Gaylynn (Seven Sisters Book 3) Read online

  “That’s okay. I’ll drink your share as well as my own.”

  She laughed softly. “My sister Heather would drink a case a day if she wasn’t worried about losing her shape and not being able to dance.”

  “Your sister is a dancer?” he asked, not surprised. If they were built anything alike, then he could certainly see it. Gaylynn had the lithe body of a dancer as well.

  “She is. She cheered for the Dallas Cowboys for a couple of years, but she just got married at Christmas, and now she lives in Idaho, of all places.” Gaylynn frowned at her menu. She missed Heather.

  “Idaho? Who lives in Idaho?” He couldn’t imagine leaving the Lone Star state for a place as obscure as Idaho.

  “I know! She met a man who lived there, and they fell for each other. She owned a dance studio here, and he owned a ranch there. His inherited ranch trumped her new dance studio, so she found a friend to take it over. And now she lives in Idaho.”

  “Sounds like you miss her. Is she your only sister?”

  Gaylynn laughed softly as their drinks were placed in front of them. “I’ll have a guisada.”

  “Queso?” Celeste asked.

  Gaylynn looked at Zach to answer that question. Since he was the one paying, he needed to make the decision about queso. He nodded and quickly placed his order.

  “I have six sisters.”

  “Six? What number are you?”

  “I’m number three. Heather is the oldest, and she lives in Idaho. Then comes Jessica, who is about to get married. And then me, and then Rebekah, who is a nurse, but she is about to go back to med school. Then Tracy, Candice, and Marti.”

  “That’s a lot of sisters.” He looked like his mind was blown by the sheer number of them.

  “What about you? Any siblings?”

  “I have a brother, Ron, and a sister, Erika. I’m the oldest. Ron is studying to be a veterinarian, and Erika is in her freshman year of college, trying to decide what to do with her life.”

  Gaylynn grinned at that. “I’m glad I’m past both of those stages. I decided early in my sophomore year that I wanted to be a counselor. Almost changed my mind at graduation because I didn’t want to have to go to more school for my master’s degree, but I’m glad I did.”

  “I always knew I wanted to be a cop. I started out in the San Antonio PD, but I wanted to be in a smaller town where I felt like I could actually make a difference. I moved to Bagley about six months ago, and I just felt like this is the place where I belong.”

  “I love this place. Of course, the only other place I know is College Station, but there’s truly no place like home.”

  “College Station? You’re an Aggie?”

  She grinned. “And I admit it with pride.”

  “I guess someone has to be proud to be an Aggie.” He shook his head. “I’d start telling Aggie jokes here, but I’m not sure they would be appropriate at the moment.”

  “Probably not.” Gaylynn smiled as their queso arrived. “I love queso. It’s my favorite part of Mexican food.”

  He grinned. “Mine too. And Comida’s is fabulous.”

  “Everything here is fabulous. Have you tried their sopapillas? I think I could eat them for every meal and never get tired of them.”

  “Sopapillas and queso. Maybe we should skip the entrées!”

  “Never. Their guisada is fabulous, too.”

  “I’m a big fan of their asada plate.” He shrugged. “I guess I can forgive you for not wanting the exact same thing I get at our favorite restaurant.”

  “Our? Wow. We have an ‘our place’ on the first date. Now we just need a song . . .”

  “We’ll pick that on our second date.”

  “You’re assuming I’ll go out with you again.” Gaylynn’s heart fluttered at the idea of him asking her out again. Already she could see herself falling deeply in love with him. She just wished there was a way for them to use her testimony in court, but visions didn’t tend to be admissible.

  “I’m hoping you’ll go out with me again. Who would sit at our table otherwise?”

  She grinned at that. “You’re just a little bit crazy, Zach Jones. I think I like it.”

  He reached over and took her hand in his. “Wait . . . are you a righty or a lefty?”

  She glanced down and saw that he was holding her left hand with his right. “Righty. Why?”

