“Again, not locked up.” The bookcase behind the desk to his left caught his eye.
“This is the worst day of my life.”
“And yet here you are, surviving it.” Zane removed a book, turned it around, and replaced it binding side first. He continued with the next book, working his way across the shelf. “A day could be a lot worse. Like the one Coop had when his first fiancée died. Or when Cassie learned her sister Chloe and her brother-in-law Jack died in a plane crash, leaving her niece an orphan.” Or being a middle schooler and having your father say he wants a divorce to marry the other mother of his other children.
In his mind, he saw the insecure boy he’d been seated on a box containing his books and other bookshelf items. His mother sat on a box of his clothes on one side of his bedroom. His father leaned against the door jamb, ready to make his getaway. His parents tried to convince him they both wanted him so much they’d been unable to reach a custody agreement. Because of that, he needed to choose who to live with. But he heard the truth when they’d argued the night before. Neither one of them wanted him. They wanted to move on.
“You’re right,” McKenna said, yanking him away from the memories. She walked to the love seat situated along the wall and sat, while he moved to the next row of books. “What’re you doing?”
“Leaving a message to piss AJ off when he comes into work.”
“You’ll get us into more trouble.”
“Do you want to get out of here or not?” She nodded, and he continued. “Then we best get to working things out.”
“How do we start?”
“Tell me what you and Ginny talked about.”
She chewed on her lip, and when she quit it was slightly swollen and red the way it had been after he kissed her this afternoon. “I went there to convince her I didn’t need your help.”
“Makes me wonder about your sales skills.” Though with her looking at him wide-eyed, her lips swollen from nervously chewing on them, she could talk him into a thing or two. He frowned and returned his attention to AJ’s books. “Don’t ever help me again.”
“I wasn’t trying to help you today. I was doing it for me.” She explained she’d hoped to impress Ginny during her absence to bolster her case when she asked to be promoted to wedding planner. “Lucky Stars has such potential. With two planners, Ginny could expand to hosting celebration of life and corporate events. But if you’re in charge, how can I prove I can handle more responsibility?”
“Guess you’ll have to impress me.”
She scoffed. “With the way things are going with us working together, I’ll be lucky to still have a job when Ginny returns, and I won’t go through that again.”
“Again?”
Her lips pinched into a thin line and she paled. “My dad was unemployed a lot when I was a kid. It was so bad we got evicted a couple times. I’ll never forget how awful it was.” Her voice quivered with pain. “I hated being the new kid. It was so hard making friends. Eventually I said why bother? We’d only move again.”
His gut insisted she’d left something out.I’ll be lucky to still have a job, and I won’t go through that again.He swore she’d been talking about herself, not her father, but he let her comment go. For now. He started rearranging the next shelf of books. “That’s why you went, but what did you talk about?”
McKenna picked at the couch cushion’s seam. “It was the oddest conversation I’ve ever had with her. When I asked why she changed her mind after all our planning, instead of answering, she apologized for not telling me herself and asked me to forgive her. Then she asked what I thought of you.”
He paused. His hand clutching a procedural manual twitched. “I bet you gave her an earful.”
Holding his breath, he waited for McKenna to answer. Would what she said change how his grandmother saw him?
“As a matter of fact, I didn’t.”
He stared at her, and his right eyebrow crooked upward. Why had she given him a break? Why hadn’t she blasted him with both barrels? “Why not? That was your big chance to get rid of me.”
“I’m not that petty. I know how close you two are. I’ve never had a relationship with my grandparents. My paternal ones died before I was born, and my mother’s disowned her. I refuse to be responsible for problems between you and Ginny.”
Relief rippled through him. In McKenna’s place, would he have been as magnanimous? “Thank you for that.”
Her back straightened and she clasped her hands in her lap. “I did it as much for me and Ginny as I did for you. It would’ve made me look unprofessional and vindictive.”
“Why can’t you simply say you’re welcome?” He shoved the book he held back on the shelf.
“I wish I knew why what you say rubs me the wrong way. But you are welcome.” Then she went on to say she’d asked Ginny why she thought he would be of help and how the older woman told her about Big Stake Games. “Why didn’t you tell me you’re part owner of the company that createdCowboys and Zombies?”
He shrugged, honestly not sure why he hadn’t told her. Could he have wanted to prove himself? When people heard he owned a gaming company they jumped to conclusions, like him being loaded.
“I loveCowboys and Zombies, by the way.”
