A Home Come True
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Cheryl Harper
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Chapter One
DAYDREAMING ABOUT SHOVING a buttered dinner roll into Sarah Hillman’s mouth to keep her from laughing again was a sign that it was time to leave the party. Almost everyone Jennifer Neil loved was there, but the noise of so many conversations, the heat of too many people in a cramped space and Sarah’s joyful laugh had hit the overwhelming stage. Jen needed some quiet, some breathing room. Soon.
Food this good should mean no leftovers but three of Rebecca’s perfect buttery-soft dinner rolls were left, and they would make excellent missiles to launch across the table. Sarah’s best choice for return fire would be the grilled asparagus at her elbow. Jen hated asparagus. A food fight would not be the smartest way to maintain their peace.
Stephanie Yates was telling a story about a Peruvian lizard in her Peruvian shower that would have been hilarious except for two things. Jen had already heard this story half a dozen times, and Sarah Hillman had tipped her head back to laugh again. The throbbing pain in Jen’s temple resumed.
When the walls started to close like this, Jen knew she needed to exit. She was suffocating. No matter how hard it would be, she had to save herself.
Unfortunately, she’d somehow landed as far away from the front door as possible in Rebecca Lincoln’s cramped dining room. Rebecca had spent enough of the lottery winnings that she, Stephanie Yates and Jen had shared to fill a small bank vault redoing the kitchen, but nothing on the rest of her cozy house. With all of her new spare time and mad money, Jen had become a home-improvement show devotee so she knew any designer worth his or her paycheck should have insisted on knocking down a wall. Open plan was where it was at.
If the gathering had been made up of Jen, Rebecca and Stephanie only, Jen would have had zero trouble breathing. They’d spent so many Friday evenings here during high school that it was sort of Jen’s home, too.
Even Sarah, her former nemesis, was growing on her. When Rebecca had informed Jen that the three of them would be giving away Rebecca’s share of the winnings to worthy projects, Jen would never have imagined Sarah Hillman and her animal shelter would become so important to them and to Jen, in particular. If Sarah hadn’t been such a spoiled mean girl in high school, she might have rounded out their group then.
Since Sarah and Jen’s stepbrother, Will, the guy entrusted with Rebecca’s funds, were now together, it just made sense to keep a close eye on her.
Honestly though, spending time with these women was easy. They accepted her rough edges.
But the other Musketeers had insisted on dragging along their beefcake, so the whole place was exceeding maximum occupancy. Rebecca’s parents had been lucky. They’d bailed on this going-away dinner early, blaming a long day of flying. They’d taken a break from their Floridian retirement to be here to wish their son, Daniel, and his happy bride well.
There were still too many bodies crammed in this space. It didn’t take a math teacher to figure that equation out. Someone should call the fire marshal. She’d do it herself but her phone was in her purse by the door.
“I’ve got to get to the door,” Jen muttered and craned her neck to check to see if she could maneuver between Rebecca’s sparkling quartz-topped breakfast bar and the row of chairs.
The only person who’d managed to sit quietly through dinner, Cole Ferguson, was crammed in the corner next to her. While Rebecca had been buzzing back and forth from the kitchen, he hadn’t taken his eyes off her. For most of the dinner, he’d managed to keep his eyes on his own plate, but it was impossible to miss how he turned toward Rebecca every time she spoke or her arm brushed his.
Sure, it’s sweet now. But all the lovesickness in the room will be gross pretty soon.
Especially for the only single in the room of couples.
When Jen finally got his attention, Cole studied the room. “The door? Impossible.” The big guy leaned back to carefully drape one arm over Rebecca’s chair.
“Impossible, huh?” Jen twisted her chin to crack the tense vertebrae in her neck. “When you say that, it’s like waving a red cape and I’m the bull that’s going to charge right out of here.”
His rough laugh spurred her on, but no matter which direction she looked, there was someone blocking her. Fine. If she couldn’t go high, she’d go low. Very low.
