Authors: Lisa Jackson
Beach Season (45 page)
“Driving me crazy.” His gaze slid down her body and stupidly, like a schoolgirl, she blushed and ran for the door.
As she drove home, her thoughts were tangled in a web of doubt and despair. Was it possible? Could Melinda’s story be true?
“Don’t be absurd,” she told herself as she maneuvered her little car through the twisted streets of Sellwood. Maple and alder trees had begun to drop their leaves, splashing the wet streets with clumps of gold, brown, and orange.
As Shawna climbed out of the car, a cold autumn breeze lifted her hair from her face, cooled the heat in her cheeks.
“Hey, about time you showed up!” Jake accosted her as he climbed out of a battered old Chevy pickup. “I thought you’d be home half an hour ago.”
She’d forgotten all about him, and the fact that he’d offered to help her move. “I—I’m sorry. Uh, something came up,” she said, trying to concentrate.
“Oh, yeah?” Jake’s brows raised expectantly. “Don’t tell me the coach is gonna be released.”
“Tomorrow,” Shawna said, her voice catching before her brother saw the pain in her eyes.
“Hey—whoa. What happened?” Jake grabbed both her shoulders, then forced her chin upward with one finger and stared down at her.
“You wouldn’t believe it.”
“Try me.” One arm over her shoulders, Jake walked her to the front door and unlocked the dead bolt. The apartment was a mess. Boxes and bags were scattered all over the living-room floor, piled together with pictures, furniture, and clothes.
Shawna flopped in the nearest corner and told Jake everything, from the moment Melinda James had walked into her office until the time when she’d dropped the bomb about Parker being the father of her unborn child.
“And you bought that cockamamy story?” Jake asked, flabbergasted.
“Of course not.” Shawna felt close to tears again.
“I hope not! It’s ridiculous.”
“But Parker did.”
“What?”
“He claims to remember her, and admits that he visited her the night Brad was killed!”
Stricken, Jake sat on a rolled carpet. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “I don’t believe it.”
“Neither did I, but you should have been there.” Outside, Maestro meowed loudly. “I’m coming,” Shawna called, every muscle in her body suddenly slack as she tried to stand and couldn’t.
“I’ll let him in.” Jake opened the door and the bedraggled yellow tabby, wet from the rain, dashed into the house and made a beeline for Shawna. He cried until she petted him. “At least I can trust you,” she said, her spirits lifting a little as the tabby washed his face and started to purr noisily.
“You can trust Parker, too,” Jake said. “You and I both know it. That guy’s crazy about you.”
“Tell him,” she said.
Jake frowned at his sister. “Okay, so this lunatic girl has made some crazy claims and Parker can’t remember enough to know that she’s lying. It’s not the end of the world.” He caught her glance and sighed. “Well, almost the end,” he admitted, and even Shawna had to smile. “Now, come on. What’s your next step?”
“You’re not going to like it,” Shawna said, opening a can of cat food for the cat.
“Try me.”
“When the movers come tomorrow, I’m going to have them take my things to Parker’s.”
“His house?” Jake asked, his brows shooting up. “Does he know about this?”
“Nope.” She straightened and her gaze narrowed on her brother. “And don’t you tell him about it.”
“I wouldn’t dare,” Jake said with obvious respect for Parker’s volatile temper. “What about Mom and Dad?”
“I’ll explain.”
“Good luck. That’s one dogfight I don’t want any part of.”
“I don’t blame you.” Why was this happening, and why now? She couldn’t help thinking back to the Gypsy fortune-teller and her grim prediction.
“Shawna?” Jake asked, concern creasing his brow. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, her chin inching upward proudly. “I’m fine,” she said. “I just have to stick by Parker ’til all of this is resolved one way or the other.”
“Can I help?”
“Would you mind taking care of Maestro, just for a few days?”
Jake eyed the tabby dubiously. As if understanding he was the center of attention, Maestro leaped to the counter and arched his back as he rubbed up against the windowsill.
“I’m allergic to cats.”
“He’s outside most of the time.”
“Bruno will eat him alive.”
Shawna couldn’t help but laugh. Bruno was a large mutt who was afraid of his own shadow. “Bruno will stick his big tail between his legs and run in the other direction.”
“Okay.”
“By the way,” she said, feeling better. “You should work on that dog’s obvious case of paranoia!”
“Maybe I should work on yours,” Jake said, clapping her on the back. “You and I both know that Parker wasn’t unfaithful to you.”
“But he doesn’t know it,” Shawna replied, her convictions crumbling a little.
“You’ll just have to convince him.”
“I’m trying. Believe me.” She pushed her hair from her eyes and rested the back of her head against the wall. “But that’s not the only problem. What about Melinda and her baby? Why is she lying? How does Parker know her? As much as this mess angers me, I can’t forget that Melinda is only eighteen, unmarried, and pregnant.”
“Does she have any family?”
“I don’t know.” Shawna blew a strand of hair from her eyes. “All she said was that her dad would kill her when he found out. I think she was just using a turn of phrase. At least I hope so.”
“But you’re not sure.”
“That’s one of the most frustrating things about all of this. I don’t know a thing about her. I’ve never even heard her name before and now she claims to be carrying my fiancé’s child.”
“Maybe there’s something I could do.”
“Such as?”
“I don’t know, but
something.”
something.”
“Not this time,” she decided, grateful for his offer. “But thanks. This one I’ve got to handle by myself.”
“I don’t believe it!” Doris McGuire exclaimed. Sitting on her antique sofa, she stared across the room at her daughter. “Parker, and some, some girl?”
“That’s what she claims,” Shawna said.
“She’s lying!”
