Still the One (9 page)

Annette’s face broke into a smile. “I heard. You have a daughter! And she’s here in Chartreuse. This is so wonderful, sweetheart!”
She held out her arms.

Katie stepped up to the bed and into the embrace, tears filling her eyes. Annette wrapped her arms around her and patted her
back as tears streamed down Katie’s face.

When she finally pulled back, Katie realized that Annette was crying, too. The older woman reached for a box of tissues on
the rolling hospital tray beside the bed. She held it out to Katie. “Aren’t we a pair of sentimental sisters,” Annette said.

Katie nodded and dabbed her eyes. “I was so afraid of what you’d think of me.”

“Oh, sweetie, I could never think you were anything but wonderful.”

The unconditional acceptance brought fresh tears to Katie’s eyes.

“I’ve got to admit, it was quite a shock. But it’s wonderful news.” Annette patted the side of her bed. “Now sit down and
tell me everything.”

•   •   •

An hour later, Katie went back to the Curl Up ’N Dye to close for the evening. She let herself in the back door and found
Bev standing at the shampoo sink, rinsing disinfectant off the day’s worth of combs and brushes. Bev looked up and grinned.
“Well, if it isn’t Little Miss Talk of the Town.”

Katie sighed as she set her purse on the counter. “Guess you heard, huh?”

“I’ve heard an awful lot of things.” She turned off the faucet, reached for a towel, and looked at her curiously as she dried
her hands. “I don’t know which, if any, are true, but I’m dying to find out.”

“What did you hear?”

Bev raised her hand and ticked items off on her fingers. “That you have a daughter. That the hunk who came in here is the
dad. That the girl is pregnant. That they’ve moved here so you can share custody.”

Katie nodded. “That’s about the size of it.”

Bev dropped her hand and stared. “Holy mackerel, honey. Why on earth didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I didn’t know! Well, I knew I had a daughter, of course, but…”

Bev held her hand back up. “That’s the part I don’t understand. Why on earth didn’t you tell me you’d had a baby?” Her eyes
held a soft reproach. “That’s the kind of thing a friend should know.”

“You’re right. You’re absolutely right.” Katie had wanted to tell her, just as she’d wanted to tell Annette. She’d even come
close a few times. But each time she’d started to say something, the conversation had changed or someone else had entered
the room or the situation had somehow shifted. “It isn’t the kind of thing that just comes up in conversation. I never seemed
to find the right moment.”

Bev gave a get-real look.

Katie threw up her hands in surrender. “Okay. That’s no excuse. We’ve worked together every day for years. But that somehow
made it harder. The longer I went without telling you, the worse it seemed that I hadn’t told you, so the harder it got. But
mostly…” Katie dropped her hands, closed her eyes for a second, and blew out a hard breath. “Oh, God, Bev, when it happened,
I was all wrapped up in guilt and shame and secrecy. And that guilt and shame never really went away.”

“You’ve done nothing to be ashamed of. You were just a kid.” Bev walked over and gave her a hug. Katie hugged her back, which
kind of felt like hugging a scarecrow. Bev pulled away and looked down at her. “Were you afraid I’d think less of you?”

“I suppose.” Katie bent down and picked up the laundry basket of used towels. “I’ve never really settled in my mind what I
think of myself. Adoption seemed like the best thing for the baby, but I’ve second-guessed that decision a lot.”

Bev pulled the disinfected brushes out of the sink and laid them out to dry. “I can’t believe you kept a thing like that secret
this long. Especially in this town!”

Katie stepped through the door to the back room and dumped the towels into the washing machine. “Nobody knew where I’d gone
except for the Methodist minister. He told me about the adoption center in Kansas.”

“Bless your heart. That had to be so hard!”

“Harder than anyone could know.” Katie added detergent, closed the lid on the washer, and turned it on.

“I can’t even imagine.” Bev watched Katie cross to her styling station and sit in her chair. “And you haven’t had any contact
with your daughter until today?”

Katie shook her head. “It was a closed adoption. I had no idea where she was or what her last name was. And I certainly had
no idea Zack was about to bring her here.” Katie gazed at the patch of sunlight shining on Rachel’s nail polish collection,
illuminating the sparkles in the frosted shades and making the sheer tints glow. The rain had stopped a few hours ago, and
since it was July, it wouldn’t get dark for another couple of hours. Still, it was weird, having the sun come out at the end
of the day.

