Just Practicing (Hearts for Ransom Book 2)

by Georgia Evans

  “Jan.” Emily reached out and put her hands on Jan’s shoulders, stopping her in her tracks. “I don’t need anything. Can we sit down and talk?”

  Jan didn’t know what there was to say, but Emily had been a real friend to her. She led the way to the couch, where they sat beside each other.

  “I understand if you don’t want to talk about what happened, but I want you to know I’m here to listen if you need me to,” Emily offered.

  Jan turned and looked into Emily’s kind eyes. She needed a friend.

  “Liz looks like she’s at least seven months pregnant, so it would have happened while she and Bo were still together. She wants him to be with her and the baby, but he says he’s only going to take care of the baby. We still can’t be together, though, because she says horrendous things to Seth—things that hurt him like his father used to. We can’t let that woman be in any contact with my…son.”

  Emily looked suspicious. “Bo strikes me as a sensible man. Didn’t he use protection?”

  Jan shrugged. “She says no, but he says he always did. I believe him, but even condoms aren’t always effective.”

  “I don’t like this.” Emily’s eyes narrowed. “It’s awfully coincidental that she shows up pregnant when Bo is happily married. I think she’s up to something.”

  Jan had thought all of this over until she couldn’t think anymore. “She made sure Seth and I found out in the most damaging way possible, but I think she’s telling the truth. I wish more than anything that she wasn’t, but I think she’s having Bo’s baby.”

  With those words, Jan finally let go. The floodgates opened, and her tears poured like rain. Emily silently embraced her, giving her the support she needed at that moment. Jan felt like she may never stop crying. Or hurting.

  Bo slammed the spade back into the ground, nearly breaking the handle off. A broken tool—just like his broken life. He was taking his frustration out on his and Seth’s ball diamond. The grass had grown a little over third baseline, and it was like one more thing telling him his son was gone for good. He had to fix it, so he’d come out here and taken the spade to it.

  “Are you digging dirt, or killing something?” Logan had walked up and stood a few feet behind him.

  “I’d like to dig a hole and put myself in it,” Bo told him. “I may as well. I have nothing but an empty house now.”

  “Em told me a little about what’s going on,” Logan said.

  “What?” Bo demanded. “That Liz is knocked up and says it’s my kid?”

  “That’s pretty much what she told me,” Logan confirmed.

  Bo threw the spade down and turned to face Logan. “I just don’t know how it could have happened, Logan. I never…never slept with her without using protection.” He hadn’t realized it before, but subconsciously, at least, Bo knew there was no place for that witch in his future. Even then. “I didn’t take any chances.”

  “I need to tell you something.” Logan looked guilty. “This is something that stays between you and me. Not even Emily knows.”

  “Okay.” Why did Logan want to share his problems, when Bo’s life was virtually over?

  “When Liz helped me get Em’s engagement ring, she was really friendly. I’d never been around her too much, so I figured she was one of those touchy-feely people. I didn’t think anything of it.”

  Logan had Bo’s complete attention now; the only time Liz was “touchy-feely” was when she wanted sex. “You found out she wasn’t.”

  Logan nodded. “The night I proposed to Emily, she tried something. We were in Brody’s spare bedroom waiting on Emily to get there, I needed to explain who Liz was, and what Emily saw that day at the restaurant. And Bo, in hindsight, I’m not too sure Liz didn’t see Emily that day, and stage the whole thing to look like something it wasn’t. But that night, Liz…offered me a—favor—right there in the bedroom. If we hurried, she would be done, and I would be relaxed before Emily ever got there.”

  Bo felt revulsion in his stomach.

