Edie sighed into the phone. A heavy gesture meant to make Karen notice. “I love you.”
“Love you too, Auntie. Big kiss to that studly husband of yours.”
That got the laugh out of her aunt that she loved to hear.
Zach stood outside leaning over the car. He’d combed his hair back and changed his shirt. The black button-up linen gave him a mysterious edge and made him look like he belonged on the back of his motorcycle or in the driver’s seat of the McLaren. She allowed herself one brief glance at his backside as he bent over the car. His sex appeal was effortless. She wondered if he knew how much. Michael wore his like a badge, but with Zach, he didn’t seem to notice.
Ignoring the way her skin heated, she removed her eyes from the package known as Zach, and asked, “Are you ready?”
He twisted around. His gaze traveled her body and then rested on her eyes with a soft, approving smile. “Are you?”
“How hard can it be?”
“Have you driven a manual transmission before?”
“Learned on my uncle’s Jeep when I was sixteen.” She glanced at the floor of the driver’s seat. “Where’s the clutch?” She looked for the lever to change gears. “You sure this is a manual transmission?”
Zach warmed her with a laugh. “It’s all on the steering wheel.”
She peered closer. “Seriously?”
There were levers on the wheel and many other buttons that she didn’t recognize. “I tell you what. You drive her first, and I’ll watch.”
Zach lifted his eyebrows. “Don’t have to ask me twice.”
The childlike look of joy on his face stuck as he rounded the car and opened the door for her.
“Damn, the doors don’t even open like a normal car.”
“This isn’t a normal car.”
“Tell me about it.”
Settling into the low seat was much like sitting on the ground. Only this ground moved.
Zach’s grin grew as he wrapped his long fingers around the steering wheel.
“I take it you haven’t driven it yet.”
“Mike did the driving.” With a press of the button, the car fired to life. The raw power of the engine felt like she was sitting on a live rocket ready to catapult into space. “Ready?”
Someone had moved the Escalade while she showered, giving enough room behind the car to back up. Zach pressed another button to put the car in reverse. His hands maneuvered the levers at the steering wheel as if he drove the car every day. Instead of watching his hands, she watched the driver. Joy radiated off him in waves.
She directed him away from the house and off the main streets. “Traffic is heavy until we get out of the city.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“Let’s go up Pacific Coast Highway. Eventually it clears out. Then I’ll try to drive it.”
“It’s not hard,” he told her. “You press on the right shifter to accelerate, the left to shift down.”
She leaned over the center console. “No clutch?”
“None. It’s a dual clutch system.”
She waved a hand in the air. “I just need to know how it works up here.” The tachometer revved past five thousand rpm before Zach shifted. He brought the speed down just as easily when they came to a stop sign. Karen didn’t realize how far in she leaned until the spicy scent of the driver wove its way into her system. She sucked in her lower lip and tried to act unaffected as she sat straight on her side of the car.
“It’s a sexy car,” Zach said as he eased into traffic.
“Yeah, sexy.” Oh, this wasn’t good. She couldn’t ignore the tingling, his scent, let alone what this man was doing to her system.
“Are you really going to make him take it back?”
Oh, good, a safe subject without the word sexy in it. “I don’t make Michael do anything.”
“Then what was all that talk about putting down his cell phone when he comes home to Utah?”
She sighed. “He needs a break. He won’t get that if Tony keeps calling and setting up the next thing.”
Zach seemed to chew on that for a moment. “You really do look out for him.”
“Isn’t that what friends do?” She glanced out the window, noticed the stares and pointing fingers. She pushed her sunglasses higher on her face and pretended not to notice the attention the car was getting them.
“And wives?”
“What? Oh, yeah…take the next right.”
He moved the car over and kept talking. “You’re really not interested in keeping it, are you?”
She shook her head. “He’d be better off giving it to you. You’ll appreciate it more than I would.”
“Driving this is right up there with sex,” he said with a laugh.
She groaned. She wouldn’t know. She’d yet to drive the car, and Lord knew it had been ages since she’d engaged in anything sexual outside of a battery-operated toy.
“Like I said, you’d enjoy it more than me.” Is it warm in here? She fiddled with the controls and lowered the air conditioner temperature.
“So, if cars aren’t your thing…what is?”
Good question. “I’m not completely sure.”
“Travel?”
She shrugged. “I’d like to see the world, but if I didn’t it wouldn’t be the end of my life.”
“Big house, fame?”
“You’re describing your brother. Not me.”
“You don’t like the stares?” He looked up at a car with a cell phone hanging out the window as the passerby took a picture.
“I’ve gotten used to them.”
“But you don’t like ’em?”
“It’s hard living life in a fishbowl.” She pointed toward the highway. “Go north.”
For several miles, they inched through traffic and red lights before the road opened up.
“Mike told me money didn’t mean anything to you.”
She glanced his way, noticed his frown. “He told you that?”
“Said you signed a prenup.”
