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His sister gave him a glaring look. “Don’t get on your sanctimonious high-horse, big brother. You and mom and dad can keep the damn money. It’s only going to make Josh unhappy, and that will make me unhappy.” She hit out again, obviously trying to get back at him and it worked. “It’s always been about money with you. This is about something much more important. The only thing that matters to me. Love.”
“Yeah? Well, you’re forgetting something. You need money to finish school.”
Hannah smiled a small, satisfied grin that he couldn’t fail to recognize. “I graduated this week—”
“Graduated already?” Zach broke out into a grin, the magnitude of her accomplishment making him proud, momentarily distracting him from his rant.
“Yeah, in three years.”
“Congratulations. Why the hell didn’t you invite me?”
“It was no big deal. Mom and dad and Josh were there. I haven’t even told Katie.”
In that moment, Zach realized how much his sister had grown up. “Well, I can’t say I’m not disappointed. I would have loved to have been there.”
“It’s no big deal, I didn’t even want to go to a big four-year college. Josh made me.”
Astonishment hit him and he knew it was reflected on his features. “Josh made you?”
“Yeah, I was ready to get married at eighteen after I graduated from high school.”
“Shit, Hannah! What were you thinking?”
“Don’t bitch at me! I still think it was pointless. To me, it was three years that I wasn’t with him. And all because he wanted me to have a degree first. I could have easily finished college after the wedding. And I would have.”
For the first time in years, Zachary felt something like indebtedness to a Turner. He owed Josh Turner for the fact that his sister had pursued a college degree. It hardly seemed real; it was far more than Zach could take in at the moment.
“All that aside, I don’t think you need to be rushing into anything. Wait awhile, let me meet him—”
Hannah cut him off in obvious surprise. “You’re willing to meet him?”
“What do you expect me to do? Ignore this?”
“No. I’m happy you’re willing to meet him. I knew you’d be okay with this eventually, I just didn’t think it would be this quickly. But I’m not waiting. I don’t care anything about a big wedding, or a white dress and flowers. All I want is Josh, I’ve waited for what feels like my whole life, and I’m not waiting one second longer. He wants to marry me now, I’m twenty-one and have satisfied everyone with my college degree. Now I get what I want. This weekend.”
Zach looked at his sister. “How do mom and dad feel about all of this?”
“They like Josh, a lot. But they don’t know we’re getting married yet and I’m not going to tell them until it’s over. They can throw me a reception or something later on if it will make mom feel better.”
Zach threw out a smile. “Is there anything I can do to slow this down or make you change your mind?”
For the first time since she had walked into his office, Hannah seemed to relax back in her chair and smile at him with easy warmth. “I love you, Zach, but there’s not a damn thing you can do. I want Josh Turner and nothing and no one can stop me from having him.”
Chapter Eleven
South Padre Island, Texas
Katie spent the day going over and over that kiss in her head. She absolutely couldn’t start feeling things for Zachary McIntyre. She was his captive; that was all. She began to rationalize everything inside her head. That’s what it was, then, a simple case of Stockholm syndrome. If Stockholm syndrome could ever be called simple. She tried to convince herself of that for about an hour before her conscience began arguing with her intellect.
It wasn’t Stockholm syndrome. She wasn’t locked-in, she wasn’t behind bars. She could leave anytime she wanted to, and she had basically come here of her own free will.
It was that word, basically, that got to her every time.
She needed to be here totally of her own free will. Could they get to that point? Would he give her enough time, let her learn to trust him and want to be with him enough that he wouldn’t think she’d leave the first chance she got?
As she showered after her day in the salt and sand, she realized on an exhalation that she’d already had a chance. She could have run this morning when he left town.
But she hadn’t. She’d stayed. Of her own free will.
Well, mostly her own free will. He still had that damn loan hanging over her head.
****
Zach tapped his jaw with his fingers as he sat in first class and absently look
ed out the window at the bank of clouds. His mind was elsewhere.
His mind was on Katie.
He wanted to give her time, but he didn’t know how much longer he could wait. And more troubling than the heated lust he was feeling was the overriding need to get back to her. Just to hold her.
The acknowledgment slammed through his brain and he closed his eyes in despair.
Fuck.
****
After a stilted dinner that night, Zach was still trying to understand the volley of emotions running through his system. He stood and watched Katie as she hunkered down in an armchair that sat at a ninety-degree angle to the couch. He moved toward the sofa, intending to sit, but then changed direction and made a beeline for her chair. Standing directly in front of her, he lowered his hand in an invitation for her to reach out and take it.
Her eyes slowly lifted to his. She stared at him for a count of four beats while he continued to stand there, hand out. Slowly, she put her palm in his.
He pulled her to her feet, and moved toward the sofa.
She sank down in the corner and he sat beside her. He didn’t really know where to start, so he just began. “Hannah came to see me at the office this morning.” Zach could see that Katie seemed taken aback by that statement, and he continued. “Did you know she was graduating this semester?”
Katie’s eyes widened and she shook her head. “No, I didn’t. She finished already? She graduated?”
He couldn’t keep a half-smile from forming on his lips. “Yeah, she did. And this morning was the first I heard of it, too.”
“Wow. She’s always been smart. Just like J—” Her words dwindled off and Zach picked up a piece of her hair and twirled in around his finger.
She visibly swallowed and he questioned quietly, “Just like Josh?”
She inhaled deeply and on a ragged breath, she answered, “Yeah, like Josh.”
He studied her a moment, watching him so intently. “So many years and I had no clue,” he said, almost introspectively. “So I guess my entire family, and yours … shit, the whole town, they must think I’m, what … fragile? Does everyone question my stability?”
