NFH 02 Perfection (24 page)

Every now and then he'd catch her
sending the dog a mischievous little smile and knew she really
thought she'd gotten away with breaking one of his rules. Since he
decided to keep the dog this little break in their agreement didn't
really count. Of course when their little arrangement was over,
a.k.a. when he decided he'd found his wife, and Zoe moved out, he
was keeping the dog. He could just imagine how that was going to go
over, but really the dog needed a man in his life.

"What's so funny?" Hank
demanded.

"Nothing," he said, hoping the man
would just go away and bother someone else.

"Look, I've offered to find someone
else, but she wants to meet you. I guess she met you through a
friend last year and was hoping to see you again. Can't you please
come out with us tonight?" the man begged, which was really
embarrassing. "I'll even pay. Please, Trevor, you don't know how
long I've waited to take this girl out. If you could
just-"

"Fine," he snapped, anything to get
the man to shut the hell up. Plus a free meal was a free meal. No
Bradford in his right goddamn mind would pass on a free
meal.

"Thanks, man. You're a lifesaver,"
Hank said, further embarrassing himself.

"Uh huh," Trevor said, absently as he
returned his focus back to getting the floor down before the
weekend.

"Hey, did they call an ambulance?"
someone yelled. Since it had nothing to do with him, he ignored
it.

"No, she went back to the office with
Jared," Hank said as he finally got his ass back in gear and
returned to work.

Now
that
got his attention. "What are you
talking about?" he asked even as he continued to nail down the
floor boards.

"That tenant of yours," Hank said,
shrugging. "About an hour ago she fell outside. Mark said it looked
like she slipped on some ice, but I thought it kind of looked like
she passed out."

He looked up to glare at the man. "Why
the hell didn't you tell me she got hurt?" he demanded, grabbing
another nail and driving it into the floor with a little too much
force.

Hank frowned. "Why would I? She was
fine and Jared's looking after her."

Trevor opened his mouth to tell them
he should have been told, but just barely stopped himself. As far
as the guys were concerned Zoe was just his neighbor and part-time
employee, which is exactly how he wanted it. Whenever he saw Zoe he
gave her a barely there nod and that was it. He never acknowledged
in any other way. When he went into the office he kept it
professional and Zoe did the same.

They hardly went out in public
together and if they did they acted like acquaintances and nothing
more. At first he'd been a little nervous that Zoe wouldn't be able
to go through with it. He'd been pleasantly surprised when he
realized that she was more than capable of keeping their personal
business private. She never hounded him like his old girlfriends
did, never text messaged him, which he truly appreciate, and only
called to ask him what the hell he'd forgotten to add to her
shopping lists.

"I don't think she was fine," John
added as he carried in two by fours and joined in the conversation.
"It did look like she passed out. I'm not sure what's going on
there, but she just left the office in tears."

"She was crying?" he forced himself to
ask as he fought back the urge to drop everything and run after her
since he had a pretty good idea what one of the problems was, but
he forced himself to remain on his knees and grab another board and
another nail.

"Yeah, as soon as she was able to get
that piece of shit car of hers going she was out of here," John
said, stacking a pile of wood near him.

"I see," he murmured, forcing himself
to stay right where he was when everything in him screamed to go
after her.

"I hope she's alright," Rick, an all
around decent guy and someone he suspected had a crush on Zoe,
said.

"I'm sure she's fine," Trevor forced
out, not wanting to encourage the guy, especially before he was
done with Zoe.

Chapter
21

"Zoe?" he called out as he shut the
front door behind him.

Seconds later Toby came running out of
Zoe's apartment to greet him, carrying that damn pink princess toy
that he'd hid a half a dozen times now, but the damn dog still
managed to find.

"Hey, buddy," he said, shifting the
grocery bags into his other hand so he could reach down and pet the
dog. "Where's our girl?"

Toby released the toy so that he could
bark in the direction of Zoe's apartment. He gave the dog one last
pat and walked into Zoe's apartment, frowning when he didn't find
her. She usually wasn't too hard to find after work. She was either
reading, watching television or running around their apartments
cleaning and fussing.

He put the bags down and, cringing,
grabbed the new baby pink leash Zoe bought last week. "You want to
go for a walk?" he asked even as the dog stood up on its hind legs
and tried to jump into his arms. "I'll take that as a yes," he
said, chuckling as he clipped the dog leash to his, god help him,
matching baby pink collar, and took the dog for a quick walk. He
swore if one more person called his dog "a pretty girl" again he
was going to spank Zoe's ass.

Ten minutes later he was walking into
Zoe's bedroom with the bags and Toby on his heels. It didn't take
him long before he realized that Zoe wasn't in her bedroom. The
soft sobs he heard coming from the bathroom clued him into her
location and tore at his heart. Why did she affect so much? he
wondered even as he headed for the bathroom.

"Zoe?" he said softly.

"Go," a soft sob, "away."

Sighing, he pushed the door open and
walked inside, not at all surprised to find her sitting in the tub
with her knees drawn up to her chest. When she saw him she tried to
avert her gaze as she wiped her tears away with the back of her
arm.

"What's wrong?" he asked, placing the
bags on the floor next to the tub as he knelt in front of it and
pushed a wet strand of hair behind her ear.

"I've just had a very bad day and want
to get some sleep now," she mumbled, sounding truly
miserable.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he
asked, turning the faucet on to add fresh hot water to her bath. He
picked up the large pink plastic cup she kept by the tub and
proceeded to wet her hair as she sat there, resting her chin on her
knees.

She shrugged.

"I heard you took quite a fall today,"
he said, squirting some shampoo into his hand and massaging it
through her hair.

