Actually Love - Jessie & Zach (The Crossroads Series)

by Melanie Shawn

  Part of Jessie wanted to tell her sister everything about Zach. She wanted to tell her that, since meeting him a week ago, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him. That her mind was cluttered with every single one of the sixty-two minutes they’d shared together. That she was going to be moving in with someone she had so much chemistry with that she had no idea how she was going to control herself around him.

  Honestly, the way she was feeling was so out of character for her that she might have to advise him to lock his doors at night. If she woke up after having one of the h-o-t dreams she’d been having every night since they’d met and he was just down the hall from her, Jessie wouldn’t trust herself to not pay him a visit.

  A concerned expression clouded Jessie’s oldest sister Haley’s face as she entered the kitchen of the house the three of them shared. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” The last thing she wanted was both of her sisters to start giving her the third degree.

  Trying to ignore the glances that her two sisters were shooting to each other, Jessie opened the email marked urgent from her cousin Seth. Jessie had asked Seth, who owned Elite Security, to run a background check on Zach just to be on the safe side. Before she got a chance to read it, she felt the back of Haley’s hand pressing against her forehead as she checked to see if Jessie was running a fever.

  Pulling Haley’s hand away, Jessie assured her sister, “I’m not sick, Mom.”

  Haley was the oldest of the Sloan girls. Then came Krista, Jessie, and Becca, the baby of the family. Krista and Jessie always gave Haley a hard time whenever her nurturing got a little excessive and called her “Mom.”

  “You look pale,” Haley said pointedly as she crossed her arms in front over her chest.

  “I’m just tired.” Jessie wasn’t lying. She was tired. Exhausted really. Between fourteen-hour days at work, a commute that took an hour and a half both ways on a good day, and a week of restless sleep thanks to one very sexy boxer, she was running on fumes.

  “It’s the commute.” Haley sat across from Jessie. “It’s too much.”

  “Well, I won’t be doing it after tomorrow,” Jessie explained.

  Both of her sisters looked like shocked mirror images. Eyes widened, mouths open.

  Haley was the first to recover, asking simply, “Why not?”

  “I got a place in the city.”

  “You’re moving out? When?” Haley asked in disbelief.

  “This weekend.” Jessie would have thought that was clear after she’d said that she wouldn’t be making the commute after tomorrow.

  Her phone buzzed, and she looked down. It was her cousin Seth calling. She got a sick feeling in her stomach. Between the cryptic email and now the phone call, she figured that he did not have good news for her.

  Jessie picked up on the second ring… “Hey.”

  “Are you dating Zach Courtland?” Seth asked. Her cousin was not big on pleasantries. She appreciated that.

  “No,” she answered honestly.

  “Then why did I need to run a background check?” Seth’s voice did not sound happy, which only made the sensation of dread filling her gut to intensify.

  “He’s a potential roommate.” Jessie had added potential because if Seth had uncovered something shady about Zach, Jessie planned on backing out of the deal. She wasn’t signing the lease until later today, so she was in no way contractually obligated to take the brownstone.

  Disappointment rushed through her at the thought that she might not be moving in there on Saturday. Jessie wasn’t sure if it stemmed from having to continue her commute until she found someplace else, not being able to soak in the love-of-her-life bathtub, or not living with Zach. It was probably a combination of all of those things, but she was afraid that ninety-nine percent of it had to do with the last reason.

  “Oh. Well, if that’s really all it is, then you’re good. Zach’s clean.”

  Jessie did not appreciate her cousin’s tone when he said “if.” Also, what was the problem with Zach being more than just her roommate if everything had checked out in the background check? Only one way to find out.

  “If everything is okay, then why did you seem upset about the possibility of me dating him?” Normally, Jessie would just let it go. Seth had given her the information she’d needed. What he thought about Jessie dating Zach shouldn’t matter, since that wasn’t going to happen. But as Jessie was quickly discovering, as with most things Zach-related, “normally” didn’t mean anything.

  “He has a reputation,” Seth stated flatly.

