Made For Us (26 page)

Five minutes later, she wondered what the hell she had been thinking. The storm was pretty fierce and even with her windshield wipers on full blast, it was hard to see. The GPS on her phone was guiding her to the address, but it was slow-moving on the roads at best. “I need to get my head examined,” she muttered. “This is so not my problem.”

And she could keep saying it, but the reality was, she felt bad for Darcy and there was no way she was going to leave her in a potentially dangerous situation. Aidan could be as pissed as he wanted to be, but Zoe knew she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if anything happened to Darcy and she hadn’t done anything to prevent it.

Turning down the road the GPS directed her to, Zoe noted all of the cars lining it and the number of teenagers walking in the rain. Didn’t these kids have parents?

Her car was moving at a slow crawl as she maneuvered between the parked cars and the teens. Visibility was next to nil, but she heaved a sigh of relief when the road opened up again. Looking out the side window, Zoe strained to see a house number on a mailbox. She had no idea just exactly where this house was. Her car moved slightly to the left and the next thing she knew, there were headlights coming right for her.

She felt a moment of panic, and then everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Frantically, she tried to accelerate and move out of the way, but the oncoming car was swerving all over the road and before she knew what was happening, the force of the impact caused her head to smash on the steering wheel and everything went black.

* * *

“Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod,” Darcy yelled as she desperately tried to pull open the door to Zoe’s car. “
Zoe!
” She pounded on the window. “Zoe, please wake up! Please!” Sirens blared in the distance and people were trying to pull her away from the car, but Darcy was nearly hysterical.

The police car showed up first and she almost sagged to the ground at the sight of Bobby Hannigan. “
Bobby!
” she screamed. “Zoe’s in there! You’ve got to get her out!”

He was completely in work mode, and he had his partner take Darcy aside while he figured out what had happened. It looked like the other car had hit Zoe’s. The kid who’d been driving seemed okay, a little banged up and more than a little drunk, but at least he was all right. Zoe, on the other hand, wasn’t moving. “Shit,” he muttered and tried to open her smashed-in driver-side door.

Another round of sirens blared and Bobby knew backup was here to help. He gave the fire and rescue crew a rundown of the situation and then stepped aside and walked over to Darcy. “Are you hurt?” he asked her.

She shook her head furiously.

“Why didn’t you call your father or your brother?” he asked, even though he had a sneaking suspicion what she was going to say.

“I…I…” she stammered. “I wasn’t supposed to be here. I wanted to leave but everyone was drinking. I called Zoe and she was coming to get me and now…” She broke down in tears.

Bobby took pity on her and pulled her into his embrace before pulling out his phone. “I have to call your dad, Darce,” he said solemnly. “You were at a party with underage drinking and you know he’s going to have a fit.”

She nodded. “I know. I know.” She looked beyond him to what was going on with Zoe’s car. “Are they going to get her out? Is she going to be okay?”

“I don’t know, kiddo. I honestly don’t know. They’ll get her out and get her to the hospital, but I have no idea what kind of injuries she has.” He looked over and saw that the paramedics were carefully removing her from the car and had her stabilized on a board.

“Can I ride with her?” Darcy asked. “Please?”

Indecision warred within him but in the end, he hauled her over to the ambulance. “Take her too. They’re together,” he said to the paramedic and stood back as they helped Darcy inside and quickly pulled away. Bobby looked at the phone in his hands and quickly put a call in to Ian Shaughnessy before taking care of the rest of the scene.

* * *

Darcy was pacing in the emergency room an hour later when her father and Aidan came rushing through the door. She ran into her father’s arms and burst into tears. “I’m sorry!” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry!”

Ian held on tight to his daughter, almost falling to his knees with relief that she was all right. “You’re okay?” he finally asked. “Are you hurt? When Bobby called and said you were on your way to the hospital…” He choked back a sob. “He told me you were fine, but I thought…I thought something had happened to you. I didn’t even let him tell me what had happened.” He cupped her face in his hands, his eyes welling with tears. “You scared the hell out of me, young lady. Don’t you know that I would die if something happened to you?” Before she could answer, Ian pulled her in close again.

And just held her.

Beside them, Aidan was trying to decide whether to hug his sister or throttle her. He was beyond relieved that she was all right, but she had easily scared about ten years off his life. “We were out looking for you,” he snapped. “When I realized you weren’t in your room, I called Dad and we’ve been driving around for hours trying to find you. Why didn’t you call?”

