The next morning at the Pierce Museum, the weather turned ugly—just like Zach’s personal life. He was still smarting over Annie’s reaction to his suggestion that they get married.
Cold drizzle left behind a mist that soaked through his raincoat and seeped inside his shoes. He stood by his car for a quiet moment before the press saw him, and stared at his building. It twisted his gut to see the ravages of the collapse obvious even on the outside of the museum. Before he could catalog all the changes, a reporter spotted him.
Rushing over, the young woman shoved a microphone at him. “Mr. Sloan, what does this mean to you? That the beams held up?”
He gave her a limp smile. “It means no error was made in the design of the foundation.”
“Were other errors made in the foundation?”
“That’s what we’re here to find out.”
“Who do you think is at fault?”
“I don’t know.”
Jonathan Gumby joined them. “What do you think of the Barton family’s suit against the museum owners?”
Suit? What suit?
Gumby was quick. “Didn’t you read the papers this morning?”
No, I was too busy reeling from another one of Annie’s rejections.
Madly piecing together the implication, Zach hedged. “I have nothing to say about Mrs. Barton’s family except that they must be suffering greatly over their loss.”
Don’t say you’re sorry, Spence had warned him when they discussed his public statements. The papers will use it out of context.
“Excuse me, please,” he finished, sidestepping the female reporter.
“Do you consider yourself exonerated, Sloan, now that you know the collapse wasn’t caused by the beams?” Jonathan Gumby was becoming Zach’s personal albatross.
“I’ve never considered myself guilty,” he said mildly, again heeding Spence’s advice. There was always the possibility that they would find he’d made an error in another aspect of the building, but he’d never let his fear of it show.
He had a good poker face, Annie had always told him. Not that it had been in place last night. He shoved from his mind the vision of Annie, sleep-tossed and still warm from their lovemaking, flatly refusing to marry him. It didn’t matter that her excuses—they needed more time to heal old wounds, they had the baby’s welfare to consider now—made sense somewhere in the part of his mind that was functioning rationally. It still hurt like hell!
Determined to concentrate on this morning’s task, he headed toward the museum. At ground level, he saw Mann and Corrigan. As he neared them, their conversation stopped.
“Zach.” Mann’s voice was neutral.
“Martin.” Zach clapped Corrigan on the back. “Hello, Les.”
Bloodshot eyes stared at him. “Hi, Zach.” Les’s gaze darted to the building, then rested on Zach again. “Geez, it was good to see Annie again the other night.”
Zach smiled, careful not to look at Mann. If he saw so much as a flicker of lechery in the other man’s eyes, he’d deck him. The press would have fun with that one. “She was thrilled to see Marion,” Zach told Corrigan.
“They’re having lunch this week.”
“Oh, good.” Just another thing Annie hadn’t let him in on.
Tom Watson approached the group. “We’re ready to start.”
“All right.” Zach looked at the building. “What exactly do you want us to do?”
“I’d like to go over the blueprints, to determine where we should dig first.”
“What are you starting with?” Mann wanted to know.
“The footings. They seem the easiest to eliminate. If they follow the spec depths, we’ll proceed to the soil.”
“They’ll hold up,” the builder said tightly.
Zach glanced at Corrigan and Mann. Mann had his hands concealed in his suit-coat pockets and was affecting a casual stance. Les’s shoulders were hunched inside a blue windbreaker. His lips were pinched.
Who was to blame? Zach wondered, as he followed Tom Watson to the prints, donned a hard hat and began examining his design for the thousandth time.
o0o
Annie straightened Sam’s tie and adjusted Tommy’s cap. The kids were all dressed up for their Boy Scouts’ badge award ceremony. She turned to look at José. The scowl on his face reminded her of Zach. “I’m sorry your parents couldn’t be here for this,” she told the three boys.
“Don’t matter.” Jose glanced at the door of the school auditorium. “Think Zach’s coming?”
“I don’t know, honey. I told you he had problems with one of his buildings.”
The boy nodded. The two others crowded around to listen. They’d all become attached to Zach. Too attached.
Welcome to the club.
“He’s been busy with his building and taking care of his clients,” she tried to explain. Two jobs that he’d considered in the bag had been lost, despite the decision about the beams.
José scowled again. “Yeah, he don’t have time for us, neither.”
The sentiment made her uneasy. Annie touched her stomach. Zach had been distant all week. Only yesterday, she’d felt the first real kick inside her, not just the little flutterings, reminiscent of a butterfly flapping its wings. She’d rushed to the phone to call Zach, but she got his machine.
“That ain’t fair,” Tommy said in response to José’s retort. “He didn’t miss none of our games after the first one.”