“I always hoped I’d hear from her someday,” Katie found herself saying. “Years ago, I registered with a service that helps
reunite children and birth parents if both are looking for each other. But I always wanted the first move to be hers. I didn’t
want to interfere in her life if she didn’t want me to.”

“And now she wants you to!”

“Not exactly.” Katie explained about the deaths of Gracie’s parents, the aunt’s requirements for relinquishing custody, and
the less-than-warm reception she’d received from her daughter.

“It’ll all be fine, honey,” Bev said. “You two are going to end up thick as thieves. All you need is a little tincture of
time.”

“I hope so.”

“Just you wait. These things have a way of working out.”

“In the movies,” Katie said dryly. “Or the soap operas.”

“This is like a soap opera, that’s for sure.”

“Yeah. Especially the way it’s being broadcast. Everyone at the retirement center already knew when I got there. Even Annette.”

“Annette. Oh, my.” Bev’s eyes narrowed with concern. “How did she take it?”

“Pretty well. She was shocked, of course, but it turns out Dave had already told her.”

“Dave?” Bev’s eyes widened. “I thought those two weren’t on speaking terms. The last time I saw them together was…”

At Paul’s funeral. Bev apparently caught herself before she said the words. Katie pressed her lips together at the memory.
They’d sat on opposite sides of the church during the service and stood on opposite sides of the grave at the cemetery.

Bev sank into her chair beside Katie and looked at her in the mirror. “Well, I have to say, Dave’s sure changed for the better.
Fergie Johnson was saying just last week that he seems like a different man since he started going to AA.”

“You’re not supposed to be talking about who belongs to that,” Katie scolded. “The second
A
stands for Anonymous.”

Bev flipped her hand in a dismissive gesture. “Nothing’s anonymous in this town. Not when you can drive by the Lutheran church
on Thursday nights and see whose car is in the parking lot. I guess I’m not surprised Dave went to see Annette, but I’m pretty
surprised Annette let him in the room.”

“That’s probably because she was in no shape to throw him out.”

“Annette and Dave talking, and you with a daughter.” Bev shook her head. “This really is a red-letter day.” Bev leaned forward,
her elbows on her bony thighs. “So tell me about the hunk.”

Katie’s heart missed a beat. “There’s nothing much to tell.”

“Must be something, if you two made a baby together.”

Katie lifted her shoulders. “It was a teenage summer thing.”

“Ahh. First love, huh?”

On her part, it had been. She’d been completely head over heels. She’d been so smitten, so young, so totally naive. She’d
even told him how she felt.

Her face burned at the memory.

She was lying in his arms after their lovemaking, covered with a sheen of sweat, trying to regain the ability to breathe,
her heart about to burst.

Zack stroked her hair. “That was amazing,” he whispered against her ear.

“You’re amazing.” The sailboat dipped on a wave—or maybe the earth moved. She gazed up at him, her heart in her eyes. “I love
you.”

His fingers froze in her hair. His eyes took on a stricken look. “You don’t mean that.”

He didn’t want her to mean that; she caught on to that right away. Her heart felt like it had been stung by a bee.

“You have a crush on me, just like I do on you,” Zack said. “It’s not love.”

“Yes, it is.”

Zack ruffled her hair and tried for a light tone. “Yeah, well, I’m crazy about you, too.” He rolled over and rose to his feet.
“It’s late. We’d better get back to shore so I can go pick up my cousin.”

Bev’s voice pulled her back to the present. “How did he react to the news you were pregnant?”

“He never knew.”

“
What?
”

“We were only together once, then he disappeared. I didn’t know how to contact him.”

The front door rattled. Bev cast a glance at the paned window in it, then threw Katie a sideways grin. “Looks like he has
no problem contacting
you
.”

Katie turned to see Zack standing outside the locked door. Against her will, her heart thudded against her rib cage. She walked
toward the door, her legs feeling strangely stiff, her fingers awkward as she unfastened the lock and opened it. “Hi.”