  “I didn’t want to commandeer your chip and queso hand. That would not be advisable since I am wanting a second date. And while we’re on the topic, a third would be good as well.”

  She tilted her head to one side as if contemplating what he was saying. “Well, since you’re thoughtful enough not to hold my chip hand, I think a second date is definitely in the works. I’m not so sure about a third . . . you’ll have to prove yourself to me!”

  He grinned. “Oh? I’ll start working on that immediately. What can I do to make that happen?”

  “Tell me about your most recent relationship.” Gaylynn needed to know where she stood, and she knew that asking him questions like that was the best way. He didn’t know about her power, so she could get the information she needed easily.

  He sighed. “I was dating this girl. She was nice enough, but she was super clingy. She finally asked me to stop being a cop, and I knew that was the end of it. I am not giving up my dreams for anyone.”

  As he spoke, Gaylynn saw a much more dramatic version of what he said. She saw flashes of a blond girl with tears dripping down her face, demanding that he choose between her and his career. She knew which he’d chosen, and she thought he’d done the right thing. The girl looked unstable to her.

  “I would never ask you to give up your dreams. Just so you know.”

  “I know you wouldn’t. I can see that in you. I can’t believe anyone would even ask.”

  As he spoke, she saw an older woman doing the same thing. The woman raged about how she was up all night every night, waiting for him to come home. “How does your mom feel about your career?”

  “The same as Mandy did, unfortunately. I had to move out so she would stop waiting up all night for me to come home. Now I call her when I’m done with my shift, and that’s that.”

  Gaylynn frowned. “I’m sorry it’s been so hard for you.”

  “But you’re not going to make it difficult, right? Have I earned that third date yet?”

  Thankfully their food came then, and it stopped her from having to answer immediately.

  Chapter Four

  Gaylynn sank her teeth into her guisada, and it was all she could do not to moan aloud with pleasure. “You really have to try one of these,” she finally said after chewing up her mouthful.

  He looked at it for a moment before shrugging. “I’m happy with my food, thanks.”

  Gaylynn shrugged, dipping a chip into the queso and then scraping up some of her refried beans with the same chip. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

  The topic turned lighter as they ate. “I saw there was a city-wide picnic this Saturday to celebrate spring. Are you going?” he asked.

  She frowned. “I haven’t been to that since I was a little girl. My parents took us every single spring, and it was one of my favorite things, but then I got busy and stopped going.”

  “I think we should go. There will be food to buy. I think it’s a fundraiser of a local church.”

  “It is. It’s a fundraiser put on by my church, which has been helping to fund the Boys’ Ranch my uncle runs since the first part of the century. The different people in my church all pitch in and cook something, and then we sell it for whatever. It makes a little money for the boys.” She’d cooked something every year and sent it with a family member, choosing to support the boys but not attend.

  “That’s great. I can’t imagine what a place like that costs to run.”

  Gaylynn smiled at that, knowing that it was run entirely by family funds, but that the money raised in the different fundraisers was divided up among the boys, and it went toward trust funds fo
r each of them. The boys would help serve at the barbecue, and it would help them all, though they weren’t aware of the trust funds. “I don’t think it’s cheap for sure. We don’t talk about it much.”

  “Well, would you care to go to the picnic as my date?”

  “Would you mind if Tanya and Joy joined us? Joy was talking about wanting to go to it, but her mom was afraid. If you were there, Tim wouldn’t dare approach, and they would be safe to go.”

  He nodded. “I think that’s a great idea. I wouldn’t have just offered to take them because it wouldn’t have been right, but I would love to take you and have them tag along.”

  “Sounds good to me. I’m sure they can both use a day of fun with as rough as it’s been lately.”

  “I’ll pick all of you up at your place? Say at eleven?”

  She nodded. “That should be fine. My family will be there, so hopefully you can meet them just a couple at a time and not en masse. You have no idea how overwhelming it can be to meet all of them at once.”

