“The town has a private e-mail loop. Eric posted about your harrowing adventure and made sure everyone knew what a hero you were. Eric thinks my dad should name a day after you.”
“That’d be totally embarrassing.” He reached out and took her hand. “Thanks for being my lunch date.”
She smiled at him again. Whenever she did that it made his chest warm.
“Thanks for asking. But I still think you should be in bed.”
“I wouldn’t mind being in bed if I had someone to read to me or do that ‘something else’ Pam referred to.”
“I don’t think you’re up for ‘something else’ quite yet.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised just how up for that I could get.” Out of the corner of his eye, familiar pictures flashed on the television screen. The same ones Kip had sent earlier. He pulled out his phone and glanced at the time. Twelve fifteen.
A huge pit formed in his gut. Had Ben deliberately missed the deadline, sending Sarah to the press so soon?
The diner went dead silent as the picture of his brother in bed, sound asleep on his back with a sheet barely covering his junk, highlighted the screen. Everyone stopped eating to hear as the anchor told how Zane Steele had left Sarah in a lurch, alone and penniless with their new son. But how could he tell Casey about his twin without blowing Nick’s cover? What if she put two and two together about why he hadn’t had the black eye she’d mentioned the first morning they’d met? And then if she told Ryan . . .
He said to Casey, “None of that is true. You have to believe me.”
When the picture of the baby flashed on the screen, all eyes cut to him. His hero status had just dropped to lower-than-cad status.
Worse, Casey slipped her hand from his and, without a word, walked out the door.
Casey slapped her office door closed behind her and then slid behind her desk. While she waited for her computer to boot, she closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. Thank God she hadn’t slept with Zane. Just when one problem passed, another raised its ugly head. Was that woman on TV the girlfriend Mandy said had broken up with Zane? The one he’d hardly noticed after she’d left him?
When her screen lit up, she intended to pull up her management software to balance the budget her father would expect by the end of the day. Instead, her mouse moved on its own accord and hovered over her Internet browser.
The same pictures that had lit up Gloria’s screen filled Casey’s vision. The baby boy was blond and adorable. She had a hard time believing the same guy who had just proclaimed to genuinely like her kids would abandon a sweet baby like the one on the screen.
Then she studied the next picture of Zane passed out in the woman’s bed. His chin was covered in dark blond stubble and his shoulders and chest looked thinner. The picture had been taken just over nine months ago, according to the date stamp on the photo, so maybe he’d bulked up in the gym since?
She shook her head and then minimized the screen. She needed to focus on her budget. All she’d need was her father on her case for that too.
A quiet knock sounded on her door and her stomach sank. Probably Zane ready to tell her yet another lie. Maybe if she didn’t answer he’d go away.
The knock grew louder this time and the knob turned. When the door creaked open, she sucked in a deep breath for courage. She’d just tell him in no uncertain terms that a relationship with him was now officially off the table.
When the door swung all the way open, Ty appeared, visibly upset. “Zane said he’s moving to Grandma’s guesthouse. Can I stay with him too? So he has someone to wake him up?”
She hadn’t thought about that part. He probably shouldn’t be alone. At least not for another night, anyway. “You start school tomorrow, remember? You need your rest too.”
She was going to have to figure out what to do about that. Mandy had left earlier in the day, so it was probably still up to her to take care of Zane. Jerk or not, the man had jumped in to save Ty without a second thought. “I’ll go have a talk with him.”
“I want him to stay with us.” Ty’s frown deepened. “He can have my bed, if he can’t sleep in yours anymore.”
Her kids could make her feel guiltier than anyone else in the world. The man had abandoned his own child. He was the bad guy in this scenario, not her. “He can still sleep in my bed.” And she’d be sleeping on the couch.
She stood and joined her son while forcing a smile. “Let’s go fix this.”
Ty’s face lit up as he fell in step beside her, and they made their way to their quarters. He said, “Oh, I forgot. Dad called a while ago. He said I’m getting a big surprise because I broke my arm. He always sends the coolest stuff. Maybe it’ll even be the bike I want.”