“He ain’t here, is he?”
Tommy and Sam looked at her.
“I’m sorry, guys,” was all she could say.
As her boys left to line up in front, Annie took a seat in the middle of the school’s small auditorium. Optimistic, she set her purse on the empty chair next to her. Saving it for Zach. She could still see his utter astonishment, then self-righteous anger, when she’d refused to marry him.
Just because she’d slept with him. How ironic. How typical of them as a couple. Annie had decided to make love with Zach even though things hadn’t been settled between them because she thought they both needed the intimacy. And it was something Zach and she had argued about in the past—that she distanced herself physically from him when they disagreed. She’d meant to compromise—but Zach had misconstrued the gesture.
And had lost his temper completely.
The lights dimmed. Everyone stood for the Pledge of Allegiance, then a song, then Annie watched as her little guys got their badges.
At the end of the ceremony, the seat was still empty beside her. José, Sam and Tommy started down the aisle—then raced past her.
And to the back of the room, where a grim-faced Zach leaned against the wall. When the kids reached him, he smiled and squatted. He raised his palm for high fives all around, then carefully examined each badge.
As she walked toward them, she heard him say, “No, I wasn’t a Scout. But my brothers were. I remember when Kent earned this climbing badge.” He fingered José’s colorful patch. “I swear I spent half the summer when I was fifteen going with him on trails so he could get in his miles.”
Standing up, Zach came face-to-face with Annie for the first time since last weekend.
“Hi,” she said simply.
“Hi.”
“Annie, he came.” José’s black eyes shone with pleasure.
She smiled at the boy then looked back up to Zach’s deliberate stare. “I see. I didn’t think he’d let you down.”
Zach’s only response was an arched eyebrow.
“He’s gonna take us to McDonald’s. Wanna come, Annie?”
“Am I invited?” She put the question to Zach.
“The boys just asked, didn’t they?” His response was as chilly as his eyes.
Ignoring the slight, Annie said, “I’m starving so I guess I’ll come along.”
Across the street at the restaurant, Zach chatted amiably with the kids. The baby kicked once and Annie’s hand flew automatically to her stomach. Zach looked at her, his forehead creased. “Something wrong?”
She shook her head, reluctant to share this new development with him in front of the others. He returned his attention to the boys.
Back at the school, he watched them pile into her car. “I’ll follow while you drop them off,” he said, then looked up at the darkening sky. “And to your house. I don’t want you to get caught alone in the storm that’s brewing.”
Lucky break, Annie thought. She wanted to talk to him, and he was volunteering to come to her turf. However, when she pulled into her driveway a half hour later, he didn’t get out of his Jag.
“Will you come in a minute?” she asked through the open window at his car door.
“No, I don’t think so.”
Annie hated ploys, but she hated this distance between her and Zach even more. “I have some things I need moved. I didn’t want to lift them.”
He frowned—but got out of the car.
Inside, after Daisy made a running leap for him from the kitchen, Annie directed Zach to some boxes that needed to go from the den to the basement. When he was done, he headed for the front door. She grasped the sleeve of his suit coat.
“I felt the baby kick yesterday.”
Stopping, he stood still for a moment. When he turned, there was a proud and poignant expression on his face. He reached out and touched her stomach. She held his wrist as he waited. It took a while, but eventually Lily cooperated with a dainty jab right into her father’s hand.
Zach’s eyes widened and he smiled broadly. He waited until he felt it again, and then drew back. His frown reappeared. “This is playing dirty, Annie.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
Still rigid, he said, “Yeah, that’s what you said Monday night.”
“That doesn’t make it hurt any less, does it?”
“No.”
“Can we talk about the situation?”
“We already did.”
“No, you lost your temper and yelled. I doubt if you heard anything I said.”
His blue eyes deepened almost to navy. “Rejection has a way of doing that to me.”
“I didn’t reject you, Zach. I simply said I wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment.”
“You made love with me. I thought that was your commitment.”
“I know you did. If I misled you, I’m sorry.”
“As I said, those words don’t mean much right now.”
She moved to the couch and sat down. “I’m tired. Please come and sit with me. I’m afraid you’re going to bolt if I don’t hold on to you.”
The corners of his mouth turned up fractionally. “Well, that’s a switch. You’re the one who’s a master at bolting.”
He joined her on the sofa.
Grasping his hand in hers, she linked their fingers. He smiled sadly at the gesture and shook his head again. “Why do I let you do this to me?”
“Because you love me. And I love you.”
“But you won’t marry me.”
