around her waist and he spun her around. The rough brick of the wall scratched against her spine as he backed her up. “Damn it. Me,” he snarled down into her face. “Are you done with me? Is this it? Did I fuck it up? I’m sorry, damn it. I shouldn’t have been messing with your stuff and if I’d thought I was going to see something like that . . .” He stopped and looked down, a ragged breath escaping him. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry. I just . . . shit. Maybe I should have come clean or something, but I just had to watch you spend three fucking years with that prick Roger and if I had to see with you somebody else . . .”
Oh.
Light dawned as she stared at his bowed head.
I’ve been waiting . . . I wanted you . . .
It wasn’t exactly a shining, beautiful declaration of love, but she hadn’t been expecting that. Zach wasn’t in love with her. She knew that. He’d already told her that he’d been in love and it hadn’t worked out.
“No, Zach. I’m not done.”
He jerked up his head, staring at her with that intent, focused gaze. It went right to the very heart of her and made her ache. Hell. Whoever that woman was, she was an absolute moron. If Zach had been looking at her like that . . . ?
“Abby?”
She reached up and touched his cheek. “I’m not done. I’m irritated as hell over you messing with my stuff, but I’m not done. I’m irritated, and I’m confused . . . but this isn’t anywhere close to done for me.”
Chapter Twelve
“I hear you and Abby went out of town for the weekend.”
Zach really shouldn’t have answered the damn phone without looking at the caller ID. He never did when he was in the shop, but damn it, he should have. Grimacing, he shoved a hand out of his hair and tried not to think about the fact that his brother Zane already knew how he felt about Abby.
It wasn’t like he had to explain anything here now, right?
Zane knew. The twins, Trey and Travis knew. Even his obnoxious and annoying little brother Sebastian knew.
Mom knew. Dad knew.
Everybody in the family knew.
The question was . . .
“Who in the hell told you about that?”
Even over the phone, he could hear the sly amusement in Zane’s voice as his older brother said, “Oh, I have my ways.”
Zach curled his lips. “You probably came over here sniffing around Keelie’s skirts again. Did she plant that combat boot in your face again?”
“At least I got the balls to make a move on the woman I’m interested in and didn’t sit around mooning over her like a pussy for twenty years,” Zane pointed out.
Sighing, Zach rubbed the back of his neck and tried to focus on the sketch in front of him. He had a young widow coming in here later that week who wanted a tattoo. Her husband had been killed in Afghanistan and Zach wanted to make sure he had the design right.
He’d been doing fine up until his brother called, too. Had his focus on the job, had the right sort of vision in mind, and everything. “Listen, man, I don’t know about you, but I actually work during the day. You might sit around jacking off all day and staring at naked models on your screen, but I need to get some designs done so if you didn’t call for a reason—”
“I did.” Zane’s voice lost some of the amusement. “I guess that answers that. I was hoping you’d finally worked up the courage and did something, but you wouldn’t be so fucking uptight if you’d gotten laid.”
The pencil he’d been using snapped. “Shut the fuck up, Zane,” he warned.
“Look, man, I just thought—”
“I don’t care what you just thought. If I just needed to get fucked, I could get that from plenty of places.” He shoved back from the desk and started to pace.
“Damn it, that’s not what I’m getting at. Would you . . .” Zane trailed off into a long series of muttered cursing. Then abruptly, he said, “Look. I wasn’t meaning anything by it and definitely not that. I’d be the first one in line if I thought some asshole was chasing after her like she was just a piece of meat. You know I love Abby. She’s like a kid sister to me and that’s the last thing I’d