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Chapter Seventeen
Zack wanted to yell. Or pull his hair out. But damn it, she’d started to cry. He would never understand Laurel. Why the hell was she so commitment-shy? What had her bastard ex done to her?
“Come on, I’ll take you home.” He started down the sidewalk to the car.
“I’m sorry,” Laurel said, trailing behind him. “I don’t blame you for being angry.”
“I’m not angry.” Yeah, of course he was angry. Angry, frustrated, hurt. Damn right he was angry.
On the drive home Laurel started to talk, explaining, or rather, not explaining, why she couldn’t move in with him. Finally, he’d had enough. “Stop. Stop explaining. Stop making excuses. I asked you to move in with me. You said no. Period. So can we just drop the fucking subject?”
She stopped talking immediately and stared out the passenger-side window until they reached her apartment. Zack walked Laurel to her apartment, waited until she unlocked her door and stepped inside. “I’ll see you later. I’ve got some work I need to do at the airport.”
“Do you really?”
Hands in his jeans pockets, he simply shrugged.
“Can you stay a minute? We need to talk.”
“No we don’t. What else is there to say?”
“Please, Zack. Come in and talk to me.”
“Fine.” He walked inside but didn’t take a seat. He didn’t intend to stay long.
“I don’t want you to think that I don’t appreciate—”
He ground his teeth. “Stop, damn it. I don’t want your gratitude. Or appreciation or whatever you want to call it.” Pausing, he took a few steps away and turned back to her. “Have you actually thought about what you’re going to do when you have the babies? Never mind the pregnancy, which is a whole ’nuther subject. Do you think you’ll be able to take care of Cody, Katrina, and newborn twins, and work two jobs? All without any help?”
“That’s beside the point.”
“No, it is the point.”
“You feel obligated—”
“Damn it, Laurel, how many times do I have to tell you I’m in love with you before you believe me? It has absolutely nothing to do with obligation.”
“Don’t you yell at me, Zack Bannister,” she snapped, finally losing her cool.
“I wouldn’t need to yell at you if you weren’t being incredibly stubborn and deliberately obtuse.” Now he’d pissed her off. Good. He was pissed too.
“Obtuse?” she yelled. “So now I’m stupid because I won’t fall in with your plans?”
“I didn’t say you were stupid. I said you were being deliberately obtuse, meaning you’re trying very hard to pretend like you can do everything alone and you have to know you can’t.”
“I don’t know any such thing.”
He gave her a sardonic look.
“I need time to think about things. About moving in with you, and other…stuff. You need to give me some space.”
“Meaning what? Zack, go away for the night and let me think about things or Zack, go away and don’t come back?”
Laurel was struggling with her temper, just as he was. Maybe he should leave before this argument devolved into a yelling match where they both said things they didn’t mean. She didn’t answer him, but her expression said you can go to hell.
“Whatever,” he said. “Call me. Or don’t.” He strode to the door.
“What does that mean?”
