They both glanced up at him with grins and he felt his heart turn over. They were okay. Man, he had missed them today.
“Hello, my favorite girls,” he said. “What are you making?”
“Penguins,” Maddie said. She put down her bottle of glue and did her fancy high-five greeting with him. She had recently added a very Michael Jackson bent knee kick. Zach did his best to keep up.
“Marsupials,” Gracie said. They exchanged their high five and he realized he was relying on muscle memory now; he didn’t even have to think about the moves anymore.
Both girls sat down and Zach looked at the gluey, crusty yarn mess in front of them. “Penguins, marsupials, of course they are. They’re incredible.” Not a total lie. “Where’s your mom?”
“Upstairs with Miranda,” Gracie said. “She wanted to meet Chaos.”
“Cool. I’ll be right back.” He kissed them both on the tops of their heads and strode toward the stairs. “Hello? Jessie?”
“Up here,” she answered.
Zach took the stairs two at a time. He banged into the girls’ room to find Jessie and another woman sitting on the floor of the bedroom with Chaos sprawled on the throw rug between them. He was on his back with his overly large kitten feet in the air, swiping at a cat toy that consisted of a feather on a string that Jessie was teasing him with. The woman sitting with Jessie was laughing at the kitten.
“Oh, look at you,” the woman spoke to Chaos. “Who’s a warrior? Who is the king of his castle?”
She was wearing a navy blue uniform that consisted of baggy coveralls with the same animal control logo that was on the van on the pocket of the shirt. Her long, tightly curled hair was in a ponytail that fit through the opening in the back of the ball cap that was on her head. The cap had the logo, too. Zach took it to mean the department really wanted people to know their employees were with animal control.
“Hey,” he said as he strode into the room. “What’s happening?”
“Hi,” Jessie greeted him. If she felt weird about last night’s shenanigans, it didn’t show. “Zachary Caine, this is Miranda Reinhart, she works for animal control. Apparently, they got a call about the ferocious beast I am fostering who is a danger to my girls.”
“Your father-in-law,” Zach said.
Jessie nodded, looking pained. “I can’t believe he did that. I mean, yes, Chaos has been a little challenging as a foster, but it’s just because he’s so young. I am sure he’ll mellow out.”
“He only jumped on the judge’s pant leg because he was trying to protect you and the girls,” Zach said. “I’m sure of it.”
“That could be,” Miranda agreed. “If he felt the judge was a hostile presence, he might have attacked. Can’t really fault him for defending his family, now can we?”
“So, you don’t feel you have to take him?” Jessie asked.
“Nah, he’s fine,” Miranda said. “But if you want me to take him to find him a forever home, I can do it tonight. He’s old enough now.”
“No!” Zach cried. Both women looked at him and he said, “I mean he’s still so little, shouldn’t you wait until he’s bulked up a little before sending him out into the cold, cruel world?”
Jessie laughed. “You have your own foster animal to worry about but yes, I think I’ll wait a few more weeks.”
Zach resisted the urge to do a fist pump. He wasn’t sure why he felt like his fate and Chaos’s were entwined, but he did and if he bought the kitty some time then maybe he was doing the same thing for himself, especially after last night.
“Well, it won’t hurt him to get a bit bigger,” Miranda said. She glanced at Zach and then tipped her head to the side. “Wait, did Jessie say your name was Zachary Caine?”
For a brief second, Zach thought about denying it. It was never a good thing when a woman looked at him the way Miranda was, like she should know him from somewhere but she couldn’t remember where. Usually, it meant Zach had hooked up with her friend, sister, cousin, and one time that he tried to forget about, her mom.
If this was the situation, it would not be setting the tone for the evening that he was hoping for; he decided to go for vague and said, “Maybe.”
“Zach!” Jessie gave him an exasperated look.
“Yes, sorry, it’s me,” he said. He offered his hand and they shook. “I live next door.”
“Are you the same Zach who gave Judge Connelly the what-for at the ice-skating rink yesterday?” Miranda asked.
Zach felt Jessie’s gaze drill him from where she sat on the floor. Oh, this was not going to go well.
“Uh, we had a chat, yes, we did,” he said.
He didn’t look at Jessie. He didn’t have to. He could feel the hot weight of her stare on his face and he knew without looking that she was significantly not happy about this bit of news.
“A chat?” Miranda laughed. “That’s not the way I heard it. Rich, the Zamboni driver, said he heard you tell the judge to go to hell—”
“No!” Zach interrupted. He glanced at Jessie—her eyes were huge—and he shook his head. “I did not say that exactly.”
“That’s not how I heard it. Good for you,” Miranda said. She rose to her feet and slugged Zach on the shoulder with her fist. He staggered back a few steps.
“Yow! Do they have you wrestling bears as part of animal control?” he asked.
She grinned at him as if this was high praise. Well, okay, then.
“I’ll walk you out, Miranda,” Jessie said. Zach went to follow but she turned on him and snapped, “Don’t move.”
Zach froze. He let out a slow breath. Just like that, he had a feeling tonight wasn’t going to go like he planned. Damn it. He needed to do some damage control and he needed to do it fast.
