It Had to Be Fate (An It Had to Be Novel Book 3) (12 page)

“No, I want to come with you.” He threw the covers back and slowly rolled out of bed. “I can’t lie here all day.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Zane. Ben said you needed rest.”

“A little clean mountain air will do me good.” He slid into his sweats and pulled a fresh T-shirt over his head, ignoring the pounding in his brain. “All set.”

“Fine. But if you get dizzy, promise you’ll say something. I don’t want you passing out on me.”

“Promise. But maybe you should hold my hand. Just in case.” He held his palm out and grinned.

She laughed. “Maybe I’d better.”

He liked the feel of Casey’s delicate hand in his. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d simply held hands with a woman. It was . . . nice.

As they made their way out the front sliding doors and slowly up the hill, he asked, “So what are we getting at the store?”

Casey looked up at him and said, “Tampons.”

“Ummm . . .”

“I’m kidding, Zane. Ty needs more pain medicine. I just wanted to see you flummoxed. It’s kinda cute.”

Kinda cute? He’d take that. “Cute enough to talk you into sharing a milkshake with me at the diner?”

She glanced at her watch. “I guess I could take an actual lunch break for a change.”

“Great!” He held the door to the general store open for her, then followed behind as she headed down the aisles. While she perused medicine choices, he glanced over the short shelves across the store. A man who looked like Santa Claus but dressed in civilian clothes waved at him. “There’s our hero. Good to see you up and about!”

Zane looked over his shoulder to see if the man was talking to someone behind him, but no one was there.

Casey said, “That’s Fred. He owns the store.”

Zane lifted a hand in response, and noticed a display of mountain bikes. “Be right back.”

He made his way to the store owner and stuck out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Fred.”

“Great to meet you, Zane.” The older man returned the shake. “What can I do you for?”

He pointed to the display. “Do you happen to know which of these bikes Casey’s boys have had their eyes on?”

Fred chuckled. “You betcha. They come in every few days to be sure I haven’t sold out of them. It’s this model right here.” Fred pointed to a fire engine–red mountain bike. “I’ve got a few more in the back.”

“Will you save me two? I still have to talk Casey into letting me give them to the boys as gifts.”

Casey appeared at his side. “Don’t you dare, Fred. I refuse to reward their bad behavior.” She held up the bottle of pills. “Will you add these to my tab, please?”

The shopkeeper nodded. “Will do, Casey. But maybe if Zane gave the boys the bikes . . .”

“Nope.” Casey grabbed Zane’s arm and tugged. “Let’s go get you some lunch.”

Zane swiveled his head over his shoulder and mouthed, “I’ll talk her into it.”

Fred sent him a smile and a wave as Casey dragged him out the door.

When they hit the raised wooden sidewalk again, she said, “You will not talk me into anything, Zane Steele. Just because everyone else does whatever you ask doesn’t mean I will. We need to get that straight before I sleep with you.”

“So sleeping together is still on the table?” That put an extra spring in his step despite how much his body ached.

She shrugged. “It’s not
off
the table. But it will be if I catch you trying to buy the boys’ love again. I have a cheater ex-husband for that, thank you very much.”

“Wait a minute.” He stopped walking and faced her. “First, I’m not a cheater like your ex. And second, is it so hard for you to believe I could genuinely like your kids? Because I do!”

Casey just stood there blinking at him.

Was she blinking back tears? He quickly regretted his stern tone. “Casey, I didn’t mean to raise my—”

“No. It’s not you. It’s me.” She held up her hand. “You’ve been very kind to me and the boys. And I didn’t mean to compare you to my ex, it just happens sometimes. Gloria tells me I have trust issues with men.”

“I have serious trust issues with most everyone, so we’re even.” He needed to break the tension that hung thick in the air between them, so he leaned closer and whispered, “Did we just have our first fight?”

She smiled. “Apparently so. I’m sorry.”

“Me too. But how did you even see me say that to Fred? Do you have eyes in the back of your head?”

“All mothers do. That, and Fred has big mirrors in all four corners of the store.”

“Good to know.” He laughed as a curvy blonde walked up and joined them on the sidewalk.

“Just the man I wanted to see. Looks like you’re recovering well.” The woman stuck her hand out along with her ample chest. “Pam Mitchell. Nice to meet you, Zane.” She batted her eyes at him.

“Hi, Pam. What can I do for you?”

“I was hoping you’d be able to sing a song at our Labor Day picnic.”

Casey said, “He’s still recovering, Pam. We’re just getting some lunch, and then he’s going straight back to bed.”

Pam’s lips tilted into a sly smile. “Well, if you need someone to read to you or
something else
while you recover, I’m always available.”

Pam left little doubt what that “something else” might be.

