Chapter Twelve
Fourteen steps from the road to the front door.
That was what weighed on Zack’s mind as he faced the front door of the Sugar Springs Veterinary Clinic. He’d parked his car, stepped to the sidewalk, and then counted.
And now he had to go in.
He stared at the oak door, not bothering to peer through the frosted panes to the inside. Cody knew he was coming today. Holly had set it up, and Nick had confirmed it Saturday night. But what the hell should he say to him?
Nick had also been helpful with that.
Don’t push. Don’t be an ass. And don’t act like the fact that they were brothers didn’t matter.
Not that he’d planned to do any of those things. But given that his walls went up when he was uncomfortable—and both Nick and Cody had already experienced this—Zack supposed it was good advice.
His mother had given her own advice the day before. Be nice. As well as asked him about a million questions about his trip.
She’d wanted to know what all he’d done since he’d been there, what he and Nick had done, what they’d said, and if they were getting along. But she’d also asked about the town and the people. She’d specifically narrowed in on Holly.
She’d apparently let her imagination run wild while she’d been sitting home alone. She thought Holly sounded exactly like the type of girl he needed.
He’d reminded her that first, he didn’t need a girl—a woman. And second, he had a career to get back to.
She’d waved away his concerns and asked about the festival he’d also mentioned.
And he’d been right. She wanted him to bring her.
He’d made no promises. He had to get back to work next week, and then he’d see if he had time to make it up for the weekend. Or if there would even be a place to stay.
The door opened in front of him, and a curly-haired woman stared out from behind round glasses. The gray of her hair reminded him of the color of battleships.
“Did you need something?” she asked. Her mouth was pursed so tight that tiny lines sloped up to the edges of her lips. “We don’t allow no solicitors in here.”
“I’m not a solicitor, ma’am.” It irritated him to call this woman ma’am, but his mother had taught him manners once upon a time. Even if he didn’t always use them.
She looked him up and down. “I know you’re not. But I’m not sure we take what you’re selling either.”
Looked like Cody had his security team on hand.
“Cody knows I’m coming,” he told the woman as politely as he could manage.
“He know you were just going to stand on the front porch?”
There was something about the people of this town. They either annoyed the piss out of him . . . or they annoyed the piss out of him.
Yet somehow, most of them grew on him.
This one didn’t.
He gave the woman his scary look and asked, “Can I come in?”
She returned her own scary look. “I reckon,” she said. “It’s an office building. Not my front door.”
With her words, she turned and disappeared back inside. The door closed in front of him and he rubbed his hands down the sides of his legs. Then he looked down at the jeans he wasn’t yet accustomed to.
He’d picked up several more pairs yesterday. Along with work boots, loafers, a pair of sturdy gloves, and a few polo shirts. He’d even tossed in a couple T-shirts on his shopping spree, thinking they would be more appropriate in the event he ended up helping Nick again.
The work hadn’t been bad. He wouldn’t want to do it all the time, but he hadn’t been involved in any kind of construction since before he’d started law school. He and his dad used to handle random projects around the house for his mom. She’d preferred things done by them instead of hiring outside help.
Didn’t mean she’d always gotten her way, but when time had allowed, he and his dad had done just that. Until Zack had become too busy. Then it had all been left to his dad.
He saw the woman from inside giving him the evil eye again so he wrapped his fingers around the doorknob and pushed open the door.
The smell of dogs, cats, antiseptic, and Pine-Sol hit his nose at once.
None of them were overwhelming, but mixed together, they stung the senses.
“I let Cody know you’re here,” the woman snipped out. She’d moved to sit behind the reception desk, and her nose was stuck in the air as if he were the thing that smelled funky in the room.
“Thanks,” he said, but she was already ignoring him.
Zack roamed the small room, not in the mood to sit. No one else was there other than him and the grizzly bear behind the counter, but he did hear the occasional bark from the back.
The waiting room held six armchairs, a small rustic bench that looked to serve as a seat, a basket of magazines, and a fake plant perched on a coffee table. There were a handful of posters on the walls. They all advertised different services or products the office offered.
A creak sounded behind him and he turned. Cody stood in the doorway. His expression was not welcoming. But at least he was there.
Zack could see so much of himself in the face looking back at him that it set him on edge.
The man was guarded. He was careful. And he had walls.
“I couldn’t get him to sit down,” the old lady said.
