She smiled when she saw him and he smiled back, but Operation Fix Evie’s Fucked-Up Do was underway before they could greet each other properly.
They sat Evie down at one of the island chairs.
“I mean, they just cut right into her sew-in,” Corie said. “I know those bundles weren’t cheap.”
“How are you feeling about your hair?” Miss Leona asked, pity dripping off her every word.
“Not great.”
“Here’s what I was thinking,” Lilah chimed in with her sweet, low voice. She pressed her phone screen a few times, then handed it to Evie. “Considering where your bandage is, this would look super cute with the shape of your face and with your glasses.” Evie looked at the pixie-cut style with the model’s thick natural curls piled on top of her head, swooping forward. It would be a drastic change, but she liked it a lot. Zach came around the counter and looked at the photo over Evie’s shoulder. Her body instantly warmed as his hand brushed hers.
“I like it.”
Corie sucked her teeth. “Ain’t no one care what you think.”
“My bad. Let me just go sit down over here.” Zach sat down on the couch and made a dramatic show of opening up the newspaper.
“I have to ask my agent, Nicole, first. If I end up going back to work, I don’t want to get in trouble for changing my look.”
“Go ahead and ask her, baby. I say do it. If they don’t like it, I’ll send you a whole line of wigs,” Miss Leona said. “But if it’ll bring you peace of mind, run it by your agent first.”
“Here.” Evie’s phone chimed as Lilah sent the picture over. Evie immediately sent it to Nicole in a text. Thinking of this haircut. Will this get me in trouble with the producers at The Dish?
“Let’s see what she says.” Evie settled in to wait for Nicole’s response, but before she could lock her phone, Nicole replied. First off, I freaking love it. Second, the producers will be fine with it. And if they aren’t I’ll tell them they can spin it as part of your recovery story. Win, win for everyone.
“She said yes.”
“Great,” Vega said with smile.
“Zachariah, call your barber and tell him you’ll pay him extra for a house call,” Miss Leona called across the room.
“Yes, ma’am,” Zach said. Evie could see his thumbs-up sticking up over the edge of the counter. It was nice to see him again, but with the full house—Vega was great so far, but they’d hadn’t reduced their number of live-in nurses—she was starting to wonder if she’d ever be alone with Zach again.
Chapter 10
Zach moved the porch swing with the toe of his boot, then put his foot back on the patio. He knew Miss Leona’s rules applied to no feet on the outdoor furniture too. Zach should have known better than to think he was going to get a minute alone with Evie when he returned to Miss Leona’s that night. He walked right into another girls’ gab session, and before they could kick him out his uncle Gerald called. All things considered, he knew it was best to take the call outside. Poppy joined him, picking her way around the yard in the moonlight.
“I know expansion is possible, but I worried about the acreage—”
“And then the insurance,” Zach said. Zach knew his cousins were struggling with their decision to walk away from their father’s vineyard. He didn’t envy them at all.
“Mm-hmm. I’m trying to give Thomas and Micah more time to get their business off the ground, on their own terms, but sometimes I wish they’d just take the damn check.”
“Listen, Jesse and I took the damn check. Took the whole damn ranch. Doesn’t make it any easier.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ve been in my boys’ shoes. I took Mom’s investment but I did things my way. Senior had Big Rock handed to him and it had always been his plan to hand it off to you boys.”
“And don’t think we’re not doing things our way. When we took over—you remember Ned?” The former GM of the ranch thought he was going to convince Miss Leona to sell Big Rock to him while Jesse and Zach were finishing up graduate school, but things didn’t go Ned’s way.
“I remember him.”
“Ned was pretty pissed when Jesse showed him the books this summer. He thought we were going to follow his business plan into the sun, but he didn’t understand just how good Jesse is at what he does.”
“Didn’t expect Mumbles to outshine him.”
