GINA WILKINS - The Texan's Surprise Baby

“Can I get you a cold drink, Andrew?” Sarah called from behind the counter. She hadn’t changed a bit since the last time he’d seen her, looking little older than her adult offspring. Her blond hair was just sprinkled with gray, her minimally made-up face was hardly lined, and while she carried a few extra pounds, she still looked fit and healthy.

“A lemonade sounds great,” he answered with a smile, fondly remembering the fresh-squeezed lemonade he’d enjoyed last summer.

“I’ll get it.” Shelby hurried toward the counter.

Sandy-haired, blue-eyed, twenty-seven-year-old Steven Bell held out his right hand. “I’d stand to greet you, but I’m still sort of clumsy with these damn crutches,” he complained.

Andrew shook his hand. “I was sorry to hear about your accident. How are you holding up, Steven?”

“Not bad, thanks. The leg should be completely healed in a few weeks with no lasting problems. The rest of me is still sore but better. All in all, could be worse.”

“Aaron told me you’re planning to train as a firefighter.”

“Yeah, I’m hoping to start training as soon as I’m out of this 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.”

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.