CHAPTER 11
“DO YOU TWO REALIZE we haven’t been to Marco’s in a month?”
Zack, sitting restlessly at his kitchen table, glanced up at Josh. Used to be he and Mick and Josh ate lunch at Marco’s at least once a week. Now Mick was married and Zack…well, for the past three weeks he’d enjoyed spending his spare time with Wynn. She’d taken over his brain and his libido and probably even his heart.
That thought shook him and he stood to pace.
Mick chuckled. “There he goes again.”
“Wynn has him on the run.” Josh laughed. “Not that it’ll do him any good. You were as bad once.”
Mick just shrugged. “It’s scary falling in love.”
Feeling haunted, Zack turned to scowl at them. Love? Love. He hadn’t known her long enough, only a little over a month, but he did know she wasn’t what he’d always wanted in a female. She obviously had what he enjoyed, but that kind of enjoyment wasn’t appropriate for the father of a little girl.
He said very quietly, “Shit.”
“Oh give it up, Zack.” Josh threw a potato chip at him and it bounced off his chest. “You walk around looking like a dying man, and there’s no reason for it. Just bite the bullet. Tell her how you feel.”
Even now, Dani was next door with Wynn. They were sitting in the grass, a giant roll of paper between them, finger painting. It had become Dani’s favorite new pastime, thanks to Chastity. She and Artemus, with all their outrageous, oddball, delightful ways, had become surrogate grandparents and his daughter loved them. They hadn’t yet found a place of their own, but Zack knew when they did move, Dani would miss them.
It was nearing Halloween and the fall air had cooled, breezing in through the open kitchen window and the screen door. But still Zack felt too hot, too contained. He dropped back into his chair and said, “I don’t know.”
Mick sipped his coffee. “Don’t know what?”
“Anything. I don’t know what to do, what I feel.”
Josh offered, “She’s a pretty special woman.”
Zack propped his head on his open palms and tunneled his fingers through his hair. “She’s not what I was looking for.”
“I wasn’t looking for anyone when I found Delilah. It doesn’t make any difference.”
“I can’t just think about myself.”
Josh tipped his head. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means I’m a father. I have to consider Dani.”
“Dani adores her, and vice versa.”
Zack clenched his hair. “I wanted someone domestic, someone calm and reasonable.”
Josh laughed out loud. “Domestic you got. Calm and reasonable? And you wanted her to be female right? Good luck.”
“Having women troubles, Josh?” Zack asked suspiciously.
Mick grinned. “Woman—singular. Amanda Barker, the lady putting together the charity calendar? Well, they’ve already started shooting and Josh here still hasn’t agreed. She’s getting…insistent. Seems she won’t take no for an answer.”
“She’s a pain in the ass.” Josh shrugged. “Everywhere I turn, there she is. But I just ignore her.”
Zack dropped his hands and shook his head. “Yeah, right. Like you’d ignore any woman.”
Josh sat back and crossed his arms behind his head, a man at his leisure. “She’s not like Del and Wynn.”
Both Mick and Zack straightened. “What are you talking about?”
“They’re real women, straightforward, funny, down to earth. They don’t whine and cry and complain just to get their way, and they don’t continually fuss with their nails and their hair. I doubt you’d catch either of them getting a facial. I like all that earthiness.” He nudged Mick with his elbow and said, “They’re both everything a guy could want—and more.”
Mick glanced at Zack. “Do you want to kill him or should I?”
Zack shook his head. Everything Josh claimed was true. Wynn worked hard, played and laughed hard, and she never seemed concerned with the typical things women considered. Not in a million years could he imagine her whining. “I think your Amanda sounds responsible.”
“She’s not my Amanda, and yeah, so? Wynn is responsible.”
Zack stood again. “Ha! Wynn is outrageous. She speaks before she thinks, acts before she’s considered the consequences. She pretends to be one of the guys and dresses so damn sexy it makes me nuts.”
Mick and Josh looked at each other. “She wears sloppy clothes.”
“Sloppy sexy clothes that fit her body and show glimpses of skin and… How the hell would I live with someone like that?”
Mick stared down at his coffee mug. Very quietly, he asked, “How would you live without her?”
Zack drew back. Feeling desperate, he said, “Dani has all of us to teach her to do guy things. I wanted a woman who would be a good influence on her, someone who did all those female things you just mentioned, Josh. Someone to be a role model, ya know?”
“You’re an ass, Zack.” Josh shook his head in pity. “Wynn is terrific. She’s independent and intelligent and honest. Yeah she’s outspoken, but so what? You never have to guess at what she’s thinking. And I like the way she dresses.”
Zack’s eyes nearly crossed. Josh had totally missed the point. He opened his mouth to explode with frustration, and noticed Wynn standing frozen just outside the open kitchen door. “Oh, hell.”
