Rufus, who had rolled off the couch and was now stretching, trotted over to Jessie for a scratch and then once obliged moved on to Zach, whom he leaned against as if claiming him as his person.
“What is in your hair, boy?” Zach asked. There was a hint of his old self in his tone.
“The girls played hairdresser with him,” Brad said. “He was very patient with them.”
Zach gently removed the bows and put them in a pile on the coffee table. “Come on, boy, you’ve got to have some self-respect. You’ll never find a forever home if you go around looking like that.”
Jessie got the feeling he wasn’t just talking to the dog, but she didn’t ask for clarification. She didn’t want to know. Okay, that was also a big fat fib. She did want to know. She wanted to know what caused Zach to withdraw tonight. Was it seeing his ex? Was it being embarrassed by Jessie’s honesty about their relationship? What?
He began to walk to the door. With a wave, he said, “Thanks for watching the girls tonight. I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”
“Anytime,” Brad said. “Yeah, tomorrow. Sam wants us in his office at nine, don’t forget.”
“I’ll be there,” Zach said. He glanced at her. It was quick, as if he were trying to look at the sun but couldn’t bear it. “Night, Jessie.”
“Good night,” she said.
Rufus trotted after him and Jessie wondered if she’d ever see either Zach or Rufus again. The thought hurt, and not just because she was fond of the dog.
The door shut behind him and Emma popped up on the couch, looked at Jessie, and demanded, “What the hell was that?”
“Oh, my god!” Jessie started and then sank onto the end of the couch. “You were awake? You big faker.”
“The vibe was bad,” Emma said. “I was pretending to be asleep so I could get a sense of what was wrong.”
“She does that,” Brad confirmed.
“Nothing is wrong,” Jessie said. “Zach and I are just back to normal.”
“Normal being?” Brad asked.
“We’re just neighbors again,” she said.
“Bullshit,” Brad said. Both Emma and Jessie looked at him with eyebrows raised and he shrugged and said, “Sorry not sorry, but that’s a load of crap. I’ve known Zach for fifteen years and he’s never looked at anyone the way he looks at you.”
Jessie crossed her arms over her chest and asked, “Except maybe Alexa?”
“Shut up!” Brad said as if he were a teenage girl. “Did he tell you about her?”
“Who is Alexa?” Emma asked.
“He didn’t have to tell me; she came by our table at dinner.”
“No way,” Brad said.
“Way.”
“I am going to have an aneurysm, which would be very bad for the baby, if you people do not tell me who Alexa is,” Emma declared.
“Zach’s old girlfriend—fiancée,” Jessie and Brad answered at the same time but with differing descriptions of Alexa’s role in Zach’s life.
“Wait. They were engaged?” Jessie asked.
“He didn’t tell you?” Brad sighed. “Sorry.”
“Zach was engaged,” Emma said. She squinted at her husband. “How did I not know this?”
“He doesn’t talk about it.”
“Clearly,” Emma said. She frowned at her husband.
Jessie sat on the other side of the couch. “That at least makes much more sense. Poor Zach.”
“Why poor Zach?” Brad asked.
“Well, judging by the way he acted after seeing Alexa, it’s obvious he’s still very much in love with her.”
“Oh, hell no!” Brad barked out a laugh. “Trust me when I tell you that he is completely one hundred percent over her.”
“Then why was he so distant after we saw her? I mean, he wasn’t Zach at all. He was cold and withdrawn and really unhappy,” Jessie said.
“I’m not surprised,” Brad said. “He and Alexa were together for seven years.”
“Okay, now I am furious that I didn’t know about this,” Emma said. “Seven years?”
“They met when we were freshmen in college,” Brad said. “She was the only woman he dated in school and after school they moved in together. Sam and I were sort of hoping Zach would want to venture out there and date others but he never did. He was steadfast.”
“He must have loved her very much,” Jessie said.
