“Fuck off.” Zane grinned, saying the words without heat.
He’d missed this too. He would be the first to admit that working with his brothers, day in and day out, could grate on his nerves like fingernails down a chalkboard, but he wouldn’t change a thing.
“Well, you look better anyway, Bubba. I have to say, there for a while, you kinda looked like shit,” Braydon chimed in, grabbing two energy drinks from the refrigerator and tossing one to Brendon. Like they needed that shit.
Zane didn’t need any more energy than they did, but he was smart enough to know better. He didn’t drink anything with caffeine in it. Or at least he tried to avoid it at all costs. Hell, he hardly drank anything other than water, which his brothers liked to give him hell about. It seemed they all had their own vices. Hell, he had his as well, but he just tried to keep those to himself as best he could.
“What the hell? You guys having a spa party or what?” Zane ribbed as he grabbed one of the empty chairs and turned it backward, straddling it and facing three of his six brothers. “Kaleb, I’m disappointed in you. Zoey’s turned you into a pussy.”
Kaleb’s rumbling laugh filled the space. “I’m not going there, man. Not gonna do it.”
“If you’re not doing your fucking nails, is this a book club or something? Why are you two here? Shouldn’t you be out on a job somewhere?” Zane turned his attention to the twins, leaning his forearms on the chair back.
“Why did the doctor clear you to come home?” Ethan asked as he walked in the back door. “Or was it because they couldn’t take any more?”
“Probably.” Zane grinned. Despite their constant ridicule, he sure had missed this shit. “Where are Sawyer and Travis?”
“Sawyer’s on his way,” Kaleb added, glancing down at his computer screen. “Trav had to go to Dallas. He’s meeting with Luke and Logan again this week.”
“How’s the resort coming along?” Considering the ground breaking ceremony was so long ago, Zane had expected to see something happening with the construction, but when Travis brought him home last night, he hadn’t seen much of anything, other than some clearing of the land.
Apparently, Travis had brought in an environmentalist to survey and find the best place for the resort, that wouldn’t affect too much of the land. Zane wouldn’t have thought his brother would’ve cared much about it, so he’d been a little taken aback. Not that he didn’t agree, he just didn’t expect as much from Travis. His brother was a hard ass, in so many ways. Had been for as long as Zane could remember. The others had tried to tell him that Travis wasn’t always like that, but Zane wasn’t much of a believer
“We should see a lot more in the coming weeks,” Kaleb answered, turning away from his computer.
“How’s the wedding planning?”
“We’ve set the date.” Kaleb grinned.
“Again?” Zane knew that Kaleb and Zoey had pushed out their wedding until the beginning of the year because he’d been in the hospital. It still irritated the shit out of him that he was the reason they were delaying their momentous day, but no amount of arguing with them had done any good.
“We never were happy with the original date.”
His brother was lying, but Zane smiled anyway. That’s what his brothers did. They had each other’s back, no matter the reason. And, in this case, every one of them stood beside Zane during a really touch and go point in his life. And now, despite the little white lie, Zane didn’t fault Kaleb. “Bachelor party planned yet?”
“Oh, hell yeah!” Braydon stood, his restless energy palpable in the small room. “Bren and I are handling that one.”
Oh, hell. Zane laughed again, noticing how good it felt to be able to smile a real smile for the first time in a long time. “You’re a brave man leaving your fate in their hands.”
“You’re telling me,” Kaleb groaned.
“That’s ok. Wait till you hear what V’s got planned for Zoey’s bachelorette party. We’re thinking Vegas!”
“Hell no,” Kaleb barked. “No Vegas. I don’t trust you in Coyote Ridge, I damn sure don’t trust you in Vegas.”
Braydon and Brendon merely laughed at that and the look they passed to one another said they didn’t much care what Kaleb wanted.
Zane was pretty sure Vegas was in the cards.
♀♂
“I’ll be so fucking happy when I don’t have to look at another one of these again,” V hissed as she scrubbed the devil’s form of white porcelain hell. She’d rather be anywhere than cleaning toilets on her knees.
Anywhere.
“Well, only a couple more weeks and then we’ll be off to bigger and better things.” Zoey laughed from behind her.
They were doing the last bathroom at the Wilson’s house before they were finished for the day and V couldn’t wait to be out of there for good. Two more weeks were fourteen days too long as far as she was concerned.
The prospect of working for the Walker brothers wasn’t high on her list of things she wanted to accomplish in her life, but it beat scrubbing other people’s messes. Admittedly, V hadn’t set a direct career path for herself, but she was happy about the choices she had made thus far. She was supporting herself, helping her mother when she could, and she got to spend every day with her best friend. In her opinion, she couldn’t ask for much more than that.
Although, the idea of working for the Walkers was a little intimidating, V had been giving it some serious thought. When Zoey mentioned she was going to be closing her small cleaning service, V had been worried at first. When her best friend mentioned they’d be working for the resort, V had initially thought about turning down the offer. She was glad she hadn’t jumped the gun too early on that decision though. After some serious thought, she had come up with an idea that she was actually excited about. When she mentioned it to Zoey a couple of weeks ago, she was thrilled to know her best friend supported her in this little venture.
