Zeke (The Powers That Be, Book 2) (16 page)

The next day
had been much the same except Zeke had gotten a call from who I
thought was his dad that morning after which he seemed to be in
better spirts. I’d gotten brave and tried some intermediate trails
which were okay, but I preferred the bunny ones. He’d laughed and
shook his head at me when I’d shrugged after telling him my
preference. That night I’d tried seducing him but he was back to
being preoccupied, so as I had the night before, I’d sighed, kissed
him goodnight and fallen asleep as he held me.

But now I was
beginning to get worried. God, what if he’d changed his mind about
me? I mean, there we were at a gorgeous bed and breakfast in the
mountains, alone, and we hadn’t had sex the entire time. He’d acted
like things were okay, but I could see a shadow of worry in his
eyes that hadn’t been there before. What if he’d decided it just
wasn’t going to work out with us and he was just biding his time
before he dropped me off at my house never to see me again? But
honestly, I couldn’t blame him. It was just par for the course in
all my relationships minus the cheating. So I hoped for the best
but steeled myself for the worst.

So now there
we were on our way home and I’d played out every scenario in my
head wondering what could be going on with him (minus the wanting
to break up with me part). Was he not going to get drafted? Had
that been his agent calling giving him bad news and he was pissed?
Was there something going on at the college, like he’d found out he
needed to take a summer class to graduate? Had he had an overdraft
at the bank? I know I got pissed when that happened to me.

Or… and this
was the one topic I didn’t want to even broach… had he cheated on
me with Sara and she’d given him an ultimatum, as in her or me, and
he’d thought about it and chosen her, but being the nice guy he
was, he’d gone ahead and taken me skiing because he knew how much
I’d looked forward to it.

On the
three-hour drive home, I sat thinking up every angle this situation
could go, but I just kept coming back to him and Sara.

For one, he
hadn’t touched me the entire time we were at the inn. I mean, if
I’d planned on breaking up with someone to be with someone else, I
wouldn’t want to sleep with that person either. Since this made the
most sense to me, I at first was sad as we drove down the
snow-covered mountain. And then I’d gotten pissed. And the longer
we drove, the madder I got.

I now realized
I’d reversed the calls he’d taken on our way here. The angry ones
were when he was talking to his brothers because they were probably
sticking up for me (at least I hoped they were) and the sweet ones
were when Sara had called. And the call he’d gotten yesterday
morning that put him in a better mood had also been from her. Duh.
It was right there in front of my eyes.

When we were
about thirty minutes outside of Seattle, we stopped for a bathroom
break and to get a drink at a convenience store. Since I was pretty
ticked and didn’t want to be near him, I’d asked for his keys and
gotten back in the truck because he’d been standing in line to pay
for our drinks. That’s when his phone buzzed and I looked down to
see a text from Sara.

Text
Message—Mon, Mar. 16, 1:33 p.m.

Sara: Call me
when you get this : )

I’d had to
look at it a couple times to make sure I’d read it right. On the
third look, I realized I was literate and had actually seen what I
thought I’d seen.

And my heart
died.

You know the
feeling. All the air is knocked out of you at once, your entire
body goes numb and you feel as if that place in your chest cavity
which once held the muscle that keeps you alive is as hollow as a
tomb.

Zeke came out
of the store just then and had had the audacity to smile sweetly at
me. When he got in the truck, he handed me my drink and leaned in
to kiss me, but I turned to give him my cheek. I didn’t look at him
but knew he was frowning as he started the truck. I also knew he
smiled when he’d picked his phone up to see that Whatsername had
texted him. Whatever.

As we got
closer to my house, I’d had enough and deciding that if this was
the end, I was going to do it my way and let him have it.

“So why’d you
even bother taking me this weekend?”

He jerked his
head to me either out of shock that I’d figured out his and Sara’s
nefarious plan or because we’d been quiet since the store. I was
going with the first one.

“What?” he
asked with a frown.

I shot him a
“get real” look. “Why’d we still go when you don’t want to be with
me?”

He huffed out
a laugh. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, Scarlett.”

