Chapter 7
SEVEN
Dad wouldn’t hire a hit man. Right? Even if he’s been pushed to the brink of his self-respect. He’s far too gentle to resort to murder. He sounded sad on the phone, a little shellshocked, but not murderous.
Maybe someone on Nicholas’s side paid an assassin. A scorned lover, perhaps.
Part of me wants to make a run for it, back to my room, but another part of me, the margarita-brave part, wants to confront this possibly dangerous man right now and get to the bottom of this.
I allow that part of me to win. I plant my hands on my hips and give him my best attempt at an intimidating glare.
“Who are you, and why did you request that song for my mom?” My voice comes out stronger and more authoritative than I expected it to and I silently congratulate myself for being fierce.
A look of confusion crosses his face and he narrows his eyes at me. “She’s your mom? The homewrecker?”
My mouth drops open and I take an angry step forward. Despite my irritation with my mother, no one is allowed to talk about her like that. “Excuse me? Who the hell do you think you are?”
“Your mother broke my family apart right before my mom launched her new business. She’s devastated. I have a right to be mad.”
My legs start tingling and my heart’s racing a mile a minute. “You’re . . . Nicholas’s son?”
“Yeah. Zach,” he says flatly, raising a hand in a half-assed wave.
I give him a once-over. Aside from the fact that Zach has a beard, I guess I see a resemblance.
Nicholas and Zach both have the same self-assured swagger.
They both have longish wavy hair. Brown eyes.
If this guy gave smiling a chance, I might even find him attractive, but unfortunately for him, he looks far too uptight to ever do such a thing. “I’m Lexi,” I finally say.
“Why are you here?” he asks, ignoring my introduction, crossing his arms against his muscular chest, jostling his camera. He gives me a curious look, and he’s got this unwavering eye contact that makes me instantly clammy.
“The same reason as you, apparently. I’m here to break up your dad and my mom.”
He cocks his head, and the soft glow of the lantern-lit path flickers in his eyes. “What’s the holdup then? What have you actually been doing to make that happen?”
This guy has some nerve. Now I get what people mean when they say someone makes their blood boil. I’m practically steaming. I swear there’s a visible cloud of rage hovering around me. That smug look on Zach’s face? I want to slap it off.
“Well, as a matter of fact, I’ve got an idea that makes your little karaoke stunt look like it was planned by a fourth grader.”
The edges of Zach’s frown turn up slightly in the vaguest hint of a smile. “Okay. Fine. I’m up for some new ideas. What’ve you got?” He leans his back against the wall and puts one foot up to rest against it.
I try to channel his confidence, slowly twisting one of my slightly frizzy, humidity-wrecked waves around my finger in what I hope is a coy gesture. “I’m curious . . .” I say coolly. “Do you know if they met online?”
“They did,” Zach replies. “On Via Match. Which seems like a site geared to middle-aged and older singles looking for hookups.”
Really, Mom? I hope that isn’t true.
“Wow, okay. That’s something.” I sniff and shift my posture, trying to regain my composure.
I don’t want him to think he can get to me.
“If they still have active profiles, we can catfish them and see if we can lure them into going on dates with other people. Then we expose the messages. Or even better—we set up fake dates with each of them and bust them face-to-face. Like, surprise! Caught you trying to cheat on the person you’re already cheating with.
Bam.” I punch my fist in the air for added emphasis. So much for my attempt at being smooth.
Zach shoots me a surprised smile, then runs his fingers through his beard thoughtfully. I used to think facial hair on a man was messy, but his neatly groomed beard is giving me annoying, involuntary flutters.
“Huh,” he says. “Honestly, I expected to hate that idea . . . but it’s surprisingly solid. I can actually see it working. Neither of them seems to see cheating as wrong since they both think with their genitals.”
“Hey!” I cry. “Don’t talk about my mom like that!”
Zach rolls his eyes. “Do you expect me to tiptoe around the woman who left my mother a crying mess during a pivotal time in her career? My poor mom probably hasn’t showered in over a month.”
“Well, no, but at least try to tone down the nasty comments around me. I’m upset too but she’s still my mom.”
“Fine. Noted,” Zach says. Then he looks at me with his smoldering dark gaze and it might be my imagination, but I’m pretty sure that he just checked me out. Talk about hot and cold.
The energy around us buzzes and I feel like I need to say something to shift the intensity. “Well, do you think we should each make a profile based on what we think our parent would be interested in?”