She hated how this made her feel. She’d been with Seth for the same length of time. She knew it was hypocritical to dislike that Zach had such a significant relationship in his past but she hated it. Absolutely hated it.
“No, he didn’t,” Brad said. “He stayed with her because Zach is the most loyal person I’ve ever known. He’d have stayed with her forever if she’d married him whether he was happy or not.”
“Why?” Emma asked. “Zach is so great. Why would he stay with someone he wasn’t happy with?”
“Because after a lifetime of being shuttled back and forth between part-time homes, Zach desperately wanted to belong. He hated feeling like he was always on the outside of things, and when he proposed to Alexa, Sam and I knew he was just doing it so that he wouldn’t ever have to feel shut out again.”
That made complete and perfect sense to Jessie. She knew from everything Zach had told her about his life that he hadn’t felt as if he belonged anywhere; that’s why his Maine crew and the brewery were so important to him. They were his family and home.
“What happened between him and Alexa?” Jessie asked. “I mean, why didn’t they get married?”
Brad looked uncomfortable. He looked at Jessie and Emma and then at the front door as if hoping Zach would come back and tell the tale himself.
“If you want me to understand you have to tell me,” she said.
Brad nodded. “Zach proposed, pulling out all the stops, Zach style, and Alexa said yes, but she didn’t seem super happy about it. Then after a week of being engaged, she ended it. She gave Zach the ring back and moved out of their place. Five months later, she was married to someone else,” Brad said. “Now she has a pack of kids and lives in the suburbs of Portland.”
Jessie sucked in a breath.
“Wow, just wow,” Emma said. “That is stone cold.”
“Yeah,” Brad confirmed. “It destroyed him. Sam and I had to bird dog him for a few months to make sure he was okay.”
“This just proves my point. If Zach was over her, he wouldn’t care about seeing her,” Jessie said. “Believe me, he cared.”
Emma glanced between them. “Tell us exactly what happened.”
Jessie recounted the entire conversation word for word.
Brad shrugged. “I have no idea. But you’re right. The Zach who walked in here tonight was not the Zach I know. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him quite so grim.”
“Um, maybe it has nothing to do with Alexa. Perhaps it’s because he wasn’t going to end things with Jessie at dinner,” Emma said. She looked at Jessie as if she was as thick as a brick. “Did it never occur to you that he might have considered tonight an actual date with his new girlfriend, and when you told his ex that you were no more than a fling, you were also telling him the same thing?”
“But he called me his neighbor,” Jessie said.
“Because he was caught off guard. He also scrambled to come up with what to call you probably because he didn’t want to scare you off before the two of you talked about it,” Emma said. “But then Alexa called you his girlfriend and you panicked and corrected her and put him firmly in the fling zone. This, my friend, is what they call a clusterfuck.”
Had she done that? Had she been so preoccupied with not getting hurt that she’d hurt Zach in a preemptive strike to save herself? “Well, crap.”
Chapter 26
“What are you going to do?” Emma asked.
“I don’t know,” Jessie said.
“Talk to him,” Brad said. “This is Zach. He’ll listen. I’m not kidding when I say he doesn’t look at anyone the way he looks at you.”
Jessie felt the hope start to flutter inside of her. Maybe it wasn’t over yet. But what was she going to say to him? What could she say when she’d made an absolute disaster out of their first date, if that’s what it was, and, oh, she hoped it was.
“I’ll think about it,” she said. “I mean, this is all speculation. We have no idea what Zach is thinking or feeling.”
Emma rose to her feet and crossed the floor to reach down and hug Jessie.
“Remember this isn’t just about Zach,” she said. “Your feelings matter, too, and if Zach really does care for you then you’ll be able to fix this.”
Jessie glanced up at Brad, who had his phone out and was texting. She narrowed her eyes at him.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” he said. He shoved his phone in his pocket.
Jessie didn’t believe him, not for a hot minute. “Did you start another betting pool about us?”
“Look at the time,” Brad said. “Come on, Em, let’s go!”
