Zach shrugged, a little sheepish. “I thought I just saw what I wanted to see.”
Brett rolled his eyes and wandered off, leaving Zach alone with his thoughts. He glanced around, glad Kelsie wasn’t hovering anywhere near. His gaze darted around the room of milling people. Maybe he should ask her to dance, get her to thaw a little.
Only he couldn’t find her. Finally he checked the last place he expected her to be—the kitchen. Staff bustled about the room with brisk efficiency, while the caterer organized and inspected. Zach’s gaze swung around the room. He paused and blinked. Kelsie stood over by the breakfast table, hands fisted at her sides, shoulders thrown back, and a look of defiance on her face. He didn’t like the threatening stance of the guy standing only a few feet from her.
Zach did a double-take.
It was Mark.
Even though his beauty queen appeared to be holding her own, Zach mounted his white stallion and rode to the rescue, only to rein himself in a few steps from her. One scathing glance from Kelsie broadcast loud and clear that she didn’t need or want a white knight. Well, screw that. He’d rip the asshole’s head off if he made one move toward Kelsie, gala be damned. In fact, if they were anywhere else but this damn gala, he’d already be mopping the floor with the guy’s face.
The two continued their stilted conversation as if he weren’t there. Mark looked like some model out of some fucking men’s fashion magazine, but then he always had. Zach hated his type. Not only was the guy a pussy, but he had a way of making Zach feel like he didn’t measure up. High school all over again. But not this time.
His protective instincts rushed to take over, but he cleared his throat and fought them off, bent on showing her how much he’d learned. “Mark, you’re a long way from Houston.”
“You’re a long way from the trailer park,” Mark sneered at him.
Zach bit back a retort and tried to remember Kelsie’s lessons about tact and playing nice with others. He really wanted to plant his fist in the asshole’s face. “I’m thinking about putting one in my backyard just so I’ll feel at home.” He kept his voice calm.
Kelsie stared at Zach as if he’d just donned a tutu and started dancing to Swan Lake. She blinked a few times. “Mark was just leaving.”
“Actually, I’m not going anywhere.”
Zach tensed up, ready to grab the guy by the scruff of the neck. Never get defensive and don’t make rash moves until you’ve considered all your options. Kelsie’s words bounced around in his brain. He took a deep breath. “I believe you may want to reconsider.”
“I can handle this, Zach. I was doing just fine before you showed up.” Kelsie pointed toward the door. “Good night, Mark.”
“I paid good money to attend.” Mark leaned against the kitchen table and crossed his arms over his chest.
“We’ll refund your money. Leave. Now.”
Zach clenched his fists then unclenched them. He let his arms hang loosely at his sides. Think before you speak. Plan your words carefully. Diffuse a volatile situation with calming words. “It would be best if you left. Let me escort you out.”
“I’m taking Kelsie back with me.” Mark stood his ground.
“You can’t order me around anymore. You don’t have the power to hurt me or control me.”
“You’d pick this backwoods hick with no redeeming characteristics other than knowing how to tackle over me?”
“You abusive asshole. You aren’t fit to breathe the same air as this man.” Kelsie shrieked and lunged forward, but Zach was quicker. He wrapped his arm tightly around her waist and held her to his side. He would not be baited by this asshole, nor would Kelsie.
“I’m guessing Kelsie never told you the truth.”
“The truth?” Zach’s life teetered for a moment then righted itself. He noticed several of his teammates come into the kitchen. They must have heard Kelsie yelling.
“Come on, even you can’t be that dumb and clueless. Did you honestly think it was a coincidence that Kelsie showed up at that charity event a few months ago?”
Zach didn’t have an answer for that while Kelsie struggled to free herself.
“You’re a pawn. I kicked her out when I caught her screwing around on me. She came to Seattle specifically because you were here, and she figured she could manipulate you into helping her out. You were her last resort. You always have been.”
Zach shook his head, feeling oddly off-kilter. Kelsie jammed her elbow in his side, but he didn’t let go. “You’ve been set up, buddy. You were always a sucker for her. She invited me here tonight to make me jealous. Sounds familiar?”
“You lying bastard,” Kelsie tried to pry Zach’s fingers from her waist.
