Part 32 (2/2)

”Then what?”

”Then none of your business.”

She held out her fork like a weapon. ”I'm pregnant. You have to be nice to me.”

Cal decided his brother needed rescuing. ”Mariners should have a good season this year.”

”I heard that,” Walker said.

Penny rolled her eyes, then said, ”The infield looks promising. Now if only we can come up with the hits.”

Conversation s.h.i.+fted to baseball, then the success of the restaurant, then to possible neighborhoods for Walker's apartment.

Cal watched his brother skillfully dodge any personal questions. Walker might love Penny, but he wasn't going to share more than he wanted to.

Secrets, Cal thought. They were a family who kept secrets.

CHAPTER NINE.

FRIDAY MORNING Penny found herself pulling into The Waterfront shortly before seven.

”This is just plain wrong,” she muttered as she climbed out of her car and hurried toward the rear of the building. There hadn't even been time to shower. As she wasn't allowed caffeine anymore, due to her pregnancy, a shower was the only thing that perked her up in the morning.

”I know, I know,” Naomi said from her place just outside the open back door. ”It was your turn to sleep in. I'm sorry. I thought you'd want to see.”

Penny and Naomi traded off predawn times, alternating who had to get in to go over the delivery.

Penny stared at the water pouring out the back door. ”Shouldn't we be able to turn that off?”

”We're working on it.” Naomi gave a half smile that didn't look the least bit convincing. ”First the pipe cracked, then the shutoff broke. That's when I made the executive decision to rip out part of the wall to see if we could get to any other kind of shutoff.”

Penny had a bad feeling there wasn't a happy ending to the story. ”And?”

”Rats.”

Penny took a step back and shuddered. ”This isn't your attempt not to use bad language, is it?”

”Sorry. No. There's not a lot. Obviously the exterminator has been doing his job, but still, there was a family of them.”

It was too early to deal with rodents. ”Great.” Penny started for the kitchen.

Naomi clutched her arm. ”There's more.”

”Because a broken pipe, no ability to turn off the water pouring through my kitchen and out into the alley and rats in the walls isn't enough?”

”We haven't had the produce delivery. The truck was in a big pileup. Three cars and the truck. No one was injured but...” Her voice trailed off.

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