The woman on the line asked him to please hold on a few seconds. “I’m sending out an alert right now, Mr. Feldman. I’ll let you know if I get any bites while checking our databases.”
So that’s what those texts he occasionally got were about? He always thought those texts asking for cuisine recommendations and maid service referrals were spam. How was Zack supposed to know that they came from the Fraternity Help Services? It sounded fake!
“There’s a member in your city who is willing to let you rent his personal aircraft for a flat fee to cover fueling costs.”
“Really? Holy shit. Thank you so much, uh…”
“Miranda.”
“Thank you, Miranda. I could kiss you right now, but the woman I’m after may not appreciate that.”
She laughed. “No worries, Mr. Feldman. I appreciate the sentiment. Now, let me give you the contact information for Dominic Mathers so you can make further arrangements with him.”
Zack wasn’t smiling anymore. “I’m sorry. Who?”
“Dominic Mathers. He’s the one who owns the plane you’ll be borrowing. Actually, it’s owned by Mathers & Co., but since he’s the operating pres…”
“Got it. Thanks.”
Zack spent the next half hour making travel arrangements with the father of the man who stole his girlfriend all those years ago. As long as he didn’t have to deal with Ian…
“Tell you what, Feldman,” Dominic said over the phone, “my son’s got the current contacts since he’s the last one to use the plane. Let me get you in touch with him. I believe he’s at his girlfriend’s place today. Do you happen to know…”
“She’s my neighbor, thanks.” Zack hung up. As much as he didn’t want to do this, he apparently didn’t have any choice.
***
Kathryn opened her door wearing nothing but a T-shirt and a pair of distressed jeans. Oddly casual for someone like her, not that Zack was complaining. The more casual a woman dressed, the more confidence he had demanding information out of her. Or maybe that was the other way around.
“Is your boyfriend here? It’s an emergency.”
She closed the door behind him. “Sure, Zack, come right on in. So nice to have you drop by.” Sighing, she continued, “He’s in the other room. Ian!”
Zack currently had the most one-track mind in America. His brain was nothing but Find Rachel. Go get Rachel. Make Rachel know how much you fucking love her and can’t live without her, certainly with no notice!
Those same thoughts looped around to other issues, however. When Zack thought about how much he loved Rachel and was anxious to make everything right again, he briefly pictured Sadie and the emotions he felt after not only finding her in bed with another man, but the ensuing breakup that fucked with his heart for too many years.
Suffice to say, Ian Mathers was the last man he should look at right now.
“Hey, Feldman.” He swooped out of Kathryn’s bedroom, his dress shirt disheveled and his pants wrinkled, suggesting that he had gone to bed without changing. “My father filled me in on…”
Zack’s fist met Ian’s nose before anyone had a chance to say anything else. Damn. That felt good.
Chapter 32
“What the hell was that for!” Ian held the cold pack to his face, dried blood caking his upper lip. Kathryn told him to shut up if he wanted her to clean up the mess Zack had left behind. “Did you come next door to punch me in the face? You’re lucky I ain’t a lawsuit kinda guy, Feldman.”
Zack shook out his fist one more time for emphasis. Yeah, that probably wasn’t the best idea if he really wanted to borrow the Mathers’ plane. Zack couldn’t say that he regretted it, though. “That was for Sadie, you piece of tree piss.”
“The hell is tree piss?”
“Both of you shut the hell up.” Kathryn pulled away the cold pack and poked her boyfriend’s nose. After he was done whining about it, she said, “It’s not broken. Thank you for not breaking my boyfriend’s nose, Zack.”
“Who the fuck is Sadie?”
“Indeed.” Kathryn placed her hands on her hips. “Who is Sadie, dear?”
“I have no idea!”
“Sadie was my girlfriend in college,” Zack muttered. “Your future husband here slept with her as part of my hazing.”
“Really?” Kathryn’s blue eyes grew big. “Stealing girlfriends, Ian? I knew you were a shitty rebel in college, but that would’ve been low, even for you.”
