Katie didn’t know what to say. Mia’s plans had been set for years. But David was two years behind Katie, and when she graduated, the choices would be either not being together or one of them giving up what he or she wanted. Katie knew her sister had never been very good at compromising her own plans.
“They’re so damn young,” he muttered. “Why can’t he see that? Why can’t he see that he’s potentially screwing up his entire life?” He drank some wine and looked at her. “Unfortunately, that’s what I said to him. I pointed out that I knew exactly what came from taking on responsibility too early. He thinks I blame him for screwing up
“Ouch,” she said sympathetically. “That can’t have gone over well.”
“You’re right. The hell of it is, I didn’t mean it that way. I don’t regret David or anything that has happened because of him.” He shrugged. “With the possible exception of marrying Ainsley. But he didn’t stick around to hear that. Instead he took off and I haven’t heard from him since.”
Suddenly the dark lines and exhaustion made sense. “You’ve been worried about him,” she said, making it a statement rather than a question.
He nodded. “I’m not worried that something happened to him, but I hate us not being in contact.” He returned his wineglass to the coffee table. “He’s just a kid.”
“So they’ll grow up together. My parents did. They fell in love in high school and they’re happy.”
“We can’t all live in Fantasy Land.”
“It beats your constant pessimism. You could be wrong about this, you know. They may be blissfully happy for the next seventy years.”
His mouth twisted. “Right. Or they could just screw up their lives in four months and have seventy years of regret.”
She’d been basking in the warmth of having him confide in her, but as usual, Zach’s cynical attitude chilled the happy right out of her.
“Not every marriage ends in disaster. Yes, a lot of marriages fail, yes, a lot of young marriages don’t make it, but maybe, for once, you could give your son and my sister the benefit of the doubt.”
“Why? If you see a car coming, don’t you step out of the road rather than get hit?”
She gritted her teeth. “You’re assuming. You don’t know anything for sure.”
“I know David’s seeing someone else.”
Katie stiffened, then sucked in a breath. “What?”
Zach swore and reached for his wine. “Forget I said that.”
She leaned toward him. “I can’t. What do you mean he’s seeing someone else?”
“I don’t know. There’s this girl. Julie. She’s in one of his classes. She was at the house with a bunch of his friends celebrating the semester break. They looked cozy. Later I saw them kissing.”
Cozy? Right. Zach was a smart, smarmy lawyer who would do anything to win his case. She’d wondered why he’d stopped by and now she knew. He would do
“Why don’t you just hire some digital photography studio to doctor naked pictures of David in bed with the entire cheerleading squad?” she demanded. “Wouldn’t that be easier? It’s much more a sure thing.”
His gaze narrowed. “You think I’m lying?”
“You bet. You told me once you’d do anything to keep David and Mia from getting married and you’d do anything to convince me. I figure this is just part of the show.”
He stood and glared at her. “I’m not lying. I haven’t lied about anything. I told you David and I had a fight. He didn’t call me back, so I went to see him at his dorm.”
Katie stood and glared right back. “Let me guess. You found them in bed together. Like I believe that.”
“I found them in the rec room. They were kissing and it looked damned friendly to me.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Do you think I wanted it to end like this? I like Mia. If David were older and more together, I’d be grateful he’d picked her. I don’t want her hurt.”
Zach’s sincerity and his concern about her sister made Katie wonder if he might be telling the truth. And if he was…then what?
“What did he say when you confronted him?” she asked.
“I didn’t. I left and drove around. Eventually I ended up here.”
She didn’t know what to think or what to believe. If Zach were any other man…if he didn’t love his son quite so much…if he hadn’t told her he would do anything to stop the wedding…
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I thought you might have some ideas.”
She looked at him and tried to read the truth in his blue eyes. “You won’t tell her?”
“She’d think what you do. That it’s just a ploy.”
“Would you blame her?”
“No, and I don’t blame you, either.”
He reached out his hand toward her, then shoved it in his pocket.
“I’m gonna head home,” he told her.
She watched him walk to the door and let himself out. When she was alone, she sank back onto the sofa and drew her knees to her chest.
Just when she thought things couldn’t get more complicated, they took a turn for downright confusing. Was David cheating on Mia? If Zach was lying, then he was a worse weasel than she’d thought and she should get herself sanitized after having intimate contact with him. If he was telling the truth, then he was even better than she could have hoped and letting him walk out of her life made her fourteen kinds of stupid.
The worst of it was she didn’t know if sleeping with her had been a spontaneous response to passion, or just one more part of his master plan.
The trick was separating fact from fiction. So where was a crystal ball when she really needed one?
14
“I can’t even remember how it started,” David admitted, then crossed to the opposite bed and flopped down on his back. “Then we were just arguing.”
Mia had a feeling that David remembered exactly how the fight with his dad had started, but for some reason he didn’t want to tell her. The fact that he was keeping it a secret bothered her. It wasn’t as if she was going to go all hysterical and start screaming or something. That so wasn’t her style. She also wasn’t pleased that David had taken nearly a week to tell her what was wrong.
She’d known instantly there was a problem, but he’d denied it for the first three days and had refused to talk about it for the next three.
“He said that he didn’t want me screwing up my life the way his life had been screwed up,” David admitted miserably.
Mia crossed to kneel next to the narrow bed. She placed one hand on his chest. “You know what he was trying to say. He’s worried that we’re getting married too young. He wasn’t telling you that you’d ruined his life. David, your dad loves you. Everyone can see that. He’s happy when you’re with him and he’s proud of you.”
“I know.” He turned his head toward her. Tears glistened in his eyes, but he blinked them away. “It hurt right then, you know. But I’m okay with it now. The thing is I kinda thought he was coming around. About the wedding.”
“But he’s not,” Mia said flatly, wondering why she hadn’t figured that out before. Now that David said the words, she realized it was so incredibly obvious.
For a second she thought about getting mad. It was totally insulting in a way. But she knew in her heart David’s dad wasn’t mad that David wanted to marry
“What happened when you talked to him later?” she asked.
