The Unexpected Choice (19 page)

 

 

STEPHANIE TAYLOR
is a freelance editor, author and business owner.
She spends her time making other authors' dreams come true at Astraea Press as Editor in Chief and Owner.
Stephanie opened Astraea Press because of the lack of non-erotic book publishers and has finally found a home for her books.

S
tephanie
has a doctorate in multi-tasking and can actually walk a tight rope while balancing a dinner plate on her head and typing her next novel with the other.
She lives in Alabama with her three children and her wonderful husband of
thirteen
years.

 

 

 

Chapter One

 

Sirens blared.
Lights flashed.
Adrenaline rushed.

Lucky O'Donnell chased hot on the tail of a white Honda.

“Pull over now
,
or I'll shoot your tires,” Lucky announced over his loud speaker.

The car weaved over the double yellow line on the two
-
way street
,
and the brake lights angrily glared at him in the near darkness of sunset.
He screeched to a halt and readied his gun.
His heart kicked into overdrive.
After three boring years as sheriff in a hole-in-the-wall town, it was exactly what he needed to remind him
of
why he chose law enforcement as a career.
Tonight, it wasn't just parking tickets and spats between spouses.

A white-haired
,
scrawny man, wrinkled with age opened the door and moved at an impossible speed toward the ditch.
Lucky was out of his patrol car in a flash.

“Freeze!” Lucky shouted with his gun drawn.

Fear shone in the old man's eyes and he held his hands up as if to surrender, but his feet kept moving.
Did he think he was going to outrun him?

“I said freeze!” Lucky shouted again.
He kept his eye on the man and finally started running in his direction when the man showed no signs of slowing down.

Lucky lost sight of the old man as he rounded
the
car, his gun still aimed.
Cautiously inching, he peeked around the edge of the back bum
per in a crouch and the sight—and sound—
that greeted him caused bile to rise in his throat.

“I don't care, officer,” the old man called.
“Just shoot me.”
There
in the ditch, the old man squatted with his pants around his ankles, groaning.

Lucky cleared
his
throat but kept
the
gun carefully aimed at him, just in case this was a stunt.
Altho
ugh
he wasn't quite sure how it could be.
“Keep your hands where I can see them,” Lucky said quietly.

“I have a colonoscopy scheduled tomorrow.
I was trying to get home.
The laxative's working a little sooner than I expected.
The pharmacist told me it would work fast, but I thought I had to time to run to the store for some toilet paper.
I was getting low.”
The man
gave
Lucky
a sheepish smile
,
and with a grunt
,
an apologetic glance came his way.

Lucky grabbed his walkie-talkie and called in the tag number of the Honda.
After a few uncomfortable moments, the dispatcher called back that Mr. Gary Roche was clear.
Not even a ticket on his record.

The name rang a bell
. He cocked his head to the side
and then
he
remembered.
Lana Roche.
Cheerleader.
Goddess.
Momentary love of his life back in high school.
This must be
a relative
.

“Sir, you were trying to evade the police. I'm going to glance inside your vehicle.
Are you hiding anything that I should know about?”

The man shook his head.
From the looks of things, he wasn't going anywhere any time
soon
.
After a quick scan, the interior revealed a couple of hats, hospital papers
,
and instructions on how to prepare for a colonoscopy.

“Officer, I know I was speeding.
I understand you need to write me a ticket.
I'll be happy to pay it.”

Lucky didn't look in his direction as more grunts and sounds reached his ears.
He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
The man
was obviously telling him
the truth.
That didn't mean, however, that he could speed whenever he wanted.

“Not just speeding, sir, reckless endangerment.
You were swerving all over the road at speeds over seventy miles per hour on a rural road.
Children play in these areas.
I should take you in to the station…”

Risking a quick glance in his direction, Mr. Roche
stared back
at him with sad, aged eyes.
Forget it.
Lucky
didn't have the heart to take him in
.

“
But
I won't,” he finished and turned to his patrol car.
“
Just
consider this a warning.
I catch you speeding like this again and you're in big trouble.”

At Mr. Roche's nod, he holstered his gun and turned.

Out of pity, Lucky walked to his patrol car and grabbed handful of napkins he kept stashed in his glove compartment.
When he was within a couple of arms
'
length
s
away, he tossed them at the old man's feet and nodded once.
The napkins scattered a little, but they could be reached.
He wasn't about to step any closer.

“Hope that helps.”

Mr. Roche called his thanks on the end of a grunt.
Intestinal sounds met Lucky's ears, and he frowned.