Without a word, Wynn jerked around and hurried away. Zack took off after her, slamming the screen door open in his haste. Before it could slam closed again, Josh and Mick were on his heels.
“Wynn!”
“Go to hell!” she shouted over her shoulder. She all but ran—from him—on her not yet healed foot and Zack worried. The blasted woman hadn’t even given him a chance to explain!
He stomped after her, cursing her impetuous reaction, worrying about her foot because he knew she wouldn’t worry about it. Her legs were long and strong, but his were as long, and whether she wanted to believe it or not, stronger. He closed the distance between them.
From Wynn’s yard, he saw his daughter and Chastity look up. On the patio, Artemus and Conan, along with Marc and Clint and Bo all lifted their heads. He could hear Mick and Josh just behind him.
His jaw clenched. When he got hold of Wynn, he thought he might strangle her.
He reached out, caught her arm—and she whipped around on him in a fury, letting out a war cry that rattled his ears and totally took him by surprise. She jerked his arm, stuck her foot out and sent him sprawling.
For three seconds Zack lay flat on his back, staring up at the blue sky, hearing snickers and whispers and feeling his temper rise.
Wynn leaned over him, her eyes red and her mouth pinched. “Don’t ever touch me again. You want rid of me, well you’re rid of me!”
In a flash, he grabbed her elbow and tossed her to her back beside him.
She yelled, “My foot!” and Zack froze at the thought of hurting her.
At the same moment he heard Conan call out, “It’s a trick!” but it was too late.
Wynn landed on top of him, her knees on his shoulders, her hands pinning his wrists to the ground, her big behind on his diaphragm. He could barely breathe. “For the record, you miserable jerk, I never asked to be your wife. As to that, I wouldn’t be your wife now if you went down on your knees.”
It was hard, but Zack managed not to laugh. The fact that he couldn’t draw a deep breath with her bouncing astride him helped. “You were eavesdropping!”
“Another of my less than sterling qualities,” she sneered. “But don’t worry.” She leaned in, almost smothering him with her breasts—not that he was complaining. “I won’t force myself on you anymore. You’re free to go find your little paragon of domesticity! I wish you luck.”
She started to rise, still a little awkwardly since her toe hadn’t entirely healed, and Zack caught her with his legs. “Oh, no you don’t!” He flipped her again and sprawled his entire weight on top of her. He heard her loud grunt, but paid no mind. “You don’t get to just barge in in a huff after listening to a private conversation, just to give me hell and then leave.”
Wynn bowed and jerked and, realizing she couldn’t throw him off, she subsided. “I get to do whatever I please! It’s none of your damn business.” She looked him over with disdain, but Zack saw her bottom lip tremble. “Not anymore.”
His heart hurt. Emotion swelled inside him. “Wynn.”
She jerked again, but couldn’t free herself. “I don’t even know why I bothered with you,” she muttered.
He wanted to kiss her, but figured if he loosened his grip at all, she’d run from him again. “Because I’m sweet?”
“Ha!”
“You’re the one who said it, Wynn, not me.”
He heard low voices and looked up to see everyone gathered around them wearing expressions of curiosity and expectation and anticipation. They blocked the sun.
He turned back to Wynn. “You’re not walking out on me.”
“I don’t think she was walking,” Bo pointed out. “Looked more like running.”
“Did to me, too,” Josh agreed. “Not that I blame her.”
To hell with it, Zack thought, and he leaned down to kiss her. She almost bit him, but he laughed and pulled away. She looked ready to spit on him, and he said, “I love you, Wynn.”
Her gorgeous golden eyes widened, and then they both oofed when Dani leaped onto Zack’s back and began hopping up and down. “We’re keeping her, we’re keeping her!”
Laughing, Zack said, “Not yet, honey. She has to tell me she loves me, too.”
Dani flattened herself on Zack’s back and leaned over his shoulder into Wynn’s frozen face. She put her tiny hand on Wynn’s cheek and said, “I want you for my mommy.”
Wynn drew a broken, shuddering breath and said, “Ohhh,” and her face crumbled. She blinked hard, but big tears welled up.
Zack turned his head to kiss his daughter’s cheek. “Move, Dani.”
“’Kay, Dad.” She scampered off and stood there fretting until Mick picked her up and whispered something in her ear. Then she smiled and nodded.
Zack nudged Wynn with his nose. “We need privacy, sweetheart. Don’t fight me, okay?”
She nodded, attempting to duck her face against him. Knowing Wynn as well as he did, Zack imagined that to her, a spate of tears equaled the gravest humiliation. She would laugh heartily, yell like a fishmonger, and she loved him with enough intensity to leave him insensate. But she wanted to hide her upset.
He’d allow her to hide her tears from the others, but he didn’t want her hiding anything from him.
Zack stood, hauled Wynn over his shoulder and turned away from everyone to head back into the privacy of his house.
