Her gesture caused a chain reaction in him: increased pulse rate, a tightness in his chest, a rise in his body temperature. Just like when he’d been nineteen. He tried to shut down those physical responses. He didn’t live in the past, and he certainly didn’t want to repeat it. But more and more he found himself thinking about Kim, what she was thinking, doing.
“I know you were upset about Mr. Langley. How about the other parents you talked with? Did it go better with them?”
“Yes. The kids were happy to see me outside of school, and it’s always easier to talk with the parents in an informal setting.” Her forehead scrunched. “But I wish there was something I could do for Grace and her father.”
“He reminds me of my father. He wouldn’t let anyone help him, either. He had to hit rock bottom before he accepted help seven months ago.” The vision of the For Sale sign on the trailer played across his mind, flashing in and out.
“Do you think Mr. Langley is an alcoholic?”
“All I can say is he has been drinking. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s an alcoholic, but if he keeps turning to alcohol to blot out his problems, he will be. That’s how it started with my dad.”
“I don’t want Grace to go through what you went through.”
“Neither do I.” He popped the last bite of his cone into his mouth and chewed, trying to decide what to do, if anything.
“Do you know anyone looking for a boat captain?”
“Hmm. I’ll have to check around. When we get closer to summer, his business should pick up some. What if he moved his boat to one of the larger piers like in Gulfport or Biloxi?”
“I have the feeling the rent is high for a berth at those piers.”
Zane wiped his mouth with his napkin then balled it up. “I could use a smaller trailer for a certain work site. I’ll pay the man a visit and see what he’s asking for it. But first I’m gonna call a friend in New Orleans. He might be able to give him a job.”
“Doing what?”
“Ferrying boats. My friend owns the business where I bought my sailboat. Sometimes customers have to have someone take the boat they bought to another location. He might be able to use Mr. Langley. I’ll have to check out people he’s worked with. I can’t recommend someone who could hurt my friend’s business.”
“No, you can’t, but if you could help Mr. Langley, that would be great. He hasn’t accepted anything I suggested.”
“I have one advantage over you.”
“What?” She scooped up the last of her Pecan Clusters and slid the spoon into her mouth.
For a few seconds he sat there transfixed as she ate her ice cream, until he realized she was waiting for an answer. “I’m male. He may be one of those guys who doesn’t respond well to women. Do you know what happened to his wife?”
“All I know is that she died a few years back when Grace was in kindergarten. I talked to her teacher, and she said it was rough on Mr. Langley and Grace. The child didn’t come to school for a month.”
Zane’s past crept back into his thoughts. When his mother had left his dad and him, he’d refused to go to school for weeks. He kept waiting for his mom to come back home. She never did. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Kim smiled. “That means a lot to me. And if the fact that you’re a man helps to reach Mr. Langley, that’s fine by me.”
Looking at the sparkle in her eyes made him think of staring at the blue Gulf water with the sun shining on its surface while he sailed. “I’ll let you know what happens. Are you ready? I know you can’t wait to return home and move back into your bedroom.”
She scooted back her chair and rose. “Ice cream is about the only thing that can entice me to put that off for a while.” Cocking her head to one side, she pinned him beneath an assessing look. “Are you doing anything tonight?”
“I’m helping a…friend.”
“Oh.” She slung the strap of her purse over her shoulder and started for the exit.
He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing at the crestfallen expression on Kim’s face. As she walked out of the Sweet Tooth, he quickened his pace after her, catching up with her at the parking lot next to the building.
As his engine roared to life, he threw her a sideways glance. “You coming to church tomorrow?”
“Dad wants to, so, yes, I’ll be bringing him and Anna.”
Five minutes later, Zane stopped in the back of Bienville near the staircase to the upstairs gallery and switched off the engine, then put his hand on the door handle.
“You don’t have to walk me to my door. I’m sure you need to get moving if you’re going to help that friend.” She descended from the truck and strolled toward her home. When he followed, she glanced back with a question in her eyes. At the bottom step, she spun around, her hand clutching the railing. “I’m a big girl. I can find my own way to my house.”
“I know. But I have to come in if I’m going to help you move your furniture.”
“I’m the friend you’re going to help?”
He smiled when the realization dawned on her pretty face. “Of course. You don’t think I’ll let you do it by yourself. Even with Brady and Maggie, it will be hard. You’ve got some big pieces.” He backed away. “Unless you don’t want my help.”
“Yes. Yes. I’m not like Mr. Langley. I will accept help when I need it.”
“Really?”
She shot him a gaze full of mockery. “I accepted your help with the house, didn’t I?”
“Not until you demanded doing something for me in return.”
Square in the middle of the staircase, she blocked his path. “And what is your point?”
He laughed. “That you’re as stubborn as you were in high school. You might not be as extreme as Mr. Langley, but you do have trouble accepting help from others.”
She wheeled around and stomped up the steps to the gallery. At the rear door, she thrust it open and entered.
Women! Zane blew out a long breath and went into the game room. Kim was talking to Maggie, who was making dinner.
“I got some good comments about Ruth running in the area I canvassed.” Maggie put a casserole into the oven.
