Look, I’ll call her. Hopefully she can at least let me know she’s fine. You’ll feel better and maybe you can get some sleep and figure out where to go from here.”
“Yeah. Okay.” He continued to stare down the street, hoping against hope. Waiting. And watching. The car still didn’t appear and the street stayed dark and the night stayed quiet. “Will you tell her . . .”
“No.” Zane’s voice was flat and firm. “Whatever you have to say to her, it needs to come from you. Look, I don’t know what’s happening with the two of you, but I saw how she was looking at you at the party. There’s something growing there and Abby isn’t an idiot. Let her cool down and then you talk to her, okay?”
Chapter Nineteen
The bed was a brick.
A bouncy brick.
And the newly married couple in the room next to hers was putting their bouncy brick to good use. Despite the pillow over her head, she could still hear the squeals and the grunts.
Her phone started to ring. Nickelback’s “Photograph.” Zane. Okay, if there was anyone other than Zach that she’d just like to avoid talking to? Zane was it.
She groaned and hugged the pillow harder as she tried to block out any and all noise. A few seconds later, the phone stopped ringing. But the banging, the squealing, and groaning continued.
After another five minutes, it eased up and she huffed out a sigh, pulling off the pillow and dropping it down on the bed. She reached for her phone and glared at it. Zach was now getting his brothers to start pestering her?
She’d ignored the numerous texts while she thought everything through and now Zane was calling her?
The little green bubble popped up on her screen. From Zane.
“Calling me and texting me,” she muttered. “Wonderful.”
Z’s worried. If you’re too pissed to talk to him, that’s fine. But spare us both the headache and just let me know you’re okay.
She continued to glare at the message for another thirty seconds.
Before she decided whether to turn the phone off, another message came through.
He just wants to know you’re okay, Abby. He’s pacing out in front of your house and he’ll stay there until he knows or the cops show up to drag him away. Come on. Please?
She groaned and tapped out a message. And it had nothing to do with the fact that she didn’t like to think about him pacing in front of her house when she was a good two hours away. I’m fine. Tell the jerk I’ll come home when I’m done being pissed.
Zane’s response was almost immediate. Will do. But he’ll probably show up at your work in a day or two.
She stuck her tongue out at the phone. Fat lot of good it would do. She’d cut back on her workload for the next few months because she’d expected to be busy planning for her wedding. Yeah, well, he’ll be wasting his time. I’m not needed in until Wednesday.
Then, with a sigh, she flopped back on the bouncy brick bed and stared up at the ceiling. It was finally quiet. She could think. She’d been walking into Zach’s office.
Keelie had been rising up on her toes. Zach had his hands on her wrists. Had he bent down? Her heart wrenched a little as she thought about somebody else having that mouth on theirs—
“Stop it.”
No. Zach hadn’t bent down. He’d just been standing there. Just standing.
And Keelie had been up on her toes.
So maybe Keelie had been the one kissing him. Bits and pieces of the puzzle started to line up as she thought it through. Keelie didn’t like her. She didn’t think Keelie had ever really liked her. And she already knew that the other woman had a thing for Zach.
And Zach . . . her throat knotted up as she thought back. Zach, always there. Always watching her. The look on his face when she told him she was getting married.
He’d watched her, so closely.
His voice had skipped a little when he asked her if she was sure that was what she wanted.
Then it had been steady as the sun when he told her if she was happy, then he’d be happy for her.
Zach . . . always there.
I’m thirty-two years old. I’ve been in love.
Absently, she reached up and brushed her fingers across the brightly colored blossoms he’d painted across her skin.
Who was she, Zach?
People come and go all the time. But there’s only been one woman who