The Texan's Surprise Baby. GINA WILKINS
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cast. Fire and EMT classes start in mid-October, so I want to be in top shape by then.”
“Well, Dad?” Hannah’s father asked Pop with a grin. “Now do you believe there really are two of them?”
Pop chuckled. “Always did. I was just pulling Aaron’s leg by pretending otherwise.”
“How long can you be with us, Andrew?” Mimi asked eagerly, still avidly studying him and his brother as if searching for any minute difference.
“I’m not sure yet,” he prevaricated. “Through the end of the weekend probably, unless something comes up.”
“Where would you like to stay? Cabin 7 is available now,” she said blithely. “And I guess Cabin 8 is open, too, if your brother is going to be shacking up with my granddaughter.”
Andrew heard a few gasps and muffled laughs.
“Mother!” Bryan chided in a strangled voice.
“What?” Mimi looked from one of her family members to another with a matter-of-fact shrug. “We’re a modern family. We’re down with it.”
This time it was Andrew who choked on a laugh.
“Oh, man, Mimi’s been watching old sitcom reruns again,” Steven said with an affectionate groan.
“One of the motel rooms will be fine with me, if it’s available,” Andrew assured them. “I don’t need to tie up a cabin because I probably won’t use the kitchen anyway. I don’t cook much.”
Mimi nodded. “We have a couple empty rooms. I think the one you stayed in last summer is available.”
“That would be great. I enjoyed the view of the lake from the balcony.”
She stood. “Here, take my seat. I have to go. The family’s gathering at our house after closing for white chicken chili that’s been cooking in Crock-Pots all day, and I have a few things to finish up. We’d love for you to join us.”
“It would be my pleasure. Thank you.”
She patted his cheek as though he were ten rather than thirty. “I’ll have Lori bring you a key to your room. It’s almost time for her to close the desk. She’s on her summer break from college and she’s been filling in for Hannah during the past couple weeks while Hannah visited some relatives.”
Towing Pop along with her with the firm reminder that she required his assistance with dinner preparations, Mimi swept out of the diner. Andrew took her emptied seat, with his lemonade on the table in front of him. He glanced at his watch. Still another twenty minutes to go before the seven-o’clock closing time. After that, late arrivals wanting a room or campsite would have to ring a bell at the gate for service. One of the family members was always on call to answer that kind of summons, night duty rotating among the various households.
They spent those remaining twenty minutes talking—though more accurately, Andrew primarily listened, having little chance to get a word in with Shelby, Maggie, Steven and Bryan talking over each other to catch him up on what he’d missed. They told him more about the excitement yesterday with stolen-goods fencer Russell King, aka Terrence Landon, who had used Cabin 7 as his own private base of criminal operations for almost a month before Shelby and Aaron shut him down. The conversation segued into all the maintenance tasks scheduled for the remainder of the summer and beyond—chores that had been on Steven’s agenda before his mowing accident and subsequent decision to pursue his childhood dream. Now Aaron was excited about taking over Steven’s job with Bryan, who would be his direct supervisor.
Andrew watched his brother’s face while the men talked about those upcoming projects. The work would be hard, mostly manual labor in the summer heat, but Aaron looked as though he couldn’t wait to get started. He hadn’t shown nearly as much enthusiasm for his last couple of jobs, both in sales with comfortable working conditions and a more-than-adequate income. Who’d have thought he’d get this stimulated working in resort maintenance? How much of his eagerness had to do with his new and exciting relationship with Shelby? Would it last or would it fall apart with time, leaving everyone involved disappointed and heartbroken?
Andrew had no precognitive talent, but he wanted to believe his brother would make his new direction in both romance and career work for a lifetime. Their family had a history of short courtships and long marriages, so maybe Aaron had inherited that gene.
As for himself—
“Oh, look, Hannah’s back,” Shelby said, waving toward the doorway behind Andrew. “She’ll be so happy you’re here, Andrew.”
Hoping his smile didn’t look as sickly as it felt, Andrew nodded, taking a moment to steel himself for the performance ahead. He sensed his brother studying him a bit too closely—or was that just projection on his part? Avoiding Aaron’s eyes, he glanced in Maggie’s direction, only to find her looking at him with a slight frown.
Clearing his throat, he stood and turned to watch Hannah approach, a credible expression of pleased surprise on her face when she saw him there. Pasting on a bright grin, he stepped forward. “Hello, Hannah. It’s a pleasure to see you again.”
Chapter Two
Even though nearly everyone had private quarters, the Bell clan often gathered at the end of a workday for meals. The family compound lay on a clearly marked private drive off the main resort road. Three almost-identical redbrick ranch-style houses were occupied by Hannah’s grandparents, her parents and her aunt and uncle, with her grandparents in the center. As the third generation had become adults, they’d chafed against living with their parents and invested in homes of their own at the end of the road. Four similar tan-and-cream, two-bedroom mobile homes were grouped two on either side of the dead-end drive. Their grandfather grumpily referred to the tidy cluster as the “trailer park,” but Hannah and her sister and cousins had been content with their quarters. Lori was the only one of their generation who still lived with her parents, though for most of the year she was away at college.
Mimi and Pop were the hosts on this Monday evening, and everyone was there except Lori, who had a date, much to the displeasure of her family. While Hannah was away, it had come to light that Lori’s current boyfriend was Zach Webber, a long-haired, bearded rebel who had dropped out of college and was currently scraping by as a guitarist in an alternative garage band. Maybe the family could have accepted all of that, Hannah mused, had they not known he’d done time in juvenile detention for breaking and entering. Probably his legal records were sealed now that he was twenty-one, but Zach had long been the subject of local gossip and tongue-clucking and the family was not at all happy that Lori had chosen to stage a mini-rebellion with him.
The topic of the evening was still the excitement of the day before, though Shelby soon got tired of rehashing it and begged everyone to talk about something else. Grouped around the two large picnic tables that sat behind her grandparents’ house, the family obliged, several new conversations breaking out at once among the twelve diners enjoying Mimi’s white chicken chili and jalapeño corn muffins. Steven’s lazy yellow lab, Pax, wandered around the tables, not exactly begging but giving longing looks to everyone with a plate. With amusement, Hannah saw several members of the family slipping bits of chicken to the dog even though Steven expressly forbade them to do so.
Obsessed as always with work, Hannah’s father spoke up above the chatter, directing his words toward Aaron. “You know anything about running electrical wiring?”
“I’m not a licensed electrician, but I’ve helped with a few basic projects. Why?”
“I’m wanting to install a few more security lights along our private drive, especially there around the sign,” Hannah’s dad said gruffly. His meaningful glance at Shelby made it clear that he was thinking of the one short, dark stretch on the drive where Shelby had been snatched while walking home late from visiting Aaron’s cabin. None of them knew if more lighting would have prevented the attack, but maybe she’d have seen him lurking there had the shadows not been so heavy.
Aaron