Chapter Fourteen
She failed.
Holly most definitely had thought of Zack during her date with Keith last night.
She’d also thought of storage rooms.
A date that, all in all, had gone really well. Keith had been charming and funny, and he was just flat-out cute.
And he’d kissed her.
One good-night kiss as they’d sat in his pickup in front of the house.
It hadn’t set off blasting fireworks or anything, but it had been pleasant. Given how long it had been since she’d been kissed, she’d take pleasant.
The only problem was, she’d thought about Zack while Keith’s mouth had been on hers.
Not intentionally, but she hadn’t been able to keep from wondering what a kiss from him would be like.
Would it be fireworks?
Better than Keith’s?
Or maybe she was just being impatient. Probably with practice, she and Keith could reach fireworks.
At least sparklers.
She groaned under her breath as she parked the quad in the shed and stepped from the building. Should a person have to work for sparklers?
She stretched her neck and shoulders, working out the kinks from where she’d been hunched over her worktable all day, then pulled the ponytail from her hair and dug her fingers into her scalp. She was exhausted, drained, and all kinds of thrilled. Her new piece might just turn out to be her best work yet.
It had kept her busy late into the afternoon yet again.
“Where do you go on that thing all the time?”
She jumped, letting out a high-pitched squeak and pressing her hand to her racing heart. It was Zack. She’d stepped one foot up on the steps of the back deck, and hadn’t seen him sitting in the far corner. He was stretched out on a lounge chair with a book in his hand, and he was wearing another yummy pair of jeans, a black pullover, and no shoes. For some reason, she couldn’t look away from his bare feet.
The whole pose just seemed . . . erotic. As if he were stretched out naked instead of fully clothed.
Or maybe that was just how she wanted him to be.
She also wanted him to kiss her. Right then. Right there.
She wanted to see if there were fireworks.
Pulling her gaze away, she managed to finish climbing the steps, all while doing her best to remain casual. As if she hadn’t been thinking about his mouth on hers since late last night.
Or days before that.
“You don’t strike me as the lounge-around-and-read-a-book type,” she said as she headed his way. The activity seemed too slow for him.
He held up the hardback. It was a copy of one of the latest best-selling thrillers. “Larissa recommended it. Figured since I’m supposed to be on vacation, I might as well give it a try.”
That silly little jealousy thing reared its head again. The librarian’s name sure slid easily off his tongue.
“Good for you,” she muttered. She dropped into the chair next to his and stretched out her feet. She was bone tired. “I’d heard you were spotted at the library again today.”
He lifted a brow. “You keeping tabs on me?”
She laughed tiredly. “Not intentionally. But gossip central seems to think it’s their job to keep me informed of your comings and goings.” The tension began to ease from her shoulders, and she closed her eyes. “And as usual, it got back to Linda Sue over at the salon, who told Gina, who called and passed it on to me.”
“So if I want to know something, I could go to . . . Linda Sue? At the salon?”
“Right. Or Gina. That woman knows all too. Or wait about five minutes and it’ll make it to me.”
“What if I want to know how your date went?”
She lifted her eyelids. He’d set his book down and was watching her from under hooded eyes. He looked dangerous.
His jawline was hard, and his cheeks were rigid.
She licked her lips. “It went great,” she said.
“He treat you right?” His gaze slid over her lips. “Was he a gentleman?”
Was he trying to find out if they’d kissed?
Or more?
Her heart took off at a gallop as she sat there watching him, wondering why he wanted to know. Was he finding it as hard to ignore the chemistry between them as she was? Because she most definitely was.
Even knowing he wasn’t the right man for her.
“He was a perfect gentleman,” she finally answered. “We drove into Pigeon Forge and saw a show, and then he brought me home. I was in bed before midnight.”
Ten seconds passed before Zack admitted, “I saw his truck pull up.”
His voice dropped low, swirling over her like silky sheets sliding over her naked body.
“I was watching for you,” he confessed.
