Read Last Chance Hero for Free Online Page B

actually looking forward to the evening.
    Andy’s pickup pulled up behind her car as she got out, and she waited for him on the sidewalk.
    â€œI’d have been happy to come pick you up.” He joined her on the walk and held the gate open for her. “I drove right by your house on the way over here.”
    â€œHow’d you know where I live?” She hadn’t seen him since he left her at the motel and jogged off somewhere. Maybe he was the stalker.
    â€œCould be the moving truck with California plates parked outside your house most of the day. Did I mention I drive by on the way to and from my house? We’re practically neighbors.”
    â€œOh.” Jess was beginning to feel a little foolish and more than a little full of herself.
    â€œHey! Glad you made it.” Ray came out the front door and stood on the porch with his hands in his pockets. “Come on in. Gran has dinner just about ready.”
    The small living room Jess stepped into was neat and full of wonderful aromas. Sam, looking like a gray-and-white loaf, observed their arrival with gravity from the back of the sofa. Lainie greeted them from a recliner where she was stretched out with her feet up.
    â€œHey, welcome! I’d get up, but someone would probably start yelling at me if I did.”
    â€œYou stay right where you are.” Elizabeth, a little pink-cheeked, emerged from the kitchen and crossed the room to greet them with a hug. She walked with a slight limp, but the cane was nowhere in sight. “So glad you came. And don’t you look pretty. I’d never dream you’d spent the day moving.”
    â€œHow about me? Do I look pretty too?” Andy bent to kiss Elizabeth’s cheek.
    â€œYou’re a mess. That’s what you are.” Elizabeth laughed. “But then you always were. The way you and Ray could get around me should make you ashamed.”
    â€œYeah, right. No one easier to fool than you, Gran.” Ray perched on the arm of the recliner, and Lainie smiled up at him.
    â€œWell, I’m glad you’re back home, Andy. And I’m glad you’re here too, Jess. It’s about time Last Chance got its own doctor. Now, you just sit right here on the sofa and I’ll bring you some iced tea. Dinner will be ready in a minute.”
    â€œLet me help.” Jess moved toward the kitchen.
    â€œNo, I’m all but done.” Elizabeth waved her to the sofa. “You just sit right there and rest a bit. Ray, honey, come get the tea for me, will you?”
    Ray followed her into the kitchen as Jess and Andy sat down. Lainie grinned from the recliner.
    â€œRay and I came down to take care of Gran when she fell last winter, but you can see who’s taking care of who. When we told her she had another great-grandbaby on the way, she just told me I had worked my last day at the Dip ’n’ Dine. This was our compromise.” She held out her hands. “I can work for at least a while as long as I spend an hour or so here with my feet up when I get home every day. And this recliner is Gran’s personal throne, so when she turns it over to me, you know she means business.”
    â€œBut if your pregnancy is going well, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to work as long as you’re comfortable.”
    â€œTell that to Gran.” Lainie laughed. “Better yet, don’t. Believe me, an argument with Gran is not to be entered into lightly. But I may call you in for reinforcements next time Gran decides it’s time for me to quit.”
    â€œJust let me know so I can get out of here in time.” Ray came back in carrying two glasses of tea, which he handed to Jess and Andy. “No one listens to me anyway.”
    â€œAwww. Poor thing.” Lainie stroked her husband’s arm when he came to sit on the arm of her recliner again.
    Jess took a sip of her tea and leaned back against the sofa cushions. She was glad she had