Amanda was hot, her palms sweaty, yet a cold creep of fear crawled up her back.
Suddenly, Gillian, who was holding Shara's earrings in her hand, said, "They're coming."
Although they hadn't appeared yet, this was the notice Max needed to get ready...the notice they all needed. Amanda didn't question Gillian's statement and neither did Max. She saw him tense, half-turn—
The heavy metal door rattled as it opened. Amanda did not stay down. She couldn't. She caught a glimpse of the girl with blond, curly hair. Courtney. She swung her purse jauntily over her shoulder. Amanda heard her say to Shara, "This will be over before you know it. You'll never have to look back."
But Amanda knew if Shara did this, she'd look back all of her life. Anything involving a child was never black and white. Anything involving a child affected a person for the rest of their lives.
When Amanda saw Shara, she wanted to run to her, but she knew that would be foolish, at least at first. She had to let Max take the lead this time. She couldn't second-guess him. She also couldn't blame him if this didn't turn out right. They had blamed each other for too much, for too long.
But still she was scared for all of them.
The two girls came down the steps and started strolling down the walk. Amanda waited for Max to time this just right. She supposed he was as impatient as always, impatient to get the job done.
The girls were still ten feet from the SUV when Max moved. He called Shara's name, in two strides got to her and said, "Shara, it's me, Granddad. Come on, you're coming home."
No asking, just telling. That was Max.
Shara's eyes went wide, her mouth rounded, and Amanda didn't know if she was going to run, pull away, or scream.
Courtney moved in to yank on Shara's arm, to pull her back toward the apartment. "You don't want to go back with him. You don't want to go back to the life you had. Justin has plans for you."
Max's voice was as stern as Amanda had ever heard it. "I know what those plans are, Shara, and they're not good. You've got to know it, too. We know you're pregnant and it's okay."
"It's okay?" she repeated.
"Come on, I'll drive you to our hotel. We can talk and call your mom. She's worried sick."
Courtney was still pulling on Shara, twisting her away from Max. But Max wasn't going to let her go. He wrapped his arm around Shara's waist, and she wrapped hers around him. She yanked away from Courtney and pulled free. Amanda's heart beat so fast she couldn't breathe.
Max was leading Shara to the car when the unthinkable happened. Courtney pulled a gun from her purse and yelled, "Stop right there. You can't have her. You can't. Justin will blame me."
But Max wasn't listening. All he wanted to do was protect his granddaughter, and Amanda could see that as plainly as she could see them both. He pushed Shara ahead of him and said, "Run to the car."
As she did, Courtney's gun went off.
There was that moment of stark silence, that moment again when Amanda knew nothing would ever be the same. Max's shirt bloomed red at his shoulder. He grabbed at it but ran after Shara saying, "Get into the car, now. Gillian, take off."
Gillian started the engine as Shara climbed into the front seat. Max climbed in beside Amanda, leaned over on her, and his blood dripped into her hands.
Was she going to lose him, too?
****
Chapter Eleven
Amanda was still shaking. At the hospital, Max had been whisked away, cleaned up, sutured, and bandaged. Now, however, the police were talking to him. Since Shara was underage, another police officer had questioned her while Amanda sat in. At first her granddaughter had been hesitant to divulge all the details of what had happened. But with Amanda's urging, she had.
In another area, Gillian was questioned, because she'd been considered a witness to the shooting.
Beside Shara now in a waiting room, Amanda closed her eyes to try to calm every quivering nerve. Was Max all right? Really? Her mind skipped to the police and the investigation that would probably ensue. If Justin was arrested for his part in all of it—preying on underage girls—if Courtney went to trial, they all might have to return to Albuquerque.
Studying Shara, Amanda didn't like the pallor on her granddaughter's face or her silence. But then she'd been through an ordeal. They all had.
She covered Shara's hand with hers. "Everything's going to be all right."
So many silent moments ticked by, she didn't know if Shara was going to respond. But eventually, though still staring straight ahead, she asked, "Is it? Granddad got shot because of me. You almost got shot because of me. What's Mom going to say? She probably hates me."
As soon as they'd reached the hospital, Amanda had called Clare, and Max had called the police. Clare had been flabbergasted by everything that had happened and speechless at the idea that her daughter was pregnant.
"Your mother does not hate you," Amanda assured Shara.
"Gram, what am I going to do about the baby?" Shara's voice broke. But she went on shakily. "I let Courtney make me that appointment but I don't think I could have gone through with an abortion. I don't want to be a mom, but this is my…baby."
Although Amanda had been through this situation with Clare and could give Shara advice, right now she didn't feel that was the right thing to do. "You have to talk to your mother."
"She's not going to want to talk to me. I know she's not. I fought with her. I stole money from her. I ran. Now with me being pregnant and all, she's going to think I'm an awful person."
Without hesitating, Amanda wrapped her arm around Shara. "She's your mother. She loves you, even when you make wrong decisions, even when she yells and screams, even when she wants to walk out and so do you. We'll all figure this out together. Maybe you can work at Yesteryear to pay her back for what you took. But first you have to talk to her. She deserves that, Shara, you know she does."