He slipped his arm around Casey’s waist. “I’m being well tended to, thanks. And I’m sure I’ll be up for a song on Labor Day. It was nice to meet you, Pam.” He tugged Casey away toward the diner.

Casey said, “I was trying to give you an out.”

“I know. But Pam asked me so nicely.” He held the diner’s door open.

Casey crossed her arms and frowned. “Before you let that go to your head, Pam is seeing Dax, Mr. Rock Star. She flirts by default. You could be as old and as gay as Elton John, and she’d still flirt with you.”

“And here I was worried that might have made you a little jealous. But by your quiet tone and pleasant expression, I can see you’re totally unaffected by it.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Casey let out a little harrumph, and then quickly slipped by him to go inside.

“I’ve actually been wanting to try out my newest song anyway.” Still chuckling as the door closed behind him, Zane stopped dead in his tracks. Everyone in the diner had stood and started clapping. Gloria, who’d been watching one of those celebrity gossip shows, tore herself away from the TV and came out from behind the counter. “Here’s our hero now! Order whatever you like. It’s on the house!”

“Thanks, Gloria.” He waved to everyone, then guided Casey to a nearby booth. Lowering his voice he said, “It only happened yesterday. How does everyone know about it already?”

“The town has a private e-mail loop. Eric posted about your harrowing adventure and made sure everyone knew what a hero you were. Eric thinks my dad should name a day after you.”

“That’d be totally embarrassing.” He reached out and took her hand. “Thanks for being my lunch date.”

She smiled at him again. Whenever she did that it made his chest warm.

“Thanks for asking. But I still think you should be in bed.”

“I wouldn’t mind being in bed if I had someone to read to me or do that ‘something else’ Pam referred to.”

“I don’t think you’re up for ‘something else’ quite yet.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised just how up for that I could get.” Out of the corner of his eye, familiar pictures flashed on the television screen. The same ones Kip had sent earlier. He pulled out his phone and glanced at the time. Twelve fifteen.

A huge pit formed in his gut. Had Ben deliberately missed the deadline, sending Sarah to the press so soon?

The diner went dead silent as the picture of his brother in bed, sound asleep on his back with a sheet barely covering his junk, highlighted the screen. Everyone stopped eating to hear as the anchor told how Zane Steele had left Sarah in a lurch, alone and penniless with their new son. But how could he tell Casey about his twin without blowing Nick’s cover? What if she put two and two together about why he hadn’t had the black eye she’d mentioned the first morning they’d met? And then if she told Ryan . . .

He said to Casey, “None of that is true. You have to believe me.”

When the picture of the baby flashed on the screen, all eyes cut to him. His hero status had just dropped to lower-than-cad status.

Worse, Casey slipped her hand from his and, without a word, walked out the door.

C
asey slapped her office door closed behind her and then slid behind her desk. While she waited for her computer to boot, she closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. Thank God she hadn’t slept with Zane. Just when one problem passed, another raised its ugly head. Was that woman on TV the girlfriend Mandy said had broken up with Zane? The one he’d hardly noticed after she’d left him?

When her screen lit up, she intended to pull up her management software to balance the budget her father would expect by the end of the day. Instead, her mouse moved on its own accord and hovered over her Internet browser.

The same pictures that had lit up Gloria’s screen filled Casey’s vision. The baby boy was blond and adorable. She had a hard time believing the same guy who had just proclaimed to genuinely like her kids would abandon a sweet baby like the one on the screen.

Then she studied the next picture of Zane passed out in the woman’s bed. His chin was covered in dark blond stubble and his shoulders and chest looked thinner. The picture had been taken just over nine months ago, according to the date stamp on the photo, so maybe he’d bulked up in the gym since?

She shook her head and then minimized the screen. She needed to focus on her budget. All she’d need was her father on her case for that too.

A quiet knock sounded on her door and her stomach sank. Probably Zane ready to tell her yet another lie. Maybe if she didn’t answer he’d go away.

The knock grew louder this time and the knob turned. When the door creaked open, she sucked in a deep breath for courage. She’d just tell him in no uncertain terms that a relationship with him was now officially
off
the table.

When the door swung all the way open, Ty appeared, visibly upset. “Zane said he’s moving to Grandma’s guesthouse. Can I stay with him too? So he has someone to wake him up?”

She hadn’t thought about that part. He probably shouldn’t be alone. At least not for another night, anyway. “You start school tomorrow, remember? You need your rest too.”

She was going to have to figure out what to do about that. Mandy had left earlier in the day, so it was probably still up to her to take care of Zane. Jerk or not, the man had jumped in to save Ty without a second thought. “I’ll go have a talk with him.”

“I want him to stay with us.” Ty’s frown deepened. “He can have my bed, if he can’t sleep in yours anymore.”