“Not now.” She squeezed his fingers. “I hope we can, someday. I want to be your wife again. It was just too hard when the relationship didn’t work out. I need time.”
“For what?”
“We have a child to consider now. If we marry, and it doesn’t work out, she’ll be affected negatively. I’d rather avoid the whole thing if we can’t make this work. We’ve got to be sure we’ve both changed enough.”
“I’m trying to show you that.”
She thought about the Boy Scouts, and the baseball games, the baby books and the exquisitely tender care he’d taken of her in the first few months. “You are showing me. And I’m trying to meet you halfway. By going to the party at the country club. And by making love. It was my way of compromising.”
Scarlet slashes formed on his cheeks. “Oh, and I thought it was good for you. I didn’t know you did it out of...a sense of duty.”
“Don’t be an ass. You know that’s not what I meant.”
He studied her for a minute, then sighed, leaned against the cushions and closed his eyes. “I’m shot. First this, then the business with the building. I haven’t slept all week.”
“Take off your coat and shirt, Zach.”
His eyes flew open.
“I’ll give you a massage like Felicia showed us.”
“I’m not pregnant.”
“No, but you’re exhausted. If I know you, you’ve been working fourteen hours a day with no breaks.”
“I went to the gym on my dinner hours.”
“Okay, tough guy, lie down and I’ll give you a rubdown.”
Zach stripped, settled onto the plush carpet, and Annie straddled him. His shoulder muscles were knotted so she began there. “It might help to talk about the building.”
“I gave you the gist of it on the phone.”
“Tell me your thoughts on the situation.” She ground the heel of her hand into his deltoid muscle.
He groaned. “That feels great.” After a minute, he said, “Something’s wrong with Corrigan.”
Annie shifted her hands to his shoulder blades. “Like what?”
“Something to do with the museum, I think. I can’t put my finger on it. Did you have lunch with Marion?”
“No, she called and rescheduled for next week. She’s opened that boutique she always wanted and she’s busy.”
“How did she sound?”
“Sort of upset, now that you mention it.” When he didn’t respond, Annie asked, “Have you talked to Les about this?”
Silence.
“Zach?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Why? He’s your friend. Maybe he needs you.”
Again the silence.
“Zach?”
“Annie, I don’t want to get in the middle of this. If Les did do something wrong, it’ll come out in the investigation.”
“I think you should talk to him. At the very least, you might get more information on the collapse. But mostly, if Les needs you, you should be there for him.”
Zach sighed heavily. “Truthfully, Annie, I’m sick of being there for everyone. All my life, I played that role. Maybe right now, I just want to cover my own ass and let everybody take care of themselves.”
Annie kneaded his lower back, biting her tongue to keep from responding. Of course, she believed he was wrong; she thought he should get involved for his friend. But his pique at her refusal to marry him seemed to have diminished, and she didn’t want to start a new tussle. So, ignoring the little voice that insisted this was an old argument, that they’d had this disagreement in the past, she leaned over and kissed her way all the way down his spine.
o0o
“We aren’t getting the movie-theater complex,” Zach told Devon on his cell as he drove back from Boston.
“What happened?”
“Another article in the Gazette this morning. Perfect timing.”
“I didn’t see it.”
“I wish I hadn’t. The piece was another of Gumby’s rants. It said something about new not always being better and how the cathedrals built hundreds of years ago were still standing and were safe. He got quite poetic.”
“What’s with Gumby? You ever do anything to him?”
“Not that I know of. He’s just doing his job. If a bit too enthusiastically for my taste.”
“He always sounds inflammatory to me.”
“I guess the movie-theater big shots thought so too.”
“You coming back to the office?”
“Later. I’m going to stop at my parents’ house since it’s on the way. I have something for my sisters.”
Clicking off the phone, Zach felt like throwing the device through the windshield. To distract himself, he tried to think of something pleasant—the baby—and for a minute, it worked. It had been more than a week since he’d felt Lily’s kick and he was still awestruck. Annie had teased him unmercifully about his reaction.
Annie. Who wouldn’t marry him, but made love to him like a courtesan and fussed over him like a mother hen. He wouldn’t think about Annie, either.
Turning onto his childhood street, Zach checked his watch. The girls would be in school, but his mother might be home. He hadn’t called, figuring he’d just leave the concert tickets in the newspaper box. As he parked at the curb, he took a minute to survey the house. It was old, of course, but it had gotten a fresh coat of paint, and had some vibrant fall flowers bursting out of boxes on the porch. Climbing the stairs to the front door, he noticed for the first time that the steps were no longer slate, but concrete. When had that happened?
He knocked briefly, then eased open the door. “Ma?”
