Chapter Eight
Holly eased the quad into the construction site, keeping an eye out for Nick. This time she’d done better than spring Zack on him unaware. One of the first things she’d done that morning had been to call both brothers and apologize. She should have warned them last night that Zack might show up.
Nick had seemed okay with things, but Cody was harder to convince. In the end, both men had agreed that since Zack was in town, they supposed they could talk to him.
She’d lined up Nick for today.
Cody would be Monday. He had other things going on over the weekend and had refused to change them.
When she cut the motor, she saw a familiar dark head appear in the doorway of one of the cabins. No words were exchanged, but with the pounding and power tools going on around them, they wouldn’t have been able to hear each other from this distance anyway.
“This is it,” Zack muttered. His breath tickled her ear. He’d been holding onto her tight since right before they’d stopped near her studio. He’d resumed the position when they’d climbed back on, and he hadn’t let go since.
As before, one arm circled her waist, his big hand splayed against her stomach, and his chest pressed to her back. It had made focusing on the drive more difficult than usual.
She wasn’t accustomed to a man being so close. Especially one who seemed to be made of heat and steel. She’d told herself the whole way out that it wasn’t pure, unadulterated attraction she was feeling. Just that he was a good-looking man. She’d feel that way with any good-looking man smooshed up against her.
Also, he smelled simply divine.
He shifted back when Nick headed in their direction, breaking their connection, and his palms slid to her sides. But he didn’t let go.
She turned her head to peek at him. He had a smear of dirt on his cheek. “You okay?”
His eyes shifted from Nick to hers, and she felt for a second as if a live wire were connecting the two of them. He nodded.
“You told him we were coming?” he asked.
“I did.”
Nerves vibrated inside her. She very much wanted the brothers to get along. Nick and Cody had no reason to believe it yet, but Zack was a good guy. She’d seen this more than once.
And he needed them in his life.
She’d seen that also.
Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was lonely. He might love his mother, and he might have had a good life up until now, but he was missing something.
She also thought the twins could stand a third brother in their lives. They’d bonded quickly with each other, and that had only grown stronger over the last months. But they had gone to Atlanta looking for Zack. They’d wanted to know him.
Just because they’d had their feelings hurt didn’t mean that desire had gone away.
“Want me to stay?” she asked.
“You’re leaving?” Panicked eyes widened before her.
She gave him a gentle smile, and she would swear the simple act loosened his stiff shoulders. “You boys don’t need me hanging around. Nick said he’d bring you back.”
Zack didn’t say anything for a few seconds. His fingers tensed where they remained at her sides. “How do you know I can be of any help out here? I might just be in the way.”
“You fixed my granny’s grave, didn’t you?”
“Doesn’t mean I can do more.”
She pried his fingers from her waist before Nick reached them. “Then I guess you get to be the inferior one and let your little brother show you how it’s done.”
He gave her his “scary” look that she could so see through. She supposed being called inferior didn’t sit well with him. Instead of saying anything, she simply blew him a kiss and gave him an innocent grin.
“Zack.” Nick held out his hand when he reached their side.
Zack nodded in greeting. Holly watched him swallow. The man was a tangle of nerves. Finally, he seemed to remember protocol and stuck out his hand.
“Nick,” he started in his uppity, lawyerly voice. “Nice to . . .” He trailed off, and she could feel his chest expand with the breath he drew in. “I apologize about before.” His words were less clipped. “In Atlanta. You two caught me off guard.”
His free hand inched back to Holly’s waist, and she pressed her palm over the tips of his fingers where they gripped her. Not because he was hurting her, but because she wanted him to know she was there for him.
“I shouldn’t have been so rude,” he finished.
Nick eyed him, and then gave a nod. “I showed up on Cody’s doorstep without warning too. We spent the evening getting drunk. Having a brother show up out of the blue is tough. We should have called.”
The air went out of Zack’s chest, and Holly silently cheered. This might just work.
“And I shouldn’t have let two months go by without a word.”
