Expecting the Best (Harlequin Superromance)

by Lynnette Kent

  “Where we going?” Diane, in the front seat, scrubbed at her short bleached hair. “Somewhere crazy, I hope.”

  “Always crazy,” Jen announced. “Crazy or Crooked, yes?”

  Everybody else laughed, and Carol joined in. This was the life she wanted—limited only by her decisions, enjoyed with her friends, adding to her experience. Getting away from all the rules her family laid down was like crawling out from under a concrete slab. Finally, she could breathe!

  But experience was a little hard to come by on a hot summer Saturday in Denver. They hung around City Park for a while, doing crazy stunts on the playground equipment… until a lady with two little boys chased them off. At Jen’s suggestion they bypassed the museum and wandered into the zoo, where Diane threw pieces of popcorn into the monkey cages.

  Carol almost protested—the signs clearly warned against feeding the animals. But that would make Jen mad. And it didn’t really matter, did it?

  The chimps hopped down to the floor, grabbing up the treats. Laughing, Jen and Faith threw handfuls of popcorn. Carol took a fist of kernels, but couldn’t bring herself to toss them into the cage. She made sure her popcorn fell in the gutter outside the bars.

  A deep voice broke through the racket of excited monkeys. “That’s enough!”

  She looked over her shoulder… and way, way up, into the face of a security guard.

  He was young, and easy to look at—for the straight-line, short-haired type, anyway. But he wasn’t in the mood to flirt. “Do you see the sign? No human food for the animals.”

  “Aw, man, we were just fooling around.” Jen grinned at him. Carol had a feeling she was trying for sexy. “No harm done.”

  “We don’t know that,” the guard said. “But if you can’t follow the rules, you won’t be allowed to stay.”

  “I’m not leavin’.” Diane folded her arms. “You can’t make me.”

  The guard stared at her with contempt plain on his face. “Don’t tempt me, little girl. I’d enjoy calling the police and letting them solve your attitude problems.”

  Carol closed her eyes. With her luck, Zach would show up. She wasn’t sure exactly where his precinct officially stopped, but she knew he considered the whole downtown district his territory. Another incident like the shoplifting collar, and he’d condemn her to baby-sitting for life.

  She tugged on Diane’s shirttail. “Come on, let’s leave. There’s nothing fun here, anyway.”

  Jen started to protest. But, without moving a muscle, the guard managed to look even bigger and meaner than before. With a shrug, she turned toward the exit. Diane and Faith followed. Carol thankfully brought up the rear.

  Back in the car, another round of cigarettes got started.

  “Stupid pig.” Jen threw the gear stick into reverse and backed up with a screech. “Like those monkeys don’t eat popcorn every damn day.”

  “Forget it. Let’s get to the real action.” Diane practiced blowing smoke rings.

  Carol buckled her seat belt. “What’s the plan?” Jen or Diane always had a plan.

  “You’ll see.” Jen glanced over her left shoulder, then threw her cigarette out the window. “I’ve been wanting to do this ever since I moved here.”

  She drove into the business district, which was pretty much deserted for the weekend. Tall buildings towered over them, creating shade that felt almost cool. Carol looked up at the windows, wondering what kind of work went on in all the offices above their heads. Did the people like their jobs? Did they like their lives?

  The car stopped, and she looked down again. They had stopped on one side of an empty street. The only sound was the warm wind blowing bits of paper along the sidewalk.

  “Okay,” Faith said. “Now what?”

  “Let’s go.” Jen got out and walked to the back of the Mazda. By the time Carol and the others came around, she had the trunk open and her supplies ready. “For you.” She handed Diane a can of spray paint. “And you.” Carol and Faith got paintbrushes. “And me.” She held up another paint can. “Let’s go.”

  Graffiti? On all this marble? Carol hung back, with a picture of Zach in her head. He didn’t get mad often, but when he did…

  “Come on, Harmon!” Jen motioned as she started across the street, with Faith and Diane behind her.

  Carol caught up as they stopped in front of a fancy, old-fashioned-looking building. “The Bull Pen,” she read aloud. “What are we doing here?”

