Phillip chuckled behind him. “You mean you didn’t tell her what happened when you called to say you were going to be late? Bro, you are in so much trouble. And not just from Amanda,” his older brother said, chuckling again as he pushed past him. “Wait till Mom finds out how much you left out when you called.”
“What is he talking about?” Amanda asked, her scowl deepening.
He sighed, looking her in the eyes. “Someone, and I’m not naming any names, slashed all the tires on the jeep and destroyed the paint job. Besides that, they messed with some mechanical stuff on it.”
“They destroyed the paint job?” she screeched. “I’ll kill him. I loved that paint job. Any Superman fan would have loved that paint job,” she said, getting louder with each word.
“See?” Phillip nodded. “She’s showing the appropriate amount of respect for my hard work.”
“It had to be Austin,” she continued like Phillip hadn’t said anything, nearly moved to tears. “This is my fault.”
“Now see, this is why I hadn’t told you yet. It’s not your fault the guy is a vindictive bas…”
“Stop right there, Zane Daniel Townsend,” Jamie said, coming through the swinging doors. “Watch your mouth. I don’t care what the man has done, you don’t talk like that in my house.” By the time he got done explaining what Austin had done once more, she had a few choice words of her own to say.
“I thought I wasn’t supposed to use that word in your house,” Zane smirked and watched his mom’s face turn red when she realized she had said the exact same thing she had just gotten on to him for almost saying.
Amanda sniffled, wiping her eyes. “This is all my fault.”
“No, it’s not,” three voices said at once.
“Well, he wouldn’t have done it, if it wasn’t for Zane helping me.”
“Amanda, you are far more important to me than my jeep. There’s no way I was going to leave you at his mercy, even if I had known this was going to happen from the start.”
“But he messed with the paint job,” she said, nearly bursting into tears.
“I can paint it all over again,” Phillip said, trying to reassure her with a smile.
“I know, it’s just the principle of it all.”
Zane pulled her into his arms and hugged her close. “The jeep, no matter how perfect the paint job had been, can be fixed or replaced. You are irreplaceable.”
Chapter 7
Saturday, July 26
It had been really hot through-out the whole week and Jamie and Carl had decided the whole family needed to go to the river for the day, together. It was only nine now and it was already in the upper eighties. Mindi, Lisa and Jenny were in a shallow part of the river with all of the smaller children and the babies, and Carl, Phillip and Luke were already getting the grills started to get burgers and dogs ready for lunch. And for some reason the only one that hadn’t been in the water already, at least once, was Zane.
Zane had even managed to talk Jeff into coming along, and Luke was having a really hard time not losing it. He couldn’t decide which one of them was having a harder time keeping their tongue in their mouth. Hannah and Amanda both had on bikinis, and Jeff and Zane both ended up staring when the other two weren’t looking.
He even heard Jeff mumble under his breath once, “How the heck can she be so tiny, and so dang curvy all at the same time?” Luke watched as he shook his head and walked off in the other direction, putting more space between him and a very curvy Hannah.
Luke watched as Zane walked by once again, not even watching where he was going. His attention was so focused on Amanda, he nearly ran into a cooler that was sitting on the ground, just looking down in time to hop around it. He smirked, hollering out, “Hey, Zane, do you need a napkin?”
“What?” the other man asked, barely sparing Luke a second of his attention before turning back to watch Amanda again. “We’ve not even started eating yet.”
“Oh, I’m not talking about you needing to wipe food off your face,” he chuckled. “I’m talking about the drool.”
His brother-in-law gave him a dirty look, finally turning fully to face him. “I’m not drooling.”
“Right,” Luke said, giving him a skeptical look. “You haven’t been able to take your eyes off Amanda since we got here.”
“Whatever, Luke. Leave me alone,” Zane said, once again staring at Amanda, deciding he really didn’t care at the moment if his brother-in-law figured out how much in love with the woman he was. He was thinking about pulling the strings on her bikini top and letting it go floating down the river, and he just about had his eyes crossing. She would have to use him to hide against, so no one would see more of her than she was wanting them to.
He shook his head, groaning at his own thoughts. Man, I really need to get laid before I do something crazy. I’m wanting her naked body pressed up against mine so bad, I’m about to resort to untying her bikini top in front of everybody.
“Zane, what are you thinking?” the other man asked, giving him a hard look.
“Nothing,” he said, trying for as innocent a look as he could, which was something he had never been really good at. He really hated his brother-in-law’s intuitiveness sometimes. Most of the time, he could prove to be harder to deal with than his own mom. “What makes you think I’m thinking something?”
The man sighed, giving him a hard look. “Zane, remember who you’re talking to. You’re thinking about doing something.”
“Luke, I’m not going to do it,” he groaned, shaking his head. “No matter how much I want to. I haven’t taken complete leave of my senses.” Not yet anyway.
“Zane,” he said, giving him a stern look. “If you don’t tell me what it was you were thinking, I’m going to follow you around all day, making you completely crazy.”
“Fine,” he said, throwing his hands up in defeat. “I was thinking about going out in the water where Amanda is, and untying her bikini top and letting it float down the river.”
