the rest of us. She had to stay and take care of her mother, and Russ lived right next door.”

      A few weeds had infiltrated one of the garden boxes Gabe had built up off the ground. He bent forward to take care of the problem. “What was wrong with her mother?”

      “Cancer.”

      Gabe tossed the weed he’d pulled on top of the pile he was making. He’d heard about her mother; he remembered now. “Where was her father?”

      “Died in a plane crash when Hannah was little. I know they got some sort of settlement, but it was just her and her mom until her mother died.”

      Gabe smoothed the soil he’d disturbed and stretched to reach around another plant. Hannah must’ve been lonely….

      “My mother thinks she was after his family,” Mike added.

      Brushing the dirt from his hands, Gabe glanced up in surprise. “I’ve heard of a woman being after a guy’s money, but never his family.”

      “When Hannah’s mother got sick, it was Violet Price who helped her deal with the situation. After her mother died, Hannah might’ve been trying to cement those relationships, to hang on to the people she already cared about.”

      That sounded reasonable to Gabe—but the years didn’t match up. “Kenny’s only sixteen years old,” he said. “If she got pregnant right out of high school—”

      “She miscarried.” Mike gave him a sidelong look. “Any other questions I can answer for you about Hannah Price?”

      Gabe scowled. “We’re just talking, Mike. There’s nothing wrong with talking, is there?”

      Mike’s lips curved in a broad smile. “Not a thing, buddy. You need someone to fill you in on what you missed all those years you were busy showing off on national television.”

      Showing off… Mike had always teased him about his fame.

      Gabe smiled in spite of himself as he rolled over to the tool-shed to retrieve his small pruning shears. He’d spotted some dead blooms on his roses. “Considering the gap between Kenny and Brent, she must’ve stayed with Russ