by Eve Gaddy
“Mommy? Mommy, where are you?”
Laurel and Zack both scrambled to sit up. Laurel looked over the back of the couch to the door to the den where Cody stood, holding his blanket in one hand and with a finger of his other hand in his mouth.
“What do you need, honey?”
“Want a drink of water.”
“Is that all?”
Cody shrugged and walked over to stand in front of her.
“Did you have another bad dream?” He nodded. “About bad men?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Why don’t I go get him some water while you two talk,” Zack said.
“Thanks. The plastic cups are to the left of the sink. In the lower cabinet.” Cody scrambled up beside her. Giving him a hug, she asked, “Did you watch a scary TV show?” He’d gone to a friend’s house on a play date earlier that day. She’d bet anything they watched a show that gave him bad dreams.
He nodded again. She gathered him into her lap. Zack came back with the water and she gave it to Cody, although she didn’t think thirst had been the problem.
“You know those shows are make-believe.”
“Monsters,” Cody said.
“Monsters are pretend,” she said firmly. At least the kind of monsters Cody was talking about were. They talked about monsters and how to deal with them. Zack had a couple of suggestions, one involving setting up his superheroes to guard him. Cody liked that idea.
Laurel told him a story, then Zack told him a story, but he still wasn’t ready to sleep. Laurel went and got some of his books. At Zack’s insistence, she and Zack alternated reading to him until Cody finally nodded off. “I’m going to put him back to bed,” she told Zack.
“Here, let me carry him.” Zack picked him up. “Lead the way.”
He looked so sweet with Cody in his arms. Tough and masculine but gentle at the same time. She squelched that thought, reminding herself that she wasn’t looking for a father figure for her son. He had two uncles who gave him plenty of male attention.
Zack put Cody in his bed. She covered him up, then kissed his forehead and they both left.
“Sorry about that,” she said.
“Nothing to be sorry for. Walk me to the door?”
“I’m sure this wasn’t the evening you had in mind when you asked me to dinner.”
“No, but I’m adaptable. I had a nice time.”
“Reading bedtime stories to a six-year-old is high on your list, huh?”
“That depends,” he said, drawing her into his arms, “on the six-year-old and his mom. In this case, yes.”
He kissed her, then resolutely set her away from him. “I’ll call you.”
She watched him go with a sigh.
Chapter Six
The next afternoon, Laurel took her kids to the park. She tried to do that every Sunday when the weather was nice. It gave them all some fresh air and time together, and best of all, it was free. Although, she did intend to spring for the ice cream Cody had requested the night before. Her sister-in-law, Savannah, met them at the park today, which she did occasionally.
Cody and Katrina were playing on the swings and in the fort, so Savannah and Laurel were able to sit and visit for a bit.
“How are you liking the new job?” Savannah asked.
“I love it. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but so far it’s great. Of course, I haven’t been at it long.”
“Do you see a lot of Zack?” Savannah asked, a little too innocently.
“No. Not for work. It’s basically all done with computers.”
“What about when it’s not for work?”
“You don’t have to beat around the bush, you know. Just ask me what you want to know.”
Savannah laughed. “I’m not very subtle. What’s up with you and Zack?”
“You mean after the night I made a fool of myself with him when you kept the kids?”
“Oh, please. You were upset and drank a little too much. I’m sure he understood.”
“You can’t tell me Travis didn’t spill to Harlan that he found us together at Zack’s the next morning.” Laurel hadn’t said much when Savannah dropped off the kids last Sunday, but she was certain Savannah had heard all about it by now.
“He mentioned something about it,” Savannah said, trying not to smile.
“Harlan went ballistic, right?”
“Not once Travis explained. Have you seen Zack since then?”
“Yes. Last Sunday afternoon, when he offered me the job. We were going to go out last night but my babysitter canceled. Again.”
“And that’s it?” Savannah sounded disappointed.
“No. Since I couldn’t go out he came over and brought pizza.”
“Well good. Was it fun? You must like him if you agreed to go out with him.”
“Of course I like him. I’ve known him forever. But it wasn’t until last Sunday morning that I figured out he was interested in me.” She thought about what he’d said and felt her face heat. “He, um, told me.”
“Since you’re blushing I don’t suppose you want to tell me what he said.”
Laurel laughed. “No, but I’ll tell you I almost swooned.”
“That sounds promising.”
“I just never thought of Zack that way.”
Savannah raised an eyebrow. “Right,” she said dryly.
“Okay, okay,” she agreed laughing. “He’s tall, dark, handsome and hot. Of course I did. But I never imagined he’d be interested in me. And now he is and I’m interested in him too but…”
“But what? Why are you hesitant?”
“You’ve been divorced. You didn’t go right out and start dating, did you?”
“No, but you’ve been divorced for two years.”
“My ex has made me very wary about men. I’ve only dated a few times since my divorce.”
“I can understand that. But you know Zack.”
“Considering he and Travis have been friends for most of my life, I should. Honestly, though, I don’t know that much about him. But I hope we’re going to get to know each other a lot better.”
