“He’s not leaving town without his girl,” she said with confidence.

Zach was about to pull from the curb and glanced at Karen. “How can you be so sure?”

If there was one thing Karen hated it was outright gossip, but if her suspicions were anywhere near correct, Nolan was going to need a real job with real money coming in or Hilton was going to have two more runaways to add to the list.

“Do you know his girlfriend?”

“I’ve seen her a couple of times. Nice girl.” He moved onto Main Street after a car passed them.

“I think she’s pregnant.”

Zach swung his head to Karen, disbelief on his face. “You think?”

“I’d love it if I was wrong, but my gut says I’m not.”

“Oh, damn. Do my sisters know?”

Karen shook her head. “No. My guess is the only ones that know are Nolan and Becky.”

“How are you coming to this conclusion?”

“Side effect of what I’ve done most of my life. I work with teenage kids, and I’ve seen my share of knocked-up girls who are trying to hide it from the world. Do you know her parents?” Karen said.

“I’ve seen them, but can’t say as I’ve ever met them.”

“Unplanned teenage pregnancy isn’t easy for anyone. Even worse if the parents don’t approve of the boy responsible.”

“Nolan’s a good kid.”

“I keep hearing that. But apparently Becky is Mormon, and Nolan isn’t.”

Zach shrugged as they turned down his parents’ street. “Not sure why someone’s religion is supposed to dictate falling in love.”

“I didn’t either, until I talked to Judy and Hannah. They think it’s a huge factor for Becky and Nolan.”

Zach released a long sigh.

“I know. Anyway can you talk your dad into giving him more hours?”

“You heard that, too?”

“Didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”

“It’s all right. I’ll push my dad. And if he won’t add hours, I’ll see if Nolan has any ability with swinging a hammer.”

He pulled up to the Gardner family home. “There’s always the possibility that I’m wrong.”

Zach met her eyes. “He seemed desperate to have more money coming in. If it’s not because she’s pregnant, it might be something just as important.”

Karen wasn’t about the mention the marks on Becky’s body. That would require more investigation. Walking away from a hurting kid wasn’t in her.

“Please don’t say anything…”

He waved her off. “Of course. You don’t even have to say that.”

She reached for the door. “Are you coming in?”

“No. I’ll be over tomorrow.” His eyes once again took her in, and that crazy current that sat in silent moments buzzed between them.

“Till then.”

“So what do you think of Karen?” Judy asked Hannah while the two of them hot glued bits of colored paper to Mike’s float.

“I think she’s great!”

Judy did, too…almost too good to be true. “Don’t you think it’s odd that she and Mike didn’t visit sooner? I mean, she seems perfect yet Mike doesn’t want to show her off.”

Hannah leaned over the edge of the bench Mike would sit on while riding down the parade route. “You know our brother better than I do. I was just a kid the last time he lived in the house. I remember him being kinda shy about girls.”

“I thought so, too. Not like Zach. He always seemed to bring his dates around.”

“Maybe we notice that because Zach lives in Hilton now. Kinda sucks that we don’t know Mike as well as we should.”

The memory of Karen’s conversation while they jogged brought a smile to Judy’s face. “I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of our brother now that he’s happily married.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Sunday dinner with the Gardners was a lot like a family reunion with the Brady bunch after the kids had all grown up and given birth to their own. Janice and Sawyer’s home couldn’t contain the clan that showed up to celebrate Michael’s visit. They set up shade tents in the park and commandeered several grills to barbeque a smorgasbord of meat.

Zach hadn’t seen Karen since he dropped her off the day before. That didn’t mean he hadn’t thought about her. In fact, he hadn’t stopped thinking about her, and it was really starting to piss him off.

Tracey was going to meet him at the park later in the day. He’d skipped out on their normal Saturday night date, which usually didn’t end until Sunday morning, and he couldn’t give himself a good reason as to why.

It was a lie, but he had no problem lying to himself. He was an ass for wanting to know what it felt like to press his body up against his brother’s wife, but he wasn’t so far gone as to sleep with Tracey and picture Karen in her place. He wondered if Tracey noticed that they’d not slept together since he returned from California.

She was starting to look at him in that strange way women did when they had a thousand words on their tongues but only sighed or shook their heads instead of expressing them. It just wasn’t working with her anymore. Even if his eye hadn’t wandered to Karen, the fact that it did told him he couldn’t lead Tracey on much longer. He asked himself why he was waiting to break it off, but he knew that answer, too. Having a girlfriend kept him on a strange leash, adding to the walls that kept his gaze from lingering on Karen more than was appropriate.

Zach found a parking spot and went around to the back of his truck to grab the volleyball net and ball for the family game. He wondered how much his brother had slacked since being Mr. Hollywood.

Several faces lifted and hands waved as he walked through his family crowd. He greeted everyone by name and noticed more than just family at this gathering. Some of Mike’s old friends and their families joined in the fun.

Unable to help himself, Zach peered over the heads of everyone, searching for a certain blonde who stood out like a white swan in a pond full of ducks.

She stood over a picnic table with his niece, little Susie, on her hip. She was laughing at something, and the sound traveled above everyone there and met his ears.

Larry, one of Mike’s high school buddies, met him as he walked across the grass and grabbed the ball from his hand. “Hey, Zach. Haven’t seen you in a while.”

“I haven’t gone anywhere. Is Kim here?” Kim and Larry had married a few years before. There was already a little Larry toddling about somewhere.