Chapter Seven
Gunner chuckled as he walked toward Clara’s house. It was a Saturday night, and he was going to Clara’s to get her take on Rachel.
Regina and Baron, along with Rascal and Meg, were having a movie night with the kids. He’d heard Beth ask Rachel to come over to her house for a movie night with some of the women.
Last night, after he’d gone to bed, and when he woke up this morning, he couldn’t get what Marcus had told him about his dad and Chelle calling her dad a bad daddy out of his head. He and Rachel had gone over items at the store, but it kept rolling around in his head—what Marcus had said was something Rachel needed to know if she didn’t.
His gut was telling him that he needed to talk about this with her, but he didn’t want to cause her more pain. He also had no idea of the status of Rachel’s relationship with her husband.
Earlier, Clara had told him she’d be in the kitchen and to just walk in. So he did.
“I’m here, Clara,” Gunner called.
“In the kitchen.”
Gunner paused in the doorway, then walked over to the sink to wash his hands. Clara had bowls and cookie sheets on the table in her kitchen.
“You said you needed to talk, and I always talk better when I’m also working on something,” she said.
“What are we making?” he asked.
“Well, I know they may not be up to the intricate items you make, but I wanted peanut butter blossoms. I’ve also never made spritz cookies but always wanted to try. I have a brand new spritz machine, and I bought ingredients for a couple different recipes. What do you think?” Clara asked, grinning at him.
Standing in her kitchen with the supplies around made him miss his mom. Sharing this time with Clara would be special too. Not the same but different.
“I think we need to get to work. What first?” he asked, sitting down.
“I mixed up the dough for the peanut butter blossoms, so let’s start on those,” Clara said, pushing a bowl toward him.
“Now, what do we need to talk about?” Clara asked, rolling the dough into a ball, then rolling it in sugar before placing it on the cookie sheet.
“Marcus shared something. I feel like I need to tell Rachel, but I don’t want to walk into the situation blind. I don’t want you to break a confidence, but are she and her husband still married?” Gunner asked.
“It’s not breaking a confidence. Rachel gave me all the information, and it’s been shared with Scoop and Sarah for them to do some research. I believe if Rachel hadn’t shown up early, Scoop was supposed to share the situation with all of youin council tomorrow,” Clara said, rolling another ball and dipping it in sugar.
“Well, am I going to need to pull it out of you?” Gunner grumbled.
Clara smiled, and if he wasn’t mistaken, he recognized her mischievous look.
“No, but what are your intentions toward Rachel and the kids?” Clara asked.
Gunner rolled a couple cookies, dipping them in sugar, stopping to stare at Clara.
“She’s mine. They all are, but I don’t want to do anything to remind her of ‘bad daddy’,” Gunner said.
Clara nodded. “Good answer. Over a year ago, I met Rachel online in a craft forum. We started chatting over patterns and then drifted into family. She said she was married but things had changed. She was going to go see a divorce lawyer. Before she could, he left, taking anything of value in the house that could be sold and cleaned out one of their bank accounts. Rachel had already moved some money and her craft money to another account. She wasn’t destitute. She suspectedhe’d started gambling and she had found drug paraphernalia. He was nowhere to be found afterward. The police department said she couldn’t file anything against him because he had rights to everything in the house. He’d also taken from a joint bank account. Her lawyer must have been a loser because he basically told her not to worry about it.”
“What a jerk,” Gunner said.
“I agree. Fast forward to the Saturday after Thanksgiving when I went to the craft fair, and I talked with her about the job. She decided to come but she wanted to wait until after Christmas. They’d already decorated, and she had presents wrapped under the tree. The kids wanted to finish this semester with their school friends and both kids had parts in the school play,” Clara said, getting up to put one of the trays in the oven.
She poured both of them drinks and sat back down. Taking a drink, she swallowed, then stared at Gunner.
“Every time I think about this, I want to go find him and pop his head right off his neck,” Clara grumbled.
Gunner reached over and patted Clara’s hand.
“I’ll tell you, but you can’t change how you treat her. She’s strong, and she doesn’t want to be seen as a victim. Do you promise?” Clara asked.