Her kids could make her feel guiltier than anyone else in the world. The man had abandoned his own child. He was the bad guy in this scenario, not her. “He can still sleep in my bed.” And she’d be sleeping on the couch.

She stood and joined her son while forcing a smile. “Let’s go fix this.”

Ty’s face lit up as he fell in step beside her, and they made their way to their quarters. He said, “Oh, I forgot. Dad called a while ago. He said I’m getting a big surprise because I broke my arm. He always sends the coolest stuff. Maybe it’ll even be the bike I want.”

It better not be the bike, or she was going to have to be the bad guy all over again and make Tomas return it. Why couldn’t her ex see that spoiling their kids was the worst thing he could do? “It’ll be interesting to see what the surprise is.” She needed to talk to Zane alone so she added, “I forgot to check the mailbox yesterday, so why don’t you go see if anything is there?” It was too soon for the gift to have arrived, but she really had forgotten the mail in all of Ty’s drama.

“’Kay. Be right back.” Ty took off the opposite direction, so Casey picked up the pace. When she got to her bedroom, she knocked on the closed door.

She heard a quiet “Come in,” so she drew a deep breath and walked inside, ready to put things straight with Zane.

He stood in her bathroom with a towel around his waist, his hair still wet from the shower, shaving. She forced her gaze to stay on the back of his blond head rather than let her eyes travel over the back of his fit body like they wanted to do. “Can I talk to you, please?”

He met her gaze in the reflection of the mirror. “Okay.”

She tried focusing on only his eyes, but his upper body filled the whole reflection in the mirror. His shoulders and chest looked so much better now as compared to the picture. “I still owe you, so please stay here until Ben says it’s okay to be alone at night.”

He shook his head and wiped the last of the shaving cream from his neck. “I’ll be fine in the guesthouse.” His gaze locked with hers again in the mirror. “Assuming I’m still welcome there?”

The hurt in his voice cut straight to her guilt-ridden heart. She needed to stay tough and forget how much she’d looked forward to seeing where their relationship might have gone.

Slipping into her hotel manager mode, she replied, “We signed a contract, so—” It suddenly hit her what was wrong with the Internet picture of Zane she’d been studying earlier. There was no marking on his chest. “When did you get that tattoo?”

He turned and faced her. “A little over a year ago. My mom wanted to give up on chemo, and I wanted her to try one last round.” Sadness clouded his eyes. “She’d always told me the only tattoo she’d allow me to get was one that said ‘Mom.’ She was joking, but I made a deal with her. If she’d stick it out for one more round, I’d get the tattoo. That’s what this character stands for in Chinese—a mother’s love. But looking back, it was probably selfish of me to ask that of her. I just didn’t want to lose her.”

“Of course not.” And he’d put the tattoo over his heart? God, how sweet was that? “I bet it made your mom happy when she saw it.”

“Yeah.” A small grin lit his face. “She was so sick and miserable that last round, but she laughed out loud when I showed it to her.”

So why wasn’t the tattoo showing up in the picture?

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and found the shot of Zane in bed. The date stamp showed it was taken less than a year ago. She tilted the screen toward him. “Then how is it possible you don’t have a tattoo on your chest here? Is the date wrong?”

“No.” Zane grimaced. “It’s complicated, Casey. And something I don’t want to discuss.”

Too bad. She wanted to discuss it. “You can’t expect me to believe that baby isn’t yours just because you say so when all the evidence says it is. Give me something here, Zane.” Why she wanted so badly to believe him is what made the least sense, but oddly she suspected he was telling the truth.

He stared into her eyes for a full minute before he said, “If you look closely on the back of his wrist you’ll also see a small tattoo that I don’t have.” He held up both his wrists to show her. “That’s my brother, Nick. But I can’t tell anyone yet for reasons I can’t share with you because I don’t want to put you in a bad position.”

He placed his fingers on the screen and swiped to enlarge the picture.

Sure enough. It wasn’t Zane. “Nick is your twin?”

“Yeah.”

“But I don’t understand. Why can’t you—”

“Please.” He shook his head. “Don’t ask me any more questions, because I don’t want to lie to you, Casey. Suffice it to say, Nick did something wrong and your brother is a sheriff, so I want you to be able to honestly tell Ryan you knew nothing about it if the truth comes out.”

“By putting it that way, you’ve just made me ten times more curious.” Relief washed through her, knowing that Zane
was
the man she’d come to believe him to be. Her instincts weren’t as far off as she’d feared.

“That’s a side benefit to keep you interested in me.” Zane leaned down and laid a sweet kiss on her cheek. “But because Nick is my identical twin, the DNA tests will likely show I’m the father. I saw the way everyone in the diner looked at me today, so it’s probably best you stay away from me. I don’t want to taint your reputation too. I’ll just keep to myself in the guesthouse until we know for sure if the baby is Nick’s.”

