Chapter 25
THE WOMAN DIDN’T WASTE TIME ON an excuse me or hello. “You need to know something about my brother.”
Okay, this was weird. Zona braced herself for whatever Angela was about to share. “What do I need to know?”
“He’s not as nice as he seems.”
Zona raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“He’s really good at pretending to care, but he doesn’t. He’s cruel and violent.” She said it so vehemently. Had Alec lied about how he’d treated his stepsister? No, he couldn’t have.
“Did he hit you?” Zona asked.
You’re hurting me. Angela’s words returned and blazed across her mind in giant neon letters. Someone was lying. The possibility that it was Alec made bile rise in Zona’s throat.
No, it wasn’t possible. He’d told her so much about his family. He couldn’t have been lying.
Angela lowered her gaze. Her lower lip began to tremble. “I can’t talk about it,” she whispered.
Zona struggled to match the Alec James she was coming to know with the picture Angela was painting. “If he was so awful to you, why did you keep coming back?”
“I had no place else to go.”
And yet she’d found someplace after Alec had turned her out. And why was she still driving by his house?
“He’s the only family I’ve got. I need him.”
Zona frowned. Here was a true false note. “I hear you have a sister in Montana.”
Angela shook her head, looked sorrowful. “I can’t talk about my sister. She’s sick. She’s under, uh, care.”
Alec hadn’t mentioned anything about Ariel being in need of medical supervision. In fact, he’d said she was doing fine.
“You don’t know what he’s like,” Angela insisted. She was so urgent, so sincere.
And she was right about that. Zona had only known Alec for a few weeks. This woman had known him for a lifetime.
“Oh, believe me, he’ll be nice to you for a while, then, once he’s got you all tied up emotionally, he’ll turn on you. Like an adder. He’s divorced, you know. That should tell you all you need to know about him.”
As if that made him a bad person. As if that made anyone a bad person. Zona’s doubt melted into irritation.
“So am I,” she said.
Angela was temporarily at a loss for words. But she recovered quickly. “Whatever happened with your husband is nothing like what will happen if you stay with Alec. He’s not stable.”
Which was what he’d said about Angela. “If he’s so dangerous, why do you keep driving down our street? Why are you following me?”
“I’m trying to warn you!” Angela shrieked.
A woman with a small child who was standing nearby picking out lettuce quickly moved away.
Zona was ready to move away, too. “Thanks for the warning,” she said, and backed her cart up.
Angela pulled up alongside Zona, her sorrowful expression gone. “I mean it. Stay away from Alec or you’ll be sorry.”
Zona refused to be intimidated. “Whatever is going on between you and Alec is between you two. Leave me out of it and quit following me.”
Angela’s eyes narrowed to slits. She stood her ground, glaring at Zona. The mask had slipped.
Okay, enough of this woman. “Move out of my way or I’ll call the manager,” Zona ordered her.
Angela moved, but her glare remained fixed on Zona, and Zona could feel the heat of it on her back as she walked away.
She threw the rest of her groceries into her cart and stomped to the checkout line. The last thing she’d needed after a long day of work was to get drawn into Alec’s drama. Bree was right. She didn’t need to be hanging out with this man.
This man who made her skin tingle just thinking about him, who’d rescued her when her car broke down and she was stranded, who Darling was coming to love more than either her mother or her.
Who came with baggage way too heavy for Zona to lift.
They had to stop seeing each other.
Once in the parking lot, she discovered that she had a flat front tire. Slashed. It wasn’t hard to figure out who’d done it. Of course, there was no sign of the PT Cruiser in the parking lot. Lucky for Angela because after this act of war Zona was ready to rumble.
“Better hope I don’t see your car on my street again,” she muttered.
She stowed her groceries, then got out her spare tire and got to work.
By the time she had it on, she was grimy and sweaty and in need of chocolate.
She marched back into the store, where she washed up in the restroom and then bought two packages of Dove dark chocolates.
Gilda was gone when she returned home and Martin had taken her place, bringing pizza. He was camped in the living room with Louise, the TV tuned to an episode of a new detective series they’d discovered.
“Join us and have some pizza,” Louise called as Zona made her way to the kitchen.
“No, thanks, I’ve got stuff to do,” Zona called back.
Like devour half a bag of chocolates while she baked for her mother’s party and wished horrible fates on the evil Angela.
May all her hair fall out. May she get an incurable case of adult acne.
Too mild. May she get to star in her own reality show.
Prison Babes. That thought brought a bitter smile to Zona’s lips.
Yes, let Angela learn how to make license plates or whatever it was women did in prison. Alec should have pressed charges.
Bree was right. Men weren’t worth the trouble, even ones that seemed to be good.
She’d finished making tea sandwiches for Louise’s party and had pulled out a batch of black bean brownies when a text came in from Alec. Dog training?
No, she texted back. We need to talk.
K. Come on over.
“Is everything okay?” Louise called as Zona headed for the door.
“Everything’s fine,” Zona answered. It wasn’t her happiest tone of voice and her mother probably saw right through it. They’d be having a mother-daughter shrink session at some point, but for the moment Zona kept moving. It was time to end the madness she’d started with Alec.
She was about to walk next door when she spotted the PT Cruiser, parked a little way down the street. She stepped back inside the house.
