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“But?”
“I’m just not sure I want to go back to it.”
Slapping the lid down on his laptop, Cooper stood and tucked it under his arm.
“Jesus, you are one of the smartest people I know, but you’re so stupid sometimes.”
Cooper had that disgusted expression on his face again. He looked pissed off.
“What crawled up your ass? I’m not stupid. This is a huge decision about my future career. I’m not sure I should be listening to any advice you would have about that subject.”
Shit, Zack hadn’t meant to say that. It was a crap-ass thing to do, and he immediately wanted to take it all back.
“Listen—” he began, but Cooper shut him down.
“You’re right,” his brother said with a laugh. “I don’t know anything about high finance or Wall Street, but I do know one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“If you wanted to take that job – which, according to you is the best offer you could ever hope for - you would have already taken it. There wouldn’t be any hesitation. Not one second. Now I’m going to bed. See you in the morning.”
Cooper disappeared into the bedroom leaving Zack rooted to his chair, the words echoing in his ears. The truth was bashing him between the eyes repeatedly.
His brother was right.
If Zack had truly wanted to go back to Wall Street, he would have jumped at the chance. But he didn’t, and all this teeth gnashing and whining were just because he didn’t want to admit that part of his life was over. Done. He didn’t want to go back, and even though he didn’t know what he wanted to do, he was one step closer to figuring it out now that he’d taken one option off the table.
He was going to turn down the job in the morning.
Then he’d tell Lucy that he wasn’t going anywhere, at least not for a while. He wanted to see where their relationship might go.
Zack was ready to fall in love with her.
22
The next morning, Lucy was getting dressed and ready to go see Lloyd Daniels who Zack had found out lived in a rented apartment in the next town over. Later, Zack would go meet with his high school friends, but Lloyd was higher on their priority list since he had known the huge secret of Sarah’s real paternity. He just might know a few more bombshells.
She heard a door slam and then the stomping of feet. There were raised voices - Zack and Cooper - and she quickly slipped on her shoes and went out to the living room to see what was going on.
Zack and Cooper both looked furious, matching scowls on their faces. When they saw her, they both tried to school their expressions, but it was far too late. The two of them were angry, and she wanted to know what had set them off.
“Okay, what’s going on?”
Zack took a deep breath while Cooper stomped over to the coffeemaker to pour a cup.
“I went out to the car to grab my travel mug, and someone had vandalized it. It looks like they took a key to the paint job and scratched every surface before smashing the headlights and slicing the tires. I’ll have to call the rental company. They did it to Cooper’s car as well. They were parked next to each other.”
“At least you took the insurance,” Cooper barked from the kitchen, pouring a second cup and handing it to Lucy. “This is going to be a hassle to deal with. I guess this answers the fucking question about whether Lucy’s apartment was unrelated to what’s going on. Clearly, someone is out there trying to scare us off. Well, fuck them because all they’ve done is make me more determined to find our answers. The joke’s on them. I didn’t even like that fucking car. I’ve been wanting a new one.”
Cooper had just dropped several “fucks” all in the space of a few sentences. He was brilliantly furious, and she didn’t blame him. Even with good insurance, it was going to be several phone calls and paperwork.
“Are they drivable?”
She didn’t know why she’d asked that question, but it was one of the first that popped into her mind.
“Not without four new tires,” Zack growled. “They’re trying to keep us from meeting and talking to people.”
“They’re not thinking it through very carefully,” she replied. “All we have to do is walk to my condo and get my car. It’s not that far.”