Conan yelled, “For once in your life, Wynonna, be reasonable! Don’t blow it.”
Bo and Clint and Marc all laughed, offering suggestions to Zack on how to best her. They said, “Watch her legs!” and “She fights dirty, so protect yourself,” and “If she gets the upper hand, just remember that she’s ticklish!”
Zack waved his free hand in an absent “thank you.”
Artemus called out, “Darling, I will do something with your hair for the wedding, so get used to the idea right now!”
At that dire threat, Wynn started to push up, but Zack put his hand on her bottom to hold her still. Grinning like a fool, he realized he felt better than good. He felt…incredible.
He went through the kitchen and the living room, took the stairs two at a time, went into his room and dumped Wynn on his bed. He rubbed his back and groaned dramatically. “Damn, you’re heavy.”
She held her arms out to him.
Amazing, Zack thought, loving the sight of her in his bed and knowing he wanted to see her there every day for the rest of his life. He lowered himself onto her. “I love you,” he said again.
She squeezed him tight. “I love you, too.”
His heart expanded until it nearly choked him. “Enough to marry me and be Dani’s mommy?”
She pushed him away. “I won’t change for you, Zack.” Her eyes glistened with tears, but she still looked ferocious. “I am who I am, and I like me.”
“I like you, too.” He kissed the end of her nose and smiled. “You scare me to death, sometimes infuriate me and drive me to unheard of depths of jealousy, but I wouldn’t want you to change, sweetheart. Well, except that I’m going to have to insist all other males keep their hands off you. Other than that…”
She laughed and swatted him, but her humor ended with a quiver. “I so badly wanted to be Dani’s mommy. I love her so much.” More tears gathered in her eyes and she groaned. “Oh God, this is awful.” She used his shoulder to wipe her eyes.
Zack smiled. She so seldom said the expected. “How would you feel about giving Dani a brother? She mentioned that, too.”
“She did?”
“Yes. Back when she first explained to me that she was going to keep you.”
Wynn drew a shaky breath. “I’m twenty-eight. I’d like to have a baby before I’m thirty.”
“In other words, you want me to get right on it?” He nudged her again. “I’m ready, willing and able. And I love you.”
She choked back a sob and then viciously shook her head. “Josh would be appalled if he saw me snuffling like an idiot.”
Zack kissed her wet cheeks and then the corner of her mouth. “Who cares what Josh thinks?”
“I care what Josh thinks. After all, he’s the one who changed your mind about me.”
Zack laughed. “I already knew I loved you and you can believe Josh didn’t have a damn thing to do with it.”
“Right. So what was all that in the kitchen about?”
He shrugged. “I was just mouthing off, fighting the inevitable, posturing like any respectable man would do.” He eyed her and said, “You ought to understand that.”
She made a face. “I heard you, Zack. I’m not at all who you wanted.”
“But you’re who I love. You’re who I need.” He cupped her face and kissed her. “Ever since meeting you, I’ve been thinking about leaving the field, becoming an instructor. I even took steps in that direction.”
“You have?”
“And I’ve thought about moving Dani’s room farther down the hall to the guest room—something she’s mentioned before because that room’s bigger, but I always wanted her close and until you, I never considered having a woman in the house with Dani. Then I started thinking about privacy.”
Her brows lowered in thought. “You do get rather loud when you’re excited,” she remarked with grave seriousness. “You groan and if I touch you right here, you shout and—”
Zack drew away her teasing hand and quieted her with a mushy, laughing kiss. “Wynn, I know you won’t be easy to control—”
“Control!” She reached for him again and he pinned her down.
“—but the upside to that is we’ll get to spend lots of time wrestling.” He bobbed his eyebrows. “And now that I’ve made up my mind, you should know I’m not at all sweet. I’m actually ruthless when there’s something—or someone—I want.”
Wynn quit struggling and gave him a coy look. “And you want me?” He pushed against her, letting her feel his erection. She grinned. “Well, since we love each other, then I suppose we should get married.”
Zack collapsed on her. “Thank God. You do know how to drag out the suspense, don’t you?”
“There’s something you should know, though.”
He opened one eye.
“My parents have already told me that if we marry, they want my house.” Zack made a strangled sound, but she quickly continued. “I think they suspected this might happen, which is why they let you carry me off and why they’ve only been halfheartedly looking for another place to stay.” She pressed back so she could see his face, and with a crooked impish grin, added, “But I know how you feel about awkwardness with neighbors…”
He pinched her for that bit of impertinence, then grunted when she pinched him back.
Zack rolled so that she was atop him. “I like your folks and so does Dani. As long as you live with me, the rest doesn’t matter.” They kissed and it was long minutes later before Zack again lifted his head and looked down the long length of his future wife. “We’re going to need a bigger bed.”
Wynn immediately asked, “Do you think Dani would like to be a flower girl?”
Zack laughed. “At least it’d get her into a dress.”
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