“How do you know that?”
“He always backs off after…” Her voice trailed off.
“Just how involved are you?”
“We kissed. That’s all.”
He looked over at her with that brotherly expression she knew very well. “You need to tell him why you’re here.”
With a sigh she shook her head. “I can’t do that. I’m beginning to feel so much for Zack, and if I tell him, he might banish me from his life entirely.”
“This isn’t about just finding answers anymore is it?” her friend asked knowingly.
“That’s still a big part of it. But…no. I’m becoming so fond of Amy. Every time I look at her—I don’t know if the longing I feel is because of Kaitlyn or if the feeling is Sherry Morgan’s. And Zack…I’m more sure about those feelings. I know I feel drawn to Zack, and it has nothing to do with his wife. I can’t explain it, Jordan. I just know that where Zack’s concerned, I can separate my feelings from Sherry’s.”
As Jordan studied her, she felt her cheeks flush. “I really do sound like I should be telling this to a psychiatrist, don’t I?”
“Anybody but you and I would think so, too.”
Every day she was thankful for Jordan’s support and Barbara’s, too. Both had encouraged her to do whatever she had to to find peace of mind. “I paid the last installment on Collin Bates’s bill. When I hired him, I never expected to be living with Zack, to feel so much for him and Amy…”
“Where do you see all of this headed?” Jordan asked.
“I’m not sure. I just know that something is unfinished between Zack and Sherry. He won’t be able to love again until it’s settled.”
“And if it doesn’t get settled, what happens to you?”
“I don’t know. I just know this is something I have to see through.”
After he slipped the key in the ignition, he turned to look at her again. “Well, I think you need a night to forget about all of it. We’re going dining and dancing and we’re going to catch up and escape. How does that sound?”
Her heart lifted and she gave him a smile. “It sounds wonderful. Thanks for being my friend, Jordan, as well as my doctor.”
“Anytime. Now, let’s go paint the town red.”
At 1:00 a.m. Melanie unlocked the penthouse door. She didn’t know if she and Jordan had painted the town red, but she’d had a pleasant evening with him. They’d had a luscious supper at a fine restaurant near Clear Lake, danced a few sets and then gone back to his motel room to talk because the music was too loud at the restaurant. They’d had a lot to catch up on.
Before he’d left her at the door, he’d warned her gently, “The holidays are coming.”
“I know.”
“Just be aware of it, Melanie. Don’t try to deny the feelings that come up, or they’ll just come back to bite you.” Then he’d given her a warm hug.
When she let herself inside now, she saw Zack was sitting in the living room, the TV turned down low as he watched a wilderness adventure show.
He came to his feet when he saw her and he didn’t look happy. “Where the hell have you been?” His eyes raked over her as if he was expecting to figure out something.
“I went out to dinner.”
“Dinner until 1:00 a.m.?”
Could that be jealousy she saw in his eyes? Did he care that she’d gone to dinner with Jordan? “We had dinner, danced a little and then it was too noisy to talk so we went back to the motel.”
At that, Zack’s brown eyes grew turbulent. “I bet that was cozy. Didn’t you realize how late it was getting? That I might be worried something happened to you?”
So he’d been worried that she’d been abducted? Maybe he felt responsible for her because she was living under his roof. She didn’t want him feeling responsible for her. She wanted…
Her deepening feelings for Zack scared her. What would happen when she told him who she really was? What would happen when she told him that some of her feelings might belong to his wife?
It was all so bizarre…including Zack’s sense of righteous indignation now as he acted like a protective father. What had he said yesterday? You’re not even a member of the family. That still hurt and he hadn’t apologized for it, probably because he didn’t think there was anything to apologize for.
She didn’t owe him any explanations. “As you said yesterday, Zack, I’m not a member of your family. What I do in my off time is none of your business.”
Suddenly everything seemed to overwhelm her—her stay here, the trip to San Francisco, Zack’s attitude toward her. With tears much too close to the surface, she headed for her room and didn’t look back.
