by Cynthia Dane
“It’s going to be a great year for the Met!”
“I’m not getting married,” Zack insisted. “And I’m not…”
A commotion erupted in the dining room, summoning all three boys from the anteroom and into utter chaos.
Uncle Roy, remarkably dressed in pants and a plain T-shirt, had been shown into the dining room by the head maid. Why wouldn’t she let him in, when this was a big family night and Eloise had proclaimed more than once that she would not turn her husband’s brother away?
Uncle Roy wasn’t really the problem. The commotion was because of who he brought.
Lorelei Weathersby, the long lost illegitimate sister of Isaiah and Elroy Feldman. Apparently, he had chosen tonight to make the big announcement. To everyone. Including Isaiah, who had yet to hear about this.
At least Daniel got one of his wishes. While everyone was distracted by big news and bigger scandals, he covertly slipped the vintage Bavarian ring onto Janet’s finger and got her out of there as quickly as possible. The Walkens soon followed, turning their noses up at the scandal erupting beneath the Feldmans’ roof.
Before Eloise could demand that her youngest son tell her what the hell was going on, he received a text from Rachel. “I’m going out with this woman tonight. I’ll check in at ten one way or another. I gave Parvati the same info. Hope you’re having a good night.” It was followed with a picture and the address of where they were going.
Zack couldn’t wait to bail on this party.
Chapter 24
Ten minutes late. Rachel’s date was ten minutes late, and she started to worry that she was stood up.
They had agreed to meet at a wine bar on the boundary of downtown. The place was so trendy that Saturday night boomed with quiet conversations and subdued lighting that forced Rachel to use her cell phone light to check how well-groomed she was. I wore a dress for the first time all year. It was the nicest outfit she had in her closet: a dark blue strapless dress accentuated with a brown leather belt. Nothing fancy, but it highlighted her shoulders, cleavage and lean legs. She hoped it was good enough for seducing a woman for a change.
Her date showed up at fifteen after eight. It was all downhill from there.
Rachel’s first inclination that this was not going to go well was the look her pretty date gave her the moment they made eye contact. Where before a pleasant smile rested, now Rachel caught the look of disbelief. Her date slowed her steps until she came to stand behind the chair in front of Rachel.
“Are you Rachel?”
“Yes. You must be Gretchen.”
A slim hand pulled out the chair. Black lace sashayed across the long, pale legs sitting across from Rachel. Oh my God. She’s so pretty. They almost had matching dresses! Just in different colors! And Gretchen was so much better at accenting with delicate pieces of jewelry. Her black hair was swept up in a generous coif that showed off the back of her slender neck and highlighted the beautiful cheekbones gracing her heart-shaped face. Oh my God. She’s so pretty, and I’m going to die.
If they ended up in bed together that night, she would definitely die!
“I went ahead and ordered myself a glass. I wasn’t sure what you would want.”
“It’s fine.” Gretchen kept her eyes on the small menu. When a sommelier approached, she spoke with flawless French. The sommelier was dutifully impressed. Is she French? Wow. Rachel doubted that someone like Gretchen would be impressed with her haphazard Japanese. “So… how long have you lived in the city?”
It had been a while since Rachel went on a formal date with a woman. Hell, had she ever actually been on a date with a woman before and not randomly hooked up with them? I can’t remember. Wow. This is so different already. Even so, she knew something was off. Their conversation was stilted. Gretchen had been lovely via text, but maybe that was a difference in communication styles. When she asked about Rachel’s job, however, it was complete indifference. She sighed to talk about her own job at a fashion studio.
Rachel couldn’t get a read on her. It was like her gorgeous date Gretchen didn’t want Rachel to know a damn thing about her. What was the point of going out on a date, then? Why not meet somewhere for sex if that was all she wanted? Rachel wasn’t looking for a woman to call her girlfriend, necessarily. She was looking for a good time. That was all.
“Well!” Gretchen said after an hour. “I’m afraid I totally misjudged how much energy I had last night. I better get going. Thanks for the conversation.”
Rachel killed her smile. “Oh. I see. Have a nice night.” We’re not going somewhere else? This was a total bomb. God. What did I do?
Gretchen turned around with her purse strap high on her shoulder. At the last moment, she turned around again and raised her voice. “Could I give you a bit of advice?”
Rachel forced a new, friendly smile. Way friendlier than it should be. “Of course.”
Scoffing, Gretchen said, “When you do online dating, you really should use new and current photos of yourself. I got my hair trimmed and took a bunch of new photos because I don’t want to be deceptive, you know? People don’t respond well to you using old photos that make you look better than you do now. Because this?” Her finger flicked up and down, highlighting Rachel’s physique. “This isn’t an average body type like you have on your profile.” Gretchen marched off, her bag smacking against her ass with every step.
Rachel was too stunned to do anything but grip the stem of her wineglass and blink away the sting behind her eyes. What? She looked down. Sure, she had gained a few pounds since that photo was taken, but her hair was the same and she carried weight gain well…
She looked around. More than one face was pointed in her direction. They immediately looked away again, embarrassed on her behalf.
All of these people had heard that, hadn’t they?