“What happened?” Ian asked, still refusing to let his daughter go. “How did you end up here?”

Tears were streaming down Darcy’s cheeks. “I wanted to come home. I really did. But everyone had been drinking and the storm was getting worse so…” She looked nervously at Aidan and then back to her father. “I called Zoe to come and get me.”

“
What?
!
” Aidan yelled. Moving his father aside, he took his sister by the shoulders and shook her. “What happened?” He had seen the missed call from Zoe on his phone and now he felt like crap for ignoring it and not calling her back.

Darcy was nearly hysterical and had to try to catch her breath before she could speak. “I…I…”

Bobby Hannigan walked in at that moment and came up to them. “Hey, Aidan. Ian.” He turned to Darcy. “Any word on Zoe yet?”

Aidan’s eyes were wild as he looked from his sister to Bobby and back again. “What happened to Zoe? Where is she?”

“The…the doctors haven’t come out yet. I…I told the nurses I was waiting, but no one’s come out yet,” Darcy said, her voice shaking.

“I’ll go see what I can find,” Bobby said as he walked away.

“Aidan,” Darcy began, “I’m…I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left. I know it was wrong and…”

Inside, Aidan was seething with rage, but as much as he wanted to direct it all at Darcy right now, he knew that wasn’t going to help the situation at all. “I’m really disappointed in you,” he said instead. “How… Why didn’t you call me?”

“I really thought I’d be able to sneak back in without you knowing. Zoe was coming for me and…I guess I didn’t think beyond that.” Tears welled up in her eyes again as her lip trembled. “I didn’t think anything would happen to Zoe.”

Aidan had to force himself to mentally count to ten before speaking again. Taking a deep breath, he asked, “What happened to Zoe?”

“I…I’m not sure. I rode in the ambulance with her, but no one would tell me anything.”

He cursed under his breath and turned away, torn between wanting to shake his sister and wanting to force his way into the triage area and see for himself that Zoe was all right.

“I said I was sorry, Aidan,” she cried. “I didn’t mean for Zoe to get hurt!”

That’s just it, Darce
, he thought angrily,
you
didn’t think at all.
He turned and walked away and then strode back to her. His eyes bore into her and he knew she was already beating herself up for all of this. His yelling at her wasn’t going to change the situation. If anything, he’d just make it worse. Unfortunately, his brain and his mouth weren’t working together. “You better hope—”

“That’s enough, Aidan,” Ian said, effectively cutting Aidan off as he led Darcy, who was sobbing uncontrollably again, to one of the sofas in the waiting area.

Aidan paced back and forth for what seemed like forever until Bobby came back over. “Well? What did they say?”

“She’s got a concussion and some bruised ribs. Luckily her air bag deployed and saved her from anything worse. It looks like she hit the steering wheel before it went off, and then hit her head on the door when the kid hit her.” He paused and shook his head. “I gotta be honest with you, I’m surprised it’s not worse. Her car was a mess.”

He couldn’t even think about it. It was all too much. “Are they keeping her here?”

Bobby nodded. “Overnight at least. She’s awake and I’m going to go back and talk to her. Do you want to go with me?”

More than anything, Aidan wanted to, but he shook his head. “No. No, you talk to her. I don’t think she needs or wants to see me right now.” Before he could change his mind, he took a step back. “Is it all right if we take Darcy home?”

“Yeah, sure. If I need to get any information from her, I’ll come by the house tomorrow and do it if that’s okay.”

“Sure. Yeah, that’s fine.” He shook Bobby’s hand and walked over to where his father and Darcy were sitting. They were sitting close together and while Darcy was still crying, it wasn’t nearly as intense as it had been a few minutes ago.

Taking a minute, Aidan thought about everything that had led them to this moment. For months he had been so intent on keeping Zoe away from his family because of her changing the dynamics. But had she? Not really. If anything, she’d made things…better. Then he thought about himself and his family and what they’d all done—particularly to Zoe.

And then he cursed and was forced to see things for the way they really were: maybe he should have reversed the whole concern thing. He’d been so wrapped up in protecting his family from Zoe that he’d failed to protect Zoe from all of them.

Well, damn.

With a quick look over his shoulder, he gave serious thought to going back and just seeing her. Just one look so he could be certain she was okay. But he couldn’t. The thought of seeing her injured and knowing he hadn’t been able to help her was too much for him to bear. “C’mon. Let’s go home,” he said, his voice void of emotion.

“I want to see Zoe,” Darcy wailed.