In a little voice, Shara said, "The police took the phone Justin gave me."
"I have mine." She handed it to her granddaughter. "Call. If you want privacy, I'll stand out in the hall." She wasn't going any farther than that. She wasn't leaving Shara alone for a moment, not until she was back in York with her mother.
****
Shara could hardly hold her grandmother's phone steady as she punched in her home number. She had to prepare herself for her mom screaming and yelling. She had to prepare herself for being grounded for a year. No, not a year, because she'd have her baby before that.
Her baby.
Her mother picked up on the first ring.
"Mom, is everything okay?" Clare asked, obviously seeing her mother's ID on her phone.
"It's not Gram, Mom. It's me."
Shara heard a male voice in the background ask, "Is everything okay? Do you want me to stay close?"
She recognized that voice. It belonged to Joe Lansing. What was he doing with her mom? Maybe they both had secrets that weren't going to stay secrets.
"It's Shara," Clare told him. "I think I'd like a little privacy."
"No problem," the deep voice said, and Shara could hear the truth in that. He really didn't mind giving her mom privacy.
When her mom gave her attention to the call once more, she started with, "Shara—" But she couldn't seem to find any more words. Finally, she said, "Why don't you tell me what happened...from the very beginning."
That wasn't at all the direction Shara had expected the conversation to take. "You mean, from when I left for Albuquerque?"
"No, that isn't what I mean. Tell me what happened to you over the past few months. Tell me what happened that made you think you had to run away."
"Isn't it obvious why I ran away, Mom? I'm pregnant. How was I ever going to tell you that? The same thing happened to you and you hated it. You didn't want me." Blinking fast to stop her tears, she suddenly realized nothing she did could stop them.
"Shara," her mom's voice was vehement, but not scolding. "I was seventeen, only a year older than you. And no, I didn't
want to be pregnant. But once I was, I wanted you. Maybe it was because my mom and dad divorced. Maybe it was because I had lost my little sister. But I wasn't going to lose you. I wanted someone who I could love with no restrictions, no conditions, no prior history. Just you and me, babe."
Had it really been that way? Had her mom truly wanted her? "I remember Gram coming over and bringing me dresses, presents for my birthday parties, treats in the summer." She could also remember her mom holding her tight at bedtime, bandaging scrapes, whispering, "I love you."
"Yes, Gram did those things, sometimes against my will. I didn't want her giving you anything I couldn't buy. I wanted to show her we could make it on our own. And we have."
"Have we, Mom? Have we made it on our own, or are we just alone? Gram was great today. I wonder if I was around her more, if maybe, I wouldn't get so mad at you."
"You think she'd let you buy clothes that are so short you can't walk in them, tops that are see-through where they shouldn't be see-through?"
Shaking her head even though her mom couldn't see, she was honest. "No, it's nothing like that. She just seems to have a different way of looking at things than we do. She wants me to come help her in the antique shop...to pay you back. Maybe I could keep working there to pay for things I need for the baby. If I don't give it away."
"You aren't thinking of quitting school, are you? You have to graduate. That's the only way you'll make a way for yourself in the world."
"It's going to be hard having a baby and trying to keep up with schoolwork. Even I know that. And I'd need daycare..."
"We'll have to talk more about everything to do with the baby. Tell me about Brad," Clare directed. "Does he know you're pregnant?"
"Oh, he knows, and he doesn't want any part of it. Not any part." Her voice broke again and she knew the tears weren't just about that. But a lot of them were.
"You loved him, didn't you?" her mother asked softly.
Shara could tell her mother wasn't making fun. She wasn't making it sound as if this was just something teenagers did and they got over it, and then everything would be wonderful.
"I loved him and he didn't love me. On Monday I told him about the baby and he just walked away. Boys don't have to deal with it. They can go on as if their lives were never changed."
"Responsible boys deal with it. Brad isn't responsible. Tell me why you dated him."
"Mom, you've got eyes. He's hot! Ten other girls in the school would love to date him."
"Why did he pick you?"
"Did you think I wasn't good enough for him, wasn't pretty enough for him?"
"Nothing like that, Shara. But why did he date you? Pretty only goes so far."
"He told me at the beginning he dated me because I didn't always say yes. I didn't always do what he wanted. I might follow along for a while but then I did what I wanted anyway. Believe it or not, he said he liked that."
"One of the first things we have to do after you get home is talk to Brad and his father."
Shara groaned. "Can't you just talk to his dad?"
"Those days are gone, honey. This isn't my mess, it's yours. You're going to have to grow up in the next few months, whether you want to or not."
Grow up. Just what did that mean?
"What should I do? About the baby?"
"You have to consider that question. We have to consider the question together."
"I think Gram and Granddad might want to be involved, as crazy as that seems," Shara said, wondering if she was just being hopeful instead of facing reality. "What Granddad did today was crazy."
"What you did was crazy. Tell me how you met Justin."
"I had to tell all this to the police officers."
"I'm sure you did, but I don't want read it in a police report, so tell me. When did you become involved with him?"
