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“Your friendship is a gift to all of us, Rena. I wouldn’t feel right asking you to do something like this and not paying you.” Anne looked to Henley and Cora Lee for agreement.
They both nodded their heads.
“Maybe we could figure out a trade,” Rena suggested.
“A trade? Like what?” Cora Lee asked as she studied the robins perched on the branches above Gabi’s bed.
“Baked goods, or maybe some flower seeds or plants. Theo’s cabin could use some sprucing up around the outside of it, and you all have such lovely yards.” Rena smiled at her friends. “Truthfully, I enjoyed every minute of painting this so it wouldn’t be a hardship on my part to do more projects like it.”
“Let’s discuss it further later,” Henley said, looping her arm around Rena’s. “We should get back to the party.”
“We don’t want to miss any of the fun,” Anne said, leading the way down the stairs.
Rena had been surprised Josh had invited his friends for lunch to celebrate Gabi’s birthday after the church service. Cora Lee had brought a cake and four dozen sugar cookies. Henley had contributed fruity punch and a delicious salad. Anne had made cheesy potatoes. Rena had baked dinner rolls and brought freshly churned butter and a jar of berry preserves. Theo had helped Josh roast meat in a pit they’d dug on Saturday. The pork, which had cooked all night, was so tender it all but melted on her tongue.
According to Josh, Gabi’s shrieks of excitement could probably be heard all the way to Baker City when she awoke that morning and noticed her pink bedroom with the scene on the wall.
Gabi had raced to Rena when she and Theo had arrived at church, thanking her over and over again for making her room beautiful. The little girl had insisted everyone who came for lunch go up to her room and see the “wonderful fairyland” Rena had painted on her wall.
Rena decided then that she’d return another day and paint a little fairy perched on a bud in the tree. It would be fun to add surprises to the painting for Gabi to find now and again.
That evening, after all the other guests had gone, Theo and Rena remained to help Josh clean up. Rena’s leg was aching, so she took a seat to rest for a moment in the rocking chair in the library. She’d barely settled back in the chair when Gabi had raced into the room, climbed into her lap, kissed her cheek, and fell asleep.
Content to hold the little one, Rena set the chair in motion and closed her eyes, wishing Gabi and her father belonged to her.
“Papa,mayIgooutside to play?” Gabi asked, using her sweetest voice as she skipped into the back room at the saddle shop where her father worked.
She knew he worked hard and people talked about how good he could make saddles and bridles and things out of leather. But sometimes, she just wanted him to close the shop so they could do something fun, like take a picnic or ride Hawkins, or go visit Uncle Theo and Rena.
Gabi gave her father an imploring look. “Please? I’m tired of staying inside.”
She watched as her father straightened from creating a fancy design in the leather that would be used in Marshal Durant’s new saddle. Papa had been working on it for a while, and it was almost finished.
Her father gave her a long look, one that made her want to squirm, but she tried her best to hold still.
“You may go outside to play as long as you stay close. Don’t go into the street, and don’t run off. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Papa!” Gabi gave him a tight squeeze when he bent over to hug her, then she opened the back door of the shop and raced outside.
She liked the feel of the sunshine on her face and tipped her head back like she’d seen Rena do when they’d gone for walks in the woods by Uncle Theo’s cabin.
Gabi found a stick and practiced writing her letters in the dirt behind her father’s shop. As she wrote her name, she thought about how much she liked Rena. She was kind and funny, and she baked delicious cookies, and she was smart and strong. She could paint beautiful pictures, like the fairyland on her bedroom wall, or even the picture of butterflies and bunnies she’d painted on Gabi’s birthday gift box.
Rena was always patient with Gabi, never rushing her when she wanted to tell a story or look for fairies hiding in the trees.
Tired of writing letters, Gabi tossed aside the stick and wandered around to the front of the saddle shop. She sat on the bench by the door and watched people come and go. She waved to Mrs. Piedmont when she swept the porch outside the hotel. Gabi thought she was a nice lady, just not quite as nice as Rena.
Then again, Gabi didn’t think anyone was as special as Rena.
Although he didn’t know she did it, Gabi liked to watch her father when they spent time with Rena. His eyes got bright, and he seemed happier than he was any other time.
Gabi sighed and slid off the bench, walked over to one of the posts that held up the roof of the store’s overhang, and wrapped her arms around it. Slowly, she swung back and forth. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember her mother. Her father talked about her sometimes, and Gabi had a picture of her in her bedroom, but the woman with a wide smile and pretty curls in her hair was a stranger to her.
It made Gabi sad she didn’t have a mama. She used to wish Mrs. Milton, Mrs. Holt, or Mrs. Coleman could be her mother, but then she wouldn’t have her papa. Gabi wouldn’t trade him for anyone.
Now that Rena was in Holiday, though, Gabi had decided she liked her best of all the women in town. She knew Rena was different than most mothers. She worked at the mine with Uncle Theo. And she wore trousers instead of skirts. But Gabi didn’t care.
All that mattered to her was that Rena always made her feel important and loved, and that was the best thing a mama could do, at least in Gabi’s opinion.