Always thinking of others before himself. That was just one of the nice things she’d noticed about him.

Moving closer, she laid her hand over his tattoo. His heart beat true and strong under the warm skin beneath her palm. “You’re staying here until Ben clears you.”

When he opened his mouth to protest, she lifted up on her tiptoes and quickly kissed him. His lips parted under hers so she deepened the kiss. That zap of awareness she’d come to crave warmed her from chest to toes.

His tongue danced lightly with hers as his hands dove south to her hips to pull her even closer. His warm breath sent a shiver up her spine as he whispered in her ear, “How much time do we—”

The front door banged closed.

Ty must be back.

“Not enough.” She quickly pulled away, instantly missing his touch. “But when Ben gives you a clean bill of health, it’ll be easier for us to be together if you stay in the guesthouse. I’ll look forward to spending some alone time there.”

“Me too.” When his eyes darkened with desire she had to look away. She couldn’t let Ty see her gazing at Zane like he was
People
magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive
again
this year. She needed to pull it together.

Ty came rushing into the bedroom with a stack of envelopes in his good hand. “Just stupid bills. Maybe the present will come tomorrow?”

“Maybe.” She reached out for the mail, still a little flustered. “Since when do you come in here without knocking first?”

“Since the door was wide open?”

Her son had a point. “Well, Zane is our guest so you need to give him his privacy.”

Ty turned to Zane and smiled. “So you’re staying?”

When Zane nodded, Ty said, “Awesome! You wanna play some Mortal Crush? Caleb is messing with his stupid guitar again and won’t play with me.”

Zane’s phone rang on the nightstand, probably saving him from the torture.

He said, “Let me get this first then you’re on. Now that you only have one good hand, I might actually have a chance to beat you at that game.” He lifted the phone. “Be with you in a minute, Kip.”

Casey smiled, happy things were back to normal. She hadn’t specifically added the electronics to the restriction like she should have, just that they had to stay in the house for a week. She could probably make the exception this one time. “I have some paperwork I have to finish, Zane. Send the boys my way if they get on your last nerve and I’ll find some chores for them to do.” Zane nodded as he grabbed his clothes and closed the bathroom door to change.

Ty said, “Zane’s our friend. We aren’t bugging him by playing games.”

“Zane still needs to rest. So don’t pester him when he says he’s had enough. I’ll be in my office if you need me. And if you guys are good, I’ll go get pizza from the diner for supper tonight.”

“Yum!” Ty ran to the living room to set up the game.

Casey made her way back to her office as she sorted through the mail. After closing her office door behind her, she slowly ripped open an envelope from her lawyer. The bill inside reminded her that she’d had an e-mail from him too. She’d meant to look at it once she had a free minute. Then all the excitement had happened with the boys and she’d promptly forgotten about it in the chaos. As she scrolled through the fifty e-mails she’d received since, she finally found the one she searched for.

It cited multiple legal cases she didn’t have any desire to read. Skimming down to the executive summary, which was hopefully written in plain English, she read:

In summary, there have been other cases in Colorado where one spouse has won full custody due to improper influence/lack of proper supervision caused by the other ex-spouse’s job/lifestyle. Mr. Bovier is claiming you can’t properly supervise the children due to the 24/7 demands of your job and that the celebrity guests’ spoiled lifestyles are a bad influence on your children. As noted above, last year in Aspen, the ex sued her celebrity former husband and won full custody plus spousal support to maintain the lifestyle the children had become accustomed to. We have to take this threat seriously, Casey. Please call me first thing Monday morning so we can draw up a response for the judge.

Tomas had told Ty something very similar when they’d spoken yesterday. That she didn’t have time to watch them properly so they needed to stop doing dumb things.

But whenever she had to leave in the middle of the night to fix something, the kids knew there was a spare radio on the kitchen counter so they could reach her anytime she wasn’t in their quarters. And it was Anderson Freaking Butte, for God’s sake! Anyone would help the boys in a heartbeat if she weren’t around to do it.

Damn Tomas. He’d known he’d have to give up joint custody of their kids the moment he’d run off to Europe. When he’d finally returned her calls, she’d threatened to sic her lawyer on him if he didn’t put back her half of their savings account. To rub salt in the wound, Tomas’s new girlfriend had sent a check. She was an endless well of cash, which was probably why Tomas had run off with her in the first place.

He’d had no right to backtrack a few months later, claim he’d learned his lesson, that he missed his boys and was ready to be the best parent he could be. Now, two years later, he was claiming he’d be a
better
parent than her?