Chapter 16
Chapter sixteen
Tuesday morning: Zac
“Save a little coffee for the rest of us, will ya?” Frankie scolded as Zac filled yet another mug of the steaming brew from the travel carafe.
“I bought it, so I’m taking my fair share,” he grumbled, willing the caffeine to work its magic and wake him the hell up. He’d slept like shit. Tossed and turned with thoughts of Jon and Lucy relying on him, Tabitha whipping back into his life, and his general goal to stop being the town fuck boy.
“With company money,” Janet interjected almost gleefully.
For whatever reason, the older woman disliked Zac.
Always had. He’d tried laying on the classic Hartford charm time and again, but she hadn’t even been a fan of him when he’d been dropped in the Millers’s laps at the ripe old age of eleven.
The chip on her shoulder had done nothing but grow ever since.
“Sure, but who did the legwork to pick it up? Huh?” He winced at his own snark. No matter how irritated Janet got with him, he generally refused to toss her attitude back at her. “Kill her with kindness,” was what Mrs. Miller recommended. “She’ll come around eventually.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did you want a medal or a chest to pin it on?” she sniped, not bothering to look up from her computer as she furiously composed her spreadsheets.
Zac opened his mouth to retort, but Frankie pinched his lips closed with her thumb and forefinger.
In days past, he would have made some joke about her not being able to keep her hands off him or something flirty about giving his lips something more important to do, but these days, he’d been looking at her a little differently.
They’d entered brother-sister-type territory, and he struggled to see her in a sexual light anymore.
And he wasn’t complaining.
In the last decade, he’d spent more time hitting on her than recognizing she was a human being with feelings. While he was proud of reinventing himself into a better man, the turning point would forever live in the back of his mind as the worst thing he’d ever done.
And somehow.
She’d forgiven him.
“Stop,” she barked in hushed volume. “Whatever you were going to say back . . . stop. Be better. You are better, remember?”
Zac dipped his chin in agreement, and Frankie dropped her hand. “Thanks.”
She bit into a maple bar. “What has you so agitated?”
“Didn’t sleep well.”
“Why ever not?” Her lips curled into a slight smirk before she neutralized her features.
“None of your business.” He finished his coffee and washed the mug in the kitchenette sink. “What did you get up to last night? Do anything interesting?”
“Sure did.” She finished the last bite of her donut and brushed the crumbs from her hands into the trash bin.
“Oh?” He turned after replacing the coffee cup on the shelf and leaned against the counter. “Spill.”
“None of your business,” she groused, tossing back the recycled line.
Zac held up his middle finger, and Frankie stuck out her tongue as the bells over the lobby door jingled.
A laugh—the most beautiful, throaty laugh—drifted through the lobby. Zac’s belly clenched as a wave of memories doused him from head to toe. Smells, textures, tastes all converged, stunning him as though frozen by a spell.
Tabby cat.
“Where’s that hefty guide of ours?” blondie hollered, knocking Zac out of his trance.
“Hefty?” he gasped with mock offense.
Frankie chuckled from behind her hand and moseyed over to the counter.
“What?” Lark asked. “We don’t like hefty? What about husky? Ginormous? Hulking?”
“I’ll allow hulking,” Zac cut in so she’d stop. “How are you this morning? Lark? Tabby cat?”
“I’d be better if you stopped calling me that,” Tabitha snapped so quietly, Zac wondered if she’d meant for him to hear it.
“Tab-tab it is, then.” He clapped his hands together once. “Who’s ready to boulder?”
“Not me. But I am ready to give my index finger a workout. Are you joining us, Frankie?” Lark asked in that cheery way she always seemed to.
“Sadly, no. I have a couple river runs today. I tried to convince Zac to swap, but he wouldn’t budge.”
“That’s because your brother asked me—personally—to cover for him while these fine ladies are here,” Zac stated primly.
The office manager snorted into her mug.
“Something wrong, Janet?” Zac asked.
She rolled her eyes and dabbed a napkin to her lips. “I was here during that very conversation and I’m certain that Jon didn’t—”
“Janet, can I refill your coffee?” Frankie cut in, successfully quieting the older woman. “Half and half and two sugars, right?”
“No, no. I only take the pink stuff—I’ll do it myself.” She rose from her chair, knees creaking, and ambled to the coffee fixings on the back counter.
Frankie flapped her hands at Zac to get a move on. He put his hands together and mouthed a silent “thank you” before turning to Lark and Tabitha.
“Shall we, ladies? I’ve got the gear loaded.”
At their nods he herded them back out the front door and around to the parking lot.
The day hadn’t started off the best, but he was optimistic about turning it around.
Perhaps with fewer eyes on them he could talk a bit more privately with Tabitha.
He wasn’t expecting much, but he wanted to ensure that everything went as smoothly as possible.