“Don’t call him that.” Zach tried not to laugh. Jesse had been over six feet since he was twelve, but his personality took a long time to catch up to his size. He was still quiet, mostly. But he wasn’t shy and he wouldn’t hesitate to fuck someone up.
“You know I’m joking. Jesse’s a good kid.”
“And Ned underestimated him. We had the amenities and the accommodations, but we were understaffed.”
“I remember. You’re not supposed to penny pinch and cut corners at a place like Big Rock.”
“Exactly. Jess had the financial vision for it and it’s paying off.”
“I need him to talk to Thomas. Maybe he can help them give Pleasant Brothers Construction the jumpstart they need. I’m glad you boys are holding it down.”
“Me too. I’m not going back out on the circuit for cash. My body can’t take it anymore.”
“You’re young. You can handle it.”
“Yeah, tell my knees that. I did a simple dismount for some guests two weeks ago. Stood still, cheesing like a damn asshole until Felix got their attention so I could hobble away. My knee said yeeet!”
Uncle Gerald laughed, then abruptly cleared his throat. Zach knew what was coming. “How’s my baby girl?”
“She’s fine.” Zach looked back in the window and could see Lilah showing Evie something on her phone. He almost mentioned Evie to his uncle, but thought better of it. “She’s doing a great job. She’s definitely getting a raise next quarter.”
“Do you think she’ll speak to me this time?”
“We can give it a try. Hold on one second.” Zach opened the French doors and stepped back inside the kitchen. “Hey Li, you want to talk to your dad?”
“No.” She didn’t bother looking up. “Thank you.”
“Alright then.” Zach stepped back out onto the patio and closed the door.
“She say no?”
“Yeah. Sorry, Unc.”
“It’s okay. I’m fine since I know she’s with you. Her mother cussed me out ’cause we had all our kids here except her. I wish I knew how to parent girls. Better.”
“Well, step one, don’t try to marry them off.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Zach loved his aunt and uncle, but they were a little too old-school when it came to Lilah. He remembered the odd text she’d sent him in the middle of the night, asking him for the codes to the front gate. She’d taken the bus from her parents’ house in Napa down to Charming. He’d been up the rest of the night with her and Miss Leona when they finally pieced together why she had literally up and run away from home. Neither of them could blame her.
That was almost two years ago. She’d been living with them in Charming ever since. She kept in touch with her mom over email, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak to her dad. Zach knew he had to stay out of it. Especially when he and Jesse weren’t all that far removed from their issues with their own father when it came to their lives and their family business.
“Just give her some more time. She’ll forgive you eventually.”
“Yeah. I hope so. Give Miss Leona a big kiss and a hug for me, and if you can try to convince Lilah to call her mother. She can be mad at me, but Denise misses her girl.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Zach talked to his uncle for a few more minutes before they called it a night. He stood out on the patio a while longer, enjoying the cool winter evening. The temperature dropped in Charming the moment the sun went down, and though his brothers probably wouldn’t believe him, he enjoyed these quiet moments at the end of the day, especially during Big Rock’s busy seasons.
; He’d been up at the ranch since dawn, catching up on all the things he’d missed while they’d been in New York. They had a wonderful crew over at Big Rock. He trusted all his operations leads to make sure things ran smoothly day in and day out, but he was also pretty hands-on. Not because he wanted to micromanage, but because he loved the ranch.
Zach loved catching the look on a guest’s face when they first stepped out of the shuttle cars in front of Big Rock Lodge. He loved the look on a child’s face when they saw their first real horse up close and in person. He loved seeing a pissed-off teenager go from “Fuck this family vacation” to “Mom, watch me ride!” He’d seen his friends and even his cousins struggle with what adulthood held for them, but Zach was lucky. He was exactly where he needed to be.
And suddenly, in the last few days, it didn’t feel like enough. Something inside him had been uncovered. The feelings he had for Evie, feelings he’d been denying his whole life, had come to the surface and there was nothing he could do to ignore them.