  “I turned my back and acted like I hadn’t heard her. Em walked in a few moments later. Then Liz acted like nothing had happened.” Logan studied his feet for a few moments before he looked back at Bo. “I never told Emily, because I didn’t want to take anything away from the best thing that’s ever happened to me—when she told me she loved me and would marry me. I wasn’t going to let a…I wasn’t going to let Liz’s words taint those moments for us. I pushed it out of my mind and pretended it didn’t happen. And I didn’t tell you because you’re my best friend. I didn’t know how to tell you. It only happened once, and I told myself it was just a fluke. I’m sorry, Bo.”

  “I wish you’d have told me sooner,” Bo admitted. “I’d have dumped her sorry butt a lot sooner.”

  “Are we good?” Logan asked, uncertainty in his voice.

  “You’re my best friend, Logan. I understand.” Bo had his own confession. “I should probably tell you I had a pretty strong crush on Emily last summer.”

  Logan grinned, relief on his face. “I can understand that, especially after the way she helped you break through to Seth. Besides, who could know Emily without falling in love with her?” He sobered a little. “When did you get over your crush?”

  “When I met Jan and found out what real love is.” He sank to his knees in the grass. “What am I gonna do? I don’t think I can live without her.”

  Logan knelt in front of him. “That’s the reason I told you about Liz coming on to me. If she put it out there for me while she was with you, what makes you think she wasn’t with other men?”

  Bo understood what Logan was getting at.

  “Maybe, Bo…Just maybe…your instincts are right and that baby isn’t yours.”

  Maybe the baby wasn’t his… And after what he just learned about the woman he’d been with, he had a new reason to hope that was the truth.

  “I need to take off work tomorrow, Logan,” Bo announced. “I’m going to visit Liz Zimmers.”

  “Fifty-seven times and there have only been two commercials!” Mildred announced from her chair in front of the television. At this rate it was going to be a banner day for Dr. Phil.

  “Diamonds are a queen’s best friend,” Raymond told Leonard, who grinned and passed him the cards.

  “I bought a diamond once,” Albert said. “It was on a ring, and I gave it to a girl.” The corners of his mouth turned down. “She gave it back and got one from another fellow.”

  “Diamonds sparkle and rings are round.” Samuel had to put his two cents in.

  Jan wondered if Albert had actually proposed to someone and been rejected for another man. She hoped not. There was too much heartbreak in the world.

  At least Claudia was having a good day. Walter was visiting, and they were in the flower garden, probably on the swing, enjoying each other’s company.

  Gertrude was crocheting. “I’m working on a mitten for your baby girl,” she told Jan.

  It hit Jan in the face. She was never going to have Bo’s daughter. Liz Zimmers was going to give birth to his child. Even if he didn’t go back to her, they would be linked for the rest of their lives. There would never be a chance for Jan to be with the man she loved.

  It hurt so much she doubled over and wailed in agony.

  “Here…” Lance had just gotten back from break and was pulling her away from Gertrude. “Jan…what’s wrong?” He tried to help her stand up, but she just couldn’t do it. The sobs now wracking her whole body were too strong. She had to get control of herself, or she was going to frighten the residents.

  “I need to get out of here,” she managed to tell Lance.

  “Go.” He helped her make it to the back door. “Take as long as you need.” He softly closed it behind Jan, leaving her in private to cry. The fresh air hitting her face slowly soothed her, easing her pain until she could finally stand up. She was still afraid to go back inside. The tears were too close at hand.

  Jan decided to walk through the flower garden. Maybe the peacef
ulness and beauty would help her. She slowly set off, looking at the flowers through her swollen eyes. It wasn’t until she came upon them that she remembered Walter and Claudia were out there.

  “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I didn’t mean to bother you.” She turned to leave.

  “Please stay,” Claudia softly invited.

  “Yes,” Walter added. “There’s room for you beside Claudia. Join us.”

  Jan knew she should give them their privacy, but they were being so friendly, and Claudia was having an exceptionally good day. She walked over and slowly sat on the swing with them.

  “You know,” Claudia said. “Only a man can make a woman cry like that.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Jan murmured, wondering if it would ever be true.

  Claudia smiled. “Walter has another wife.”

