Bonus Zoey Scenes

PEN AT THE BALL…

Pen was almost one hundred percent certain she’d seen Zoey come outside right before Nikkie Jean had lured Caine out here somewhere. She wasn’t about to even think about what Nikkie Jean had been intending to do to her brother. Pen wasn’t a virgin anymore, but…there were somethings she was not going to think about. She wanted to check on her sister.

There had been something on Zoey’s face when she’d been dancing with Murdoch Pen hadn’t been able to figure out.

A look of longing, almost.

She knew how Zoey felt about Murdoch, even if Pen had always liked him. She’d known him since the day of the tornado, after all. He’d just shown up, said he was Zoey’s new partner, and then he and Zoey had worked non-stop to get the damage their county had taken repaired. He’d worked hard—bickering with Zoey the entire time.

Pen had noticed immediately how seriously hot the big blond warrior looking guy had been. How could she miss it? Big, muscled, hot, and broad shouldered—and one of the hardest workers she had ever seen.

Pen had been one of the volunteers. She’d watched him for a while, to make sure he wouldn’t hurt Zoey or anything. They hadn’t exactly been too trusting of strange men, the Daviess sisters.

She still wasn’t.

Pen took the last step and slammed into a big dark shape. “Ooomph.”

“Trying to kill me now, Penelope?” A snotty male voice told her exactly who she had just run into. Great. “Should you really be out here without your keepers? Isn’t it past your bedtime, little girl?”

He turned and the lowlight reflected off the white of his shirt.

“Tucker.” The one Barratt cousin she’d met that she definitely didn’t like and never would. The Asshole. “Sorry. It was an accident.”

His hand wrapped around her wrist, and he just held her right where she was. He was probably one of the hottest Barratt guys out there, well, next to that really hot one Brandt, but she didn’t like Tucker at all—so that really made him the ugliest instead. And he was always in a suit and tie and his hair was combed just right. He was so…prissy. That was so not hot. She liked the more wild, rugged type. Like his older brother Trevor, who was an archeologist and actually did stuff. Trevor did look like Tucker, but Trevor was nice.

She would never like Tucker. They had gotten into a really bad fight when she’d been sixteen, over something stupid. She couldn’t really remember. This was right after what had happened to Ariella and Marc and she’d just been…angry at everything. Everyone, really.

They’d sort of been fighting ever since. Every time they crossed paths. Which was kind of a lot now, since he got all drooly over Sydney sometimes. And Grace, too, whenever Gracie was visiting.

All the guys liked Grace—probably because she acted like a princess or something. Like Ariella. Fancy and girly—but really nice, too.

Sydney liked him ok, but she’d said before…he was too goody goody for her, too.

He was ten or eleven years older than Pen was. He shouldn’t have fought with a kid he didn’t know. Mr. Perfect hadn’t liked it when she’d told him that, either. He was so… ‘I do nothing wrong ever’.

It was extremely irritating.

He was some big-time movie and television producer now, working with Hunter Louis Clark on stuff. He’d bought a struggling studio when he’d been like twenty, with his inheritance, from one of his relatives. And he’d made it into the Tucker Barratt Family Network. They only did family-friendly projects, like that stupid Wonkus McBubbles movie that she’d watched with Dalton a million times now. They talked about TBFN on the campus all the time, since so many idiots wanted to intern with him at that stupid studio.

Not her. She had more important things to study. Right now she was torn—she knew graduate school, but she didn’t know whether she wanted to go on with pyschology or sociology. Both were equal fascinating.

Tucker was just so…judgy and wholesome. All the while coasting on his inheritance. He’d accused her of coasting on Luc’s coattails right back. Coasting? This guy wouldn’t have survived the places she’d lived in Dallas her first eleven years of life. No doubt about that.

“I’m trying to find Zoey. Have you at least seen her?”

“No clue. Now go away. I was in the middle of getting to know my date better. You interrupted, little girl. Better run back inside and find your babysitter.”

There was a woman right there with him.

Eww. Gross.

Pen looked right at her. “I am so sorry. I didn’t see you there behind his big head. But I’m not sorry I interrupted. I saved you in the nick of time, you know. You will so thank me later. His brother’s wife—she’s a nurse at FCGH—told me that he’s got this really bad genital rash on his penis that is super contagious. It’s why his last girlfriend broke it off with him. It took her two rounds of zithromiacin—that’s an antibiotic, she said—for her to get over it. She said it was horrible! They had to report him to the health department and everything. You really don’t want to do what he’s wanting right now. Trust me. I can give you his sister-in-law’s phone number, if you want to check with her? Annie is really, really nice. She’s married to the mayor of Finley Creek. She’s friends with my big sisters.” Pen infused her voice with as much sincerity as she possibly could. She’d just give Grace’s phone number. Then give her friend a hands-up. Grace had heard some of the mean things he’d said to Pen before.

The woman excused herself and took off inside.

Then Tucker was looming right over her. Big and strong and angry. Pen resisted the urge to jump back.

The man just so got up in her space all the time.

She eyed the fountain for a moment. Just how much force would it take to knock a guy his size in? She couldn’t figure it out fast enough. Pity. Physics and math would never be her thing.

