Dear Diary, could one die of embarrassment?
“They said the set burned to the ground, and you nearly got trampled to death in the stampede to get out.” Raquel’s dramatic recall of typical media embellishment, and her frantic mother’s embrace, pulled a partly suppressed gasp from Maddie.
“You’re strangling me, Mum.” She patted her mother’s back in a light half-comforting-half-you-can-release-me-now gesture that seemed to send the message.
Raquel freed her from the smothering hug and sat on the edge of the sofa. The scent of floral shampoo and perfume mixed with rainwater drifted over to Maddie.
Her mum took the fresh towel Zach handed her. She didn’t seem to notice him as she dabbed at her hair and clothes.
“When I heard the news, I almost crashed the car.”
The thought of her mum involved in another automobile accident chilled every part of Maddie. Two years ago, her mum had been in an early-morning motorway pile-up. A lorry driver had fallen asleep at the wheel, smashing through the central reservation into oncoming traffic. Her mum had suffered broken ribs and internal bleeding.
Maddie still shuddered when she remembered that time of waiting and praying.
“Sorry, Mum. The media exaggerated the accident. There was a small fire in the barn conversion, which we easily put out. I got in the way when the kid we believe started the fire tried to get away. It was just a silly accident. I promise I’m fine.”
At her mum’s sceptical frown, she said, “Really.”
“Don’t forget I know what broken ribs feel like. You’re going to need looking after.”
She knew what was coming. Her mum would insist on staying to care for her.
“My ribs aren’t broken.” She glanced at Zach. He appeared anything but happy, and Maddie suspected he wasn’t going to be pleased with what Raquel was about to say either. The last thing she needed was for her mum to get into mother-hen mode. “Besides, Zach lives next door. He can help if I need anything.” Maddie hooked her hair behind her ears. “Then there’s Sasha, Lisa, and Cristi. I have more help than I can—”
“Zach?” Raquel spat the name with distaste.
Maddie cast a glance over to him, tried not to appreciate how his powerful body lounged against the wall next to the window, his arms folded across his broad chest.
He raised an eyebrow in response to Raquel’s irascible tone. He didn’t know she was no longer his biggest fan. Maddie feared he was about to find out.
There was once a time when Raquel adored Zach. Unfortunately, her feelings changed about the same time Maddie gave up waiting for any form of communication from him.
“You remember Zach, Mum.” Maddie turned back to her mother, sending not now messages with frantic eye movements. “We went to university together. Did the same course.”
“Oh, I remember Zach.” Raquel turned slowly to face him. He withstood the cold stare. “The man responsible for breaking my daughter’s heart.”
“Mum!” That was not what Maddie expected her to say.
Maddie may as well have saved her breath for all the notice her mother took of her strangled interruption.
Raquel pointed a manicured forefinger at Zach, damp towel clutched against her chest with the other hand. “Have you any idea how devastated Maddie was when you left without explanation?”
Taken aback, Zach’s gaze zeroed in on Maddie. She shrugged, gave him a my-mum-is-cuckoo grimace.
“I wouldn’t say devastated, Mum. He was my best friend back then. Naturally, I was a little upset when he left—but not devastated.”
“You cried for months.”
She wanted to cry now. Why couldn’t her mum see she was humiliating her in her effort to give Zach a ticking off?
“I don’t think it was months.”
“Trust me. It was months. You don’t remember? You wouldn’t eat, weren’t sleeping. Spent all your time in your room crying over that picture album and that box of mementos you kept of everything he ever gave you.”
Could one die of embarrassment? Where was a good old faint when she needed one?
Zach pushed away from the wall. “Mrs B, why don’t you get out of your wet clothes? You’re starting to shiver.” He gave Maddie’s shoulder a gentle, reassuring clasp. “When you’ve changed, you can join me in the kitchen for a hot drink. Let me have it while Maddie rests.”
