That made him laugh. “Not on her best day.”
Angie and Eva pushed through the front door of ZZ’s. It slammed behind them, cutting off the rock music, the loud hum of conversation, and the thick stale air that smelled of smoke and sweat.
They hustled down the street and didn’t stop until they reached her car. Angie’s hands trembled as she fished the key from her pocket and shoved it in the lock. The click of locks releasing had them sliding into their seats. Angie fired up the engine and drove.
Three blocks away from the bar she released a breath. “Shit. What the hell happened in there?”
“Margo didn’t like my questions.” Eva shook her head. “She never did like questions.”
“All you did was ask about Lulu.”
“That appeared to be enough.”
“Why?”
“Because of Garrison. Margo thought he sent me in to ask questions.”
“That’s one hell of a place to work. How did Lulu land there?”
“I got her the job. I knew Margo and knew she needed a waitress.”
“That’s not the best place.”
“It beats the streets. Lulu got a steady paycheck, and she didn’t have to turn tricks.”
“Yeah, but that place is one of the worst.”
Eva looked at Angie as if she were a child. “It’s hard to get a job when you’ve got a record. I was real lucky that King was looking out for me. If he hadn’t I’d have been in a place like that.”
“You weren’t guilty.”
“Does the general population care? I lived in a prison with bad people. That makes me tainted.”
“You’re not tainted, Eva.”
“Don’t be a Pollyanna, Angie. A decade in prison changed me and like it or not will always shadow my future. There is no changing that, no matter how many times I try to pretend otherwise.”
Angie glanced at Eva, surprised by the bitterness that edged her voice. “What’s this all about?You never worry about the past.”
“I worry about it a lot.” Eva settled back into her seat and folded her arms over her chest. Angie wasn’t sure what caught her eyes first: Eva’s fuller cheeks, the new ruddiness in her complexion, or the sudden fullness of her breasts.
Angie recognized the signs because she’d read about them and obsessed over the fact she’d never experience them. “You’re pregnant.”
Eva hurled a sharp glare at her. “I am not.”
Angie may have been out of her element in the bar, but she was back on solid ground now. “Did you know you still furrow your brows when you lie? It’s just like when you were a kid, and you got into my makeup and lied about it.”
Eva closed her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about this.”
“If you’re holding back to spare my feelings, don’t. My lack of childbearing ability shouldn’t enter into this.” When Eva didn’t answer, Angie pressed on, unwilling to let the subject drop. “Have you told Garrison?”
A long heavy silence followed. “No.”
The simple word confirmed the pregnancy, and as it did a torrent of emotions assailed Angie: happiness for her sister and then quickly on its heels bitter sadness. For a moment she drove down the streets, winding in and out of traffic. And only when she thought her emotions had been duly subdued did she speak. “Why haven’t you told him? He’s crazy about you.”
“A baby wasn’t exactly in the plan.”
“All the more reason to talk to him.”
“Yeah.” She muttered an oath as she picked at a stray thread on her cuff. “He told me he didn’t want kids. He watched his sister die of CF, and he doesn’t want to pass the disease on to his own kid.”
“A hypothetical baby and a real one are very different.”
She pressed her palms together. “Yeah, well, what if the baby is sick, and I don’t have what it takes to take care of the kid. Both my parents abandoned their child. Mom left you. Dad left me.”
Angie cleared her throat. “Mom saw me as much as my father would allow. And she told me she wanted to take me with her.”
“But in the end she chose to leave you and be with Blue. And then Blue chose to leave me.”
Angie cut through the bitterness that rose inside her. “You are different from Mom and Blue. You won’t leave this baby, sick or not.”
Eva laid her palms on her still very flat stomach. “I am afraid I could really screw this up. I’ve only just figured out myself. And now toss in a baby, a husband, and a potential medical problem. It could all get messed up so easily.”
“Eyes forward, Eva. That’s what you always say. What our parents did has no bearing on us. And I know you. You are very loving. You would never leave your kid, no matter how bad things go.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
She thought about the secret investigation she’d launched into Blue’s past. “Have you ever heard from Blue? I mean all the publicity last year. It had to have caught his attention.”
She stiffened. “I never heard a word from him.”
She kept her tone even. “Did he contact you when Mom was still alive?”
“Once a postcard from Colorado. Happy Birthday, kiddo. That was all he said. I was seven.”
Angie knew the bare stats on Blue Rayburn. He’d been hired by Angie’s father to work in the museum as the head of security.Angie’s father had been the museum’s director. They’d worked together for a few months without incident, and then Blue and her mother had begun their affair. Soon after Frank had discovered his wife’s deception, the marriage had collapsed.
She’d asked her dad once about her mother’s leaving, but he’d refused to say more than, “Life changes people.”
What had happened almost thirty years ago to change her parents so much? She doubted she’d ever know.
“Have you seen a doctor?” Angie asked.
“Yes. Last week. She confirmed it. The baby is due in seven
months.”
Spring. Intuition whispered the baby was going to be a girl. Easter bonnets, lace dresses, and tiny, tiny booties flashed in her head. Eva would be holding a baby in her arms by spring. Angie’s insides tightened. “And all is well?”
“Healthy as a horse.”
“That’s perfect.”
Eva faced her. “I’m sorry.”
“Why would you be sorry?”
“Because you want kids. And you can’t have them.”
“Hey, my life is super full. And this isn’t about me. It’s about you and your baby. You’ve got to tell Garrison.”
Eva let her head fall back against the plush leather of the BMW’s seats. She seemed lost in thought. Her phone vibrated, she sat forward and pulled it from her pocket. “It’s Garrison.”
“Talk to him.”
She held the phone until it stopped ringing. “When I see him face to face.”
“Once Garrison stops freaking, he is going to go nuts,” Angie said. “He’s going to spoil this kid rotten.” She lightened her tone as much as she could. “And he’ll have to get in line. I’m going to be one bitching aunt.”
Eva’s expression remained serious. “Don’t tell him I was at the bar. Knowing we had to run for it won’t sit well on a good day. But toss in pregnant and he’d have a kitten.”
Angie laughed. “That I’d like to see.”
“You won’t tell?”
“My lips are sealed.”
Malcolm found his partner at King’s, nursing a cup of coffee and checking his watch.
He sat on the seat beside Garrison. “Where is Eva?”
“King said she had an errand. I’ve been waiting a half hour.”
“And she’s not answering her cell?”
“No.” No missing the worry. “How did it go at ZZ’s?”
“Enlightening.” Malcolm snagged a handful of nuts from the jar in front of him.
“How so?”
“I spotted two familiar faces.” He waited a beat. “Angie Carlson and Eva.”
Garrison cocked his head. “Say that again?”