Her mouth parted, but she didn’t know what to say. His bedroom was in the back of the house, though there was a small study in the front of the second floor. He’d had to have been in there to watch for her.
But why?
“Didn’t look like much of a kiss,” he pointed out.
She tilted her head, wondering if he’d been jealous. Or was she just wishing for the moon? “If you saw it, then why did you ask?”
His mouth curved, the edges lifting slowly. “I wanted to see what you thought about it.”
The look in his eyes was deliciously wicked. Apparently she hadn’t given the impression she’d thought too much.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “We have another date planned for Friday night. I’m sure he was saving his best for then. You know, when he doesn’t have to get up early for work the next day.” She had no idea if Keith had to be at work Saturday morning or not, but she liked the way a muscle jerked in Zack’s jaw at her words. “I’ll be sure and report in after that date too. If you’d like.”
If he could tease, so could she.
Though the last thing she was thinking about right then was Friday night’s date. Or the kiss she might get from Keith.
Zack nodded. The twinkle in his eyes dimmed, but it didn’t leave. “You be sure and do that,” he said. “I want to hear all about it.”
She couldn’t breathe.
The air felt like it was being cut off in her throat.
They were playing a dangerous game here. Her body didn’t understand that he was simply taunting her, and her heart was stupid enough that it could get confused.
She needed to walk away. Go think about Keith. Or maybe Jesse or one of the many other men who’d been calling. For the first time in her life, she had her pick.
Only, Holly increasingly found herself wanting to pick Zack.
“Stay away from hang gliding too,” he said now. And yes, she was fairly certain that sounded like jealousy in his voice.
“What’s wrong with hang gliding?”
His nostrils flared the tiniest amount. “It’s not for you.”
He was jealous. She would bet the money she’d made off her mirrors he was. But what did that mean? Anything?
“So where do you go on that thing?” he asked. His tone changed, lightening, as if to lift the mood. When she just looked at him, confused and still thinking about him and his mouth and the fact that he looked like one hell of a jealous man, he nudged his chin toward the steps. “The quad. You head out of here on it a lot. You left Saturday the minute we got back. Probably did Sunday too. Best I can tell, you have every day this week. Are you working on your mirrors?”
She had no idea how he’d figured that out.
“Where did you go Sunday?” she asked instead of answering him. If he could ask probing questions, she could too.
He didn’t hesitate. “To see my mother. I have lunch with her every Sunday. Then I took her shopping. She helped me pick out my new casual clothes.”
That was not the answer she’d been expecting. She gulped. It was a far cry from the booty call she’d imagined.
“The mirrors?” he asked. “Is that what you’re doing?”
“What would even make you ask that?” No one ever asked her about the mirrors. Of course, no one but he knew about the custom ones she did, either.
“I looked in your car,” he said. “You unloaded the back.”
“So?”
“So, I don’t see them in the house. You had to take them somewhere.”
“They might be in my bedroom.”
“Are they?”
She didn’t answer.
“Or are they out at your house? At your place?” He used her words. As if he knew what it meant to her to have her own place. To be her own person.
She was suddenly wishing she had not chosen to sit down with him. She swung her legs to the side and pushed up to a sitting position. “I just remembered that I need to help Mom with something.”
Zack sat up too. They faced each other. He put a hand to her arm and she stopped.
“Will you show me?” he asked.
Her gaze shot to his. “Show you what?”
“Where you work,” he said. “Your mirrors.”
She was shaking her head before he’d gotten the words out.
“Why not?”
“I don’t show anybody,” she whispered.
“Does anyone even know you make them? The ones that are works of art.”
She’d never had anyone call something she made a work of art. She wanted to get up and walk away from him, but he knew something about her that no one else did. And he saw it as art.
That meant a lot.
He’d also figured out that this was a part of her she didn’t share. Yet as she looked at him, she had the craziest urge to share it with him.
She finally shook her head. No. No one knew that she made them.
She was too afraid to tell.
“Will you show me?” he asked again. His words were soft and stroked her like a caress, and she leaned forward on her seat. He made the same move, and they now sat face-to-face. There were only inches separating them.
