скачать книгу бесплатно
“Cocky, too,” Sly teased. “Wait until it’s my turn.”
She missed the next shot. Sly chalked his cue. “Watch and learn, little sister.” He took aim and dropped a striped ball into the corner pocket. He put away four more, then missed.
Before Dani took aim, she angled her head at him. “I’m glad to hear you met someone, big brother. How and where did it happen?”
“Remember that dinner meeting with my lawyer a couple weeks ago at the Bitter & Sweet? She was there with a girlfriend. We ended up dancing the whole night.”
“The whole night?”
Sly wasn’t about to answer that. “Are you ever going to move that cue?”
Dani ignored him. “Her girlfriend must’ve been bored silly.”
“Yeah. She went home.” Sly nudged her aside. “I’ll shoot for you.”
“No way.” She gave him a friendly poke in the ribs. “Does this woman have a name?”
“Lana Carpenter.” The words rolled off Sly’s tongue and left a sweet taste in his mouth.
“That sounds familiar. Where have I heard of Lana Carpenter?” Dani wondered, tapping the cue with her finger. “I don’t think she’s one of my regulars.”
Dani worked at Big Mama’s Café, a popular place open for breakfast and lunch that Big Mama had started some thirty years earlier. Someday when Big Mama retired, the restaurant would be Dani’s.
His sister finally took her shot, pocketed one and missed the next shot. “Shoot,” she grumbled. “You’re up. Is Lana related to Tim Carpenter?”
Sly sure as hell hoped not. “Haven’t asked her.”
“She doesn’t know you’re thinking about suing a man who could be related to her?”
“I’m definitely suing.” Sly was still unhappy about having to take legal action. He missed his shot, too. “He should have gotten the papers yesterday.”
“I’m sorry it had to come to that.” Dani made a face. “Have you heard anything back?”
“It’s all going through my lawyer. When he hears, he’ll call.”
She nodded. “Where does Lana Carpenter work?”
“She owns a business called Tender Loving Daycare.”
“Now I remember where I’ve heard her name. Her day care was profiled as small business of the month in the paper. Customers have been talking about it a lot. Her picture was in the paper. She’s pretty.” Dani gave him a speculative look. “So where are you taking her this weekend?”
Sly almost told her about stopping by the day care to see Lana, but he didn’t want to stir up his sister’s curiosity any more than it already was. “We’re not dating,” he said.
“Why the heck not?”
Because something told Sly that Lana was the one woman who could cut right past his defenses. He wasn’t about to let anyone do that.
“Let me get this straight,” his sister said when he didn’t answer. “The weekend before last you danced the night away with Lana Carpenter. Now you mentioned her to me, but you haven’t asked her out. You must like her a lot.”
Sly snorted and shook his head, but Dani had a point. He did like Lana. No, he lusted after her. It was easy to confuse the two, but he knew the difference. “I’m getting awful hungry,” he said. “Let’s finish this game and then grab a couple of burgers. The winner treats.”
“You’re on.” Dani lined up her cue and shot. The ball sailed neatly into a pocket. She missed the next one. “Why haven’t you asked her out?”
Darn, his sister could be a pit bull about some things. He should have figured she wasn’t through with the subject of Lana Carpenter just yet. “I don’t have her number,” Sly said.
“That’s what phone books and the internet are for.”
“Things are pretty busy at the ranch.”
“Excuses, excuses.”
Sly took his shot and missed. He swore softly. “I missed that because I’m half starved to death.”
“As soon as I sink the eight ball, I’ll let you buy me that burger.” The remaining solid balls disappeared into the pockets. Dani eyeballed the table. “Eight ball, corner pocket.” After lining up the cue, she executed the shot perfectly. Her fists shot into the air. “Hot damn—I won!”
“I’ll beat you next time,” Sly said. “I keep meaning to ask—how’s that guy you’re dating?”
“You mean Cal?” Her smile faded. “We broke up on Sunday.”
“Can’t say I’m sorry.” His sister seemed to gravitate toward guys who treated her poorly. “You want me to punch him for you?” He was kidding, but if she wanted him to, he’d do it.
“Absolutely not.” She made a face. “I’m a big girl, Sly. I can take care of myself. I just wish that I could meet a guy and have something that lasted more than a couple of months.”
Sly hoped she found what she wanted. So far, she hadn’t had much luck. “You and I are alike that way—both of us suck at relationships.”
“Sad but true.” She gave him a somber look. “The difference between us is that I want to find someone, get married and have kids. You don’t.”
Sly shrugged. “I’m happy the way I am.”
“Well, I’m tired of going home to my apartment and cooking for one. It gets lonely.”
Another voice cut in—a lowlife named Paul. “Hey, Dani. Sly.”
He gave Dani a blatantly sexual look that made Sly see red. He managed a terse nod.
His sister perked up. “Down, big brother,” she murmured for his ears only. “Remember, I can take care of myself. Besides, I happen to have a little crush on that cowboy.” She tossed Paul a flirty smile. “Hi. What are you up to?”
“Lookin’ for you. Can I buy you a beer?”
Dani glanced at Sly. “Rain check on that burger?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Not really. Hey, why don’t you come to Big Mama’s for lunch on Saturday, my treat.” She stood on her toes and kissed Sly’s cheek.
“You won the game. I’m supposed to treat you.”
“But I’m standing you up for Paul. Leave me a big tip on Saturday and we’ll call it even.”