“Maybe tomorrow, sweetheart,” Ian said quietly, holding her close.

“I need to make sure she’s okay. I want to make sure she doesn’t hate me!”

“Tomorrow, Darce,” he said.

The three of them walked toward the exit when Ian stopped in his tracks.

“What is it? What’s the matter, Dad?” Darcy asked.

Ian pointed to the solarium just inside the doorway.

“What? What are we looking at?”

Father and son looked at each other. “Well, I’ll be,” Ian said with wonder.

In the middle of the lush greenery and flowers stood a single daisy.

“You are the worst patient ever.”

“Technically, I’m not your patient,” Zoe said. “But if we’re going to go there, what kind of nurse eats all of the cookies without offering the patient any?”

Anna looked sheepish. “Okay, fine. I’m a bad nurse.”

“And in case you haven’t noticed, I don’t really need a nurse. I need some Advil for this headache, but other than that, I’m fine. It’s been a week. I’m good.”

“Are you sure? Because it looks to me like you’re still favoring your ribs.”

Zoe rolled her eyes. “Tell you what. Let me smash a car into you and tell me how you feel a week later. How’s that?”

“Sarcasm really doesn’t suit you,” she said with a smirk.

“Yeah, well…it’s all I’ve got right now.”

“Oh, come on. You know you’ve got more than that. Aidan has already fired three of the decorators Martha sent to replace you. You can’t tell me you didn’t feel the least bit gratified by Martha telling the whole town that ‘Zoe is the only person in the business who was able to tame big, bad Aidan Shaughnessy,’” Anna said, putting on Martha’s voice. “Admit it.”

Zoe gave a wicked little smile. “All right. That did make me feel good.” It felt better than good, actually. Not the getting more people fired part—that was all on Aidan—but there was nothing like your boss praising you in public.

“And you’re going out to dinner with me and Bobby tomorrow night.” She gave a cocky smile. “And let me tell you, people for miles around will be jealous.”

“Seriously? I think you overestimate the Hannigan appeal.”

“So snarky,” Anna said with a sigh.

“Yeah, yeah…I’m a mean girl. I know.”

“How did it go with Ian and Darcy yesterday? I heard they came by to visit.”

Zoe couldn’t help but smile. “Darcy has called me at least three times a day to check on me and texts me almost hourly. She’d been wanting to come over for a while now but yesterday was the first time that Ian allowed it.”

“I wonder why,” Anna said.

With a shrug, Zoe said, “I think he was embarrassed and he feels bad about what happened and wanted to make sure that I really wanted them to come over.”

“Oh, like you’d hold a grudge,” Anna said, standing up to get them both something to drink.

“It wasn’t her fault. It could have happened anywhere. It just sucks that it happened the way it did.”

“You’re far too forgiving.” Sitting back down, Anna handed Zoe a bottle of water. “You know that I love the Shaughnessys and how I sympathize with Darcy, but what she did was wrong. I practically had to tie Quinn down to keep him from going over there.”

“Like you would have minded that,” Zoe said with a sly grin.

“Wait…what?” The blush flaming Anna’s cheeks did not help her innocent declarations. “What are you talking about?”

“You know, we’ve spent an awful lot of time putting me and Aidan under the microscope, but I think we can put that to rest and maybe focus on you and Quinn. Admit it, you would not have minded tying him up…and keeping him there.”

“You’re crazy,” she protested but couldn’t look Zoe in the eye.

“I don’t get it. What are you waiting for?”

Anna finally raised her gaze to meet Zoe’s. “We’ve been friends since we were six. He doesn’t see me as a woman; he sees me as his friend, his buddy, his pal. Look at me! I dress in jeans and T-shirts. Whenever I put on a dress, he’s the first one to make fun of me. It’s my own fault for crushing on him, the big jerk.”

“Yeah, well…I guess the jerkiness is genetic.”

“Hmm…maybe,” Anna said and finished off her water. A quick glance at her watch showed that it was time to go. “I’ve got the dinner shift at the pub so I have to go. Do you need anything?”

Zoe waved her off. “Seriously, I’m good. Have a good night and I’ll see you and Bobby tomorrow night, okay?”

“Sounds good.”

* * *

Best
laid
plans
and
all…
Zoe thought.

“So…Anna got called in to work,” Bobby said apologetically as he stood in the doorway of Zoe’s apartment. “It’s just going to be you and me. I hope you’re okay with that.”