“There’s the movie tonight,” she began.
“Let’s skip it.”
“But . . .”
“I go home this weekend,” he said. “Show me.”
She didn’t want him to leave yet. “Your brothers,” she paused. “You need to spend more time with them.”
“We’re having dinner together tomorrow night. They won’t miss me today.”
When she didn’t answer, his hands slipped over hers and cupped them between his larger ones. “Show me, Holly. Spend the evening with me.”
She wanted to show him.
And silly as it may be, she wanted to spend the evening with him.
And she liked what it felt like when he held her hands in his.
She nodded. Wouldn’t be the first time she’d made a mistake.
Zack looked up from his seat in the living room when he heard a door close down the hall. Holly had agreed to take him to her cabin, but she’d wanted a shower first. Everyone else had left for the park, so it was just the two of them at the house.
She’d seemed exhausted when she’d come home earlier, and he’d told himself to leave her alone. She didn’t need him butting into her life. She didn’t need him hanging around, wanting things from her that she didn’t want to give.
But with the clock ticking on his time there, and the fact that the longer he’d gone without seeing her, the more he’d realized he’d missed her, he hadn’t been able to leave her alone. He’d gone out to the deck specifically to make sure he didn’t miss her.
He’d had a couple of good days, spending part of them with Nick, and of course there was the dinner invite to Cody’s coming up tomorrow night. Things seemed to be going well enough. But that had been dampened by the fact that he hadn’t gotten to share the details with Holly.
And then last night.
Last night she’d been out with another man.
That had about driven him mad. All he’d been able to think about was wondering if the two of them were somewhere making love. If another man’s hands were touching her the way Zack longed to do.
He couldn’t have gone to bed if he’d wanted to.
Not without making sure Holly got home. With all her clothes intact.
When he went out to the deck, he’d intended to ask her to come to dinner with him the next night. Instead he’d learned she’d lined up a second date.
And if that date didn’t work out, she had another man waiting in the wings.
Neither of those things sat well with him.
Thus he’d talked her into spending the evening with him tonight. Just him. Not him in the middle of the whole population of Sugar Springs.
Again, he should leave her the hell alone. But he couldn’t.
Blonde hair was the first thing to catch his attention when she stepped back into the room. It was twisted into a loose braid of some sort, reaching to the middle of her back. A few strands floated softly around her face, and he closed his hands into fists with the desire to reach out and pull the strands free. He wanted to know what all that gold felt like.
Then he took in the rest of her.
Zero makeup and a ruffled, light-green shirt that was wispy and flowy. It buttoned up the front, leaving just a hint of cleavage, and made her look like a magical fairy. The jeans fit snug all the way down. On her feet were simple flip-flops. They didn’t even stand out.
But her toes did.
Each toenail was painted a different color. They so loudly screamed Holly that he realized he would have been upset if nothing about her had been outside the norm. She was an out-of-the-norm kind of girl, and he was finding that he liked it. Very much.
He dragged his gaze back up her body, telling himself not to let her see what she did to him, but he wasn’t sure he could hide it any longer. He wanted her. And he might just have to push the issue.
It would be selfish. Because he wouldn’t get involved in anything that wasn’t quick and easy. He’d learned that lesson before.
But at the moment, quick and easy with Holly was looking pretty damned good.
“You ready to go?” she asked. Her green eyes watched him carefully.
He nodded, but he didn’t get up. God, she looked so young. She’d been right about the lack of makeup.
“You never did tell me how old you are,” he pointed out.
Her dimple winked in her cheek and he got hard in a flash. She held out a hand. “Come on, old man. I’m twenty-five. You won’t get thrown in jail if someone catches you with me tonight, I promise.”
Twenty-five was still eight years younger than him. Not that he hadn’t dated plenty of women eight years younger. They just normally looked their age.
He took the hand she was offering, and his fingers wrapped around hers. Her hands were strong, her fingers long. And he could no longer keep from imagining them on his body.
