Read Online Best for the Baby by Ann Evans - Free Book Online Page A

scooped up her purse. “You’re impossible. I’m leaving.” But as she headed for the door, she glanced back over her shoulder. “Just promise me, if Alaina calls you again—”
    “She’s not going to.” He followed her to the door.When she turned to say goodbye, he leaned against the frame and made a conscious effort to look encouraging. “She’ll be okay, Mags. By now she’s probably off on another adventure. When the time is right, she’ll be in touch. Just give her some breathing room.”
    Maggie nodded slowly. “I’ll try. It’s just that…She was so miserable with Gil, and I want her to be as happy as I am. But I’m afraid for her. For years she’s kept all her frustrations inside. Now that she’s had some freedom, I don’t want her to do anything foolish.” Her mouth lifted in a small smile. “I’m just so glad you were there when she needed you.”
    Zack wasn’t sure he felt the same way, but for Maggie’s sake, he didn’t mention it.
    After she left, he cast a baleful glance at the soup she’d brought. It held no appeal, but neither did anything else in the pantry. He settled on a ham-and-cheese sandwich, but before he could open the package of lunch meat, the phone rang.
    Caller ID indicated it was Damaris.
    He muttered a gruff curse. The woman hadn’t become successful in the business world because she was shy about going after what she wanted. And for some strange reason, she seemed to want him .
    Letting the call go to the machine, he listened to her message. Sure enough, it was another invitation, to a party on South Beach. She ended by playfully threatening to show up at his door tonight to personally drag him back into the real world.
    God, no. Was every woman he knew part of a conspiracy to badger him into insanity? Maybe he really was like a bear in a cave. He didn’t want to be jollied,seduced, set up or guilt-tripped. He just wanted to be left alone.
    But what were the odds of that?
    When she hung up and the condo was silent once more, Zack stood suddenly and returned the ham to the fridge. He flipped the light off in the kitchen and went to his bedroom. Pulling a suitcase out of the closet, he began tossing clothes into it with little thought. He bent and stripped off the Ace bandage from around his ankle.
    He felt a claustrophobic desire to escape Miami. He was antsy and annoyed with everyone these days, and he didn’t feel like trying to fend off Damaris one more time without being cruel. He didn’t want to sit around, waiting for work to pick up. Months ago he’d promised his mother he would go to Heron Cove to tie up loose ends, and right now, today, seemed like the opportune time.
    Since his father’s death, he’d avoided returning to the cottage. Lake Harmony held the best, most cherished memories of his childhood, but also the grief and guilt of the mistakes he’d made last year. Maybe this was an opportunity. Maybe he should try to sort things out while he was up there. Put a few of his demons to rest.
    It was worth a shot, wasn’t it?
    He didn’t have to worry about running into Alaina. At the beginning of the week, she’d left a phone message for him that she’d be gone by Friday and would put the cottage key in the mail. Today was Saturday. And according to Maggie, Alaina should already have hit the road.
    He wondered briefly where she was headed, and if she was alone or back in Jeffrey’s company. It didn’tmatter much. Either way, he had given her the breather she needed.
    She was no longer his problem.
     
    L AKE H ARMONY WAS CLOSED up tight by the time Zack reached the outskirts of town. During the fall foliage season, “leaf peepers” could turn these lanes into long snakes of nonstop traffic, but tonight there seemed to be few people on the roads.
    The mountains were pitch-dark. There were no streetlamps to guide him, so he went slowly around the curves, not willing to send his car into some ravine. Over the years, developers had left new scars