Luke’s eyes nearly popped out of his head with that. It was very rare for him to be caught off guard by something, but this was one of those times when he was truly shocked by something someone had said. “Zane, do you really want everyone else to see her that way?”
He grinned salaciously before finally answering. “No, I was going to let her use me as a shield. I’d protect her from everybody else’s eyes,” Zane said, his eyes almost glazing over with the thought. “And boy would I enjoy it while I did.”
“Yeah,” his brother-in-law replied dryly. “I’m going to have to keep an eye on you for the rest of the day.”
“Luke,” he groaned in frustration. “I said I wasn’t going to do it. You don’t need to shadow me. That’s the reason I haven’t gotten in the water yet. I’m waiting till I regain at least some of my senses.”
The other man gave him a strange look. It was dawning on him that Zane wasn’t as clueless as everyone had thought he was. “We’ve all been thinking you didn’t realize you were in love with her. We’ve been wrong. You’ve known you were in love with her the whole time, haven’t you?”
He couldn’t help the blush that spread across his cheeks as he answered, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Luke shook his head. “Stop, Zane. The game’s up. You’re in love with Amanda, and most of all, you know it.”
“Okay. So, what?” he growled in frustration. “It doesn’t change anything.”
“Why?”
“This situation is still too screwed up. What am I supposed to do?”
“Why don’t you try asking her to marry you? As crazy as your relationship has always been, you should skip dating altogether. It would most likely be dangerous anyway. And I would advise doing it quickly and quietly, so you’re married before Austin catches wind of it.”
“She’d probably say no,” he said, nearly pouting.
“No, she wouldn’t.”
“Yeah, right,” he said, sounding frustrated. “Don’t
tell anyone else what you know.”
“Why, Zane?”
“Just don’t,” he said, walking off, feeling even more frustrated than before.
He was irritated and didn’t have his mind on where he was going when he got distracted by Amanda walking out of the water in her bikini again. He ran smack into a tree and ended up landing on his butt. He just dropped back on to his back and shook his head, staring up at the sky. I don’t even want to try and get up.
“Zane, are you okay?” Amanda asked, sounding alarmed as she knelt down beside him. “What were you looking at? Because you certainly weren’t watching where you were going.”
Zane shook his head and sat up. There was no way he was going to tell her he was staring at all her soft parts she had on display in that bikini that she barely had on. It was a good thing they were with family, or he might have felt the need to put some eyes out. She was showing way too much skin for his peace-of-mind and it was making him crazy.
“Zane, please don’t stare at me like that,” she said, wrapping her arms around her middle. “I know I’m too fat. You don’t have to remind me of it.”
“What?” Zane asked, raising his eyebrow at her. All the sudden he felt like someone had slapped him in the face.
“It’s okay, Zane. You don’t have to pretend like you weren’t thinking I need to cover up my body because I’m too fat,” she said, sounding like she was about to cry.
“Mandy, you’re not fat,” he said, trying to figure out a way to explain how sexy she was without giving away his true feelings. However, his mouth seemed to be in overdrive, and he ended up adding, “I ran into the tree because I couldn’t stop staring at you. You’re sexy as all get out, Woman.”
“It’s okay, Zane. You don’t have to lie,” she said, even closer to crying.
“Mandy, I’m not lying to you. You’re one neat little package.”
She shook her head at him. “Right, Zane,” she said, actually sounding sarcastic. “I’m way too round and squishy.”
“Mandy, you’re supposed to be round, and squishy is not the word I would use. You are definitely soft in all the right places though,” he said, unable to stop the flare of desire in his eyes. “Women are supposed to be curvy and soft. They’re not supposed to be skinny little stick figures.”
“Zane, please stop,” she said, this time blushing.
“Did Austin tell you, you were fat?” he asked, sounding like he wanted to hurt somebody.
She nodded her head, unable to say anything else.
“Amanda, if you keep this up, I’m going to show you just how wrong you are,” he said, raising his eyebrow again. He was really wanting her to argue with him but knew it would be a bad idea for her to do so.
When she looked him in the eyes, her breath caught in her throat. She finally realized, he really meant what he was saying.
******
Amanda had been pestering Zane. Trying to get him to get in the water. He kept saying he wasn’t in the mood to swim. What it really was, he knew if he got in there with her, he might give in and untie that top despite what he had told Luke. He knew he was too close to losing what little self-control he had left, to push himself. That didn’t stop her from pushing though.
“Come on, Zane,” she pleaded. “Get in the water.”
He shook his head at her. He should have realized he was in trouble when he seen her nod her head. But he was still getting too distracted by her scantily clad body to pay sufficient attention to what was going on around him. It was a really good thing he didn’t work with the woman. He would probably end up getting himself shot or stabbed one of the times he had to check out a domestic disturbance call.
By the time he realized she was signaling to Phillip, Mark, James and Luke it was too late. They already had a hold of him, each one of them grabbing an arm or leg. Unfortunately, for him, Mark and James had taken his arms and had complete control of his upper body. He might have stood a chance of getting loose if it had been the other way around.
