by Eve Gaddy
Zack knocked on the door. “Here’s your coffee. Hope you like it black because that’s all I have.”
She opened the door and took the mug of steaming liquid from him. “Black is great, thank you.” She started to shut the door but realized Zack was staring at her with a strange expression on his face. Glancing down, she checked to make sure the towel covered her. “I hope you don’t mind that I used your shampoo. And your brush.”
He blinked and shook his head. “You’re welcome to use anything you find in there.”
“Thanks.” She shut the door and looked around for a hair dryer but she had no luck locating one. Putting her clothes back on, she vowed to never again wear a button-down white shirt.
Laurel knew she owed Zack a huge apology. Wincing, she recalled parts of what had happened. Margaritas. Flirting with…what was his name? Zack showing up and what’s-his-name leaving. Refusing to go home. Asking Zack, more than once, if he wanted to “have his way with her.” As if that wasn’t bad enough, she asked him to kiss her. And he had. Or maybe she had kissed him. Whichever, she remembered the feel of his body pressing against hers, her legs wrapped around him, his lips on hers. She wasn’t imagining that.
Was she?
No, even her imagination wasn’t that good. So, if it was true and not her lurid imagination, there must have been a reason she’d thrown herself at him. Had he said something? Something to imply he was willing? Or maybe she was grasping at straws and she was simply a lonely divorcée in need of a second job who drank too much and practically attacked Zack when he was only trying to help her.
What a depressing thought.
*
Zack rubbed his hands over his face. It wasn’t like he’d seen her naked. The towel covered a lot more of her than a bathing suit would. Not that he’d seen Laurel in a bathing suit. So while the towel was modest, the fact was with the flick of a finger she’d have been naked.
Yeah, and she’d have slugged you, too. Which you’d have deserved.
Damn, the woman was driving him crazy.
Someone banged on his door. “Zack, open up.”
Shit. Travis. What the hell is he doing here?
Travis banged on the door again. “I know you’re here. I saw your truck in the parking lot.”
Zack opened the door but didn’t let him inside. “What? I’m busy.”
“This is important.” He shoved Zack out of the way and walked in. “I can’t find Laurel and she’s not answering her cell. I saw Nathan at the airport and he said you were with her when he left Booze’s last night. Do you know where she went? Savannah told me she lost her job and I’m worried—”
“I don’t suppose you have an extra toothbrush somewhere I didn’t think to look?” Laurel asked, walking into the kitchen. “Oh. Hi, Travis.”
Her hair was wet and she wore her work clothes. It was pretty damn clear where she’d spent the night. It was also clear that Travis wasn’t going to listen to reason.
Travis looked from Laurel to Zack and back again, reaching the obvious, though wrong, conclusion. “What the fuck is this?”
“It’s not what it looks like,” Zack got out just before Travis punched him in the mouth.
He touched his fingers to his lip. Shit, bleeding already. “Damn, Travis, nothing happened.” It had been a long time since he’d been in a fight with Travis, but he didn’t remember Travis having anything like the right hook he’d just landed. His fist had felt like a lead weight.
“Travis, no!” Laurel said and ran toward them. “Stop it!”
“The hell I will.” He grabbed Zack by his shirt. “You’ve got thirty seconds, you bastard, to tell me why I shouldn’t kill you.”
Part of him wanted to fight back, but he knew he’d have done the same thing in Travis’s place. Before he could answer Laurel stepped in. Grabbing Travis’s arm, she attempted to pull him away from Zack. When that didn’t work, she grabbed a hunk of Travis’s hair and yanked on it. And kept yanking until he let go of Zack.
“Shit, Laurel, that hurt.”
“Good. Now you listen to me, Travis Sullivan. Zack was simply being a friend to me last night. He knew I’d gotten fired. He knew I was upset. I drank too much and…never mind. The point is, nothing happened and if it had, that would have been my choice. My God, I’m divorced with two kids and you’re acting like I’m still in high school. Now apologize to Zack. He’s already put up with a lot from me and you punching him in the face makes it even worse.”
