by Linda Wisdom
Ginna leaned across the table and covered his hand with hers.
“We all have secrets, Zach.”
Chapter Eleven
“Did Emma still love her haircut this morning?” Ginna asked Zach.
After breakfast, he’d suggested a walk on the beach, which was only across the street.
She slipped off her sandals and dug her toes into the warm sand as she walked.
“I’m grateful for it. No tangles to comb out and her complaining I’m pulling her hair,” he replied. “But yes, she still loves it. She was determined to show it off today.”
Ginna stopped and looked out at the water. The breeze ruffled her hair. A few surfers were out riding the waves. When she turned back to Zach, her expression was partially hidden by her sunglasses.
“The reason I was upset had more to do with something about me than anything about you,” she said candidly.
“About you?” he asked, confused.
She dropped down to sit cross-legged on the sand and patted the spot next to her. Zach sat.
“My divorce wasn’t a pleasant one,” she began. “In fact, nasty is probably a better word.”
“Ginna, you don’t—”
She held up her hand. “No, please. I have to tell you.” She took a deep breath as she fought for inner strength. “One reason I divorced Denny was because he had an affair and he got his girlfriend pregnant.”
Zach was stunned by her candid declaration. “And you didn’t try to kill him first?”
She laughed, albeit a little ruefully. “I see you’ve figured out the real me.”
“Obviously he didn’t do well in biology if he thought he could blame you for his girlfriend’s pregnancy,” Zach said.
Ginna shrugged. “I was an easier target. You see, he got her pregnant when we learned I couldn’t get pregnant.” She stared Zach down so he would understand what she meant, then said the words she’d been dreading. “I can’t have children, Zach.”
“Oh, Gin.” Her name came out in a soft sigh.
“No pity,” she ordered. “I refused it from my family and my friends. I especially don’t want it from you. It’s the usual story. We tried to get pregnant. It didn’t happen. We had tests. He was fine. I wasn’t. He wanted kids, so he found a way to get them. He has one baby now and another on the way.”
Zach’s description of her ex-husband was colorful and descriptive.
“Wow, I’m impressed,” she said. “I hadn’t thought of some of those names.”
“What about adoption?”
She shook her head. “He believed in fruit of his loins and all that.”
“Sperm doesn’t make a father,” Zach said darkly. “He was an idiot. But I’m glad he was an idiot, because it’s given me a chance with you. Even if I was an idiot, too.”
“No, you weren’t.” Ginna felt the weight leave her shoulders.
Zach smiled. He reached for her and pulled her into his lap.
“I don’t need you to do this.” Her voice was muffled against his shirtfront.
“Maybe you don’t need it, but I do.” He rested his chin on top of her head and kept his arms tightly wrapped around her. “Just bear with me, okay?”
Ginna blinked her eyes rapidly and widened them. Anything to keep the moisture from falling. All methods failed. The warmth of his arms, his quiet acceptance of her words and his even more colorful ones about her ex meant more to her than any of the comfort she’d received in the past. She settled for resting her cheek against his chest, where she could listen to the steady beat of his heart.
“Zach?”
“Mm?”
“I’m definitely not mad at you anymore.”
“SO WHEN DO WE MEET him?”
Ginna groaned. She cradled the phone between her neck and ear as she leaned forward to paint a toenail.
“Gail said he’s a wonderful father,” Cathy Walker told her daughter.
“Gail? How does Gail know Zach?” The moment she asked the question she was able to answer it. “Don’t tell me. She’s the twins’ pediatrician.”
“She also treats Zach’s nephew. She said he’s quite a handful,” Cathy said. “Why not bring them over to the house next Sunday?”
“A family gathering?” Ginna was skeptical. “Is Grampa going to be there without Gramma?”
“Gramma’s going with her ladies’ group to see Showboat at the Lawrence Welk Resort,” her mother said. “And you know what your grandfather thinks of musicals.”
Ginna was only too aware of what her grandfather thought of musicals.
“He’ll say something obnoxious to Zach.” She was afraid she sounded as if she was whining.
