Chapter Twenty-Two
Holly opened her eyes as sunlight peeked over the mountains and hit her windows. She was on her back, and though her head wasn’t turned to Zack, she knew he was still there. His weight pressed into her, and his heat seemed to cocoon her.
He’d been wonderful last night.
No. That didn’t tell the whole truth. He’d been freaking awesome last night.
And she wasn’t just thinking about the sex.
He’d understood what receiving that e-mail had meant to her. She’d gotten her hopes up. Again. Which had made her as upset as receiving the e-mail had.
She was done with all of that once and for all. She’d either sell them herself, or she would never sell them at all. And she was okay with that decision. She couldn’t go through that sort of rejection over and over again. Maybe some people could handle it. The big artists had been through hundreds of rejections. She knew that. She’d studied about it as she’d worked on her degree. Tough skin and all.
But she didn’t want tough skin. She just wanted to create.
She wanted to be happy. To smile each day, and hopefully make someone else’s day brighter just for being in it. She was good at that. And she loved it.
So she was finished seeking an external outlet for her mirrors. They would be sold out of Sugar Springs, or they wouldn’t be sold at all.
The decision made her more content than she’d ever thought it could.
She focused out the windows and thought about the other things that had been discovered throughout the night.
Like Zack’s muscles. And his stamina.
His compassion.
He really was a wonderful guy. And a great lover.
And she just happened to be in love with him.
Yep. That was the big revelation to come from the night. She had fallen in love with Zack Winston. Just as she’d feared. Someone who would leave her in barely more than a week.
Unless she convinced him to take her with him?
The pressure of tears built in the back of her eyes because even if she could convince him, if by some miracle he fell in love with her too, she didn’t want to move to Atlanta. His house was great. His mother was greater. His car was off the charts.
But her life was here.
Her mirrors were . . . here.
She closed her eyes and thought about Zack. He’d been in love before. He’d even had his biological mother stomp all over his emotions. Holly couldn’t imagine him taking another chance. Not with his heart.
Work and his life might commingle, but women and his life didn’t.
No matter what his eyes had told her last night.
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and trekked toward the sheet because she knew he wouldn’t take the chance. Not on her. And she couldn’t blame him. She turned her face toward the ceiling to stanch the tears. She didn’t want to lie there and cry.
But when she shifted, she found that Zack was awake. He was on one elbow, a pair of übersexy, little rectangular glasses perched on his nose, and he was watching her. And now he was looking at that one tear track leading from her eye to her hairline.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. He’d whispered. It seemed the right volume for the quiet morning. Everything was so still. The moment solemn.
She understood this.
She would have whispered too.
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
“But you’re crying.” He lifted his hand to swipe against her drying cheek. Then he turned her face toward him and pressed a kiss to the track. It put a lump in her throat.
“It was one tear,” she mumbled into his chest. “One tear doesn’t constitute crying. I think I had something in my eye.”
He gave her his scary look. She didn’t feel like laughing.
“Oh my,” he said. “Something really is wrong when you don’t even laugh at me.”
This cracked a tiny smile, and he gave her one just as small in return.
“Last night was good,” he said softly.
She nodded. “Last night was great.”
“Then why the tear?”
“It was just a lot.” Too much, she thought. Because of the love. And because he would be leaving soon.
Because she figured that she was just this week’s woman.
“Why are you wearing glasses?” she asked. She needed to lighten the mood. Change the subject. “Afraid you didn’t turn me on enough last night?”
One corner of his mouth inched higher. “You like my glasses?”
She moaned in pure pleasure and the other side of his mouth rose to match the first.
“I like that,” he said. “I had no idea glasses would turn you on. Maybe I should have brought them out before.”
“Everything about you turns me on,” she admitted. “It always has.” Which maybe wasn’t so smart to say, to give him that power, but they were lying naked in bed together.
“My contacts were bugging me when I first woke up, so I ran out to the car to get them.” He tugged the sheet so that it slipped below her breasts. “I wanted to be able to see you like this.”
His words came out heavy and needy, and she couldn’t help but need a little more herself. She stretched, lifting her arms over her head, and grinned at Zack as hunger crossed over his features. He was watching the movement of her breasts and nothing else.
“Well, I like them,” she confessed. “A lot. They’re almost as sexy as your car.”
He was still focused on her breasts. His hand curled around one now, squeezing it in his fingers in an experimental way, as if he hadn’t completely explored that particular body part the night before. She wiggled beneath him.
“Which car?” he asked. His voice was gruff.
“The Roadmaster.”
He smiled and leaned forward to suck her nipple into his mouth.
She let out a slow, long moan.
“If I promise to bring it up for the wedding, will you go as my date?” He’d lifted his mouth from her body, but remained positioned over her, his breath whispering over the wet tip of her breast. Only now his dark eyes were trained on hers.