Travis scowled at him, still looking as if he had murder on his mind. “Is that true? You were looking out for her?”
Zack shrugged. “She was with Nathan. He didn’t know who she was,” he added hastily, just in case Travis decided to kill his copilot as well as one of his best friends. Zack grabbed a dish towel and applied it to his mouth. Then he got an ice cube out of the freezer and put that on his mouth too.
“I’m going to explain something to both of you,” Laurel said. “I am a grown woman. I’m divorced. I’ve been on my own for a long time now and if I want to flirt with a man, or have a one-night stand with him, or dance naked on the tables at Booze’s that is my business and none of yours. Either of you. Understand?”
“We get it,” Zack said, though he wasn’t sure about Travis.
“Sorry,” Travis muttered but Zack couldn’t tell which one of them his friend was talking to.
“You’re forgiven. I know you love me and worry about me, but I don’t need my brothers—either of them—to protect me.”
“That’s debatable,” Travis said. “Come on, I’ll take you to your car.”
“No. Zack will take me later. But you can leave.”
Travis argued with her but she wouldn’t budge. When he finally left he gave Zack a look that said Travis wasn’t through even if Laurel was.
“That was fun,” Zack said, leaning back against the kitchen counter.
“I’m sorry. You know how overprotective Travis and Harlan are.”
“Yeah, I know.” He was lucky Travis had only thrown one punch. Especially when Zack, in good conscience, couldn’t fight back. “I don’t really blame him, given what he thought had happened here.”
“Whatever. He had no right to hit you.”
Zack shrugged again. “Water under the bridge.”
She walked over to him and touched his mouth with gentle fingers. “I’ll make you an ice pack. I don’t think the cube is doing much good. Do you have any plastic bags?”
“Maybe. If I do they’d be in that drawer.” He pointed to the bottom drawer beside the dishwasher.
She found a bag and made up his pack and handed it to him. “Can we sit? And do you have more coffee?”
“Have all you want.” He went into the living room and sat on the couch, placing the ice pack against his swelling lip.
Laurel came back and sat beside him. Picking up a magazine, she used it as a coaster and set her mug on the coffee table. Considering what his coffee table looked like, he had to smile at her caution. It gave the term distressed wood new meaning.
“I said it before but I’ll say it again. I owe you an apology. And a big thank you.”
“Forget it.” Gratitude was not what he wanted from Laurel. But now didn’t seem like the ideal time to tell her that.
She drank some of her coffee and set it back down. “About last night, I remember some stuff. Other stuff not so much. Will you tell me the truth when I ask you about it?”
“Yes.”
“Did we kiss?”
“Yes.”
“More than once?”
“Yes.” He tried to get that scene by the refrigerator last night out of his head, but there wasn’t a hope in hell that he could.
“But we didn’t have sex.”
“No. I told you that when you woke up.”
“Actually, you told me we’d made wild love.”
He shrugged. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist. Besides, I only let you think that for about a minute. Is there a point to this?”
“I’m trying to establish what happened and what is simply my imagination.”
“Whatever you’re imagining probably happened. Unless you’re imagining we had wild crazy sex. We didn’t.” But he sure as hell wanted to. “Are we done here?”
“Not quite.” She drank some coffee, set down her mug and folded her hands in her lap. Looking straight at him, she asked, “Did you tell me if I hadn’t been drunk you’d have taken me to bed?”
Shit. She remembered a lot more than he’d thought she would. Oh, hell. No reason not to admit it. Nothing about the night had gone as he’d planned. “Yes.”
Her eyes widened. “Did you mean it?”
“Absolutely.”
Chapter Four
“Although, if I’d known you would remember anything about last night, I probably wouldn’t have said it,” Zack said. “Probably.”
“You—you—you want to…” She let her voice trail off.