“Zach, I’m sure, can go toe-to-toe with Grampa. Better than Denny did.”
“And Grampa will enjoy saying he was right about Denny.”
“He was.”
“I warned him the last time that if he brings it up again, no more free haircuts.” Ginna leaned forward again, painting another nail a delicate lavender shade. She arched back to study the effect. Perfect.
“We’ll see all of you about ten,” Cathy told her. “The kids will love having someone new to play with.”
Ginna hung up, defeated as always. She tapped out Zach’s phone number. She might as well get it over with.
The moment she heard his hello, she rushed on, “I hope you don’t have any plans for Sunday afternoon, because you’ve been invited to the Walker family gathering. I can promise you it will be scary as hell, but Emma and Trey will love it. Anyone under the age of ten loves it out there. Lucie and Nick are also invited. But don’t feel you have to go,” she added.
“What time do I pick you up?”
“TALK ABOUT COINCIDENCES,” Lucie said as Zach drove down the freeway that Sunday. “Gail being Ginna’s sister-in-law and all.”
“Yes, isn’t it? Not to mention you being one of Ginna’s clients. You setting up Ginna’s and my trips. Ginna and I ending up with the same seat assignment. Wild, huh?”
“That was something,” Lucie replied, unperturbed. “And they claim computers can’t make mistakes. How extended is this family of yours, Ginna?” she asked as if realizing it was a good time to redirect the conversation.
“My brothers’ families and friends and their families show up. Sometimes my parents’ friends stop by. There’s touch football, baseball, water polo or volleyball games,” Ginna replied. “There’s usually a couple of teenagers willing to look after the younger kids by the pool or organize some games for them. My brothers work different shifts at the fire department, which means there’re people from both of those. And some paramedics. We’re always well covered for medical help between them and Gail. Dad will show off his beloved cars. Mom will decide you need feeding. The usual.”
“And you have a swimming pool!” Trey shouted in earsplitting tones, jumping up and down as far as his car seat would allow.
Ginna looked at Zach. “It’s a shame Emma and Trey aren’t excited about going,” she remarked dryly. “And yet Nick is downright ecstatic.”
The object of their conversation sat in the rear with his mother, looking as if this was his last day on earth. He held his comic book up to his face.
“I didn’t think geniuses read comic books,” she whispered.
“They do if they’re trying to figure out what all the attraction is,” he whispered back. “So far, he’s read about a thousand of them. He’s decided to come up with the ultimate hero that will outsell every comic book printed.”
“Everyone needs a goal,” she said philosophically.
As Zach followed Ginna’s directions, he enjoyed the view of large homes on equally large pieces of property.
He parked behind a minivan in an area that resembled a small parking lot. Then they all started getting out of the Pathfinder.
“Do you have horses?” Emma asked, hopping up and down in an attempt to see everywhere.
“Sorry, sweetie, no horses, but my dad keeps some really cool battery-oper
ated miniature cars for you munchkins to drive,” Ginna told her.
“Do you have dogs?” Trey was doing his own share of looking.
“Dogs we have,” she promised.
“Great, Em will want to take home a car and Trey will try to smuggle a dog in the truck,” Zach groaned, already fearing the worst.
“Hello, darling.” A lovely older woman whom Ginna would look like in twenty-five or thirty years walked up and hugged her. She turned to the others and smiled. “I’m Cathy, Ginna’s mother. You must be Zach, Emma, Trey, Lucie and Nick.” She smiled at each of them. “I’m glad you could come.”
“As if you’d miss us in this crowd,” Ginna teased, slipping an arm around her mother’s waist.
“I always know who’s here and who isn’t,” Cathy said serenely. “Come along and meet the rest of the family.”
Zach had no idea what he was in for as he was escorted from one group to another, meeting Ginna’s brothers again, along with some of their friends and coworkers, and her younger sister, Nikki. He’d barely warned the twins to behave before Cathy smoothly inserted them in a group of young children overseen by a teenage girl.