This was the beginning. This was possibly what growing up was all about—talking about stuff you didn't want to talk about. "He asked if he could follow my page on Branches. He was cute in a geeky kind of way, so I told him yes. The other kids on Branches, they say stupid stuff. They say their mom is making something for supper they don't like. Things like that. But Justin…Justin helped me. When I was feeling low, he could always type something in that would lift me up, or post a funny picture. We took it off line at Christmas to talk about our families."
"What was his family like?"
"They live in Wyoming, near Cody. They're pretty strict, and that's why Justin rebelled. He's had a computer business going on of some kind since he was my age."
"Mom said he was twenty-three."
"Yeah, I didn't realize that when I came out here."
"Maybe he didn't want you to realize it." She paused. "Why did you trust him so easily?"
"He told me stories of things he went through, sort of like I was going through."
"Do you know if the stories were true?"
"I know everybody doesn't think they are. I know everybody thinks he was trying to manipulate me in something I didn't want to do. Maybe that was true. But he understood me the way nobody else has understood me for months. Maybe years."
After a beat of silence, her mom assured her, "I want to understand you. Do you think you understand me?"
Just what did understanding her mother mean? Shara thought about it. "You go to work. You're tired when you get home. You don't want more problems when you do. So everything I do seems like a problem and freaks you out."
"Like you coming home from the mall with an outfit I don't like?"
"Exactly."
"Don't you see, honey, I'm afraid if you wear an outfit like the one I wanted you to take back, that you'll attract guys like Justin, who don't have your best interests at heart? Can't you see that?"
"He didn't want to have sex with me, Mom."
"No, from what Gram said, he wanted other men to have sex with you. Do you really think the webcam money would have stopped there? Don't you think a man who really liked you might call Justin or might call you and say, 'Can't we spend some time together?' That's the way it works, honey. If that had happened, what would you have done?"
Shara felt tears threatening again. "I don't know what I'm going to do now. I don't have much time to make a decision. But I can't take care of a baby on my own. I wouldn't be able to go to school. You have to work. What are we going to do?" she asked in an all-consuming panic.
"Shara, stop. Stop right now and breathe. Come on, and take at least three big breaths. You're panicking. I was panicking. We have to stop that. You don't make good decisions in panic. Once you're home, we'll really figure this out. I promise. And I promise you, I won't bully you into what I want. I'll listen to you."
This whole conversation hadn't been what Shara expected. She'd expected scolding and yelling, and her mom making her feel as if she were a total idiot. But that wasn't what was happening here.
"Where's Gram now?"
"She's out in the hall talking to that lady, Gillian. She's pretty neat. She has a sixth sense or something."
"She must have something special to have found you. I thought I'd lost you. I thought you’d never be coming back."
"Like your little sister," Shara murmured.
"Yes, just like that."
"Was that Joe's voice I heard? Has he been…helping you?"
Clare didn't seem to know how to answer that, but finally she admitted, "He and I have become…friends."
"Friends with benefits?" Shara asked,
"Shara."
"Mom, I'm not going to change that much just because I got pregnant. Are you sure you want me to come home?"
Without an instant of hesitation, her mom assured her, "I want you to come home. But there are going to be changes...for both of us."
She was trying to read between the lines. Maybe she needed to give her mom reassurance, too. "Joe's an okay guy, not bad looking either. I'm not totally closed off to what happens in the rest of the world. I hear the news reports. I see the streams on Twitter. Anybody who se
rved the way he did in Afghanistan, well….they deserve a lot of respect. Besides that, he actually seems nice. You've never dated seriously. You've never had someone in your life like that."
"Maybe I should have. Maybe then everything wouldn't have been so hard for you."
"Or you," Shara insisted.
"We'll work out what's best for you, Shara. We will. I don't want you to be afraid of it. I don't want you to be afraid of your future."
"If we could stop arguing—"
"We can try."
****
An hour later, Amanda hesitated outside of Max's cubicle, not exactly sure why. Maybe because she didn't know where they stood. Maybe because in that moment when he'd been shot, she'd realized, in a way, her world still revolved around him. Was she hanging onto something she should have let go of a long time ago?
She'd cleaned up the best she could, but she still had blood on her top. Max's blood. He was wearing a maroon and green plaid snap-button shirt that obviously wasn't his. One sleeve was cut off so he could put his bandaged arm through it. When he spotted her in the doorway, there were a few awkward seconds when neither of them said anything.
As she approached him, he shrugged. "A nurse found the shirt in the Lost and Found."
"Plaid becomes you," Amanda quipped, trying to keep the conversation light because she didn't know where else to go with it.
"Maybe in Albuquerque," he muttered. "Where's Shara?"
"She's with Gillian. I don't know how we're ever going to thank her. Anyone else would have left after the police questioned them. But she stuck around in case we needed her...in case Shara needed her."
"I'll be giving a donation to their foundation. As soon as my discharge papers come through, I can leave."
"How's the shoulder?" she asked, knowing what he was going to say.
"It's still numbed up."
"Did they give you any pain medication?"
"Not going to take that."
"You're going to be uncomfortable."
Her Sister (Search For Love series) Page 12