Lucky walked back to his car and got inside.
Staring at the lights bouncing off the trees around him, he shook his head.

They didn't call him Lucky for nothing.

**
*
**

“You should come, Lana.
It'll do you good to get some fresh air.
The weather is beautiful outside,” Ally Roche said with pleading eyes.
Ally
tugged gently on her arm
,
and Lana sighed.

“I just don't think I can!”
Lana groaned as she sat up and placed a hand to her head as the world spun.

“Please?”

“Look, just because you're my sister doesn't mean you can pull out the puppy dog eyes.
They've never worked on Daddy and they certainly don't work on me.”
Irritation laced her voice because the puppy dog eyes did, in fact, work on her.
She never said no to Ally.

“Daddy says I can't go unless you go.
You know I've been dying
to spend some time with Jessica and Zoey
.”

“Will Michael be there, too?”

Lana watched her sister's face go mushy.

“It's the
F
ourth of July, after all.
It's a small town.
I'm sure he'll show up.”

Lana
chuckled and tested her weight on
her
noodle legs.
So far so good, but the room still spun.
Heaving a deep breath, she looked at Ally's pretty freckles smattered across her nose and her brown locks pulled back in a simple ponytail.
She might be seventeen, but she didn't look a day over twelve.

“Fine, I'll go.
But when I say it's time to leave, we leave, understood?”

Ally stood erect and clapped her hands together, hopping toward her for a hug.

“Thank you, Lana!
You're the best big sister ever!”

Cocking an eyebrow, Lana looked at her sternly.

“Don't make me regret this.
You know I don't have much energy.”

“You won't!”

Immediately, Ally turned and skipped out of
the
room, most likely to get ready.

Lana fell back on her bed, trying to muster the strength she would need for the coming hours.
She could say she was blessed that things weren't worse, but that didn't mean the few symptoms she did have weren't the pits.
She closed her eyes and tried to enjoy the carnival ride her equilibrium was on.

An hour later, Lana and Ally left their father's house and headed across town to the Zeigler mansion, the richest people in the county.
Every year they hosted a community
-
wide event on their large estate and supplied fireworks and refreshments.
This would be the first year in almost ten that Lana
had
made an appearance.

She
still tried
to
wrap
her mind around the thought that she hadn't been home in ten years.
Not once.
James
had
made sure of that.
Yet
everything was still the same
,
and it felt like only yesterday
that
she
had driven
down these same streets in her first car.

Trees stood a little taller and thicker.
A few of the businesses she remembered
had been
closed and replaced by new ones.
But there was still that pothole between Main and Fourth.
And the American
flag still waved its welcome in front of the public library.
Police cars lined the street in front of the courthouse and the police annex
just as they had when she was a child
.

Lana cracked her car window and lifted her nose to the breeze.
A short afternoon shower
had
brought cooler temperatures.
The air even smelled the same, a mixture
of
honeysuckle and freshly cut grass.
It was t
he little things like this Lana
had
missed.
Literally
stopping to smell the roses, or the breeze, as the case might be.
For the last ten years
,
her world
had
revolved around buying the right kind of canned chili and a certain type of soap.
She
had
made sure dinner was on the table at a certain time.
Exercised to maintain her figure.
Made sure she was available for sex on Monday, Wednesday
,
and Friday.

The wheels in her mind squealed to a halt as she put the brakes on her train of thought.
She'd sworn to herself that coming home
would mean
starting over and being rid of James.
Lana would
not
feel sorry for herself.
It was her fault alone that things
had gone
on
for
as long as long as they
had
.
But she'd hoped for so many years that their relationship would get better and
they wouldn't become a statistic.
For a
while, she
had
loved James
enough
for
the both of them
.

Lana lowered her head in shame.
Even thinking of it now made her sad.
She'd once been the cheerleading captain of Chieftain High School.
Valedictorian.
Everything
had been
hers if she
'd
wanted it.
But
now
her confidence was shot, and she didn't know how to build it back up again.

“Stop thinking about it,” Ally ordered.

“I can't help it sometimes.
This just isn't where I thought I'd be at almost thirty. Not to mention I never thought I'd miss watching you grow up.
But I guess I should consider myself lucky that I missed the annoying phase.”

Ally snorted.
“I kept in touch over the years.
Daddy and I came to see you!”

“I know.
But I still missed so much.”

“Just stop thinking about it,” her sister ground out, her knuckles white on the steering wheel.
“It's over.
It's time for you to get crazy and enjoy life.”

