is because you know I’m right. I’m fucking right.”
He slammed Sebastian’s head against the floor. “The reason I’m so pissed is because you’re interfering . . . right when I finally get things where I want them and you’re trying to fuck it up for me.” Anger blistered through him and he knew he had to move before he did something he regretted.
Swearing, he surged up off Sebastian and stormed across the room. Distance. Needed to get some distance. Because the longer he thought about what he’d just walked in on, the madder he got.
Hearing Sebastian get to his feet, he spun around and glared at him. “What the hell, Seb? You want to tell me why in the hell you’re trying to fuck my life up?”
“This isn’t your fucking life!” Sebastian glared right back. “You sit in a damned hole-in-the-wall and play with needles and ink and act like that makes you happy while you wait for that woman to notice you’re alive. If she hasn’t done it yet, when is she going to?”
It was a punch in the gut and a blow to his pride and damn it, Zach knew there was truth to it. Had he been waiting a long-ass time for Abby to finally see him? Damn straight. Were there days when he thought it was just never going to happen? Hell, yes.
And he’d been willing to deal with that, willing to live with it, because he couldn’t see himself anyplace else. Where she was, that was where he had to be.
Things had changed and damn it, he was going to make the most of it. And what the hell was Sebastian doing, trying to screw it up for him?
Gut in a knot, he glared at his younger brother. “And just what in the hell do you think I ought to do?” he demanded. “Go back to a life where the only women interested in me were interested because of what I was? Who I was? They didn’t give a damn about me. And here’s another problem, Seb . . . I don’t want that life. It suits you, but I grew out of it. It’s not me anymore.”
“And sitting around waiting for her is?”
“I’m not exactly waiting right now!” Spinning around, he slammed his fist into a wall. For about five seconds, that helped. A lot. But then, as the adrenaline faded and pain bloomed in his hand, he had to bite back a groan. Smooth, Zach. Real smooth. That had been the hand he’d burned and the healing skin was no longer healing. The scabs across his knuckles split open and as he stared at the blood, he muttered, “Now that just tops it off.”
Sighing, he headed over to the bar and grabbed one of the towels from under it.
“She just got dumped by her fiancé,” Sebastian said, his voice flat. “Do you really think you’re going to have a chance building anything there?”
“Seb,” Zach said softly, taking his time as he wrapped the towel around his hand. “You don’t even have a clue what I want out of my life, you know. Not a damned clue. You think because you’re happy with where you’re heading, that life is going to suit me, too.”
Sliding his brother a look, Zach shook his head. “You’re wrong. You’re so very wrong.”
A muscle pulsed in Sebastian’s jaw and finally, he looked away. “Maybe you don’t want that anymore, but I’m not wrong about Abby. She’s never going to see what you feel, Zach. I . . . I don’t want you to get hurt.”
There were a thousand things he could have said. Probably a million. But he didn’t want words between him and his brother that couldn’t be taken back. So instead, he just chose the few words that had to be said. “You need to keep out of what’s going on between me and her,” he warned, still focusing on the towel. “It doesn’t concern you.”
“You’re my fucking brother,” Sebastian snapped. “How am I not supposed to be concerned with shit that affects you?”
“You’re my fucking brother.” Zach laughed a little. “And you’re acting out of concern for shit that affects me? Oh, that’s rich, Seb. Because what you just pulled had a pretty damned big effect. She makes me happy, damn it. You’re trying to fuck it up and she makes me happy.”
* * *
He found her in the backyard.
She wore another one of those dresses that just drove him nuts and all afternoon, he’d been