Thankful for her earlier decision to wear the designer jeans that had once belonged to Sarah, but had become Jen’s favorite pair by way of the consignment shop, Jen tried to turn every bone in her body to mush. Slithering out of the chair with this little room wasn’t easy, but once she was on her hands and knees under the table, it was a piece of cake to crawl right down the middle.
“These floors are spotless,” Jen muttered with a shake of her head.
As soon as she reached the end of the table, Jen tapped Stephanie’s knee and waited for her to check below the table. When it took a second tap, Jen started to wonder what sort of life Steph had lived in Peru.
The tablecloth lifted. Stephanie blinked twice at her.
“Scoot. I need out.” Jen waved a hand and waited impatiently for Steph to move.
When an opening wide enough for her to wiggle through opened, Jen slowly stood and brushed off the knees of her jeans before stomping her feet to loosen her pant legs down into her boots. Then she held both arms out and stretched. This was going to work.
When she turned around, all the conversation had paused. Six pairs of eyes were locked on her.
Jen smoothed her hair behind one ear and smiled. Then she pointed at Cole. “He said it couldn’t be done.”
Every head swiveled to study Cole, the ex-convict who’d landed at Paws for Love in desperate need of a job to make good on his second chance. He held up both hands. “That’s not how it went down, but...”
Rebecca grinned as she pressed a kiss against Cole’s cheek. The pink that spread across his face would have been cute if he hadn’t had a glare that could stop a train. That had to have come in handy in prison. Rebecca said, “Mistake. Nobody tells her what she can’t do.”
Cole opened his mouth to argue and thought better of it. Jen was only doing what her friends expected of her. Being the first to bail on a party was her way.
“I guess this means you’re leaving,” Stephanie asked and opened her arms for a hug.
Saying goodbye was almost as hard as enduring one more minute of the noise and total sensory overload that came with crowds, even crowds of people she loved, but Jen hadn’t come this far to quit now.
“Yeah,” Jen said, surprised at the frog in her throat that accompanied the overwhelming emotion. She wasn’t sure when Stephanie would be back in Texas, but June or the end of the school year would be the first chance she’d have to travel to Lima to visit. It was a long way away. “We’ll always have Facebook.” Facebook was filled with annoyances, too, but it was quiet and she did love seeing photos of the work Stephanie and Daniel did with HealthyAmericas.
“Sure.” Stephanie squeezed her hard and fast and then stepped back. This was a tried-and-true goodbye, one that Jen appreciated. “I’m glad you came.”
“Wouldn’t have missed it.” Jen offered Daniel a friendly wave. “Take good care of her.” Jen narrowed her eyes. “Or else.” He was a doctor. It would be a shame to harm him, but she’d do it.
The fact that no one laughed at her threat was reassuring. She might have been the smallest and the poorest, but she’d also always been the one with the toughest attitude.
She’d cultivated that reputation. Years of being afraid had taught her to be fearless, even when she was afraid.
“We’ll walk you out,” Rebecca said quickly and the three men seated between her and the door stood in a gentlemanly fashion to let her pass by.
The heat that dusted Jen’s cheeks was unwelcome. Sure, they would have done the same for her, but she hadn’t needed the help. She’d managed like she always did.
Marching to the door as if she had zero concerns, Jen studied the pile of coats and bags on the floor. “In the next reno, add a coatrack, would ya?”
“If any of you ingrates would put your things in the closet like I’ve asked a million times, we wouldn’t have this problem,” Rebecca answered.
Before Jen could come up with a retort that would make it easier to deal with the sadness of saying goodbye to a friend, someone rang the doorbell.
The sudden peal of bells would have been startling in normal circumstances, but with her nerves rattled, and having been standing so close to the door, Jen clapped a hand over her racing heart before she yanked the door open. “What?”
Then she realized who was standing on the porch. Luke Hollister, Holly Heights’ newest policeman, enemy number one to her friend Sarah, and the topic of at least fifteen minutes of the evening’s conversation. Sarah and Will, Jen’s stepbrother, had recounted how Hollister had harassed them both in the hunt for Sarah’s father, Big Bobby Hillman, causing Jen to file away a long list of grievances against her neighbor.