“I don’t even remember this. I swear.”
“Don’t know how things went in sororities,” Zack had seen the memorabilia around Kathryn’s apartment, “but in our frat, the seniors went out of their ways to make our lives hell when we rushed.”
Kathryn scoffed – at her boyfriend. “Let me guess who was a senior when you rushed.”
“I’m not proud of a lot of things I did when I was younger…”
“Says the man with an old DUI.”
“…But I definitely do not remember stealing someone’s girlfriend.”
“You should ask me how many women I procured for him to sleep with at those frat parties, Kathryn. The number might shock you.” Zack had already counted up at least thirteen in his head. “A lot of them drunk out of their minds.” He left out the part where everyone participating in sexual revelry had been drunk out of their minds. “If we were good prospies, we got the sloppy seconds.”
“I have no doubt that college frats were cesspools of immature depravity, my boyfriend’s included.” Kathryn spat on a tissue and rubbed dried blood off Ian’s upper lip. “Is that how your girlfriend ended up in his bed?”
“Seriously, it must’ve been a mistake if that actually happened.”
“Cut the crap, Mathers. You knew exactly what you were doing. It wasn’t an accident that Merange made sure I walked in on you two. One of the juniors that year said the same thing had happened to him the year before.” Zack glanced at Kathryn. “Different guy did it, obviously. The point is that it was another shitty tradition.”
Ian sighed. “I swear to God that I do not recall this. But, assuming that things played out like you say they did… I’m… sorry?”
Zack’s arms tensed across his chest.
“I’m guessing he’s been pissed about this for a few years, Ian. You’re going to have to do better than I’m sorry.”
Ian flung his arms out wide, cold pack almost falling to the floor. “What do you want from me? That shit was years ago. I was an asshole in my early twenties. You know that.”
“Yes, yes, and you’re a totally changed man at thirty-one.”
Ian snorted – or at least he tried to. “Ever since you turned thirty, you’ve been acting more and more like somebody’s mom.”
“Point is, hon, you all need to figure this shit out before either of you leave. Because I’m now realizing that the reason Zack has been hitting on me forever is because sleeping with me would be getting back at you.” She glared at Zack. “Gross, by the way.”
“You’ll be stoked to know that Sadie was a lovely blonde like you.”
“Every woman Ian’s been attracted to since we first met has been blonde. He and I have hashed this out already. It’s why we’re soulmates. Because I would be soulmates with some dumb heir who got DUIs, snorted coke, and stole girlfriends in college.” She said it with such banality that Zack almost couldn’t take her seriously.
Meanwhile, the look Zack received from Ian screamed denial. “I’m sorry, Feldman. That was a shitty thing to do. I swear that I do not remember what you’re talking about, but it obviously happened if you’re still angry about it. I’m sorry. Now, do you actually want to borrow my family’s plane, or was this all an elaborate setup to punch my fucking lights out?”
Right. Zack had come here for different reasons. “I do need to borrow it, actually.” He turned to Kathryn. “Do you remember Rachel?”
“Vaguely. The brunette, right?”
“Yes, that’s the one. She’s my girlfriend. Except she’s run off to bumfuck Japan to become an English teacher without telling me.”
He gave them more details while Ian begrudgingly texted the flight crew his family kept on standby. Knowing how the Mathers spent money – even more than the Feldmans could – the crew was used to going everywhere around the world in a second’s notice.
Kathryn looked between her boyfriend and the nosy neighbor. “You want to borrow a plane to go all the way to Japan to stop her from… what? Living her life?”
“I want to stop her from making a mistake.”
“Is she making a mistake?” Kathryn narrowed her eyes. “Or are you going to make things worse?”
“Excuse me?”
“Oh my God. I’m surrounded by idiot losers who are trapped in their college selves.” Kathryn threw out the blood-covered tissue and lightly smacked Zack upside the head. “That’s for punching my boyfriend.” She smacked the other side, her touch a stinging reminder that heiresses packed heat in their hands too. “And that’s for being an idiot.”