She’d asked him. Point-blank, she’d asked him who he’d been in love with.
And he could have told her.
But maybe he had told her, she thought. You’re everything.
Sighing, she rolled onto her belly and buried her face in the pillow, trying to slow her racing thoughts.
Yeah.
She’d asked him. He could have said it, could have just told her outright. I love you. But the question was this . . . if she’d asked and he’d told her the truth, was she really ready to hear the answer? Really ready?
Up until a few hours ago, she just wasn’t sure.
And if the answer wasn’t her?
She still didn’t know if she could handle it.
“Maybe that’s the answer you need to figure out then,” she told herself quietly.
Yeah.
That was what she needed to do.
Her mind started to calm and she sighed a little as some of the tension started to ease from her body. Okay. Plan made. It wasn’t written down, but she had a plan in mind and she always functioned better with a plan. Now, maybe she could sleep. After she got some sleep, she’d be able to figure out where to go from here.
She thought.
She hoped.
Her lids drooped down—
Squeak, squeak, squeak—
Swearing, she groaned and pulled the pillow back over her head.
* * *
The early morning shoot had been one of the best Zane had in a long while, but sadly, it hadn’t been outside. It kind of sucked that he had to get up before dawn to do an indoor photo shoot, but he was trying to get a little more serious about this job. So when the better-paying ones came his way, he tried to take them.
Still, it would have been a great day to spend outside. Maybe up in the mountains. Out of everything he loved about Albuquerque, he loved the mountains the most.
He loved the desert. He loved Old Towne. He loved how the place was a mix of old and new. And he loved the fact that he was far enough away from the rest of his family that they didn’t just show up at the drop of a hat, but close enough that he could get to them with a short flight pretty much whenever he wanted to see them. He wasn’t quite as financially solvent as a couple of his famous brothers were, but he did okay.
But he loved the mountains the most.
With the sun burning high in the sky, he stared at the stark, jagged peaks of the Sandia Mountains and decided he needed to get up early again, and soon. Not because he was getting paid to lock himself in a room with his camera, either. Just head up into the mountains with his gear and see what he could see.
He had a new Nikon and he was still getting used to it. Nothing like a day spent up in the mountains to do that.
With a cup of coffee in hand and his gaze locked on those distant mountains, he told himself he wasn’t going to think about the phone call last night. Or Keelie. Or any of it. He’d been telling himself that same lie ever since he rolled out of bed after one miserable, sleepless night. He’d actually had some success for a little while . . . the entire four hours he’d spent on the job. And once he was done, his brain promptly went right back down that road.
To Abby.
To Zach.
To Keelie.
What in the hell had she been thinking, kissing Zach? She knew how that guy felt about Abby and . . .
And it didn’t matter what he’d said to Zach. Jealousy twisted through him and nothing he did or said was going to make that burn of envy go away. Something about Keelie had always gotten to him and it shouldn’t have. She was eight years younger than he was, full of anger and mistrust and attitude. The very last thing he needed to do was think about anything involving her. Especially when it was pretty damn clear that he’d been on target about the suspicions he’d had regarding her feelings for Zach.
“This is a clusterfuck,” he decided as he lifted his coffee to his lips. That was just about the only way to describe it. He wanted Keelie. She wanted Zach. Zach wanted Abby and he finally had a chance at making that happen, and then Keelie throws a