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Chapter Eighteen
Zack had spent the past few weeks since his and Laurel’s fight buried in paperwork and biting off anyone’s head who was unwise enough to come near him. He still saw her. He could hardly help that since he couldn’t stop seeing Cody and Katrina. Not without hurting them. But that just made it harder than if he’d been able to simply stop seeing Laurel. Finally one day Levi walked into his office and said, “We need to talk.”
“I don’t have time to talk,” Zack snapped.
Levi pulled up a chair and propped his feet on the desk. “Make time.”
“What the fuck do you want, Levi? And get your feet off my desk.”
Levi ignored that command. “I’ve been elected to find out why you’ve been such a flaming asshole lately.”
“I haven’t been,” he snarled.
“Yeah, you have. Everyone around here thinks so. But the employees, naturally, can’t really ask you why you’re being a turd. However, I can.”
Levi knew all about Laurel and her pregnancy. Zack had told him after they had spoken to the family. But Levi didn’t know about the house or Laurel’s continued refusal to marry him, live with him, or—he thought sometimes—have anything to do with him.
Zack wasn’t big on talking about his problems. If he did want to talk about anything, he’d talk to Travis or Levi. But Travis was Laurel’s brother and there were some things you didn’t want to say to a guy about his sister. Such as, why the hell was Laurel so stubbornly refusing to give the two of them a chance? No, make that the six of them, counting all the kids.
“I bought a house a few weeks ago. The one on the corner of the street behind you.”
“The Schaefer house? It’s in pretty sad shape, isn’t it?”
“Says he whose mausoleum only has three decent rooms.”
Levi shrugged. “I’ll get around to fixing the rest someday. Okay, so you bought the house. Did you show Laurel before you bought it?”
“No. I didn’t feel like arguing about it and it’s not like we can all live in either apartment. But that’s the problem.”
“She doesn’t like the house?”
“No, I think she likes it a lot. But she won’t marry me and now she won’t even move in with me.”
“Does she say why?”
“Not really. I think it has something to do with the ex, but she won’t talk about that either.” He got up and went to the window to watch the construction of one of the new hangars. “Laurel has a completely unrealistic idea of what she’s going to be able to do once the babies come. God knows how she thinks she can work two jobs and live with all the kids in that crappy apartment, with no help, but she does.”
“I’m sure you told her there wasn’t a chance she could do that.”
He turned around to look at his friend. “Of course I did. That’s what any sensible person would realize. Then she got all hysterical and accused me of calling her stupid and—”
“Hold it.” Levi swung his feet down and sat up, an incredulous expression on his face. “You called her stupid?”
“No. I’m not an idiot,” Zack said irritably. “I said she was being deliberately obtuse, which she was. Is.”
Levi winced. “Good God, Zack, talk about stupid. What in the hell made you think that was a good idea?”
“I lost my temper, okay? I’m so frustrated trying to get her to listen to me that I finally just lost it.” Zack shoved a hand through his hair. “She won’t believe that I love her either. Keeps saying shit like I feel obligated.”
“Well don’t you?”
Zack glared at him. “Of course I do. Any decent man would. But that’s beside the point. It doesn’t mean I don’t love her.”
“How long has it been since you had this fight?”
“It’s closing in on three weeks.” A very long, very miserable three weeks.
“Have you seen her at all since then?”