Brad grabbed Emma’s hand and dragged her to the foyer where their coats were hanging. He held out her coat to her and shoved her hat on her head. Grabbing his own coat, he yanked open the door, pushed open the storm door, and darted outside, pulling Emma behind him.
“I’m betting on you for the win,” Emma called out before the night swallowed them up.
Jessie closed and locked the door behind them. She rested her head against the door, dreading going up to her bed, which after last night was likely going to feel entirely too large and too lonely. She sincerely hoped Emma didn’t lose her shirt betting on her this time.
• • •
Zach sipped his coffee and watched his neighbor’s house through the window, knowing full well that staring at a woman’s house, hoping for a glimpse of her, was at best marginally creepy and at worst out-and-out stalker-like. But it had been two days.
Two days since he’d seen her smile, smelled her particularly lovely lemony scent, held her hand, or hugged her. And that was just the G-rated stuff he was missing. There was a whole other list of X-rated sights and sounds that he couldn’t even let himself remember or he’d be curled up in a fetal position on his living room floor, dripping a steady stream of single-man tears.
Given the way he’d dropped her off at her house after their date, he supposed he couldn’t really blame her for not reaching out to him. He’d been distant, aloof, and cold, something so foreign to his natural extroverted personality that even he hadn’t recognized himself.
He’d been rocked by seeing his ex. Alexa Bracken or, as he’d known her, Alexa Todd. She’d been his constant for seven years. He’d never realized she was unhappy or that she wanted something different. He’d fallen for her in college and just assumed she was The One and that they’d spend the rest of their lives together. Nope.
He’d run into her a few times over the years, usually when he had a piece of arm candy with him or two, and she’d always seemed disappointed or disgusted or perhaps just full of pity for him. This time was the first time she’d run into him on a genuine date. It had been awesome, right up until Jessie had labeled them a fling. A fling?!
Zach had been stung. Whatever was happening between them had ceased to be a fling for him somewhere between her first and second orgasm; okay, that was a lie. In his mind, Jessie had always been different, special, more. She’d always been so much greater to him than something casual and to hear her dismiss them as a hookup, well, it had wrecked him.
He’d been grumpy and out of sorts ever since. Instead of going out last night, he’d stayed in. He’d ignored the texts and calls from the Maine crew, and had let his senior field marketer, Savannah, be in charge of the girls last night. She was ready to start taking over the field promotions and, frankly, his heart just wasn’t in it.
Instead he and Rufus had curled up on the couch and watched the animal channel. Rufus had perked up during a show about police dogs, but without the girls, their kitten Chaos, and Jessie, the house had seemed too quiet to Zach. He didn’t like it.
The only consolation he felt was that he knew Jessie hadn’t gone out either. Her car stayed in the garage and the girls’ bedroom light went on in time for stories and went out at their standard bedtime. He missed that.
He missed reading to the girls every evening. Gracie would go quiet as her imagination embroidered every word and Maddie would be furious if the chapter ended on a cliff-hanger. He had learned to pause the books in mid-chapter to avoid the argument she would begin if the characters were left in peril.
He missed the feel of their small hands sliding into his as they walked somewhere or their arms looping around his neck to give him a big hug. He missed the way they romped around with Rufus and Chaos and he missed the sound of their laughter.
The truth was that Zach loved the girls and he’d fallen in love with their mom. There was something about Jessie that hollered back at him, that resonated with him, as if she was the echo to his lonely cry. He wanted to be with her, not just temporarily, but always. But he had no idea how to get her to see him the same way.
Zach looked from Jessie’s house into his now empty cup. His excuse for standing here was gone. He turned on the faucet to rinse out his mug. His gaze moved back to Jessie’s house while he stalled.
A dark blue luxury sedan pulled into Jessie’s driveway. Zach put the cup in the sink and stopped the water. He’d never seen this car before. Was it Seth, her ex, coming for a visit? Zach felt his fists bunch. The guy ditched his kids for the holidays but shows up now after they perform a father-daughter talent show without him?