“Oh?” Why would Michael give that information to his brother? What else had he told him? “I’m not interested in your brother’s money.” Well, not all of it anyway. Just the contracted amount set aside in their agreement.
“And as his friend, you want to see him slow down.”
She had said that, hadn’t she? “The best relationships start off as friendships. I will always consider Michael my friend first. It’s hard to find friends when you’re as loaded as he is. People flock to his side, but he can’t always tell who to trust. That’s where family comes in.”
Zach looked back at the road. “He’s ignored his family for a while now.”
“Which is precisely why I think it would do him some good to reconnect. Underneath his monstrous ego he has a need for someone to not take his shit.”
“Like giving expensive cars to people who don’t want them?”
“Right. I don’t know one person in his circle that says no to him. Ever. Family doesn’t work that way. They remember your lowest moments, your most comical, and they remind you that you’re human.”
Zach pushed the gas on a long stretch with a grin. “He’s lucky to have you.”
Yeah, he is.
“What about your family?”
“Oh, I only have my Aunt Edie and her new husband, Stanley.”
“No siblings?”
“Nope.” Thank God.
“So who keeps you grounded?”
She thought about that for a while. “I do.” It was hard to keep the sadness from her voice.
Mike was right. Karen was a good driver, and as much as she might not admit to liking the car the smile on her face proved she wasn’t unaffected by the raw power of the machine. They’d found a place to turn around several miles up the coast where Karen took over the controls. By the time they’d made it back toward civilization, they were both hungry and she was pulling into the valet parking lot of a restaurant.
The kid who opened the
door for Karen had wide eyes and was practically salivating when she handed him the keys.
Zach narrowed his eyes at him. “You know how to drive this car?”
“Yes, sir. They come in here all the time.”
“It’s Malibu, Zach,” Karen reminded him.
They were seated in a booth in the back of the posh restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean. “I’m starving,” Karen admitted when she dug into the bread basket before the waiter approached them to take a drink order.
“Me, too.”
“So, when will you be going home?” she asked.
“Ready to get rid of me?”
She popped a piece of bread into her mouth and chewed. “No. But my guess is you have what you came for.”
“Oh, what’s that?”
“Recon mission. You’re here to find out about me.”
Busted. He looked away.
“Was I that obvious?”
“Let’s see…you’ve asked me about my family, about my lifestyle. You’ve quizzed Michael on his marriage. So, yeah…you weren’t subtle.”
“Couldn’t have been simple curiosity?”
“Was it?”
He sat back in the plush seat and stared across the table. “Some. But you’re right. Hannah had seen some piece on you and Michael about having a Hollywood-style anniversary party and our mom was pissed.”
“And you, being the good son, decided to come here and find out for yourself what was going on.”
“You could say that.”
“Have you always been the good son?”
Ever since he’d come home from college. His father didn’t see the need for a higher education, but his mom insisted that all of the kids had a chance to experience life outside of Hilton. Rena was the only one who never left. And Hannah, of course, but she was still a year away from finishing high school. “My parents can’t complain about me.”
“But do they?”
What was with this woman and her ability to draw out answers where she shouldn’t?
The waiter arrived with their drink order and told them about the specials.
Zach kept talking. “I’m sure Mike has told you that our dad isn’t an easy man. He expected us to both go into business with him.”
“Michael said something about that. Did you ever feel trapped by your father’s expectations?”
“I like construction. I’ve built a good life in Hilton.”
She sipped her wine and gave a coy smile. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“So who’s on a recon mission now, Ms. Jones?”
The tractor beams of her eyes shifted away. “It’s none of my business.”
The waiter returned and took their order. For a petite woman, she ordered food like a lumberjack. A thick steak, baked potato with all the trimmings with a salad, and more bread, thank you very much. Zach told the waiter to double the order.
They kept talking as if their conversation had never been interrupted. “When Mike didn’t come home, I knew it would be up to me to keep the family business going. Eventually our father will retire and need one of us to take over.”
“Did you ever resent Michael for not coming back?”
His answer was instant. “No. Deep down I knew he’d stay in LA. It’s hard to keep kids from leaving small towns when they’re old enough to move on.”
“Unless family is holding them back.”
“Right.”
“Then you have the kids that escape to the city, only to find it unyielding and ready to exploit them.” Her voice grew soft and he was once again drawn to her. Damn but she was beautiful. With a few more inches of height, she could easily be one of those fancy models. Most blondes he’d met had soft blue eyes, but hers had a metallic quality that sucked you in.
“Sounds like you have experience with that.”
“Th-The kids at the club come from different walks of life,” she said with a stutter. “I hear all their stories.”
“They seemed well adjusted.”
“They’re good kids.”
There was a look in her eyes that bordered on sorrow. He wanted to dig, but didn’t. “So why do they call you Ms. Jones?”
She sipped her wine again. “What would you have them call me? The good people of Hilton might know Michael as Mike Gardner, but taking that name would have meant nothing here. And you know Wolfe is a stage name.”
“So you kept yours.”