  “We’re gonna liven up the place.” Jen pointed. “See those?”

  “Those” were two life-size, black marble statues of cattle—bulls, Carol supposed—standing guard from the top of a pedestal on either side of the Bull Pen’s door. “I don’t get it.”

  “This is, like, one of the biggest, richest clubs in town.” Diane snorted. “They don’t let women join.”

  “How do you know?” Carol said. “And isn’t that against the law?”

  “My daddy’s a member. They get around the law somehow. Probably bribes.”

  “So what are we doing here?” Carol asked.

  Jen smiled. “Watch.” She walked to the nearest bull. Her head reached to about his shoulder. Putting the spray can on the pedestal, she hoisted herself to sit beside the statue. Grinning now, she took the top off the can and shook it until the mixers inside rattled. Then she started spraying.

  Carol gasped. Faith and Diane screamed, then ran to the other statue. In minutes, the bulls had gold zebra stripes, along with gold on the ends of their tales, their noses and their horns.

  “Come on, Harmon! This is cool!”

  No, this was crazy. Carol wavered, trying to decide what to do. It wasn’t as though they were hurting people, exactly…

  She stepped forward, raising her brush, just as a car squealed to a stop on their side of the street. The door opened and a man exploded into the sunlight. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Run!” Jen yelled. She didn’t have to say it twice. Carol sprinted up the street, with Faith and Diane at her back. Footsteps pounded the pavement behind them. A glance to the rear showed Carol a fat man in a suit, cursing and trying to catch up. She doubled her speed, flung herself at the Mazda’s door handle and dived into the car.

  “Hurry! Hurry!” Jen revved the engine and started moving before Diane got the door closed. “Let’s get out of here!”

  The car swerved and jerked through the empty streets. Carol fought to buckle her seat belt.

  Jen was half laughing, half swearing as she tried to get out of the business district. The streets kept going in the wrong direction. “Damn. I’m gonna turn down one of these streets in a minute, no matter which way it goes.”

  A siren sounded in the distance. “Go, girl,” Diane said. “They’re after us.”

  “You got it.” Jen glanced to her left, then turned the wheel hard right at the next intersection.

  “Slow down, Jen—” Carol glanced across the intersection at the traffic signs.

  Faith screamed. “There’s a car!”

  “Oh my God.” Diane turned around as if she planned to scramble between the seats into the back.

  Carol caught a glimpse of the car facing them…then shut her eyes. Metal screeched and moaned. Guns exploded nearby—at least that what it sounded like. Something shoved her forward against Diane, against the seat belt, and into the headrest of the front seat. Somebody screamed again.

  The last word she heard was one she would have gotten her mouth washed out for at home.

  THE PETITE MEXICAN WOMAN spoke English—but her speed and accent made the words a blur. Still, Zach grasped the general idea.

  “Yes, Mrs. Alvarado.” He wrote down the details of the graffiti on her wall. “Yes, ma’am, I know you’re tired of this. I know this is the third time this year.”

  Finishing the description, he pocketed his notebook. Mrs. Alvarado didn’t pause for breath, even when he held out his card. “Yes, ma’am. We’ll do everything we can. My pager number is there in the corner of t
he card. Anytime you see somebody out here you don’t like the looks of, page me and I’ll get here as fast as humanly possible. We’ll see if we can’t get these guys to clean up their mess.”

  His radio chirped, then blared. A traffic accident, right in the middle of his precinct. “I need to go, Mrs. Alvarado.” Zach saluted her off the brim of his hat and backed down the walk.

  Mrs. Alvarado followed, still talking. Her voice rang in his ears as he drove away.

  Zach reached the location of the wreck in minutes. A head-on collision at the corner of a one-way street had left a sporty Japanese model looking like crumpled aluminum foil. Another police unit had arrived ahead of him, but the fire and ambulance sirens still hailed from a distance.

  He picked his way through a field of glass around the nearest vehicle. Another officer leaned into an old Cadillac, checking the driver’s pulse. Zach put his hand on the cop’s shoulder. “You’ve got backup, Rafe. How about the other car?”

