Pretty damned stupid. He should have kept his big mouth shut. If he’d taken two minutes to think about it, he’d have known how she would react. Savannah had done a fair job of hiding it, but he knew that her heart had been grievously wounded. It needed time to heal, and he’d rushed her. He’d known it even as he allowed the words to roll off his tongue.
Still, a nun with a penis?
He grabbed the keys to his motorcycle and headed in to work. When he spied a car with California license plates run a stop sign, he was in just a cranky enough mood to stop the driver and write a ticket.
Ginger greeted him with a smile that died after she got one good look at his face. He gave her and his deputies a gruff “Good morning” before striding into his office and shutting the door. He didn’t miss the look his dispatcher exchanged with his deputies, but he chose to ignore it.
He managed to bury himself in paperwork, and as the morning waned, his mood eased. Nothing like compiling crime stats for the state to get a man’s mind off his troubles. He worked through lunch and had just finished up a phone call with the Colorado Springs district attorney’s office when a knock sounded on his door. Glancing up, he was surprised to see Jack Davenport.
This can’t be good, he thought as he waved Jack in and gestured for him to take a seat. “Do we have a problem?” he asked without preamble.
“Possibly. Something happened up at the camp I figured you should know about. I brought TJ Moore and Aiden Marshall home today.”
Well, hell. “What happened?”
“That’s part of the trouble. I’m not exactly sure. What I do know is that between the archery session and horseback lessons, the two had a dustup. I don’t know who started swinging first or why. Neither boy is talking.”
“Was anyone hurt?”
“TJ has the beginnings of a shiner. Aiden has a busted lip and a swollen nose.”
Zach sat back in his chair and considered. He wasn’t completely surprised. “So, this isn’t something the sheriff’s office needs to become involved in?”
“I thought you’d want to know because of Savannah. She wasn’t very happy when we showed up at Heavenscents.”
“I don’t imagine that she was.” He hesitated a moment, then asked, “Did you tell her you were coming to me?”
“I told the boys. I thought it might help prevent them from bringing the trouble off the mountain into town—at least for a little while.”
“I’ll bet they loved that.”
“Like I said, I couldn’t get either kid to talk, but the animosity was thick enough to cut with a knife. I don’t think it’s over, and I suspect that at some point in time you’ll be dealing with them.”
“Do you have a guess on who the instigator was?”
Jack glanced at his wristwatch, then stood. “I’m afraid I’d pick TJ, though it’s just a guess. Before they got into it, Aiden seemed to be having fun, but TJ was a little moody. Now, I’d better get back up the hill. I’m scheduled to lead a hike in half an hour.”
Zach found himself wishing the fistfight had occurred last night rather than this morning. The Davenports would have called Savannah and their wonderful evening would have been interrupted, but this morning’s disaster wouldn’t have happened, either.
He shook Jack’s hand, thanked him for the heads-up, and wished him smooth sailing for the rest of the camp. Alone again in his office, he assumed his favored thinking position by propping his feet up on his credenza as he gazed out the window.
What now? He probably should develop a strategy for going forward. To do that he needed to figure out what he wanted. To figure out what he wanted, he needed to be firm about what he felt.
Bottom line: was he in love with Savannah Moore or not? Was the emotion real or the result of sensory overload from a spectacular romantic rendezvous? His gut instinct told him it was real, but he’d never been in love before. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe time would prove him wrong.
Everything considered, he decided he’d be wise to give it a few days, maybe a few weeks, to be certain of what he was feeling—and frankly, to get over the sting of this morning’s fight. Nun with a penis, my ass. He could use the time he wasn’t spending with her to make those calls to