She gulped. Lee Ann and Cody’s wedding. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be coming up for it or not.”
“I’ll be in it.” The pride in his voice almost brought the tears back. She could see it in his face. His brothers had accepted him.
She lifted on her elbows and set her mouth to his. She kissed him with every ounce of the passion she was feeling, combined with all the love she had for him.
It was not a minor kiss.
When she pulled back, they were both breathing hard and his eyes had grown darker. She nodded. “I’d love to go as your date.”
The wedding was in three weeks. He would go home next weekend, but if he wanted to take her as his date, maybe he was thinking she could be his woman of the month. Instead of just the week.
Unless she would just be his woman when he was up here.
The joy left her and she eased back to the bed.
“Hey,” he said gently. “What happened?”
“Nothing.” She tried to force cheer. She wasn’t about to tell him that she was simply trying to figure out how much time she had left.
Because she wasn’t going to kid herself. He might be attracted to her, but he wouldn’t let her be more.
A phone rang from the floor and they turned their heads to the discarded clothing.
“That’s mine,” Zack said.
She wanted to tell him not to get it, but he was already climbing out of the bed. So instead, she watched his naked body as he scooped up his jeans and dug into his pocket.
His ass was spectacular.
He caught her watching and winked at her, and she blew him a kiss.
“Hurry back,” she whispered.
She sat up in bed, letting the sheet fall to her waist, and smiled when Zack’s gaze latched onto her body.
He jerked his eyes away as he pulled out the phone and tossed his jeans to the floor. “It’s my boss.” He spoke almost to himself. She pulled the sheet up over her breasts as if the other man could see into the room with them.
As Zack answered, he sat on the side of the bed and snatched the sheet out of her hands. Then he palmed her breast as he talked to his boss.
It felt dirty. And hot. And she was ready to go again. Right then.
Until Zack said into the phone, “But I’m taking one more week.”
His hand still on her, her throat grew tight.
“Right now?” he asked.
He nodded as he listened, and it was as if a transformation came over the man before her very eyes. He sat up straighter. His face hardened. And he seemed to forget that she was sitting naked beside him. She covered herself with the sheet.
“No, sir,” he spoke clearly. He had his lawyer voice back. “Nothing whatsoever. Just a short vacation. I can be there today.”
His words broke her heart.
Nothing whatsoever.
When he got off the phone, he stepped away and began pulling on his clothes. He didn’t look at her. An air of tension surrounded him that she hadn’t seen in a couple weeks. She’d forgotten how much he’d changed since he’d arrived in Sugar Springs.
“I’ve got to go back to Atlanta this morning,” he said as he shoved an arm in his shirt.
He shot her a glance. Then he looked at the bedside clock as if he’d already been there too long.
“Get some clothes on and I’ll give you a ride to the house. There’s a case that’ll—”
“Go on without me,” she interrupted. She could already feel him pulling away.
She didn’t care to hear about the case. And she didn’t want to get back in the car with him. Not right then. She could walk. She suspected she might need the fresh air.
Especially given the distance that had already slammed down between them.
He had all but two buttons fastened and he paused long enough to give her a belittling look. “Don’t be silly. Put your clothes on and I’ll drop you at the house. I need to shower and get Mom anyway.”
His dismissive attitude was the deciding factor.
She didn’t let people treat her like that anymore. Like she was just some silly little country girl, out looking to sell her silly little mirrors.
No one would ever get away with that again.
“No need to worry,” she informed him with an impressive amount of calm. She wouldn’t waste her breath pointing out what an arrogant jerk he was being. What good would it do? Their time was clearly over. And she wouldn’t beg. “I’m a big girl. I know my way through the woods.”
Her tone must have caught his attention because he paused as he shoved his wallet into his pocket. “You okay?” he asked.
Sure. She was dandy. The man she loved was heading home, and she thought he might just forget her before he even got out her front door.
She wanted to cry at the thought.
“I’m great,” she answered brightly. “Think I’ll sleep a bit more before I head back, is all. It was a big night, you know. You performed quite well.”
His eyes turned to thin slits. “It wasn’t a performance,” he said carefully.
She shrugged. “It was good, whatever it was. Thanks for the memories.”
Complete silence ticked away for ten full seconds as they stared at each other. Zack didn’t move. Neither did she.
Then his jaw hardened even more.
“Memories?” he asked. The coldness in his voice startled her.
“Yeah.” She nodded and offered a halfhearted smile. It was fake, but it was all she had. “I had a good time. And like you pointed out, neither of us promised more.” She pushed up the smile. “Hope we can keep in touch.”
If she wasn’t mistaken, it was fury staring back at her now. She couldn’t imagine what for. If she hadn’t done it to him, he would have to her. She’d bet her mirrors on it.
