Out Of The Blue (The Wrong Bed #12)(36)

"I just know, all right?"

Alexi studied him for a long moment, her gaze full of disappointment and a growing anger. "You slept with her."

"Would you stop saying that! This is between me and her!"

"You slept with her," she repeated, undeterred. "You gave her that sparkle in her eyes, the one I've never seen before. You made her happy, dammit. And you're going to leave without looking back?"

"I thought your concern was for me."

"You are," she breathed. "You're going to turn what you had with her into … into a one-night stand! How could you!"

"You're the one who told me to do it!"

"I thought it would mean too much to you to leave if you did. Hannah is not the one-night stand type! You'll kill her!"

"It's not a one-night thing," he retorted, nearly as loudly as his sister, who was shouting at him now. "Believe me, we both—"

"We both what, Zach?"

Hannah.

She was standing in the doorway of the kitchen with an absolutely indescribable, unreadable look on her face.

"You guys look a little surprised," she noted coolly. "Let me give you a hint." She leaned close and spoke in a stage whisper. "Next time you're talking about someone, you might want to keep your voices down."

Her glorious green eyes were all but shooting daggers at Zach, her cheeks red with anger.

Had he really thought her expression unreadable?

It wasn't any longer, there could be no mistaking that vivid temper.

"And how dare you talk about me behind my back. Discussing me as if I don't have a brain in my own head!"

"Hannah—"

"Oh, be quiet, Alexi," Hannah said, not entirely unkindly. But when she turned to Zach, he was quite certain she wouldn't be nearly so gentle with him. "Zach was right," she said staring right at him. "This is between him and me."

"Look, Hannah—"

"Save it," she said succinctly. "For your curiosity's sake, and probably Tara's, yes, Zach and I had a one-night stand. Well, technically, it took more than one night, didn't it, Zach? But who's counting? This may come as a shock to you, Alexi, but I can make my own decisions."

"Oh honey, that's not what I meant—"

Hannah lifted up a hand. "I know. I know you love me, and I also know that you set up that toilet challenge in the hopes of something exactly like this happening. It was a crafty, underhanded, terrible thing to do, but I know that in your meddling, nosy way, you thought you were doing the right thing."

Alexi blinked. "Um … yes."

"But it's over. Even you must see that Zach is going home. And I'm—"

She looked away, but not before emotion blazing from her eyes tore him to shreds. "And I'm going to be fine," she whispered. "My life is going to be fine."

He didn't believe that, or didn't want to believe it. If they'd been alone, he might have forced her to look directly into his eyes and say it, but they had a captive audience.

His overly curious, well-meaning, meddling sister.

He glared at her, but Alexi didn't budge. Instead she glared right back and silently refused to give them the privacy he so desperately needed.

With exasperation, he turned to Hannah. "So what now?"

"You leave."

"And?"

"And nothing."

"You want me to stop caring about you? Just turn it off?"

"Try. And you, too," she said to Alexi. "I want this whole thing just dropped, okay? No more tricks, no more matchmaking."

"Ever?" Alexi asked. "Or—"

"Ever."

"You going to just ignore me for the rest of my stay?" Zach asked, and was only marginally relieved to see that give her some pause.

"I don't know. You're hard to ignore."

He was quite certain she didn't mean that as a compliment, but he was going to take it as such. He had no choice, it was all he had.





* * *





Chapter 13


? ^ ?

Zach followed her. Hannah knew this by the way the back of her neck tingled in delicious anticipation.

Clearly her body had not gotten the message her brain had sent it.

Stop lusting after him.

She'd have to work on it.

Well, she had the rest of her life to do that, or at least the next ten years until he decided to show up again.

Instead of acknowledging him, as a grown-up, mature sort of woman would have done, she kept walking. In fact, she sped up her pace, toeing off her sandals and scooping them up in her fingers so that her toes curled in the sand with each step she took.

He was probably following her just to make sure she wasn't falling apart after that ridiculous little snit of hers in the kitchen.

God, she wished she hadn't done that, hadn't entered the kitchen as if she was a queen bee, telling two of the most important people in her life that she wanted them to stop caring about her.

How stupid.

How juvenile.

She liked that they cared about her. Actually, she liked it too much, she depended on it.

And as for Zach and what they'd shared … she liked that, too.