Expecting the Best (Harlequin Superromance)

by Lynnette Kent

  Then the door swung back, and her silhouette filled in the doorway. “Zach?”

  “I thought you might be up for a killer Monopoly game and some Chinese.” He held up a bag from the local takeout restaurant.

  “I don’t think—”

  “You can’t send me back to town after I drove all the way out here.” He stepped forward and, before Shelley could protest, was in the house with the door shut behind him.

  “That’s better.” He made his way to the kitchen to set down the food. “We might need to zap a couple of these to warm them up.”

  “Zach, you’re not staying.”

  “Why not?” When he turned to look at her, his concentration faltered a little at the sight of her rounded shape under a bright purple sweater. “I…uh…seem to remember that you’re good at Monopoly. We said we’d have a match sometime. How about now?”

  Her hand came to rest on her stomach. “I—I don’t know.”

  “Well, why don’t we eat while you find out?” Facing the kitchen again, he unloaded cartons of food. “I brought paper plates—no sense in making a mess to clean up. Can you get a couple of big spoons? Do you use chopsticks?”

  Still, she didn’t move. Zach made a show of checking the containers, all the while wondering if he’d end up out in the cold anyway.

  Suddenly, she stalked behind him and around the counter into the kitchen. A drawer rattled as she jerked the handle, then slammed shut.

  She dropped spoons on the counter. “You’re insane.”

  “Nope. Just hungry.” He ladled rice onto plates. “Spoons and forks, and we’re ready. I’ve got napkins.”

  Shelley eyed him with distrust. “Do you want something to drink?”

  “Water’s good.”

  Filling two glasses from the refrigerator dispenser, she shook her head. “I can’t decide what you’re after.”

  “No strings, Shelley—just like before. Enjoy the food, the game. That’s all.”

  She sighed, and set down the glasses beside their plates. “You are a strange man, Zach Harmon. I never realized how strange until now.”

  Zach just grinned.

  TWO HOURS LATER, Shelley got up from the kitchen table to take a bathroom break. “Don’t cheat and take some of my houses while I’m gone,” she warned Zach.

  He looked wounded. “I am an officer sworn to uphold the law. I never cheat.”

  “Of course not. I counted them, you know.” She went upstairs to her bedroom to check her makeup and run a comb through her hair.

  She’d struggled all evening with the surprise of seeing him. Why had he come? What did he want? Though she’d tried pretty hard, she couldn’t break his good mood. He hadn’t mentioned the baby or getting married or…or anything dangerous.

  He hadn’t touched her, either. Not even a brush of shoulders. Of course, he wasn’t here for sex. If he wanted someone to go to bed with, he had his choice of lovely women all over Denver.

  Get used to it. It’ll happen one day soon. At the thought, Shelley closed her eyes, not willing to examine her reaction to the idea.

  When she went downstairs, Zach had prepared. popcorn. “Something about unbridled greed makes me hungry.”

  She laughed reluctantly. “Did you leave my houses alone?”

  “I’ll never tell.”

  Her knuckles brushed his as they both reached into the bowl at the same time. Shelley jumped. Zach, she decided, didn’t notice.

  “Okay.” She sat down at the table again. “I’m about to make your life miserable. Prepare to be bankrupt.”

  “Yeah, right.” He straddled the chair across the board from her. “I haven’t even started manipulating. We’ll see who bankrupts who.”

  “Whom.”

  “Just roll the dice.”

  AT ELEVEN-THIRTY, Zach pushed back from the table. “Okay, okay. I’m down to fifty dollars. I could win it all back, but not tonight. Tonight, I’ll let you have the game.”

  “Famous last words. I beat you fair and square.”

  He grinned at her. “I’d never contradict a lady.”

  To his pleasure, she grinned back. “Since when?”

  As they put the game away, she insisted on sorting the money by denomination. “We can do that next time.” Zach protested.

  She stopped shuffling bills for a second, then went on smoothly. “You never know when next time will be.”