Zach couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, could hardly breathe. Even his teammates who stood watching the whole sordid scene seemed to hold their collective breath.
He fought like hell to wrap his brain around Mark’s comments, and one truth spoke louder than the rest. He stared Kelsie’s ex square in the eyes and shook his head. “No, she wouldn’t do that.”
“What about the stalker? Did you really think I’d waste my bucks on a PI for her? She hired the guy herself to manipulate you into taking her in.”
“I did not. You hired him.” Kelsie craned her neck around to gaze at Zach with pleading eyes.
“No.” Zach shook his head even as his world blew up like a planet being attacked on Star Trek. Mark was lying, he had to be, twisting things to his advantage.
“You don’t think she married you because she loved you?” Mark snorted.
Actually, he knew she didn’t. Her big blue eyes pleaded with him, yet he couldn’t deny the guilt there. Mark was telling the truth, at least partially. She’d used him. Again. Made a fool of him. Again.
“Zach, it’s not like that.”
Kelsie seemed to have regained her composure. Zach let go of her. “Then what is it like, Kelsie?” His stomach rolled with nausea. His pride wouldn’t let him throw up in front of his team.
“Not here. Not now. Let me handle this. This is my battle, not yours.” Kelsie stepped away from Zach and turned to her ex. “I’m calling the police and having you removed from the premises.”
“You know what?” Mark threw back his head and laughed, as if bent on goading Zach, but Zach would not be sucked into a physical altercation. He would not ruin Kelsie’s gala.
“You’re washed up. Without football, you’re nothing, no better than your murderer father.”
“You asshole. How dare you insult my husband like that?” Zach could feel every cell in Kelsie’s body vibrating with uncontrolled fury. He realized he’d let go of her too soon and snaked his arm back around her. With one vicious stomp, she rammed her lethal heel down on his toe. He yelped and released his hold on her.
She grabbed a large metal mixing bowl off the counter by its handle and brandished it like a weapon. “Get the hell out of here. Now. Do you understand? You bastard. Get out.” She advanced on Mark, swinging the bowl in front of her. Caramel sauce sloshed over the sides and drizzled across the floor. Mark’s smile slid off his face. He backed up and regarded the armed woman warily.
Under different circumstances, Zach would’ve doubled over with laughter at the sight of Kelsie whipping the bowl back and forth within inches of this chickenshit’s head. Zach’s prim-and-proper lady was defending him like the fiercest of warriors with a stainless steel bowl—not exactly the warrior’s weapon of choice.
“You’ve sunk to his level.” Mark threw one last volley.
“I’ll take that as a compliment, and you can take this.”
Zach lunged for the bowl just as Kelsie attempted to heave it at Mark. They wrestled for it, Zach desperate to stop her from doing something so stupid as dumping it on Mark’s head. She fought with him, finally stomping on Zach’s other foot. He tried to hang on, but she jerked it out of his caramel-coated fingers with amazing strength.
Kelsie aimed the bowl at Mark’s head, as Zach made a last-ditch grasp f
or it. Veronica hurried to Mark’s side at the same moment the bowl hurtled toward Mark. The bowl hit its mark—literally—and Veronica got caught in the cross fire. Warm, sticky caramel sauce coated Mark and Veronica’s hair and slid down their faces, necks, and torsos as slowly as slug moves across a sidewalk. Little bits of caramel stuck to Veronica’s eyelashes and almost glued her eyes shut.
“Oh my God.” Bruiser’s words echoed Zach’s sentiments exactly. Then the running back started laughing.
Mark didn’t find any of it funny. “You fucking bitch.” He looked ready to kill, sputtering and cursing and most likely seeing red along with gold from the caramel. Groping for another weapon, Mark grabbed a bowl of strawberry sauce and flung it. Zach and Kelsie ducked. The bowl flew between them, careening off Zach’s shoulder and splattering Tyler Harris, who’d walked up behind them, squarely in the face. Red strawberries and sticky sauce coated him like a very pissed-off sundae. Zach wiped a glob off his own ear, part of the overspray. Kelsie sported a blob of strawberry on the tip of her nose.