Until that evening, Jen hadn’t known she had such a good reason to dislike him. Now that she did, it was sweet. There was no need to try to make friends with him and his relatives when she’d been watching from her windows. She’d gotten some of his mail and had sneaked across the road to put it in his mailbox. If she’d known he was so good-looking at close range, she’d... Well, she’d have done the same thing.
“What are you doing here?” Jen asked and tapped her cowboy boot. “Did someone call the cops?” Unless she’d somehow done it with the power of wishful thinking, Jen knew the answer to that. As loud as it was inside, it was that peaceful and quiet in the cool September night.
“I thought small towns were supposed to be welcoming,” Hollister muttered. At least he had the good sense to appear uneasy. “I need to talk to Sarah. Miss Hillman.”
Before she could turn and yell over her shoulder, Sarah, Rebecca and Stephanie stepped up behind her. At this point, she was all too aware of how vertically challenged she was and that was doubly irritating.
“What do you want?” Sarah demanded. “Unless you have something to tell me about my father, I’m busy.” She’d been waiting for answers from Hollister or the Austin Police Department for weeks. Her father, Big Bobby Hillman, had embezzled funds from his car dealerships and disappeared.
Hollister had been certain she was helping Bobby or biding her time until she could disappear and had hounded her for information. Passing on the single clue she had to his whereabouts had been Sarah’s only choice. She deserved to know what was happening.
“Bobby will be in Austin, at the main station, tonight.” Hollister’s arms hung loose at his sides, almost like he could reach for his weapon at any minute. But he wasn’t armed. Maybe he was always on guard. “Radio silence has been in effect while the department worked with Miami police and the Marshals to bring Bobby into custody and transport him home. Thanks to you, they were able to track him from Tampa.”
Jen turned to wrap her hand around Sarah’s. Whatever their history, Jen hated to see someone as suddenly pale as Sarah was.
“Is he...okay?” Sarah cleared her throat. “I want to see my father.”
“I thought you would say that. This is not protocol, but I got permission for you to visit Bobby in Austin tomorrow.” Hollister’s grim face was lit by the soft glow of the porch light. Jen wasn’t sure what she’d expected from a jerk who’d threatened her stepbrother, Will, in an effort to get Sarah to turn in her father.
Hollister seemed to be waiting for something. The grim set of his lips matched the tilt of his chin. He was determined. “I’ll have to go, too.”
Sarah’s fingernails were sharp needles in Jen’s hand; she said, “I’ll go but without you, Hollister.”
He shook his head. “That’s not the deal. It’s either both of us or no one. You can talk to Bobby, get a lawyer hired. He’s going to need one.”
Sarah was committed to helping the police right her father’s wrongs, but she’d do her best to protect him at the same time. Jen could understand the conflicting urges, the need to see justice done and the desire to protect someone she loved.
At least Sarah no longer had to worry about where her father might be. This close, she could check on him every chance she got.
Hollister sighed as he pulled out his wallet. Sarah clenched Jen’s hand tighter and refused to take whatever he offered, so Jen held out her free, unbroken hand. The business card was hard to read in that light.
Sarah snorted. “You and those cards. I’m surprised you have any left.” She shook her head. “I’m surprised I don’t have those details committed to memory.”
Hollister put his wallet back in his pocket. “Last one. I guess I was holding on to a souvenir. I’ll introduce you to the detective who took over the investigation and my part in this is done.”
“We’ll all be so relieved. I still expect you to be lurking in the bushes when I step outside in the morning.” Sarah glared at him. “That’s what you like to do, right? Take advantage of the element of surprise, sleepless nights and a lone woman all by herself.”