  Zach knew exactly when the next time would be, since this was only the first step in his plan. But he didn’t see any reason to let her in on the secret.

  He took the game box with him when they walked to the door. “I admit, you play tough. I got some bad breaks, of course. Still—”

  “Somehow, that’s not quite the way I remember it.” She reached for the doorknob. “But thanks for coming. The food was good. I…enjoyed the evening.”

  “I’m glad.” His strategy called for a simple, uncomplicated goodbye. Zach struggled with himself, wanting more. Shelley’s drowsy gaze was downright sexy. Her mouth, once again wiped free of lipstick, invited him. He’d spent many long nights thinking about that weekend in March. Endured many a cold shower to calm down.

  “So…take care of yourself.” He stepped out into the cold and shivered. “Stay warm. Sleep well.”

  “You, too.” Her sweet, sleepy smile followed him as he backed across the small porch. Zach forgot about the steps behind him until his heel came down on thin air.

  “Damnation!” He stumbled down to the next step, off balance, arms flailing, barely keeping hold of the Monopoly box.

  Shelley hurried toward him, hands outstretched. “Zach! Careful!”

  One heel hit the sidewalk. Zach threw his upper body forward, fighting for control. His toe slipped over damp grass and he came down hard on his knees.

  Shelley bent over, put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  He couldn’t look up right away. “Except for shattered kneecaps, I’m great.”

  “Are you really hurt?”

  Zach lifted his head just as the wind blew Shelley’s hair back from her face. Such a delicate face, lively and clever and mischievous, all at once. A strong woman with an elf’s smile. He wanted…

  No. “Not hurt at all. See?” He jumped to his feet. managing not to groan. “And I didn’t spill the game, either.”

  She backed up onto the lower step, arms crossed just above her stomach. “You athletes are so coordinated.”

  “Agility R Us.” He decided to watch where he was going as he went to the car. A second fall and he might not be able to get up. “’Night, Shelley.”

  “Goodbye, Zach. Thanks again.”

  “Anytime.” He made sure she went into the house and closed the door before he drove off. And he got all the way out of her neighborhood before, half laughing, half crying, he pulled off to the side of the road to check out his bruised and bleeding knees.

  THREE DAYS LATER, the school sent the Crooked Women home at noon for smoking in the bathroom.

  Zach got the message when he came in from his shift at four. Fifteen minutes later, he walked into his mother’s house, took the stairs two at a time and knocked on his sister’s the door.

  “Go away!”

  “Not likely.” He leaned against the door frame, easing the weight off his left leg. The trip up the steps hadn’t done anything good for his battered knees. “Open up, Carol.”

  “I’m not talking to anybody!”

  “So talk to the wall and tell me what’s going on with your head.” A long silence was the only reply. Zach sighed. “Didn’t watching Dad die of lung cancer teach you anything?”

  “I wasn’t smoking! I was just standing there talking.”

  “Ever heard of secondhand smoke?” He waited, but she didn’t answer. “Okay. I’m tired of yelling and I’m not going away. Can we talk face-to-face or do I have to break the door down? I can, you know. They taught us how in cop school.”

  After another long pause, the door opened a crack.

  Tak
ing that as an invitation, he stepped inside and sat on the chair under the light switch. “This scene is getting old, kid. Aren’t you tired of it yet?”

  His sister flopped on the bed and buried her face in the pillow. She wore jeans two sizes too big and an orange sweater at least one size too small, with two inches of bare skin in between. “I’m not accountable to you.”

  “No, you’re not. Label me curious.”

  “Hah.” She kept her face hidden. “You’re on Mom’s side.”

  Zach propped his elbows on his thighs and rubbed his throbbing kneecaps. “This is a family. We’re all on the same side.”

  “As long as you fit the pattern. Step outside the line and everybody’s on your back.”

  Zach bit back a smile. “Getting kicked out of school is more than just stepping outside the line.”

  “Spoken like a true good guy. Don’t you ever get tired of it?” She turned a flushed face toward him. “Didn’t you ever cut loose, do something reckless?”