He turned his phone over in his hand and thought about how neither he or Jesse had mentioned Evie all day. It was fine with him. He wasn’t in the mood for more of Jesse’s lectures, but his grandmother’s words still bounced around in his mind.
Zach needed to be more honest with himself when he thought about Evie and how badly he wanted to be with her. He wanted to see her, yeah, but he wanted to spend actual time with her, alone. He wasn’t trying to make a move, he just wanted to be with her, talk, relax, get to know her as she was now. And he wanted to see how he could help her, see what she needed without Jesse or a doctor or even her agent, hovering.
But for now, he would definitely have to wait. He whistled for Poppy, then followed her back inside and sat down beside his grandmother on the loveseat. She was enjoying her nightly viewing of Jeopardy. He hung tight, messing around on his phone through the rest of the episode. Through an episode of the Wheel and two reruns of Rory’s War. He sat quietly by, listening to Corie and Lilah attempt to catch Evie up on all the seasons following Rory’s career at Mercy General Hospital.
Vega sat on the other side of the room, knitting, but even she had her opinions on Rory’s terrible choice in men. As the commercial breaks dragged on, Zach felt like he’d entered into some battle of wills between himself, Corie, and Vega. His grandmother went to bed at the same time every night. He could tell Lilah to beat it, and while Corie would eventually take a hint, Zach knew she’d give him an earful-and-a-half about how it was perfectly fine for him to go back over to his own house.
When the second episode of Rory’s War ended, Miss Leona stood, groaning loud as she tried to cover a yawn. “I’m gonna watch the news in my room. Goodnight, my beautiful babies.” She kissed Zach on the cheek, then made her way around the room saying her warm goodnights, with Sugar Plum tight on her heels. She even had a kiss on the forehead for Vega. “You need anything, and Corie will get it for you.”
“Thank you, Ms. Lovell.”
A few minutes later Zach saw Lilah listing a bit to the left. She caught herself before her head hit the arm of the couch. Her eyes sprang open. “Goodness. I should go to bed too. Do you need me tomorrow?” she asked in her soft voice.
“Nope, we said you’re off until January fifth and we meant it.”
“I know. I just know Jesse could use my help.”
“No, he’ll use you because you keep showing up. Take your days off. We’ll have plenty for you to do when we get back.”
“Okay, goodnight.”
Zach wanted to ask her one more time to call her parents, but he’d do it when they were alone. He knew Lilah would talk to him about it, but she wouldn’t want to open up in front of Vega or Evie.
And then there were four. Zach turned and looked Corie dead in the eye. She looked back at him and slowly shook her head. Zach’s eyes widened and he slowly nodded. Evie was sitting on the other end of the same couch and he knew she could see the ridiculous stare-down playing out between them, but he didn’t care. Finally Corie hopped off the couch and reached down for her shoes.
“Fifty dollars in my Cash App and not a penny less.”
“Done.”
“Nice doing business with you, chump,” she said with a bright smile. “Night, Evie. Night, Vega.”
Zach wasn’t going to ask Vega to give them a minute, but something told him she wasn’t going to drag this out. Sure enough, at the next commercial break, Vega packed up her knitting. “Evie, darling, I’m calling it a night. Don’t stay up too late?”
“I won’t. I’m going to head to bed soon.”
“Good. Mr. Pleasant,” she said with a little smirk and a nod.
“Nurse Vega.”
Finally. At long last they were alone. Sort of. Poppy and Euca were passed out at Evie’s feet. Poppy was down for the count, but Euca cracked an eye open and watched Zach get up from the loveseat and join Evie on the couch.
“Hi,” Evie said.
“Hey.”
“She’s right. I shouldn’t stay up too late. It’s been a long day.”
“You’re right. I have to work in the morning,” he said, but neither of them moved. Zach couldn’t believe how badly he wanted touch her, how badly he wanted to hold her. He watched the emotions playing over her face as she looked down and started playing with the edge of her sweater. “Come on. I’ll walk you to your room.”