Harris pushed past them. His blue eyes burned like a pilot light through a red strawberry haze. “You bastard.” He shoved his hands in a bowl of liver pate, scooped up a ball and aimed at Mark. Mark dove for cover behind the kitchen island, and the pate ball hit HughJack squarely on his forehead as the coach entered the kitchen. Great aim. Deadly aim.
This was not good. Not good at all. HughJack’s face turned redder than it did during a twenty-clipboard game.
As more guests crowded into the kitchen, the rookie running back shouted out a war whoop, grabbing another bowl.
The chef started screaming, “Not the caviar! Please, not the caviar!” The man sounded ready to cry.
A second later the caviar took flight, spraying across several guests and teammates, leaving globby messes of fish eggs clinging to elegant clothing.
Bruiser and LeDaniel took cover behind the island and peppered the growing crowd with olives and little hard pieces of bread. Shrimp was jettisoned from an undisclosed location. Bow-tie pasta flew across the room a line drive, headed for the team owner’s crotch.
It all happened so fast. Within a minute participating teammates and guests had laid waste to the entire kitchen and the remainder of the food. Kelsie and Zach huddled in a corner out of the line of fire, at least most of it. Zach’s stomach dive bombed to the bottom of his dress shoes and stayed there. They were both so screwed. So very, very screwed.
HughJack wiped pate off his lips and bellowed above the crowd. “STOP IT! NOW! What the fuck is going on here?”
One last piece of chicken smacked HughJack in the face before the mob quieted. Players glanced at each other and shuffled their feet. Guests picked bits of food from their hair. Zach and Kelsie rose from their safe place. Kelsie clutched Zach’s hand so hard his circulation was almost cut off. Several of the wait staff swung into action and handed out towels.
Spitting out caramel and looking like a melted Snickers bar, Veronica turned on Zach. “You moron. You started this.” A piece of shrimp was stuck to the caramel on her right cheek.
For a minute Zach blinked, then realized Veronica thought he’d flung the first bowl, not Kelsie. He jumped on her assumption, anxious to save Kelsie’s reputation and her business, even as he knew he might very well be sinking his own career in the process. “I was giving that ass there what he deserved.”
“You are never playing another down of football on my team.” Veronica’s sticky claws were out, as if she meant to draw blood.
Zach shook his head. “Even a layer of caramel can’t make you sweet.” Big mistake, but it came out of his mouth without him thinking. Somewhere nearby, he heard Bruiser laugh and Tomcat snort.
“I’ll have your head.” Veronica included them all in her scathing look. Perhaps it’d be a multiple beheading.
“Wait a minute. I threw that first bowl.” Kelsie stepped forward, madder than he’d ever seen her. She turned on Zach. “I told you. I can fight my own battles.” She swung back toward Veronica. “This jerk insulted my husband.”
Mark, wiping his face with a wet rag, shook his head. “I’m done with you, bitch.” He pointed at Kelsie.
“Don’t you call my wife a bitch.” Zach lost it. Too hell with manners. He pulled back his arm, hand fisted, ready to lay the guy out on the floor. Fingers like a steel vise and smelling of strawberries, closed around his biceps and pinned his arms behind his back.
Harris growled in his ear. “Don’t make this worse for Kelsie.”
Mark shook his head and little drops of caramel flew everywhere. “I’m fucking out of here.” He shot a glance at Zach. “You’re a dumb idiot, just like you always were. Enjoy her while it lasts.” He stomped away, squishing with every step.
More guests had poured into the kitchen area. The caterer, recovering from shock, frantically yelled instructions to her staff to clean up the mess in a futile attempt to salvage the evening.
HughJack shouted at Harris. “Get him out of here for now.” He looked pointedly at Zach. “We’ll talk first thing Monday morning. You sure as hell better hope this doesn’t make the papers or the Internet tomorrow.”
Tyler and Derek grabbed his arms and pulled him away from the crazy-assed caramel woman, while her father and brothers rushed to comfort her.
“It’s probably already on Twitter by now,” Derek muttered as they shoved Zach toward the door and away from the scene of the crime and out of Veronica’s sticky clutches. Dumbfounded with shock, Zach staggered across the room.