  Maybe she wasn’t having such a good day.

  “She’s my ex-wife, and you know it,” Walter teased Claudia. He turned his attention to Jan. “If you’ll humor an old man, I’d like to share our story with you.”

  Jan mutely nodded.

  “When Claudia and I were young, we were engaged. I foolishly went to a college in South Carolina while she stayed here in Indiana to go. While we were apart, I made the worst mistake of my life.”

  “Yes, you did,” Claudia pleasantly agreed.

  “I went to a party and had too much to drink. The next morning I woke up in a woman’s bed…with no memory of how I came to be there. I told her I was engaged and left as quickly as I could. Then I tried to work up the courage to confess to Claudia.” He took his wife’s hand in his. “Before I could, that woman showed up and told me she was carrying my child. Back then, it was shameful for a woman to have a child out of wedlock. I couldn’t let my child be born like that, so I only had one choice. I had to marry her.”

  “He called me,” Claudia said. “Crying like a baby. He told me the whole story. You know, my heart was broken, but I don’t remember ever being angry at Walter. He was just a human being who made a terrible mistake and was going pay dearly for it.”

  “So you married that woman?” Jan quietly asked him.

  “I did,” he answered. “But I couldn’t bring myself to be intimate with her. You see, in my heart, I would have been betraying Claudia, and I just couldn’t do that.” Claudia put her head on his shoulder. “Less than a month after we were married, this fellow shows up at the apartment we were renting, telling me my wife was his girlfriend. He claimed the baby she was carrying was his.”

  “How did you find out whether it was or not?” Jan wanted to know.

  “She confessed. That fellow was her true love, and they had been together. She found herself pregnant, and because his family was rich, she figured he would never marry her.”

  “But that night when you were drunk. The baby could still have been yours,” Jan observed.

  “That was something else. Turns out she tricked me into thinking we’d been intimate. I had just gone home with her and passed out cold. She fixed things up to make it seem like something happened.” Walter put an arm around his wife.

  “They got an annulment right away,” Claudia told her. “And we didn’t wait any longer. We were married less than two weeks later. Walter moved back home to finish school. We both worked part-time, and it took us a little longer to get through college, but we did it together. We’ve done everything together ever since.”

  “I’m happy for you both that it worked out that way,” Jan told them, wishing her problem would be solved so easily.

  “You know, things aren’t always what they seem,” Claudia observed.

  “But sometimes, they are,” was Jan’s sad reply.

  Bo parked himself on a bench outside Zimmers Jewelry Store. He knew he should probably talk to Liz in private, but he didn’t trust her not to twist things around and make it seem like they were back together. And that was never going to happen, baby or not. No. He would insist she accompany him to the food court and sit there until he figured out for sure what she was up to. He asked himself again how this mess could have happened.

  Just last week, he and his family enjoyed one of the best family Sundays ever. The three of them finally visited the zoo. He and Seth had Jan up in arms when they asked her to stand in front of first, the giraffes, and then the lions, only to tell her afterward they were comparing her hair to the animals. Informing her that her hair was a much deeper auburn didn’t win them any points. She threatened to buy one of those giant, inflatable hammers to take to both their backsides.

  Jan and Seth told Bo he should see if the staff would let him try and wrestle with the gorilla. It was the only animal they thought might give him some competition. And they all stood and laughed at the monkeys’ antics for a long time.

  Then, Seth pulled a good one on them. He insisted they sit in the very front row at the dolphin show so his “vertically challenged” mom could see. It wasn’t until the dolphins swam close to the edge and jumped for one of their tricks, he and Jan found out the hard way the people in the first few rows got drenched. Jan spluttered, then calmly stood up and dumped her entire plastic cup of ice water over Bo’s head because he was laughing so hard. He had in turn tickled her. Then, they both attacked Seth, ending with all three of them laughing like loons. People probably thought they were crazy, but he hadn’t cared. They were a happy family.

