He thought maybe their last barrier was Julie realizing and accepting it.
“Hey now, hey now.” Ash was suddenly right there, breaking the spell. “We never get to see our Zee around here anymore. He finally shows, and here he is, all his focus on this girl he can’t seem to get enough of.”
Zee pulled back and grinned. “You’re exactly right, my friend. I can’t get enough.”
Ash slammed his hand over his heart. “You just love to destroy me, don’t you? Here I thought you came to see me, and look at this atrocity. I’m over here. All. Alone. By my lonesome. Without any lovin’.”
Zee gestured with his chin around the house crammed wall to wall, chicks everywhere, on the prowl just the same as the guys. It was a familiar scene Zee recognized all too well.
“Take a look, man,” Zee said. “The pickings are a plenty. Don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
Next to him, Julie cringed. Zee just hugged her tighter.
Ash grinned at her. “Ah…it’s all good, Zee. We know why you decided to go break all our hearts and ditch us. Got someone a hundred times prettier to keep your attention.”
He was all cocky smiles when he angled his head at her. “Can’t really compare to someone as gorgeous as you, now can I?”
Redness flushed Julie’s face.
Mark’s laugh bounded from across the kitchen as he shouldered through our direction, Veronica in tow. “Better keep an eye on your girl, little brother. Ash here will be trying to steal her away.”
Feigned horror struck all over Ash’s face. “Never. What kind of delinquent do you think I am?”
Mark chuckled. “We’ve all seen you in action, asshole. We know exactly what kind of delinquent you are.”
Mark squeezed his arm tighter around the girl at his side. “Veronica, don’t think I had the chance to introduce you. This is my baby brother, Zee.”
Mark’s eyes sparked in that old way, full of life, a smirk pulling to his mouth. “Although, he’s obviously bigger in all the ways that count. Thanks for outgrowing me, man. That’s just not cool. Not cool at all.”
Under his breath, Zee laughed. Leave it to Mark to put him on the spot. “Hey, you know I spent my childhood cleaning my plate because the only thing I wanted was to be taller than you.” Zee stretched out his arms. “Sweet, sweet success.”
Mark’s grin softened into a genuine smile. “Now that is something to celebrate. Sweet, sweet success.”
Zee turned to Veronica. “Nice to meet you.”
Veronica was pretty in a wicked way. She was tall and slim, and thick, super long waves bounced around her shoulders, the edge about her just as dark as the clothes she wore.
“It’s great to finally meet you. Your brother never stops talking about you.”
“Ahh…I guess that could be awkward.”
Maybe he had had too much to drink.
Of course, it was Ash who cracked up while Julie cringed. Again.
Zee was moving to soothe her, his arm locking around her waist as he tugged her close. “This is my girlfriend, Julie.”
The only acknowledgement was a mumbled hello, and Zee was wondering why it was chicks were always so damned competitive around each other, sizing each other up.
Like it mattered when it didn’t matter in the least.
Ash clapped his hands together. “All right, assholes, I do believe this shindig calls for another round. It’s Mark’s birthday. You know what that means…doubles.”
“How’s it you always find a reason for doubles?” I tossed out.
Ash backed away, hands held up with his palms out. “Hey now, hey now, I’m neither a glass half empty nor a glass half full kind of guy. I’m a full then empty then fill it right back up kind of guy.”
“Of course you are.”
“No shame, man, no shame.”
Mark slung an arm around Zee’s shoulder. “Glad you’re here, little brother. Today wouldn’t mean anything without you being by my side. What do you say we celebrate…we never know what day might be our last.”
Julie tore out the front door. Zee was right behind her. “Julie, come on. Don’t do this.”
She didn’t slow when she looked at him from over her shoulder. Tears streaked down her face, and her eyes were wide and horrified. “Stay away from me.”
Panic bubbled beneath his skin. “It wasn’t what it looked like. Please…just…wait.”
It didn’t take all that much effort for him to catch up. He reached out and snagged her around the wrist.
Rounding on him, she yanked her arm free and kept backing away. Music echoed from the house, the windows lit up, the night all around as Julie edged farther down the yard.
She was in shadows, but that didn’t mean Zee could miss the hurt written on her face. The piece of trust that had gone missing.
“It wasn’t what it looked like?” she accused.
“It wasn’t. I went to take a piss, and she was waiting for me when I came out. She caught me off guard.”
“You were kissing her.”
Zee roughed a shaking hand over his face, his buzz gone, shot the second he’d stepped out into the hall into what amounted to a trap when Jen, a chick he barely remembered, was waiting for him outside the door. “I wasn’t kissing her, Julie. Fuck…you really think I would kiss her? Let alone while you were waiting for me at the end of the hall?”
She pressed both her hands to her chest. “Tell me you haven’t slept with her before.”
Zee gulped around the regret that threatened to suffocate him. Choices. You left them littered behind you everywhere you went. Time never made them obsolete. “It was years ago, Julie. Before I ever met you.”
He watched grief strike her like a lightning rod. She stumbled back and Zee pushed toward her.
“Years ago,” he said like a demand, “and it didn’t mean anything. Nothing meant anything until I met you.”
“I just…” A sob tore up her throat, and she turned away, her hands yanking at clumps of her hair. “I can’t…I can’t do this, Zee. I know he’s your brother, but the girls…and…and then I walked in on him shooting up with his girlfriend.”
She turned back toward Zee, her shoulders slumping in helplessness. “It’s not me. It’s not who I ever want to be or who I want to surround myself with. I’m sorry, Zee. But it’s me or it’s them.”
Relief bounded through his body. It was physical. Palpable in his blood. He lurched for her, wrapping her in his arms, his mouth on her forehead, her cheeks, her lips. “You. I choose you. I will always choose you.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Zee
Sitting around watching everything you devoted your entire life to crumble around you was kind of surreal. Foundations splintering and walls collapsing.
Like I was watching it implode from a distance, and there wasn’t a goddamned thing I could do about it.
Ash leaned forward with his elbows on his knees where he sat in one of the big chairs in Anthony’s office, rubbing an anxious hand over the back of his head.