Everybody Knows (Sunnyside #1) Read Free Page B

girl mumbled, scooting over
to attach herself to her mother’s right leg and chew on a grubby fingernail.
    “No one’s blaming anyone,” Zach told Khloe, “but
as the oldest, it’s partly your responsibility to stop the younger ones from
letting the puppy out.”
    “That sucks,” Khloe said on a gigantic sniff.
    As the older sister stuck with trying to keep
Fiona in line for years, Harper sympathized with Khloe. And why didn’t Zach
task the overbearing mother with the responsibility of keeping the dog inside?
“It does suck, doesn’t it?” Harper stooped beside Khloe for another attempt at
petting the child’s pet. “I always had to keep an eye on my little sister,
too.”
    This girl eyed her with suspicion. “You have a
little sister?”
    Harper nodded. “She’s big now, but she used to get
me into trouble all the time.”
    “Did you have a puppy?”
    “No, but I might get one now that I’m moving to
Sunnyside. Yours is so cute and cuddly.”
    Khloe scuffed her toe on the sidewalk. “We love
her.”
    “That’s right,” Zach said. “And we all have to
take care of the people and animals we love, especially a puppy like Pippa
since she can’t take care of herself.”
    “All right.” The little girl’s shoulders slumped
as if he’d shifted the weight of the world onto them. Hugging the puppy to her,
she turned to trudge up the driveway. “Come on, Leo and Bella. Let’s take Pippa
home.”
    “Thank Dr. Zach for saving her,” Brianna
instructed.
    A sweet duet of “thank yous” floated to them from
Khloe and Leo.
    Bella turned back and flung her arms around Zach’s
knees for a quick hug. “Thank you.” She looked up at him with a dimpled smile
that melted Harper’s heart.
    Dr. Zach, huh? That made sense. The precise way he’d handled the dog indicated
experience with animals. He might be a vet. A very hunky vet, of course. Harper
bet lots of women in town, like Brianna, had acquired pets for the pleasure of
visiting him.
    “Hang on,” he directed Bella and the other two.
“Tell Ms. Harper Simmons goodbye.”
    Khloe and Leo stopped and waved, leaving Bella to
voice their farewells.
    It didn’t surprise Harper at all when Bella
mispronounced her name. Kids had been doing that for years.
    “Bye, Ms. Persimmons.”
    “It’s Harper Simmons, honey,” she gently
corrected. “Not Persimmons.”
    With a shrug, Khloe waved one of Pippa’s paws at
her. “Okay, ‘bye, Har Persimmons. Thanks for not running over our dog.”
    Ugh. Harper closed her eyes and fought down another wave of mortification.
    “Yes, Zach. We’re so lucky you were here.” Brianna
smiled warmly at her friend, sparing Harper a momentary glare. The children’s
mother pressed a hand to her ample chest. “After I saw the dog had escaped and
there was a strange car coming down the street, my heart almost stopped. I
couldn’t believe how fast you moved to save her, but Larry always says you were
the fastest high school quarterback in Sunnyside history. You never stayed
inside the pocket if you had the chance to run.” Brianna’s expression changed
from admiration to suspicion as she turned to visually inspect Harper from head
to toe. “Nice shoes,” she said, on a begrudging note. “Where’d you get those?”
    Harper stuck out a foot and rotated her ankle, so
they could all admire her fabulous footwear. The sandals made her legs appear
about a half mile longer than they were. She peeked up to see if Zach was
looking, too.
    He was. Staring, in fact.
    Maintaining a neutral expression, he slipped his
hands in his pockets. But she once again detected a spark of more than passing
interest in the depths of his warm chocolate eyes.
    “They were a gift,” Harper didn’t mention they
came to her straight from the designer’s workshop. That was one of the perks of
India’s job that would probably make matters worse with the resentful Brianna. Don’t stir the pot. You’re going to have to
live across the street from