Despite the casual way Zach delivered the suggestion, Maddie felt the tension transmit from his hand to her shoulder. She glanced up. Yup, he was wearing that guardian-of-Maddison glower. The same one he used to wear when meeting any guy who tried to befriend her. But this time it was locked on her mum—features stony, eyes slightly narrowed, jaw tight.
She bit her bottom lip as the two people most protective of her went head to head.
Raquel pulled herself up to her full five-foot-nine-in-heels height, letting Zach know with a glower of her own, that he didn’t scare her.
“That’s a wonderful idea. You can bring me up to speed on Maddie’s care.” She jammed her hands—damp towel and all—on her hips. “When was the last time she took pain relief?”
Zach gave Maddie’s shoulder a final gentle pat before transferring his hands to his pockets, unperturbed by Raquel’s prickly response to him.
“She’s due a dose now.”
Raquel cast a glance around the room. “Where is it?”
“In the kitchen.” Zach turned toward the door. “I’ll get them.”
The tension between him and her mum was so obvious Maddie couldn’t risk leaving them alone in the same room. So far, her mum had disclosed information she’d rather Zach wasn’t privy to. Who knows what she would tell him next?
“Zach?” He turned in the doorway with his hand on the doorjamb, waiting for her to continue. Maddie dropped her gaze, finding it hard to meet his eyes. Something had changed just before her mum showed up. The frustration he’d displayed on Raquel’s arrival was still evident in the firm line of his mouth and the frown pulling his straight brows together. “Since Mum’s here now, there really is no reason for you to stay.”
He looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded once in a sign of reluctant agreement, tapped his hand against the doorframe as he gave her a last glance filled with disappointment, and left the room.
The moment he was out of earshot, Raquel spun on her heels, her tone low and accusatory. “You didn’t tell me Zachary Canady was back. And living next door, no less!”
~*~
HE’D BEEN dismissed.
Raquel had taken over Maddie’s care two seconds after she’d busted in on their conversation.
His confession.
That was two days ago. Today he hadn’t been able to get one word in private with Maddie. Raquel hung around like an over protective bodyguard, unable to leave Maddie’s side. His frustration with being thwarted from telling Maddie he owned Canady Commercial Property Development had sent him back to his house and directly to his gym two hours ago.
Zach put his back into the next thrust.
A sharp jab vibrated up his arm, followed by a one-two punch and a knee to the punch bag hanging from the ceiling hook in his home gym. The heavy bass music belting from the wall-mounted speakers didn’t succeed in drowning out his thoughts, though.
Two more seconds and he would have told Maddie about CCP. He kept up the rapid combination punches in spite of the muscle fatigue draining his strength. Sweat poured off him, ran down his naked torso and into the waistband of his track bottoms.
Every thwack against the bag’s tough vinyl shell relieved a little more frustration. He had to find a way to tell Maddie soon, otherwise she’d think he’d deliberately kept the information from her.
He didn’t hold out much hope of getting her alone. The guard dog look on Raquel’s face told him she wasn’t about to go anywhere soon.
Zach breathed hard—part exhaustion-part aggravation—inhaling the scent of sweat and polyvinyl. How was it he thought he knew everything about Maddie, yet was unaware her family had an ancestral home in Berkshire?
His hadn’t been the only company vying for Andalucía. Even if he’d found out earlier and pulled out of negotiations, Maddie’s show would have still been up against Blackwood, the other company in the running, and Blackwood was influential enough to swoop in and grab Andalucía out of Maddie’s hands.
Zach’s only choice was to come clean, hope Maddie forgave him for destroying her ancestral home, and go ahead with his planned project—a project that would bring growth to the community.
Maddie would understand ... eventually.
Zach pulled the Velcro wrist fastening apart with his teeth, caught the punch mitt between his arm and side, and pulled it off. Yanking at the other mitt, he tossed them back on the shelf where he kept them. He stopped the music, dragged a towel over his face, and headed toward the door for a shower.