Zach stood and turned off the television before he turned and helped Evie up from the couch.
“I saw all of your trophies. I wandered down to the other TV room,” Evie said as they walked down the hall. When he looked down he realized she was nodding to all the family photos and accolades that lined the walls. His grandmother had only mounted a fraction of them.
“Yeah, we’re a—we’re a busy family.”
“An accomplished family.”
“If you only went down to the den you didn’t see Miss Leona’s awards. You’ll have to ask her to show you her office. She has two Oscars in there. It’s pretty impressive. But hey, the Buchanan legacy isn’t too shabby either. Your grandpa was a rodeo champ and your grandmother could ride a horse while doing a headstand blindfolded. She had plenty of trophies under her belt. Taught me, Sam, and our dad everything we know. You aren’t doing too bad for yourself either.”
“Yeah,” she replied, unconvinced.
When they stopped at her bedroom door, something in the air between them shifted.
“You owe me an apology for what happened between us when my grandmother died. Or maybe even before,” she said suddenly. “Did you apologize before? At any point before my accident?”
Zach managed to fight off his initial reaction when it came to Evie: shock, which he would have usually downplayed, but he couldn’t do that now. Not this time. No jokes, no turning on the charm. No bullshit. He scratched the back of his head, then let out a deep breath.
“In my mind I did, a thousand times. Five hundred of them this week alone, but no, I didn’t apologize to you and I didn’t apologize when I should have. I’m sorry, Evie. I was a dumb kid who didn’t know what to do or what to say at the worst time of your life and I hurt you. I’ll never stop wishing I could take it back. And I’m sorry that I never tried to make things right before now.”
“I wasn’t expecting you to say that.”
“Yeah, I figured as much, but it’s true.”
“Everyone seems to think that you’re trying to sleep with me,” she said, shocking him again.
“Is that what you think?”
“No. I think you—actually I’m not sure what you want.”
“I want you back in my life,” Zach admitted finally. “Not sure how that’s all going to work out, but a wise woman by the name of Leona Lovell told me that I shouldn’t rush things and maybe I should give you some space.”
“Hmm.”
“Do you know what you want?” he asked, quietly. It was struggle not to reach out and touch her.
“I don’t want to rush things either, but I don’t t
hink I want space.”
“Oh? Alright.” Zach tried not to sound too excited.
“But I’m not sure if I can trust you.”
“Fair enough. Trust has to be earned. I just want to spend time with you.”
“You were in my dreams again last night. And this time we kissed,” Evie admitted.
“Oh word?” He couldn’t help smiling this time. It was all he could do to cover up the fact that most of the blood in his body was now rushing to his dick. “Was it any good?”
“I’m not saying. It was a dream, so that part doesn’t matter.”
Zach laughed. “Okay, then.”
“Blaire told me I should ask you about reverse cowgirl?”
Zach almost choked. “That’s an interesting suggestion from Blaire.”
“I think she was joking about asking you, but she did tell me to look it up.”
“How about we look it up together. Here.” Zach moved against the wall and sank toward the floor. Evie followed. They sat side by side on the painted tile as Zach pulled up the browser on his phone. The words Sex position #150 were the first thing to pop up. “We will skip right over videos because I don’t need to traumatize you right now.” He clicked on the images tab and the results weren’t much better. He scrolled past several awful memes before he got a pretty standard illustration. He clicked on it and handed Evie his phone. “There you go.”
“I don’t know why I didn’t picture this. It’s pretty self-explanatory. Do you like this position?”
Yeah, like Zach was answering that. “I mean, I don’t think it would work between me and you.”
Evie looked up at him, hurt in her eyes. “Why?”
“Because if you and I end up that kind of naked, I want to be able to see your beautiful face.”
“I don’t have your phone number,” Evie said, her voice sounding a little shaky.
A Cowboy to Remember Page 11