  Rafe straightened up. “A bunch of teenagers. They’re alive, but they’re all hurt. And, Zach—” He put a hand on Zach’s arm. “One of them is Carol.”

  Zach stared blankly for a second, while his insides froze. “You said…”

  “Alive.” Rafe nodded. “You stay with this guy, I’ll go to the girls.”

  “No.” Zach held up a hand. “No, I can do it. I’m okay.”

  But his stomach clenched as he saw the damage to the Mazda. Someone inside was sobbing. At the front passenger door he looked through the open window, seeing only exploded air bags.

  He swallowed against nausea. “Everybody stay still. The police are here, and we’ll take care of you. Just relax.”

  “Get me out of this thing!” The driver struggled with her air bag.

  “As soon as we can, I promise.” The back window on the passenger side had crazed but not collapsed. He carefully tried the door, and was surprised when it actually opened.

  Carol stared out at him. Tears rolled down her face. “Zach?”

  “Everything’s going to be fine, sweetheart.” He steadied his voice with a deep breath, reached out to touch her cheek. “I’ll get you out in a few minutes. How’s your friend?”

  Another girl lay with her shoulders in Carol’s lap, moving her head from side to side. “I don’t know,” Carol whispered. “I don’t…know…what happened.”

  The ambulance and fire department arrived; in seconds the area swarmed with uniforms. Zach followed orders from the rescue squad, providing support and a shoulder where needed to get the girls out. All of them were in shock, bruised, battered. The driver of the Cadillac had suffered cuts from the glass. But because of air bags and the fact that the big car had been stationary when the Mazda turned the corner, the mess looked a hell of lot worse than it actually was.

  Still, cleanup would take a while. Zach directed traffic around the site, helped set up barricades, controlled the crowd. Only as the ambulance with Carol inside was packing up did he ask Rafe to take his place.

  The EMTs allowed him to crawl in next to the patient. He took her hand. “You’re going to be fine.”

  “Thanks.” Her lips quivered. “Mom…”

  “I’ll tell Mom. Don’t worry. She’s strong. And you’ll be home again tomorrow, with her to fuss over you.”

  “Or at me.”

  Zach grinned. “That, too. I’ll wait my turn until she’s finished.”

  She closed her eyes. “Gee, thanks. Is Jen okay? Faith and Diane?”

  “Sure. You guys can have a pajama party at the hospital tonight.”

  “We’re ready to go, Sergeant.” An EMT stood just outside the ambulance door:

  “Right.” Zach bent to give Carol a kiss. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  She gave him a shaky smile. Satisfied, he backed out and jumped down. The ambulance pulled away, and the scene finally quieted down.

  Which meant Zach now had time freedom to think about what might have happened here.

  After he’d found a quiet alley and a trash can in which to lose his breakfast, he arranged a substitute . for the rest of his shift and drove to his mother’s house. She went white when he gave her the news, and swayed a little. But then, in seconds, she was bustling again, packing up clothes and a couple of books for Carol, getting herself neatened up with fresh lipstick and a spritz of cologne.

  In spite of himself, Zach chuckled. Mary Harmon could face anything with lipstick and cologne.

  Carol looked so pitiful when they reached her at the hospital that neither of them fussed at her. Jen’s parents didn’t bother to restrain themselves, and their voices could be heard in the hallway outside the girls’ rooms.

  Grant arrived an hour later and raged up and down the hall for a few minutes. But when he emerged from seeing their sister, the anger had died.

  “What’s going on with her?” he asked Zach. “She could have—”

  Neither of them needed to say it. “Yeah.” Zach rubbed a hand over his face. “She’s headstrong and independent and determined to do her own thing.” He thought of another woman with those same qualities. “And I’m just about the last person these days who knows how to deal with that.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  BECAUSE DEX would surely recognize her pregnancy when he came to pick up Allyson at the end of August, Shelley called a few days ahead of time, to warn him.