Zack eyed her again. He tried his scary look once more. The old bat hadn’t even suggested he sit. Her nose went back in the air.
“That’s okay, Ms. G.,” Cody said. “Thanks for letting me know he was here. And thanks for covering this morning. Amy should be in any minute.”
Cody met Zack’s eyes again, and without knowing anything else about his brother, Zack knew that this was the one he wanted to know most. They were the two who had been discarded by their biological mother.
“Come on back,” Cody said.
He turned and Zack caught the door before it closed. Ms. G. sniffed.
He followed Cody down the hall, made a right, and followed down another.
Cody poked his head into a large utilitarian room. “I’ll be in the office, Keri.”
“Sure thing.” The woman’s white lab coat had KERI WRIGHT stitched across the chest. She met Zack’s eyes and gave him a friendly, easy smile. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Winston,” she said. Her hands were full with a golden retriever, so she gave him a nod. “I’m the other owner of this office. Thanks to your brother buying in, I get to see my six-month-old baby on a regular basis.”
Zack nodded in return, appreciating the welcome. “Call me Zack,” he offered. “And nice to meet you too.”
Cody had stepped on down the hall, and now stood at the entrance to an office. A bored look was pasted on his face, so Zack moved into the room without another delay. Cody closed the door, and the space was suddenly, deafeningly quiet.
“So,” Cody started. He moved to the other side of the desk and looked as uncomfortable as Zack felt. “You wanted to talk.”
The room was sparse on decorations. There was a shelf full of reference manuals, a couple of filing cabinets, and a handful of pictures. There was also a black, long-haired cat parked in the middle of Cody’s desk.
“I did,” Zack said. It went against everything he believed when there was a confrontation brewing, but he pulled out a chair and took a seat first. He could not come into this in a challenging manner. Looking up at his brother now, he added, “I would like to apologize for my attitude and rude behavior when you and Nick came to Atlanta.”
None of the stiffness left Cody’s shoulders. Nor did he sit. “Words are easy,” he said.
Zack counted to five. It would be easier to get up and leave. He wasn’t a man who made a habit of begging. Then he reminded himself that this was important. They were blood. And that mattered. He also pictured his mother’s pleading eyes as she’d encouraged him to come here.
And her threatening to hire a man with a big stick.
The memory helped him force his own posture to relax. “Not for me, they’re not,” he said. “Not apologies, anyway. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve admitted I was wrong in my life. Counting this one. And I’d still have a finger left over.”
“That’s supposed to make me think you’re a stand-up guy? Because you think you’re never wrong?”
“How many times have you admitted you’re wrong?”
A muscle spasmed in Cody’s jaw a second before he yanked out his own chair and sat. Zack almost smiled. He could recognize his own arrogance in Cody. He’d pegged him right. The man didn’t make a habit of apologizing either.
“Nick thinks I should give you a second chance,” Cody said. “I don’t see why. We tried to get to know you before. You made your opinion clear.” He shrugged. “Open-and-shut case to me. Why bother now?”
“You also ambushed me. I’m sure you know what that’s like. Walking out your door to find a brother?”
Nick had filled him in on how he and Cody had met. He’d shown up on Cody’s doorstep and knocked. Cody hadn’t taken it well.
“How about walking out to find two of them?” Zack finished.
“I didn’t shove my money down his throat,” Cody defended. “Nor did I tell him to take a hike.”
Yeah, Zack had done the money thing too. He’d chosen the priciest restaurant he could get into on short notice, then had tossed down a few hundreds as he’d left the meal early. It hadn’t been one of his prouder moments.
“You’re clearly a better person than I am,” he said. “That doesn’t mean I don’t deserve a second chance.”
“Maybe I don’t believe in second chances?”
Cody was just being bullheaded now. This town liked to talk. Even without Nick, he’d easily learned that Cody’s fiancée had given him the biggest second chance anyone deserved. If she hadn’t, Cody wouldn’t be there now. And he wouldn’t be getting to know his daughters.
Zack merely lifted a brow.
“Fuck,” Cody grumbled. “Damned town. Everyone tells every fucking thing they know here. Ms. G. is probably standing outside the door right now. I wouldn’t doubt she has a notepad and pen in hand, just so she can relate our conversation verbatim.”
A shuffling sound came from the hallway and then a thump. Then the sound of footsteps hurrying in the opposite direction. Both men looked at the door.