He debated texting the Maine crew. That wouldn’t work. He wondered if he could have flowers delivered to Jessie before she got back up here. Unlikely. He could try and distract her with sex. Well, that thought made him warm all over but if he tried it on her and she wasn’t in the mood, it could have dire—as in he’d never get to see her naked again—consequences.
He felt something tug on his shoelace. He glanced down to find Chaos on the prowl. He moved his foot; Chaos froze, wiggled his behind, and then pounced on the shoelace. The lace put up a valiant fight but Chaos flopped onto his back, with the thick string caught between his paws while he chomped on the plastic end with his tiny cat fangs.
“You know this whole thing is your fault,” Zach said. “If you hadn’t climbed up onto my roof and dragged your people over to my house, we likely never would have met. I would be home alone with your buddy Rufus right now, trying to figure out how to fill my night so I didn’t feel so damn lonely.”
He bent over and scooped up the cat. Scrawny and as light as marshmallow, the cat draped himself on Zach’s hand. His chin rested on Zach’s wrist and he was purring. Zach held him up so they were nose to nose.
“I owe you an awful lot, little guy,” he said. “You changed everything for me.”
Chaos tipped his head to the side in an Aw, shucks sort of pose and Zach smiled. He scratched the little fella under the chin and behind the ears until the cat sounded like he had a V8 engine inside his chest.
“Don’t you worry, Chaos. I promise I won’t let the judge have you taken from the girls,” he said.
“Ah!” a gasp sounded from the door and Zach turned to find Maddie and Gracie standing there with Jessie right behind them. From the looks on their faces, he suspected they’d heard him. Uh-oh.
“Chaos!” Maddie rushed forward. She held up her little hands and Zach gently set Chaos into them.
Gracie wrapped an arm around her sister and put her hand on her cat. “Why? Why would Grandpa want to take our cat away?”
“Because he’s a me—”
“He means well,” Jessie interrupted Zach. “It’s because
he means well. But, of course, we won’t let anyone take our boy. He’s our foster and it’s our job to find him a good home.”
“But why can’t he stay with us?” Gracie asked. “He loves us and we love him, doesn’t that make us family?”
“Well, we don’t know what’s going to happen and it might not be fair to keep Chaos unless we can be sure that we can provide a good forever home for him.”
“I’ll give him my bed,” Maddie said. “That’s good, right?”
“And he can have my food,” Gracie added. “I won’t miss it.”
Zach felt his heart crack wide open into two pieces. These girls were killing him.
“Your grandpa isn’t going to take Chaos,” he said. “I won’t let him. I promise.”
“Thank you, Zach,” the girls said together and they both hugged him.
“Zach, can I have a word?” Jessie was looking at him like she wanted to strangle him.
Zach hugged the girls and kissed each of their heads. He wasn’t stalling, he needed the courage.
“Girls, supper will be ready at five thirty,” Jessie said. “Why don’t you stay up here and wash up? I’ll call you down in a few minutes.”
“Yes, Momma,” they answered. They never took their eyes off Chaos, however, and Zach would have been surprised if they had a clue as to what their mother had just said.
Jessie turned and led the way downstairs to the kitchen. Zach figured she had been making dinner when Miranda showed up, as all of the ingredients for a salad were on the kitchen counter just waiting to be put together. A glance at the oven and Zach saw a baking dish that was emitting a truly fantastic smell. His stomach rumbled.
He watched as Jessie picked up the biggest knife in the block and began chopping the head of lettuce. Whack. Whack. Whack.
He tried not to flinch. Then she put the cucumber on the chopping block. This time he did flinch, repeatedly. When she put the tomato on the board, he reached forward and grabbed her hand.
“Were we going to talk?” he asked. She glared at him and he released her.
“I’m trying to figure out what I want to say, you know, without a lot of swear words,” she said. She waved the knife at him and he leaned back. “I just can’t believe you.”
“At all, in general, or at the moment?” he asked. “Can you give me a little more to go on here?”
“How could you have spoken to the judge and not told me?” she asked. “It’s even become local gossip, everyone in town knows except for me.”
“Not ev—”
“And how could you argue with him?” she cried. “He’s already trying to take the girls. You can’t antagonize him.”
“Listen, my girl—” he began but she cut him off.
“No! I’m not your girl,” she said. “I’m Maddie’s and Gracie’s mother and that is it. Don’t you see? I’m it. I’m the only person they can rely on, the only person who will be there for them no matter what, who loves them unconditionally. And I can’t let my feelings for anyone else interfere with that.”
Zach studied her. She was mad, no question, but she’d also just admitted she had feelings for him. He felt his heart lift in his chest.
“So, you admit you feel something for me,” he said.
She looked at him. She opened her mouth to protest and then she shook her head.
“What?” he asked.
“After all that I just said, your takeaway is that I have feelings for you,” she said. She shook her head as if she couldn’t believe she was having this conversation. “Of course I have feelings for you, otherwise the things that have happened between us . . .”
Her voice trailed off as if she didn’t know how to say it, so Zach helped out, and said, “Orgasms multiple.”