“Make love to you? Take you to bed? Hit the sheets with you? Do the horizontal tango? Hook up? All of the above? Should I go on?”
She had to laugh. “No, I think I get the picture.” Zack wanted to go to bed with her. Her mind was completely blown. Had that been why he’d come to Jalisco’s every Saturday night for the past several weeks? She’d wondered, but dismissed the idea as too far-fetched.
He gave her a rueful smile and shook his head. “Didn’t it occur to you that I had a reason for eating at Jalisco’s every Saturday? Something besides liking Mexican food?”
“Yes, but then I thought I was imagining it.” And wished she wasn’t. But Zack had never hit on her. Even though she wouldn’t have minded. Minded? She’d always liked Zack. Always had a little bit of a crush on him. Marriage, kids and divorce had changed her, though. In ways Zack couldn’t know about. And she hoped he never would. “You never asked me out. Or did anything besides flirt with me. Not in all the time I’ve known you.”
“So I’m slow.”
“Why?”
He gazed at her and she thought he was going to answer, but apparently he thought better of it.
“It doesn’t matter. I was going to ask you out. Last night. But that didn’t work out like I’d planned.”
“Neither did my night.” So she’d been right. Improbable as it had seemed, he’d been coming to Jalisco’s for a reason. And that reason was her. That made her feel, if possible, even worse about what had happened the night before. Regardless of the fact she hadn’t intended to get drunk, she had. And she’d behaved badly. Stupidly. Losing her job was no excuse for acting like a fool.
“I owe you an apology. Not just for Travis but for…throwing myself at you last night.” Which had to have been frustrating for him. Zack was a good guy, though, so he hadn’t taken her up on her offer. “I was feeling reckless and pissed and you’d sent… Damn, what was his name?”
“Nathan.”
“Yes, him. You’d sent Nathan away. I wouldn’t have gone off with him.” She hoped. “But I wasn’t thinking too clearly. I guess losing that job upset me more than I thought it would.” And that was a massive understatement.
“Don’t forget the guy who started it all by grabbing your ass. I’m sure that had an impact. Otherwise you wouldn’t have dumped a pitcher of water on him.”
Remembering, she frowned. “I wish I’d kicked him in the nuts. Since I got fired anyway.”
He laughed. “Yeah, he deserved worse than a little cold water.” Sobering, he asked, “Did things like that happen often?”
“No. Most guys just flirt a little.”
“Most? Meaning it’s happened before?”
She shrugged and didn’t answer.
“Damn, Laurel. You shouldn’t have to put up with that. Any other restaurant owner or manager in town wouldn’t have allowed that shit to happen.”
“I needed the money. None of the other places wanted a Saturday-night-only waitress.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“Look for another second job. I really like my job at Kelly Boots, but it’s barely enough to live on since… Well, since my divorce.”
“Because of your ex’s debt that he saddled you with. Bastard should be flogged.”
“How did you—Oh, Travis told you.”
“Don’t get mad at him. He worries about you.” He wiggled his jaw and grimaced. “Obviously.”
“I know, but I’m tired of Travis and Harlan treating me like a child they need to protect.”
“I have a feeling you might just have to put up with that.”
She thought so too.
“Do you have any ideas where you’ll look for a job?” Zack asked. “Anything in particular in mind?”
“No. I just need a second job. I have a list of what I’d like and then there’s the list of what’s available. They don’t exactly coincide. So I can’t afford to be too picky. But I’ll make it work, whatever it is.”
“Come work for us.”
Laurel stared at Zack, momentarily speechless. “Work for us?”
“Yes. Me, Travis and Levi. We need an accountant for the airport.”
“Since when? Don’t you have someone doing that?”
“Not anymore. We had an accountant but he recently moved away and we’ve been scrambling. Levi’s accountant has helped us out but he’s just doing it as a favor to Levi until we find someone.”
“I’m not taking charity from Travis.”
“How is a job charity? Besides, Travis isn’t the one offering you the job. I am.”
