His cell phone buzzed as he rode the elevator up to his office. He pulled it from his pocket and felt a quick burst of pleasure that Hannah was calling him.
Two hours and a mountain of paperwork later, he’d dealt with the problem with the consortium and was ready to give Hannah his undivided attention when she called and said she was waiting outside his office.
He stood to his feet and walked to the door to greet his little sister.
He held his cell phone to one ear while he twisted the door handle and stood back with a smile to let her in.
Hannah turned and gave the secretary who was on duty a smile. Zach smothered a laugh. The woman was a temp, and unfortunately had probably refused Hannah entrance. But she’d solved the problem in her own way, by calling him on his cell, and Zach reached out and pulled her into a bear hug. He closed the door and she followed him inside and plunked herself down in one of the two chairs that faced his desk.
As he walked around behind his desk and sat, he asked, “What are you doing in the city?”
Hannah eased back in the chair and he couldn’t help but notice that she looked uncomfortable. She studied him for a moment and the look in her eyes wasn’t inducing any warm feelings within him. “I’m only here to see you.”
Pleasure hit him, but only momentarily. Something had to be wrong for her to travel this far and want to see him face to face, when a phone call would have been sufficient for mere pleasantries.
He zeroed his gaze in on her and asked immediately, “What’s wrong?”
She took a deep breath and blew it out nervously, ruffling the wisps of blonde hair around her face. “Nothing’s wrong in my life, but I don’t think you’re going to care for what I have to say. If your reaction to Katie is anything like—”
He jerked to attention at her comment. “Katie? What’s wrong? What does Katie have to do with this?”
His sister seemed to be momentarily flummoxed into silence at his reaction. Her eyes left his and landed on his pen, which he held in a grip so tight, he thought he might break the object in two. Just as quickly, he began tapping the pen on the desk in a rhythm that reflected the stress he suddenly seemed to be under. His reaction was undoubtedly unnerving to her and she hadn’t even started talking to him yet.
Her brows came together in a frown as she raised her gaze back to his. “Nothing. I was just going to say that since you don’t like Katie—”
Again, Zachary couldn’t control himself and he cut her off. “I don’t dislike Katie.” His tone was strained; he couldn’t keep it from his voice.
Hannah seemed surprised he would deny not liking Katie and told him so in no uncertain terms. “That’s crap, Zach. You’ve never liked Katie. You’ve tolerated her because she’s one of my best friends and she loves me. Why don’t you just admit it?”
Wanting to move past his supposed dislike of Katie, he asked, “Are we fighting? You’ve come here to what? Pick a fight?” Confusion replaced his pleasure at seeing his sister. He wasn’t used to anything from Hannah except immediate compliance. She had never been one to rock the boat about anything. At least, not as far as he was aware.
She sucked in a breath and stared him down. “No. You’re throwing me off track by refusing to admit you don’t like Katie. I have something to tell you that doesn’t have anything to do with Katie, not really—”
Zach’s pen landed in a thump on the desk in front of him in a display of impatience that he couldn’t control. “Damn it, Hannah! Does it or doesn’t it?”
“It doesn’t!” she slammed out and took a deep, controlling breath. “It’s about Josh.”
“Josh?” He asked in confusion, relieved they could move past the subject of Katie when he wasn’t ready to talk about her with anyone, not least of all his little sister.
“Josh Turner,” she elaborated a tad more softly.
He racked his brain for which Turner she could be referring to and then hit upon the probable one. “The cousin?” he questioned.
“Yes,” she responded, holding his eyes steadily.
Zachary’s brows drew together in a grimace as he thought about Chris Turner’s son. “What about him?”
Hannah lifted her chin and he could see her muscles tighten. Her torso moved forward a few inches and she said in a determined voice, “I’m going to marry him, this weekend.”
Zach felt the sucker-punch to his stomach like a blow he wasn’t ready for. He tried to breathe evenly as he took a moment to regroup. His eyes narrowed as he was filled with the same anger he used to feel when thinking about the Turner family. Only this time it was worse. His little sister thought she was going to marry Chris Turner’s son? “No, you’re damn well not.”
“Yes, I am.” Her voice was adamant.
“Bull-fucking-shit,” he refuted in a stream of obscenities meant to underline his feelings on the matter.
“Probably tomorrow,” she responded as if he hadn’t spoken.
Zach stood to his feet and began pacing the floor in a small area adjacent to where she was sitting. “What the hell is this all about?”
She boldly met his eyes and responded sharply, “I’m sorry I’ve hidden this from you all these years, but I was young and didn’t want to face your anger and hurt.” Her eyes searched his and she continued in a more gentle voice, “I’ve been in love with Josh for years.” As Hannah spoke, Zach reached out and put the flat of his hand on his desk, to support his weight, feeling as if he’d taken a body blow. Hannah watched him with a sad expression in her eyes and then continued, “A long, long time. Before Cindy left you. Before there was any animosity between our families.”
“That’s not possible. You were too young,” he mumbled, as if in a trance, as if he was numb to what was going on around him.