Zack burst out laughing. Cody merely shook his head.
“Why I ever suggested to that woman that she fill in when our receptionist needed a morning off, I’ll never know. She is the bane of my existence.”
“I hear she’s sweet on you,” Zack added. He’d just put two and two together and figured out that Ms. G was, in fact, the town gossip. Nick had mentioned that she had a fondness for their brother.
Cody’s dark eyes turned stormy. Yet at the same time, Zack saw bluster.
“Don’t let anyone fool you,” Cody muttered. “She’s sweet on gossip. That’s all. She’s a cranky old biddy.”
“I reckon I’m not, Cody Dalton,” the sharp voice came through the door. She rapped on the wood three short times. “I’m a nice woman. I bake you pies.”
The two of them looked at each other, and this time they both burst out laughing. The ice between them was slowly beginning to thaw. They decided to go for a walk. Away from Ms. G.
Ten minutes later, they ended up in front of a charming two-story house. There was a basketball hoop with a concrete pad in the yard to its left, flowers of all colors overflowing from containers lining the porch, and a Great Dane slapping his tail in greeting where he lay on the top step.
It was a cozy place.
It made Zack think of his childhood. His parents had provided a good home. There had been love. Family.
A closeness he was only now starting to recognize that he was missing.
Cody stood in the middle of the road in front of the house, and he shoved his hands in his pockets. “I did get a second chance. A big one. It turned my life around.” He eyed Zack.
He didn’t say he would grant Zack another chance, but Zack felt it being considered.
He nudged his chin at the house. “Your place?”
“Lee Ann’s,” Cody said. “As well as the girls’. I won’t move in until we’re married.” He shot Zack a look. “You know I have twin daughters, right? Teenagers?”
Zack nodded.
“They’re terrific.” The man softened. “My life wouldn’t be right without them.”
“Probably wouldn’t be nearly as stressful either.”
Cody chuckled. “You got that right. Kendra has a different boyfriend every other week. I can’t believe how many kids I want to beat with a stick just for looking at my girl. Candy is all about basketball. She doesn’t have time for boys yet. Thank God.”
Together they turned and headed the way they’d come. They neared the back of the clinic, and Zack saw Ms. G. now on the porch of the house across the street. He looked at Cody.
“She lives there.” He pointed to the stairs leading to the apartment behind the office. “I live here. She knows every flippin’ move I make.” He lifted his mouth in a wry smile. “But she does make good pies.”
Zack held out his hand, reminding himself of Nick’s words. Don’t push it. He’d go around the side of the building instead of through it. They’d had a good talk, and things were moving forward. That was enough for today.
“How about dinner?” Cody asked. He shook Zack’s hand in return. “Lee Ann will have my hide if I don’t ask. The girls want to meet you, as well as Lee Ann’s mother.” He nodded toward his neighbor. “But be warned. She’s as bad as that one.”
Zack pictured sitting at a dining room table with five people, all staring at him, trying to decide if they wanted to let him into their lives. With one of them apparently looking for juicy gossip to spread.
Not the way he’d imagined his life heading two weeks ago.
But the funny thing was, he was already looking forward to it.
And then it occurred to him for the first time that he wasn’t just getting two brothers. He was also getting two sisters-in-law and two nieces. Which meant that his mother would see it as two sons, two daughters, and two granddaughters.
He would definitely have to bring her up to meet them.
But first, he had to fix this. His and Cody’s relationship. He had to make them okay.
He nodded. “Name the day.”
“Friday night. I’ll invite Nick and Joanie too. Bring Holly if you want.” When Zack just looked at him, Cody added, “Tale is you’re becoming friends. Thought you might be more comfortable with her there.”
He would be. He would love to have her there.
“There’s also rumor you’re more than friends,” Cody pointed out. He didn’t sound pleased by the thought.
“That why you suggested I bring her? So you can check that one out for yourself?”
Cody didn’t answer, which was answer enough. If Zack hurt Holly, his brothers would take him down.
“Friday,” Zack said. “I’ll see you then.”
He left his brother and headed around the side of the building, contemplating asking Holly. She’d come with him, he was sure. She liked to go out. And she kept saying she wanted to help.
He just didn’t want it to feel like a date.
Because then he might act like it was a date.
He came close to walking into a diminutive, older man when he rounded the corner of the building, barely managing to pull himself up short in time.