It better not be the bike, or she was going to have to be the bad guy all over again and make Tomas return it. Why couldn’t her ex see that spoiling their kids was the worst thing he could do? “It’ll be interesting to see what the surprise is.” She needed to talk to Zane alone so she added, “I forgot to check the mailbox yesterday, so why don’t you go see if anything is there?” It was too soon for the gift to have arrived, but she really had forgotten the mail in all of Ty’s drama.
“’Kay. Be right back.” Ty took off the opposite direction, so Casey picked up the pace. When she got to her bedroom, she knocked on the closed door.
She heard a quiet “Come in,” so she drew a deep breath and walked inside, ready to put things straight with Zane.
He stood in her bathroom with a towel around his waist, his hair still wet from the shower, shaving. She forced her gaze to stay on the back of his blond head rather than let her eyes travel over the back of his fit body like they wanted to do. “Can I talk to you, please?”
He met her gaze in the reflection of the mirror. “Okay.”
She tried focusing on only his eyes, but his upper body filled the whole reflection in the mirror. His shoulders and chest looked so much better now as compared to the picture. “I still owe you, so please stay here until Ben says it’s okay to be alone at night.”
He shook his head and wiped the last of the shaving cream from his neck. “I’ll be fine in the guesthouse.” His gaze locked with hers again in the mirror. “Assuming I’m still welcome there?”
The hurt in his voice cut straight to her guilt-ridden heart. She needed to stay tough and forget how much she’d looked forward to seeing where their relationship might have gone.
Slipping into her hotel manager mode, she replied, “We signed a contract, so—” It suddenly hit her what was wrong with the Internet picture of Zane she’d been studying earlier. There was no marking on his chest. “When did you get that tattoo?”
He turned and faced her. “A little over a year ago. My mom wanted to give up on chemo, and I wanted her to try one last round.” Sadness clouded his eyes. “She’d always told me the only tattoo she’d allow me to get was one that said ‘Mom.’ She was joking, but I made a deal with her. If she’d stick it out for one more round, I’d get the tattoo. That’s what this character stands for in Chinese—a mother’s love. But looking back, it was probably selfish of me to ask that of her. I just didn’t want to lose her.”
“Of course not.” And he’d put the tattoo over his heart? God, how sweet was that? “I bet it made your mom happy when she saw it.”
“Yeah.” A small grin lit his face. “She was so sick and miserable that last round, but she laughed out loud when I showed it to her.”
So why wasn’t the tattoo showing up in the picture?
She pulled her phone out of her pocket and found the shot of Zane in bed. The date stamp showed it was taken less than a year ago. She tilted the screen toward him. “Then how is it possible you don’t have a tattoo on your chest here? Is the date wrong?”
“No.” Zane grimaced. “It’s complicated, Casey. And something I don’t want to discuss.”
Too bad. She wanted to discuss it. “You can’t expect me to believe that baby isn’t yours just because you say so when all the e
vidence says it is. Give me something here, Zane.” Why she wanted so badly to believe him is what made the least sense, but oddly she suspected he was telling the truth.
He stared into her eyes for a full minute before he said, “If you look closely on the back of his wrist you’ll also see a small tattoo that I don’t have.” He held up both his wrists to show her. “That’s my brother, Nick. But I can’t tell anyone yet for reasons I can’t share with you because I don’t want to put you in a bad position.”
He placed his fingers on the screen and swiped to enlarge the picture.
Sure enough. It wasn’t Zane. “Nick is your twin?”
“Yeah.”
“But I don’t understand. Why can’t you—”
“Please.” He shook his head. “Don’t ask me any more questions, because I don’t want to lie to you, Casey. Suffice it to say, Nick did something wrong and your brother is a sheriff, so I want you to be able to honestly tell Ryan you knew nothing about it if the truth comes out.”