“I like it.”
“Okay, well, I’ll make a profile for my mom tonight and I’ll let you know how it goes, I guess.” I shift my weight from one foot to the other because this suddenly got a little bit awkward. We’re agreeing to team up on sabotage efforts but we’re strangers who know almost nothing about each other.
Zach’s dark eyes scan my face. “Do you mean you’re going back to your room to create this catfishing profile solo? It’s like eight o’clock. Are you tired?”
I shrug. “Well, no.”
“I don’t know about you, but I need a drink. Beach bar’s open late tonight. Maybe we can plan a little more. Up for it?”
“I was born up for it,” I say. He widens his eyes at me but doesn’t say anything, just turns around and heads back toward the beach. Oh god, that sounded so cringey. I try to compose myself yet again as Zach leads the way down the path.
Another margarita later, and we’ve created fake profiles: GardenPro6, a guy who looks vaguely like Brad Pitt and claims to love gardening to reel in my mom. And Walks&Wonder50, a woman who resembles Halle Berry and lists hiking as her passion to charm his dad.
“I’ll send him a message,” Zach says, already tapping away. “I’m also going to comment on something my dad wrote to make it look like he and Walks&Wonder50 have similar passions. Maybe this time he’ll go for someone with common interests other than just having a lot of sex.”
I raise one brow, unimpressed. “And I’m going to message my mom and appeal to her intellectual side. Your dad looks like the type who stares at himself in the mirror more than he talks to people.”
Despite the fact we’ve had this type of banter going on since we met, Zach’s expression hardens slightly. “You don’t actually know anything about my dad. Beyond his name.”
The air seems to literally cool between us.
I exhale slowly. “I was just kidding around.”
His fingers tap an uneven rhythm on the table. “Yeah, but maybe we’re getting carried away.”
I set my phone down on the table and meet his gaze.
“Well, it seems like it might take a few hours before either of them write back. We might need to cause another fight between them so one of them feels like checking their profile for new matches. We’ve got time.
” I rest my forearms on the table and swirl my drink slowly.
“And you’re right, I don’t know much about your dad. Tell me about him then.”
Zach takes a long sip of his second margarita. “What do you want to know?”
“Well, for starters, why do you think he decided to start dating other people?”
Zach stares at his glass, opens his mouth, and then closes it again, like he’s searching for the right words.
Then, after a long moment of silence, “Honestly? A few years ago, my mom started doing a lot of stuff without him. Going on trips with her friends and spending a lot of time out. Dad seemed kind of lonely for a while. Mom had an opportunity to open a restaurant like she’d always dreamed of doing and Dad was supposed to be part of it.
Then suddenly, out of the blue, he asked my mom for a divorce.
I feel like that made her realize how little attention she’d been giving him.
She tried to make stuff better with him, but he said it was too late.
He moved out and then in a matter of weeks he seemed unusually happy.
I was holding out hope that he’d fix things with my mom.
She was sorry and I thought he should accept the apology and give it a try.
I followed him one day and saw him with your mom and then everything made sense.
I don’t know how long they’ve been fooling around but I do know it’s a mistake. ”
Zach sighs and looks so emotional that I feel an urge to reach out and touch his arm, despite how much of a grump he is.
I sit on my hands so I don’t act on my impulses. “Sorry to hear that.”
Up until now, Zach’s body language has exuded confidence but now he fiddles with the strap of his camera, looking deep in thought.
Maybe it’s time for a subject change. Something lighter perhaps. I clear my throat. “I saw you taking photos earlier.”
Zach clears his throat and glances away.
“Yeah,” he says, scratching the back of his neck.
“As much as I hate to admit it, our parents look happy together. It’s going to sound stupid if I say this out loud, but I wanted to have a picture to take a closer look at their body language.
I was thinking that maybe I could spot a weakness between them and home in on it.
Like . . . figure out their kryptonite.”
So much for a lighter topic. I tried. “And? Did you?”
Zach takes the strap off his neck and turns on his camera, scrolling through, looking like he’s trying to find a particular picture.
When he finds it, he zooms in and angles his camera so I can see the screen.
Mom’s got her leg crossed toward Nicholas.
She’s beaming widely, not an ounce of tension in her expression.
Nicholas is laughing, his hand resting on Mom’s forearm, and he looks equally relaxed and happy.