  His face heated as a certain weekend in March came to mind. “Sure. But you have to be prepared to take the consequences. After the last stunt, I would think you’d realize that.”

  “Smoking isn’t so bad. Mom acts like I came home pregnant or something.”

  He cleared his throat. “What exactly are you trying to do, Carol? What do you want?”

  “A chance to grow up! I’ve been ordered around since I was born.” Shaking her head, she clutched her fingers in her hair and pulled. “Cops and good guys telling me what to do until I can’t breathe without getting criticized. I want to make my own decisions.”

  “And what would those decisions be?”

  She rolled to her back. “Something different, that’s for sure.”

  Zach thought about that young girl he’d found in the alley. The cops had picked up her boyfriend, but she’d refused to press charges. “Different, how?”

  “I want my own life. I want peace and quiet and something besides pot roast for Sunday dinner and fish on Friday.”

  “Understandable.”

  “Tell that to Mom.” Carol folded her arms over her eyes. The sweater now rode the edge of her ribs. “She’s expecting me to grow up and marry a nice Catholic boy and have eleven kids like she did.”

  “Be grateful. That means she’s happy with her choices.”

  Her fists clenched. “I would rather die!”

  He fought back a smile at the typical adolescent overstatement. “What do you want to do?”

  “I want to go places, see things. Earn my own money. Build my own life, run it my way.”

  Zach leaned back and crossed his arms. “And breaking the rules—endangering your life and, incidentally, giving the rest of us prematurely gray hair—will accomplish this?”

  “Oh… I don’t know!” She sniffed, hiccuped and was silent.

  Carol’s goals weren’t so far out. Her methods of achieving them—as the family kept trying to point out—were questionable at best.

  But words alone hadn‘t—wouldn’t—make the point. Zach needed a role model, somebody for Carol to look up to. Somebody like…

  Shelley. Of course. She had the guts and the drive to succeed, and the style to make winning look easy. She lived exactly the kind of life Carol admired.

  Not to mention that getting Shelley involved with his family would be a simply brilliant move. His brothers and sisters, and especially his mother, would draw her inside the circle and show her the advantages of family life. She couldn’t help but like them, and she could use all the coddling they loved to dish out.

  Zach nodded in satisfaction as he got to his feet. “What are you doing next weekend, little sister?” He gave her a light slap on the rear of those baggy jeans.

  She lifted her head, fisting tears out of her eyes. “Why?”

  “I’m taking over your Saturday. There’s a lady I want you to meet.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  SHELLEY’S SECRETARY answered the phone just as they were about to leave the office Friday night. “Somebody for you.” She held out the receiver. “He says it’s urgent.”

  “Who does?” After a day showing properties, Shelley wanted to get home and relax.

  “Zach Harmon.”

  Two words, and her heart jumped into overdrive. Why would he call again? Saying goodbye got more difficult each time she saw him. She was afraid that some day, if this continued, she’d lose the strength to let him go.

  She took the telephone reluctantly. “Zach? What’s wrong?”

  “I need your help.”

  His voice—smooth and warm and sexy—did nothing to slow her pulse. “What do you mean? Why?”

  “Remember I told you about my sister Carol? About the trouble she’s getting into these days?”

  “I remember.” From the doorway, the secretary gave her a questioning shrug. Shelley mouthed See you Monday and waved her out the door. “Navel piercing.”

  “Right.” He gave a short laugh. “If only that were all. She and her friends were sent home from school today. The principal is threatening to suspend them all.”

  Shelley eased her weight onto the reception desk. “That sounds serious, but I don’t see what I can do. Your family—”

  “Is going ballistic. Nobody can get through to her. Not even yours truly. So I thought…”

  He paused just a moment. “I hoped maybe you could talk to Carol.”

  “Me?” Her racing heart skipped a beat. And another. “Why?”

  “Because you’re a successful businesswoman, one who’s managed to take control of her life.”

