All I Want(82)

“It is not!”

“Really?” he asked. “Is that why you spend your spare time attempting to fix up the house instead of going out and getting a life for yourself now that your brother and sister are gone? Or why you haven’t accepted Joe’s invitation to become an equal partner in the FBO? Or why you say you want a real relationship, when the truth is that you’d turn the right guy down flat?”

“The right guy?” she asked in disbelief. “And who’s the right guy, Parker? The dentist? Joe, who sleeps with anyone with boobs? The guy who wanted me to take pole-dancing lessons? In his basement?”

This stopped him cold. “Who the f*ck was that?”

“Never mind! And the FBO thing is none of your business. I’m no longer any of your business.” She turned away.

He knew she had a point, a big one, but she sure as hell felt like his business. “Kel,” he said.

She turned back to face him. “What?”

“Kel. He’s got a steady job, doesn’t have to travel for it, and he’s into you.”

She stared at him, hurt swimming in her eyes, making him hate himself.

“You want Kel to be the right guy,” she said flatly.

No. Christ, no. Just the thought of Kel pulling her in and kissing away the pain in her eyes made him want to wrap his hands around the guy’s neck. But she wasn’t for him and he knew it. Forcing himself to keep his expression even, he said, “I want you to do what works best for you. Kel’s steady. Solid. He’ll give you a good life. A diamond ring. A white picket fence for Oreo. Tricycles in the yard for the kids. You could become partners with Joe and have a stake in the business you love.”

“And what makes you think I want any of those things?” she asked.

He met her gaze and found the hurt gone, replaced by a fiery temper. “Why else were you on the serial dating spree in the first place?”

“Oh my God,” she muttered, and pressed the heels of her hands into her eye sockets. “Listen, I need you to do me a favor.”

She asked it in such a reasonable voice that he said, “Sure,” before he could think.

“When you go today, don’t look back,” she said. “I don’t want to see you again.”





Twenty-nine




A week later Zoe was in her bedroom, once again staring at herself in the closet mirror.

“Not bad,” her sister said, eyeballing Zoe carefully over her shoulder. “That top makes your boobs look really good. I’m going to need to borrow it.”

Zoe eyed her boobs, which did look good if she said so herself. “It’s the bra.”

Darcy slipped her arms around Zoe, smiling at their reflection in the mirror. “No, it’s you. And combined with your long legs and your new status as a partner at the airport with Joe, well, I’d have to hate you if you weren’t my sister.”

Zoe slid her a look. She’d taken Joe up on his offer with little fanfare and a whole lot of unexpected pleasure, and hadn’t realized it would give her brownie points with her sister. “What do you want?”

“What, a girl can’t give her favorite sister a compliment?”

“You need money, right?”

Darcy laughed. “Stop. I’ll have you know that for the first time since my accident, I’ve actually got a savings account now. Thanks to all those years of you nagging.”

“Okay,” Zoe said. “Who are you and what have you done with my sister?”

Darcy sighed. “I just think you might want to reconsider tonight.”

Zoe turned to face her sister. “Kel’s going to be here to pick me up any second. I didn’t wear the bingo dress. I thought you’d be excited about that most of all.”

Zoe also hadn’t worn the little black dress. Because if the bingo dress reminded her of her failures, the LBD reminded her of the first time she’d been in Parker’s arms, and at the thought her resolve to go through with this nearly crumbled.

She wasn’t ready to go on a date, and she knew it. But Kel had asked her to dinner and she needed to eat anyway, so she’d said yes. But she was determined to keep this casual, hence the dark jeans and a cute little knit top that gave her the aforementioned good boobs.

“I’d be more excited,” Darcy said, “if the date was with the guy you fell in love with.”

Parker had been a constant in her thoughts, but she’d made peace with all that had happened. She’d let it go.

Okay, so she was pretending to let it go, but sometimes a girl had to fake it to make it. Easier said than done. She’d seen the cops drive by, checking on her, and she knew that was Parker’s doing. They were watching, making sure no one from Carver’s world came after her.

She appreciated that but felt it unnecessary. She’d only been targeted because she meant something to Parker.

And now that was no longer true. “We’ve been over this,” she said.

“Right. You told him not to contact you, and that makes perfect sense.” Darcy nodded and then shook her head. “Wait—how does it make perfect sense again?”

“His job—”

Darcy snorted. “Screw the job. The job doesn’t matter. It’s about a guy’s character, his heart. And nothing says character and heart like a big, tough badass softening his hard edges for the woman he loves.” She spoke firmly, clearly knowing of what she spoke.