open. But she was inside her car. And then, seconds later, she was tearing off into the traffic on 4th Avenue.
Stunned, sick inside, Zach stared down the street after her. He’d wasted valuable seconds trying to chase after her, instead of going around to get his car from the back. There was no way he could catch her now.
He’d just have to talk to her at home.
Skimming a hand back over his hair, he nodded to himself. “Yeah. At home.”
Shoving back inside, he ignored the wide-eyed looks coming from the patrons, he ignored Javi’s concerned comment, and he ignored Keelie, who was standing in the hallway, a nervous look on her face.
In his office, he grabbed his keys and turned back around.
Keelie was in the doorway.
“You need to move,” he said quietly.
“Look, let me call her or something,” she said, misery on her face.
“You need to move,” he said again.
“Damn it, Zach!” She stared at him, tears glinting in her eyes.
Part of him wanted to feel bad for her, but he just couldn’t care that much right then. “Stop,” he said quietly. “I don’t want the poor Keelie routine. I don’t give a flying fuck that you didn’t know she was there—it doesn’t matter. You know I’m dating her and you know I’m serious about her. Serious . . .” he trailed off, shaking his head.
Abruptly, he started to laugh, although there wasn’t anything at all humorous about this. Not a damn thing was funny. But just then, he felt like if he didn’t laugh, he just might lose it.
“Serious,” he said again. “Yeah. I’m serious about her.”
Saying he was serious about Abby was kind of like calling Arizona hot in the dead of summer. Slanting a dark look at Keelie, he said softly, “I love her, damn it. She’s my world. What the fuck possessed you to pull something like that?”
“What possessed me?” she asked, staring at him. Then she sighed and shook her head. “The same thing that possesses you to chase after the same woman for seventeen years. I love you.”
I love you.
Those words didn’t want to come together in his head. Oh, he knew what they meant, but coming from Keelie? Swearing, he shoved the heels of his hands against his eye sockets. “What the hell . . .”
“Yeah. What the hell. That pretty much describes all of this pretty damn well, Zach.”
He lowered his hands to stare at her but she wasn’t looking at him. She started to pace, her long legs scissoring as she stalked across his office, her head bent, eyes on the floor. “You wanted to know why and there you go. And now, maybe I get it. Because you’re looking at me like I’m crazy. I’ve loved you for years. And you didn’t know, did you?”
“No. Look . . .” He blew out a breath, trying to think past the haze of anger. But he just couldn’t. Not then. “I’m sorry, Keelie. I can’t talk about this right now, but it . . . it wouldn’t ever work and you know it. Even if she walks away from me and never speaks to me again, I’ll never . . . well. You’re a friend, but that’s it.”
“I always thought . . .” She licked her lips and shook her head. “Part of me thought you knew and just pretended otherwise because you didn’t want to embarrass me. Okay. I guess maybe sometimes people don’t know.” She flicked him another look and moved out of the doorway. “I’m sorry, Zach.”
“I’m not the one who just had my heart ripped out,” he said quietly.
He headed down the hallway, his mind already intent on finding Abby, on what he would say to her, on what he could say.
It didn’t matter that he hadn’t been kissing Keelie, that he hadn’t been putting the moves on her or anything.
What mattered was that Abby had been hurt and he had to fix it.
Behind him, Keelie moved to stare after him. As he disappeared through the door, she rubbed the heel of her hand over her chest and sighed.
“No,” she said, even though she was talking to thin air. He wasn’t the one who had just had his heart ripped out. She had to agree there. That pleasure belonged to Abby . . . and herself.
But in the end, her heart was a problem of her own making. Something she’d have to deal with.
She hadn’t been very fair to Abby, she decided. She had to find a way