“You know I can't do that.
Not now.”

“Maybe not, but I still think you
can get a little crazy. You can still
make the most of what time you have left
.
”

Lana tried not to get her feathers ruffled over Ally's careless words.
It wasn't like she
had
chose
n
for this to happen to her
.

As they pulled up to the Zeigler mansion, Lana noted the police car out front.
It appeared as
though someone had gotten crazy before she could
.

“Remember, we're leaving at the stroke of midnight,” Lana warned, eyeing the police car.

“Or what?
We turn into a pumpkin?”

“No, you walk home.”

“I can get Michael to bring me home.”

“If you want Michael to meet the business
end
of Daddy's gun, sure.
Otherwise, be at this car at twelve sharp.”

“But I have the car keys!” She jingled them for emphasis.

Lana held her hand out and cocked her eyebrow.
She loved her sister dearly, but she was only seventeen.

Ally humphed a little but finally handed them over.
They walked in silence to the house, listening to all the ruckus and the clinking of glasses.
Laughter filled every corner of the house and Lana couldn't help but feel renewed.
She couldn't wait to find some old friends and catch up.

Ally parted ways with her and walked around to the house as she tapped out a text on her phone to someone.
No doubt, Michael
was letting her know where he was
.
Young love.
Lana rolled her eyes and stepped inside the house, looking around.

Everything about it
,
including the picture of a young M
r
s. Zeigler with her firstborn, all the way to the marbled black and white floor
, was the same
.
Unsure of where to go or what to do, Lana searched desperately for a familiar face.

“Lana Roche?” a southern belle voice rang out behind her, as if
in
answer to her prayers.

Lana turned and smiled at the sight of Renee Applebaum, a fellow cheerleader and the class president from high school.
They
had
served on the dance team together their senior year.

“Look at you!” Lana exclaimed and pulled her into a hug.
“You haven't changed a bit!”

Renee brushed off her compliment and searched her over.

“You're still just as beautiful as the day you graduated.
It's hardly fair!”
She gave a petite stamp of her foot
and Lana laughed
.

“How's life?”

“Wonderful!
I just had my third baby six months ago.
He's growin' like a weed!
Been married for nine years now to Lex Hargrove.
Livin' up on the mountain close to my folks
'
house.
How ‘bout you?”

Lana
had
rehearsed the answer to this in her mind.
“Great,” she bit out with false enthusiasm. “I just moved
back
home after getting a divorce.”

Renee's face dropped.
“I'm so sorry, hon.
You and James always seemed so perfect for each other.”

“Don't be sorry, I'm certainly not!” For a moment, they stared at each other and then giggled.

“What can you say?
Sometimes it just doesn't work out!”
Taking her by the arm, Renee led her to the terrace out back.
“Remember Jay?
He's back from a tour in Iraq.
Made a career out of the military.”

“I never thought he'd stick with it,” Lana mused, watching the man with short hair mill about with a champagne glass.
“He was such a fickle guy.
Worse than a woman.”
She remembered the class clown way back when who was afraid of commitment.
He'd broken a lot of hearts their
senior year when he
'd
decided to join the Army.

“And there's Molly,” Renee pointed.
“She just married a guy she met o
n
the internet.
Seems really nice.
They're about to move up north somewhere.
You should say hi, she asks about you every once in a while.”

Molly was the type everyone loved.
Funny and friendly, she
probably had n
ever met a stranger.

Lana listened to the lives of people she'd all but forgotten.
Everyone seemed so happy.
Some danced on the lighted patio, arm in arm.
But it still didn't keep the not so happy memories from rising to the surface.
Her life had been so much different back then…

She sh
ook her head and tried to smile
for no other reason than to cheer herself up.
It was strange seeing the people she remembered with baby faces, much like her sister, all grown up now.
Everyone looked the same, yet so much different.

“I've got to go find Lex now, if you don't mind.
You're welcome to join us.”

With an apologetic smile, she declined.

“I'll catch up with you later
then
.
Maybe we can have lunch sometime soon.”

As desperate as Lana
had been
initially to be with someone she knew, now she felt the need to be alone.
Seeing the people that used to be such an integral part of her life filled her soul with purpose.
If they could do it, so could she.

Lana stood there, inhaling the cool night air.
A gentle breeze lifted her hair from her neck and whispered against her skin.
A waiter offered her a glas
s of champagne, but she shook her head
.
Aside from the lights in the courtyard, it was completely dark.