Rachel pulled out her phone to text Parvati. “That could’ve gone way better…” She waited for a response, but one never came. The only thing that came for a few minutes were hot tears down her cheek. How cruel could one person be?
Someone pulled out the seat across from her and handed her a handkerchief. Rachel didn’t even question it. She snatched the handkerchief and dabbed her eyes while trying to control the insulted sobs ready to wrack her body.
“Fuck her.”
Rachel looked up. Zack, dressed in a collared shirt that looked better on him than she could ever expect, gazed back at her. “What are you doing here? Did you see that?”
“I was in the neighborhood when I got your text. And yes. I’m sorry.”
“God…” How embarrassing, indeed! It wasn’t bad enough that the whole wine bar saw what happened. Now Zack was here? And had seen it? Why did he come here? To skeeze? It was the only explanation if Rachel was on a date with a woman.
“For what it’s worth, I think you look exactly like the pic you used.” Zack grinned at her. “Unless you swapped it out at the last minute for one of my pictures. That would definitely be false advertising.”
Rachel couldn’t bring herself to laugh. “She was really pretty, huh?”
“Don’t compare yourself to her.”
“You don’t get it. Pretty women like that never flirt with me, let alone go on dates…”
“She has issues. Trust me. I know women like that. She looked like a mean asshole searching for a reason to dump you.”
“She could’ve said that she wasn’t feeling it and that would’ve been fine. Did she really have to…”
“No, she didn’t, and she knows that. Rachel…” Zack took her hand on the table. “I know you don’t want to hear this right now, but you dodged a bullet. Imagine if you had gone home with her and she lost her shit.”
“I’d rather not, thanks.” Rachel snatched her hand back. “I don’t need your help.”
“I’m not saying you do.” Zack signaled for the sommelier to bring over Rachel’s check. “Let me get that for you. We’re getting out of here.”
“Wh… where are we going?”
Rachel didn’t want to fight him. As weird as this situation was – eventually, she would have to get to the bottom of why Zack had stalked her on her date – she was grateful to get the fuck out of this cursed bar, especially if it meant Zack took her somewhere cozy and comfortable. Really, any place where Rachel could openly cry and not feel even more embarrassed, if such a place existed.
“I’m taking you back to my place. There’s something we need to do.”
Rachel slumped down against the table. “I’m really not in the mood to fool around right now, Zack.”
“I’m not talking about that.” He cleared his throat. “Something else. I only need to call the front desk in the lobby and confirm something.”
Rachel wasn’t sure she liked where this was going, but only because her day was already shot.
***
“Hell no!” She raced back to the rooftop entrance. “I’m not going in there! Are you out of your fucking mind? I thought you meant the hot tub!”
Zack stood in the middle of the Olympic-sized swimming pool in nothing but a pair of dark gray swim trunks. His hands grabbed his hips as he shook his head and clicked his tongue. Monster! What kind of freak can stand in a swimming pool like that? He’s gonna drown! Never mind he was in the shallow end, where the water only came up to his waist. “It’s three feet deep right here, Rachel.” He held his hand out to her. “You’re not going to drown.”
“And you’re not teaching me how to swim!” Rachel knew how this worked. Friends had been trying to trick her into pools for years, thinking themselves so damn clever and completely ignoring the fact that she was super hydrophobic.
“I’m not trying to teach you how to swim.” His voice echoed within the glass enclave surrounding the rooftop pool. Rachel had been dubious when they got back to his place and he showed her the bathing suit he had a personal shopper select on his dime. A simple black bikini, sure, but it was remarkably in Rachel’s size – like the clothes Judith sent Rachel home in that morning. How do total strangers know my size? Rachel barely knew her size! But he said we were going in a hot tub. Hot tubs were fine. They were controlled. Too shallow for her to realistically drown in. Rachel didn’t like the sensation of water around her chest and throat, but she could mind over matter it and eventually get used to it. She took baths sometimes, didn’t she?
A pool, though… no. That was too dangerous. She could drown.
“Then what do you think you’re going to achieve?”
“The only thing I’m achieving with you tonight, Rachel Taylor, is sharing my love of water with you.”
“So go ahead and enjoy your laps around the pool!”
Zack waded over to the marble steps leading out of the pool. “I will meet you right here and hold your hand the whole time. I’m an excellent swimmer. Not that you need to worry about that, but you are absolutely, 100% not going to drown on my watch. You’ll be too busy checking out my glistening wet pecs and I won’t be able to keep my hands off you.”
Rachel wasn’t supposed to laugh when she was terrified! She was supposed to run through the door and take the elevator back down to Zack’s floor!
But she supposed that he hadn’t reserved this space for them – for two whole hours, no less – for nothing. “You get over here right now!”
“You’re not my mom!” Rachel clutched the towel still wrapped around her body. “My mom was the one who saved me from drowning!” She had reached into that pool and pulled little Rachel’s body out as if the tyranny of God were about to rain down.
“There is nothing I could say that wouldn’t sound weird as hell, so I’ll tell you to get your cute ass over here and get in this water with me.”
“No!”
“Are you going to be scared of water your whole life?”
“Yes!”
“Then we’re not going to get to hang out much more, now are we?”