Kelsie stood away from the group of people, her knuckles in her mouth and said nothing.
While his future imploded around him, Zach blindly allowed Harris to usher him out of the room.
* * * * *
A food fight had obliterated Kelsie’s world, and blew it into millions of tiny, unrecoverable pieces. And she, Kelsie Murphy of the impeccable manners, had started the entire thing. She didn’t know whether to sob or laugh hysterically.
Veronica gripped her father’s jacket lapel, leaving a caramel handprint. “You need to suspend Murphy for disciplinary purposes. Look at all the witnesses. You can’t let him get away with this type of behavior. We had a deal with him.”
Mr. Simms backed up a few steps, as if trying to get away from the candy fallout. “We’ll talk in the morning. All of us.”
HughJack nodded his agreement.
Kelsie couldn’t stay quiet any longer. She ignored Veronica and pleaded her case with Mr. Simms and Coach Jackson. She already signed her finishing school’s death sentence. Her next words might put her directly in the electric chair, but she couldn’t let Zach take the fall for this.
“I threw the first bowl. Not Zach. He’s taking the blame for me. Zach has come so far. He’s worked hard not only on the field but off. He’s the first one in the building in the morning and the last to leave. He would not jeopardize the most important thing in his life—his team—over something like this. He’s done everything you’ve asked, buried the hatchet with Tyler, worked tirelessly on this gala, studied hard to improve his social skills. How can you punish a man who’s made such an effort, especially for something he didn’t do?” She looked from one to the other, hoping to see a glimmer of understanding and sympathy in their eyes.
The two men gave nothing away. Veronica, caramel dripping off her chin, shook her head. “Nice try. But Zach threw that bowl.”
“No, he didn’t. Zach passed the test. He learned his lessons better than his teacher did.”
Veronica didn’t budge. “You’ll never convince me.”
“We need to get you home.” Her father ushered her from the room without another word.
The excitement over, the crowd dissipated, heading back to different parts of the house—or a shower—jabbering and laughing. Their lives hadn’t been destroyed, like Zach’s had and Kelsie’s.
Kelsie swallowed past the giant-sized lump in her throat and went in search of Zach. She found him sitting in the upstairs tower bedroom
on the curved window seat staring out the window. He looked as if he’d just been told he’d never win a ring or play another down. As far as she knew, that may well be true. She walked over to him, her heels clicking on the hardwood floors. He didn’t as much as glance her way.
“Zach? Are you okay?”
He stared out the window, proud, yet sad. Kelsie sat next to him and took his big hands in hers. They were cold.
“Did your ex leave?” His voice sounded weird. He jerked his hands away from hers.
“Yes, I don’t think he wanted to stick around since he was wearing most of the dessert and the rookies were eyeing him hungrily.” Her attempt at humor was met with silence.
Long tense silence, except for the muted sounds of the band in another part of the house and occasional voices drifting up from the deck.
Zach looked up, attempted a wry smile. “I don’t think the crowd will forget this gala.”
“There is that.” She cleared her throat. “Zach, I didn’t invite Mark, and I didn’t hire a PI to trick you into marrying me. You have to believe me.”
“I do believe you, except for one thing.” He looked up at her with the saddest eyes. “Why did you come to Seattle, Kel?”
He had her there. By the devastation on his face, he read the truth in her expression. “Zach, it wasn’t like that, really. Yes, I knew you were here. I didn’t have anywhere else to go, and I’d changed so much, learned so much. I had to apologize to you for everything before I could move on with my life.”
He snorted as if he wasn’t buying it. “You didn’t think I could help your career?”
“I—well, yes, I hoped maybe you could at first. But now—”
“Now, what?” He stared out the window, his strong profile contorted with grief.
“There’s more to it than that. I thought we might have the start of something good. Something lasting. Only you would never open up to me.”
“About why Gary is buried here?”
“Among other things. That’s only a symptom of a larger problem.”
Zach swallowed and cleared his throat. “I buried Gary’s ashes here because he’d always dreamed of owning a Victorian mansion. His forever-home. So I finally bought him one.” He stared out the window and a lone tear ran down his face.
Down by Contact - A Seattle Lumberjacks Romance Page 29