“Everything will be fine,” she told him. “Marcie is wonderful at keeping track of the children. Their parents don’t have to worry about them.”
“Obviously you haven’t met Nick,” Lucie said.
“He’ll be fine, too.” Cathy patted her shoulder. “Come have some lemonade.”
Ginna perked up. “Mom, you made some of your infamous lemonade?”
“It seemed like a good day for it.”
“This lemonade has a kick to it,” she warned Lucie.
“Sounds good to me.” Lucie perked up.
Ginna stopped by a large washtub filled with ice, beer cans and bottles. She snagged three bottles and handed two to Lucie and Zach.
“Mom makes it easy for us by putting her butt-kicking lemonade in bottles,” she explained.
He barely opened the bottle before Brian and Mark advanced on him. The two brothers were grinning broadly.
“Good to see you!” Brian boomed, clapping him on the back. “I gotta say, the best thing you can do out here is escape the women.”
“I heard that!” Gail Roberts Walker shouted. She held a baby cradled against her shoulder. Her dark-blond hair was cut in a smooth curve that was tucked behind her ears. Her only jewelry was a diamond wedding set on her ring finger and a chain with two gemstones gracing the chain. Zach already knew the stones were Brian and baby Jenny’s birthstones.
Brian immediately loped over to his wife and took the baby out of her arms, gently settling the tiny bundle against his large chest.
“It’s just an act for the guys, honey,” he said.
Judging by the smile on her lips, she didn’t believe it for a minute.
Brian returned with his small bundle. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to the guys,” he told Zach.
“Hey there, gorgeous,” Mark greeted Lucie. “You wanna fool around?”
She smiled, not taking offense. “You wanna broken foot?”
He shuddered theatrically. “I can see you won’t be easy.”
“That’s what all my dates say,” she said sweetly. “Tell me something? Do you like blinding people with your choice of clothing?” She gestured to his bright red-and-yellow Hawaiian-print shirt, so unlike his two brothers’ sedate navy T-shirts with the fire department insignia.
“Whatever catches your attention.” He grinned.
“Go away, Mark,” Ginna said. “She’s much too smart to have anything to do with you.”
Mark looked at Lucie. “You don’t want me to go away, do you?”
She smiled at him. “Trust me. I’m too much woman for you.”
Ginna snickered.
Mark inclined his head in silent tribute. “I’ll catch you later,” he told Lucie.
Lucie chuckled. “Not if I can help it.”
As Zach was led away by the three Walker brothers, he heard Cathy ask Ginna a question, and he was positive his name was mentioned. Unfortunately he couldn’t hear her reply.
“So who’s the cute blonde who came with you? Ginna wouldn’t introduce us.” Mark asked Zach. “Those shorts sure do a lot for her—”
“She’s my sister,” Zach said, injecting pure threat into his tone.
Mark nodded. One thing he understood was protecting a sister’s virtue.
“Nice going, bonehead.” Brian slapped the back of Mark’s head with his free hand. The baby didn’t open her eyes, as if she was used to her daddy punishing her uncle. “You knew Zach was bringing his sister and nephew with him.”
“So sue me. I forgot.” Mark shrugged.
“How old is your daughter?” Zach asked Brian, recalling the times he carried a tiny Emma and Trey that same way.
“Almost seven months. Top of her class,” said the proud father. “She even sleeps through the night.”
“Best thing that can happen. Emma and Trey may have slept through the night, but I still didn’t. I don’t think I slept more than an hour at a time until they were a year old. I was always afraid something would happen to them. Gail told me I was overreacting, but I couldn’t make myself believe it,” Zach said.
Brian introduced Zach to the group of men. Fellow firemen Kurt and Rick saluted him with their beer bottles. When Zach answered Kurt’s question about his occupation, Mark slapped his forehead.
“That’s where I saw your name!” he exclaimed. “You write some downright scary stuff about being a single father. You’re a stronger man than I am.”
“Think how it was for me,” Zach joked.
“Okay, daddies,” Jeff cut in. “We’re trying to have man talk here.”