“If that’s how you want it.” Sly resisted the urge to tug on her ponytail again. “You want me to wait around and give you a ride home?”
“I’ll drive her home,” Paul said, giving Dani a winning smile.
“I’d appreciate that.” She took his arm and winked over her shoulder at Sly. “I’ll see you Saturday.”
Chapter Four
Saturday morning, Lana and Sophie sat at a booth by the window in Big Mama’s Café. Locals and tourists loved the busy restaurant, which served great food and was always packed on weekends.
Big Mama’s Sinfully Satisfying Frittata, a favorite of Lana’s created by Big Mama herself, sat on the table in front of her, slowly growing cold. Having been up since dawn without eating a thing, she should have been famished. Instead, her stomach felt queasy. Nerves, and they showed. Usually she had no problem meeting new people and making decent conversation, but sitting here with Sophie, she couldn’t come up with a single thing to say.
If only she were as calm as the girl, who was devouring her cheese-and-bacon omelet as if she hadn’t eaten in days. She looked just like her profile picture, and was on the thin side, with a lean, boyish shape...until you saw her rounded belly. A snug black Mumford & Sons Live! T-shirt hugged her torso and emphasized her condition. At four months along, she definitely looked pregnant.
She stopped eating to shoot Lana a quizzical glance. “What are you smiling at?”
“When my sister was pregnant, she ate like you—as if she had hollow legs.”
“I’ve always eaten a lot, only I wasn’t fat before.”
“You’re not fat now—you’re pregnant.”
“Well, I feel fat.” Sophie slathered a cinnamon roll with butter. “Why aren’t you eating your food?”
Though Lana had never been less hungry in her life, she forced herself to take a bite of the frittata. “It’s delicious.”
After that, the conversation died.
“You’re not at all like your photos,” Sophie said after a moment.
“Is that good or bad?”
“It’s just different. In the pictures you wore pants and a shirt. Now you’re wearing a dress with little blue-and-white hearts all over it.”
Wanting to make a positive impression, Lana had spent almost half an hour deciding what to wear. She’d chosen the dress because it was fairly new and she felt pretty in it. Now she wondered if she’d gone too formal. “A dress is bad?”
“Well, no, but why wear one when you don’t have to?” Sophie wrinkled her nose, causing her tiny silver nose ring to stick out.
“Normally I wear jeans on weekends. In fact, I was wearing my favorites earlier. But I cleaned house this morning, which I do every Saturday,” Lana explained, wanting Sophie to know she kept a tidy home. “Since this is our first meeting, I wanted to wear something a little nicer.”
Sophie gave a slow nod and polished off the cinnamon roll. “I clean the apartment where my mom I and live on Saturdays, too. She works fifty hours a week for us, and it’s only right that I do my part. That’s what she says anyway.”
Lana nodded. “That seems fair.”
“I guess.”
Lana racked her brain for something else to say. “Do you have an after-school job?”
“Not every day. I work part-time at the movie theater near the apartment. I take tickets and collect trash from under the seats. My shift is five to ten on Thursdays and Fridays, and one to ten on Saturdays. That’s how I met Jason. He works in the concession area.”
“I’m guessing Jason is the baby’s father?” Lana asked.
Sophie nodded. “He doesn’t want to be a father, just like I don’t want to be a mom. We’re too young. Now that I’m pregnant, he makes me go straight home after work to get my rest.” She eyed Lana’s frittata. “Are you going to eat the rest of that?”
“It’s all yours. Jason sounds like a sweet guy.”
“Sometimes. Last night he gave his two-week notice. He just got a new job at the candy store at the mall.”
The girl’s carefully blank face made Lana wonder. “Is everything okay with you two?”
“We sort of broke up last night,” Sophie said to her empty plate.
She was obviously hurting. Lana felt bad for her. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Breaking up is never fun.”
Sophie picked at her nail. “I was getting tired of him anyway.” She gave Lana a sideways look. “Did you and your boyfriend break up, too?”
“At the moment, I don’t have a boyfriend and I’m not dating anyone, but I used to be married.”
“Did he cheat on you? That’s what my mom’s last boyfriend did.”
There was no reason to sugarcoat the truth. “As a matter of fact, he did,” Lana said. “He wanted a baby, and when we found out that I couldn’t give him one, he found a woman who could.”
“That’s really jacked up. Is that why you want to adopt—because you can’t have a baby of your own?”
Lana nodded. “I love children, and I’m so ready to be a mother. I know I’ll make a really great one.” Another long silence. “Tell me what you want to be someday.”
“I’m not sure. Maybe a cosmetologist like my mom. She makes decent money.”
“That’s a great career.”
The waitress, a friendly woman named Dani, stopped at the table with a coffeepot. “Ready for your coffee now?”
Lana considered asking for the check instead and putting an end to the uncomfortable meeting. But she wanted a chance to end on a more upbeat note. She smiled. “That depends on Sophie. Do you want something else to drink?”
The girl cast a wistful gaze at the coffeepot. “Coffee, but now that I’m pregnant, I’m not supposed to.”
“How about cocoa?” Dani asked. “We make ours homemade and it’s excellent.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“I’ll have that, too,” Lana said.
“Two cocoas it is.” For the first time, Dani really looked at Lana. “You’re the woman in the paper. Lana Carpenter.”
“That’s right.”
“It’s very nice to meet you.”
When Dani left, Sophie was grinning. “You’re kind of a celebrity.”