"It was just an accident," she said,
sniffling.

He didn't believe that for a damn
second, but he bit his tongue. Screaming at her wouldn't help,
besides it would kill him if he was the reason for her tears. So
for a few minutes he didn't say anything as he rinsed her hair and
washed her body.

Without a word he drained the tub and
held up one of the extra large fluffy towels he knew she liked. She
gave him a small trembling smile as she stood up and allowed him to
wrap her up.

"Why don't you sit right here?" he
said softly, leading her over to the chair by the bathtub. "I'm
going to take a quick shower and then we can talk,
okay?"

Worrying her bottom lip even as more
tears streamed down her beautiful face she gave him a reluctant
nod. He turned his back on her as he quickly stripped, knowing she
probably wouldn't appreciate the hard on he was sporting at the
moment. She was so damn exhausted and he knew it was his fault, but
they had another matter he'd ignored for way too long that they
needed to deal with tonight.

After a quick shower he wrapped a
towel around his waist and sat down on the edge of the tub. Zoe sat
on the chair, looking so damn miserable that it made his chest
ache. Shoving away useless feelings that wouldn't help either one
of them out, he reached into one of the bags and grabbed the two
small bottles of orange juice, glad to find that they were still
cold.

"Here," he said, passing her one of
the bottles.

"I'm not thirsty," she said with a
small shake of her head.

He simply ignored her refusal and
pressed it into her hand before he grabbed the small turkey grinder
he picked up for her and passed it to her. When she tried to refuse
it he decided the bullshit was over.

"Eat it," he said softly.

When she shook her head again he met
her eyes. "I know you passed out today, Zoe. I also know that
you've been starving yourself for the past few months," he said,
not bothering to soften his words.

She worried her bottom lip for a
minute before she responded. "I'm not starving myself. I just count
calories."

"You're starving yourself, Zoe. You
don't eat meat. You've cut everything your body needs out and
you're losing weight too damn fast," he said, praying for patience,
because if this didn't work he had no idea what the hell he would
do.

She looked down at the drink and
sandwich in her hands. "I don't like being fat," she said, sounding
depressed.

Cursing softly, he moved to kneel on
the floor in front of her. When she refused to meet his gaze he
gently cupped her chin and raised her face.

"Hey, you're not fat, Zoe. You're
curvy and sexy as hell, but you're not fat," he said firmly. "But
you are starting to scare the hell out of me and if you don't start
eating I don't think we can continue this."

Her eyes narrowed dangerously on him
as she processed what he said. "You're cutting me off?"

"If you keep up this bullshit diet,"
he said, shrugging as if the idea of going without her luscious
little body didn't bother him.

She considered him for another minute
before she said, "You're bluffing."

"Am I?" he asked, feigning
disinterest. "I'll just have to go somewhere else," he said,
knowing damn well that wouldn't be happening. Until he was done
with her, and he wasn't even close to being done with her, she was
his and no one else would do.

"Okay," she said, wiping away the rest
of her tears that he noted had thankfully stopped flowing, "if
that's what you want I guess I'll have to look elsewhere as
well."

His eyes narrowed dangerously on her.
"What exactly does that mean?"

She gave him a little shrug and an
innocent little expression that he wasn't buying for a
second.

"You're saying that if I end this
arrangement that you'll start one with another man?" he asked with
barely controlled rage. He didn't like the thought of her with
another man.

Not at all.

He glared at her for another moment,
waiting for her to falter in some way, but when she just sat there
looking innocent he snapped. "Fine! But you're going to start
eating, Zoe, or I swear to god I'll spank your ass!" he said,
noting the gleam of anticipation in her tired eyes at his words and
remembered who he was talking to. "And not in the good way
either."

"Fine," she sighed heavily. "I was
already starting to rethink my diet anyway," she grumbled, toying
with the sandwich wrapper, but not opening it and eating, he
noted.

He reached out and took the sandwich
and juice back, placing it in the bag with the rest of the food and
stood up, holding his hand out to her. "Come on."

Her eyes widened almost comically as
she looked between him and his hand. "I know we have an agreement,
but I really am tired," she said, sounding close to crying
again.

"Shh," he said soothingly, leaning
down to press a kiss to her forehead as he took her hand into his.
"Come on," he said, giving her hand a gentle pull.

After a slight hesitation she allowed
him to lead her into the bedroom where he quickly pulled on one of
the pair of jeans he left at her place and found her a pair of
panties and a one of his Yankees tee shirts to wear. With an
exasperated eye roll and a cute little smile she took the shirt and
pulled it on.

"Come on," he said, grabbing her hand
once again and pulling her towards the door.

"Where are we going?" she mumbled
around a small yawn.

"I thought we'd watch a movie with our
dinner," he said, leading her down the stairs, into the hallway and
into his apartment. He didn't bother shutting the door behind him
since he knew it would only make Toby cry. The dog wouldn't accept
anything less than the run of the entire house.

"Have a seat and I'll be right back,"
he said, placing the bag on the low coffee table. After making sure
she did as he asked he ran upstairs and grabbed a pillow and one of
the large quilts his grandmother had made him over the years and
headed back downstairs to find Zoe starting to doze off.

"Oh no you don't," he said, tossing
the pillow and quilt at the opposite end of the couch. "You need to
eat, Zoe."

"God, you're bossy," she mumbled, but
he didn't miss the look of anticipation on her face or the way she
licked her lips. Poor thing, he thought. He really couldn't imagine
living on nothing but green veggies and sticks, but somehow she'd
done it, not healthily, but she'd done it.