When he growled again, Pen took off. She wasn’t stupid—a junkyard dog like that snarled, she got away before she got bitten.

She had a big sister to find.

She wanted to know if what Nikkie Jean had told her was true.

Was it possible Murdoch was in love with Zoey? If he was that would be seriously awesome.

As long as Zoey didn’t run for the hills, anyway.

Pen rushed back inside, almost hitting some older man from one of her brothers’ hospitals.

“Young lady, you must be more careful. You could have hurt yourself. And you should definitely not be outside alone. It can be quite dangerous for young girls in the dark.”

No kidding. There was a big Barratt guard dog out there ready to take her head off. She apologized to the older man. He just stared at her.

He had the creepiest eyes she had ever seen.

“I’m sorry. P-please excuse me.”

Sometimes, people could be terrifying.

That was a lesson she’d learned a long time ago.

But…watching Tucker Prissy Ass Barratt’s date practically running from him tonight had been seriously wicked fun. Just wait until she told Sydney, Gracie, and Jo-Jo all about it.

PAIGE IS FEELING A BIT OVERWHELMED…

Zoey opened the door to a sight she definitely hadn’t expected.

A woman stood there who looked a lot like her, with hesitancy in her big dark eyes. And…circles beneath them. Concern shot through her immediately. “Paige. What are you doing here?”

“I…hope I’m not intruding with you or Pen. I…was sent back down to Houston this time, and I missed my plane back. And I couldn’t get another until…tomorrow…and…figured I’d stop by.”

“Of course. How long can you stay? You have an open invitation—Luc doesn’t, though. I’m mad at him. Again.” Zoey acted on impulse and hugged her older sister quickly. Paige just seriously looked like she needed it right now. Paige was usually so…together.

“I need to head home in the morning.”

Paige wasn’t as…bouncy…as she somehow always seemed, even when she was contained. Paige was a human ping-pong ball of energy most times. Much like Pen had always been.

Something was…wrong. Definitely wrong. And Paige hadn’t gone to Melody’s to stay like she had multiple times before. Her sister…was hurting.

It was interrogation time.

“Come in. We’ll order pizza and make fun of Pen when she comes home.” And get Paige to open up. There were nightmares in her sister’s eyes. Nightmares Zoey could understand. Law enforcement could be the most rewarding job on the planet emotionally—the few times it wasn’t sucking the soul right out of you while you hurt for the people you just wanted to help. “That’s always entertaining. She gets so bitchy when that happens.”

Paige came in almost timidly. Which wasn’t like her sister at all.

Zoey had never had a heart-to-heart with this particular sister. She didn’t even know how to begin. But something was on Paige’s mind. Hurting her sister inside. Life was too short to mess around. That was a lesson she and Paige had learned a long time ago, in cities far too far apart. So…even though it felt as awkward as hell, no time like the present to fix what she could. “Something’s wrong. Want to talk?”

Paige just stared at her.

Sometimes it disconcerted Zoey to see Pen’s eyes in another woman’s face. Pen and Paige resembled each other a great deal. Like Zoey and Ariella. None of them had the same father. None of them knew who their fathers were, either, except Ariella. Well…Caine and Rafe had been fathered by Bob Alvaro after one night at a bar. Not exactly an auspicious beginning to two of the best men she had ever known.

Ariella’s father was a wonderful man who had met Denise in a bar one evening—a bar he normally didn’t frequent. They’d had a two-week relationship, ending with Denise getting pregnant. And then disappearing for ten months.

She’d contacted Bill and told him he had to bring her one hundred fifty thousand dollars within the next twenty-four hours or she was getting rid of his daughter forever. Bill had borrowed the money, mortgaging his house and his business to make it happen.

Ariella had grown up loved by her father.

No one knew anything about Luc’s father at all. Bill hadn’t even realized she had had children before he’d met her. By the time he’d fathered Ariella, Denise had lost Luc and Paige to social services in Houston, sold Rafe and Caine after they were born near Garrity, and had just abandoned Zoey to social services in Dallas that very month. Denise had taken Bill Avery for a ride, everyone knew it.

Bill said he’d gotten the best end of the deal—he’d gotten Ariella.

There was no denying that.

The world was a better place with her sister in it.

All three of her sisters. “Talk to me. I promise I’ll listen.”

“I’m…good. I think. I just…am not ready to go home yet. I need to get my head on straight…before I tell Mick…”

“Stay as long as you need.” But…if she stayed too long, there would probably be a big burly blue-eyed, dark-haired guy who oozed hotness showing up on Zoey’s doorstep next—looking for his wife. Probably with three mini-Paiges in his big strong arms, too. “I’ll order the pizza.”

“I…thanks. I just need to hide for tonight, I think. This definitely…wasn’t planned. Not with the girls being so young…”

Zoey wasn’t stupid. “You want this one?”

“More than anything in the world. But how are we going to make it work?”

“Somehow, I think the two of you will be just fine.” Paige poured out what had her so upset, but Zoey had figured it out pretty fast herself.

“Thanks for listening.”

“No problem. Isn’t that one of the things a sister is for?”