  She basked for a second in the light of his praise, but then sobered. “Not exactly.” She glance down at her expanding figure. “I doubt your family would consider a divorced single mother a good role model.”

  “In a way, that’s what makes you perfect.”

  “Explain.” Did the man ever think in a straight line?

  “Carol could learn from you how to overcome challenges in order to succeed.”

  Shelley was tempted. The idea that he thought of her as someone he wanted his sister to emulate stroked her ego like a soft hand over a cat’s back. She hadn’t felt valued that way in a long, long time. Certainly not by a man like this.

  But she could not afford to get more involved with Zach. “I think Claire Cavanaugh would be a better choice.”

  “Claire’s not in Denver.”

  Of course, if she were, she’d still be in Zach’s life. And Shelley would never have asked him to take her to that stupid awards dinner, they wouldn’t have spent the weekend together, and Shelley wouldn’t be pregnant. The perfect woman could shoulder the blame for everything.

  And the not-so-perfect one could do damage control. “I don’t think so, Zach. It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

  He didn’t say anything for a long time. Finally, he sighed. “Any other ideas?”

  She hated leaving him with no options. “You know… my mother’s pretty easy to talk to.”

  “You think she’d have some suggestions?”

  “Maybe. Or maybe she could talk to Carol. She’s a great role model.” One who wasn’t in danger of liking Zach Harmon too much.

  This silence was even longer. But his voice came back strong. “That’s a thought. Can you give me her number?”

  Shelley relayed the information. “I’ll let her know you’ll be getting in touch.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate the help.”

  “No problem, Zach. Take care.”

  “Sure. See you later.” He hung up before she did.

  SHELLEY CALLED her mother after dinner to explain. “I wanted to let you know you’d be hearing from Zach sometime soon.”

  “I’ll try to help. He seems like a nice guy.” She hesitated, then said “I…um…didn’t realize you knew him so well.”

  How do you define the word “know”? Shelley smothered a rueful laugh. “I was a little surprised, myself. Men don’t usually ask for advice or help.”

  “He se
emed very relaxed.”

  A good description, Shelley realized. “He’s satisfied, I think, with himself and his place in the world. He doesn’t have anything to prove.”

  “That’s a lesson you could learn. You can be happy with what you are.”

  Shelley sighed at the inevitable maternal response. “I don’t need a lecture, Mom.”

  “I just think you try too hard. You have many reasons to be proud of yourself and what you’ve accomplished.”

  “I know that.”

  “Evidently Zach does, too, or he wouldn’t be asking for your help with his sister.”

  Time to change the subject. “Have a good weekend, Mom. I’ll talk to you later.”

  Unsettled, even irritated, Shelley hung up the phone. Her mother liked Zach—no surprise there. There probably weren’t too many people—especially women—who didn’t.

  Which was why she couldn’t let him any further into her life. He was dangerous to her plans. And yet…didn’t he deserve to know his child? Could she deny him the pleasure?

  The answer had come from Zach himself. Even though he’d asked her to marry him, he didn’t want a child. He didn’t need a child.

  Shelley did. She needed this baby to hold, to love, to care for. Second chances came along rarely in life, and she wouldn’t mess this one up. She’d be a single parent, and she’d do as good a job as could be done by anyone, anywhere.

  At least, she hoped so.

  AFTER WAITING all weekend to hear from her mother, Shelley gave into her nerves and called again Monday night. “How’d it go?”

  “How did what go?”

  “Your meeting with Zach.”

  “We didn’t get together after all.”

  “Why not?” And why did it make her nervous?

  “Well, we discussed Carol over the phone. I gave him my opinion. And while I was flattered, I told him I thought you would be a better choice to talk to the girl, because you’re younger, more up-to-date.”

  “Mother!”

  “Teenagers don’t like to listen to old fogies like me, you know.”

  “But—” Shelley drew a many-petaled daisy on the pad beside the phone. The first petal she labeled T. Tell her.

  “I can’t imagine why you’d object to helping Zach out.”