  He stopped eating, his fork poised in the air. “I think that would intimidate me.”

  “It should! It intimidates me, too, and I’ve been part of the family since birth! There are just a whole lot of us, and my dad is kind of strange. He tries really hard to freak out the guys we date.”

  “Sounds like a worthy endeavor to me.”

  “He certainly thinks so.” Gaylynn shook her head. “My dad is a gadget geek. He has to have the latest thing all the time. And he programs games for Atari. It’s his job.”

  Zach couldn’t help but grin at that. “Sounds like someone I’d like to get to know.”

  “I’ll introduce you Saturday.” She wouldn’t have a choice. Her family would see her with a man, and they would follow her around until she introduced them. At times she wondered why she’d been cursed with a large family, but usually, she knew how blessed she was being a McClain.

  “Now you tell me about your last serious relationship?”

  Gaylynn grinned. “He took me to my high school prom, and he married a friend of mine soon after graduation, and I was happy for them.”

  “Really? No hurt feelings?”

  “I knew he wasn’t for me. I agreed to go to prom with him, so I could ask to trade dances with his ex and her date. They’d had a fight a couple months before, and I knew they needed to get back together. So I talked to my friend’s date ahead of time, and we just planned to push them together all night and go home together. And that’s how it worked.”

  “And that’s your most recent serious relationship?” he asked, frowning at her.

  “It’s the most serious relationship I’ve ever had. I’ve never really believed in casual dating, because I knew there was someone out there destined to be my soulmate. I never had any plans to do anything else.”

  “So if I’m only dating you to have some fun and waste some time?”

  “Then you can just move on . . .”

  He gaped at her for a moment, but then his face transformed into a smile. “Sounds like you want something serious. So do I.”

  Gaylynn wasn’t certain if she should be excited that they were seeing eye to eye or a little frightened. She glanced at her watch, noting that they could spend another hour and a half and be all right.

  When Celeste came back to the table, Zach ordered sopapillas, and Gaylynn sat back in her seat and just watched him. He was good with people. She liked that. “What made you decide you wanted to be a police officer?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not sure that story is appropriate for a first date.”

  “I want to hear it.” More now that he’d said that.

  “When I was ten, I had a best friend. The kind of best friend you did everything with. I spent as much time at his house as I did my own. And vice versa. We were always together. Then one day, I went to his house before school so we could walk together. I found him sitting on his front step crying. His dad had been shot and killed during the night. Local gang. Together we vowed we’d be police officers and we would make the world a safer place.”

  “What’s your friend doing now?”

  “Jake? He’s an assistant district attorney in San Antonio. We make a great team.”

  “Do you still see him?”

  Zach nodded. “All the time. I still go to San Antonio at least one weekend a month to see my family and his. And to see Jake.”

  She had seen the images in his story as he spoke about them. She had felt his heartbreak for his friend. It all made sense now. “I think it’s admirable that you stuck to your guns and did something to make the world a better place. A lot of people would have forgotten a promise they made when they were ten.”

  “I went to the police academy as soon as I was old enough, much to my mother’s dismay. She hated it then, and she hates it now.”

  “What does your father do?”

  “We lost my dad when I was twelve. A drunk driver hit him, which cemented my desire to change the world with a badge.”

  Gaylynn sighed. “Sounds like you’ve had your fair share of tragedy.”

  “Haven’t we all? I really do want to make the world a better place.”

  “So do I.” She thought about Joy and Tanya but didn’t mention them again. She’d promised her friend they wouldn’t talk about her the entire time.

  “Sounds like we’ll make a good team, doesn’t it?”

  “I guess it does.” Gaylynn smiled as the sopapillas arrived, covered in cinnamon and sugar. She stabbed hers with a fork and put it on the small plate provided, picked up the honey, and proceeded to smother it in honey. “I’m going to be in a sugar coma all afternoon. Have Lisa cancel my appointments for the rest of the day.”

