A Home Come True. Cheryl Harper

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СКАЧАТЬ life Steph had lived in Peru.

      The tablecloth lifted. Stephanie blinked twice at her.

      “Scoot. I need out.” Jen waved a hand and waited impatiently for Steph to move.

      When an opening wide enough for her to wiggle through opened, Jen slowly stood and brushed off the knees of her jeans before stomping her feet to loosen her pant legs down into her boots. Then she held both arms out and stretched. This was going to work.

      When she turned around, all the conversation had paused. Six pairs of eyes were locked on her.

      Jen smoothed her hair behind one ear and smiled. Then she pointed at Cole. “He said it couldn’t be done.”

      Every head swiveled to study Cole, the ex-convict who’d landed at Paws for Love in desperate need of a job to make good on his second chance. He held up both hands. “That’s not how it went down, but...”

      Rebecca grinned as she pressed a kiss against Cole’s cheek. The pink that spread across his face would have been cute if he hadn’t had a glare that could stop a train. That had to have come in handy in prison. Rebecca said, “Mistake. Nobody tells her what she can’t do.”

      Cole opened his mouth to argue and thought better of it. Jen was only doing what her friends expected of her. Being the first to bail on a party was her way.

      “I guess this means you’re leaving,” Stephanie asked and opened her arms for a hug.

      Saying goodbye was almost as hard as enduring one more minute of the noise and total sensory overload that came with crowds, even crowds of people she loved, but Jen hadn’t come this far to quit now.

      “Yeah,” Jen said, surprised at the frog in her throat that accompanied the overwhelming emotion. She wasn’t sure when Stephanie would be back in Texas, but June or the end of the school year would be the first chance she’d have to travel to Lima to visit. It was a long way away. “We’ll always have Facebook.” Facebook was filled with annoyances, too, but it was quiet and she did love seeing photos of the work Stephanie and Daniel did with HealthyAmericas.

      “Sure.” Stephanie squeezed her hard and fast and then stepped back. This was a tried-and-true goodbye, one that Jen appreciated. “I’m glad you came.”

      “Wouldn’t have missed it.” Jen offered Daniel a friendly wave. “Take good care of her.” Jen narrowed her eyes. “Or else.” He was a doctor. It would be a shame to harm him, but she’d do it.

      The fact that no one laughed at her threat was reassuring. She might have been the smallest and the poorest, but she’d also always been the one with the toughest attitude.

      She’d cultivated that reputation. Years of being afraid had taught her to be fearless, even when she was afraid.

      “We’ll walk you out,” Rebecca said quickly and the three men seated between her and the door stood in a gentlemanly fashion to let her pass by.

      The heat that dusted Jen’s cheeks was unwelcome. Sure, they would have done the same for her, but she hadn’t needed the help. She’d managed like she always did.

      Marching to the door as if she had zero concerns, Jen studied the pile of coats and bags on the floor. “In the next reno, add a coatrack, would ya?”

      “If any of you ingrates would put your things in the closet like I’ve asked a million times, we wouldn’t have this problem,” Rebecca answered.

      Before Jen could come up with a retort that would make it easier to deal with the sadness of saying goodbye to a friend, someone rang the doorbell.

      The sudden peal of bells would have been startling in normal circumstances, but with her nerves rattled, and having been standing so close to the door, Jen clapped a hand over her racing heart before she yanked the door open. “What?”

      Then she realized who was standing on the porch. Luke Hollister, Holly Heights’ newest policeman, enemy number one to her friend Sarah, and the topic of at least fifteen minutes of the evening’s conversation. Sarah and Will, Jen’s stepbrother, had recounted how Hollister had harassed them both in the hunt for Sarah’s father, Big Bobby Hillman, causing Jen to file away a long list of grievances against her neighbor.

      Until that evening, Jen hadn’t known she had such a good reason to dislike him. Now that she did, it was sweet. There was no need to try to make friends with him and his relatives when she’d been watching from her windows. She’d gotten some of his mail and had sneaked across the road to put it in his mailbox. If she’d known he was so good-looking at close range, she’d... Well, she’d have done the same thing.

      “What are you doing here?” Jen asked and tapped her cowboy boot. “Did someone call the cops?” Unless she’d somehow done it with the power of wishful thinking, Jen knew the answer to that. As loud as it was inside, it was that peaceful and quiet in the cool September night.

      “I thought small towns were supposed to be welcoming,” Hollister muttered. At least he had the good sense to appear uneasy. “I need to talk to Sarah. Miss Hillman.”

      Before she could turn and yell over her shoulder, Sarah, Rebecca and Stephanie stepped up behind her. At this point, she was all too aware of how vertically challenged she was and that was doubly irritating.

      “What do you want?” Sarah demanded. “Unless you have something to tell me about my father, I’m busy.” She’d been waiting for answers from Hollister or the Austin Police Department for weeks. Her father, Big Bobby Hillman, had embezzled funds from his car dealerships and disappeared.

      Hollister had been certain she was helping Bobby or biding her time until she could disappear and had hounded her for information. Passing on the single clue she had to his whereabouts had been Sarah’s only choice. She deserved to know what was happening.

      “Bobby will be in Austin, at the main station, tonight.” Hollister’s arms hung loose at his sides, almost like he could reach for his weapon at any minute. But he wasn’t armed. Maybe he was always on guard. “Radio silence has been in effect while the department worked with Miami police and the Marshals to bring Bobby into custody and transport him home. Thanks to you, they were able to track him from Tampa.”

      Jen turned to wrap her hand around Sarah’s. Whatever their history, Jen hated to see someone as suddenly pale as Sarah was.

      “Is he...okay?” Sarah cleared her throat. “I want to see my father.”

      “I thought you would say that. This is not protocol, but I got permission for you to visit Bobby in Austin tomorrow.” Hollister’s grim face was lit by the soft glow of the porch light. Jen wasn’t sure what she’d expected from a jerk who’d threatened her stepbrother, Will, in an effort to get Sarah to turn in her father.

      Hollister seemed to be waiting for something. The grim set of his lips matched the tilt of his chin. He was determined. “I’ll have to go, too.”

      Sarah’s fingernails were sharp needles in Jen’s hand; she said, “I’ll go but without you, Hollister.”

      He shook his head. “That’s not the deal. It’s either both of us or no one. You can talk to Bobby, get a lawyer hired. He’s going to need one.”

      Sarah was committed to helping the police right her father’s wrongs, СКАЧАТЬ