Zeke (The Powers That Be, Book 2) (17 page)

I nodded again
not much in the mood for talking.

“So… Zeke’s
pretty stressed out…”

Ha. I’ll bet
he was, probably making wedding plans and getting excited over
Zeke, Jr.

“Yeah… well…
yeah…”

“He misses
you.”

I wanted to
scream at her that if he missed me so much why hadn’t he called.
Better yet, why had he gotten another woman pregnant, which I knew
wasn’t fair since they were together before we met. But I didn’t
say anything, just sat there staring straight ahead, my eyes
unseeing.

“Okay, look. I
don’t know you all that well, but I do know that if Zeke was with
you, you’ve got to be someone pretty fucking special.” She sounded
angry.

I turned and
looked at her surprised to hear her talk that way and at the fact
that she was mad.

“Good. Now
that I’ve got your attention, I need your help.” She raised her
brow. “You in?”

I shrugged.
“Depends on what you’re talking about.”

“I’m going
into investigative journalism and this shit is right up my alley.
Granted, I haven’t done a whole lot with it yet since I only write
movie reviews for the school paper, but anyway, here’s the deal.
Sara kinda… gets around if you know what I mean. She’s really nice,
but she’s dated a lot of guys, most of them musicians from the
bands she’s done videos for, and Zeke was only with her for about
two weeks, which I know is long enough to get someone pregnant, but
I’m just not feeling that this is his baby.”

Wow. That was
a lot to take in.

“I know she’s
dated at least three guys since she was with Zeke, so maybe it’s
one of theirs.”

I shook my
head. “Not sure where you’re going with this.”

She let out an
exasperated sigh. “You and I are going to find out what the truth
is. If we have to break into her apartment to find the pregnancy
results from the doctor’s office to check how far along she is, so
be it.”

My head swung
to her again. “Are you serious?”

She
nodded.

“You’re
crazy,” I replied looking back out at the courts.

“I can be,”
she agreed. “But you’re in love.”

I closed my
eyes and swallowed roughly. “You don’t know that,” I whispered.

She chuckled.
“You don’t think I know what you’re going through right now? I was
where you are not even four months ago with Gable.” I glanced at
her and she nodded. “He ran me through the wringer but good,
Scarlett. But we made it. And now I want to help you and Zeke.”

“Did Gable
love you?”

“Yeah, but he
didn’t know it.” She laughed. “But Zeke knows he loves you…”

Another swing
of my head toward her. “What?”

“He does.” She
shrugged.

I huffed out a
laugh. “He told you he loves me?”

“Well,
no…”

Just what I
thought.

“But last
night I was at the house and he was drinking and got pretty wasted.
Gable wasn’t too far behind. Always fun having to take care of not
one but two muscled-up drunks at the end of the night.” She
snorted. “Anyway, they were playing some basketball video game and
it was getting crazy then all of a sudden Zeke started telling
Gable he was gonna get you back no matter what it took. He said he
didn’t care if he had to go into that little breakfast place where
you work and carry you off, he’d do it.”

I stared at
her in shock. First of all, Zeke’s talking about me at all made me
gasp. Second, what he’d said was just crazy.

“He doesn’t
love Sara. He loves you, Scarlett. Even if she
is
pregnant
with his baby, he loves
you
. He started talking about your
weekend at the ski resort saying that he wanted to tell you
everything but he was afraid you’d freak out. He said he wants to
be with you but he didn’t know if you still want him.”

Wow.

And then
Skeptical Scarlett took a bow before listing all the reasons why
what Scout had just said didn’t mean anything: 1) Zeke had been
drunk 2) Drunks say all kinds of ridiculous bullshit 3) He’d never
actually told her he loved me 4) He was a good guy and if the baby
was his, he’d do the right thing.

“I’m telling
you, you wanna find anything out about these Powers brothers, get
them drunk and they’ll spill everything.” She chuckled. “So
listen,” she pulled out her phone, “give me your number and I’ll
get a hold of you and we’ll go from there.”

I did what she
asked thinking we probably weren’t going to get anywhere with
this.

