He shoved the dog off him and got shakily to his feet. The thing he’d stepped on was glaring at him from the living room through yellow, feline eyes.
“Hell,” Zach muttered.
It was quite a welcoming committee. A crazy dog and an insane cat.
A cat? A dog? Here, in a place where dust feared to settle?
Zach gave an unsteady laugh. Either he’d lost his mind or he was in the wrong apartment.
“What in hell’s going on here?”
It wasn’t the wrong place, Zach thought in amazement. There was Grant, coming down the stairs, wearing a scowl and a pair of blue pajama bottoms. And coming down the steps just behind him was a woman, her hand on his shoulder, wearing the pajama top.
A gorgeous woman.
“Zach?” A grin spread over Grant’s face. “Zach,” he repeated with delight, then turned to the woman. “Honey? Sweetheart, it’s my brother.”
Honey? Sweetheart?
Two Bloody Marys on the plane, Zach thought, that was all I had. Just two. Maybe three. Not enough to cause hallucinations.
Grant hurried toward him and clasped him by the shoulders.
“Hey, man, what a great surprise. How the heck are you?”
Zach looked down at himself. There was a tear in his Brooks Brothers jacket, a layer of cat fur on his chinos, and his chin felt as if it had been rubbed raw.
He laughed, something he’d never imagined doing again.
“I’m fine, considering that I’ve just been taken apart by a pair of bloodthirsty killers.”
“Right.” Grant laughed and turned to the woman, who was standing a few feet away, smiling hesitantly. “You hear that, darling? Annie and Sweetness just claimed their first victim.”
The woman laughed. She had a sweet, musical voice. And she certainly was an eyeful, even in Grant’s oversize pajama top. She had long black hair, violet eyes…She was lovely.
But not as lovely as Eve.
Zach cleared his throat. “Listen,” he said, “I can see I’ve come at a bad time. So I’ll collect my things and——”
Grant punched Zach lightly in the arm. “Stop being a fool,” he said gruffly. “You’re always welcome here. Anyway, I’m glad you guys have the chance to finally meet.”
He smiled at the woman and held out his hand. She came toward him with an answering smile that made Zach’s throat tighten.
“Zach,” Grant said. He cleared his throat as the woman took his hand. “Zach, this is Crista Adams. She and I are going to be married.”
* * *
A couple of hours later, after a terrific meal and some delightful conversation with the woman who was going to become his sister-in-law, Zach was standing on the terrace, a snifter of brandy in his hand.
It was chilly, but the view of Central Park lit up like a child’s toy was spectacular.
The brothers were alone. Crista had excused herself and gone off upstairs, the dog at her heels and the cat in her arms.
“We have to be careful with the cat,” Grant had said with a frown so serious Zach had almost cackled. “She’s still not used to the terrace.”
Now, Zach took another sip of brandy, looked at his brother and smiled.
“Well, you’ve certainly changed since the last time I saw you.”
“Yeah, I guess I have. So have you, but not for the better.”
Zach forced a smile to his lips. “I see you haven’t changed entirely, pal. You’re still about as subtle as a Sherman tank.”
“I figure a man who’s spent all this time on the Coast should have come back sporting a tan and a smile.”
Zach shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve been too busy to work on a tan.”
“Yeah, but a smile doesn’t need any work at all.”
Zach’s eyebrows lifted. “Are you trying to make a point?”
“Only that you look terrible. And that I’d like to know the reason.”
“Does there have to be a reason?” Zach said testily.
Grant shrugged. “For most people, yes.” He took a swallow of his brandy. “Want to talk about it?”
Zach glared at him. “No,” he said.
But he talked anyway. He said he’d gone out to California knowing what to expect. That he’d found just what he’d expected. That it hadn’t kept him from making an absolute ass of himself anyway.
Grant kept nodding his head, saying, “Is that right?” and, “Uh-huh,” and other brilliant things that meant nothing whenever Zach paused for breath. He didn’t know what else to say. The problem was that for all his talking, his younger brother wasn’t making a heck of a lot of sense.
He said a woman named Eve Palmer had wormed herself into a job she wasn’t equipped for. Then he said she was the only person who could have done the job as well.
Bewildered, Grant tried to tell him that didn’t make sense, but Zach was already off on another tangent, one that seemed to have no connection to the first, and this one turned out to be a shocker.
“My ex-wife was a bitch,” he said bitterly. “Did you know that?”
“Well,” Grant said, but Zach was already off and running.
He said his ex-wife had not just been coldhearted and conniving; he said she’d been unfaithful.
Grant was amazed, not by the antics of the former Mrs. Zachary Landon but by his brother’s willingness to talk about them.
He and Cade had suspected what she was. But Zach had been married to her, and without proof, it had seemed wiser not to say anything.
Grant started to say as much, thought better of it and frowned when Zach switched back to talking about Eve Palmer.
“Man,” he said, “I tell you, this broad’s the worst piece of news you ever saw.”
Grant stirred uneasily. Zach was looking at him. Was he supposed to make a comment?
“Ah, well,” he said quickly, “no wonder Triad was in trouble.”
Zach glared at him. “I just told you, she knows her stuff.”
Grant nodded and cast a surreptitious glance into the living room. Where was Crista? She was a woman. Maybe she could figure out what in hell was going on here.
“She did give me a hard time, at first. Thought I was a bean counter.”
Grant snorted. “You? A bean counter? I hope you set her straight.”
“I did.” Zach puffed out his breath. “What it comes to is, I made a mess of it.”
The brothers’ eyes met. Damn, Grant thought miserably, he’s waiting for me to say something again…
“So,” he said briskly, and got to his feet, “you made a mess out of telling this Palmer woman you weren’t an accountant, and she became, ah, difficult to deal with?”
“Difficult to deal with might as well be her middle name,” Zach grumbled.
Grant gave a deep sigh. “Listen, I’m trying to be helpful but I have to be honest, Zach, I can’t be if you don’t tell me what the hell was going on. I don’t understand. Why was she such a bad piece of news? What was the problem? Why are you so upset?”
Zach looked at Grant. Half a dozen answers popped into his head.
Oh, hell, he thought. He swallowed the last of his brandy, put the glass down and told the truth.
“Because I fell in love with her,” he said.
The words hung between the men, as sharp as the autumn air. Grant reached out and squeezed his brother’s shoulder.
“Okay,” he said. “That says it all.”
“No!” Zach slammed his fist against the railing. “Dammit, you don’t understand! I loved her, but she didn’t love me.”
Grant sighed. “She broke things off when you told her you loved her?”
“No.” Zach’s mouth turned down. “I never told her.”
“You never——”
“No, and it’s a damned good thing I didn’t.” His jaw knotted. “I——I found her with another man.”
“Hell.” Grant’s heart went out to his brother. It wasn’t fair, he thought. He and Cade had both found happiness. Why shouldn’t Za
ch? “Listen, if that’s the kind of bitch she is——”
In an instant, Grant found himself standing on his toes, nose to nose with Zach, who was holding him by the front of his shirt and glaring at him as if he wanted to kill him.
“Don’t call her that,” Zach said through his teeth.
The brothers stared at each other, and then Grant began to laugh. After a couple of seconds, Zach laughed, too. He let go of Grant’s shirt, smoothed the wrinkles and grinned.
“Sorry.”
“Think nothing of it, pal.” Grant punched him lightly in the arm. “It just proves that some things never change. You’ve still got the disposition of a bad-tempered rhino.”
“Yeah.” Zach’s smile faded. “Man, oh, man,” he muttered, “I am a mess, aren’t I?”
“You’re in love, you jerk.”
“No.” Zach shook his head. “Not anymore.”