She thought about pounding her head against the wall, if only to experience the relief when she stopped, but how would she explain the bruising?
Obviously her little crush on Zach had become something more when she hadn’t been looking. While she knew she wasn’t in love with him, she was willing to admit to some slight…infatuation.
It was the naked thing. If she hadn’t had sex with him, she would be fine. She drew in a deep breath. Okay. She’d learned her lesson. She was a mature, adult woman who empowered herself and her life and…was there any ice cream left?
Rather than risk the last pint of fudge brownie, she made her way to the bedroom and glanced at her tennis shoes tucked in a corner. Maybe she should go to the gym. A fast-paced aerobics class or some strength training would give her a strong moral backbone, not to mention acting as a counterbalance to all those ice-cream calories she’d consumed. Of course, she didn’t actually have a gym membership. Maybe she could join a gym. Or clean out her closet. That always comforted her. There was something about perfect orderliness that made her life seem complete.
Rather than face actual sweat at a gym, she moved toward her closet, only to have someone ring her doorbell. She glanced at her watch and frowned. It was seven in the evening, midweek. To the best of her knowledge, her family members were all accounted for. So who would come calling?
The answer to that question stepped across her threshold when she opened the door. He was tall, dark, and very dangerous. He also made her palms sweat, her breath quicken, and her hormones begin a quick salsa step through her midsection.
“Zach,” she said unnecessarily, because it wasn’t as if they both didn’t know who he was. But she couldn’t think of anything better to mutter. Not when she was still stinging from his dismissal earlier in the week.
He leaned against the wall, looking both appealing and far too good-looking for her mental health.
“I figured one of us had to be mature, and I got tired of waiting for it to be you,” he said.
“What?” Outrage pushed aside confusion. “When was I not mature?”
“When you ducked out the morning after. No note, nothing. A guy would think you were just using him for sex.”
She genuinely didn’t know what to say. “If I was, it would serve you right. How many times have you just walked away in the past?”
He shrugged. “Every time. It’s what I do. But we’re not here to talk about me.”
“Why not? It’s your favorite topic.”
He raised his eyebrows. “You have a temper.”
“I called and you blew me off.”
“You called about the party and that’s what we talked about.”
Good point. “Yeah, well, if you’d taken fifteen seconds to listen, I might have gotten to something else.”
“I’m in trouble for not reading your mind?”
She ground her teeth together. “Why exactly are you here?”
The corners of his mouth twitched. “I thought I’d let you apologize for leaving so rudely.”
She couldn’t believe it. “I…You…But you…” She glared at him. “If I thought I could get away with it, I’d strangle you right here.”
“No, you wouldn’t. Because I’m sorry, too.”
“Too?”
“Sure. I’m accepting your apology. That’s the kind of guy I am.”
She hadn’t apologized. At least she didn’t think she had. Her head was starting to spin and she couldn’t be sure of anything.
She led the way to the living room and sat on her floral-print sofa, then waited until he took the club chair opposite. Her thoughts slowly collected and organized. “I should have left a note,” she said cautiously.
“Agreed,” he said with just enough cheer to make her hair hurt. “And I…” His voice trailed off and his humor faded. “I’m sorry about the phone call. I had some things on my mind. David mostly.”
She instantly went on alert. “What happened?”
“We had a fight. He stalked out of the house and I haven’t been able to talk to him since. When you called, I was caught up in a hellish divorce case and worrying about him.”
That she could understand. Zach was the kind of father who worried.
“Okay. We’ve both apologized,” she said. “Want me to open a bottle of Marcelli private reserve as a peace offering?”
“That sounds great.”
She rose and started toward the kitchen. “Are you hungry?” she asked before she could stop herself. Dear God, she was turning into her grandmothers.
“No.”
She collected a bottle of Marcelli Cabernet, an opener, and two glasses, then returned to the living room.
Zach had settled back in the seat, looking male and completely out of place in a house of floral prints, candles, and too many pillows. He half rose when she entered the room. She waved him back to his seat.
“Here, I’ll let you wrestle with the cork,” she said, handing him the bottle.
He studied the label. “Must be nice to have an in with the owner.”
“A family perk.”
While he opened the wine, she seated herself across from him. He poured, then handed her a glass, took one for himself, and held it out toward hers.
“To our complicated relationship,” he said.
She touched the rim of her glass to his and nodded.
“Your place is really nice,” he said.
She glanced around at the dollhouse-size proportions of her house, at the feminine furnishings and the pastel colors. “I doubt it’s much to your liking.”
“Agreed, but it suits you.”
He set his glass on the coffee table between them.
He’d obviously come straight from the office. He still wore his suit slacks and a white shirt. The jacket was gone, as was the tie. Stubble darkened his jaw and his eyes looked weary.
Zach reached for his wine, then dropped his hand to his lap. “I’ve been his father for eighteen years. You’d think I’d do a better job of parenting.”