“That was fast,” Louise observed.
“I forgot something,” Zona lied. She ducked into the kitchen and called Alec. “Your sister is parked down the street. I’m not coming over.”
“Shit,” he said.
“She followed me into the grocery store and warned me away from you.”
This time he swore. “What exactly did she say?”
“That you’re the only family she has. Oh, except for her sister, who is under medical care.”
“She’s a liar.”
“She also told me you’re not stable and to stay away, and to make sure I got the message she slashed one of my tires. If I could prove it, I’d call the cops.”
There was a long silence before he said, “I’m sorry, Zona. I’ll make this right.”
The anger leaked out of her, replaced by sadness that this had happened just when she was getting to know Alec and like him. Once again, Cupid had stuck it to her.
“We need to go back to being nothing more than neighbors,” she said.
“Do you really want that? I don’t. I want to see where this goes. Don’t you?”
“I can already tell where it’s going,” she said.
“Don’t give up. Give me a chance to fix this.”
“You can’t.”
“Oh, yes, I can,” he growled. “I’ll be over in a few.”
True to his word, ten minutes later Alec was ringing the doorbell.
Zona led him through the house and out onto the back patio, ignoring her mother’s suspicious look and leery, “Hello, Alec.”
“This really isn’t going to work,” she said once they were seated at the patio table.
“Yes, it is,” he said. “I talked to her. She’s been served that restraining order and I threatened to call the cops on her if she breaks it. She’ll stay away now.”
“From you maybe, but not from me.”
He reached across the table and covered her hand with his big one. It felt comforting, reassuring. She wished she felt reassured.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring this into your life.”
“But you did. Alec, I’ve had two men turn my world upside down. I’m not up for a third time.”
“I promise she’ll be gone from now on.”
“How are you going to make that happen?”
“I already did. I also told her if she doesn’t leave us alone, I’m going to have her arrested for credit card fraud. She knows I mean it this time.”
But did he? Probably not. If he meant business, he’d have already turned her in.
“Let’s not call it quits before we’ve barely gotten started,” he urged.
“That’s the best time to call it quits, before we get any more involved.”
“Too late for me,” he said. “I’m too into being with you.”
She felt the same way, but this was looking like such a high-risk relationship. Inner alarms were going off. Danger, danger. Step away.
“Don’t.”
“What?” She reined in her wandering thoughts.
“Don’t let my crazy stepsister drive you away.”
“She’s like the dragon at the castle door,” said Zona.
“Let’s not let her win. Let’s take the castle.”
“Even if we take the castle, we might find we don’t belong there,” she said.
“Or we might find we do,” he said softly. “Don’t give up.”
He traced a finger along her chin, leaving a trail of warm tingles.
Her eyelids dropped. Almost against her will, she leaned slightly forward.
She didn’t see the kiss coming, but she felt it, felt the nearness of his mouth.
Felt both his hands on the sides of her face, rough but warm.
By the time their lips touched, she was already half melted.
She should have kept her resolve and kept her hands to herself, but she didn’t. Resolve was highly overrated.
“Come here,” he said against her lips, and she shifted from her chair to his lap, tangling her hands in his hair as their kisses turned white-hot.
“What am I doing?” she said when she came to her senses and pulled away.
“Slaying dragons,” he said, and ran his hands up her back and kissed her again.
Zona the dragon slayer finally had to make room for Zona the commonsense woman, and they both left Alec’s lap. With great regret.
“Okay, enough of that. I am not going to rush into anything,” she informed Alec.
“Okay, no rushing. Let’s hang out on Saturday.”
Darn it all, why should she have to give up being with Alec? Wasn’t she entitled to some happiness after everything she’d been through?
“After my garage sales, and no more of . . . this,” she said. Because her brain drained of caution and common sense when he kissed her.
“For a while,” he clarified.
“A long while,” she said. They’d be hanging out. Like her mother and Martin.
Except there was one very great difference between what was going on with Zona and Alec and what was going on with her mother and Martin.
Where Louise was happily keeping Martin in the friends corner, Zona was sure she was not going to be able to succeed at doing that with Alec. There was too much heat between them.
Which meant someone was going to get burned.
“You’re right,” said Louise, after Martin had left and it was the two of them, sitting on the couch.
“You won’t be able to keep this platonic.
And who could blame you? He’s a good-looking man.
You’re a healthy young woman. It’s only natural that you’re attracted to each other.
But this stepsister of his . . .” Louise shook her head. “She’s trouble.”
“He says she won’t be back.”
Louise dismissed that with a disgusted snort.
“Of course she will. It’s never that easy getting rid of a toxic person.
My goodness, think of Fatal Attraction. The woman refused to drown and instead came up out of the bathtub with a knife.
It’s like that in every movie. The good guy thinks he’s taken out the bad guy and he hasn’t.
” She held up a staying hand. “And don’t say that this isn’t the movies.
Real life is just as messy and less predictable. ”
“So I just give up on him?”
“He’s got a crazy stepsister who doesn’t want you around. Pull the plug.”
Zona sighed heavily. Her mother was right. She needed to pull the plug before she drowned. But how did you pull the plug when you didn’t want to, when you were keeping your hands behind your back?