“Who is?” Malcolm McGuire opened the front door and shook the rain from his hat, then tossed the worn fedora over the arm of an oak hall tree in the foyer. “Who’s lying?” he repeated as he strode into the den and kissed Shawna’s cheek. “You’re not talking about Parker, are you?”
“Indirectly,” Shawna admitted.
“Some young girl claims she’s pregnant with Parker’s child!” Doris said, her mouth pursed, her eyes bright with indignation. “Can you believe it?”
“Hey, slow down a minute,” Malcolm said. “Let’s start at the beginning.”
As Shawna explained everything that had happened since she’d first met Melinda, Malcolm splashed a stiff shot of Scotch into a glass, thought twice about it, and poured two more drinks, which he handed to his daughter and wife.
“You don’t believe it, do you?” he finally asked, searching Shawna’s face.
“Of course not.”
“But you’ve got doubts.”
“Wouldn’t you?”
“Never!” Doris declared. Malcolm’s face whitened a bit.
“Sometimes a man can make a mistake, you know,” he said.
“He was
engaged
to Shawna, for goodness sake!”
engaged
to Shawna, for goodness sake!”
“But not married to her,” Malcolm said slowly.
“Dad?” Did he know something? She studied the lines of her father’s face as he finished his drink and sat heavily on the edge of the couch.
“I have no idea what Parker was up to,” Malcolm said. “But I warned you that we didn’t know all that much about him, didn’t I? Maybe he had another girlfriend, I don’t know. I would never have believed it before, but now? Why would she lie?”
Why indeed?
“But let’s not judge him too harshly,” Malcolm said. “Not until all the facts are in.”
“I don’t think you understand the gravity of the situation,” Doris replied.
“Of course I do. Now, tell me about Parker. What does he have to say?”
“Not much.” Shawna told her parents about the scene in the hospital room.
Malcolm cradled his empty glass in both hands and frowned into it. Doris shook her head and sighed loudly, though her back was ramrod stiff. “He’ll just have to submit to a paternity test—prove the child isn’t his and then get on with his life.”
“Maybe it’s not that simple,” Malcolm said quietly. “He has a career to think of. All this adverse publicity might affect it.”
“We’re talking about the man Shawna plans to marry,” Doris cut in, simmering with fury, “and here you are defending his actions—if, indeed, he was involved with that ... that
woman!
”
woman!
”
“She’s barely more than a girl,” Shawna said.
“Eighteen is old enough to know better!”
Malcolm held up his hand to calm his wife. “I’m just saying we should all keep a level head.”
Now that she’d said what she had to say, Shawna snatched her jacket from the back of a wing chair. “I think Dad’s right—we should just low-key this for now.”
“The girl is pregnant!”
“I know, I know. But I’ve decided that what I’m going to do is try and help Parker through this. It’s got to be as hard on him as it is on me. That’s one of the reasons I’ve decided to move in with him.”
“Do what?” Doris was horrified. She nearly dropped her drink and her pretty face fell.
“He’s being released from the hospital tomorrow. And I’m taking him home—to his house—with me.”
“But you can’t—you’re not married. And now, with that girl’s ridiculous accusations—”
“All the more reason to try and help jog his memory.” Shawna saw the protests forming on her mother’s lips and waved them off.
“Look, I’ve already made up my mind. If things had turned out differently, I’d already be married to him and living in that house. He and I would still have to deal with Melinda—unless this is all a convenient story of hers just because he’s lost his memory. So, I’m going to stand by him. I just wanted you to know how to get in touch with me.”
“But—”
“Mom, I love him.” Shawna touched her mother’s shoulder. It felt stiff and rigid under Doris’s cotton sweater. “I’ll call you in a couple of days.”
Then, before her mother or father could try to change her mind, she walked out of the room, swept her purse off an end table, and opened the front door. She was glad to drive away from her parents’ house because she needed time alone, time to think and clear her head. Tomorrow she’d have the battle of her life with Parker. He’d already told her he didn’t want her tied to him as a cripple, that they couldn’t marry until he was strong enough to support them both. Now, after Melinda’s allegations, he’d be more adamant than ever.
Well, that was just too damned bad. Shawna intended to stand by him no matter what, and if he never walked again, she still intended to marry him. All she had to do was convince him that she was right. Involuntarily, she crossed her fingers.
Parker shoved the dinner tray aside. He wasn’t hungry and didn’t feel like trying to force food down his throat. With a groan, he reached for the crutches near his bed.
Dr. Handleman and the idiot down in physical therapy didn’t think he was ready for crutches, but he’d begged them off a candy striper. Tomorrow he was going home and he wasn’t about to be wheeled down the hall like a helpless invalid.
Gritting his teeth against a stab of pain in his knee, he slid off the bed and shoved the crutches under his arms. Then, slowly, he moved across the room, ignoring the throbbing in his knee and the erratic pounding of his heart. Finally he fell against the far wall, sweating but proud that he’d accomplished the small feat of walking across the room.
Breathing hard, he glanced out the window to the parking lot below. Security lamps glowed blue, reflecting on the puddles from a recent shower. Parker had a vague recollection of another storm... .
Rain had been drizzling down a windshield, wipers slapping the sheeting water aside as he had driven up a twisting mountain road. Someone—was it Brad?—had been slumped in the passenger seat. The passenger had fallen against Parker just as the Jeep had rounded a corner and there, right in the middle of the road, a huge truck with bright glaring headlights was barreling toward them, out of control. The truck driver blasted his horn, brakes squealed and locked, and Parker, reacting by instinct alone, had wrenched hard on the wheel, steering the Jeep out of the path of the oncoming truck and through the guardrail into the black void beyond.
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