Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty
Z oey heard her phone ringing and refused to answer it. She regretted calling Lucky before pulling herself together because now her best friend was as upset as she was. The phone stopped ringing, and when it started again, she knew that Lucky would be on the next plane to Houston if she didn’t answer.
Swiping tears from her eyes, she picked up the phone. “I’m fine, Lucky.”
“No, you’re not. You sound terrible, and I’m going to start packing. I don’t want you in Texas alone.”
“Please don’t start packing. I’ll be fine. What Sharon revealed just came as a shock. Why wouldn’t Aunt Paulina tell me about my baby brother? Did she hate my mom that much just because she wasn’t the woman Aunt Paulina had wanted my dad to marry? That doesn’t make sense.”
“None of what your aunt did ever made sense, Zoe. Your heart is hurting, and I can feel it.”
“I’ll be fine. I just need time to pull myself together. Honest.”
At that moment, she heard a knock on her hotel door. “I’ll call you back. Someone is at the door,” Zoey said, getting up off the sofa with her box of tissues in hand. “It’s probably housekeeping.”
“Okay. Call me back.”
“I will. Promise.”
Tightening her robe around her, she walked to the door to look out the peephole and almost dropped her tissue box. It was Chance. She had talked to him less than thirty minutes ago. Driving from his ranch into town would have taken him an hour. How did he get here so fast, and why had he come? She’d only canceled a dinner he probably didn’t want to have with her anyway.
She opened the door, not surprised he stared at her since she surely looked a mess. No doubt it was apparent she’d been crying. “Chance, what are you doing—”
Before she could finish, he swooped her into his arms and slammed the door shut with the heel of his boot. “What do you think you’re doing? Put me down.”
He walked to the sofa in the sitting area and sat down with her in his lap. When she tried scrambling away, he tightened his hold on her and twisted her around to face him. She couldn’t hold back the tears still falling from her eyes.
“What’s wrong, Zoey? What did your mother’s friend tell you that has your heart breaking?”
She swiped the tears away. He took a few tissues out of the box to wipe her eyes, and in a softer tone, he said, “Tell me, sweetheart.”
Why on earth did he call her that? Although it was a term of endearment, she knew he hadn’t meant it as such. She met his gaze, and the genuine concern and tenderness she saw in the dark pupils staring back at her made her catch her breath on a sob before lowering her head to his chest to cry openly.
She felt the warmth in the arms that wrapped around her and took comfort in the hands that began to stroke her back gently. Then there was the calm, soothing, masculine voice telling her everything would be alright. She wished she could believe him. More than anything, she wanted to believe him.
“Tell me what’s the matter, Zoey. There’s no way I can make things better if you don’t tell me.”
She lifted her face from his chest. “Not sure you can make things better, Chance.”
“I plan to try.”
She heard both sincerity and determination in his voice and appreciated both. Although she still didn’t know his issues, he had no problem going full speed into hers. Drawing in a deep breath, she said, “Dr. Sharon Newberry was to my mom what Lucky is to me.”
“Lucky?”
“Yes, whereas Dr. Newberry was Mom’s best friend since college, Lucky Andres-Tankersley has been my best friend since middle school. While talking to Sharon, I discovered something else regarding the car accident that I didn’t know.”
“What?”
“She told me where my parents and I were going that day.”
He nodded. “And where did she say you and your parents were going?”
“Home. Mom had just gotten out of the hospital.”
“Had she been ill?”
“No,” Zoey said, unable to keep her lips from trembling and new tears from falling. “My parents weren’t the only ones killed in that car accident, Chance. I also lost my newborn baby brother.”
She then lowered her head to his chest and began crying again.
***
Chance stood at the window in Zoey’s hotel room and gazed at downtown Houston. Once she’d calmed down, he made her some Madaris tea, after which, he persuaded her to lie down for a while. He had checked on her a few moments ago, and she was still sleeping.
He didn’t know Paulina Pritchard since he had never met the woman. But at that moment, he didn’t think a lot of her for the pain she’d caused Zoey. He could understand her not telling Zoey about her baby brother as a child, but there was no reason not to tell her when she’d gotten older.
At that moment, Zoey’s phone, which was on the table next to the sofa, began ringing. He decided to ignore it. It stopped, and when it started ringing again, the last thing he wanted was for the sound to wake up Zoey. Crossing the room, he picked it up and was about to switch it to message mode when he saw the caller was Lucky. The woman Zoey had referred to as her best friend. He decided to answer.