The hours passed quickly on Monday as Melanie made sure all her measurements for windows were exact. She’d fill out the order forms for the blinds and the draperies later. Though she’d seen Zack several times during the day consulting with the workmen, he hadn’t stopped to talk to her. The tension between them was as taut as it had been the night before and the night before that.
That evening Flo informed Melanie that Zack was leaving on a backpacking trip on Thursday. He and one of his store managers were outfitting a group of clients. The clients were prestigious enough in their own circles to bring more business to Zack’s chain.
Melanie didn’t even have a private conversation with Zack before he left on the trip.
While he was gone, she let herself relax more with Flo and Amy, not worried about his watchful eyes on her. She asked Flo if she could put Amy to bed Thursday night, and the housekeeper enjoyed the break. On Saturday Flo and Melanie took Amy to Cool Ridge to a park, but rain started falling and they had to come home early. It was still a nice day, though, and that evening they played with Amy on the floor, building with blocks and rolling a ball among them. They were putting Amy to bed when the phone rang. Flo went into the kitchen to answer it and came back a few minutes later.
“Was it Zack?” Melanie asked. She knew he had his cell phone with him.
“No, it was a friend of mine—Emma Fockelman. She lives in Santa Rosa. She wants me to come to dinner tomorrow. But I told her Zack was away.”
“I’m here. I’d be glad to watch Amy.”
“I don’t know…”
“If you’re worried Zack might not approve, I understand. Why don’t you give him a call and ask him? If he hesitates at all, don’t worry about offending me. But I’d love taking care of her for a few hours.”
Flo smiled. “I’ll call him now.”
From what Flo said after her call to Zack, he didn’t have any reservations about letting Melanie care for Amy for a few hours. He should be back around dinner time.
“Then it’s settled,” Melanie said with a light feeling bubbling up inside her because she’d have Amy all to herself for a couple of hours.
Flo left around four on Sunday in a drizzling rain, and Melanie played with and cuddled and sang to Amy as if she’d been doing it forever. She baked chicken, mashed potatoes and boiled peas for supper, then opened a jar of applesauce for dessert—all foods Amy liked best. The rain had changed to hard driving sheets by the time she put Amy to bed. She hoped Flo and Zack would be careful driving.
By eight-thirty, she suspected the rain had delayed Zack. Settling on the sofa with a book she hadn’t had time to finish, she slipped on her reading glasses and tried to concentrate on the page. But she couldn’t help thinking about Zack. When the key turned in the door around nine-thirty, everything inside of her went on alert.
He came inside, carrying a duffel bag and backpack. He looked as if he’d been wrestling with a bear for the past week, and he was wet from head to toe.
“Zack, what happened?”
“Rain happened,” he said with a grimace. “Two days of it. It was a great way to show our customers how well the equipment worked, but even rain gear can’t keep you dry hiking in this.”
“You don’t have any rain gear on!”
“I left it in the garage.” He started unlacin
g his boots. “I’d better leave these out here. I don’t want to track up everything.”
She laid her book and glasses on the coffee table. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“I just want to get a hot shower and something to eat. Is Amy in bed?”
“A little while ago. But she was already half-asleep when I tucked her in.” Melanie crossed to him. “Drop your clothes outside the bathroom door and I’ll put them in the washing machine. I made chicken and mashed potatoes for supper. Would you like some warmed up?”
“That sounds terrific. We subsisted on backpacking rations. I’m ready for real food.”
There was amusement in his eyes and although he looked tired and damp, he also looked more relaxed than she’d seen him in a while. The backpacking trip must have done him good.
While she fixed a plate for Zack, he showered. She set the microwave and turned it on, then went down the hall to his bedroom. She’d never been inside.