“By putting it that way, you’ve just made me ten times more curious.” Relief washed through her, knowing that Zane was the man she’d come to believe him to be. Her instincts weren’t as far off as she’d feared.
“That’s a side benefit to keep you interested in me.” Zane leaned down and laid a sweet kiss on her cheek. “But because Nick is my identical twin, the DNA tests will likely show I’m the father. I saw the way everyone in the diner looked at me today, so it’s probably best you stay away from me. I don’t want to taint your reputation too. I’ll just keep to myself in the guesthouse until we know for sure if the baby is Nick’s.”
Always thinking of others before himself. That was just one of the nice things she’d noticed about him.
Moving closer, she laid her hand over his tattoo. His heart beat true and strong under the warm skin beneath her palm. “You’re staying here until Ben clears you.”
When he opened his mouth to protest, she lifted up on her tiptoes and quickly kissed him. His lips parted under hers so she deepened the kiss. That zap of awareness she’d come to crave warmed her from chest to toes.
His tongue danced lightly with hers as his hands dove south to her hips to pull her even closer. His warm breath sent a shiver up her spine as he whispered in her ear, “How much time do we—”
The front door banged closed.
Ty must be back.
“Not enough.” She quickly pulled away, instantly missing his touch. “But when Ben gives you a clean bill of health, it’ll be easier for us to be together if you stay in the guesthouse. I’ll look forward to spending some alone time there.”
“Me too.” When his eyes darkened with desire she had to look away. She couldn’t let Ty see her gazing at Zane like he was People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive again this year. She needed to pull it together.
Ty came rushing into the bedroom with a stack of envelopes in his good hand. “Just stupid bills. Maybe the present will come tomorrow?”
“Maybe.” She reached out for the mail, still a little flustered. “Since when do you come in here without knocking first?”
“Since the door was wide open?”
Her son had a point. “Well, Zane is our guest so you need to give him his privacy.”
Ty turned to Zane and smiled. “So you’re staying?”
When Zane nodded, Ty said, “Awesome! You wanna play some Mortal Crush? Caleb is messing with his stupid guitar again and won’t play with me.”
Zane’s phone rang on the nightstand, probably saving him from the torture.
He said, “Let me get this first then you’re on. Now that you only have one good hand, I might actually have a chance to beat you at that game.” He lifted the phone. “Be with you in a minute, Kip.”
Casey smiled, happy things were back to normal. She hadn’t specifically added the electronics to the restriction like she should have, just that they had to stay in the house for a week. She could probably make the exception this one time. “I have some paperwork I have to finish, Zane. Send the boys my way if they get on your last nerve and I’ll find some chores for them to do.” Zane nodded as he grabbed his clothes and closed the bathroom door to change.
Ty said, “Zane’s our friend. We aren’t bugging him by playing games.”
“Zane still needs to rest. So don’t pester him when he says he’s had enough. I’ll be in my office if you need me. And if you guys are good, I’ll go get pizza from the diner for supper tonight.”
“Yum!” Ty ran to the living room to set up the game.
Casey made her way back to her office as she sorted through the mail. After closing her office door behind her, she slowly ripped open an envelope from her lawyer. The bill inside reminded her that she’d had an e-mail from him too. She’d meant to look at it once she had a free minute. Then all the excitement had happened with the boys and she’d promptly forgotten about it in the chaos. As she scrolled through the fifty e-mails she’d received since, she finally found the one she searched for.
It cited multiple legal cases she didn’t have any desire to read. Skimming down to the executive summary, which was hopefully written in plain English, she read:
In summary, there have been other cases in Colorado where one spouse has won full custody due to improper influence/lack of proper supervision caused by the other ex-spouse’s job/lifestyle. Mr. Bovier is claiming you can’t properly supervise the children due to the 24/7 demands of your job and that the celebrity guests’ spoiled lifestyles are a bad influence on your children. As noted above, last year in Aspen, the ex sued her celebrity former husband and won full custody plus spousal support to maintain the lifestyle the children had become accustomed to. We have to take this threat seriously, Casey. Please call me first thing Monday morning so we can draw up a response for the judge.
