hole and staying there. She could work, could just get lost in her work and then go home. Keep at it until things got better.
But then she realized she couldn’t work hard enough to undo this ugly little knot of misery.
She’d hurt him. She’d hurt Abby and she felt bad about that, too. But she’d hurt Zach and he’d never been anything but wonderful to her. He’d given her a chance when nobody else would, he’d been kind to her when others treated her like shit, and he’d stood up for her when she didn’t even know how to stand up for herself.
And then what did she do?
She fucked up.
Any of the rationalizations she might try to offer were empty, too. So what if maybe she might want to think she just wanted him to know. She had plenty of time to tell him. She didn’t have to do it right after things finally started to work for him and Abby.
She’d done that because she was a selfish bitch and she needed to make it right.
How she was supposed to do that she didn’t know, but the first step had to be apologizing.
With her heart beating a dull, heavy tattoo against her ribs, she shoved her hands into her pockets and headed down the hall. He’d come in late which was weird for him, but he probably wanted to avoid being around her. That kind of sucked, she realized. She’d messed up a friendship. How could she do that . . .
The door was shut.
She almost turned away. But she had to do this. Being a coward wasn’t going to fix this.
She took a deep breath and opened the door.
“Get out,” Zach said quietly from behind his desk.
He didn’t even bother to lift his head.
“I just need to say this and I will,” Keelie said quietly.
“I don’t want to hear it.” He flicked her a dark look. “Get out.”
“I need to say it. If you can’t accept it, that’s fine and I don’t blame you. But I’m sorry. It was a shitty thing to do, both to you and Abby and I’m sorry.” A thousand excuses and rationalizations bubbled up in her throat, but she kept them locked up. It didn’t matter, none of it. She’d hurt him, she’d hurt Abby, and she needed to make it all right. “When I see Abby, I’m going to apologize to her as well.”
Without saying another word, she turned on her heel and walked away.
* * *
Zach watched her narrow back disappear around the corner and then he sighed, rubbing his temple.
The misery in her eyes might have made him feel a little bad, but he was running a bit thin on everything but worry and frustration and desperation. Maybe once he found Abby and got her to talk to him, he could find it in him to care about something else, but until then . . . ?
He just didn’t know.
Of course, it would be nice if he could just get her to talk to him.
Snagging his phone, he tapped out another message to her. Probably the twentieth. Maybe the thirtieth. He had lost track. And though he was beyond desperate, he tried damn hard not to let that or the frustration show in his words.
Just wondering when you’ll come home so you can kick my ass and we can talk.
Things weren’t how they looked, Abs. I swear.
Come home . . . please.
He gripped the phone and waited.
Seconds ticked by and not a message arrived.
After about two minutes, he gave up and tossed it back down.
He needed to get to work.
His schedule had him down to get started on the layout for a sleeve somebody wanted done. They had brought him a design that looked like a knockoff of a design inked on a pretty popular wrestler-turned-actor and that garbage wasn’t happening in his place.
He had a few ideas that hopefully would work, but if they didn’t, the man would just have to get his ink done elsewhere.
Hopefully, it would work.
Zach needed the distraction.
Chapter Twenty
Abby stood in front of the window, wearing a shirt that Zane was almost positive his mom had bought for Zach.
Her red hair was pulled up into a ponytail and her eyes had shadows under them.
She looked beautiful and tired and pissed and sad.
As he dropped down on the couch, he snagged his camera and turned it on. He had the first picture snapped before she realized what he was doing. By the time she turned to face