“I did, too. And I only had one person practically throw me off his property.” Kim washed her hands at the sink then began setting the table.
“Who?”
“Mr. Langley, the father of one of my students. He sees no reason to vote in the race.”
“That’s a shame, but I encountered a few like that, too. They are struggling and have lost hope.” Maggie turned toward Zane. “Are you staying for dinner?”
Zane peered at Kim.
“Yes, he is. He’s helping me move my furniture back into my bedroom.”
“Good. I didn’t want to eat alone. Anna is eating at Polly’s. Brady is at a friend’s, too.”
“Where’s Dad?”
“He just called five minutes ago and said he’d be eating at Ruth’s tonight. I’d already started the Mexican chicken casserole so I decided to finish it, and we can have it again for leftovers.”
The spices and chicken smells oozed out of the oven and infused the room, reminding Zane that he’d forgotten to eat lunch again. A bagel and an ice-cream cone weren’t exactly a healthy diet. “As hungry as I am, you might not have any leftovers. Do you want to move some of the furniture now while the casserole is cooking?”
“Sounds like a plan to me.” Kim set the three glasses on the placemats on the table.
Maggie filled a kettle with water. “I’ll be a minute. I want to make the iced tea so it will be ready when we eat.”
At the entrance into the bedroom, Kim paused and sucked in a raspy breath. Zane came up behind her and whistled.
The empty room looked spotless, and Zane marveled at the difference from when Kim and he were there four hours before. “Dad did a great job.”
“He polished the hardwood floor. There’s not a speck of dust anywhere. He didn’t have to do that.”
Zane
’s throat closed. He coughed to clear it. “That’s his way of apologizing.”
“For what?”
“For not telling you anything fifteen years ago—not where I went or why. He’s trying to right any wrongs he feels he’s made in the past.”
“But you told him not to.”
“Yeah, and that was one of the few times my dad ever listened to me.” He shook his head. “He told me the other day he’d made a mistake about you.”
Kim turned to leave, but Zane held his position in the doorway. “The furniture is in the room down the hall.”
“I know.”
“Well, we…” Her voice cracked on the last word, and she lifted huge eyes to his. Her teeth worried her bottom lip.
The need to kiss her overwhelmed him. Ever since two weeks ago when he’d kissed her onstage, he’d wanted to again. He’d forgotten how good he felt when he did. She made him feel like he was the only one.
But he knew differently.
She’d married Scott, not a year after he left. And because of that relationship, she held a part of herself back from others, from him.
She moved toward him as though to push him back to let herself out into the corridor. But a half a foot from him, she came to a stop, lifted her hand and touched his chest. “I’ll admit I have a hard time accepting help from others. I’ve always been the fixer around here, the person others came to. When I can’t make something better, it makes me feel like I’ve failed.”
He cupped her jaw. “So, you feel you have to have all the right answers all the time?”
“Is that the way it seems?”
With a nod, he slid his palm around to the back of her head and tugged her close. “You think that asking for help means you’re not strong, you’re not in control. Your dad isn’t the only one who feels that way.”
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be in control of your own life.”
“Control. That’s an illusion.” He snapped his fingers. “Life can change at any second. We both know that.”
“Yeah, the hurricane brought that home to me.”
“It did to a lot of people.”
“I know.”
The resignation in her voice touched him. She was trying to make sense of something that couldn’t always be explained in a neat little package. He roped her against him, her head tilted up toward his. “We’ve done a lot today. Why don’t I come over tomorrow and help you move everything back into here? Rest tonight.”
“No, I want to put my room in order. I’m tired, but I can’t rest until it is done.”
His concern grew as he stared at her. She was pushing herself too hard. “Okay, then let me call Dad and have him come back and help me while you rest.”
“I can’t ask—”
“Shh. You’re not asking. I am. He won’t mind. He’ll get a kick out of helping put the room together. You have some beautiful pieces of old furniture.”
“They’re called antiques. They have been in the family for a long time. A lot of history.”
Tightening his arms about her, he dipped his head toward her and settled his mouth over hers, pouring his growing feelings for her into the kiss. She responded, embracing him as though she wasn’t going to let him go.
A cough behind him alerted him they weren’t alone. He reluctantly lessened the pressure of his lips on hers until they parted. Slowly he shifted partway to find Maggie standing in the hallway with amusement on her face.
“I could go back and bake a cake if y’all want.”
A twinkle in Maggie’s eyes brought forth a chuckle as he released Kim. “Why don’t you two do that while I get Dad over here to help me?”
Maggie’s forehead creased. “You really want one?”
“That or go watch TV or knit or whatever you want. In other words, you two aren’t needed.”
Maggie’s shoulders slumped. “And I was so looking forward to lifting heavy pieces of furniture. But if you insist, I think I can manage to knit. And, Kim, we haven’t talked about what we’re going to wear to Kathleen and Gideon’s wedding next Saturday.”
When Maggie returned to the game room, Zane withdrew his cell, made a call to his dad then pocketed his phone. “Tell me where you want everything,” he told Kim, “then go do something else.”
“You’re mighty bossy.”