Tomas had told Ty something very similar when they’d spoken yesterday. That she didn’t have time to watch them properly so they needed to stop doing dumb things.
But whenever she had to leave in the middle of the night to fix something, the kids knew there was a spare radio on the kitchen counter so they could reach her anytime she wasn’t in their quarters. And it was Anderson Freaking Butte, for God’s sake! Anyone would help the boys in a heartbeat if she weren’t around to do it.
Damn Tomas. He’d known he’d have to give up joint custody of their kids the moment he’d run off to Europe. When he’d finally returned her calls, she’d threatened to sic her lawyer on him if he didn’t put back her half of their savings account. To rub salt in the wound, Tomas’s new girlfriend had sent a check. She was an endless well of cash, which was probably why Tomas had run off with her in the first place.
He’d had no right to backtrack a few months later, claim he’d learned his lesson, that he missed his boys and was ready to be the best parent he could be. Now, two years later, he was claiming he’d be a better parent than her?
Was he just playing hardball to get half custody like her father thought?
But the boys couldn’t go to two different schools each year. Especially split between the US and France. But what if Tomas’s expensive lawyer—paid for by Tomas’s girlfriend who’d be able to afford a nanny to watch their kids while Tomas worked—won? That’d be terrible for her kids to be raised by some random nanny, even half the time.
Maybe she’d have to dip into her dire emergency savings account and get a second opinion from a higher-powered lawyer in Denver, rather than the one she’d been using in the next town south. She couldn’t let Tomas win just because he had more money than she did now. He wasn’t taking the kids’ best interest to heart. What could he be up to with his latest ploy?
Whatever it was, she’d go broke before allowing her kids to be raised by strangers who didn’t love them.
After he’d gotten dressed, Zane slipped out back to talk to Kip. “What happened? Why did Sarah go to the press so soon?”
Kip said, “They didn’t get the DNA test by noon. It’s since been dropped off, but
the damage has already been done.”
“No kidding! What do they want, assuming the test comes back positive?”
“Sarah’s asking for twenty-five thousand a month plus insurance and a college fund. Basically they’re trying to ream you for all they can.”
Zane walked to the end of the dock and sat down. “Check this Sarah person out. I’m not giving her a dime if she’s just going to toot it up her nose or something. And I want visitation rights. If this kid is my relative, then I want to be sure he’s being properly cared for. If she checks out, make a public statement about this being a misunderstanding. That I had no idea the child existed until yesterday and that I’m going to do what’s right by Sarah and the kid. And do it quick. You should have seen the looks on people’s faces here when they saw the news report.”
“Who cares what a bunch of hicks from a small town think? Just keep your head down and get some new material ready. I want to book a new tour for you as soon as your brother is done with rehab.”
Strangely, he did care what Gloria, Fred from the store, and most importantly what Casey and her family thought of him. Anderson Butte was the closest thing he’d felt to being home in a very long time. “I thought we agreed I’d take the full year off. You know how I hate long tours.”
“We need to ride this wave of publicity. Good or bad, people are talking about you. It’s what sells songs, Zane. You can’t hide out behind your synthesizers forever or your fans will find some new, hot, eager talent to follow and forget you ever existed.”
Kip could be so damn dramatic. “Just take care of the Sarah situation, please. And keep tabs on Nick.”
“Speaking of Nick. I wasn’t going to say anything, but the press keeps asking where you are. Nick said to tell you he’d be glad to make a statement from rehab posing as you to give the paparazzi something they can print. It might play well with the Sarah story. You know, you had a drinking problem, during which you showed poor judgment and accidently got Sarah pregnant, and then after the bar fight you realized you needed help and are getting it. And now that you’re clean and sober you’ll step up and take care of Sarah and your child and everyone lives happily ever after. It could all work in our favor.”
It Had to Be Fate (An It Had to Be Novel Book 3) Page 12
