Meeting Allison’s gaze, he caught the subtle shake of her head, the slight flare of panic in her widening green eyes as he walked over and pulled her to his side. He felt the slight flutter of reaction, a shiver that raced from her body to his as he slid an arm around her waist, the telltale sign of attraction making it hard for him to remember this was all for show.
“Mom.” Zach cleared his throat. “This is Allison Warner. My girlfriend.”
When Allison was a kid, she and her family had made the drive up to Flagstaff for a day in the snow more times than she could recall, but one trip always stayed fresh in her memory. Bethany had happily stacked snowmen together and flapped angel wings in the freshly fallen powder, but Allison was more adventurous. She’d wandered away from her family and found a hill perfect for sledding. Anticipating a fun ride, she’d pushed off and held on. But the hill was steeper than she thought, the ride scarier as she picked up more and more speed, knowing the only way she was going to stop was when she crashed.
Hard.
As she sat across the table from an ecstatic Caroline Wilder, Allison had that same sickening feeling now. The lie she and Zach started had taken off under its own power, gaining momentum until there was no stopping it. And Allison didn’t know when or how it would happen, but she sensed another painful crash in her future.
“So, Allison, since my closedmouth son hasn’t filled me in, tell me about yourself.”
“Well, I was born and raised in Phoenix. I have an older sister, Bethany, and I’m about to become an aunt.”
“Oh, how wonderful. Children are such a blessing,” Caroline said, her smile at Zach clearly stating how much she loved her own child.
After hearing Zach talk about his childhood, meeting his mother took Allison by surprise. She hadn’t expected the older woman to be so warm and loving. But not even the power of a mother’s love could protect a child from his father’s resentment. “I agree, Caroline. You must be so proud of Zach.”
“Oh, I’m very proud of Zach’s career. He’s very driven to succeed. My fault, I’m afraid. I always pushed him to do his best. I saw it as encouragement, but I think I went too far, and I worry about him,” Caroline confessed. “His personal life has always been lacking. Or at least it has been until now.”
“I am still here, you know,” Zach chimed in wryly.
“Oh, yes, the conversation would be much more interesting if you weren’t.” Caroline’s eyes gleamed as she looked from Zach to Allison and back again. “So tell me how you met?”
Allison swallowed. Fooling Riana Collins was one thing. Lying to Zach’s mother was so much worse. “We, um, met at Knox.”
“It was Allison’s first day,” Zach supplied when her answer fell short on details. Reaching over, he caught her hand, his fingers lacing through hers in a way that felt so much more intimate than it should have. “She cut right in front of my car with a smile and a wave, and I knew I had to meet her. I ran to catch up with her in the elevator, and when our hands touched as we reached for the same button, I just…knew.”
Staring into his blue eyes, the dark lashes and faint lines becoming so familiar, Allison’s heart started to pound. She remembered that first day, that first look, that first touch exactly as he described, illuminated by a romantic, diffused light. But like a double-exposed photo, that image didn’t completely whitewash a different version of those events. A far more likely version—Zach speeding through the parking garage, too focused on work to notice her in the crosswalk until the last minute, Zach running to catch the elevator on his way to a meeting.
But it was Zach’s scenario working its way beneath her skin, making her pulse pound, and her knees weak. The deep murmur of his voice and the seductive promise in his eyes made her long to simply hang on and enjoy the ride while it lasted.
“So, Zach…” His mother’s voice trailed off expectantly as she waited, most likely, for him to spill his heart out.
Allison had excused herself to go to the ladies’ room, and other than strapping her to her chair, he’d had to let her go. Not that he blamed her. He could have used some time himself.
Something about telling the story of how they met felt…real. Like that first meeting, that initial moment of connection truly had been the start of something. But they couldn’t both bolt from the table, so now he was stuck with his inquisitor of a mother, ready to drag all the details she could out of him.
Staring at the menu as if the decision between a grilled chicken sandwich or fresh fish was all-consuming, Zach debated his options. Even at lunch, the popular restaurant with its gleaming hardwoods and brass accents was loud enough he could pretend he hadn’t heard her. Or he could feign ignorance and act like he didn’t know what his mother was waiting for.
Glancing around for the waiter, he mumbled, “I wonder what the catch of the day is?”
“Hmm, my guess is salmon,” Caroline said with a knowing lift to her eyebrows.
Zach couldn’t help but laugh and shake his head. “I have never been able to pull anything over on you.”
Growing up, he’d never been the type to get in trouble. After his father died, he’d been too busy working and helping out around the house to find time for the usual teenage pitfalls. Even so, his mother had always known at a glance if he’d had a bad day or if he was holding something back.
“And yet you still try,” his mother remarked dryly. “But why didn’t you tell me about Allison before I had to hear about it from a third party?”
“Allison’s…Allison,” he said, trying to buy some time. If it came down to actually voicing a description, he’d need more than a few minutes. Judging by the time she spent consuming his thoughts, he could wax poetic about her wide green eyes, curved lips, flirtatious dimple and sassy, sexy attitude for hours. And wouldn’t Caroline love that…
Deciding to stick with the easiest explanation, he said, “I noticed her that first day, but it was only when Daryl had the idea for the two of us to work together that we grew…closer. She has a great eye for detail, a way of seeing things I’ve missed.”