I rolled my
eyes. “I saw you talking to Sara. I know you want to get back
together with her. I know you’re a good guy, so you kept this
little vacation date because you knew I was looking forward to it.
And I know that’s why you didn’t touch me the entire time. Oh, and
I just saw her text.”

Well, that
pretty much took care of everything. If he wanted an out, there it
was all laid out in front of him.

I felt the air
in the truck change and looked over to see him staring at the road
as he drove, his face hard, jaw muscles jumping and wondered what
the fuck he had to be mad about.

We didn’t say
another word until he pulled up to my house, got out, grabbed my
suitcase from behind his seat, closed his door then came around and
walked me to the porch.

I chewed on my
bottom lip staring at a spot on the porch that I’d always thought
looked like Abraham Lincoln, waiting for him to man up and tell me
that what’d I’d said was right and that he was sorry we didn’t work
out, blah, blah, blah but he just stood there. I finally got tired
of waiting and looked at him and wished I hadn’t.

God, the
glower he was giving me made me wish I could go invisible and get
the hell out of there. But I took it like a champ giving him my
best glower right back.

“That what you
really think?” he asked, voice clipped.

I threw my
hands out. “Isn’t that what’s going on?” My hands went to my hips.
“It all makes perfect sense now, the phone calls, your brooding all
weekend because you weren’t with her, you not touching me because
you’d be betraying her. Doesn’t take a genius to figure that shit
out, Zeke.”

I saw his lips
twitch but then his look turned cruel. “That’s exactly it,
Scarlett. You’ve got it all figured out, don’t you? Since you think
I’m such an asshole and would pull something like that, I guess
there’s nothing left to say. Enjoy the rest of your goddamned
break.” He turned and headed back to his truck with not one look
back at me.

And I was left
standing on the porch watching as he drove away
.

Grammy and Lane left
me alone for the most part during the week. I turned off my phone
because I just didn’t want to deal and stayed in my room and cried
the majority of the time and wasn’t life grand. I worked Tuesday
through Friday at The Nook but talked myself into not crying or
showing any emotion while there by telling myself I had the rest of
the day to do that when I got home, which worked like a
charm
.

Dad had come
home on Wednesday but had had to leave again on Friday because he’d
picked up an extra job, so we barely got to spend any time with
him, which I’m sure he was just
dying
to spend quality time
with his sobbing mess of a daughter. Friday he’d come into my room
to see me all red-eyed and sniffy, asked what the guy’s name was
and did I want him to kick the shit out of him. I’d told him Zeke
was the best guy that I’d ever met (besides him, of course), so,
no, no shit kicking was necessary. He’d nodded, told me he loved me
and that everything would be fine, he promised, then he’d kissed my
forehead and he was gone.

Friday night I
finally turned my phone back on to see that I had fifty-three
calls, twenty-two voicemails and eighty-seven text messages from
Zeke. Jeez. I deleted them all. Jay had gone to Cabo with Dex for
break, but I saw that she’d called several times, so I called her
back and after griping me out for not answering my phone, she asked
me what was going on, that a rumor was going around campus that
Zeke and I had broken up. I confirmed it was true and she’d
actually cried herself.

“B-but you
guys were perfect for each other,” she sobbed.

And this made
me start crying again. “Apparently not or he wouldn’t have dumped
me for Sara.” I dabbed at my eyes with the eight-thousandth tissue
I’d used in the past five days.

“What exactly
did he say when you broke up? And remind me to tell you something
about her when you finish,” she said through her sniffles.

I told her
everything that had happened and waited for her to tell me what a
pig Zeke was and how she wished he’d be afflicted with a disease
that didn’t hurt him internally but just made him ugly physically
but that didn’t happen.

“That doesn’t
sound like a breakup to me, Scar.” She wasn’t sniffing anymore and
now she sounded a little peeved.

I huffed. “Um,
it doesn’t sound like he was proposing, Jay. What about it doesn’t
sound like a fucking breakup?”

“Did he once
utter the term ‘breakup’? No, I don’t think he did. It sounds like
he was calling you out on you assuming that he and Sara were
together.”

