The Texan's Surprise Baby (Bell Family 2)

Maggie gave her a chiding look. “You haven’t made that many.”

Hannah snorted inelegantly. “Right.”

Ever the loyal sister, Maggie insisted, “We all fell for Wade’s act. I mean, he was never my favorite person, but I didn’t know quite how horrible he was until after you had the sense to dump him. As for this—” she gestured vaguely toward Hannah’s baby bump “—you’ve always wanted a baby, and you couldn’t have chosen a better father.”

Leave it to her determinedly optimistic sister to spin it that particular way, Hannah thought with a wry smile. Maybe she should have talked to Maggie from the beginning, rather than spending so much time brooding in self-recrimination. “I didn’t exactly choose for Andrew to be the father of my child. It was an accident. Honestly, we thought we were being careful.”

“Then it was just meant to be. So? How’s it going to proceed from here? With you and Andrew, I mean.”

“I’m not sure. We’re going to talk later this evening. Try to make some decisions, I guess.”

“I don’t want to sound too much like Mimi—but you might as well be prepared for everyone to ask, so I’ll start. Is there any chance that you and Andrew could maybe—”

“No,” Hannah interrupted firmly, knowing exactly where this was headed. And her sister’s automatic question was the most compelling reason Hannah had been so reluctant about telling her family. “That’s not on the agenda.”

“I see.” Maggie kept her expression carefully neutral.

Thunder boomed outside, loud enough to rattle the windows in the trailer. The wind had picked up, too, and rain hammered against the roof and glass. It wasn’t a severe storm, but Hannah hoped everyone in the resort was managing to stay safe and dry. She glanced at her watch. It was time for the marina, store and grill to close, so the rest of the family would be headed to their own homes soon unless they were waiting out the rain in the main building. “There’s no need for you to go out in this deluge. Why don’t we make some pasta or something for dinner?”

“Sounds like a plan,” her sister agreed. “What time are you meeting Andrew?”

“We didn’t really say. I guess he’ll just show up later, maybe when the storm has passed.”

Maggie nodded. “I’ll give the two of you privacy when he gets here. But in the meantime, pasta sounds good.”

They moved together toward the kitchen. Maggie placed a hand on Hannah’s arm when they reached the pantry. “Hannah?”

“Yes?”

“You know that no matter what happens, I’m always here for you and my niece, right?”

Touched, Hannah smiled. She thought fleetingly of all the squabbles and competitions and tiffs she and her sister had gotten into through the years, of all the times they’d fussed and pouted and tattled—and yet she was absolutely confident that Maggie meant every word of her promise. “I know, Mags. That goes both ways, you know.”

“I know. Now, about that pasta...”

* * *

Because of the downpour, Andrew, Aaron and Steven lingered in the grill even after Sarah hung the Closed sign on the door. Shelby and her dad joined them a few minutes later, their own work finished for the day. Bryan and Linda had taken Mimi and Pop home in Bryan’s dual-cab work truck, which he could drive straight into their garage to keep them from getting wet. Shelby’s family decided to make a dinner of soup and sandwiches in the grill while waiting for the rain to stop. Andrew thought of Hannah, but they hadn’t said anything about dining together, so he accepted Sarah’s invitation for him to join them. He would slip over to Hannah’s later.

“I wish Lori had waited until the storm passed to go out,” Sarah fretted, glancing upward automatically when thunder boomed. “I don’t like to think of her driving in this.”

“You don’t like to think of her driving in the rain to meet Zach,” Shelby corrected.

C.J. scowled at the mention of his youngest child’s undesirable boyfriend. Sarah hesitated, then nodded sheepishly. “I guess that has something to do with it.”

Andrew had heard the family talk of Zach a few times during the past few days, enough for him to get the gist of why they didn’t approve of him. “I know you said Lori’s boyfriend got into some trouble as a juvenile, but is there any reason to believe he’s living on the wrong side of the law now?” he asked, curious.

He watched as the family exchanged looks. “Not specifically,” Sarah finally admitted. “He still looks like a delinquent, but as far as I know he

hasn’t been arrested lately.”

“Do you want me to check into him? If there’s genuine reason to be concerned about Lori spending time with the guy, I could probably find it.”

Sarah’s eyes went wide. “Can you do that? Legally, I mean?”

Andrew shrugged. “I can do a routine background check.”

Aaron chuckled quietly. “He can do a bit more than that. Mostly legally, of course.”