up into a ball. Tossing it into the bin where the dirty linens were collected, she looked back at Paul and said softly, “I’m seeing Zach.”
To her shock, he didn’t blink at her like she’d sprouted another head and he didn’t go, Zach who?
Instead, a wide grin split his face and he started to laugh.
She stood there for about fifteen seconds, shuffling her feet and then she lightly punched him in the arm. “Damn it, knock it off. What’s so funny?”
“Oh, nothing,” he said, shaking his head and looking back at her, that grin still dancing in his eyes. “I was just wondering when that would happen.”
Squirming, she turned away from him. “What do you mean by that?”
“Oh, come on, Abigale. The guy’s only been crazy about you for years. Shit, I kept expecting him to blow a gasket every time I saw you with Roger, but . . .”
Abigale frowned. “What do you mean by that?”
He shrugged. “Just that. I mean, I’ve been working with you almost since the beginning, right? When he first moved here, the way he looked at you and all, I thought there was already something there, but then . . . well. Anyway, I figured out it wasn’t a two-way thing. But hell, anybody with eyes can see it,” he said, reaching for a rag to dry his hands off. He studied her face for a minute and then added softly, “I’m just kind of shocked it took you so long to figure it out.”
Surprise had her going still and for a minute, she just couldn’t move.
When he first moved here . . .
The way he looked at you . . .
Slowly, she shook her head. “Zach hasn’t been . . .” She stopped and cleared her throat. “Zach hasn’t been waiting all this . . .”
I’ve only been waiting for you to kiss me for a good long while now . . .
I’ve been waiting for this for a lifetime.
“Son of a bitch.” She turned around and braced her hands on the counter.
“Abigale?”
Slowly, she turned around to look at him. “I . . .” Licking her lips, she shook her head and asked, “Are you serious? I mean . . . really, are you serious?”
Paul blinked, shaking his head as he looked at her. “What, you didn’t know? Hell, Abby. It’s like . . .” He paused like he just didn’t know what to say. One hand lifted like he thought that might make it easier to pull the words out of the air. “I remember the way I’d see him watching you. There was this party once. At your place. I was standing there talking to him, asking him about a tattoo I wanted to get and all of a sudden, he just stops talking to me. He’s staring over my shoulder and I look back, thinking maybe that gorgeous friend of yours . . .” He grimaced and added, “Not that you aren’t beautiful, but I thought maybe it was Marin Del Marco or something. But you were standing at the door, and he just stared at you. It’s like when you’re there, nobody else exists.”
She never seemed to notice that I was staring at her when she walked into the room.
Zach had said those words to her. Just over a month ago when she’d asked if he’d been in love before.
Oh, shit.
Other bits and pieces seemed to connect inside her head.
“Hey, Abby . . . are you okay?”
Jerking her head up, she met Paul’s gaze and nodded. “I’m fine. I . . . um. If you’re sure you can handle this, I’m heading out.”
She didn’t even bother to wait for an answer, just grabbed her keys and hit the door.
She never seemed to notice that I was staring at her when she walked into the room.
Those words echoed in her mind every step of the way as she ran for her car.
Zach . . . ?
Was that even possible? she wondered. But her brain already had the answer for that. Yes. It was possible. It had been there, she realized, for a very long time. And she hadn’t seen it.
The real question was just how did she feel about it?
But the answer to that question wasn’t so hard.
A warm, lovely sensation bloomed through her and she pulled out of the lot so fast, she practically left rubber on the pavement.
She could hear that voice of his, so low and familiar, soft as velvet and sinful as Death by Chocolate, as