“And?”
His mother’s pale blue eyes saw way too much, and Zach longed to dive back into the menu. “She’s doing a good job.”
That was a gross understatement, and he knew it. Allison was smart and savvy. The work she’d done on the PowerPoint was sophisticated, stylish, and, yeah, he had to admit, sexy.
Words he’d use to describe Allison…
Whether his fingers were gripping a pen or tapping away at his computer, he could still feel the softness of her skin, the silk of her hair. He’d been downing coffee until caffeine practically buzzed along his nerve endings, but not even the hottest liquid could scald the taste of her from his tongue. All that when she wasn’t around. When she was…
How many times had he caught himself watching her as she talked and imagining the movements of her lips against his own? How many times had he zeroed in on the sound of her laughter just to see the flash of that tempting dimple in her right cheek? And when she came close enough to touch, reaching for the phone or to take a closer look at his computer screen, it was all he could do not to pull her into his arms, to feel the curves and angles of her body pressed against him again…
His chair’s armrests had permanent indention marks from gripping the padded leather as he tried to keep his desire under control.
“All very interesting, but not quite what I had in mind.” His mother’s voice broke into his thoughts, the matchmaker’s gleam in her eyes more than obvious. “I want to know more about you and Allison. Is it serious between you two?”
Instant denial fired through his brain—he didn’t do relationships; he wouldn’t. But the words froze before they reached his throat, lodging there with a pressure that threatened to choke him. And not just because he wanted to keep the charade in place but because the words were a lie. The kiss they’d shared told him how involved he already was with Allison.
He couldn’t explain that kiss anymo
re than he could his reasons for spilling his past. All he knew was that seeing Allison gaze up at him with a mixture of understanding and sympathy reflected in her gaze, he’d completely lost control of the conversation, of his emotions, of the high wire balancing act required to keep his relationship with Allison steady.
Why he thought kissing her would help him regain that control, he had no idea.
Just like he wasn’t sure where the romanticized retelling of their first meeting came from. It was so unlike him, so out of character, he half expected his mother to call him on it. But Caroline’s normally shrewd gaze was clouded by hope and happiness, and he’d better start laying the ground work for an ending to whatever love affair his mother was picturing him and Allison having or it would only make matters worse.
“Allison is an amazing woman. Any man would be lucky to have her by his side for the rest of his life,” Zach said, realizing the words were one hundred percent true. “But I can’t be that man.”
“Zach—”
“You know me, Mom. You know me better than that,” he said, almost desperate for Caroline to agree.
He felt like he’d reached a fork in the road. On the right was the paved, much-traveled path to business success. On the left, the rocky, dangerous terrain of personal territory. He knew what lay in that direction. Failure, misery, heartache. He could practically see his father’s footsteps in the barren, desolate ground.
She sighed, the disappointment in her eyes hard to take, but Zach knew it could be so much worse. “A mother always dreams.”
His childhood had taught him he couldn’t trust dreams any more than he could trust love. Reality intruded, slicing through like the morning sun through a part in the curtains. Dreams rarely held up under the harsh light of day, and when they didn’t come true, they turned into bitter reminders of what could have been.
“Your mom’s really great,” Allison said to Zach once they were back at the office.
“Yeah, she is. She really kept things together for us when I was younger. She’d held a couple of part-time jobs while my dad was alive, but once he died—it was just the two of us then, and those first few years were…rough. My mom didn’t have much of a work history and only a high school diploma, but she got a job as a clerk in a department store and worked her way up to manager.”
Fierce pride shone from his eyes, tugging at something inside Allison as she imagined Zach as a serious, solemn-eyed boy who learned early on that hard work equaled survival. That things like having fun and hanging out with friends didn’t put food on the table, and her heart ached—for the boy he’d been and the man he was now. Was it any wonder Zach wouldn’t ease up? Wouldn’t let himself relax? Those childhood lessons had taught him everything could be taken away without warning.
The more she got to know Zach, the more she understood why he focused his heart and soul on his career. At Knox, he had everything his father had denied him—attention, recognition, and early on, Allison had spotted the fatherly affection Daryl Evans had for Zach—even if Zach did resent his interference just the way a real son would.
“My mom taught me to work hard but now…” Zach shook his head ruefully. “She’s been on my case lately to relax, to take more time for myself.”
“All of which makes me feel that much worse.”
“Why?”
“Because she thinks we’re really dating,” Allison said, her voice barely above a whisper as if Caroline might somehow overhear. “Why did you let her think that?”
“We’ve come this far, and I can’t risk the truth getting back to Riana now.”
“Getting back to her how?”
“The same way my mother found out about our pretend relationship. A friend of hers saw us at Riana’s benefit and all of a sudden, my mother thinks we’re dating. If I tell my mother it’s all for show, who’s to say that information won’t take the same path back to Riana?”