No answer. He trekked into the kitchen. Everything was neat and tidy, if worn. Glancing out the window over the sink, he caught a flash of red plaid. His father, hedge clippers in hand, examined a bush.
Briefly, Zach thought about leaving the tickets on the table and sneaking out without confronting the old man. But Zach’s heart grew heavy at the possibility of his own child someday watching him like this. He’d never want her to leave to avoid him.
His father turned when the screen slammed. John Sloan’s normally shuttered face brightened at first, and Zach was struck by the pure pleasure etched there. His father concealed it quickly, making Zach wonder if he’d imagined the reaction.
John nodded. “Zach.” Turning back to the bush, he resumed his assessment of his handiwork.
Aw, hell, Zach thought, what did he have to lose? “It’s lopsided. There on the right.”
His father nodded again, raised the clippers and winced.
“What’s wrong, Pa?”
“Blisters.”
Zach studied his father’s back. He was only sixty, but had retired last year. His shoulders were hunched and his arms looked stiff, battle scars from blowing glass in a factory for thirty-five years.
“Want some help?”
The old man started to shake his head—nothing Zach hadn’t expected. Then he turned abruptly. “You got your fancy clothes on.” His head cocked to the side; Zach recognized the gesture as one of his own. Would his child, John Sloan’s grandchild, inherit that trait? “You always get all dressed up like a Protestant?” his father asked.
Zach smiled at the familiar, homey phrase. “Usually.”
“Ever hate it?”
Feeling the sun beat down on his head, warming him through the light wool of his suit, Zach nodded. “Yeah, Pa, as a matter of fact, I do.” He glanced at the hedge clippers. “Kent or David got any jeans I can borrow?”
“You really wanna help?”
“Yeah.” Zach’s throat was tight.
“Go upstairs and change, then.”
Ten minutes later, Zach held the cutters in front of a boxwood bush, listening to the sound of his father’s voice curl inside him. He hadn’t remembered how deep and soothing it could be. Would Lily feel that way about her father’s voice?
As they went from shrub to shrub, John was his usual reticent self. But what wasn’t usual was the ease of the silence between them. When they were done, Zach checked his watch.
“Don’t let me keep you,” his father said, the chill back in his tone.
Zach’s head came up in time to see the hurt in his father’s eyes behind the ice in his voice.
“I’m starving, Pa.” On cue, his stomach growled. “I was checking to see if it was lunchtime.” He smiled weakly, feeling like a little boy again. After the kindergarten incident, Zach had stopped asking for his father’s attention, and rarely let anyone else know his needs. It was easier—when they didn’t get met—if no one knew about them. “MacGregor’s still have those thick hamburgers with everything on them?”
The utter shock on John Sloan’s face shamed Zach. “Yeah,” the old man said gruffly. “And those ice-cold beers.”
“How about some lunch?” Zach asked tentatively, his heart pounding in his chest. Rejection now would be more than he could bear.
His father waited a long time. “Sounds good,” he finally said. “But I pay.” He nodded to the bushes. “For the help.”
“You’re on, Pa.”
o0o
“Hi, Lucy.” Annie was seated at a table in La Fondue waiting for Marion Corrigan when her ex-sister-in-law walked in. Annie wasn’t surprised. In the past, she and Lucy had met at this restaurant often because it was across the street from the nursing home where Lucy worked. Annie hadn’t seen Zach’s sister in weeks, though; they’d spoken on the phone but Lucy was still reluctant to accept Zach into their lives again. All the Sloans were pretty stubborn, Annie thought as she looked at the woman who was most like Zach.
“Hello, Annie.”
“Are you alone?”
“No, I’m meeting someone.”
“How’s your job going?”
“Good.”
Peering up at Lucy, Annie said, “I wish I could say the same for Zach.”
Lucy’s eyes flared just like Zach’s. “If he’s at fault for the museum collapse, he shouldn’t be allowed to build anything, ever again.”
Stunned, Annie jerked back. “How can you say that about your own brother?”
“How can you be so sure it’s not his fault?”
“I know he wouldn’t do anything negligent or unethical.”
“But he makes mistakes. Take Gina, for example.”
Annie’s hand sought out her stomach, seeking comfort from Zach’s baby. “Are you deliberately trying to hurt me, Lucy?”
“No, I’m trying to get you to see reason.” Lucy swept the restaurant with a frustrated gaze. “How are you rationalizing Gina in this reconciliation?”
Gina. Gina. Gina.
“It’s not a reconciliation yet. We want to see if we can work things out.”
“For the baby?”
If Lucy hadn’t mentioned Gina, Annie would have said, No, because I love him. Instead, she answered, “Partially.”