It was a bit strange to Zoe but…

“She’s going to try to join us for dessert if she can get someone to cover for her. They’re just shorthanded and I really did want to take you out before you left. You’ve been a great friend to Anna and she is positively gaga over what you did to the house for her.”

Zoe couldn’t help but smile. “Are you sure? We can just get some takeout and hang out. There’s no need to go out if you don’t want to.”

“Are you kidding me? This place has the best steaks in the area. I’ve been waiting all week for tonight.”

She laughed. “I enjoy a good steak too. Let me just grab my purse and we can go.”

It took about twenty minutes to get to the restaurant, and Zoe was glad she had dressed up a bit. Her little black dress and heels were the perfect outfit for such a place. It looked like an old Southern plantation home from the outside, but once you walked through the front doors, it was a magnificent restaurant. “This is amazing,” she said to Bobby as they walked in.

“I’m not usually one for dressing up for dinner and dancing and all that, but the food here is just incredible. I know Anna’s disappointed to be missing it.”

“Maybe we should bring her something if she doesn’t make it,” Zoe suggested.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Bobby said as he held out a chair for her at their table.

“Thank you.” It was surprising to realize just how much she and Bobby Hannigan had in common. They talked about current events and movies and books while they looked at the menu, and Zoe was almost sorry she hadn’t taken the time to get to know him better before now.

“Are you all ready for the move?” he asked after the waitress had taken their orders.

“I think so. I was going to get one of those pods that you pack up yourself and they move it for you, but there was no place to put the pod by the apartment. Since I don’t have any furniture to move and my car is totaled, I’m going to just rent a truck myself and do the drive on my own.”

“Damn, Zoe, that’s a lot of driving to do by yourself. Plus, it’s not really safe to do it on your own. Isn’t there another option?”

“It’s not a big deal, really. I’m not in a rush to get back to Arizona, so I can take my time and do it safely.”

“
Oh
my
God!
I can’t believe you’re here!”

Zoe looked up to see Darcy practically running across the restaurant to get to her. Zoe jumped up to hug her and almost got knocked to the ground with Darcy’s enthusiasm.

“Hey! What are you doing here?”

“It’s my birthday!” she said proudly. “Eighteen. Finally!” She looked over her shoulder. “All of my brothers are here to celebrate—even Riley came home from his tour!—and we’re here for dinner because it’s my favorite restaurant. What are you doing here?”

“I’m…I’m having dinner with Bobby,” she said, her voice trembling only slightly.

Bobby stepped up beside her and put an arm around her waist, which Zoe did not expect.

“Sort of a going-away thing,” Bobby said. “You know that Zoe’s leaving next week, right?”

Darcy nodded sadly. “I really wish that you weren’t.”

Zoe was just about to comment when Ian walked over with the rest of the Shaughnessys behind him. He hugged her and asked how she was feeling before introducing her to the sons she hadn’t met before. “This is my son Hugh, the world traveler. We managed to steal him away from his fancy hotels to bring him home for dinner.”

“Hi,” Zoe said shyly. Even though he was younger, he was bigger than Aidan and much more polished. But when he smiled, well…she could only imagine there was a trail of women who would do anything to have him smile at them like that. “Nice to meet you.”

“Same here,” he said, taking her hand in his. “I hear you helped Darcy out last week. I can’t thank you enough. Not many people would go out in a storm like that.”

Zoe blushed. “She’s a friend and she needed help. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” he said and then turned to Bobby. “Bobby Hannigan! How the hell are you, Mr. Big-Time-City-Cop?” They shook hands and laughed.

“Knock it off. Although I believe that’s a better title than when you were home last time and called me Opie.” They laughed and then Ian stepped forward again.

“And this is my son Riley. I don’t suppose he needs more of an introduction than that.”

Rather than shake Zoe’s hand, Riley Shaughnessy reached out and lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Zoe,” he said softly.

The giggle that escaped her was almost embarrassing. She was only human. “It’s nice to meet you too,” she managed to say.

“Good to see you, Bobby,” Riley said without releasing Zoe’s hand.

“Same here, Riley. Let me know how long you’re going to be in town, so I’ll know if we need extra hands on deck to keep you safe from rabid fans.”

They laughed until Quinn stepped forward. “I thought Anna was going to be with you? Where is she?”

Bobby looked at Quinn with annoyance. “She’s at work. She got called in at the last minute.”

“Oh,” he said with a frown.

“Mr. Shaughnessy?” A petite blond waitress walked over and addressed Ian. “Your table is ready if you’d like to follow me.”