Alluring Indulgence Resort was going to rock their sleepy little town in more ways than one. When she actually sat down and thought about it, the opportunity this place presented made her head spin. With her sights set on managing the resort’s luxury day spa, V knew she needed to take the next step toward securing the next phase of her life, but she hadn’t yet presented the idea to Kaleb, Sawyer and Travis.
She was working on it though. Well, at least she was mentally mapping out what she was supposed to do next. With Zoey’s support, V knew she just needed to ask for what she wanted. She wasn’t looking forward to having the conversation with the oldest Walker brothers, but she knew if she wanted it, she was going to have to go for it. Now she was just biding her time and trying to muster up a little more backbone. They were an intimidating bunch.
“Are we getting a drink after this?” V prayed they would be, or she might just burst at the seams. Being only two days into the work week, for some reason this was turning out to be one of the longest weeks of her life. She knew she probably could thank Zane for that.
“Definitely.” Zoey sounded as exasperated as V felt. It truly was getting difficult to get up each day and clean houses when there were some substantial changes just around the corner. Some changes that would alter the course of their lives, and the lives of so many others.
Just like the Walker brothers did.
V’s mind drifted to the day before, and the way Zane had pinned her to the wall and fucked her into oblivion. She hadn’t realized just how much her body had craved his until the instant he touched her. How she had ever convinced herself that the memories they had created before his attack would be enough to sustain her for a lifetime, she would never know. Clearly she’d been delusional.
And now Zane wanted to pursue this little affair for as long as it would last. V didn’t have high hopes that it was going to last all that long because hell, sex was sex. She might not have many compelling offers, but she knew, for a fact, the Walker brothers didn’t spend many nights alone. The idea of Zane attempting to change her mind about this bei
ng anything more was preposterous. But she had to admit, she was looking forward to him trying.
Ok, so maybe she had a change of heart – it was more like a real slight shift actually – somewhere in the dark of night when she was lying awake, fearful of every single noise she heard, every creak of her house, every brush of the tree branches outside her window against the screen. At that point, V had been willing to run to Zane if she thought it would do her any good. Sure, she was nervous, timid even, but this was Zane Walker and she was undeniably affected by him.
Granted, yesterday could’ve been a fluke as far as she was concerned. Hell, Zane hadn’t been out of the hospital for two hours before she’d been competently persuaded to give in to him. The man made her physically ache with his nearness. Considering he hadn’t had sex in three months, she could almost believe that she’d just been an easy way for him to rectify his celibate slump. Except V didn’t believe that. She wouldn’t have had sex with him if she had either.
For the better part of the morning, V had been satisfied just thinking about what happened between them last night. Now that the day was dwindling on, V was a little disappointed that she hadn’t heard from him yet. But not enough for her to try and reach out to him. There was still time left, so she held out hope. Yes, that dreaded word that she shied away from was right there lingering at the edge of her periphery.
He probably was elbow-deep in an engine somewhere and totally oblivious to the time. That’s what Zane did. He gave one hundred and fifty percent to everything he did and everything else fell to the wayside except what he was working on. Since she’d been privy to his undivided attention a time or two, V couldn’t complain.
“Smiling, huh?” Zoey stood just a few feet away staring down at her while V mindlessly scrubbed. “I know it’s not the job that’s making you light up like that. Must be Zane.”
Zoey turned and walked off; successfully dodging the dry cloth V threw at her. She had to agree with Zoey though. She hadn’t been smiling much lately, and that was mostly because she still couldn’t get over what had happened to Zane that day.
Just last night, when she went home after leaving his house, she’d sat in her car for a good fifteen minutes before she managed to walk to her front porch. She wasn’t quite sure what was wrong with her, but whatever it was, it scared her senseless.
When she was finally finished with the bathroom and she had vacuumed the master bedroom carpet, V met Zoey in the kitchen to find the woman on the phone, looking all googly-eyed and dreamy.
V didn’t need to eavesdrop on the conversation to know Zoey was talking to Kaleb. She wasn’t sure how either of them managed to get anything done during the day with as many times as they stopped to talk on the phone. They’d been together for several months now, and yet they still acted like the relationship was new for both of them. It was cute. And a little nauseating at times.
V felt absolutely no ill will toward the couple though. She was more than happy for her friend and the fact that she had finally found what she’d deserved from the beginning. Kaleb Walker was one of the finest men V had ever known, and his love for Zoey was apparent. It had been for a long, long time, although both Zoey and Kaleb had been oblivious to it. Most of the people who knew them had seen it, but the two of them had denied their physical attraction to one another for years. Thankfully, they’d both found their way, and now they were planning a wedding.
This reminded, V... She was working on the bachelorette party.
Without preamble, V began loading her things into Zoey’s truck while she waited for her to finish her phone call. She’d heard plenty of “I love you” and “I miss you” in the last couple of weeks that she didn’t need to hear any more.
By the time Zoey was heading out of the house, V had loaded her things into the bed of Zoey’s truck and was waiting patiently. Not that patience was one of her virtues, but she was working on it. Probably had a lot to do with Zane’s attack and the fact that there for about a week, they hadn’t known whether he would make it or not.
