“Sure, and let me guess.” He arched an eyebrow at me. “He’s paying you enough money for this job that you can retire comfortably even if you don’t work another day for the next fifty years?”
“No. Well, I mean, yes, but?—”
“He’s in love with you.”
My eyebrows shot up, my heart suddenly pounding like a sledgehammer. “What did you just say?”
Theo shook his head, looking at me like I was just too dumb to live. He also seemed to have decided to serve his brother up on a silver platter.
“He’s head over heels for you, Adeline. He’s just being incredibly stupid right now because he doesn’t want you to feel pressured to like him back,” he said slowly, like he was being careful about making sure I heard each and every word. “He won’t marry you just for the family, but he’s still spent every waking minute trying to make sure you and the girls are taken care of.”
I thought about the tuition payment. The estate account. Wisconsin. The pool fence. Theo, meanwhile, just seemed to be getting started. “The really insane part is he’ll probably never tell you any of this himself because he’s been drowning in regret for eight years. He feels so guilty for not somehow getting you out of that marriage to Louis and it got even worse when he found out what it was actually like for you.”
I stood there staring at him like the idiot he seemed to think I was, too stunned to even think actual words, let alone say them. I knew Zach still had feelings for me. Hell, he’d come right out in Wisconsin and told the girls that he loved me, but I didn’t think he’d actually meant it.
Love, as in, still in love. After all these years.
Hearing it said out loud,he’s in love with you, was like a shock straight to my nervous system. Somehow, I’d convinced myself this was different for him than for me.
I’d thought that maybe he still held a grudge because of our initial breakup and that he’d be sacrificing everything if he was forced to marry me now, losing his glamorous life filled with glamorous women and glamorous parties every night.
So yeah. I’d known that he cared about me and that he still wanted me physically, but I’d told myself rather firmly that our marriage was only happening because we’d been told to get married.
That was how our world worked. People like us didn’t get choices. I’d thought he was doing it because he had to and that he didn’t mind because the sex was good. Great, actually.
Life altering for me, but hey.
I’d genuinely thought that was all this was to him now.
As all these thoughts sped through my mind, Theo looked at me and started laughing. Deep, actual belly laughs that made him double over. “Oh my God, you’re just as blind as he is. You two are unbelievable.” He shook his head as if in utter disbelief. “Honestly, it’s almost impressive at this point.”
I was still so stunned that I couldn’t even really argue with any of what he was saying, so I just shifted my weight on my feet and shook my head. “That’s not nice.”
“No, but it is hilarious.” The laughter finally subsided and he made his voice a little deeper, obviously trying to mimic Zach. “He’s all like,I’ve been in love with her since I was sixteen but I’m going to communicate through trust funds and pool fencing.Meanwhile you’re over here like,Sure, he rearranged his entire life for me and my children, but maybe he’s just being polite.”
I almost threw my clipboard at him as heat flooded my face. “Yeah, okay. That’s enough.”
“It’s really not. He bought ahalf-a-milliondollar SUV anhourbefore he left to pick you up for Wisconsin and told himself it was only for the trip, and he’s been pining for you and the girls ever since, by the way, but in a brooding, masculine way. It’s ridiculous.”
When I kept just staring at him, he grinned at me. “You were so obviously meant to be together that it’s painful for everyone else to watch, Adeline. You’re both just too chicken shit to do anything about it.”
I sank down onto an old storage trunk, my legs suddenly feeling unreliable. Dust puffed up around me, but I buried myface in my hands and ignored the fact that I was going to look like I’d crawled through flour after this.
“Oh my God,” I muttered into my hands.
“That’s a good reaction. It means I’ve finally gotten through to one of you. Thank fuck.”
“I messed this up with him big time.”
Theo sobered slightly, the grin gone from his mouth. “No, you panicked. There’s a difference. He told me what happened at the ranch and he gets that you were just scared out of your mind that night, but you really do need to realize that he isnotLouis.”
“I know.”
“I don’t think you really do.” Theo leaned against a nearby stack of wooden crates. “Zach’s been miserable for eight years. One fight isn’t taking him out of the game, but it would be great if you could stop comparing him to your ex. The fact is that my brother would take a bullet for you. He doesn’t give a fuck about whether he has a boy or any of that crap, and just for the record, we’ve got enough boys in our family. We’re actually kind of rooting for girls now. Not that we won’t love Tiberius anyway. Even with that name.”
I didn’t know who Tiberius was or really what Theo was even talking about as he digressed, but Ididknow now that Zach really had loved me all this time. I knew that when he looked at me, he didn’t see an obligation to his family that would cost him his life as he knew it.
“What do I do?” I murmured into my hands, more to myself than to him, but Theo heard me.