Oh, that was so the right thing to say. She could see it on Nick’s face. He was the peacemaker of the family. But he was also the ringleader. He’d been the one to bring the brothers together in the first place.
He probably wanted this more than any of them.
“Maybe we should start over,” Nick said then. “Spend the day out here. Let’s see how it goes.”
She glanced at Zack when he didn’t immediately respond. This is it, she wanted to shout at him. Get off the quad and say yes.
But what she saw when she looked at him choked her up. His eyes held timid hope. He had not been expecting Nick’s easy acceptance.
She had.
Though Cody might be a really good guy, he was the cautious one. He’d been hurt a lot in his life. Without him here for this meeting, Nick would open the door wider. He would give Zack more of a chance.
Zack’s hand was still at her waist and she gave it a squeeze.
He glanced at her, and she read his thanks. Then he looked back at Nick. “Thank you. I’d like that.”
He climbed off the vehicle, and the two men stood somewhat awkwardly together. She needed to get out of there. She felt as if she’d been dropped in the middle of a moment where she didn’t belong. She imagined it would be similar to walking in on a couple holding their baby for the first time.
Only, these two were grown men. And neither was likely to hold each other.
She revved the motor. “You’ll bring him back?” she asked Nick.
Two sets of identical—gorgeous—eyes turned to her. Man, she’d like to see pictures of their biological parents. The pair might have been worthless human beings, but they had passed along some good-looking genes to their sons.
“We got this,” Nick said.
She glanced at Zack to be sure, and her heart fluttered at the warm look he gave her. He really did appreciate her help.
“Don’t kill yourself heading back,” he said.
She nodded, and he stepped out of the way with Nick. He’d sounded like her brothers with his statement. As if he cared if something happened to her.
It was nice.
Holly roared off, and Zack was left standing there, watching the thick braid of her hair flap in the wind. He owed her for easing the way with Nick today, though, granted, he’d only been there a couple of minutes. He supposed things could change.
Not to mention, he still had to come clean about why he’d been such a son of a bitch in Atlanta. They deserved to know.
He turned to Nick. The first thing he noticed was that the pleasant look was gone. In its place was the same hardness from the previous night.
Damn. And he’d just let his ride head off.
“Don’t hurt her.” Nick’s words were clipped.
“Excuse me?”
“I saw the way you looked at her. Don’t hurt her.”
Ah. The glare was about Holly. Zack nodded. “No intention of it.”
“Intentions can be shot to hell. Especially with a pretty girl around. You might be my brother, but I’ll kick your ass if you break her heart.”
“Man.” Zack held his hands up in front of him. “We’re just friends.”
“Friends who left the park together last night.”
“Yeah,” he said, beginning to take offense. “Friends who left the park together. Stay out of it.”
An evil slash lifted one side of Nick’s mouth. “Cody cares about her more than I do. Think you can take us both?”
He thought he’d get his ass whipped if even one of them took him on.
Though Zack wasn’t a lightweight, his brothers easily had twenty pounds each on him. Of muscle. As well as a couple of inches in height.
“We’re just friends,” he repeated. He found it reassuring that Holly had people watching her back.
“Keep it that way.”
The hardness cleared and Nick changed before Zack’s eyes. He didn’t become friendly, exactly. But he no longer seemed ready to take Zack out either.
“You only here to apologize?” Nick asked.
Meaning . . . do you want to know us?
He did.
Zack hadn’t fully realized it until that very moment, but he wanted to get to know them. He’d missed too many years already.
“The apology is just the beginning,” he explained. “I’d like to actually get to know my brothers.”
That had been far easier to say than he’d imagined.
“I should also tell you that I met our birth mother ten years ago,” he added.
Nick’s matching eyes locked on Zack’s. His voice went flat. “You met Pam?”
“I did.”
“Where?”
“A run-down bar outside Nashville.”
“She sober enough to know who she was talking to?”
Sounded like Nick wasn’t blind to what the woman had been. “She was sober enough to extort me for a good chunk of money.”