“Hey, put me down,” he bellowed. “Luke, this is a bad idea. And you know why.”
“Zane, you said you weren’t going to do it,” the other man scowled. “Please, promise me you won’t.”
“I can’t make that promise,” he yelled just as they tossed him toward the deepest part of the river.
When Zane broke back through the surface of the water, he came up beside Amanda where she was standing on a huge rock in the middle of the river. He just stood there looking at her with a glare on his handsome face.
“What?” she asked, trying not to laugh. “You looked like you could use a dip in the water to cool off. You looked hot.”
“Yeah, I know you think I’m hot,” he said, smirking at her, leaning down to pick her up in his arms. “But you didn’t have to have them throw me in.”
“Zane, what are you doing?” she asked, sounding a little alarmed.
“Paying you the favor back,” he smirked, tossing her into the deeper water, clear of the rock he was standing on.
He started to get a little concerned when she didn’t come back up immediately, and had started to swim toward where he had thrown her in. He was getting ready to go under just as she resurfaced clutching her bikini top to herself. She was trying to use her arm to cover herself, but it wasn’t working very well. She was way too blessed in that area.
She was blushing bright red when she asked, “Will you tie my top, please?”
At first, he stared at her, unable to answer. He couldn’t believe after thinking of doing this very thing on purpose, he had managed to do it accidentally.
“Zane?”
He shook his head to clear it and managed to croak out, “Can you make it to the rock without losing it?”
“Probably.”
By the time they had made it back to the rock, they were starting to draw the attention of the others. Zane wasn’t sure Luke was going to believe this was an accident. Sure enough, by the time he had it retied, the other man was giving him a dirty look.
“It was an accident,” he said, feeling the blush spread across his cheek. That was the second time he had gotten embarrassed today, and it wasn’t even noon yet. For someone who usually never got embarrassed, that was really saying something.
“Right?” Luke replied, his look growing more severe.
“After you four threw me in, I tossed her in the deeper water. When she came back up, it was untied,” he grumbled in explanation.
“Amanda, was that what happened, or did he intentionally untie it?” Luke asked, glaring at Zane.
“He’s telling you the truth. Why would you think he had untied it on purpose?” she asked, giving Luke a curious look.
“You’re going to want to ask Zane that one,” he answered with a mischievous grin.
When she turned to give him a questioning look, he miraculously blushed for the third time in less than four hours. Without answering, he turned and dove off the rock, back into the deeper water. Right then, he was really needing a cold shower. Hopefully a cold swim would help.
******
“Jeff’s getting ready to start self-defense classes,” Zane said, looking down at Hannah. They were in their mom and dad’s kitchen working on getting fried chicken and potatoes ready for supper while Amanda cut up vegetables for salad. Well, Zane was doing more watching Amanda, than working. He would have figured out a way to fenagle a way out of cooking if it wasn’t for the fact Amanda had volunteered to help.
“Jeff doesn’t need to take self-defense classes,” Hannah said with a smirk. “I don’t think there’s anyone he couldn’t beat up. And that includes you, Big Brother.”
“Oh, now your sense of humor decides to show itself,” he said, throwing his hands up in mock exasperation. “You’ve been grumpy all day.”
“Jeff keeps avoiding me,” she pouted, her bottom lip sticking out like a five-year-old.
“You’ve had a bikini on all day,” he said, like the problem should have been obvious.
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“So?”
“He has a lot of respect for women, but he is male. I think those things were designed just to torture men,” he added with a shake of his head.
“And your point is?” she snorted.
“Hannah, if I have to tell you what his problem is, maybe you don’t need to know,” he chuckled.
Hannah couldn’t help the smirk that crossed her face, but she was still irritated. “He still didn’t have to avoid me all day.”
“Well, he’s not going to be able to avoid you very well now. He’s going to be giving self-defense lessons to women after work on Thursdays and Fridays. As a matter-of-fact, he’s signing up girls as young as five.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” she said, starting to drop the chicken Zane had been coating in batter into the hot grease.
“And you and Amanda are going to be starting immediately,” like he had the final word on the matter. Which, truthfully, he did, because he knew she would listen to him on this matter.
“Okay, I’m not complaining, and I understand why you want Amanda to start immediately. But why am I starting immediately?” Hannah asked, giving him a strange look.
“Because of Jeremy Hart,” he said, snarling the guy’s name.
“Will you, please, tell me what the thing with Jeremy Hart is? Other than the fact that he is really very creepy,” Hannah said, actually shivering. “I don’t see where he gets such a high opinion of himself. He’s disgusting.”
Just then Jeff walked in behind her with a disgruntled look on his handsome face. “You still haven’t told her.”
“I don’t think there’s any reason to scare her witless. Just make sure she’s armed with the defensive skills she needs. And you better not tell her yourself,” Zane said, as he turned and followed Amanda out the swinging doors.
“Is there an invisible string attaching those two we just don’t see?” Jeff asked with a look of awe. “If he’s not following her around, she’s following him.
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