Allison sighed. She could see his point, but she had to ask, “What happens when all this is over?” She might as well have asked the question of herself. How far was she willing to take her relationship with Zach when she knew it wouldn’t last? “I’d hate for Caroline to get her hopes up.”
“She won’t. She knows me too well. I’m not the kind of guy who does forever.”
Allison knew that, too, only she kept forgetting…. Every time he touched her. Every time he looked at her like he was now, with a hint of loneliness and longing hidden behind his eyes, as if waiting, hoping she would prove him wrong.
For years after that sledding accident in Flagstaff her father would tell the story of how Allison had conquered the hill, how she’d sluiced through the slaloms, and how she had broken world records.
“And her collarbone,” her mother would always interject after blaming Allison for all her nonexistent gray hairs. “I still don’t know why you climbed that mountain in the first place.”
But her father had known, and the two of them would share a look and whisper, “Because it was there.”
Her father had always encouraged her to reach high, to jump far, to never look down. Long before cartoon Dora, he’d called her “Allison the Adventurer.” She’d lost some of that sense of adventure when she lost her father and longed to reclaim that part of her personality once more, but was she really up for this? Was she ready to take on a man like Zach?
Chapter Eight
Had anyone asked, Allison would have sworn Zach Wilder in a designer suit and tie was as gorgeous as the guy could get. She’d had plenty of chances, day after day, to take in the way the tailored shirts outlined his wide shoulders before narrowing to tuck inside at his waist. How his thin leather belt encircled a flat stomach. How the cut of his trousers emphasized his long-legged strides. But when she opened the door to her sister’s townhouse Saturday morning, she found out how greatly she’d underestimated the power of cotton.
Zach stood on the small landing, looking good enough in casual clothes to leave her speechless. The black T-shirt showcased a pair of biceps that told her skipping workouts at the gym wasn’t a common occurrence. The thin material skimmed over washboard abs and disappeared into the waistband of faded denim jeans that molded to his body with the kind of perfection an ad agency would die for.
Hoping he’d chalk up her slack-jawed staring to surprise, Allison asked, “Zach! What are you doing here?”
His dark brows rose as he stepped inside the living room. “We had an appointment, remember? To go over the different options available for your sister’s alarm system.”
After lunch with Caroline the other day, Zach had brought up the security system again with an offer to put Bethany’s initial walk-through on the schedule for the weekend. “I remember…” Her voice trailed off when she saw the toolbox he carried with as much ease as his usual briefcase. “I just didn’t expect you to be the one to come out.”
Zach shrugged. “This is what I do. It’s my job.”
His job was overseeing multimillion dollar accounts like Collins Jewelers. Pulling in high profile commercial clients was how Zach had made a name for himself at Knox and achieved the success that was so important to him. Selling her sister a system for her tiny townhome wouldn’t mean anything to Zach Wilder, Salesman of the Year. But his being there meant everything to Allison.
Something of what she was feeling must have shown in her expression before Zach jerked his gaze away to focus on Bethany’s living room. “I like to keep up with the latest residential systems, and I don’t get out into the field too often anymore,” he said, a hint of defensiveness reminding her of how he’d sent Brad to help with the baby furniture, how he’d dismissed his efforts to help Sylvia. Hiding behind work and refusing to acknowledge any kind of personal interest. “Installs always go more smoothly if a thorough walk-through is done first. I’ll check the crawl space in the attic, see how much wiring we’ll need and find the best places for the control box.”
He could give any excuse, any rational explanation he wanted, but deep do
wn, Allison knew. He was doing this for her, for her sister, because he cared. Maybe he couldn’t admit it, but actions spoke louder than words, and everything Zach wasn’t saying was working its way into her heart.
“Well,” Bethany cleared her throat as she stepped into the room, “you’ll get even more practice when you get your hands on Allison’s system.”
“Thank you, Bethany.” Hoping her face wasn’t as red as she feared, Allison made quick work of the introductions.
Her sister wasn’t the type for suggestive banter, but Bethany’s expression was a little too innocent, and Allison wondered how much of her attraction to Zach her sister was picking up on. As much as she wanted to talk about her growing feelings for Zach, the attraction was too new, her own emotions still caught on that should she/shouldn’t she brink. And after everything that had happened with Kevin, Bethany would likely disapprove of a relationship with Zach. It might even add to the strain on their relationship, something Allison would have to give serious consideration.
Stepping back into salesman mode, Zach said, “I’d recommend our top-of-the-line residential system. It has monitors on the doors and windows and a key chain remote that will activate the alarm. It sounds complicated, but I can go over the details and—”
Bethany held up a silencing hand. “You’re the expert. Allison can let me know what you decide when I get back.”
“Get back? Where are you going?” Allison asked. She’d come by to make sure Bethany didn’t change her mind about getting the alarm but also to have a chance to spend time with her.
“I figured since you were here and you know more about this stuff than I do…” Her sister shrugged. “I’ve got some errands to run, but I’ll be back later.”
Within seconds, Bethany had grabbed her purse off the white wicker coffee table and was out the door. Silence fell once she left, and Zach glanced at Allison, his eyebrows raised in question. “Something I said?”
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