“Are you kidding me?” Anger heated Nick’s words. “You gave her money? You know she either drank it or snorted it.”
“I know. But I’d tracked her down—which wasn’t exactly legal. She’d never signed the release. I couldn’t risk her filing suit because I looked her up.” He still wasn’t proud that he’d handed a junkie a pile of cash. “Heard what I needed to hear, got her signature on the form, and then I got the hell out.”
There was so much he left unsaid. Nick seemed to get it. He studied Zack quietly for several seconds, his gaze never wavering. Then he slowly nodded.
“What else did she tell you?” he asked.
Anger suddenly fueled Zack. He’d had every intention of looking his brothers up ten years ago. Before he’d met Pam. The worthless piece of shit had taken that from him.
“When I didn’t come off the full amount she wanted, she made it clear the two of you would do her bidding. Said to watch my back. She also implied you were drinking buddies.”
“Sonofabitch,” Nick growled. And then he got it. “You thought we came to Atlanta for money?”
“It took a while, but yeah. I have a lot of money. I assumed you wanted some of it.”
“What changed your mind?”
“Private investigator. Confirmed you didn’t actually meet Cody until last year and that you were both respectable business owners. That went against everything Pam had said.”
Nick shook his head. Disgust covered his features. “Why would you ever believe something a strung-out drunk told you?”
Because after meeting her, he’d been afraid to hope for more.
Zack had sought Pam out ten years before, naively believing he would mean something to her. He hadn’t been looking to build a relationship so much as to have a few questions answered. To find out what his biological family was like.
The PI had warned him not to expect much. He’d seen the woman in action himself, and had already deduced the type of person she was. At least that hadn’t been a surprise. But for a guy who’d grown up always wondering, always imagining that he meant something to the woman who’d given him life, it had been near impossible to keep from hoping.
How did he explain that to Nick? Nick had grown up with her.
Nick knew better.
And after meeting her himself, Zack hadn’t wanted another reminder of what his genes were. He didn’t need to see his two strung-out brothers to be reminded of what low-class stock he came from.
“I’m not sure what I can say,” he finally answered. “It is what it is. I believed her.”
“You didn’t want to risk having junkies hanging around?”
He took his brother full on. “Would you?”
He knew the answer. Nick had grown up with the woman, and he hadn’t spoken to her for fourteen years before she died. Clearly he’d wanted that distance himself.
“I suspect you already know the answer to that,” Nick acknowledged.
“I suspect I do.”
Both men grew quiet, drifting in their own thoughts, until Nick finally asked, “You good now? Don’t think we’re out to scam you?”
“I wouldn’t be here if I did.”
He nodded. “Good enough.” Then Nick reached out to slap Zack on the back, and the tension of the last few moments evaporated. Just like that, they were ready to move on. “You have any idea how to hold a hammer?”
A tight chuckle escaped Zack. He still had Cody to get past, but this might just turn out okay.
“I can hold my own,” he assured Nick.
“Then let’s do this.”
The log cabin sat quiet and closed up as Holly straddled the idling four-wheeler. The building was small, but big enough for her purposes. It held one bedroom and a combo living room and kitchen, with an eat-in area large enough to be her work space. It was a home, just as she’d implied to Zack when he’d asked earlier. Only, it was so much more.
It was her place.
It wasn’t her parents’, and it wasn’t her brothers’. It was hers.
And it used to hold her dreams.
Now she wasn’t sure what it held.
Her heart sat heavy in her chest, as she wondered what she should do next. She climbed from the vehicle and made her way up onto the small porch that spanned the length of the house. A couple rockers sat there, where she sometimes worked out a design in her head or sketched it in a notepad.
There was also a small table she’d confiscated from her parents’ basement. It had ring stains from years of glasses of lemonade sitting on it during the sluggish heat of summer. She ran a hand over the back of one of the rockers. They were painted a glossy white, and were just as inviting now as they had been the last time she’d been out here. Seven weeks ago.