  Yeah, no kidding. Jessie didn’t need her oldest cousin to fill her in on that fun factoid. She’d been able to gain that knowledge through her good friend, Google.

  “Thanks for doing the check.”

  Jessie was about to hang up when she heard her cousin’s voice on the line again. “I’m serious, Jessie. He’s not the kind of guy you need to be dating.”

  “Got it,” Jessie’s snapped back and disconnected the call.

  She didn’t want to come off like a brat after her cousin had done her a favor by running the background check, but it really pissed her off that he thought he could tell her who she should be seeing. She was an adult. He was not her father.

  Trying to shake off the irritation, Jessie turned her attention back to her emails. She had twenty minutes before she needed to leave the house and start her hour-plus commute.

  “Ummmm, want to tell us what that was about?” Krista asked, motioning towards the phone.

  “No.” The answer had popped out of Jessie’s mouth automatically. It didn’t matter that, yes, there was a small part of her that wanted to tell her sisters everything. She just always reverted to shutting down and not letting anyone in.

  “Too bad”—Krista shut Jessie’s laptop—“because that is exactly what is going to happen.”

  Sighing in frustration, Jessie knew that she might as well get this over with. The upside was that, after she told her sisters, they would spread the news so that she would only have to do this once.

  “I am moving into a brownstone just two L stops from SPC, and I had Seth run a background check on Zach Courtland, who is going to be my roommate.” Simple. Sweet. To the point. Just how Jessie liked it.

  “Why do you need a roommate?” Haley asked.

  “Who is Zach Courtland?” Krista spoke at the same time as her sister.

  “I don’t need a roommate. There was an incident at the open house with the landlord. Zach Courtland is my new roommate.” There. Jessie had answered both questions.

  Jessie stood and was reaching down to grab her laptop when she felt two hands wrap around her wrists. One was Haley’s. One was Krista’s.

  “Not so fast. Sit down.” Krista nodded towards the chair.

  “I have to get to work.” They couldn’t argue with that.

  Krista glanced at her watch. “You have fifteen minutes. Talk fast.”

  Damn my predictable schedule.

  If there were any way of bypassing this conversation, Jessie would do it. But there wasn’t. Not now that her sisters had caught a whiff of the scent. These two were like bloodhounds.

  “During the open house, I was in the basement and I got a splinter. Zach was helping me and took it out—”

  “Was there blood?” Krista’s face cringed. Everyone knew about Jessie’s aversion to blood.

  “Yes. I got a little lightheaded, and he helped me with that too. Margie, who is the landlord, and her sister Mabel saw us and assumed we were a couple. They immediately started talking about how they wanted to rent to a young couple, and I ran with it. After we left the open house, Zach and I agreed to the arrangement, and I had Seth run a background check on him before I signed the lease today.”

  “Wait a minute. So your landlord thinks you guys are a couple?” Haley shook her head in confusion.

  “Yes.”

  “Why does that name sound so familiar? I could have sworn I’ve heard the name Zach Courtland before…”
Krista drummed her fingers on the table as she thought.

  “He’s a boxer,” Jessie offered. They were going to find out soon enough.

  Krista’s green-blue eyes lit up and she snapped her fingers. “Yes! That’s it! I knew I knew that name. He is so hot.”

  Wanting to remove herself as quickly as possible from this conversation, Jessie again attempted to stand and leave the room. And again Krista’s hand wrapped around her wrist.

  “Wait a minute. That was who you were looking up when I walked in, wasn’t it?” Krista sounded a little too proud of herself for Jessie’s liking.

  Sitting back down with a sigh, Jessie asked her sister sarcastically, “Wow. You sure you haven’t missed your calling as a detective, Columbo?”

  “I may have.” Krista smiled as she hopped up, stepping beside Jessie and lifting the screen—which she herself had shut—to Jessie’s laptop.

  “Hales, you have to see this guy!” Krista exclaimed as she pulled up the search engine and typed in his name.

  “Okay.” Haley pulled her long, blond hair in a ponytail, shrugged, and stood, moving behind Jessie, who was seated, and Krista, who was hovering over Jessie, her fingers clicking across the keyboard.