The thought still made her sick to her stomach.
“I’ve got to go home and shower, but then I’ll pick you up and we’ll head over to Moonshiners,” Zoey mumbled as she approached and at first V thought she was still on the phone. When she looked up, she saw that her friend was, in fact, talking to her.
“Sounds like a plan.” Not that the idea of going home sounded appealing. Especially considering V would actually have to go into the house, but it wasn’t like she had much of a choice.
“How’re the renovations on the house coming along?” V figured idle chit chat was the only way to keep her mind off of going home, so she brought up the safest subject she knew of.
“Fantastic.” Zoey grinned from ear to ear as she settled behind the wheel and started the engine. “With the sale of the land, I’ve got enough money to do some pretty significant improvements to the house. If it weren’t for the age, we wouldn’t be looking at so much money or change, but I think when they’re done, it’ll be totally worth it.”
“When will they be finished?” Completion of the work had been a precarious topic for Zoey last week, although V hadn’t understood why. Considering she and Kaleb were already shacking up at his place while the work was being done, V figured there were other more important battles Zoey should be focused on.
“Now they are telling us about three months. Kaleb talked to the general contractor today, and he’s going to get a crew started this week.”
Since Zoey’s father moved into the guest house that Zoey had originally been occupying, the main house currently stood almost empty which seemed to make her friend a little nervous. Zoey’s little bouts of frustration were few and far between these days though, and V was just happy to see the smile on her friends face. Zoey deserved all the happiness in the world as far as V was concerned.
After finding out that Zoey’s ex-husband, Jason Tribbons had actually got some chick pregnant while the two of them had been married, Zoey’s mood had gone sour there for a little while. Not that V blamed her. If it weren’t for Braydon’s and Brendon’s interference they would have known what happened a long time ago, but instead, the wound was still fresh. According to Zoey, Kaleb was unquestionably worth every ounce of heartache she had gone through in her life just to end up where she was.
Of course, it appeared Jason and his crazy bitch wife were back for good, but Zoey didn’t seem to care. And V wasn’t about to bring it up. That man was in the past, and V was happy to celebrate Zoey’s future with her.
After all, it seemed to be the only future worth celebrating these days.
Chapter Four
♂♀
By the time the twins and Ethan left, leaving only Sawyer, Kaleb and himself, Zane was more than ready to get on with his day. While the rest of them were razzing one another relentlessly, Zane managed to text Beau to see if he could get away for a bit and meet him at the gym. Unfortunately, Beau was busy and said he’d catch him the next day.
At first Zane had been disappointed, but after overhearing Kaleb’s phone conversation with Zoey a few minutes ago, he’d found something else to look forward to. According to what he heard, Kaleb was meeting Zoey and V at Moonshiners later, and Zane had invited himself to tag along. He wasn’t going to miss his chance to corner V again. It seemed that might be the only way he would get to spend some time with her.
He didn’t bother her that morning like he wanted to, mainly because he knew how skittish V was. She reminded him of an abused animal. She wanted to trust, but she wasn’t quite to the point where she would open herself up yet, but she was noticeably getting better. She needed space. And after Zane managed to get her to commit to allowing him to pursue her, he figured he’d back off. A little.
He found it amusing that she still wanted to reiterate that whatever this was between them was just sex. Sex with her was certainly on his agenda because what red blooded man wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to have V wrapped around him like a
fucking blanket. Shit, Zane had never known anything quite like it, and he wasn’t about to let go of it if he had a say in the matter.
“Awww, shit. Another one bites the dust.” Sawyer’s sarcasm broke into Zane’s thoughts. He glanced over to see his brother smirking at him.
“What the hell are you talking about?” He dared to ask the question.
“Fuck, bro. You’re sitting over there grinning like a fucking girl in love.”
Zane glowered at his brother, but then he broke into a smile. It was harder and harder to get irritated with his brothers at this point. He had just missed them so damn much while he’d been in the hospital. He had enough anger and hatred boiling deep in his gut from the assault that he couldn’t find it in him to let anything else get to him at the moment.
“Do you really want to go there?” Zane questioned, laughing. “I’ve heard some stories about you and a pretty little Sheriff’s daughter that we could relive if you’d like.”
Sawyer’s eyebrows darted downward, a frown replacing his smirk. There was clearly something going on between Sawyer and Kennedy Endsley, but Zane only knew as much as he’d heard from his brothers and Beau, which honestly wasn’t much.
“Are you planning to return to work soon?” Sawyer redirected the conversation, clearly wanting to change the subject.
The question caught Zane off guard, and he tried to get a read on Sawyer’s intentions. Did his brother want him to go back to work? Was Ethan having problems managing the shop while he’d been away? He hadn’t heard anything, but that didn’t mean they weren’t keeping secrets from him. But this was also exactly the opening he needed.
“I’ve been giving that some thought.”
Sawyer’s eyebrow cocked as though he was waiting for the rest of Zane’s explanation.
Zane hadn’t prepared for this conversation yet and he had a hard time finding the right words... “I want in on the resort.” Well hell. That wasn’t what he had in mind.
Zane (Alluring Indulgence) Page 5
