Razed (Barnes Brothers #2)(31)
“Hey!” Zach jabbed him. “You live behind a camera.”
“Exactly.” He slid Zach a look. “How else do you think I recognize the peacocks?”
*
“Well, at least I know why you wanted to meet here,” Zach said as he slid into the driver’s seat.
“Yeah?”
Zach jerked his shoulder in a shrug. “You were checking up on Keelie. Don’t worry. Javi and I will keep an eye on her.”
Zane chewed on it for a minute, debated, then decided what the hell. Once he moved here—and he did plan on finding something here, no matter what—Zach would figure it out.
“I wasn’t here checking up on her,” he said, reaching into the front compartment of his messenger bag and tugging out his prescription sunglasses. He traded them out and tucked away his regular ones before looking over at Zach. “We had coffee.”
Zach started the car, his face carefully blank.
But judging by the way his muscles had tensed a little, Zane suspected this conversation wasn’t done.
It didn’t take thirty seconds to find out just how right he was.
“Coffee. You’re in town, the two of you had a nice, friendly cup of coffee sort of thing?” Zach asked, his voice carefully neutral.
“Nope. We had coffee as in I’m crazy about her and I’m doing my damnedest to get her to notice that. I think she finally figured it out, and we had coffee.” He decided it was better not to mention that he’d spent the past few months coming up with a plan to put himself in Keelie’s path so she’d be all but tripping over him. He didn’t mention that Keelie was a huge part of the reason why he’d decided to move to Tucson—not all of it, but a big part of it.
He didn’t think Zach’s blood pressure could handle it. Instead, he just slid his brother a look and shrugged. “I think it went pretty well.”
“You think it went well,” Zach muttered. He shoved a hand through his hair and stared off at nothing, his eyes going hard and flat. He jabbed a button and the top of the convertible glided back, the hot, dry wind blowing in. Tipping his head back to stare at the big, blue bowl of the overhead sky, Zach was quiet for a long moment. Then, finally, he said, “You’ve been crazy about her for years. I know that. You’ve asked her out about two thousand times. I told you what happened—”
“Make it two thousand and one,” Zane said, cutting off Zach before he could go any further. “I asked her out again this morning. She said yes. We’re having dinner tonight. So we have to knock off in time for me to be back here to get my car.”
Zach swung his head around and Zane stared at his younger brother.
He meant well. Zane knew that.
But all he wanted him to do was let it go.
“Z, you know what happened—”
“Yeah. I know,” he said, cutting Zach off. “And if she was trying to slip into your bed, doing anything to break you two up, that would be different. But then again, if she was like that, I doubt I’d be obsessing over her the way I do. Here’s the thing—she’s not like that and you can’t say otherwise. Can you?”
“Of course she hasn’t—she’s not—shit.” Zach started to drum his fist on the steering wheel, focusing his gaze on the parking lot around them. “Look, I just don’t want to see you hurt.”
“I’m not big on it myself, man. But unlike you, I’m not going to sit around for fifteen or twenty years and hope like hell something happens to change things. If it’s ever going to happen, now’s the time.” He shrugged. “And if not? Then at least I know.”
Zach put the car into reverse, but instead of backing out, he said quietly, “And what happens if tonight goes well, then what?”
“Then it does.” Zane rested his head on the padded cushion, his mind already spinning forward down that path. “I have to fly out on Monday, even if we do find a place. It will take me a few weeks to move. You already told me I could crash at the loft when I need to. I’ll be going back and forth for a little while. I’ll ask her if I can call her. I’ll ask her out again. If it keeps going well, I’ll be happy to know you’re nice and annoyed, wondering if every time her phone buzzes at work, it’s because I’m sending her texts you’d rather not think about.”
Zach shoved the heel of his hand against his eye. “That girl is like a sister to me. Why you gotta do that, man?”
“Hey, I had to take pictures of your wife. Naked pictures.”
“A picture fairy took those, remember?” Zach shot him a dark look. Then he sighed grimly. “Let’s get this show on the road. You need to get back and make yourself all pretty for your f*cking date.”
Zane snorted. “Unlike you, superstar, I don’t need to make myself pretty for a date. I already am pretty.”
Chapter Six
It had been exactly ten days since her first date with Zane.
And her second, really.
The coffee thing counted, Keelie had decided.
Especially after that kiss.
Especially since she’d worked up the nerve to take the step.
Yeah, the coffee counted.
So, really, they’d had two dates in one day.
And not even thirty-six hours later, Zane was on a plane out of town. She would have been demoralized, except he’d told her about it that very night.