She supposed he wasn’t used to the morning-after brush-off being directed his way. No doubt he was a master at doling it out, though.
“What’s going on, Holly?” He asked the question cautiously. “What am I missing?”
She recalled his earlier words to his boss, and managed to hold on to her smile just long enough to repeat, “Nothing whatsoever.”
He stared at her blankly for another second, and then he nodded.
And he left her house.
The short drive to the bed-and-breakfast consisted of a lot of cursing, a couple slams of his hand against the steering wheel, and more than once calling himself a fool.
How had he managed to again be falling for someone who cared so little about him?
Thanks for the memories, his ass.
As if he was nothing to her.
And when he let himself think about it, he supposed that might be the case. He was nothing to her. Except her friend.
Or he had been.
That bullshit in her bedroom had destroyed that.
Because he couldn’t care for someone who could look at him so casually. Not even as a friend.
He turned into the driveway of the B&B and admitted to himself that when he’d realized he had to go home, he’d given his usual thought to brushing her off. Exactly as she’d done him.
For about two seconds.
But then he’d looked at her sitting in her bed, the sheet covering all that soft goodness that he’d held in his arms last night, and he’d known that he couldn’t do that. Not to her.
It may have been his style, but he was a changed man. Holly had done that.
And then she’d smacked him in the face and kicked him in the balls.
A healthy dose of irritation, mixed with all-out anger, had him jerking the car to an abrupt halt. He climbed out and took the porch stairs three at a time, and was at his mother’s bedroom door before he heard her laughter coming from the dining room.
Perfect. He’d been hoping not to run into anyone before he got them out of there.
He wasn’t in the mood for chitchat.
“Mr. Winston,” Sylvia Marshall said as he stepped to the arch of the dining room. “So nice of you to join us this morning.” She held up a bowl. She wore the look of someone who knew he’d just left her daughter’s bed. “Would you like some eggs and grits?”
Which only made him think of Holly and how she’d made pancakes for him two weeks ago on eggs-and-grits day. She’d tried to put chocolate chips in them.
“No, thanks.” His words were curt.
His mother narrowed her eyes at him from her seat at the table, no doubt over his rude tone, but he didn’t care. The woman he’d thought he was falling for had just swatted him away as if he were nothing more than a gnat. He had to get back to Atlanta, and he had to get his head on straight.
Work was his number one priority.
Number two was also work.
Holly couldn’t factor into the picture at all. Nor could lazing about in this Podunk town. It was time to go.
“Mom,” he said. He motioned for her. “Come on. We have to go back to Atlanta.”
She didn’t get up.
Seven other faces turned to him around the large dining room table.
“I’m having my grits,” his mother explained as if he couldn’t see what she was doing. “They’re cheese grits.”
He clenched his teeth. “I’ll buy you breakfast on the road. I need to get to the office.”
A high-profile case had come in. It would redeem him for the Butler debacle. This case would make him partner.
His mother shook her head. “I’m not going back to Atlanta today, Zachary. The Firefly Festival is tomorrow. We’re going with Cody and Nick.”
“We were going with Cody and Nick,” he corrected. “My boss called. I’ve got to go.”
“Then you go on. I’m staying here.”
Once again, his back teeth ground together. If he kept this up, his dentist would be able to buy a new boat the next time Zack went in to see him.
“Mother,” he said.
She turned her back to him and began talking to the man on the other side of her.
She had to be kidding him. He didn’t want to have to drag her from the room.
“Mother,” he tried again. He did not have time for this.
Everyone at the table continued to stare at him, including Mrs. Marshall, who stood in the doorway to the kitchen. Still holding her bowl of grits.
“I told you,” his mom started, “I’m not going. I’m enjoying my time here. You should too.”
“I have enjoyed it.” He smiled at Mrs. Marshall to show his appreciation for her hospitality. “It’s simply time to go now.”
“Slow down, Zackie. Enjoy life for a change.”
“I do enjoy my life, Mom. Success makes me happy. This case I’ve got to get back to is the one I’ve been waiting for. It will make me very happy.” He put his hand on his mother’s shoulder and softened his voice. “Come on. I really have to go. This is the one that’ll make me partner.”
“Stay through tomorrow.” His mother couldn’t be swayed. “Go to the festival with Holly. Have a good time.”
That was the wrong thing to say at that moment.
He took a step back from the table. “I’m leaving in fifteen minutes,” he announced. “You need to choose whether you’re staying or going.”
Without hesitation, she stated, “I’m staying and going to the festival with your brothers.”
Rejection slapped him across the face yet again.
“I’ll send a car for you Sunday morning.”
For the second time that day, he turned and walked out of a room without looking back.