The Texan's Surprise Baby (Bell Family 2)

“At the main building. I have to bring some things to the office.”

He nodded and took the right turn that led toward the lake.

It was after six now, but the resort bustled with activity. The day was still hot and bright, the lake still crisscrossed with fishing and ski boats and personal watercraft. The cordoned-off swimming area was crowded with families enjoying the cool water now that the sun had lowered a bit. Even when the resort was full with cool-weather campers, it always seemed oddly quiet in the winter months when the swimming area was closed. No lifeguard was provided at the swim-at-your-own-risk beach, but prominently posted signs reminded parents to closely watch their children. The shrieks and laughter drifting from that direction were familiar sounds to Hannah. The resort did good business year round, but summer, of course, was the prime source of annual income.

A gaggle of teenagers burst from the building as Hannah and Andrew approached, sodas and candy bars in their hands providing evidence that they’d visited the convenience store. A middle-aged couple who’d camped often at the resort for the past five years called out a greeting to Hannah as they made their way toward the boat slips with fishing rods in their hands. She waved back and wished them luck with their fishing outing.

“Did you ever get tired of living in the middle of a resort when you were growing up?” Andrew asked her as he reached around her to open the door. “Always being surrounded by so many people?”

“I’d have been surrounded by even more people if I’d grown up in an apartment in the city,” she said with a shrug. “But at least here we had the lake and the playground and plenty of room to run and ride our bikes and skate. When I wanted time to myself, I could always retreat to my room or to a hammock in our backyard, because the family compound was off-limits to guests. Our parents taught us about staying alert around strangers, never running off alone, water safety and so on, but I’d say it was pretty much an ideal place to grow up.”

“And you plan to stay here in your trailer after the baby’s born?”

“That’s the plan,” she said lightly. “For a while anyway. At least I’ll have plenty of family around to help out.”

He looked as though he wanted to say something more, but now they were inside and surrounded by people, several of them relatives, so he couldn’t.

“I’ll see you later,” she told him, already digging in her bag for the paperwork she had to drop off at the office and the prescription bottles to be delivered to various family members.

Andrew nodded and turned toward the diner. “Later,” he said, making it sound like a promise.

Hannah saw her grandmother making a beeline in her direction, and she pointed a ste

rn finger. “Don’t even start,” she warned. “You may ask about the errands I ran or what happened to my car, but no more matchmaking.”

Mimi sighed dramatically, not even bothering to pretend ignorance. “Fine.”

Nodding in satisfaction, Hannah handed her grandmother the prescriptions she had picked up for her, then headed for the office.

* * *

Between the pandemonium at the resort and Aaron’s brand-new romance with Shelby, there had been little chance for Andrew and Aaron to speak privately since Andrew arrived. Andrew thought that was a good thing in some ways because it had always been so hard for him to hide anything from his brother. So he found himself on guard when he and Aaron were finally alone together at almost ten Thursday night.

They’d been playing a card game with Shelby and her parents and brother when a call had come in about some trouble at Campsite 32. C.J. had automatically risen to respond, but Aaron volunteered instead, reminding his girlfriend’s father that he was the newest member of the employee roster and should be the one to take the night shift. Andrew had come along because it was time for the gathering to end and because he was curious.

They’d parted from Steven outside his parents’ house. Because of his mending leg, Steven was getting around in one of the resort’s green golf carts. Andrew had a key to Steven’s trailer, where he’d be bunking for the night, and Steven urged him to feel free to let himself in and make himself at home when he returned from accompanying Aaron.

Andrew and Aaron hopped into another golf cart. It wasn’t a long walk to the problem site but the cart would get them there more quickly. Aaron took the wheel. “I think I’ve memorized the grounds during the past week,” he murmured. “If I’m right, site 32 is lakeside, almost in the center of the row.”

“Sounds about right,” Andrew agreed, calling on his own vague memory of the resort map. “What, exactly, is the problem we’re responding to?”

“Noise complaint. C.J. told me it usually just takes a warning from management to get them to quiet down.”

Andrew knew it was rare that local law enforcement had to be summoned to the resort, though it did happen occasionally. For general complaints, guests were encouraged to call the 24-hour service number, which was routed to various Bell family members, depending on who was on call for the night. For true emergencies, such as medical crises or other dangerous situations, they were instructed to call 9-1-1. Staying on the main road that circled through the resort, Aaron drove past two intersecting roads on the right, the first leading between rows of RV pads, the second through the tent-camping area. He swung right at the end of the road between another two rows of RV pads, the ones on the left located at the lakeside.

The pads were identified with reflective markers that glowed in the cart’s headlamps, but they didn’t need to read the numbers to know they had reached the right place. They could hear the raised voices even from several yards away. Swapping a look with Andrew, Aaron parked the cart in front of the double-cab pickup that had been used to tow the expensive fifth-wheel camper parked on the concrete pad. The windows of the camper had been cranked open to let in the cooler evening air, and the violent shouting inside was all too audible. A few crashes sounded along with the yells. Several people from nearby campsites hovered on the perimeters, looking toward the fifth-wheel in irritation, with curiosity and some concern. Aaron gave a wave to indicate that they should return to their own sites, and most of them did, with the exception of a few gawkers.

Andrew walked a step behind his brother as they approached the camper. Aaron still wore the green polo shirt with the resort logo, and he looked very official striding purposefully toward the camper. Andrew was still amused that this was the career that excited Aaron after the others he had tried had left him cold.

Aaron rapped on the door of the camper, firmly enough to be heard over the ruckus inside. A momentary lull was followed by the door being jerked open. Even standing to one side, Andrew could smell the reek of alcohol that wafted from the open doorway. An unsteady bear of a man with a sagging belly barely contained by a camo-print T-shirt over ragged denim cutoffs filled the doorway. “What?”

“Sir, I’m Aaron Walker. I work for the resort. We’ve had some complaints about the noise and I need to ask you to keep it down.”

“Tell you what,” the man snarled in response, “you tell those complainers that I’ll mind my business and they can just mind their own.”

Andrew swallowed a sigh. Didn’t look like this would be an easy one.

He heard a woman’s voice inside the camper. He couldn’t make out all the words, but it sounded as though she were asking her companion, whom she called Neal, to calm down and come inside. The man looked over his shoulder and unleashed another string of curses, followed by a less-than-original threat for her to keep her mouth shut or else.