I’ll Be There (20 page)

Gabriella was completely torn. On one hand, she needed to talk to someone about what was going on and her feelings for Zach. On the other hand, that person should probably
not
be Zach's sister.

“Gabs? Come on. Talk to me.”

“Things have gotten a lot better this last week.”

“That's great!”

Shaking her head, Gabriella felt tears threaten to form in her eyes. “I thought it was. We were back to being the way we were in the beginning. Only better.”

If Summer was even remotely suspicious of anything, she chose to keep it to herself.

“You weren't completely off base back in Alaska,” Gabriella began slowly, refusing to meet Summer's gaze. “I did have feelings for Zach.” Then she looked up. “Turns out he had them too.”

“No. Freaking. Way!” Summer almost jumped up from her seat but managed to refrain. “This is amazing! You and Zach! Oh my God! How could you keep this from me?”

“Summer, it's not… It's not like that. Zach is dealing with a lot of stuff. And even though we admitted to having…feelings, we work together. Neither of us is willing to risk our business relationship right now. He has too much riding on him getting better and getting back to his position in the company to waste it fooling around with me.”

Summer arched a brow at her. “Seriously? Fooling around? If there's one thing I know about the both of you, it's that you're excellent multitaskers. I don't think either of you is the type to get so distracted with ‘fooling around' that it's going to hamper your working relationship.” She paused and studied Gabriella for a minute when realization hit. “You're upset because he didn't call you about what the doctors told him. I'm right, aren't I?”

Gabriella had had enough. “So? What do you want? A medal?”

“Okay, no need to get snippy.”

Unable to help herself, Gabriella slammed a hand down on the table. “You know what? I think I'm entitled to be a little snippy! Your brother has jerked me around for years—blaming me for something he misunderstood—and then I had to deal with his verbal abuse and now he begs and grovels and convinces me to stay on and I stupidly agree. And on top of it, I foolishly agree to fooling around but at the end of the day, you know where I am? In the dark! I don't mean enough to him.” She took a deep breath. “I don't think I really mean anything to him.”

“Gabs, I'm sure that's not true.”

Gabriella shared her theory on her being the “safe bet” for Zach to ease back into dating.

“I think it's the most ridiculous theory I've ever heard,” Summer said flatly. “I'm kind of disappointed in you. For someone who usually has all the answers—you're like Yoda or Obi-Wan to most of us—you've suddenly turned into some sort of…I don't know…amateur. I'll be honest, I'm a little concerned.”

“Okay, dramatic much?” Gabriella asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Look, I don't think Zach's that kind of person. He doesn't just…use people like that.”

“Summer, I love your loyalty to your family, but you weren't around here the last couple of years. Your brother had a revolving door of women he never went out with more than a handful of times. I even had to break up with some of them for him!”

“I promise to not break up with you—even if Zach asks me,” Summer said seriously, right before her lips began to twitch.

“You are so not funny right now.”

“Yeah, but you love me anyway.”

“Damn you,” Gabriella said. “So what do I do? Am I crazy? Am I wrong to be offended that he not only didn't call but clearly didn't want me around this afternoon?”

“Honestly, Gabs, I think Zach's trying to come to grips with it all. Let him have today. Then go to the house tomorrow and see how it goes. I think you're overreacting. I don't think Zach's just playing with you. He wouldn't do that. Especially not to you.”

Gabriella suddenly wasn't so sure anymore.

* * *

Zach paced the living room the next morning, doing his best to ignore the muscle cramp from his morning session with Alex. Gabriella was late. Gabriella was never late.

Another glance at the clock showed it was almost eight thirty. Their day normally started at eight, but she was always ready to go by seven forty-five. It was a little unnerving. Had something happened to her?

He cursed the fact he hadn't called her the day before. When Summer had mentioned they were having lunch together, he panicked. There was no way he could have the conversation with Gabriella he wanted to, knowing his sister was sitting right there. It was a lame excuse, but it also allowed him the time to just wrap his brain around everything he had learned yesterday.

He was going to be okay.

This morning during his session with Alex he had asked if by being okay, it meant that there'd be no outward signs of his accident. The answer wasn't quite what he had hoped for. Due to the complexity of the breaks in his leg, there was a good chance he'd have a limp for the rest of his life. Not the worst-case scenario, but it did mess with Zach's head a little.

He wanted to be perfect. He wanted to be exactly like the man he was before the climb. A limp might not seem like much to most people, but to Zach it was the equivalent of a giant neon sign saying he was flawed.

Should he ever go on any adventure trips again, people were going to look at him differently—simply because of the limp. They were going to be concerned, or wonder if he were up to the task, no matter how small it was. That wasn't something he was looking forward to.

He looked at the clock again and cursed. “This is ridiculous,” he muttered as he picked up his phone and called Gabriella. It went directly to voice mail. “Dammit.” He called the office next and asked for Summer.

“Wow! Twice in two days!” she said cheerily. “You really are getting better.”

He wanted to laugh and smile with her, but he was too concerned. “Do you know where Gabriella is?”

“What? No. Why?”

“She hasn't arrived yet and…”

“She's never late,” Summer finished for him. “Have you called her?”

“Of course!” he snapped and then reeled it in. “It went directly to voice mail. I don't know what else to do. You had lunch with her yesterday, was she feeling okay?”

“Other than being annoyed with you, she was fine.”

“Annoyed? Why?”

“Really? You're going to play the dumb card?”

“Okay, fine. That's our usual MO, but I thought I was doing better. I can't think of anything I could've done to upset her.”

Summer sighed. “You didn't call her,” she said. “You. The guy who normally calls her even when she's in the next room just so you can report that you're almost out of paper clips. But this time you didn't call to share actual news with her. I totally agreed with her that it was a crappy thing for you to do.”