“Good. I hope you do too. Harlan and I worry about you. It’s about time you went out and had some fun. Which reminds me, promise me the next time you go out with Zack you’ll let us keep the kids.”
“You don’t need to do that,” Laurel protested.
“We want to. You know we love having them. Promise you’ll ask me.”
“He might not ask me again.”
“I doubt that. Promise.”
Laurel laughed. “Okay, I’ll ask.”
“Mommy, Cody took the swing I wanted,” Katrina said, running up to her.
“Were you sitting in it?”
“No but I was gonna.”
“Let’s go see if he’ll share.” She stood and Katrina immediately grabbed her hand. “I’ll be back,” she told Savannah.
After leaving the park, Laurel stopped by the grocery store and picked up ice cream, promising Cody and Katrina if they ate their dinner they could have ice cream afterward.
Her phone rang shortly after she put the kids down. Zack’s name showed on her caller ID. “Hi.”
“Hi,” he said. “Are you busy?”
“No, I just put the kids to bed. What’s up? Did you need something?”
“Yes. Would you go to dinner with me next weekend? Saturday night?”
“I would love to. Dressy or casual?”
“I thought we’d go to Blue, the restaurant at the winery.”
“Definitely dressy,” she said. “I haven’t been but I’ve heard it’s really good.”
They talked for a long time, until Laurel looked at the clock. “Do you know we’ve been talking for two hours?”
“No, I didn’t realize it was so late. I should let you go. Tomorrow’s a work day.”
“Okay. I enjoyed talking to you,” she said, and then felt like a dork.
But Zack only said, “Me too.”
She hung up with
a sigh. He seemed too good to be for real.
*
For the next several days, Zack talked to Laurel every night after she put her kids to bed. After the first night they didn’t talk for long, since she had work in the evenings now, but they talked long enough to get to know each other better. Their plans were on to go to dinner the following weekend, assuming her babysitter didn’t crap out on her again.
“What’s the deal with you and Travis?” Levi asked Zack one day that week.
They’d met at Zack’s office at the airport to talk about how many people they would need to hire once the terminal was complete. Travis wasn’t there since he had a flying lesson. The construction had been going pretty smoothly. However, Levi was being a royal pain avoiding Dana DeLong, the architect, as much as possible. He disappeared every time the three partners and Dana were scheduled to meet.
“Nothing. Why do you ask?” Travis had been squirrelly around Zack since he’d found Laurel and him together, and especially after Zack had admitted he was interested. Zack wasn’t sure that Travis totally bought that he and Laurel hadn’t had sex. But that was Travis’s problem.
“That’s not the way I heard it.”
“Did Travis say something?”
“Just that he’d found you with Laurel the morning after she lost her job. And that you’d better not be lying to him about not having sex with her. He seemed a little bent out of shape about it.”
“You two gossip like girls.”
Levi shrugged that off. “Did you sleep with her?”
“No. Well, not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“We slept in the same bed but we didn’t have sex.”
“You slept in the same bed?”
“That’s what I said.”
“Why didn’t you have sex?”
“Because she was drunk and basically passed out in my bed. She was really upset about the job and the reason she was fired.”
“Laurel, drunk? That doesn’t sound like her. I mean, she’s got two kids.”
“They were spending the night with Harlan and Savannah.”
“Still, doesn’t sound like her. What happened at Jalisco’s?”
Zack told him about the asshole who’d grabbed Laurel and her reaction.
Levi laughed. “God, that’s priceless. Now that sounds like the Laurel we know.”
“Yeah, it was funny until the manager fired her. I talked to him afterward but he’s an asshole too. I found her at Booze’s, getting friendly with Nathan.”
“Nathan Kershaw?”
“Yep.”
“Nate’s a nice guy but if I had a sister I wouldn’t want her with him.”
“Exactly. After I told him who she was, he beat it. I convinced Laurel to come with me.” Which had not been easy. “The rest of it you know.”
“So you didn’t have sex with her. That night. But you want to.”
“Duh.”
Levi’s lips quirked. “So what’s the problem?”
“There isn’t one.” Maybe. “We’re taking things slowly.”
“More like glacial, considering how long you’ve known each other.”
He didn’t bother explaining to his friend that knowing her as Travis’s kid sister and knowing her as a grown and totally desirable woman were two different things. “Can we talk business now, instead of all this touchy-feely crap?” He went back to looking over his lists.
“Whatever.” Levi was silent a moment, then said, “Does Laurel know you’re in love with her?”
He looked up from his papers. “I didn’t say I was in love with her.”
“You didn’t have to, bro. Does Travis know?”
Damn, he might as well admit it. To Levi, anyway. “No, Travis doesn’t know. And don’t tell him, all right? I’ll tell him when he needs to know.”
“When will that be?”
“For starters, after I tell her. And I’m not going to tell Laurel I’m in love with her when we’ve only had one date. She’ll think I’m crazy.”