She frowned. “I was just thinking I happen to know you’re a terrific father.” It was one of the things she liked about him, when he wasn’t making her want to kill him.
“Not lately.” He grimaced. “I was scared to death when he was born, but excited and happy. He was so damn small. Ainsley was useless. She barely got out of bed for the first two weeks, then claimed to always be too tired to take care of him. She didn’t want to try breast-feeding. So it was up to me to do the bottle thing. My mom helped out when she had time.”
Katie couldn’t imagine a woman turning her back on her newborn…or any child, for that matter.
“Weren’t you still in college?” she asked.
“Yeah. And working. Money from my trust fund really helped with things like rent and medical insurance, but it didn’t cover everything.”
He glanced at her. “None of that mattered. David was worth it.”
She leaned toward him. “Then why are you beating yourself up? You obviously love your son. You’ve made countless sacrifices, you’ve always tried to do the right thing. That’s what matters. Grammy M is always telling us that we can only do our best. No one can expect more. The rest is in God’s hands.”
“It’s not that simple.” He straightened slightly and reached for the wine. “A couple of days ago David told me he wanted to talk about transferring to a different college.”
“I thought he really enjoyed UCLA. Why would he want to do that?”
Then she knew, but before she could say anything, Zach spoke.
“Nothing against your sister, Katie. She’s a great girl with a lot of potential. She knows what she wants in life, and while I respect that, I think it’s wrong for David to have to give up his dreams to follow hers.”
Katie didn’t know what to say. Mia’s plans had been set for years. But David was two years behind Katie, and when she graduated, the choices would be either not being together or one of them giving up what he or she wanted.
Katie knew her sister had never been very good at compromising her own plans.
“They’re so damn young,” he muttered. “Why can’t he see that? Why can’t he see that he’s potentially screwing up his entire life?” He drank some wine and looked at her. “Unfortunately, that’s what I said to him. I pointed out that I knew exactly what came from taking on responsibility too early. He thinks I blame him for screwing up my life.”
“Ouch,” she said sympathetically. “That can’t have gone over well.”
“You’re right. The hell of it is, I didn’t mean it that way. I don’t regret David or anything that has happened because of him.” He shrugged. “With the possible exception of marrying Ainsley. But he didn’t stick around to hear that. Instead he took off and I haven’t heard from him since.”
Suddenly the dark lines and exhaustion made sense. “You’ve been worried about him,” she said, making it a statement rather than a question.
He nodded. “I’m not worried that something happened to him, but I hate us not being in contact.” He returned his wineglass to the coffee table. “He’s just a kid.”
“So they’ll grow up together. My parents did. They fell in love in high school and they’re happy.”
“We can’t all live in Fantasy Land.”
“It beats your constant pessimism. You could be wrong about this, you know. They may be blissfully happy for the next seventy years.”
His mouth twisted. “Right. Or they could just screw up their lives in four months and have seventy years of regret.”
She’d been basking in the warmth of having him confide in her, but as usual, Zach’s cynical attitude chilled the happy right out of her.
“Not every marriage ends in disaster. Yes, a lot of marriages fail, yes, a lot of young marriages don’t make it, but maybe, for once, you could give your son and my sister the benefit of the doubt.”
“Why? If you see a car coming, don’t you step out of the road rather than get hit?”
She gritted her teeth. “You’re assuming. You don’t know anything for sure.”
“I know David’s seeing someone else.”
Katie stiffened, then sucked in a breath. “What?”
Zach swore and reached for his wine. “Forget I said that.”
She leaned toward him. “I can’t. What do you mean he’s seeing someone else?”
“I don’t know. There’s this girl. Julie. She’s in one of his classes. She was at the house with a bunch of his friends celebrating the semester break. They looked cozy. Later I saw them kissing.”
Cozy? Right. Zach was a smart, smarmy lawyer who would do anything to win his case. She’d wondered why he’d stopped by and now she knew. He would do anything to end the engagement.
“Why don’t you just hire some digital photography studio to doctor naked pictures of David in bed with the entire cheerleading squad?” she demanded. “Wouldn’t that be easier? It’s much more a sure thing.”
His gaze narrowed. “You think I’m lying?”
“You bet. You told me once you’d do anything to keep David and Mia from getting married and you’d do anything to convince me. I figure this is just part of the show.”
He stood and glared at her. “I’m not lying. I haven’t lied about anything. I told you David and I had a fight. He didn’t call me back, so I went to see him at his dorm.”
Katie stood and glared right back. “Let me guess. You found them in bed together. Like I believe that.”
“I found them in the rec room. They were kissing and it looked damned friendly to me.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Do you think I wanted it to end like this? I like Mia. If David were older and more together, I’d be grateful he’d picked her. I don’t want her hurt.”
Zach’s sincerity and his concern about her sister made Katie wonder if he might be telling the truth. And if he was…then what?
“What did he say when you confronted him?” she asked.
“I didn’t. I left and drove around. Eventually I ended up here.”