Things were almost out of control in his mind.
He let her pull him from his seat.
“We’re taking your car,” she informed him.
Right then, he would have let her drive his car.
She pulled free of his hand and shot him a wink. “But I want to go for a ride first. Can we do that?”
“We can do whatever you want,” he promised.
Her eyes once again met his, and for a brief moment, he had the thought that she wanted what he wanted.
She was attracted to him. He knew that.
He couldn’t miss it.
But did she want no strings attached?
“Then I want to go fast,” she said. “So fast my laugh is swept away in the air before I can even hear it.”
He didn’t know about that, but he would give it his best shot.
All while attempting to figure out how to keep from trying to get in her pants once they got to her cabin.
Two hours later, after darkness had fully engulfed them and Holly knew that the rest of the town was engrossed in the movie being shown at the park, she looked across the seat of the car to Zack. She’d directed him through several back roads she suspected he hadn’t known about, teasing him the whole time to be careful not to wreck.
He’d taken it well.
Very well.
In fact, he’d been overly accommodating. It had almost felt as if this were a date and he was trying to charm her. It still felt that way.
And she had been charmed.
Especially when he’d pulled into a small country grocery store they’d run across, and bought hot dogs, chips, and bottles of root beer for dinner. They were now parked at her favorite lookout in the mountains, and sat watching the stars and finishing up their meals. He was licking the tips of his fingers, swiping off crumbs from the pastry he’d picked up for dessert.
The whole night had been much better than dressing up and going to the park. They’d started off by taking the car out to a straight stretch of road, where he’d opened the thing up. The car could fly.
If she hadn’t already been turned on, that would have done it for her. She was a sucker for a hot car.
And a hot man.
And going really fast.
Her body still hummed at the memory. “Thanks for taking me for a ride tonight.” She smiled at him as she said it. It had been clear as they’d raced down the road that she wasn’t the only one who enjoyed speed.
“Thank you for showing me where I could go fast,” he replied. “I was beginning to think there were no such places around here.”
She laughed easily. “Tease me with another ride and I might show you more.”
Her words felt too much like she was offering something other than directions to an open road. His silence said he’d heard the same thing.
“Tell me about your mom,” she requested, pushing the words out fast. She needed to change the subject. Rein it back in. She could not offer him more.
He would break her heart.
She lifted a knee to the seat and turned to face him. She liked looking at him. Especially because he was so different than he had been ten days ago.
He was relaxed now.
The angles of his face didn’t scream stress and tension. They shouted sex and heat. And they made her want to climb into his lap and straddle him.
“My mother is great.” He glanced at her as he spoke, and her subconscious whispered that he wanted her in his lap too. That he wanted her legs around him. “She was a stay-at-home mom,” he continued. “She doted on Dad and me as if we were the most important things in her life.”
“She sounds like a good person.”
“She is. And she still dotes.” He made a face. “And worries.”
“And calls to check on you when you least want her to,” Holly teased.
He lowered a hand and rested a loose fist on her knee. The move was casual. Familiar. And it made parts below her waist ache.
“I still can’t believe she called the house,” he said with an easy grin. “I’m thirty-three years old. I don’t need my mother checking up on me.”
Holly couldn’t help but smile along with him. She had a secret she’d been waiting to share. Now was the perfect time. “Then I don’t suppose I should tell you that she called again?”
Zack’s expression went flat. “What?”
She nodded. “Earlier today. She got Mom, but I ended up talking to her too.”
“Why in the world?”
It was too dark to tell, but she wondered if he might be blushing. She loved seeing him embarrassed. She also loved teasing him.
“What did she want?” he asked.
“She was checking on availability. Apparently she wants to visit.”
He shook his head. “She knows I’m coming home this weekend.”
Holly lifted a shoulder. She didn’t let her disappointment in him leaving show. She liked having him around. “Mom let her know that we had a cancellation yesterday. There’s now a room available for the next two weeks.”
“She didn’t reserve it, did she?”
