Kiss Me (Fool's Gold 17)

Chase snorted. “You’re missing my point. Here’s Zane with this perfect setup. A beautiful woman who was more than willing to keep his bed warm at night. She cooked, she cleaned, she baked cookies.”

Phoebe winced. She wasn’t sure she could stand to hear anymore. Not that she was interested, but if she was, there was no way she could compete with this paragon of virtue.

“Then Zane completely blew it,” Chase said. “Sally wanted to have kids, and when she kept pressing him, he told her the truth.”

Phoebe’s breath caught. “That he didn’t love her.”

“Exactly. He flat-out told her he didn’t want to have children with her because he’d only married her to have a woman around to act like a mother to me. Is that dumb or what? All he had to do was have a kid or two with Sally, and he would have been set for the rest of his life.”

“But if he didn’t love her...”

“Zane doesn’t know what love is. He could have learned to love her. Or lied. What did it matter? Sally wasn’t asking for much.”

“He was honest. I respect that.”

“You would,” Chase told her. “But it was stupid. Sally was hurt and mad. Who can blame her? She’d been used. Like I said, my brother’s pretty backward when it comes to women.”

Phoebe felt sorry for both Zane and Sally, although she had to admit she didn’t mind that the other woman was out of the picture. If she’d still been around, there wouldn’t have been any soul-stirring kisses, or that whole hand-down-the-pants thing that still made her tingle.

Chase’s gaze turned speculative. “Now Zane is even more cautious when it comes to the ladies. Which is why he hasn’t told you he likes you.”

Phoebe’s mouth dropped open. She made a sincere effort to close it, but as she couldn’t actually feel her lips, she wasn’t sure if she succeeded.

Zane liked her? She wanted it to be true so much, her teeth hurt. But did he? Really?

She shook her head. “Zane’s being very nice to me because he’s an excellent host. There’s nothing between us.” She was sort of telling the truth and sort of hoping Chase would prove her wrong. Which made her feel about as sophisticated as a thirteen-year-old at her first boy-girl party.

Chase grinned. “Want to bet? He’s always looking at you. I’ve seen him. Plus he kissed you.”

Stunned, Phoebe scooted back on the log. Unfortunately there wasn’t all that much log left, and she landed right on her fanny in the dirt. From her undignified position, she stared at Chase.

“How do you know that?”

He shrugged. “I saw you walking back to your tent a couple of nights ago. You had the look of a woman who’d been well kissed. A couple of minutes later, my brother appeared. Let’s just say he was distracted.”

She was thrilled, embarrassed and terrified. Thrilled that Chase thought Zane liked her, embarrassed about his knowledge of the kisses and terrified by the thought that Zane might actually be attracted to her.

Sure he was everything she wanted, but she doubted she came close to fulfilling his wish list. He was capable, strong, determined. His ideal partner would be someone completely together and unflappable. Someone who didn’t talk to animals and lose her possessions to marauding raccoon gangs.

Chase sighed. “I get it. You’re not interested. I feel kind of bad for Zane, but I get where you’re coming from. He doesn’t talk, and when he does, he’s critical. He has no sense of humor. As for being romantic, you’d find more passion in a rock.”

Phoebe scrambled to her feet. “That’s not fair. You’re judging Zane as your older brother. You don’t know what he’s like with women, and you don’t see him the way I do. He’s not any of those things. He’s very handsome and strong and sexy, and we’ve had a lot of personal conversations and he was never critical. As for him being romantic or passionate—”

She had the sudden thought that she might have taken her defensive position just a little too far. Clearing her throat, she brushed off her backside.

“Let’s just say the old saying about still waters is true,” she finished primly.

“Cool.” Chase stood. “I thought you liked him.”

Phoebe felt the trap neatly close. “I...he...” She stomped her foot. “Dammit, Chase, that’s not fair.”

He patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry, kid, I won’t say anything.”

“Good. Not that there’s anything to say.”

“Of course not.”

“Zane and I are friends.”

“Right.”

“Good friends.”

“Of course.” Chase winked. “But if things get hot and heavy, remind him I’ve got condoms in my saddlebags.”

Phoebe shrieked and covered her cheeks with her hands. “I can’t believe you said that.”

“Hey, I like to be prepared. We could have run into a group of college girls out camping or something.”

“That’s not what I meant,” she mumbled and was more than a little grateful when Cookie rang the bell for lunch.

* * *

ZANE SPENT THE first part of the afternoon trying to forget what he’d seen before lunch and the second part telling himself he didn’t give a damn. He wasn’t successful either time. There was no way to block out the vision of Phoebe and Chase sitting together, heads bent close as they had a very private conversation. He’d been too far away to hear what they were saying, but he’d heard the laughter.