“I’ll call
you. In the meantime, you could try giving Zeke a call…” She stood
and looked down at me hopefully. When I didn’t say anything she
added, “Or if I tell him to call you, would you answer?”

I shrugged a
shoulder then changed my mind and nodded.

“Great! Talk to
you soon!” She went down the bleachers and headed over to the court
where Gable was playing, yelling, “Way to go, baby!” when he shot
and missed badly and for some reason that got me started giggling
and I didn’t stop for a full minute
.

Sunday morning I felt
a lot better about things. I’d actually showered and cleaned up a
bit even going so far as to put on some mascara. Whoopee! I’d
thought a lot about Zeke and had decided that tonight I would call
him and we’d go from there. Now I was in the kitchen baking
cupcakes so I was in my happy place. Grammy had come in to chat
some but had taken a call and was now on the phone chatting with
them instead of me and laughing almost constantly which made me
wonder if she had a new boyfriend. Lane had spent the night with a
friend and would be home later, but he’d complained that school
would start again tomorrow, so the cupcakes were really to cheer
him up
.

“Okay, see you
in a bit,” Grammy said and hung up.

“Who was
that?” I asked, mixing up my special cream cheese chocolate
frosting.

“Just a
friend. They’re coming by in just a minute to fix something.” She
came over and stuck a finger into the frosting and after tasting it
gave me a big grin. Then she slowly wandered out of the kitchen and
I frowned at her as I watched her go wondering who she had coming
over and what the heck they were going to fix. And that’s when the
doorbell rang. “Can you get that, dear?” I heard her call and I
rolled my eyes.

“Sure. Let me
stop everything I’m doing and get the door. Jeez,” I muttered,
turning off the mixer then wiping my hands on a towel as I walked
to the front door. Upon opening it, my eyes got huge, my mouth
dropped open and I sucked in a breath because there stood Zeke.

Shit.

Shit!

I stood
staring at him through the storm door not able to move.

“Well, let him
in!” Grammy said from behind me then pushing past me opened the
door. “Hi, Zeke. Looking handsome as ever,” she said all flirty.
“Come on in.”

He came in,
his eyes never leaving mine and I know this because mine hadn’t
left his.

“Thanks for
coming. I’ll just leave you two to talk,” Grammy said looking from
me to him then back at me again, then patting me on the arm left us
alone “to talk.” Damn. She’d orchestrated this whole thing. Such a
sneak.

“Hey,” he
offered.

“H—” I cleared
my throat. “Hey.”

“Mind if I
talk to you?”

“No.” That
came out a little too quickly and also a little squeaky and I just
needed to calm down. Taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly
made things much better. Then we stood there awkwardly for a moment
which made things not so good again. Jeez.

He cleared his
throat and spoke. “Actually, would you come with me to my place? No
one’s home and I’d like to talk in private.”

I guess my
brain could be compared to quicksand right then because the words
that’d come out of his mouth were kicking around in my head trying
to get me to process them but they ended up getting nowhere, slowly
sinking into oblivion.

“Psssttt!
Scarlett! Go with him!” I heard Grammy call from the hall, and
since I was still staring at Zeke I saw his mouth twitch just a
bit.

This made me
blink as my brain kind of got with the program and I heard myself
telling him to wait there. I went into the kitchen and put a cover
on the frosting and put it in the fridge. The buzzer on the oven
dinged right then, so I turned it off and pulled out the last batch
of cupcakes setting them on the stovetop. I did all this
automatically having done it hundreds of times before, but when I
finished, it hit me that I had to go back out there and face Zeke
again and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to do that just yet.

I mean, I’d
thought a lot last night about what Scout had said, and what I’d
come up with was that Zeke was a good guy and he’d always do the
right thing, whether that was just helping to take care of the baby
or if it included marrying Sara. I didn’t know the extent of their
relationship, but I felt that if marriage was the conclusion he
came to, he’d make it work between them. And as heartbreaking as
that was, I also knew I loved him. I wanted to be with him. I’d
given up my plans for him because I’d felt he was worth it. When I
realized that I still thought he was worth it, that had been the
turning point and I decided I was going to fight for him, for
us.