“Hello.”
There was a pause, and then the caller asked. “Who is this?”
“Chance Madaris.”
“Tall, hot, and handsome?”
He lifted a brow. “Excuse me?”
“Nothing. Where is Zoey?”
Not sure what, if anything, Zoey had told her, he said, “She’s unavailable at the moment.”
“Does that mean you got her to lie down? Lord, I hope so. The only thing that can calm her from a crying spell is sleep. I can’t stand Ms. Paulina for all those secrets she kept.”
Her words let Chance know that Lucky knew what was going on. From the sound of it, she knew much more than he did about the situation, which made sense if they’d been best friends since middle school.
“Let me give you fair warning, Chance. When Zoey wakes up, she will be calm. Too calm. She will try to convince you that she’s okay when she really won’t be. She will attempt to distance the two of you. Don’t let her. That’s when you must put your foot down and let her know she isn’t alone.”
Not sure what he should say to all of that, he didn’t say anything. But it soon became obvious Lucky had no intentions of letting him remain quiet. “Chance? You still there?”
“Yes, I’m still here.”
“And you got what I said?”
“Yes, I got it.”
“Good. Now I won’t have to pack and fly to Texas after all. I know she’s in good hands, and she won’t be alone.”
Immediately, Chance felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time—a sense of purpose. Zoey Pritchard had a way of growing on you. Hadn’t Mama Laverne said that very morning that she felt a kindred connection to Zoey? A part of him didn’t want Zoey to grow on him. Nor did he want any connection. Yet he was feeling those things, regardless.
“Zoey is in good hands, and she won’t be alone,” he assured her.
“Thanks, Chance. Zoey is a special person. After all she’s gone through in life, it didn’t make her mean and bitter. She is a loving individual with a heart of gold. I will call back later to check on her. Goodbye.”
It was two hours later before he heard movement in the bedroom. Then he heard the shower start. Thirty minutes passed before the bedroom door opened. Zoey appeared and blinked as if surprised he was still there. Her next words confirmed it: “I thought you had left.”
He stood and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. It was either that or he cross the room to pull her into his arms and kiss her. The mass of hair he liked seeing flying in the wind was now soft waves framing her face. A very gorgeous face.
Seeing her standing in her bedroom doorway made him remember all those fantasy dreams he’d had of her. One had been just like this, with them standing across a room, staring at each other while sexual chemistry simmered between them. In that particular dream, they’d given in to the most passionate of temptations, and they had met in the middle of the room and begun ripping each other’s clothes off.
And speaking of clothes… He loved the way she looked. She wore a pretty sundress, and those cute sandals from last night were on her feet. A camera was around her neck.
He finally spoke against the hard lump in his throat. “Going someplace, Zoey?”
“I thought I’d go to the park and take pictures.”
“You were supposed to have dinner with me,” he said, trying to focus on her face and not her legs—a very shapely pair.
“Like I said earlier, I wouldn’t be good company.”
“How about letting me be the judge of that,” was his response.
She didn’t say anything, so he decided to press on. “Besides, if you want to take nice photos, my ranch will provide better landscape shots than a park.”
“You think so?”
“I know so. The one thing Teakwood Ridge is known for is its beauty. I consider some parts of it to be nature’s paradise. We can go riding after dinner, and you can see for yourself. The last time you went to the south. The east is a lot prettier.”
“Your great-grandmother said there’s another lake with a cabin east of your property.”
He wouldn’t tell her that Mama Laverne had gotten approval for her to stay there. It would be for his great-grandmother to tell her that. “Yes, there’s a cabin on a lake. We can ride to see it if you’d like.”
He saw happiness enter her eyes before spreading to her lips. “We can do that?”
“Of course. And I’ll return you here later.”
“Okay,” she said eagerly. “Let me change into a pair of jeans and a top. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She slowed before reaching the bedroom, turned around, and asked, “How did you get here so fast? When I drove from here to your property, it took me over an hour.”
Deciding not to mention anything about the meeting he had that morning with his great-grandmother, he said, “I was already in town. I joined my granduncles and my grandfather, for breakfast,” he said. That wasn’t a lie.
“Oh.”
She then turned to hurry off to her bedroom.