“Excuse me,” Zack spoke first. His hands went up in front of him.
“My fault,” the man said. “I apologize. I was going too fast, afraid I’d letcha git away.”
Zack lifted a brow. “You were looking for me?”
The man nodded. “Ms. Grayson called. She knew I was looking for ya.” He stopped and shook his head, the sagging skin under his chin moving back and forth. “Let me start over.” He thrust his hand out. “I’m Waldon Martin. I live out at the edge of the county. My property backs up to Old Man Wilson’s.”
Zack pumped the man’s hand, noting the grip wasn’t terribly strong, and didn’t let his confusion show. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Martin. Is there something I can do for you?”
“Oh,” the man groaned out as if in agony. “That old man. I’ll tell ya, he drives me and the missus crazy. We had this property dispute. Only, the missus and I paid to have the land surveyed. Wilson wouldn’t do it, he’s a cheapskate. Anyways, we were right with the lines, so we called a guy to put up a fence. Wilson’s dog keeps terrorizing our ducks, you see. That’s when our problems began. The man’s dog keeps grabbing our ducks up by the necks and carrying them around as if they’re chew toys.” Mr. Martin took a breath before finishing with, “Worries my Carol to death.”
Zack merely nodded. That had been a lot of words in a short amount of time. He waited to see how the duck-dog story turned out. Right now, it didn’t look so good for the ducks.
“So anyways, every time we get the fence people out, there’s Wilson standing on our property with a shotgun. He won’t let the men put up the fence.”
“I see.” Sounded like Old Man Wilson was a pain in the ass. “Did you call the sheriff?”
The man’s shoulders sagged. “His son is the sheriff, Mr. Winston. Now don’t get me wrong, the boy makes a fine sheriff. He does a good job. He just ain’t gonna throw his own daddy in jail, if you know what I mean.”
Zack thought he did know what he meant. The law was the law, until it came to your kin. Got it. “Okay,” he said. “I can see that being a problem. So then what happens next?”
“That’s why I’m out huntin’ you. We need us a lawyer.”
“And there isn’t one in town?”
The bony shoulders slumped even more. “His other son is the lawyer.”
Zack couldn’t help it. He laughed.
“I know,” Mr. Martin grumbled. “The man could come over and piss on our front porch every day if he wanted to, and all we could do is clean it up. He wasn’t like this years ago. The guy used to be a decent person. But now he’s sad and lonely, and he’s turned into nothing but a grumpy old Gus.”
A grumpy old Gus? Zack smiled again. The quirks of this place were starting to grow on him.
“So what can I do for you, Mr. Martin? I’m afraid I won’t be a lot of help since I practice law in Georgia.”
Weariness passed through Mr. Martin’s features. His faded eyes latched onto Zack’s. “Couldn’t you just pretend? I’m worried for Carol. I’m afraid she’ll have a heart attack out there yelling at those dadgummed dogs. And the poor ducks—one’s eventually gonna git killed.”
He pictured Holly and her two geese, and then imagined her fifty years down the road trying to chase off a dog who thought her geese were toys. He wouldn’t want to see her stressing herself out either.
“I know somebody, Mr. Martin.” It probably wouldn’t take more than a letter to scare Wilson into backing off. Especially if his lawyer son thought he’d have to face Zack’s friend in court. “He’s a big name up in Knoxville. You get me the address for Mr. Wilson, and I’ll have my friend send a letter. How’s that?”
“You think that’ll do it? Get him to back off?”
“If it doesn’t, I’ll go have a talk with him myself.”
Relief washed over the man’s face, and happiness slid quietly into Zack’s heart. He could help this person out. Really help out someone who deserved it. Not just someone with a wad of cash in his wallet.
Zack liked the feeling.
Waldon Martin grabbed Zack’s hand then, and gave it a hearty shake. “I thank you. And my missus thanks you. I’ll get that information right out to the B&B. You just let me know what we owe you.”
“No charge, Mr. Martin. I’m happy to do it.”
Mr. Martin looked as if he’d just been handed a gold brick, then he shook Zack’s hand again.
Zack took his time making his way back to his car. As he did, he took in the little town he’d temporarily landed in. At first glance it hadn’t looked like much, but every day he found something new to love about the place. He was beginning to see why his mother had often talked about the town she’d grown up in. People took care of people here. It was nice.