Anything for Her(61)

Her heart was pounding. She was such an idiot. If only she’d confessed to her mother about telling Sean they’d moved here from Oklahoma. That was her only really big screwup. The others were nothing, easily explained. We moved a lot. That’s all she had to say.

I can’t run after them. Sean wouldn’t understand. Nolan would wonder. I am such an idiot.

She was too rattled. Her shot bounced off the rim.

“R,” Sean declared, snatching the ball midbounce. “Try this one.” He stood with his back to the hoop, jumped and shot as he spun. “Yes!”

Allie missed that one, too, and mumbled a profanity under her breath.

“S. One more chance.”

She matched his next shot, although she’d already realized her quickest way to join Nolan and her mother was to lose. Still, she didn’t want to be obvious, and she did have her pride.

Sean dropped a shot in from near the free-throw line, making her suspicious he was going easy on her. Her answering shot banged off the backboard, rolled around the rim...and fell off.

“Crap,” she declared.

“You did good for a girl.”

She blew a raspberry at him. “I did good for someone who hasn’t touched a basketball in years.”

His smugness suffered a jolt. “Really?”

“Really.” Allie started for the house. “I thought I might have lost it, but I guess not. Maybe it’s like riding a bike.”

“Huh. Maybe.”

Cassie was waiting right inside the screen door, her delight obvious at their approach.

“She’s really bonded with you, hasn’t she?”

“Yeah, she likes Nolan, too, but she sticks with me when I’m home,” he said with satisfaction.

“Maybe she had a boy in her last home.” Allie opened the door and the dog flew out as if she’d been separated from Sean for days, weeks, eons.

Laughing, he crouched and ran his hands over her while she slopped kisses on his face.

“I’m really glad you chose her,” Allie said softly.

Sean looked up at her, his expression earnest. “I never told you I was sorry for that day.”

“It’s okay. I understood.”

“I don’t know why I was so mad.” He gave an awkward shrug as he rose to his feet. “Now if we were doing something like that, I’d like it if you came.”

Her face wanted to crumple and her vision momentarily blurred. She swallowed. “That’s nice. Thank you,” she said with reasonable composure.

The rumble of Nolan’s voice came from the depths of the house, followed by her mother’s laugh. What had Nolan said? When Allie reached the kitchen, she saw Mom putting together a salad while Nolan lifted a casserole dish out of the oven.

“Hey, you’re just in time,” he said. “Who won?”

Allie rolled her eyes. “Who do you think?”

“She’s good, though,” Sean said behind her. He grinned at her. “For a girl.”

She lunged toward him and he dodged. “Say that one more time and you’re dead meat,” she threatened.

Allie’s mother chuckled. “She’s always been athletic.”

“Did she tell you about going waterskiing?” Nolan asked. He’d carried the casserole dish to the dining room and was returning. “She got on her feet the first try. Sean did, too. They were both sure they were going to take a header.”

“I did,” Sean reminded them. “Out in the middle of the lake.”

Allie and he went to wash their hands and came back to find the food already on the table and Nolan and her mother waiting for them.

The casserole was something with chicken, broccoli and a curry sauce, accompanied by salad and a flaxseed bread Allie recognized as coming from the bakery a block down from her store.

After murmurs of pleasure over the food, conversation stayed general, Mom rather deftly avoiding any discussion of their family history. Nolan talked about Chicago and Mom said she’d never been there. He did say, “Allie mentioned you lived in Florida at one time.”

Her glance at Allie was razor-sharp. “Oh, briefly. We moved a lot. Allie’s father got restless. There’s hardly anyplace we haven’t lived.” She laughed. “Except Chicago. What brought you out to the Northwest?”

“We came out here on a family vacation once, when I was eleven or twelve. We had a cabin on Orcas Island. I guess that sold me on Washington. When I was ready to strike out on my own, this was the first place that came to mind.”