  The second the screen filled with Zach’s images, Jessie felt a fluttering in her stomach. Stop it. Now, she chided herself. There was no way this was going to work if she behaved like a schoolgirl with a crush on the star football player…er, star boxer.

  “Oh my…” Haley’s voice was filled with awe.

  “I know, right?!” Krista declared definitively. “Smokin’ hot.”

  “He’s so…wow,” Haley spoke in wonder.

  Her sisters’ reactions were not helping her. At all.

  Closing the screen, Jessie stood. “I’ll see you guys tonight.”

  “And when are you moving?” Haley asked.

  “Saturday.”

  “We’ll help,” Krista and Haley offered at the same time.

  “I don’t need help. I’ve already hired movers.” The last thing Jessie needed was her sisters making an already delicate situation into more than it really was.

  “If you actually think that you are going to move into a new place, in Chicago, with your fake boyfriend, and we’re going to sit on the sidelines, then I have obviously been overestimating your intelligence for years,” Krista said, shaking her head.

  Glancing between both Krista and Haley, Jessie knew that this was not a battle she was going to win.

  “Fine. But just you two. I don’t want this to become a Sloan-family event. I’m serious,” Jessie warned.

  “Got it.” Haley nodded, looking more than a little thrilled.

  “Yes, sir,” Krista saluted.

  Jessie grabbed her travel coffee mug off the table, and as she walked out of the kitchen, she could hear her sisters’ excited whispers.

  Great.

  Chapter Five

  “Again!” Lloyd shouted, holding up black mitts.

  Zach ignored the fiery pain in his muscles as he once again jabbed in a one-two, one-two-three combination. After ninety seconds, Zach’s trainer lowered his gloves.

  “Rest,” Lloyd instructed as he wiped his shiny forehead, which was getting larger and larger as Lloyd’s silver white hair receded farther and farther back.

  Zach could still remember how nervous he had been walking into this very gym, owned by the legend Lloyd Gianni, a week after his high school graduation. He was just a kid. Sure, he had natural talent, but with zero training, Zach had known he’d never get far. Lloyd had taken one look at him and sent him on his way. But Zach had been persistent. He’d shown up the next day. And the day after that, and the day after that. Every day for a week, Zach had come to the gym to plead his case.

  Finally, Lloyd had taken pity on him and told him to grab a broom. That summer, Zach had been the janitor-slash-maintenance man. After all the boxers had gone home for the day, Zach would train in the gym. Alone.

  Then, fate had stepped in. All summer, Zach had watched Lloyd train his golden ticket, Javier Souza, for a huge bout in Las Vegas in the middle of August. During one of his last training sessions in Chicago before Souza and Gianni left for Nevada, Souza’s sparring partner didn’t show up. Lloyd could have chosen someone with more experience. There were certainly enough fighters around the gym. But for some reason, Lloyd took a chance and called Zach up into the ring.

  It was just a sparring session, but Zach could still remember how nervous he had been facing a seasoned fighter. Thankfully, when it came to fighting, nerves or outside distractions had never been an issue for Zach. When the bell dinged, he went into beast mode. He held his own that day, and Lloyd must have taken notice.

  Two weeks later, Souza defeated Garrison in a third-round knockout and shocked the boxing community by announcing that he was retiring from the sport. When Lloyd returned to Illinois, he called Zach into his office and told him that he was going to train him and that Zach was going to be a champ.

  And that’s exactly what had happened.

  “Again,” Lloyd barked, lifting the mitts.

  Zach once again landed combinations for a ninety-second period. Unlike a lot of old-school trainers, Lloyd Gianni believed in anaerobic training. Since boxing was an interval sport, each round being only three minutes long, Lloyd trained his boxers using interval techniques. Most boxers ran three to five miles every morning. This was considered LSD, or long slow-distance, running. Zach only did that three times a week. The other days, he did a combination of a one-mile warm-up; eight-hundred-, six-hundred-, and four-hundred-meter runs; and shadow boxing and running backwards for two hundred meters with one minute rests in between. They started this new school training three years ago, and Zach found that he didn’t get as fatigued in the ring.