“I'll tell you what, when something like this happens to you, then you can judge. I know I don't make the greatest decisions—”

“You got that right,” she interrupted.

“But,” he said loudly to stop her from talking again, “I didn't do it to be mean.” He sighed wearily. “So do you think she's just…pissed? Do you think she's just being a little spiteful and coming in late to prove some kind of point?”

“The two of you are exhausting,” she muttered.

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“It means I wish you'd stop tiptoeing around one another. She's clearly into you and you are so totally into her and yeah, we all get it, you work together, but could you please just
communicate
with one another? Honestly.”

Zach was stunned speechless. It wasn't really surprising that Summer knew about his feelings for Gabriella. He was certain Ethan had ratted him out. But the fact that Summer was in the know about Gabriella's feelings meant the two of them had talked about it.

“So she's into me, huh?”

“Oh, good Lord. Don't even go there. Keep calling her and let me know when she gets there. I'll look around and ask if maybe she stopped in here this morning and I just didn't see her.”

“Thanks, Summer. You're the best.”

“Yeah, sure. You say that now. I'll be sure to remind you of it when you're back to working in the office and I do something to annoy you.”

“I'm sure you will, brat. I love you.”

“Love you too.”

* * *

For the first time in over five years, Gabriella considered calling in sick to work. She felt fine if you didn't count the fact her heart ached every time she thought about all the amazing things Zach had said to her in the last week and then didn't bother to call her when he received the good news from his doctor. Didn't that pretty much tell her how he really felt?

Unfortunately, her work ethic got the better of her. She'd go to his house and she'd get to work.

On her own terms.

Deciding to stop by the office first, she grabbed up a box of files she had started working on yesterday. They weren't overly important, but they were clients who could use a little follow-up and it would be the perfect kind of busywork that would keep Zach on the phone and out of her hair.

Next she decided to stop for her morning coffee. Normally she grabbed a cup for herself and Zach and brought them to his house, but today she only purchased one for herself—along with a muffin—and sat and ate it in the café. Looking at her watch, she smirked. Yeah, Zach would be having a fit by now, but she didn't care. Let him stew. She had to wait to hear about his doctor's visit; he'd have to wait for her.

Um…rubber? Meet glue.

This was so not the person she wanted to be. Petty. Childish.

Heartbroken.

With a sigh of resignation, Gabriella stood and threw her trash away, then walked out to her car and drove over to Zach's. Once there, she pulled the box from her car and balanced it under one arm while she used her key to let herself in.

“Where the hell have you been?” Zach yelled as she walked through the door. “I've been trying to call you for over an hour!”

“I had some stops to make. I didn't think it was a big deal.” Shrugging, she walked across the living room and placed the box on the coffee table, and then back to the front door to hang up her jacket and purse.

“What stops? You didn't mention needing to make any stops.”

“Contrary to popular belief, I don't have to report my every move to you,” she said coolly as she sat and began pulling files from the box. “I went through my files at the office yesterday. We have about fifty clients we haven't had direct contact with in over a year. I thought it would be a good time to go through the list and reach out to them.” Systematically, she grouped the files into piles on the table. She gasped loudly when he grabbed the bunch she was holding in her hands and tossed them aside.

“What's going on here?” he demanded.

She looked at him defiantly. “I'm working. Isn't that the purpose of my being here?”

Zach scrubbed a hand over his face and looked down at where she was sitting, his voice softening. “Is this about me not calling you yesterday? Summer said that upset you for some reason.”

She looked away and shrugged before resuming her task. “Not that I expect you to report your every move to me, but you called everyone and let them know how it all went. Except me.” When all the files were laid out in an order she was satisfied with, Gabriella went to the kitchen, poured herself a glass of water, and then leaned against the counter to look at Zach.

“It wasn't like that,” he said quietly as he stepped into the room. “You have no idea how hard yesterday was for me. I called my parents, and then I tried to call Ethan. When I couldn't get him on the phone, I reached out to Summer. I didn't go through my contacts and call everyone but you. Honestly.”

“You know what, Zach? It's fine, really. Like I said, we don't have to report our every move to one another. Things got a little…confusing…between us. It's okay. I think it's better for us if we just leave it at that and get back to where we belong. We work together and we're trying to get you caught up so when you return to the office, everything will be in place. Okay?”

“No, it's not okay!” he snapped. “There was nothing confusing about last week. We were moving forward in our relationship! We both admitted we had feelings for one another, and I don't understand why you're suddenly pulling back!”

Words died in her throat. She had no idea how to have this conversation with him. It was bad enough just thinking she was wrong about what was going on between the two of them. Admitting out loud that she knew she wasn't enough for someone like him just might kill her.

“Gabs? Come on,” he said, taking a deep breath and letting it out, his eyes never leaving hers. “Talk to me.”

If she ever wanted to be done with this awkward conversation, Gabriella knew she was just going to have to spit it out and be done with it. She wasn't a coward—no matter how badly she wanted to be one at the moment.

“You want to know?” she huffed and slammed her glass down on the counter. “Fine. I think it was all fine and well to cozy up to me so I'd come back to work for you and make your life more convenient. I think you even thought it was a good thing for us to get involved because I was safe—someone you knew would understand your injuries and recovery. But as soon as you got the good news from the doctor, you realized you didn't need someone safe. You could go back to your old ways and your revolving door of women and didn't need me. So I'm giving you an out, Zach. Do us both a favor, just take it and don't make this any more awkward than it already is. Please.”

She was nearly out of breath and wished to God Zach would say…something. Anything. He continued to stare at her—hard. It was almost too much to bear. It was enough to make her squirm. Then, without a word, he reached out and banded an arm around her waist and hauled her roughly against him. Her eyes went wide and she gasped right before his lips came crashing down on hers.