“Twin girls and a baby boy,” Brian explained. “Jeff’s idea of man talk is complaining Abby doesn’t have any time for him.”
“Can it, Walker!” A stunning blond woman shouted from a nearby group. White shorts showed off long tanned legs, and a lacy pink tank top showed off the rest of a showstopping figure.
“Jeff’s ball and chain,” Mark confided in a whisper. “She’s not too bright, though. If she’d been smarter, she would have chosen me. Hey!” He rubbed the back of his head. As Abby Walker passed by him, she’d taken the time to smack the back of his head. “I’m getting a concussion here.”
“Maybe some smarts will find their way in, then,” she drawled. “Hi, Zach. I’m sure you’re more intelligent than any of these animals here. Your son is charming my girls.”
“My girls, too,” Jeff inserted with mock hurt.
She ignored her husband as she concentrated on Zach. “Luckily for all of us they take after me.” She reached up and pinched his mouth between her fingertips. “If you do anything to hurt my sister-in-law, I will tear your mouth off and feed it to you,” she said in a soft voice. “Understood?”
He bobbed his head, since he was unable to say a word.
“Damn,” Brian breathed. “She’d do it, too.”
“That’s my Abby. Such a delicate sensitive creature,” Jeff said.
Abby turned to Brian and took the baby out of his arms. “The last thing this darling girl needs to hear is any of your guy stuff. Besides, it’s time for her nap.” She walked off, carrying the baby.
Zach blinked. “Did we just have an earthquake?” He looked at the other men for confirmation.
“Seems like it, doesn’t it?” Mark grinned. “Abby’s a force unto herself. But you gotta love her. Like a sister,” he said hastily, catching his brother’s glare. “I think of her the way I think of Ginna. And the Black Plague.”
“One day, Mark, you will meet a woman who will totally bowl you over,” Brian said. “And I want to be there for the show.”
“No way.” He shook his head. “Someone’s got to be smart here. I’m going to spend my old age as the eccentric bachelor uncle.”
Zach soon relaxed and was drawn into a baseball game. Kurt and Rick welcomed him with shouts they were going to win.
“I won’t embarrass you.”
She batted her eyelashes. “Hit a home run and I will give you…” she whispered in his ear.
The temperature suddenly shot up a good hundred degrees.
“That old fantasy,” she went on softly. “You, the big jock. Me, the perky cheerleader.”
“Talk about incentive,” he said, moving over to the team he was playing on.
Zach quickly learned that the Walker men and their friends played a no-holds-barred game of ball. Catcalls were fast and furious from the sidelines, and the women acting as cheerleaders added another element to the game.
Ginna, in pink paisley-print cotton shorts and a pink tank top, was colorful as she leaped and cheered every time Zach was up at bat.
He found he had to concentrate on watching the ball and not Ginna, who was teaching Emma how to make high kicks.
In the end, his team won by two runs. Ginna whooped and ran over, leaping onto him and wrapping her legs around his waist. She kissed him. He grabbed hold of her to keep his balance and kissed her back.
He was vaguely aware of joking shouts directed their way.
“My hero,” she murmured as he set her back down.
“Hey, that’s my sister you’re fondling,” Mark protested.
“He was dropped on the head as a child,” Ginna told Zach. “We just ignore him when he gets like that.”
“Maybe if you’d dropped him again, he might have ended up normal,” Lucie said. “As for my darling brother—” she looped an arm around his neck and kissed him on the cheek “—he led his baseball team to the championships in college,” she said proudly, still hugging him.
“I caught a ball,” Mark told her, greatly offended at being left out.
“And promptly dropped it,” Ginna said.
“Zach, if you’re this good at baseball, then I want you on my team for water polo,” Jeff told him, clapping him on the back. “Mark really sucks at it, like he does at baseball.” He laughed, ducking as his brother playfully swung a fist at him.
“Come on, Dad’s fired up the barbecue. Red meat for you,” Ginna told Zach, pulling him away.
“Grampa’s with him,” Jeff yelled after them. “He’s supervising the fire.”