Best for the Baby by Ann Evans

the floor at the salon. “Well,” she said, “as you can see, I don’t have to give my hair all that much thought anymore.”
    “It’s a shame. I like it longer.”
    He spoke briskly, as though to strip the words of any emotional content, but his tone made her look at him more closely. Something passed between them, a little moment of awareness, but it was gone so suddenly she wondered if she’d imagined it.
    She said quickly, “I had to simplify my life after I left with Jeffrey. You can’t carry much on a motorcycle, and we ended up in a lot of rustic places with very few luxuries.”
    “That fancy address you lived in with Gil. Are you telling me you don’t miss the high life?”
    “Surprisingly, no. That house—our life—that was all Gil’s invention, because of who he thought he had to be. But I hated every stick in the place. Everything was so darn perfect.” She lifted her chin. “I’m very adaptable these days. I’ve become a minimalist.”
    He gave a tentative nod, as though testing that information. “That may be true,” he said, then motioned toward her stomach. “But you still have to take care of this latest development.” As though coming to some unexpected decision, he started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.
    “Where are we going?” she asked.
    “Just sit back and eat the rest of your sandwich. The baby’s probably hungry.”
    She did as he told her, polishing off the last of the food while he swung the car down the back lanes of Lake Harmony that had once been so familiar to her.When they bumped onto the one that led to Heron Cove, she sat up straight in her seat, a little surprised.
    After last night’s storm, the place looked fresher, cleaner, but in the morning light she could see further signs of what she’d noticed before—a lack of loving care that indicated the cottage wasn’t just closed up for the season. It didn’t help that shards of glass from the window she’d broken twinkled in the morning sunlight that bathed the front porch.
    Zack stopped in front of the house and killed the engine. His hand gripped the steering wheel. He stared straight ahead for some time as she quietly waited. What was going through his mind?
    At last he turned toward her as he dug in the back pocket of his jeans. He withdrew a set of keys, lifted her hand and dropped them into her palm. “These are the keys to the cottage,” he told her. “You can bunk here until you figure out what to do.”
    “You’re going to let me stay?”
    He frowned at her, probably because she sounded so incredulous. “I thought that’s what you had in mind when you came to Lake Harmony.”
    “Well, it was. Sort of. I was hoping your folks would be here for the fall foliage. I didn’t think they would turn me away. But I wouldn’t expect you to—”
    “Just because I’m not willing to be your lapdog anymore doesn’t mean I want to see you wandering around the country alone and pregnant, without the bare essentials for survival. Do you have any money?”
    “I was going to the bank today. All my ID was in my wallet, but I’m sure I can work something out.”
    He studied her until she felt like squirming in herseat. Then he took out his wallet, withdrew three one hundred dollar bills and held them out to her. “This is all the cash I’ve got on me right now. Take it.”
    “I don’t need your money. I’ve called all the activists I know who work with Jeffrey. If he hasn’t found my wallet already, they’ll tell him he has it. He’s not a creep, Zack. He’ll send it back to me. Even if…”
    “Even if what?”
    “Even if he doesn’t end up coming back with it.”
    She sounded calm, but the muscles in her jaw probably betrayed her, because she could feel them pulsing the way they always did when she was upset. Zack knew that about her, and for a moment he was silent.
    Then he made a dismissive sound. “Don’t be an idiot,” he said. “You can pay me back one day. Call MacAfee’s