“Not yet. But she did ask us if we’d call before we booked it. She said she’s thinking about it.”
His mother had also said that she’d called because she wanted to talk to Holly. Apparently Zack had mentioned her on Sunday when he’d been home, and Mrs. Winston wanted to check her out. Holly tried to decide if she should mention that or not. She’d like to know what had been said. And why he’d been talking about her to begin with.
In the end, she decided against it. It felt like a juicy secret and she wanted to hang on to it.
She hadn’t been sure what part of the conversation had consisted of Mrs. Winston checking her out, though. They’d basically talked for twenty minutes about nothing. They’d laughed over Snow White and the Huntsman. Zack had told his mom that her geese didn’t like him. Holly had assured the woman that wasn’t true. Her pets liked everyone.
Then the conversation had turned to what she did for a living. Zack had mentioned the mirrors. As far as Holly had been able to tell, though, he hadn’t mentioned the custom ones. His mother said that Zack made them sound so special and unique that she just had to have one. She would ask her son to pick one out and buy it for her.
And then they’d talked about the upcoming Firefly Festival. A lot.
Something told Holly they would be seeing Zack’s mother next weekend, whether he wanted her to come or not.
“Do you really have lunch with her every Sunday?” Holly asked now. His fist was still on her knee, and she covered it with her hand.
Dark eyes flickered over her. “Unless I’m out of town for work.”
“You must be a good son.”
“No better than anyone else.”
He wasn’t giving himself enough credit. Holly’s first impression of him had been wrong. She hated to admit it, as it messed up her ninety-nine percent accuracy rating—and Cody would enjoy giving her grief about it when he found out—but it had become clear in the past few days. Zack was an upstanding guy.
“Tell me about growing up,” she urged. “What were you like as a kid? What made you want to be a lawyer?”
“You’re asking a lot of questions tonight.” His hand flattened under hers, and his fingers and palm now rested on her knee. She held her breath. The heat from each of his fingers touched her through her jeans.
She slowly let out the breath. She liked him way too much.
“I just like to know things,” she said. She swallowed, thinking she’d like to know what his hands would feel like on her bare skin. “I like to learn. Asking questions is one of the best ways to find things out.”
He didn’t answer at first. Instead, his thumb moved in a tiny arc against her leg. She tried not to let it get to her.
Which was laughable. The man’s breathing got to her.
Of course his thumb stroking her leg would.
“I was on the debate team in high school,” he finally began to talk. She ignored his thumb and concentrated on his words. “I was the captain. My dad made the statement after one of my debates that I would make a good lawyer.” He turned his hand over so that their palms touched. Her nipples beaded. “So now I’m a good lawyer,” he finished.
She nodded. Good lawyer. Got it. She was losing focus fast. “What else?” she whispered. “What were you like before that? In elementary school. Junior high.”
She could picture him in little dress pants and jackets. He would have stolen her heart.
His fingers closed over the fleshy part of her palm and held her hand trapped in his. “I was picked on, actually.”
“What?” Her heart thundered at the admission.
He nodded. “No friends. Glasses. Boys called me a nerd. Girls giggled behind my back.”
“Why?” The word came out as shock. “I can’t imagine . . .”
She trailed off. She couldn’t imagine everyone didn’t want to either be him, or be with him. But she couldn’t say that out loud. It might make her sound needy.
“I was smart. I was different. Adopted, you know. Not that that was such a weird thing, but something they could point out. And my mom likes to dote.” The corners of his mouth slid into a sexy arc. “You’ve seen it. Can you imagine what it was like when I was ten?”
“Ah, geez,” she whispered.
“But that was okay. I was special. Mom and Dad told me that from an early age. They chose me to adopt, and they wouldn’t have had it any other way. So I loved her doting. I loved the attention.” His thumb slipped between their hands and slid over the center of her palm, and the edge of his tongue briefly touched his bottom lip. “Only, I had no friends. And yes, I was lonely.”
She’d accused him of being lonely the other night. “Are you still lonely?”