When she stepped over the threshold, she knew she was entering masculine territory. There was a smell of cologne and musk and man along with telltale signs of Zack’s presence. A pair of navy flannel jogging pants were slung over the high-back wing chair. They were almost the same color as the fabric. The navy drapes at the windows looked as if they were made of a burlap material. She often used the loosely-woven fabric to decorate more masculine areas of houses. His triple dresser held a TV-VCR combination perched on one end. There was a man’s valet in the center with his change and keys on top. To the right was a picture of Sherry Morgan holding an infant.
The truth was, Melanie felt like an intruder. She quickly rounded the four-poster pine bed and saw Zack’s wet jeans, shirt, T-shirt and briefs mounded outside his bathroom door. The briefs gave her pause for a moment as she heard the shower running. Her mind conjured up images of Zack under it, and she felt hot just thinking about him there.
Enough of that, she warned herself, quickly hauling the clothes into her arms and hurrying out of his bedroom.
Zack dried off with a fluffy white towel and realized he hadn’t brought any clothes into the bathroom with him. Opening the bathroom door, he saw that the wet clothes were gone. Good. That meant Melanie wasn’t anywhere nearby.
But he’d no sooner exited the bathroom than she stepped over the threshold into his bedroom. They both stopped, frozen. Her gaze passed over him as if she couldn’t help looking, as if she couldn’t help being fascinated by what she saw. In those few moments, his body responded to the curiosity in her gaze as well as much more than that. He saw hunger, and he knew it matched the hunger he felt in himself.
Then suddenly she averted her eyes, spun around away from him and stammered, “I’m…I’m sorry. I thought you’d still be in the bathroom or dressed. I wanted to know if Flo usually puts your jeans in the dryer and…and your supper’s ready. I’ll be in the kitchen….”
While she was stammering, he grabbed his jogging pants from the chair and slid into them. Tying the draw-string, he assured her quickly, “Melanie, it’s okay. I’m dressed.”
“Dressed?” She looked over her shoulder tentatively as if she didn’t quite believe him. But then she saw that he was, in a manner, dressed.
“I should have knocked on the door frame or something—”
He took a few steps closer to her, and the remembrance of what she’d seen was in her eyes. “It’s okay. Honest. Those kinds of things happen when people share living quarters.”
“I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I never expected—”
He took her by the shoulders. “Melanie, it’s okay.” He didn’t know why she was so shaken up. Hadn’t she ever seen a man naked before? Then he thought about what seeing her naked might do to him.
Geez.
He released her and decided the best thing was to treat what had happened matter-of-factly. “Flo does put my jeans in the dryer, and I’m glad supper’s ready because I’m starved. I’ll be out as soon as I find a clean T-shirt.”
Her cheeks were redder than he’d ever seen them, and now her gaze looked as though it didn’t know where to settle. It dropped to his bare chest, then to the waist of his pants, and then fluttered up to his eyes. But she couldn’t meet them and she looked away.
Turning, she quickly headed for the door. “Milk or soda?” she tossed over her shoulder.
“Milk,” he answered, but she was already out the door.
A few minutes later he entered the kitchen. They’d better smooth this over now or they wouldn’t be able to work together. “Why don’t you make yourself a cup of tea and keep me company?” he asked. He knew she liked tea. She had a cup almost every night before she went to bed—chamomile or something.
“Zack, I really should go to my room and work on—”
She still wasn’t meeting his gaze, and now he clasped her elbow. “Come on. If you sit with me I’ll tell you how many stars I counted while trying to go to sleep on my bedroll. If that’s not fascinating enough, I’ll try to give you an adequate rendition of three men snoring in a tent.”
She smiled at that and finally faced him. “All right. I’ll put some water on.”
He kept his hand at her elbow, and she didn’t move.
“Did everything go okay with Flo while I was away?” That wasn’t what was on his mind, but would have to do for a starter.
“Sure. I like Flo a lot and I love helping her take care of Amy.”
“Amy wasn’t a bundle of trouble with Flo gone this evening?”