Jessie’s cheeks turned a hot shade of pink and her gaze darted around the kitchen as if the dishwasher or the oven might have overheard him. Then her blue eyes met his but she didn’t look happy.
“Yes, that,” she said. “That couldn’t have happened if there wasn’t some level of trust and caring between us, but it doesn’t matter.”
Zach raised his eyebrows. “I don’t want to be argumentative, but I think it matters a lot.”
“No, it doesn’t, because this thing”—she paused and gestured between them with the knife—“can’t go on.”
“What?” Zach asked. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that this was fun but I have to protect my girls, and I can’t do that if you lie to me,” she said.
“I didn’t lie,” Zach protested. “I just didn’t mention a conversation I had with that miserable—”
“It’s a lie by omission,” she snapped. “Which is the same thing.”
“It’s not the same thing,” he argued. “I was trying to protect you.”
“Lying to me is not protecting me,” Jessie argued. “The only way I can anticipate how to deal with the judge is if I know what’s going on at all times. If you lie to me—”
“Again, it wasn’t a lie,” he insisted. “I planned on talking to you about it.”
“When?”
“I don’t know. I hadn’t figured that part out yet,” he said.
Zach seldom lost his temper. He had discovered early on that it gained him nothing, and life was much more fun if he found the humor in every situation. Right now, he was struggling to do so.
“Sure you were. You can call it whatever you want, but I call it a lie,” she snapped. “Which makes you no better than my ex-husband.”
Zach felt as if she’d taken her big knife and stabbed him in the chest with it. He stared at her in shock. Had she actually just told him he was no better than the man who had abandoned her and her girls after being a drunken, cheating, emotionally abusive asshole for years?
He stepped away from the counter. He knew she was upset and, yes, he probably should have told her about his convo with the judge right away, but he didn’t think anything he had done justified the comparison she had just made.
When he glanced at her blue eyes, they were fierce. Her lips compressed into a thin line. She wasn’t rushing to apologize; in fact, she looked like she was going to hold her ground. That wasn’t going to work for him.
“You know, I think I’ll get going,” he said. “I need to take Rufus for a walk, and I think you and I could use some space.”
Jessie nodded. She lowered her gaze to the hacked-up vegetables in front of her. She didn’t even look him in the eye. Zach felt like his insides had been twisted up like a cloth to let out all of the moisture or in his case all of the feelings. It didn’t work. The feelings were still there and they hurt like a bitch.
He turned on his heel and whistled to Rufus, who leapt off the couch and followed him to the door. It wasn’t that Zach was stalling, but he took his time putting on his coat and hat and gloves. Jessie didn’t come after him. When he peeked around the door frame into the kitchen she was tossing her salad with a large spoon and fork, looking as miserable as Zach felt.
He wanted to go to her and hug her, whisper in her ear that he was sorry and that they’d figure it out. But he didn’t think a hug would be welcome right now, if ever. It took everything he had to walk out the door with Rufus and not look back.
Chapter 31
The girls wanted to know where Zach was. Jessie didn’t want to tell them she had driven him away with her harsh words. Ugh, how could she have been so cold and so cruel as to compare him to Seth? She was an idiot.
The hurt in his warm brown gaze had been like plunging her knife into her own chest. Zach, who had been nothing but kind and loving, not just to her but to the girls and Chaos, too, hadn’t deserved such harsh treatment. And she couldn’t even excuse herself by saying she was just so freaked out about the judge trying to take away her girls. Well, she could say that but it didn’t justify how she had treated him.
&nb
sp; Not wanting to lie to her daughters, Jessie told them the truth. As she dished out the baked ziti, she said that she had been unfair to Zach and had hurt his feelings. She explained that she was concerned that Zach hadn’t told her about running into their grandfather at the ice rink and that she had reacted badly when learning about it.
“That’s okay, Momma,” Maddie said. She gave her a somber look. “All you have to do is say you’re sorry. Zach will forgive you.”
“Sometimes saying you’re sorry isn’t good enough,” Jessie said. She figured she’d better prepare the girls in case Zach decided he’d had enough of her, what with her rejecting his adorably crazy idea to get married and now comparing him to her ex. Gah, even the thought of it made her a bit ill.
“But you always say that telling the person you’re sorry makes it better,” Gracie said. “Won’t it make it better if you say you’re sorry to Zach?”
Jessie let out a small sigh and pushed her pasta around her plate. “It gets more complicated when you’re a grown-up.”
“Will we ever see him again?” Maddie asked.
Honesty. That was what Jessie had demanded of Zach. Could she offer her girls any less?
“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe not as much as we used to.”
“But why?” Gracie sobbed. “Why?”
Jessie reached out to put her hand on Gracie’s arm, but Gracie flinched away.
“No! I want Zach. He’s my friend and I don’t want to lose him and if I can’t have him then I don’t want you either!”
“Gracie!” Jessie stared at her daughter in shock. Gracie was her quiet one, her pleaser, the one who always tried to make everything okay.
“I want Zach!” Gracie repeated.
She shoved back her chair and turned away but not before Jessie saw a tear drip down her cheek. Gracie scrubbed it away with her fist and ran for the stairs.
“Gracie!” Jessie called again.
Every Dog Has His Day Page 27