Rachel turned around. “What do you mean?”
Zack threw his arms up into the air. “I love the water! I wanna take you out on my yacht and show you what it’s like to go sailing before the summer’s up! Come on… you’ve gotta at least make peace with the water. I’m not asking you to love it, or even like it. Just stop having a panic attack every time you go near an open body of water.”
“You think that’s how phobias work?”
“No. But I like to think that I’m hot enough to convince you to get in here with me.”
“Nobody is hot enough, Zack!”
“Oh, yeah?” He splashed some pool water onto his chest. Glistening water droplets slowly slid down the tanned skin stretched over his firm muscles. Fuck your hot chesticles! “What about now? You know you wanna come over here and get some of this. You can’t say no to my rippling muscles and the hot washboard abs I got from working on the water all day. Mm, yeah. That’s the stuff.” He cupped water into his hands and showered it over his head. He looked like the dumbest – but also the hottest – male model to hit a swimsuit catalog.
“Are you trying to seduce me into bed or into the pool?”
“Both, honestly.”
Rachel loosened the towel around her body but did not commit to dropping it on the ground. “It might be working. A little.”
“Tell you what.” Zack waded to the stairs and metal handlebar that might as well have been called the oh shit I’m gonna die! bar to someone like Rachel. “You come over here and I will help you get in the water. I won’t let you go. We’ll spend the whole evening over here on the shallow end. And I’ll distract you with the horrible story of what happened at my family’s dinner tonight.”
Rachel’s feet curled against the flooring. A sign warning her that it was slippery when wet did not give her much confidence to go forward and join him in the pool. “How bad was it?”
“Like… long lost cousin nobody knew about bad.”
“You’re joking.”
“Nope.”
Rachel dropped the towel. He’s gonna have to move his hand off that bar if he wants me to join him. That bar had Rachel’s name all over it.
“Okay.” She took in a deep breath before dipping a toe in. As peaceful as the rippling, illuminated pool water looked, she didn’t have much faith that it wouldn’t turn into a giant tsunami wave and take her beneath its dangerous surface. “Start talking.”
Her dry fingers linked with his wet ones. Shit! It’s cold! Wasn’t this pool supposed to be heated? While her left hand shivered in his, her right one grabbed the railing, both feet now submerged in the freezing water.
“We were there tonight because my brother was going to propose to the woman he’s been dating for years.” Zack threw in a dramatic eyeroll so Rachel knew how silly this whole situation was. “It was a mess.”
Rachel’s teeth chattered with every step she took. How could Zack be so acclimated to it already? Was he a different species? A fish? No wonder he loved the water so much! “Did she know he was going to do it?”
“Yeah, but that’s not the point. The point is that right before he got up the nerve to do it, the doorbell rang and my Uncle Roy waltzed in with my long lost aunt.”
“Your what?
“My grandfather couldn’t keep it in his pants before he married my grandmother. Probably not after, either.” Zack shrugged. By now, Rachel’s feet were on the bottom of the pool, and she attempted to mind over matter the terrible sensation welling up inside of her stomach. She kept one hand on the railing while the other squeezed Zack’s hand. He tried to step away and draw her farther into the water, but she quickly shook her head. “My dad told me that there were rumors about a bastard kid somewhere out there. Never heard anything more than that. Next thing I know, my uncle’s introducing me to his long lost sister. He decided last night was a great time to spring the news on everyone.”
“That’s crazy.” Not nearly as crazy as Rachel felt right now, though. She was in the water! With Zack! She was short enough that the water came all the way up to her chest. As long as it doesn’t touch my head, I’l
l be fine. I think. The second to worst thing was floating. The worst thing was feeling like she was going to drown. That came with the floating sensation.
“Awesome. Look at you? You’re in the water!”
“Yeah, uh, let’s not draw any attention to it.”
“Got it. How are you doing?”
“I haven’t panicked yet.” Rachel toyed with releasing the railing. “You promise we are going to stay over here?”
“Hand over heart.”
“Okay.” Another deep breath. As if she were going to go under! “I think I’ll be okay.”
“If it really gets to be too much for you, I can…”
“It’s fine! I said I’m going to be fine!”
Her voice echoed in the enclosure. Zack grinned. “That’s my girl.”
“Your girl? Since when am I your girl, Zachary Feldman?”
“Since I decided you’re the woman I wanna take home and scare my family with.”
That was certainly one way to put it. “From what I remember about your mother, she definitely would be terrified to see me in her house.”
“Don’t think about her. She hates everyone, including those she loves.” Zack took a step back, the water rippling around them. “My mother isn’t the happiest woman in the world. My brothers and I have tried to make up for it by living happy lives in her stead.”
“Are you happy?”
“I’m here with you, aren’t I?”
Rachel cocked her head, almost forgetting where she was. The tip of her ponytail, which she had sloppily curled on top of her head with a single pin when she thought they were going into the hot tub, brushed against the water and dripped cold water onto her shoulder when she lifted her head again. “You always say stuff like that. I can’t ever tell if you’re serious or not.”
“I’ve been in the pool with a lot of women, Rachel. You’re just the first one I’ve stood here with and talked to about my family drama.”