  The line hummed with a stunned silence. “Shelley,” he said finally. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “You don’t have to say anything. Allyson will probably be talking about it, so I wanted to let you know.”

  “What are your plans?”

  “My plan is to be a better mother this time.”

  “You’re keeping the baby?”

  “Yes, I am.” She braced for his protest.

  Another pause. “You aren’t thinking about… marriage?”

  “No.” She wouldn’t elaborate unless he forced her. And how could he do that, all the way from Wyoming?

  “I…see.” Dex cleared his throat. “Let me know if there’s anything Claire and I can do.”

  “Thank you, but we’ll be fine. What time should Allyson be ready to leave on Saturday?”

  “Sometime midafternoon?”

  So soon. “Okay. See you then.”

  “Sure.”

  She spent her last few days with Allyson playing in the pool, shopping and packing. “You’ve grown so much this year.” Shelley folded a new pair of jeans. “I’ll bet all of last winter’s clothes are too small.”

  Allyson hung a velvet dress in the closet. “Now I can save those clothes for my little sister—she’ll have things to wear when she grows up.” Her face grew thoughtful, and she was quiet for a few minutes.

  “Mommy?”

  “Yes?”

  “When am I coming back to see you?”

  “Well…” Travel would be more difficult this autumn, Shelley realized for the first time. “I was thinking your dad might let you come down in October. And then there’s Thanksgiving—you’re due to be here this year.”

  “So I’ll see you again before—” She hesitated, her expression uncertain. “Before your baby comes?”

  “Sure you will. At Thanksgiving, we’ll do our Christmas shopping together, like always.” Shelley went to the closet and folded Allyson in a hug. “I’ll always be your mom, you know.”

  “I know.” Allyson’s voice was muffled against her breast.

  “Even though we don’t live in the same house all the time. And even though there’ll be another person here soon. I won’t love you any less because I have a baby.”

  Allyson sniffed, but didn’t say anything.

  Shelley backed up to the armchair, sat down and pulled her daughter into her lap. “I guess having two babies coming into your life at the same time is pretty scary, huh?”

  Under her chin, Allyson nodded.

  “Like you’re being replaced?”

  Her daughter shrugged.

  Shelley hugged her closer. “
That’s not the case at all, baby. If there was never another baby for me, or for Dex and Claire, we would all be happy because we have you.” She placed a kiss on those black curls. “You’re the light in my life, Allyson. I didn’t realize that until you went away. But I can’t imagine being happy without you in the world.”

  Warm tears wet the front of her shirt.

  Shelley thought a minute. “Did you know that Zach has ten brothers and sisters?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “That’s a lot of children in one family. Who do you think his mom loves the most?”

  Another sniff, but fewer tears. “I don’t know.”

  “You know what? I bet she loves each of her children exactly the same. Zach and his brothers and sisters—they’re all special, they’re all precious. Just like you. If I had a hundred babies, you would still be my Allyson.”

  Her daughter gave a watery chuckle. “A hundred babies is a lot.”

  “You’re right. I’m going to need all the help I can get with just one. Are you ready for that?”

  Sitting up, Allyson managed a smile. “I’m going to get lots of practice, I guess.”

  Shelley blinked back tears of her own. “I guess you are. And you’ll be the best big sister two babies ever had.”

  ZACH WAITED until Allyson had returned to Wyoming before putting his plans into action. Though he liked her daughter very much, he needed time alone with his future wife. He didn’t want there to be any mistake about his intentions. The lady had to understand that they would get married for her sake. Not just the baby’s.

  Meanwhile, he kept tabs on his sister during the rest of the summer. He personally supervised the cleanup at the Bull Pen, scheduling the exercise on a Friday morning so the girls would face their task during the busiest time of the week. Their embarrassment was everything he’d wanted.

  Finally, on a chilly Wednesday night in the second week of September, he rang Shelley’s door bell with his free hand.

  Inside the house, footsteps tapped across the marble floor of the entry hall. The lock and knob rattled slightly as Shelley peered at him through the glass sidelight. After a second, her face disappeared. Nothing else happened for a long minute.