Thing was, I’d
decided to wait until tonight to do it, not now! I hadn’t even
given myself a pep talk yet!

“We O’Rourkes
don’t poke at bruises,” I heard Grammy say as she came in the
kitchen.

My head came
up and my brow went down. “What?”

“You heard me.
I know what’s going on. Zeke told me this morning.” My head jerked
in surprise and then her eyes got soft on me. “Every relationship
gets bruises and if you keep poking at them they’ll never heal. If
you only slap some liniment on them but keep poking at them,
nothing gets healed. No, you have to let it go, let it heal, and
the next thing you know, it’s gone. Now, darling, there’s a man out
there who loves you. Stop poking at the bruise and go start
healing.”

I grabbed my
jacket off the hook by the back door, pulled it on and as I walked
by, I gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, Grammy.” Then taking a
deep breath, I went into the living room.

And, God, Zeke
was a sight for sore eyes. I hadn’t seen him in five days and it’d
been hell. I saw that the scruff on his face was a little longer
than usual and he seemed to be tired, but he still looked good and
still had the power to make the butterflies in my belly go
nuts.

“Ready?” he
asked when I approached.

“Yeah,” I
whispered and we headed outside. He held the door of his truck for
me, helping me in then went around and got in turning to look at me
until I looked back then he smiled.

God.

God!

How he could
make me forget there was any problem between us I didn’t know but
at that moment, you’d never know we hadn’t talked for days or that
I’d cried my eyes out that whole time or that he could possibly
have a baby on the way with another woman. No, we were just a guy
and a girl out for a nice Sunday drive.

Then he
started driving and it all crept back in. Ugh.

Halfway to his
house, he reached over and took my hand in his, squeezing it and
not letting go, resting the back of his on the console between us
then continuously swept his thumb across the back of my hand which
actually kind of calmed me. When we got to his place and went
inside, things got weird again. He took my coat politely. He asked
if I wanted something to drink. I told him water so he got me a
bottle. He asked me to please sit down, which I did on the couch.
He sat on a recliner then asked how I’d been and I hated this.
Hated the formality of it as if we didn’t even know each other at
all. And I had to stop it.

“Scarlett, I’m
sorry,” he began.

“Don’t,” I
whispered.

He looked at
me with panic in his eyes. “What?”

“Just… don’t…
please…” I shook my head and closed my eyes. Opening them a moment
later, I still saw the worry on his face as he slowly stood not
knowing what to do. I stood up too and told him, keeping my voice
even, “I understand everything. I mean, this situation could happen
to anyone. I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions before letting you
explain. If you still want me…”

He huffed
looking at me as if I were crazy. “Of course I still want you!”

Well, that was
definitely a good thing. “Then if it’s your baby, we’ll just, well,
we’ll just deal. You’ve been my hero so many times before, Zeke.
This is my chance to help you out and maybe be yours.” He just
stared at me as I spoke looking like he was afraid to move as if I
might disappear or something.

Then he took a
cautious step toward me, his eyes locked on mine the whole time,
then he took another and kept going until he finally reached me.
When I stayed there I saw him take a deep breath and blow it out in
relief. His hands went to both sides of my face. “Thought I’d lost
you.”

I shook my
head. “No. You haven’t lost me.” I looked up into his beautiful
eyes. “I—I love you, Zeke.”

I saw one side
of his mouth tip up then his mouth came crashing down on mine. And,
oh, how I’d missed his kisses. I’d missed him.

When he pulled
back the look on his face was one of awe as if he couldn’t believe
I was still here and willing to go through everything with him.

“Baby, I need
you to sit down for a minute. We still need to talk,” he said,
walking me backward to the couch to sit.

Oh, no, there
was more? And, believe me, it hadn’t slipped my attention that he
hadn’t told me he loved me back but that could wait. For now.

He pulled the
coffee table up behind him and sat on it facing me, his legs on
either side of my right leg, his big hands taking mine.