Everyone said good-bye except for Aidan, who had stayed back and watched. His chest actually ached and he’d felt himself fill with rage when Bobby had stood up and put his arm around Zoe like he had every right to. That was why he stood back; beating the crap out of a cop, not to mention a friend, in the middle of a restaurant was not a good idea. Didn’t mean he wasn’t tempted.

Once they had all walked away, Zoe and Bobby sat back down. “Okay…where were we?” Bobby asked as he nervously looked around, certain that daggers were being shot at his back.

“My driving to Arizona alone.”
Damn
it! Why would you bring that up again?
she cursed herself. “I’ll be fine. I can drive it conservatively in about four days. I have GPS and AAA and it will be good, like an adventure.”

“Like staying in your house during the storm was going to be an adventure?”

“That’s just the cop in you talking.”

“Doesn’t mean that I’m not right.”

Well, damn. This was not the pleasant conversation she had been hoping for. “Okay, enough about me. Tell me about you. Other than being a cop and being Anna’s brother.” She stopped and decided to change the direction. “What’s the deal with you and Quinn? You seemed tense when he was here a minute ago.”

“What do you mean?”

Zoe shot him a pointed gaze before arching a brow at him. “Really?”

Bobby swiped a hand down his face and slouched in his chair. “I’m not blind,” he said. “I know Anna has this…crush on him.” He rolled his eyes like he couldn’t even believe it. “She does everything for him—goes with him to parties and events when he needs a date, cooks for him, brings him food when he’s working late, and he does nothing for her. Sometimes I just wish he’d step out of line, law-wise, just so I can get my hands on him.”

“Hmm… Does Anna know you feel like this?”

He shook his head. “I usually play dumb, but I notice these things and I’m logging it all away for the right time. All he needs to do is just make one mistake and I’m going to be all over him like white on rice.”

They were saved from continuing this particular conversation when their salads arrived. Deciding that a more neutral topic of conversation was in order, Zoe talked a lot about the differences in food between coastal North Carolina and back home in Arizona. They continued that discussion through dinner, when they expanded it to include all of the places Bobby had visited in his travels up and down the East Coast.

Once dinner was completed, he stood and held out a hand to her. “Want to dance?”

Zoe’s eyes went wide at the question. Did she? No one had ever taken her dancing before. Her ribs were still sore, but she knew they weren’t going to be doing anything wild here in the classy restaurant and decided to throw caution to the wind. “Sure. Why not?” Putting her hand in Bobby’s, they walked out to the dance floor and joined several other couples who were slow dancing to the bluesy jazz group that was playing.

“This is nice,” she said after a few minutes.

“Yeah, it is. I normally only come here with Anna, and believe me, we don’t dance with each other. That would be weird.”

Zoe laughed. “Well, if it’s any consolation, you’re a very good dancer.” They smiled at one another and just swayed to the music and enjoyed what was being played until Zoe felt a buzz against her hip. She jumped back and then chuckled when Bobby reached for his phone.

“Sorry,” he said softly as he put the phone to his ear and frowned. “I’m so sorry, Zoe, but I’ve got to go. It’s an emergency, police business, and…” He looked at her, then his watch and then for their waitress. “I…damn it…”

“Okay, look, I understand. You’ve got to go. I don’t want to endanger anyone because you were delayed with getting me home. Go. I’ll be fine.”

“No, no…I brought you here and I should at least pay…”

“May I cut in?” Zoe turned to see Hugh Shaughnessy standing behind her with that killer smile on his face.

“Oh, well, actually, I think we have to leave,” Zoe said apologetically. “Bobby just got a police call. I’m going to call a cab so he can go.” She turned to Bobby. “Go. Really. It’s okay.”

“I’m so sorry, Zoe. I’ll take care of the check and… Really, I can drop you off. We just need to go and—”

“There’s no time. Stop worrying about me and just go.”

“I’ll make sure she gets home okay, Bobby,” Hugh said.

Bobby shook Hugh’s hand before he darted across the room.

“So, how about that dance?” Hugh asked.

The last thing Zoe wanted was for anyone to think that her pseudo-date had run out on her, and on top of that, she certainly didn’t want to be here dancing with one of Aidan’s brothers. “It’s okay, Hugh. I really should call a cab.”

“Oh, come on. I’ve heard so much about you that I really want to just take a few minutes and talk to you. C’mon, Zoe. One dance and I’ll call the cab myself, if you’d like.”