  “If you really go into a sugar coma, I’ll do just that. I wonder how she’d react if I brought her boss back in a coma, though.”

  Gaylynn shrugged. “She wouldn’t mind. Afternoon off for her!”

  “How long have you known Lisa?” he asked.

  “Since high school. Remember when I mentioned my prom and how my friend’s date and I worked to set up our dates with each other?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Her husband was my prom date.”

  “Small world!”

  “Nah. Just a small town. That’s how things are around here.” Gaylynn ate her last bite of sopapilla and pushed her plate away. “I’m not sure I can do a lot of lunch dates with you. You’re going to blow me up like a balloon.”

  He shrugged. “I think you’d still be beautiful to me.”

  She studied him for a moment, wondering if he was serious. It was hard to tell, but he seemed to be. She glanced at her watch. “I have an hour to get back to the office.”

  “So I can spend a little more time with you. If you had a full hour after lunch and you were on your own, what would you do?”

  She smiled. “There’s this little used book store on Main Street. I’d go and peruse the shelves. See what I could find.”

  “What do you like to read?” he asked, putting cash on the table to cover the bill and tip. Together they walked toward the front of the restaurant.

  “I like to read a lot of science fiction, but I don’t often read for pleasure. I feel that if I have time, I should be reading something that will do me some good. Like self-help books that I can use in my counseling.”

  “Really? I’ll stick with fiction any day!”

  He drove straight to the bookstore, and she grinned at him. “Are you trying to spoil me?”

  “Yes! I want you to remember this as the best first date ever. Even though it was a lunch date.”

  “Lunch dates are fine. It worked out really well today.”

  Within thirty minutes, they met up at the front of the store with their choices. Gaylynn had chosen a few children’s books for Joy, including her own favorite at that age: Amelia Bedelia. She refused to let Zach pay for her purchases. “I wouldn’t have gotten half of this stack if I thought you were paying. No way am I going to let you.” She pai
d for her own books, but she didn’t argue when he took the bag to carry it to the car for her.

  “It looks like you got some books for a certain small houseguest.”

  “Of course I did. I love having them at my house. Is that silly?”

  “Not at all. Are you worried about what happens when Tanya’s husband returns?”

  “Yes, I am. Roger sounds like he’s a good man, and he’s going to come unglued when he finds out some freak has been messing with his daughter.”

  “I would, too. I cannot imagine finding out someone had touched my little girl. I want to rip him apart myself, but I can’t.”

  Gaylynn looked over at him. “You must be great at poker. I couldn’t see that in your face at all yesterday.”

  “I know. I work really hard to hide what I’m feeling when I’m on the job. But trust me, I’m not letting him get his hands on Joy. Ever.”

  They drove back to her office, and he took her hand in his. “I want to kiss you.”

  She sighed. “I don’t want my first kiss with you outside my practice. I’ve worked too hard to grow a good, professional reputation.”

  “I can understand that. In fact, I was pretty sure you’d say that. So I’m going to walk in with you to your office, shut the door, and kiss you until your toes curl. All right?”

  “My toes are going to curl?”

  “Only if I do it right.” He slid out of the car, grabbing her bag of books from the backseat. She must have bought fifteen books. He could see she wasn’t kidding about that being her favorite place to stop on the way back to the office.

  He held the door for her, and she walked in. Lisa was at her desk, looking at her expectantly. When Zach trailed in after her, Lisa’s whole face lit up. “We’ll be in Gaylynn’s office for a moment. Imagine a huge ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on her door.” Zach didn’t wait for a response. Instead he walked into the office, waiting as Gaylynn followed him.

  She looked up at him for a moment, shaking her head. “I’m not sure this is the time or the place . . .”

  “It’s both. Trust me.” He caught her waist in his hands and pulled her close. “Unless you don’t want me to kiss you?”