No. An overwhelming feeling of possession swept over Zach. He knew it wasn’t right or logical. Jessie and the girls were not his. Heck, Jessie had made it clear how not his she was by dismissing what was between them as nothing. Still, he hated the idea of the man who had all but abandoned them strolling back into their lives as if he had a right to just show up when he felt like it or when it was convenient for him.
As Zach watched, a man exited the car. He was wearing a coat and a hat, giving Zach no clue as to what he looked like. He could be a friend of Jessie’s, Zach supposed, except they had the same friends and Zach did not recognize this guy as being Gavin, Brad, Sam, James, or even Cooper. It made him feel uneasy.
Without pausing to think it through, Zach whistled to Rufus. He strode to his foyer and shoved his feet into his boots, grabbed his coat, hat, and gloves. Rufus came at a run, assuming they were going for a walk. They were. Next door.
As Zach crossed the snow-crusted yards, he didn’t hear any screams coming from Jessie’s. He took that as a good sign and yet he didn’t slow his pace or reconsider his mission. He could not be at ease until he knew his girls, all three, were all right.
Zach strode up onto the porch and pressed the doorbell. He waited, trying to be polite and not yank open the door and storm the house like a fireman chasing down flames.
He heard someone unlatching the deadbolt and then he saw Gracie’s concerned face peer out at him. Once she recognized him, a grin split her features and she pushed the door wide.
“Zach, you’re here!” she cried. She threw herself at him and hugged his middle. “And just in time since Grandpa is planning to take us away.”
“What?”
Zach stepped inside and shed his coat and boots while Rufus took the opportunity to lick Gracie’s face. The empty spot where Zach had kept his boots when he stayed here during the blizzard was still there, as if no one had wanted to fill his space with their shoes. That made him take heart.
“Zach! Rufus!” Maddie reached the doorway and launched herself at him. Zach dropped his gloves and caught her mid-air. “We missed you. Where we
re you?”
“Oh, you know, around,” Zach said. He took it as a good sign that Jessie hadn’t told the girls he was dead to them.
“Our grandpa is here,” Maddie said. She looped her arm around his neck. “He wants to take custard of us.”
“Custody?” Zach asked. He felt his internal early warning system start blaring.
“Yes, that’s it,” Gracie said. “He and Momma are not happy with each other.”
They stepped into the main room, with Maddie perched on Zach’s hip and Gracie pressed close to his side. He felt everything in his world right itself now that he had his girls with him. He looked at the living room. It was empty. He swiveled his gaze toward the kitchen. Jessie and the man the girls called Grandpa sat at the dining room table. Jessie held a mug of coffee in her hands while the man had a glass of water. They both looked tense.
“Momma, look who’s here!” Gracie cried. “Zach and Rufus.”
Zach watched her closely. It was only a flicker but he was certain he saw it all the same. Relief. She was relieved to see him. Zach felt his smile unfurl. Good. Relief he could work with.
“Hi, Jessie,” he said. She gave him a small nod and then cast a nervous glance at the man across the table.
Zach studied the man. He had ditched his coat and hat and Zach could see he was tall and angular and mostly bald with just a fringe of tightly trimmed gray hair that circled the back of his head. He had a hook of a nose, and thin lips over a stubborn bearded chin. The same chin as the feisty girl in his arms.
Jessie rose to her feet. “Hi, Zach. This is Judge Connelly, the girls’ grandfather.”
Interesting. Not “my father-in-law” or “my ex’s father,” but “the girls’ grandfather,” and she introduced him as a judge not a mister, which Zach took to mean that the position had shaped Jessie’s relationship with the man.
“Zachary Caine,” he introduced himself. “I live next door.”
Zach held out his hand and noted the man’s hesitation in taking it. He gave him a level look and the judge flushed a faint shade of pink before he took Zach’s hand in a firm grip and with one up and down pump released him.
Every Dog Has His Day Page 23