“She couldn’t be trouble if she tried. We played patty-cake and built with blocks, made animal noises. Your usual nineteen-month-old activities.”
There was laughter in Melanie’s eyes, and he liked seeing it there. Sometimes she looked so serious. “Good, I’m glad you had fun with her. I always do, too.”
Once more they shared a moment of complete understanding…so complete that Zack knew he had to ask her the question that had been on his mind since before he left. “Are you and Jordan Wilson involved?”
Melanie looked surprised at the sudden change of topic. Then she responded, “Jordan’s a friend.”
“How good a friend?” Zack asked.
“He helped me through a difficult time.”
“Your accident?”
“And the aftermath of it. I relied on Jordan to keep me…steady. He was supportive while I was recovering, and he still is.”
“You depend on him?” Zack didn’t like that idea at all.
“Not as much as I used to. We’re good friends, Zack.”
Good friends who might become more? On the camping trip, he’d thought too much about Wilson and Melanie being together in more than a friendly way.
The temptation of her being so close was too hard to resist. He tipped her chin up. “Don’t be embarrassed by what happened in the bedroom. It was just one of those things.”
“Yes,” she murmured. “Just one of those things.”
As his thumb caressed her cheek, he moved a step closer.
The door to the penthouse banged shut and Flo called from the foyer, “Hello, everyone. I’m home.”
Zack dropped his hand from Melanie’s face and stepped away. His housekeeper had amazingly bad timing.
Chapter Six
Although Melanie was consulting with Zack’s foreman on Wednesday about the type of subfloor they would need, she was still aware of Zack entering the work area. She hadn’t seen him much since Sunday evening when Flo had interrupted whatever had almost happened between them. Melanie’s embarrassment over seeing Zack naked hadn’t quite dissipated, and whenever she closed her eyes, she could still see him clearly—the broad, muscled shoulders, the furring of dark hair on his chest, his lower body as he’d become aroused…
She tried to concentrate on the workman’s words, still noticing, however, that Zack looked tired. He’d been spending long hours in his office since the backpacking trip, to make up for lost work time. Something about his coloring today troubled her. He left before she finished her c
onversation with his foreman, and she wondered if he’d be working in his office in the penthouse today rather than in Santa Rosa. In six weeks this would officially be his headquarters. It was hard to believe Thanksgiving was only a week away.
Melanie didn’t see Zack again until she was helping Flo with supper. They heard the door to the penthouse open, followed by a clanging sound and a thump on the floor.
“Do you want to check or should I?” Flo asked with a smile. “It might be a noisy burglar.”
With the penthouse’s security system, Melanie knew that was unlikely. “I’ll check.”
When she reached the foyer, the door was wide open and two file-filled wooden drawers sat on the floor. Looking out into the hall, she heard the elevator returning to the penthouse floor. Zack stepped out, another of the heavy drawers in his arms.
She moved out of his way as he came in and asked in a teasing tone, “Isn’t this a job for the movers?”
After he set the drawer down, he started to straighten. “I’ll need these files here—” He broke off as he suddenly reached for the doorjamb.
Instead of looking gray as he had earlier in the day, he was flushed now and sweating.
“Zack? Are you okay?” Without thinking twice, she stepped close to him.
“I’m fine,” he mumbled still hanging on to the doorjamb.
Peering up into his face, she knew he was anything but fine. “Are you having chest pains? Are you…?”
“Everything just spun for a moment,” he said sharply. “I’m fine.”
Her hand went to his forehead. He backed away, but the movement must have made him dizzy because he suddenly stilled.
“You’re burning up!”
“I’ve been carrying the file drawers—” he grumbled.
“This has nothing to do with the files.” Grabbing his arm, she tugged him toward the living room. “Come sit down.”
When he didn’t argue with her, she knew he really must be feeling rotten. “Stay still,” she ordered. Then she hurried off to ask Flo where she kept the thermometer.
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