“That’s right. That’s me. Mr. Perfect.” Right now, he felt as far from that as he’d quite possibly ever felt. If that was what Allison truly thought, she’d lost it. So had his mom, for that matter.
“Goodbye, Zane. I’ll let myself out.” She pivoted on her heel and headed for the bedroom door.
“You knew this was going to happen, Allison. You knew this would be my reaction. Nothing about the conversation we just had should come as any surprise. And you knew it the whole time we were on the island, didn’t you?”
She stopped in the doorway and turned back to him. “I’d foolishly hoped for a better outcome.”
“You don’t understand what this is like for me.”
She shook her head with a pitying look in her eyes. “I do understand it, Zane. And I don’t know what I have to do to convince you of that.”
Twelve
Scott bellowed at the guest room door. “Zane Patterson, I know you’re in there. Get out here. You have some explaining to do.”
Allison pried open one eye and looked at the alarm clock on the bedside table. The numbers were a bit blurry, probably because she’d taken a sleeping pill last night after her big knock-down, drag-out fight with Zane. She was only half-awake.
Boom boom boom. Scott pounded on the door. “Up and at ’em, you two.”
Allison scrambled out of bed. She wanted to shut her brother up before he woke up the entire house. She did not want her niece and nephew thinking the worst of her. She opened the door, leaving a space just wide enough to talk to him. “He’s not here. Will you please be quiet? It’s freaking six thirty in the morning.”
“You know I get up early to work out.”
“Good for you. I’m going back to bed.” She left the door ajar and shuffled across the room, flopping down on the mattress. Her motivation was gone. In a lot of ways, it felt like her whole life was gone. She didn’t want to work today. She didn’t want to talk to anyone or go anywhere. She wanted to call in sick to life.
Unfortunately, Scott had followed her into the room and was standing at the foot of the bed. “Why is his car outside?”
“He gave it to me to drive home last night. He has several cars, you know. He gave me an extra.” Last night was still a blur. It had started so amazingly and gone so incredibly wrong. She’d worried that Zane would take the Black Crescent news badly, but she’d underestimated the scope. She’d certainly never imagined he’d toss her out of his house.
“What in the world is going on, Alli?”
Allison sat up in bed and scooted back until she was leaning against the headboard. She blew out a breath of frustration and crossed her arms over her chest. Was she really ready to spill the beans to Scott? This was not going to be a fun conversation. But she had to take what had been handed to her, fun or not. She patted the mattress. “Come. Sit.”
Scott joined her, but she sensed that he was deeply uncomfortable. He was sitting like he had a board strapped to his back. His shoulders were tight, as was his whole face. He had to know what was coming next.
“Zane and I slept together when we were in the Bahamas.”
“I knew it.” He practically pounced on her with his words. “I knew that was going to happen. I warned you, and you just couldn’t listen to me, could you? I’m just the lame older brother who’s too heavy-handed with advice.”
“I didn’t listen because I didn’t want to, okay? Scott, you need to know that I have had a thing for Zane since I was a teenager. We’re talking fifteen years. I always hoped that it would go away, but it just didn’t.”
“What? No way. I would’ve seen it.”
She pressed her lips together tightly. The years of longing for Zane would always bring a sting to her eyes, but they especially did now. “I’m serious. I’m just really good at hiding it. I can always put on a good face.”
“So when you guys were acting so odd at my party, was that part of it?”
“We kissed that night.”
“Ugh.” His voice was rife with disgust. “Did you guys make a plan to meet up at Rose Cove? Has this been in the works the whole time?”
She shook her head. “No. It was just dumb luck, believe it or not.” Now it felt like tragic luck. If it hadn’t happened, her heart wouldn’t be in tatters.
Scott got up from the bed and began pacing. “I love him, but I’m going to kill him. I told him you were off-limits, and he completely disrespected my wishes.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose and made an inward plea for strength. “Will you stop jumping to conclusions and let me talk, please?”
He turned back to her with a distinct scowl on his face. “So talk.”
“When I kissed him, he freaked out. He said he could never betray you. That’s why he left that night. And it was a big topic of conversation on the island. He refused to let it go. Believe me, Zane put your wishes first.”
“Until he didn’t.”
“Until we didn’t. It was both of us. We both wanted to do it, and we both knew exactly what we were doing.”
Scott grimaced. “Please. Spare me the details.”
Allison rolled her eyes. “I’m only saying that it was two adults doing what adults do. We were in a very intense situation with the storm and I guess that just made everything that much more heightened. As soon as we were rescued, he wanted things to go back to the way they were before.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“So then what happened last night?”
She shrugged. “He had second thoughts, I guess. So we went back to his place.”
Scott held up a hand to keep her from saying more. “Okay. I got it. But I don’t understand. He made you drive yourself home?”
She shook