  “Good.” Lloyd set the mitts down and lifted a sports bottle of water up to Zach’s mouth. “Now hit the weights.”

  Once he’d taken a drink, Zach removed his gloves and lifted the rope as he stepped out of the ring. After grabbing a white towel, he was wiping his face when he heard a familiar voice.

  “Hey, Zach.” Maxi waved as she headed to the back of the gym.

  “Hey, Maxi.” Zach lifted his hand as straddled the weight bench and sat down.

  Maxine Rizzo’s father Charlie was, in Zach’s humble opinion, the greatest boxer of all time. Maxi grew up around the sport and had always vowed never to get involved with a fighter. Many of Zach’s friends and fellow boxers had tried to change her mind, but they had all failed. Miserably. That didn’t seem to be slowing down the man Zach considered his best friend, Billy Marshall, though. Zach and Billy had started training at Gianni’s the same year. Charlie trained Billy, who was a heavyweight, while Lloyd trained Zach.

  “Hey, Dad.” Maxi smiled widely as she stepped beside her father, giving him a big hug and handing him a white drug store paper bag. The older man wrapped one arm around his daughter and sweetly pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

  “Hello, gorgeous.” Billy noticed Maxi’s arrival and lowered his arms from the speed bag, a slow smile spreading across his lips.

  “Hey,” Charlie barked, nodding his head towards the small red bag.

  Billy winked at Maxi before lifting his hands once again. Billy was not at all dissuaded by Maxi’s no-dating-boxers ironclad rule, and he was also not the least bit intimidated by Charlie.

  He had to hand it to his friend—he had balls of steel.

  “Zach.”

  Zach froze as he heard the voice that had been haunting his dreams for the last week.

  Turning his head, he looked up, and what he saw caused the rest of the world to melt away. Jessie Sloan was dressed in a red silk button-up shirt and a black pencil skirt. Her honey-blond hair fell loosely around her shoulders, and her gorgeous brown eyes looked down at him from behind black-rimmed glasses. Never before had Zach had a librarian fantasy, but now, seeing Jessie dressed like that, it just got bumped to the top of his ‘hot fantasy’ list.

>   There were few times, if any, that Zach could remember being rendered speechless. Seeing Jessie, here, in his gym, dressed like that, had accomplished just that. He felt pulled under the power of her sexy spell and couldn’t form a thought if his life had depended on it.

  “Hello, young lady. Lloyd Gianni. Nice to meet you.” Lloyd stepped between the ropes and down to the floor.

  Jessie smiled brightly as she shook his hand. “Hi. I’m Jessie Sloan.”

  Snapping out of the lust trance he’d fallen under the second he’d laid eyes on Jessie, Zach stood. “Lloyd is my trainer. Jessie is my new roommate.”

  Lloyd turned his head toward Zach and lifted his brows. Zach wasn’t sure if the look on his trainer’s face had to do with the fact that, when Zach had explained his new living situation, he’d really downplayed Jessie’s sexiness factor or because, when he’d spoken just now, he sounded more like me-Tarzan-you-Jane than his normal charming self.

  “So you must be the fake girlfriend.” Billy appeared at his side then smoothly inserted himself just in front of Zach.

  Zach had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Billy didn’t just like to flirt. He made it into an art form, which was probably why, even though Zach suspected that Maxi was actually interested in his idiot of a friend, she would never take him seriously.

  “I’m the roommate,” Jessie corrected.

  “The hawt roommate.” Billy looked her up and down blatantly and appreciatively.

  Jessie’s face lifted in a small smile as she shook her head like she would if a cute puppy peed on the floor. Billy was charming, and although Zach wasn’t one to judge, word on the street was that he was pretty good-looking. Zach knew from experience that looks, charm, and a little charisma could get you pretty damn far in this world.

  “I’m Billy Marshall.” Billy extended his hand, and when Jessie placed hers in it, he brought it to his lips, giving her knuckles a quick kiss.

  Jessie continued shaking her head and she did roll her eyes.