at him. “Don’t worry. I’m not going. I know I’m not going to fit in or anything so—”
“Keelie . . . shut up.”
She sneered at him. “Bite me, Barnes.”
He might have fired something back at her if she hadn’t looked so damned sad under the anger he thought he saw. What the hell . . . ? Swearing under his breath, he stood up and came around his desk. “Keelie, I don’t know what this shit is about fitting in with my family, but you need to drop it, okay? If Zane invited you and you want to come, then come.”
She glared at him. “Yeah, like your folks will just love having me there. I’ve heard you all talking about your family things, Zach. And you’re probably asking Abby . . . I’ll really fit in well with that crowd.”
“Abby and my family aren’t a crowd.” Screw this. Turning around, he said over his shoulder, “If you’re that much of a coward, Keelie, then fine. Be a coward. But the problem is you. It’s not my family. Not a damn one of them has ever given you a reason to think you wouldn’t be welcome around them so don’t act otherwise.”
“Screw you, Zach,” she snapped.
He ignored her and settled down to work.
He didn’t need this.
Not at all.
Asking Abby . . .
As Keelie stormed out of his office, he shifted his attention to one of the few pictures he had on his desk. All but one were of his family, his mom and dad holding their one and only grandchild . . . his brother Trey and his wife Cara. She’d died only a day after their baby had been born, something that had left all of them reeling from the shock. A picture of their son, an imp in kid’s clothing if such a thing existed.
The only other picture was of him and Abby and it had been taken by Zane. Zane, when he wasn’t standing behind a bar and charming women out of their panties, liked to hide behind a camera. He could make it in a big way with photography if he’d ever put his mind to it. He had a way of pulling emotions out of people, but he also had a thing about not really investing in anything. Zach didn’t know why, didn’t care.
But his brother had a gift and the proof of it was right in front of him, in the image of him with Abby, this picture that had captured every damned thing he felt for Abby and put it out there for all the world to see.
Of course, Abby never seemed to see it.
Reaching for the picture, he thought about the upcoming weekend. She’d be there.
Abby always handled the catering for anything his mom put together and it didn’t matter that she had to either fly or drive out there. He’d once told her that she didn’t have to keep doing it, and she’d looked at him like he’d grown another head.
She’d be there, handling all the food, talking to his brothers, flirting with his dad, and joking with his mom about whether or not she’d ever get any more grandkids. He stroked his finger down the frame, staring at Abby’s laughing face.
She was watching him with a smile in the picture, her arms thrown around him and her eyes glowing. It had been taken last summer . . . his mom had decided to surprise Abby with a birthday party and she’d roped Zach and the rest of them into helping with it.
Near the end, Abby had come up to him to thank him and he’d brushed it off. It hadn’t been his idea, so why thank him?
And she’d hugged him.
It had been so hard, not to kiss her. When she lifted that smiling face to his and he looked down into her dark brown eyes, lost in them . . .
Abby hadn’t seemed to notice, but he had. Everybody around them had. An odd, tense silence had fallen. Not awkward. But like everybody had been waiting. Then she’d just brushed her lips against his cheek and gave him a tight squeeze before she pulled away and headed back over to that fuckhead, Roger.
A week later, this picture had been waiting on the desk for him, along with a note from Zane.
You need to quit waiting, man.
Yeah. He had to quit waiting.
So what did he do? Ask her if she felt like making this weekend at his family’s a date sort of