“You are crazy. Isn’t this kind of out of the blue? I mean this going from old friends to would-be lovers seems awfully sudden.”
“It’s not. I just haven’t admitted how I felt until now.”
Levi shrugged, but he didn’t look convinced. “If you say so.”
“Speaking of women,” Zack said, wanting payback, “what’s with you and Dana? Why are you so hot to avoid her?”
“I’m not avoiding her.”
“Bullshit. Every time we have a meeting with her you have something else that’s critically important to do. You can’t avoid her forever.”
Levi scowled. “It’s mutual. And it’s nothing you need to know about.”
“So there is a reason.”
“Yeah, there’s a reason. Now shut the hell up.”
“Aren’t you touchy. You two knew each other before, didn’t you? Back when the Wildcat Tower was built.”
“What part of shut the hell up do you not get?”
Zack probed a little more, but as Levi was one of the most stubborn people on the planet, Zack wasn’t surprised to get nothing more out of him.
Chapter Seven
It had been so long since Laurel had been on a date she had a hard time deciding what to wear. Since Zack had said he was taking her to Blue, the new restaurant at the Barrels Winery, she needed something a little dressy, cute, not boring, and totally not what she’d wear to work.
At first thought, she had nothing. But then she remembered the skirt she’d bought on clearance because it had a small tear at the waistline. So she’d snapped it up, mended the tear and hadn’t worn it yet. She’d been saving it and now was the perfect occasion.
The skirt was black, gray and white, and striped with alternating colors of differing widths. It hit a couple of inches above her knees. She paired it with a fitted, long-sleeved black top, a silver necklace and earrings her parents had given her when she graduated community college, and high-heeled black pumps with a peek-a-boo toe. With the addition of a little extra care with her makeup, she liked the look. This was definitely not the same old Laurel.
Her house was oddly quiet with the kids gone. Though she’d felt a little uncomfortable, she’d done as promised and asked Savannah if she and Harlan wanted the kids for the night. Savannah had agreed immediately and seemed as excited about her date with Zack as she was.
It’s just a date. Not a big deal. Just because he told you he wanted to make love to you—
And that was it. Ever since he’d told her he wanted her, she’d been thinking about it constantly. Kissing him, as she had last weekend, had only revved her up and made her wonder what the real deal would be like.
She and Stan had stopped having sex long before he left her. In fact, he’d hardly touched her since before Katrina’s birth. Stan hadn’t wanted another child and had tried to convince her to have an abortion. When she refused he left and didn’t return for a week. They’d made up but to say her pregnancy and the subsequent birth of her second child had put a strain on the marriage was a massive understatement. Of course, that hadn’t been the only factor or even the main one. But she hadn’t realized that until much later.
Her doorbell rang, happily putting an end to her reflections. She opened the door, saying, “Come in.” Zack looked good. Really good. Mouthwatering. Hot. His dark hair was brushed and he’d shaved recently. He wore a pair of khaki pants and a button-down forest-green shirt that enhanced the color of his eyes. Those eyes were looking at her with a very appreciative glint in them.
“You look great,” he said.
“Thank you. So do you.”
He grinned at that.
“I’ve never been to Blue. Have you?” Laurel asked him.
“No, but I hear it’s good. They call it New American cuisine. Not that I have a clue what that means.”
“Don’t ask me,” she said. “The nicest place I’ve been to recently is the Diner. Don’t get me wrong, I love the place, but fa
ncy it isn’t. Before that I went to Baron’s Steakhouse, but that was a long time ago.”
The restaurant was lovely. It was new and fresh, modern, though not so much so that it was out of place in Whiskey River. Sophisticated and elegant was how Laurel would describe it. Their hostess led them to a small table in the corner, one of the half-circle beige padded booths. The tables were wood-topped, and the wooden rafters of the high ceilings were reminiscent of the Barrels Winery itself. Artwork from local artists adorned the walls. Both modern art and more traditional artwork somehow mixed well together. The lighting was subdued but not so dark as to make it hard to see. Soft jazz and rhythm and blues played in the background.
“What would you like to drink?” Zack asked her.
“Not a margarita,” Laurel said.
His mouth lifted in a smile. “Off those for a little while, are you?”
“Possibly for life. I don’t usually drink much and I thought I was going to die from that hangover. Not to mention,” she added dryly, “I made a fool of myself with you.”
“No you didn’t. You weren’t a fool. A little reckless, is all.”
“A lot reckless. I threw myself at you. If you’d been anyone else…” She could have really been in trouble.
“Why would I mind a beautiful woman throwing herself at me? Although, I admit, I wish you hadn’t been drunk.”
Their eyes met and held. She had a feeling they were both thinking the same thing. She almost fanned herself.
“I wish I hadn’t been too.”
*
Zack almost asked her if she wished she hadn’t drunk too much for the same reason he did. But her statement could have been taken several ways, none of them necessarily meaning she wished they’d had sex.
“How about a glass of wine?” Zack asked.
“That sounds good,” she said, looking at the menu.
“White or red?”
“I think I’ll have fish. So white.”