“It’s just a name.”
A generic name, he decided.
“I’ll answer to Mrs. Wolfe and try not to correct anyone in Hilton if they call me Mrs. Gardner.”
“That sounds like my mom.”
She laughed and something behind him caught her eye.
“What is it?” He started to twist around and she shot her hand out over his.
“No, don’t.”
“Why?” Now he really wanted to know what was going on behind his back.
“Someone caught sight of us. They probably think you’re Michael. If you look, they’ll come over and ask for an autograph or something.”
Zach felt the weight of someone’s stare. “We don’t look that much alike.”
Karen stared at him now, as if analyzing his features, and slipped her hand away. “You can certainly tell you’re related. But you’re right. You’re not identical.”
“I’m the better looking one,” he said with a grin and a wink.
She tossed her head back with laughter. “Oh, good Lord, two mountain-sized egos. No wonder Michael left Hilton, there wasn’t enough room for the both of you.”
“Yep, good thing.” Their conversation bordered on flirtation, but he couldn’t seem to stop it.
“So am I in trouble when I get there? Does your family hate me on principle?”
He couldn’t dispel all her fears, but he could see it was important to her to know she’d be welcome. “I’ll soften the blow.”
She took a longer drink of her wine. “Oh, great.”
“My dad will watch you and say very little. Hannah will talk your ear off. My mom will hold back for a little while, but my guess is you’ll have her thinking you’re a saint in no time.”
“I’m not a saint.”
He wasn’t so sure. Something wasn’t completely up front about Karen, but she certainly wasn’t hell-bound.
“What about your other sisters?”
“Judy’s been at school most of the year. Chances are she won’t even realize you’ve not met until you show up. And Rena is busy with her own kids. Though she is curious.”
Zach filled her in on a few stories that helped define the family throughout their meal. When the waiter offered another drink, Karen suggested he drive home when she ordered another glass of wine.
Maybe it was because Karen was family by default, but Zach’s level of comfort in Karen’s presence was as if they’d known each other for much longer than a handful of hours.
On the drive back home, he asked how she came to know the first lady of the state.
“I worked in administration at a place called Moonlight Villas right out of college. Samantha, you met her last night—well, her sister was in the care facility for years. Samantha and I became friends, and eventually I met Eliza.”
“Did you work at Moonlight Villas when you met Michael?”
“No. I worked for Samantha with her company. Samantha and Eliza are best friends. They’ve known each other for some time. Before either of them married.”
“Of all the people at the party last night, your friends seemed the most sincere.” They were the only ones he noticed helping Karen with anything throughout the night. None of Michael’s friends did that from what Zach had seen.
“I really am blessed to have such great friends.”
He pulled into the driveway of the house, noticed a lack of cars. “Michael’s not home?”
“I’d be surprised if we saw him at all. Producers are night owls and they expect many of the actors in their films to be as well.”
<
br /> He cut the engine. “The streets roll up at dusk in Hilton. Fair warning.”
She played with the handle of the door, trying to figure out how to open it.
Karen was laughing at herself when he jumped out to get it from the outside.
“Why can’t they make the doors normal? Everything else is over the top as it is.”
He pulled it open for her and stood back for her to get out.
“It forces chivalry,” she said.
He laughed. “Must have been made by a woman.”
She shut the door and turned toward the house only to find her sweater closed inside. “Oh, man.”
Laughing, he leaned over to grasp the handle at the same time she did. Their fingers touched and both of them stopped laughing.
The peach scent of the shampoo she used hit him first, and then the silver fleck of her blue eyes sparkled as she looked up at him.
There it was again, the chemistry he’d been denying since he met her bounced between them like fireflies. He heard her suck in a breath as her eyes drifted to his lips. The heat of her body, close to his, brought awareness of his desire for her over him like a tidal wave. He fisted his hands, and realized that he’d caught hold of her arm. For one brief second she swayed into him and she lifted her face toward his.
Then she twisted away, and the moment was gone.
Zach jumped back, shocked at what had nearly happened between them.
Acting as if nothing had transpired, he opened the door with more force than necessary and freed her sweater.
She mumbled a quick thanks, and fled.
Karen stumbled into her room, shaking. She’d run like a frightened child, and like a teenager, she had no intention of facing Zach again. Not without interference. She’d nearly kissed him. Could feel the weight of his lips against hers with only a thought.
What the hell is wrong with me?
Her head told her not to be attracted to Zach, but her body had other thoughts.
She could only imagine what must be going through his head about her. What wife kisses, or almost kisses, her husband’s brother?
“You’re a fool, Karen.”
There wasn’t protocol on how to deal with the situation now. There was no way she could avoid visiting Zach’s family. Not without causing serious issues for Michael, and she couldn’t tell Michael about her attraction to his brother. Damn, even though their marriage was as fake as most of the breasts in Hollywood, chances were Michael would feel betrayed by his brother…and by her.
The Weekday Brides 04 - Single by Saturday Page 5