Marion Corrigan approached the table. “Sorry I’m late, Annie.”
After introductions, Lucy gave Annie one last meaningful look and left.
“Are you all right?” Marion asked. “You’re pale.”
“I’m fine,” Annie lied.
When the other woman was seated, and they ordered glasses of sparkling water, Marion smiled warmly. “I can’t tell you how glad I am that we’re having lunch. How did we ever lose touch?”
Annie lowered her eyes. “It was my fault. I couldn’t bear any connection to Zach after our marriage ended.”
Marion sipped her water and said bluntly, “Les said Zach told him you were seeing each other again. What happened?”
Her forthrightness was one of the things she always liked about Marion Corrigan. The woman never played games. Never hedged. Annie briefly explained how she and Zach had met on the site of the collapse.
“So, you’ve been seeing each other since then?” Marion asked.
“Not exactly.” Annie blushed. “I’m pregnant, Marion. It happened that same night.”
“Oh.” The other woman fidgeted with the lapel of her teal jacket.
“You don’t sound too pleased.”
“Are you?”
“Well, yes.”
“Annie, are you thinking about going back to him for the baby?”
Puzzled, Annie frowned. “No, but I’m surprised you sound so negative about it. You always loved Zach.”
“I still do. He’s been a great friend to Les since college and he also helped him through the AA stuff. Then there was...” She broke off and Annie frowned.
“There was what?”
“Annie, there are some things you don’t know.”
“What?”
“Are you sure you want to hear this?”
“Yes.”
Marion’s explanation was delayed when they were interrupted by a waiter who’d come to take their lunch orders.
“Tell me, Marion,” Annie said once the man had left, her nerves on edge.
“When you left Zach, he was in bad shape. For a long time. He drank some, and went through severe bouts of depression. Les spent a lot of time with Zach, trying to keep him off the booze, talking to him. We were both worried about him. Finally, Les suggested Zach get some help.”
“Psychological help?”
“Yes.”
“Did he?”
“No, he refused. What he did instead was retreat more and more into himself and shut the rest of us out. He still had contact with Les, but it was superficial.”
Moisture welled behind Annie’s lids. “I didn’t know.”
“I’m sure you didn’t. He didn’t let anyone see the real hurt except us. Eventually, he cut us out, too.”
“Are you saying that because Zach cut you out I shouldn’t work at my relationship with him? Marion, that’s not fair. Zach’s always played things close to the vest. I’m surprised he turned to you in the first place.”
“He was desperate, Annie. And from your high-spirited defense of him, I’d say your reconciliation isn’t just for the baby.” Marion smiled at Annie’s surprised look. “But that’s not what I meant, anyway. I don’t want you to go back to him for the baby, because Les and I tried that, and it didn’t work.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know we have a five-year-old son.”
“Yes, Zach told me. You must have gotten pregnant right when I left Zach.”
“I did. When they were working on the Pierce Museum, things were really rough for Les and me, too. We’d been talking about divorce. I think that’s why we sympathized so much with Zach. Anyway, seeing Zach suffer over your split, we wanted to give our marriage another try. We decided to have a baby.”
Annie smiled. “And it worked.”
“No, it didn’t. When Jason was one, we separated.”
“Oh, Marion. I’m sorry.”
“We went back and forth for three years. Six months ago, we sought counseling to try to stop this seesaw.”
“Are you remarried?”
Marion laughed. “We never got divorced. The therapist said that in itself should tell us something.”
“So things are good now, between you?”
There were shadows in Marion’s eyes when she spoke. “They were going great until the collapse of the staircase.”
“It’s caused a lot of stress for everyone. Zach’s a wreck.”
Marion didn’t say anything, but her eyes welled with tears.
“Marion? What is it?”
“I shouldn’t talk about it.”
“You can tell me if you want.”
“I’m afraid.”
“Of what?”
“A lot of things.”
“Like?”
“I think that Les is drinking again.”
Something’s wrong with Corrigan, Annie.
“Oh, no.”
“That he might be at fault for the collapse.”
Something to do with the museum, I think.
“It’s normal to have doubts.”
“And I’m afraid of Martin Mann.”
“Has he done anything to make you afraid?”
“Not directly. Maybe it’s just that I’ve always thought he was a bad influence on Les.”
“Both of us were in agreement on that years ago. Remember?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, we didn’t listen to our instincts. And now, I wonder what havoc he’s wreaking in my life.”
“Oh, Marion, I’m sorry.” Annie reached over and grasped her hand. “Is there anything I can do?”
“Just be my friend. And Les’s. Both you and Zach.”