She was certain he wouldn’t admit the truth.
The man made it a point to never miss Sunday lunch with his mother. He may play the loner card exceptionally well, but she was no longer buying it. He needed people in his life.
At least a few.
Ones who honestly cared about him.
She swallowed, her throat tight. Because she cared about him.
His hand moved once again, and this time his fingers ended up twined between hers. His eyes shifted to her mouth and she held her breath.
Then he lifted his gaze and he arched a brow. “Sometimes,” he admitted. “But not tonight.”
This was it. He was going to kiss her.
She was certain of it.
And she was going to let him.
His gaze once again swept over her lips. Her heart raced.
And then he untangled his hand from hers and started his car.
“I get the impression you’re trying to delay taking me to your cabin,” he teased.
Her entire body wept at the loss of the potential kiss. It was a fight not to physically cry at the calm, unconcerned tone of his voice.
Had he seriously not been thinking about kissing her? At all?
She had issues.
She needed to quit fixating on this man. Who would be leaving her in a matter of days.
Without expressing anything she really wanted to say, she directed Zack back to their property and pointed out the one-lane road that would take them to her cabin.
Zack exhaled silently as he pulled the car to a stop in front of Holly’s log cabin. Everything went dark when he turned off the engine. The glow from the moon came into focus, as well as the sounds of the night.
The river not far from them, the mating songs of insects. He even heard rustling in the woods behind them.
Yet generally speaking it was quiet. Near silent. Including the woman by his side.
My God, he’d almost kissed her.
And if he had, he would have done more.
Right there in his car, he would have pulled her into his lap and done his very best to get her out of her clothes.
Holly was the last person he wanted to hurt, though.
So he’d reminded himself that she was looking for a husband. Not a one-night stand. And he’d started his car and driven away.
“Some reason we’re not getting out?” Holly asked beside him.
He hadn’t even looked in her direction.
Because he still wanted to stretch her out and feast on her body.
Forcing casualness to his voice, he gave her a teasing wink. “Just enjoying the quiet. We don’t get nights like this in Atlanta.”
“I’m sure that’s the truth.”
She shoved her door open and he followed suit. He couldn’t help but watch as she moved ahead of him. She was mostly a silhouette in the dark, but the moon was almost full. It picked up on the pale skin of her cheeks and throat, making them glow in the night.
He could imagine his mouth tasting the very spots the moon landed on.
When he didn’t move toward the house, she looked back. “You still want to see, don’t you?”
The tentativeness in her voice kicked him into gear. His hesitancy was making her nervous. Fearful that her stuff wasn’t good enough.
He’d seen that in her eyes Saturday morning, and he’d seen it again that afternoon. He’d asked her to show him her work, and she’d tried to run away. She was terrified she wasn’t good enough.
“Absolutely,” he said.
He caught up with her, and they stepped onto the porch together. When she paused before unlocking the door, he slid his hand down the inside of her arm and grasped her hand in his.
“You saw how fast those two sold the other day.” His words were meant to soothe. To let her know how good she was. “I have no doubt we could have pulled the rest out and sold them just as quickly.”
Her face turned to his. She was nothing but a shadow, but he knew it was fear radiating back at him. She didn’t speak, and he was honestly humbled to be standing there beside her.
“Thank you for showing them to me,” he added sincerely. “I know how scary it can be.”
And he did. That’s why he’d told her about being picked on as a kid. Sometimes, the vulnerabilities that have the power to hurt the most need to be addressed.
He had deep scars from his formative years, and he’d wanted her to understand that. He’d been through his own hurts. His own fears. And if she’d been paying attention, she would recognize that he still had plenty of them hanging around.
But for her, he was strong.
She made him that way.
She held up the key. “You do it,” she whispered.
He nodded. He took the key from her hand, and because he couldn’t help himself any longer, he leaned in and pressed his lips to her cheek. He lingered for only a second. “You’re the most amazing person I know,” he whispered.
Then he put distance between them and he slid the key into the lock.