“He recognized me instantly.”
“You need to stay away from him.” Tabitha couldn’t tell if Angus was playing or being serious. But instead of seeking clarification, she continued.
“That’s going to be impossible.”
“Why?”
“I’m doing a piece on a guiding company here, and he’s my guide for the entire week.”
Tabitha could feel Angus’s heartbeat through the phone. Call it a twin thing, but she always had a pretty solid understanding of her brother’s emotions. She wouldn’t consider herself an empath, except when it came to him. A grinding rumbled through and she could practically see him dragging his molars together.
“Angus,” she coaxed. “Talk to me.”
“I’m worried about you,” he pushed out. “After Zac left . . . I hated seeing you so numb.”
“It wasn’t exactly a picnic on my side.” The heartbreak was her first and only. And it had been brutal. No doubt she kept her distance from love to avoid similar experiences. “But this is different. It’s for work.”
“You can’t get someone else to fill in?”
Not if she wanted to keep her job. “I really can’t.”
Another pensive sigh from her typically jolly brother.
“Look,” Tabitha began. “This is a work assignment. I’m pretty sure I can keep my past from tainting my future too much. Don’t worry about me.”
A long moment of silence and her twin finally conceded. “Fine. But be careful, ok? Keep your distance as much as possible.”
“That’ll be tough. He’s my guide, remember?”
“Right, but I mean emotionally. Leave the trip down memory lane out of the picture.”
“That’s the plan,” she assured.
“Good. Hey, I gotta go. Love you, sis.”
Tabitha smiled, despite the forlorn bent of her brother’s voice. “Love you too.”
The call ended and she snuggled deeper beneath the covers. Angus was right, she needed to focus on the business side of her and Zac’s interactions. Fortunately for them both, Lark would be there the whole time. And especially now that she knew the awkward circumstance, no doubt she’d stand beside Tabitha through the worst of it.
As she drifted off, Tabitha’s last thoughts were how lucky she felt. Because not only did she have her brother’s support, Lark was quickly becoming someone else she could lean on.
Chapter sixteen
Tuesday morning: Zac
“Savealittlecoffeefor the rest of us, will ya?” Frankie scolded as Zac filled yet another mug of the steaming brew from the travel carafe.
“I bought it, so I’m taking my fair share,” he grumbled, willing the caffeine to work its magic and wake him the hell up. He’d slept like shit. Tossed and turned with thoughts of Jon and Lucy relying on him, Tabitha whipping back into his life, and his general goal to stop being the town fuck boy.
“With company money,” Janet interjected almost gleefully.
For whatever reason, the older woman disliked Zac. Always had. He’d tried laying on the classic Hartford charm time and again, but she hadn’t even been a fan of him when he’d been dropped in the Millers’s laps at the ripe old age of eleven. The chip on her shoulder had done nothing but grow ever since.
“Sure, but who did the legwork to pick it up? Huh?” He winced at his own snark. No matter how irritated Janet got with him, he generally refused to toss her attitude back at her. “Kill her with kindness,”was what Mrs. Miller recommended.“She’ll come around eventually.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did you want a medal or a chest to pin it on?” she sniped, not bothering to look up from her computer as she furiously composed her spreadsheets.
Zac opened his mouth to retort, but Frankie pinched his lips closed with her thumb and forefinger. In days past, he would have made some joke about her not being able to keep her hands off him or something flirty about giving his lips something more important to do, but these days, he’d been looking at her a little differently. They’d entered brother-sister-type territory, and he struggled to see her in a sexual light anymore.