“I had just started tenth grade when we spoke for the first time.”
Zach felt his face flush and his hands clasped into fists. “He took advantage of you—”
“No, he didn’t! Never! I chased him relentlessly. He would barely talk to me, let alone touch me, because he thought I was too young. You have no idea how—how disciplined he was.”
Zach had nothing to say to that and remained quiet as she continued, “He wanted me, too, don’t get me wrong. And I was incorrigible, practically throwing myself at him. But he wouldn’t take advantage of me, wouldn’t be less than honorable.” She watched him as if for a reaction but he held himself immobile, standing still and trying to take it in. “And I mean he wouldn’t touch me at all, he wouldn’t even kiss me. He promised that when I was older, if I still felt the same way, we could try then. And of course, I still felt the same. It’s a feeling that I’ve always had for him; I always will.”
Zach studied his sister, taking in the determination that showed in every line of her body. What would it feel like to have someone love him like that? To be that determined to marry him, against all the odds, against what their families might want, and do whatever it took just to have him? Unerringly, and against his will, a vision of Katie infiltrated his mind. Katie standing up, clenching her fists, and saying she loved him. He shook his head and pushed the thought from his brain. This wasn’t about him. And it wasn’t about Katie.
It was about Hannah. And Zach was having trouble believing that Josh Turner only wanted his sister and not anything more. Not because his sister wasn’t sweet and pretty, but because the dude was Chris Turner’s son. As soon as the thought came to him, he felt guilty because of Katie, because Josh was someone she seemed to love like a brother, but he couldn’t stop from voicing his concern, “He must be after something, it’s too coincidental that Katie would want to be your friend and—”
Hannah looked gutted and Zach was immediately contrite for upsetting her. She interrupted him in a harsh voice. “Is it really so impossible to believe that he might want me for myself?”
He looked her over, his eyes going from the top of her head to her feet and back again. He softened his voice as the unconditional love he had for Hannah c
ame to the fore, “No, not impossible at all.”
Appeased somewhat, she soldiered on. “And you’re wrong about Katie. Think about it, Zach. Now that you know how I feel about Josh, who do you really think pursued our friendship?”
Zach thought of the times in the past when he’d accused Katie of using Hannah to get to him. He’d been so wrong about her, in so many ways. If anything, it sounded as if his sister had used Katie; it certainly hadn’t been the other way around. He answered with a rough shake of his head, “Shit. You did.”
“Of course it was me. Mom and Dad were in Shreveport so much, Josh was always working, and then Ava got pregnant,” she said, referring to her best friend from school. “Katie was friendly and sweet and more open than anyone I had ever met. It was like she got me, you know? She didn’t know how insanely crazy I was about Josh; she just knew I needed a friend. You’ve done her a disservice, Zach. You’ve been harsh and cruel to her in looks if not in words. You have no idea what a kind and generous person she is.”
Zachary was tortured by the things that Hannah was telling him. He admitted to himself he’d been harsh to Katie in not only looks, but in words, and recently, in actions as well. He knew Hannah loved Katie, and so did their parents. God, if anyone ever found out what he’d been doing. But the thought of Hannah actually marrying Chris Turner’s son wasn’t sitting well with him, to say the least. And then he realized something else. This was the secret that Katie knew about. Maybe she didn’t know they were getting married, but she damn sure knew they were together. So, this was the thing she didn’t want to tell him. And he didn’t know how that made him feel. He was glad that she’d covered for Hannah; he was pleased that Katie had Hannah’s back. And of course, it didn’t escape him that she was protecting her cousin, as well. But shit, he wanted Katie to have his back. He wanted her to feel close to him, wanted her to want to protect him like she was protecting Hannah and her cousin.
He ran a hand through his hair and tried to get back on track. “You’re right. Katie doesn’t have anything to do with this. We need to focus on the problem at hand.” Zach tried to let this go but he couldn’t. He knew Katie, and what kind of a person she was. He didn’t know Josh and wasn’t prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt yet. “I still think he’s taking advantage of you. Didn’t it ever cross your mind that our family is wealthy and his … isn’t?”
She puffed out a laugh. “No, it never crossed my mind and it wouldn’t have. Josh loves me. I know that. Josh hates to even talk about the inheritance because it upsets him so much.”
A momentary feeling of disbelief heightened the stark contours of Zach’s face. “Why would the prospect of three million upset him?” he asked, referring to Hannah’s trust fund, which she would receive on her twenty-fifth birthday.
“You have to know how he thinks. You think Chris Turner screwed you over? You had it easy compared to Josh. Josh has scars, Zach. I mean physical as well as emotional ones. All his life, he’s had to live under the bad shadow of his father. He’s had to overcome his father’s horrible reputation. He has it in his head that he wants to make it on his own. Be his own man. That sort of ridiculous, masculine stuff that I don’t always get, but nevertheless try to understand.”
Zach didn’t know if he liked the sound of that. “So, you’re compensating for him already.”