She’d driven her SUV here that afternoon, making use of the one-lane dirt road that led only to her cabin. Excitement had flooded her at the new direction her life was about to take. She’d loaded up as many of her original pieces as she could fit in the back without risking damage.
Then she’d headed north.
And last weekend she’d come home with all of them once again packed away and loaded in the back. They were still there now.
She hadn’t even bothered to unload them.
But she knew she couldn’t ignore the task forever. She had to decide if she was going to accept that this was truly it for her, and be happy with just a hobby . . . or if she would quit for good.
She unlocked the front door and pushed it open.
Sunlight streaked through the oversized floor-to-ceiling windows on the opposite wall that looked out toward the mountains. The light angled off the many mirrors hanging on every available space in the living room.
The mirrors in this room were the ones she’d refurbished. They were the ones Holly would eventually take to the consignment store.
But it was what was in the bedroom that she was most proud of.
Or had been.
She walked slowly through the room, her eyes roving over each and every design. There were large antique mirrors all the way down to small, handheld ones. For each of them, she’d touched up the mirror itself, if needed, and had then added embellishments. Some she’d removed from their original holders and had put into something new.
Like the one that hung at the base of the stairs at the B&B. She’d rescued that mirror from a fake brass frame like those that were once seen in any number of homes throughout the country, and had found and cleaned the copper tray she’d seated it in.
Then she’d gone to work on what she enjoyed most. The perimeter of that mirror was one of her favorites. She liked the mosaic work. The fine detail it took to get it just right. But she also liked creating new designs from scratch.
She made her way through the room to the adjoining kitchen, noting that, as she’d left it, every surface was covered with containers holding glass, beads, slate . . . whatever item she’d run across that could be repurposed for her mirrors. Of course, there was a layer of dust covering everything now, as well.
Then there were the sheets of mirror waiting to be cut and styled into the more artistic works, like those she’d taken to Chicago. No one in Sugar Springs had ever seen any of those.
They were her babies.
The ones she lost hours of her days creating. They were also the ones she’d been fearful to share with others. She hadn’t wanted anyone to laugh at what she thought was unique and original.
Because what would she have left if she found out they were nothing special?
She let out a shaky breath. She’d have exactly what she had now.
Nothing.
She was just the little Marshall girl; she might as well accept it. The boys’ baby sister.
Whatever she’d needed all her life, all she’d had to do was ask. If her parents didn’t give it to her, her brothers had.
But no one had ever asked her what she really wanted.
The back of her nose burned as she stood at the windows and looked out over the water. She loved this house. And she would love to live here all the time. Though she did get lonely. Just as she’d told Zack. She preferred being around people.
But there was something about this space being so “her” that made it special.
She picked up a notebook where she’d made several sketches, and flipped through the pages. Some she’d already created, and some she still wanted to.
Pain pressed into her chest at the thought of giving this up. This was her thing. It had taken a long time to find it, but she had. And she loved it. She’d never had anything that was truly hers before.
And she didn’t want to give it up.
She looked around and saw nothing but beauty surrounding her. She shook her head and set her jaw. There was no reason she had to.
Screw those highbrow people she’d met in Chicago. They didn’t control her. They did not choose her destiny.
And she wasn’t giving this up.
Even if her more intricate pieces never went anywhere but this house, she could still enjoy creating them. And she could still enjoy working with the ones that she did take into town to sell.
People loved those.
In fact . . . She went to the kitchen cabinets and riffled through the extra-large space that most people would use as a pantry. She found what she wanted, a triangular mirror she’d picked up at a rummage sale in the spring, and nodded her head as her vision for the piece came to her.
She knew just what she wanted to do.
She put the mirror on the sturdy workbench in the eat-in area of the kitchen, and pulled several containers from the shelves running along the wall. She would finish this piece and take it into town next week. That would make her feel back to normal.
And she’d put her trip north completely out of her mind. It had been a mistake to go in the first place.
It had shown her one thing, though. She belonged here.