His mobile phone’s jingle cut through the sudden silence, stopping him before he left the room. Zach reached for his phone, glanced at the colour LCD screen—not a number he recognised.
He pushed the Accept button and pressed the mobile to his ear. “Zach Canady.”
“Hello, lover! Missed me?”
The dark, sultry voice turned Zach’s blood to ice. “What the hell do you want?”
“Now, is that any way to speak to your wife?”
He flung the towel over his shoulder, keeping a hold of one end. Black anger renewed the tension he’d just worked off.
“Ex-wife,” he said through clenched teeth. “Where are you?”
Tinkling laughter slithered down the line. “You’ve been a naughty boy, Zach.”
Did he really used to think that laugh was sexy? It now grated over his sweat-slicked skin. Impulse told him to end the call. Foreboding compelled him to engage the conversation.
“Kimber, it’s late. Want to get to the point?”
“Blunt as always, I see. Imagine my surprise when I found out you’re living right next door to your old friend, Maddison. And after you promised never to see her again. You reneged on your promise, Zach.”
“Let me clue you in as gently as I can, Kimberley. All promises between us became null and void when you broke your vows.”
“You broke them first, Zach.” The venom in her voice was unmistakable.
“I don’t want to have this conversation with you.” He started to pull the phone away from his ear.
“Because you know you’re in the wrong.”
Her jibe stilled him. “I simply have no wish to rehash the same old argument.”
“Which one is that? The one where you finally admit to sleeping with Ben’s wife?”
At the mention of Lucy, another layer of steel closed around the part of Zach’s heart where Kimber used to reside.
“If you ever utter that lie again, I will personally foot the bill for Ben and Lucy to sue you for defamation of character.” He pushed away the guilt that clung to him like the stench of rotting fish.
“Trying to deny it, baby? We both know you visited Lucy while Ben was away on that business trip you sent him on.”
He’d never forgive himself for giving into Kimber’s demands. She’d wanted him to delegate more work so he could spend time with her. In return, she had promised to give up some of the all-night parties and heavy boozing. It’d been those demands, paired with the realisation his marriage was never going to work if he didn’t put in more of an effort, which had forced Zach to send Ben on that acquisitions trip in his place. He’d assured Ben he’d keep an eye on five-month-pregnant Lucy. Ensure she was okay until he returned ... and he’d failed.
Zach squeezed his eyes against the sting of blame. Lucy had been at the Midway Cafe that day because of him.
“Kimberley, I’m going to tell you this one last time. Get off that subject, now. You aren’t fit to speak her name.”
“Come on, Zachie. You don’t still blame me for that accident, do you?” He could hear the pout in her lowered tone. “The brakes on my car failed. You had the report from the garage yourself.”
“Why did you phone? I’m sure it wasn’t to reminisce about an accident that ended a pregnancy, and put a woman in a wheelchair.”
“I saw on the news your friend, Maddie, had an accident. Is she okay? The newsreader said she was badly injured ... almost dead.”
For her to catch the news she had to be in the UK. The fine hairs on the back of Zach’s neck rose. An urge to play down Maddie’s accident had him saying, “Maddie’s fine. You know how the news gets exaggerated, and I’m sure they didn’t report that she was ‘almost dead’.”
“That’s me précising, darling. I think the word they used was ‘critical’. Well, let’s hope they find the kid. The last thing anyone needs is little fire-starters running around.”
“Is this the reason for your call?” Talking to Kimber had the ability to make him feel tainted. He wanted to hang up, but if he knew Kimber, there was a motive behind her late-night phone call.
“I just wanted to say I hope your friend wasn’t too badly hurt.”
He glared at the door leading to the gym’s shower room. It would take hours of scrubbing to get the contamination of speaking to Kimber off him.
“Like I said, she’s fine.”
“Great news...” In the pause that followed, Zach heard the sound of glass breaking. “I’m glad to hear it. I know how much you love Maddison. I’d hate for anything to happen to her.”
The line went dead.
A chill ran down Zach’s back.