“LET ME GET this straight. You and Willow aren’t really engaged, but you want to be, because suddenly you love her?” Ben paced his living room like a caged tiger. “What the hell is really going on, Zane? You show up last night looking like hell and ask for a place to crash. You make me wait until the morning so you can process whatever’s happened. And now you give me this load of crap?”
Zane had come straight to Ben’s after leaving Willow last night, but he hadn’t been able to think straight, much less figure out how to break the news to Ben that he’d been lying to him and was in love with his sister. Now, leaning against the back of Ben’s couch, where he’d been for the last twenty minutes as he explained to Ben what had happened, he still wasn’t sure what to say. He splayed his hands. “I know how it sounds. But it’s the truth, Ben. I needed to clean up my reputation. Willow agreed to help.”
Ben grabbed Zane’s shirt with fisted hands, seething through gritted teeth. “You asked my sister to lie for you?”
“You think I don’t want to pound the shit out of myself for this?” He knocked Ben’s hands away. “I’m an asshole, Ben. Tell me something I don’t know.”
“Willow’s never asked a damn thing of you. Why her? Out of all the women in this world, why ask her to lie for you?”
“Because that’s what we do. We ask each other to do outrageous, unreasonable things, knowing we will.” There was no way Zane would give up their secret, so he gave Ben the only thing he had to offer.
The rest of the truth.
“Because I love her, man.” He dropped down to a chair at Ben’s bar.
Ben paced again. “You don’t know the first thing about love. I know you, remember? I know about your revolving bedroom door. You might be able to fool my sister, but you can’t fool me.”
“I’m not fooling her. I’ve owned up to everything I’ve done. I’m not hiding my past from her, Ben. Willow knows exactly who I am. She always has.” He pushed to his feet, too restless to sit still. “I want her in my future.”
Ben scoffed.
“You don’t know everything about me, Ben. Did you know I’ve kept in touch with Willow all these years? That I’ve asked her to meet me somewhere every fucking month for years? She never took me up on it, but that didn’t stop me from asking her too many times to count.”
“You don’t even know her anymore, Zane. You’re fooling yourself.”
“Am I?” He raked a hand through his hair. “Or am I finally doing what I should have done years ago? I know it’s crazy, but it’s true.”
“Why?”
“Why?”
Ben closed the gap between them. “Yeah. Why? Why do you love her?”
“Do you even know your sister? She’s smart as hell, more determined than any person I have ever known, and she’s funny, Ben. She makes me laugh, and she irritates the hell out of me with her snarky comments, but it’s the best kind of irritation, you know?” He sank down to the bar stool again. “And she’s sweet and real, and I don’t know, man. You’re asking me to explain something people have been trying to figure out forever. Love is crazy and unreasonable. And you’re right. I don’t know the first thing about it. But I’m going to figure it out.”
Ben crossed his arms, setting a steely gaze on Zane again. “Did you purposefully not mention her looks?”
“What?”
“You didn’t mention her looks even once.”
Zane shrugged. “She’s beautiful, but what does that have to do with anything? You asked why I love her, not if I thought she was pretty. Jesus, Ben. She’s a baker, and we all know how much she loves sweets. She could gain a hundred pounds and I’d still love her. What’s your point?”
Ben sank down beside Zane, shoulders slumped. “I think you just made it.”
“Now you’ve lost me.”
“God, you’re thickheaded sometimes.” Ben glared at him. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but in all the years I’ve known you, you’ve talked about how hot women were. Never once did you mention anything real about a single one. I thought you were incapable of seeing past a woman’s looks. I honestly was worried that you’d end up like one of those old guys who marry a twentysomething, money-grubbing piece of arm candy.” His glare softened. “I believe you, man. So what’s your plan?”
“I’m going to win her over. No matter what it takes.” Zane smiled, knowing he’d taken a solid first step. “I sent her ten dozen roses. That should help ease the tension.”
Ben laughed.
“What? Women love roses. That’s like Romance 101.” He’d given her a single rose the night they’d first slept together, and she’d swooned.
“Not Willow. She can’t stand the sight of them.”
“Aw, hell.” Zane bolted for the door.
He had walked the eight blocks from Willow’s apartment to Ben’s house last night, and now he sprinted down the cobblestone streets toward the bakery.
“Hey, Zane.” Aurelia Stark, the woman who ran the bookstore, waved as he ran past. “Congratulations!”
He waved back and picked up his pace, skidding as he rounded the corner onto the main drag. A crowd of people milled around beneath the pink awning at the entrance to Sweetie Pie Bakery, spilling over to the sidewalk in front of Bridgette’s flower shop, Secret Garden. Two of Zane’s security guys flanked the entrance to the bakery.
He slowed to a walk, noticing several people carrying pink Sweetie Pie Bakery bags and long-stemmed red roses. A tall blond woman pushed through the doors carrying a pink box and a single rose. Anxiety prickled his limbs. Was Willow giving away the flowers he’d sent her?
“There he is!” the tall blonde yelled.
The crowd converged on Zane like a swarm of bees, waving pieces of paper and calling out his name. Zane drew upon his inner actor, forcing the man who wanted to reach his woman down deep so he could win over the crowd as quickly as possible. He squared his shoulders and flashed a practiced smile. He’d mastered faking it until he made it and moved on to made it, and needed to fake it until he could get the hell out.
“Give Mr. Walker some room, please.” Jacob Seton, the head of his security detail, formed a beefy barrier between Zane and the crowd, while Mort Penner, the other bodyguard, manned the door to the bakery.
A redhead thrust a newspaper past Jacob’s arm. “Can I get your autograph?”
Zane grabbed it and scrawled his name, hurriedly moving on to sign a handful of others. Every time the bakery door opened, he caught a glimpse of another customer carrying a rose, tightening the knots in his gut. He needed to see Willow.
A man walked out of the bakery carrying a rose, and Zane’s blood pressure spiked. What the hell was going on? He was done. He gave Jacob and Mort the secret nod, and the two burly men formed an impenetrable wall around him.
“I appreciate you stopping by, but that’s all I’ve got time for. My fiancée awaits.” His gut and heart warred with the statement as he quietly and quickly gave his security team instructions to ensure this type of thing didn’t happen again, and made his way into the bakery, which was almost as packed as the sidewalk.