Tara Quinn - White Picket Fences

“Are you Ben Sanders?” the man asked. His face was lined but looked friendly. The woman’s lips seemed to be trembling.

“Yes,” Ben answered immediately. “What can I do for you?”

Zack wondered if these people had something to do with Alex, maybe grandparents from her mother’s side. They’d better not be there to take the child away from Ben and Tory.

“We’re James and Carol Montford,” the older gentleman said, his voice hoarse. The aunt and uncle Ben had never met.

“He looks so much like the pictures of Grace,” Carol said to her husband, her eyes tearing up as she stared at Ben. “And like our Sam.”

That would be Samuel Montford IV, Cassie’s bastard of an ex-husband and the town founder’s namesake. Zack could only imagine what Ben must be feeling, finally meeting these people who were his only living family. Family meant everything to Ben, and until a few months before, he’d thought himself alone in the world.

Zack stood up.

“Won’t you come in?” Tory asked graciously, standing up, too.

On hearing her voice, Ben turned, glanced back at Tory. His eyes were blazing with emotion.

“Yes, please come in,” he finally said, pulling the door wider as he stepped aside. “It’s…I—”

“We won’t stay long,” Carol said gently. “We just couldn’t wait any longer to meet you.”

“We’ve been away,” Ben explained, showing them to the couch he and Tory had been sharing a short time before. “After the holidays Tory, Alex and I went back to California to get the rest of Alex’s belongings.”

The Montfords glanced curiously at Tory. “This is our new niece we’ve heard so much about?” Carol asked.

“Yes.” Ben drew Tory forward, though he released her almost immediately. “This is my wife, Tory.”

“It’s so nice to meet you,” Tory said, her tone reflecting the manners she’d learned as the wife of one of the richest men on the East Coast. Zack half expected to see her curtsy.

“It’s nice to meet you, too, dear. Better than nice. The Parsons have told me about you, and I’m thrilled to welcome you into the family. I only wish we could’ve been here for your wedding.” Zack was impressed by how deftly the older woman put Tory at ease. His friend’s wife had lived a hard life and rarely relaxed.

“We more or less eloped,” Ben threw in.

“We should give them a proper reception, Carol. The old house could use some livening up.”

“What a great idea!” Carol exclaimed. “We’ll let you kids get settled back into school and then plan something.” She looked beyond the adults to the empty room behind them. “Is little Alex here?” she asked wistfully. “It’s been so long since we had a child in the family.”

“She’s in the bedroom playing a video game she got for Christmas,” Tory answered. “I’ll go get her.”

As Tory left the room, Zack took the opportunity to excuse himself. Ben had been without family virtually his entire life. He deserved these moments alone with the couple who seemed completely ready to become the parents he’d never had.

There were times when life actually turned out right.

SHE COULDN’T GO. Someone would have to call him and tell him she wasn’t going.

Randi paced from her closet to the full-length mirror in her bathroom, looking at herself in her standard gym shorts and T-shirt, her white socks and tennis shoes. She wasn’t date material. She was too strong, too aggressive.

She didn’t know how to be sweet and gushy and girlish.

She couldn’t go.

She’d barely slept the night before, tossing and turning. She couldn’t relax, couldn’t get Zack Foster off her mind. He’d caused sensations in her that she didn’t recognize. Had made her think about things she didn’t usually bother with. Sex, for instance.

She’d never obsessed about a man in her life.

And when she had drifted off, she’d had a horrible dream about sitting in a restaurant, being herself, enjoying herself, and glancing up to see a look of revulsion on Zack Foster’s face. Which alternated with indifference.

She couldn’t go.

Her hair was okay. She had to keep it short so it didn’t get in the way, but there was style to it. Bounce and casual curl. And the streaks of light blond mixed in with the darker blond were all natural. Her eyes were probably her best feature. Chocolate-brown—they were her older brother Will’s eyes. She was proud to have them.

With one last look at herself, Randi turned her back on her reflection and grabbed the phone from the nightstand in her bedroom.

“Becca?” she said as soon as her sister-in-law picked up the phone.

“Randi, I just called you, but you didn’t answer.”

“I’m not at school.”

“Where are you?” Will’s wife asked. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine,” Randi said automatically. Then she remembered the day, almost a year before, when Becca had shown up on her doorstep, desperate, unsure, frightened. Of everyone she knew in Shelter Valley, she’d come to Randi.

“Well… I’m home, not sick or anything, but I’m not exactly fine,” she clarified.

“What’s up?”

“First, you have to promise me that you won’t say anything to Will. Or anyone else, for that matter.”

“You know you can trust me.”

She did know that. Which was one reason she was on the phone at all. Becca was the epitome of discretion. It was Becca’s mother, Rose, who was the town gossip.

Of course, Rose was harmless, since much of her gossip bore only a minute resemblance to the truth, and everyone knew that.

“I’ve got a date tonight.”

“You do?” Becca couldn’t quite keep the excitement out of her voice, but Randi gave her full marks for effort.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, you have my permission to go. Just be home by midnight.”

“It’s with Zack Foster. He’s the new partner Cassie took on at the clinic last spring.”

“Oh?”

Randi almost smiled at the eagerness Becca was trying hard to conceal. Except that she felt so miserable smiling wasn’t currently an option.

“I can’t go,” she muttered.

“Why not?” There was curiosity and concern in Becca’s tone, though no condemnation.

Randi relaxed enough to sit down on the side of her bed.

“I don’t know, Bec,” she admitted. “I’ve only met the man once and he…he scares me.”

“Zack? I’ve seen him a couple of times and he’s big, I’ll grant you. But a teddy bear. Besides, since when have you ever let a man frighten you? I can remember when you were barely five years old and challenging your teenage brothers, fully believing you could take them on.”

“I could.” She did smile this time.

“Yeah, because you had them wrapped around your sweet little finger.”

“I could still take them on,” Randi asserted. She had learned a long time ago that the mind was a far more effective weapon than physical strength. When she’d been on the professional golf tour, before the accident that had squelched that particular dream, it hadn’t been the strength of her swing that had made her a winner. It had been the mental control and finesse that went along with her swing.

“It’s not that Zack scares me, exactly,” she said now to Becca, staring down at the logo on her shoe.

“When I was sitting in his office yesterday, it was almost like I’d been hypnotized. I was practically ready to agree to whatever he said. It was the oddest sensation.”

“You like him.”

“I like you, too, but I don’t lose my ability to think when I’m with you.”

“THAT’S DIFFERENT. I’m a woman.”

“Yeah?” Randi replied. “No kidding.”