Hollister’s lips tightened into a firm line. “I like to catch criminals. I do what it takes. I didn’t have to do this for you, you know.” He held up a hand to stem whatever angry retort Sarah was building. “I’ve got a new lead on the B&E at the shelter that I’ll pursue next week. When we tie up these loose ends with Bobby, I’m hoping you and I will have no reason to see each other in the future.”
“At the grocery store, you better go the other way,” Sarah muttered. “I’m dangerous with a cart.”
Jen tilted her head as she considered that threat. What it lacked in violence, it made up for in creativity. Sarah Hillman had always been the most stylish of her bullies at Holly Heights High School.
Since she still hated a bully, Jen waded into the choppy waters to add, “And she’s got a lot of friends in this town.” Not strictly true but more than Hollister had. Besides, he needed to know she was watching him...if not from across the street.
“Two o’clock. I’ll meet you at the station.” He had nothing else to say, so he walked to his car. Turning his back on four angry women was either brave or foolish. Maybe both. When he opened the car door to slide into some vintage-y Mustang, he met her stare for an instant. It was hard to see his eyes in the darkness, but it was also impossible to ignore how that stare felt as it was locked on her.
Before she could respond with insolence, Sarah reached around Jen and slammed the door shut.
Instead of being too loud and too much fun, for Jen at least, the silence that filled Rebecca’s foyer vibrated with tension.
Eventually, Sarah wilted and Rebecca wrapped her arms around her in a tight hug.
“He’s okay.” Sarah rested her chin on Rebecca’s shoulder and closed her eyes. “My father’s okay. Ever since Hollister suggested he wasn’t calling because he was dead in a ditch somewhere, I haven’t been able to get that picture out of my head.”
Jen had to contain a low growl of disgust. Using a woman’s fears against her might be standard operating procedure, but he wouldn’t get away with it again, not with any of her friends.
“Do you want to sit down?” Jen asked and then pointed at the table. The whole group moved together to watch Sarah collapse into a chair.
Sarah took the glass Rebecca offered her and drank it down in one gulp. “How will I afford a lawyer? I didn’t win any lottery.” She closed her eyes and waved off all the offers filling the air. “It was rhetorical. I will find a lawyer. Not Cece Grant’s husband, either.” She squeezed her eyes tightly. “Can you even imagine the storm in the paper next week?”
Jen smiled at Rebecca who chuckled. They were still weathering the rough waters that came from Rebecca’s—Holly Heights’ favorite citizen—arrest and the hubbub over their defense of Cole, the town’s latest black sheep.
“I’ll get some recommendations from my accounts in Austin,” Will murmured. “We’ll find the best.”
Sarah nodded firmly to Will. “Yes. Together we can do anything.” The color returned to her cheeks. “This is going to be fine.” She met Jen’s gaze and added, “Thanks for throwing your weight to my threat. That should have him shaking in his shoes.”
Jen narrowed her eyes, certain Sarah was teasing her.
“What can I say? You’ve grown on me.” Jen grunted as Sarah wrapped her arms tightly around her neck. An awkward pat of her shoulder provoked a watery sniff from Sarah.
“I hate pretty criers.”
Everyone laughed and Jen decided it was safe to resume her escape. Hit the door. Find some peace and quiet. Settle her nerves.
She added a step. Annoy the neighbor. If things were uncomfortable enough, they could send him back to Austin. Permanently.
“If you need me to go with you tomorrow, let me know. I’ll pack my brass knuckles.” Jen didn’t own any brass knuckles, but if she needed some, she could leave early, pick some up.
“Will’s going with me.” Sarah didn’t even glance over her shoulder to make sure he agreed. It must be nice to have someone to depend on like that.
“Okay. Call me. Let me know how it went.” Everyone called out their goodbyes as Jen grabbed her purse and stepped out into the peaceful night. Hollister was gone. That was a good thing.
She might as well be the only person on the planet at this point. Rebecca lived in the oldest part of Holly Heights where the houses were close together, but there was not a person moving. Jen headed for her car as a burst of laughter came from Sarah’s place.
All the couples were happy again. That was nice.
And the only single person in the group had left the building.
