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“Don’t worry. I can do it. I’ll pick up my things from your home later on.”
“No hurry.” Zane wanted to cut his tongue out. He hated this fucking conversation. Hated that she was leaving them. His mind raced with various possibilities of what to say to get her to at least come back with them tonight. But if he told her he wanted her to return with them, it sounded like he didn’t support her going back to her job. Every opening sentence knocking around in his head sounded either high handed, chauvinistic, or completely autocratic and stupid.
“Won’t you consider coming back to our home tonight? I had a small ‘congratulations on getting out of a jail’ party planned,” Cooper said. Zane wanted to hug him.
He sent his hopeful gaze Abigail’s way. A small smile appeared briefly, then she broke his heart. “I appreciate the thought, but I think it would be best if I stayed in Miser tonight. I am grateful all that you both did for me. And I’ll call you before I come to pick my things up.”
Zane officially wanted to die.
Cooper nodded and neither of them stopped her when she got in her vehicle and drove away.
“We are fucking idiots,” he said as she drove out of sight.
“You’re right. But during the whole two glorious weeks we spent together fucking, we didn’t ever talk much about what would happen if she got her job back.” Cooper continued staring in the direction she’d driven.
“Honestly, I didn’t think she’d want her old life back.”
“Well, we didn’t exactly offer her an alternative, did we?”
“I might have, but I couldn’t think of any that didn’t seem completely self-centered and misogynistic. ‘Come on, Abigail, stay with your two sugar daddies in their big house. We’ll take care of you from now on. Don’t worry your pretty little head about getting a job. You can just live your life to make us happy, baby.’ Plus, I underestimated her desire to go back to a job where they treated her like crap.”
Cooper lifted one shoulder. “It isn’t that. She has something to prove. They screwed her over and now she’s been vindicated. She deserves the chance to go back and show them how wrong they were. I can’t blame her for wanting that. Can you?”
“No. Not really. I’d do the same exact same thing.”
“Me, too. So perhaps it’s best if we give her a little room.”
“How much room?”
“A couple of weeks, maybe?”
Zane wanted to kick something. He eyed the brick of the building before getting control of his supreme self-anger. “Fuck, that’s a long time given my current feelings.”
“Yeah. Well…” Cooper didn’t finish his sentence. Instead he pushed out a long breath. “Fuck me, you were right in the first place. We’re fucking idiots.”
Zane looked up at the building where Jack’s office resided on the second floor. “Well, then let’s go home and figure out a way to win her back. I’m in love with her. She’s the one for us and we need to get her back. Someway. Somehow.”
“I’m in love with her, too. And superstition or not, I hope we didn’t already blow it by living in the moment and not making plans.” Cooper grabbed his car keys and moved toward his truck. “Let’s head back and figure out what’s next. Maybe we can hold her personal belongings hostage and then jump her when she comes for them, and convince her to stay.”
“Let’s just hope she left something behind that she can’t replace.” Like us.
Zane turned his thoughts in a more positive direction. He refused to believe they’d never see her again. But he wanted some time to think about the best way to tell her that he loved her. He also wanted to create a viable plan so that they could be together instead of the probably long-distance relationship which was already on the rocks.
* * * *
Abby managed to drive out of their sight before she had to pull over because the tears welling up in her eyes made it impossible to see the road.
How could she have been so stupid?
How could she have left things the way she did?
They had never talked about what happened after the first court date. The one time they’d mentioned it, she changed the subject. She was the one who’d made it pretty clear that she didn’t want to plan anything for after her court appearance. Not because she didn’t care for them or want a future. But because she was a coward.