She didn’t know what to think or what to believe. If Zach were any other man…if he didn’t love his son quite so much…if he hadn’t told her he would do anything to stop the wedding…
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I thought you might have some ideas.”
She looked at him and tried to read the truth in his blue eyes. “You won’t tell her?”
“She’d think what you do. That it’s just a ploy.”
“Would you blame her?”
“No, and I don’t blame you, either.”
He reached out his hand toward her, then shoved it in his pocket.
“I’m gonna head home,” he told her.
She watched him walk to the door and let himself out. When she was alone, she sank back onto the sofa and drew her knees to her chest.
Just when she thought things couldn’t get more complicated, they took a turn for downright confusing. Was David cheating on Mia? If Zach was lying, then he was a worse weasel than she’d thought and she should get herself sanitized after having intimate contact with him. If he was telling the truth, then he was even better than she could have hoped and letting him walk out of her life made her fourteen kinds of stupid.
The worst of it was she didn’t know if sleeping with her had been a spontaneous response to passion, or just one more part of his master plan.
The trick was separating fact from fiction. So where was a crystal ball when she really needed one?
14
Mia sat on the floor in David’s dorm room and watched him pace the small space from the desk to the door.
“I can’t even remember how it started,” David admitted, then crossed to the opposite bed and flopped down on his back. “Then we were just arguing.”
Mia had a feeling that David remembered exactly how the fight with his dad had started, but for some reason he didn’t want to tell her. The fact that he was keeping it a secret bothered her. It wasn’t as if she was going to go all hysterical and start screaming or something. That so wasn’t her style. She also wasn’t pleased that David had taken nearly a week to tell her what was wrong.
She’d known instantly there was a problem, but he’d denied it for the first three days and had refused to talk about it for the next three.
“He said that he didn’t want me screwing up my life the way his life had been screwed up,” David admitted miserably.
Mia crossed to kneel next to the narrow bed. She placed one hand on his chest. “You know what he was trying to say. He’s worried that we’re getting married too young. He wasn’t telling you that you’d ruined his life. David, your dad loves you. Everyone can see that. He’s happy when you’re with him and he’s proud of you.”
“I know.” He turned his head toward her. Tears glistened in his eyes, but he blinked them away. “It hurt right then, you know. But I’m okay with it now. The thing is I kinda thought he was coming around. About the wedding.”
“But he’s not,” Mia said flatly, wondering why she hadn’t figured that out before. Now that David said the words, she realized it was so incredibly obvious.
For a second she thought about getting mad. It was totally insulting in a way. But she knew in her heart David’s dad wasn’t mad that David wanted to marry her—he would have gone ballistic about David marrying anyone.
“What happened when you talked to him later?” she asked.
David sat up and cleared his throat. “What time is it? Are you hungry?”
Mia stared at him. “You haven’t talked to him, have you?”
David wouldn’t meet her gaze. “I’ve been busy.”
She rolled her eyes. “Has he tried to talk to you?”
“I think he might have called. I don’t remember.”
Translation—Zach had been trying to get in touch with his son for days. Mia felt frustration bubbling to the surface.
“If you keep acting like a kid, your dad is going to treat you
like one. If you want to show him you’re ready to get married, then act like a grown-up. After a big fight you can’t just ignore the whole thing. You have to own up to what happened. At least call and say you’re okay.”
David’s blue eyes flashed with determination. “I don’t care if he thinks I’m a kid. I’m over eighteen and he can’t tell me what to do.”
Mia clenched her teeth. If she allowed herself to say even one word, she would scream. David’s “he can’t tell me what to do” statement made him sound about four years old. So much for making her point.
He looked at her. “I don’t need him to approve.”
He sounded defiant enough, but Mia wasn’t sure she believed him. David and his father had always been close and going against him would be very difficult. Besides, even though it made her feel disloyal to admit it, David wasn’t exactly a poster child for the mature young adult. She loved him, but she wasn’t blind to his flaws.
“The wedding is a long way off,” she said. “He might come around.”
David nodded but didn’t look convinced. He flopped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. “It’s weird not to talk to him for this long. We’ve always talked.” A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Even when he was mad at me when I was a kid, he talked. Sometimes when he went on and on about something I’d screwed up on, I used to wish he’d just spank me so we could get it over with. But he never did. Not even once. But he talked for hours.”
Mia sat back on her heels and let the love in David’s voice chase away her doubts. One of the things she adored about her fiancé was his ability to love with his whole heart.
“He was always good to me,” David went on, turning his head to look at her. “After my mom left, there wasn’t much money. Dad was in law school and she’d taken the rest of his trust fund. So we struggled. But he made sure there were lots of good times. He traded his car in for a truck with a shell on the back. We’d take it up to the mountains or to the beach and go camping for the weekend. Just us guys.”
“Sounds like fun,” she said and shifted into a sitting position. Her palm came down on something hard and pointed. “Ouch.”
The Sparkling One Page 17