  Bo glanced up and was startled out of his thoughts by the sight of Liz—a very pregnant Liz. He wasn’t an expert by any means, but she looked like she was pretty far along to him. His stomach churned.

  Then he noticed the man walking beside her—with his arm around her shoulders. He looked familiar. Where had Bo seen him before? Then he remembered. He was the infamous Kim who had told all those stupid jokes at that ill-fated dinner party. As Bo sat there, Kim kissed her very intimately.

  She smiled at him before she turned and walked back into the store. Kim walked on out into the concourse.

  Bo stood up and walked over to the man.

  “Excuse me,” he said politely, getting Kim’s undivided attention. “I think we might have something to discuss.”

  Jan changed the channel for the umpteenth time. What a wonderful way to spend her birthday—channel surfing on her mom’s television. She should have just gone ahead and worked instead of taking a Tuesday off. At least she persuaded Patsy to take Seth to the arcade and movies. Maybe it would cheer him up a little. And after Jan was once more reduced to tears, her mom had finally agreed not to celebrate the day.

  A horrendous pounding noise startled her so much she dropped the remote control. Somebody was beating on her mom’s back door, and it sounded like if she didn’t answer, the door was going to be damaged.

  She walked to the door and cautiously pulled it open a crack. A big hand pushed its way in and the big man who the hand belonged to followed. Bo gently pushed her aside and walked past her.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” She couldn’t handle any more drama.

  “I’m taking my wife somewhere,” he calmly replied.

  “I’m not going anywhere with—”

  Her words were interrupted when he lifted her up and threw her over his shoulder like a bag of laundry. All of her pent-up pain and frustration came bubbling to the surface. She began pounding on his back and calling him every bad name she knew and some she made up on the spot. He should have been more careful! He’d gotten another woman pregnant! Their family was ruined! She didn’t care how irrational she was being. Anger felt better than pain.

  “You sure have a potty mouth when you lose your temper,” he told her, using the same composed tone of voice.

  “I’ll show you a potty mouth, you big…” And she took off again.

  She realized he had opened the passenger door of his truck before she felt him pull her off his shoulder and set her in the seat. She began fighting him as he coolly reached across her and fastened her seat belt.

  When he finished and started to close the door, she moved to unf
asten her seat belt. She’d show him he couldn’t take her anywhere against her will.

  Bo stopped with the door partially closed. “Just go ahead and get yourself loose and run. I’ll only catch you and bring you back. We’ll see who gets worn out first.”

  Even in the midst of her full blown temper tantrum, Jan was aware that he was in much better physical condition. Well, he might be able to make her go with him, but he couldn’t make her do anything else. She crossed her arms and stared straight ahead.

  He closed the door and walked around to get into the driver’s seat. Before she knew it, they were on the road.

  A good thirty minutes later, Jan realized they were on an old, gravel road she’d never been on before. He silently drove, not even trying to engage her in conversation, which actually made her even angrier than she already was.

  She felt the truck’s wheels hit looser gravel and looked over to see that Bo had pulled into a short lane beside a small chapel. He got out of the truck and came around to her side. She might not be able to get away from him, but she wasn’t going to do anything to help him, either, so she sat completely still as he unbuckled her and once more tossed her over his shoulder.

  A couple of minutes later, she found herself being placed on an old, lattice-work bench with a well-tended flower garden in front of it. She crossed her arms, refusing to acknowledge her kidnapper.

  “This chapel garden is a special place for me,” he told her in the gentlest voice she’d ever heard him use. “It’s where the minister found me when I was left here as an infant.”

  Jan couldn’t hold back her gasp of surprise. Bo never talked about his family, and she hadn’t asked. Coming from the background she had, she just assumed he had problems he didn’t want to talk about.

  “You know why my name is Bogard Daniels?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “The paper pinned to my blanket said Bogard Daniel. They just added an ‘s’ and gave me the name.”