“I don’t want a job because you feel sorry for me.”
“Damn, Laurel, I’m offering you the job because you’re an accountant. We wouldn’t need you full-time. Not yet, anyway. You’d only need to be on site periodically. You could work from home. I’m not sure how many hours we’d need but we can figure that out.”
Oh, my God, it sounded like a dream second job. She could work from home. She wouldn’t need more childcare. But if she took the job—a job basically working for her brother—wouldn’t that be a mistake? Wouldn’t it be admitting that she couldn’t make it on her own?
Yeah, you’re doing great with that, aren’t you? Drowning in debt, hardly seeing your kids. And when you are with them, you’re too tired to do anything. Why are you going to turn down what could be the perfect second job? Out of pride? That’s just stupid.
But it wasn’t pride that made her so determined to be independent. It was necessity. So she would never ever be dependent on anyone else to support herself and her kids.
“Give me your phone,” Zack said, holding out a hand.
“Why?”
“So I can put my number in it. Whenever you decide, call me.”
She handed him her phone, saying, “Don’t you want an answer right now?”
He added numbers into the phone, then handed it back. “No, take some time to think it over. But we need someone as soon as possible, so don’t take too long.”
*
After he took Laurel home, it occurred to Zack that he should tell Travis and Levi about the job offer. Zack took care of the hiring for the airfield, except for the flight school and charter service, which was Travis’s bailiwick. But their accountant would handle payroll for all the airfield employees, as well as any other accounting needs they would have, so he needed to let his partners know. Not that he expected any objection from either of them.
He called Levi first and got right to the point. “I offered Laurel a job as our accountant.”
“Does she have time? Isn’t she already working two jobs?”
“Not anymore. She’s still got the job at Kelly Boots but she needs another one.”
“Fine with me. Let me know when it’s finalized and I’ll let my accountant know.”
“She hasn’t accepted yet,” Zack cautioned. “But I’ll be surprised if she turns it down.” Since it was, at least in Zack’s opinion, the perfect second job for her.
After hanging up with Levi, he called Travis. “Just a head
s-up,” he said when Travis answered. “I offered Laurel a job as our accountant.”
“Since you called me I’m assuming she didn’t turn you down flat.”
“No. She’s thinking about it.”
“That’s more than I’ve ever gotten out of her. Harlan and I both have offered her jobs in the past and she’s always said no.”
“Were they actual jobs or make-work? She’s pretty prickly about what she considers charity.”
“Tell me about it. And she considers everything to be charity.”
“I think I convinced her this isn’t. I told her we lost our accountant and offered the job to her. I mentioned Levi’s man is handling our needs temporarily but we want someone permanent. She hasn’t said yes, but she hasn’t turned me down yet, either.”
“The hiring is your department, anyway,” Travis said. “But obviously, I’m good with it. Are you going to tell Levi?”
“Already did. He’s good with it too. I’m pretty sure his CPA would like to be rid of us without pissing off Levi. We’re definitely small potatoes compared to Levi’s interests. Anyway, I wanted to let you know.”
“Did you have an ulterior motive when you offered the job to Laurel?”
“You’re damn right I did,” Zack said irritably. “I wanted a good accountant for the airport. Laurel would be a win-win. She needs a good second job and we need an accountant.”
“So you’re being altruistic.”
“Not entirely. As I said, several times now, we need an accountant.”
“And it has nothing to do with the fact that if Laurel is the airport accountant that gives you a good excuse to be around her.”
“What are you getting at, Travis?”
“I was just wondering if there was more to the story than you’ve let on.”
“Meaning what?”
“You just happened to be at Jalisco’s when Laurel got fired. Then you just happened to find her at Booze’s. Seems a little coincidental.”
“Not really.”
“Are you hitting on Laurel?”
“I’m not hitting on her. But I’m interested. And if you don’t like it, you can kiss my ass.” With that parting shot, he hung up.