Frowning, I
recalled (for the twenty-billionth time) what Zeke had said when we
were on the porch. At the time, it had sounded as if he was telling
me we were over, but maybe it’d only sounded that way because I’d
already made up my mind that that was what was going to happen.

“Shit, I don’t
know. I’ve thought about it so much, run it through my head so many
times, that I’m not even sure anymore,” I mumbled.

“Well, I still
don’t think it sounds like a breakup,” she repeated. “Has he tried
calling?” I told her about the numerous messages he’d left but that
I’d deleted them and after griping me out for doing that she said,
“I need to tell you something about Sara, though. Are you sitting
down?”

God, what else
could there be? “Yes, I’m on my bed. What is it?”

I heard Jay
take a breath. “She’s pregnant.”

For the second
time that week all the air was knocked out of me. “What?” I
wheezed. “And it’s… it’s… Zeke’s?”

Holy fuck. No
wonder he’d brooded all weekend. That’s what they’d been talking
about before class last Friday.

“I’m not
saying that. She’s saying it is, but who knows?”

I started
crying again. “And now they’re together and will be the perfect
little family.”

I hadn’t
thought I had any heart left, but found out I did because what was
left of it completely shattered.

~*~*~*~

“Can you drop
me off at the courts? Eric and Jace have a game up with a bunch of
other guys,” Lane asked Saturday afternoon sticking his head in my
room after he’d knocked.

“Sure,” I
mumbled, throwing my covers off and hobbling out of bed. “Give me a
minute.” I was in my black and white plaid sleep pants and a white
t-shirt minus a bra. I grabbed the maroon Hallervan hoodie I’d
stolen from Zeke, the only thing I had left of him, and pulled it
over my head, tears stinging the backs of my eyes for a second when
I realized it still smelled like him. Then proud of myself for only
tearing up and not actually crying this time, I looked in the
mirror attached to my dresser, made a face at my disheveled self
and reached for the Mariners cap that hung on the top edge of the
mirror. Not bothering with brushing my hair, I pulled the cap on.
And even though I hadn’t showered that morning, I was okay with
that. I wasn’t out to impress anyone. So slipping on my old pair of
moccasins and sans makeup, I left my room.

Yep. My fall
from despondency into depression was well on its way.

“Hi, darling,”
Grammy said when I went through the kitchen. I mumbled hi to her,
and grabbing my keys, hollered at Lane to come on and we left.

“Why’s it have
to be so bright outside?” I complained as I drove, digging for my
sunglasses in my purse.

“It wouldn’t
be so bad if you weren’t holed up in your room in the dark all day
long, Vampira,” Lane said with a chuckle.

I couldn’t
help but smile a bit that he knew who Vampira was. Making him watch
TV Land and old movies with me would definitely pay off one day if
he ever went on
Jeopardy
and they had a “Stupid shit my
sister made me watch over the years” category.

I pulled into
the parking lot, and deciding Lane was right and I needed to get
some fresh air after being cooped up inside for the past several
days, went to the bleachers beside the courts, where I sat and
watched him and his friends play basketball for a bit.

“Scarlett?” I
heard someone call and isn’t that what always happens? You go out
looking like crap then run into everyone you know. I pulled my cap
down lower over my head, burying my hands in the pouch of Zeke’s
hoodie and hunched down a bit hoping whoever had called to me would
think they were mistaken. Out of curiosity, I slid my eyes to the
side and saw Scout walking toward me looking gorgeous as usual.
Great. She climbed up the bleachers wearing a Nike wind suit with
her hair pulled up in a high ponytail and sat down next to me.
“What’s up?”

“Hey, Scout.
Not much. Just brought my little brother to the courts.”

“Which one is
he?” she asked, putting a hand over her eyes as she looked out at
Lane’s group. “Never mind. He’s the one in the gray long-sleeved
t-shirt, isn’t he? He looks just like you.”

I nodded.
“What’re you doing here?”

“I played
basketball in college, so Gable had the brilliant idea of coming
out here and playing today. I kicked his ass a couple games then
some guys showed up. He’s playing with them over on that court.”
She laughed and pointed to a court where some really hot guys were
playing shirts and skins. “When I walked to the car to get some
water, I thought this was you sitting here.”