“Hi, yourself.” His eyes crinkled in that way she remembered. The lines around his eyes were deeper now, but they somehow
only served to make him more attractive. He stepped into the room, smelling of rain and soap and that faint undernote she
so distinctly remembered, the scent that was Zack, the scent of pure man. She stepped back, steeling herself against the disconcerting
pull of it.

He waved at the older woman. “Hi, Bev.”

Bev beamed. “You remembered my name!”

He’d always had a way with names. And a way with women, Katie thought.

“Of course.” His smile widened as he regarded the older woman. “You’re unforgettable.”

Bev’s hand flew to her chest, and a goofy smile spread across her face. Apparently even Bev wasn’t immune to his charm. Wiping
her hands on her pants, she made a big show of picking up her purse. “Well, I’m calling it a night. See you tomorrow, Katie.”

Katie felt a moment of panic at the thought of being alone with Zack. “Hang on, Bev. I, uh, need to talk to you about something
before you leave.”

Bev looked from Katie to Zack, then back again. She gave that I-know-what-you’re-up-to-and-I-won’t-be-an-accomplice smile.
“Oh, gee—I told George I’d be home twenty minutes ago. Talk to you in the morning!” Bev disappeared out the back of the salon.

The door banged closed behind her. The small salon suddenly seemed more crowded with just the two of them in it. Katie moved
to her station, trying to put some distance between them. Zack followed her and stood unnervingly close as she sorted the
supplies in her equipment cart.

“Sorry about that scene in the bookstore,” Zack said. “Gracie can be difficult.”

“She’s got a lot of anger toward me.”

He rubbed his chin. “Her adoptive mother kind of set that up.”

Katie looked up, wondering what he meant.

Zack picked up a silver hairclip and examined it as if it were a foreign object. “According to the aunt, Gracie’s adoptive
mom had been adopted herself when she was seven. Her parents had a natural child a few years later, and Gracie’s mom always
felt second-rate to the natural child. She didn’t want Gracie to grow up feeling inferior like she had, so she overcompensated.”

“How?”

He put down the hairclip and picked up a stray blue curler from the top of her cart. “She made a big deal of telling Gracie
how lucky she was to have a mom who loved her and wanted her so very, very much, instead of being stuck with a mom who….”
His voice tapered off.

“Didn’t love her or want her,” Katie finished for him. Her heart felt like somebody had tied a lead weight around it.

Zack toyed with the hair roller. “Long story short, you were painted as the bad guy so the adopted mom could look like a rescuing
angel.”

Katie’s throat grew tight. “I gave her up because I thought it was best for her. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do.”

“I’m sure it was.” His eyes, warm and sympathetic, met hers in the mirror. “I’m not saying you did anything wrong. I’m just
telling you where Gracie’s coming from. She’s seventeen, and she’s stubborn. All her life she’s been set up to think that
her adoptive mom saved her from a life of neglect.”

Plus Gracie was grieving the only mother she ever knew, and was about to become a mom herself. Katie straightened the cans
of mousse and hair spray on the counter. “I imagine she decided to keep her baby so she wouldn’t be a bad mom like me.”

“You weren’t a bad mom.”

“But in Gracie’s mind…” Her voice trailed off.

“She’ll warm up to you once she gets to know you,” Zack said.

How did Zack know so much about Gracie? An irrational spurt of anger shot through her. “Did she start out treating you badly,
too?”

“She still treats me badly, just in a different way.” Zack bent to put the roller with the others on the bottom tray of her
cart. “She tolerates me, but just barely. I think she views me as a necessary evil, because I’m the key to her getting what
she wants.”

“Which is?”

“Money. And independence. At least, independence from her aunt.” He straightened and looked at her. “I made a point of telling
Gracie that she’s got to get along with you, because the whole aunt thing hinges on our sharing joint custody. We have to
call the aunt tomorrow, by the way. She wants to talk to you.”

“So she can evaluate my suitability?” Katie said dryly.

“Something like that.” He leaned against the station counter. “She’s relieved to have Gracie out of her house, but she wants
a clear conscience about letting her go.”

“I’ll be happy to talk to her.” In the mirror, she could see Zack’s back. She took in the way his broad shoulders stretched
the fabric of his polo shirt, the way his hair swirled to the right at the top of his crown, the way his jeans outlined his
sexy buns.