“I’ve gotten in the habit since I run my own company. It’s one of those necessary things an owner has to do.”
She pivoted back into her room and pointed along the east wall. “My bed goes there with the bedside tables. My dresser over there and the armoire across from it.” When she finished showing him where she wanted her furniture, she thought for a moment then frowned. “Maybe I should stay in here, at least, just in case you need me.”
Zane went through the list of furniture and where she wanted it. “Is that right?”
“Yes, but—”
He took her hand and headed for the game room. “Relax. Stop worrying. When Dad arrives send him to me. I’m going to start with the smaller pieces.”
“How about dinner?”
“Call us. We’ll come when it’s ready. I don’t want you stepping foot in your bedroom until we’ve got it set up. Okay?”
“Fine. But I’m declaring right now, I don’t like this.”
He tweaked her nose. “I know. Live dangerously. Give control over to me.”
* * *
Maggie leaned around Zane sitting between her and Kim. “You know it’s very telling that Uncle Keith is sitting up on the front pew with Ruth as if he is a member of the bride’s family.”
Kim found her father, looking handsome in his black suit and sky-blue silk tie. The smile on his face brought a tear to her eye. She quickly blinked it away. “I was surprised when he told me last night after he escorted Ruth to the rehearsal dinner.”
“Yeah, I know they’re spending a lot of time together on the campaign, but—”
Zane bent toward them conversing across his lap. “Ladies, I think the wedding is about to start.”
Kim straightened at the same time Maggie did and murmured, “Spoilsport.”
“Someone’s gotta keep order in the masses.”
The music started, and one of Kathleen’s cousins, Sally, stood at the front and began singing “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” Zane covered Kim’s hand with his. The warmth of his palm only added to the moment as Sally finished the song and the “Wedding March” started.
The congregation rose. Zane kept her hand within his and tugged her close as Kathleen glided down the aisle toward Gideon. Dressed in an ivory silk suit, Kathleen looked beautiful. More tears lodged in Kim’s throat. She usually cried at weddings, though she was never sure why.
When they took their seats again, Kim fixed her attention on the couple in front of the pastor at Hope Community Church, but she couldn’t really focus on the wedding or what was being said. She tried to figure out why she cried at a happy occasion because Kathleen and Gideon were very much in love. Anyone looking at them could see that.
Then toward the end of the ceremony, the reason came to her. She’d had such high hopes for her own marriage, and they had been dashed within the first six months she was Scott’s wife. They had met their families’ expectations for them but not their own. If she’d known that while walking down the aisle, she would have hiked up her skirt and hightailed it in the opposite direction. She hadn’t, and the repercussions were still affecting her today, fourteen years later.
“Ready to go to the reception?” Zane whispered in her ear when she finally noticed people beginning to leave the church.
She gave him a nod, tightly clamping a lid on her emotions. She was happy for Kathleen and Gideon. This was their day. I refuse to think about my situation.
“I’m going ahead. I’ll grab a table for us.” Maggie plowed through the crowd.
In the reception hall, Kim spied Maggie waving to them across the room. Brady and Anna darted forward toward the area where the kids were hanging
out. Cody broke from the throng and grabbed a chair next to Kim. Zane’s secretary, Susan, saw them and made a beeline toward the table.
“Did they invite everyone in town?” she said, sinking into a seat across from Kim. “Boss, I hardly see you dressed up. You look good.”
Kim glanced at Zane in a navy-blue suit that highlighted the blue of his eyes. She had to totally agree with Susan’s assessment, but she would never tell Zane. She was already caring for him too much. This wedding only reconfirmed her need to keep her distance. As if that was going to happen with him and his dad renovating Bienville.
After a few more guests sat at the table and filled every seat, Maggie said, “Kim, I forgot to tell you a couple of Sundays ago I volunteered you for clean-up duty after the reception.”
“How could you forget to tell me something like that?”
Maggie offered Kim a sheepish grin. “If I remember correctly, that was the day you were setting up your classroom. With all that’s happened, it slipped my mind. Sorry. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“I can do it,” she said, slanting a look at Zane. “That is if you don’t mind waiting.”
“I’ll help, too. Then it’ll get done quicker.”
“I can stay,” Susan said. “I don’t have anything to do after this.”
“Me, too,” Cody added.
Kim thanked everyone for their help. “With all of you, it won’t take long at all.”
“Do you see Dad with Ruth?” she asked Cody. “He’s hanging on her every word.”
Cody chuckled. “That doesn’t surprise me. He’s had a lot to say about the campaign and her. I didn’t realize he’d been a councilman at one time. He sounds like he loved it. I’ve encouraged him to get involved again.”
“So that’s why he’s thinking of running for the council next year.”
Zane slid his arm along the back of Kim’s chair. “They would make a dynamite pair running the town.”
Kim swung her gaze to him. “You mean that?”
He stared at her. “I wouldn’t have said it if I hadn’t meant it.”
The people around them faded from Kim’s consciousness. The electric connection between them intensified, his face close to hers, their breath mingling.
Love Runs Deep (New Beginnings Book 7) Page 14
