Page 38 of Treat Her Right

One thing about men, you could always count on them wanting food—especially the big ones. Josh obviously spent his fair share of time in the gym pumping iron. His physique and looks were so impressive, he could have posed for a centerfold. “Sure. Help yourself.”

He laughed at that. “So your muscle-bound friends were right, huh? You don’t cater to men?”

Actually, she’d been so preoccupied formulating all her questions, she’d forgotten all about her manners. “Sorry.” She stood. “I’ve had a lot on my mind.”

Josh immediately pressed her back into her seat and then patted her shoulder. “Hey, you’ve been working all day and I’m a big boy, I can feed myself. It was just an observation.”

Propping her head on both hands, she groaned. “This is awful. It’s been so long since I dated, or since I tried to attract a guy, I’m going about it all wrong.”

She heard the cabinets open. “You trying to attract Zack?”

“Without much success.”

“Not true.” The refrigerator opened and Wynn watched through her fingers as Josh poured out a glass of juice and hauled out sandwich fixings. She’d have to remember to stock up on more lunch meat now that she had her own home and had such big men living nearby and visiting.

Taking his own seat, Josh said, “Zack has noticed you big time. He’s just in denial.”

“You think?”

“I know.” He piled enough meat on his sandwich to make a meal. “Zack hasn’t acted this upside down about a woman since his wife.”

Wynn wondered how to broach that subject, then decided against trying to dredge up tact she didn’t have. It was pointless. She said simply, “Will you tell me about her?”

Josh popped a whole slice of bologna into his mouth and nodded. “Young, beautiful. Very sweet and very petite.” He eyed Wynn. “Nothing like you, expect maybe the beautiful part.”

Heat rushed into her face. Josh was such an outrageous flatterer! She decided the best thing to do was ignore it. “I’m only twenty-eight. Not exactly old myself.”

“Ancient compared to Rebecca.”

So, Zack was attracted to young, petite women? Just what she didn’t want to hear. “That was her name? Rebecca?”

“Yep. She would have turned twenty-one a month after having Dani if she hadn’t died.”

Very young.Though Wynn didn’t know the woman, it hurt her to think of it. Dani and Zack had lost so much. She rubbed her forehead. “How long had they been married?”

“Only about seven months. The pregnancy was a surprise, and the reason for the marriage. Once Zack found out, he insisted, and Rebecca gave in. I’m not sure it’s what either of them really wanted at the time.”

Wynn did some math in her head and decided Zack was around twenty-five or so when he’d married, not much older than that when he became a father. Wynn swallowed hard. “How did she die?”

Josh laid the food aside and leaned back in his chair. He looked past Wynn, and he appeared more somber than she’d thought possible. “Rebecca had a hard time with the pregnancy. She was so small that it put a hell of a strain on her body. Her ankles swelled, her back hurt, her…well, you get the idea.”

“Yes.”

“She wasn’t at all happy about the physical changes, so her emotional state of mind wasn’t the best, either. She wanted Dani, no doubt about that, but she was pretty damn miserable those last few months. Physically and emotionally.”

“I think that’s pretty common, isn’t it?”

Josh shrugged. “I suppose, what with hormone changes and all that.” Then he shook his head. “Zack and I were both at a huge warehouse fire when she went into labor five weeks early. She called the station, and they immediately went to work on getting someone to replace Zack, but the destruction was huge and they were running short on manpower. Damn near everyone had already been called into service. Zack was working his ass off, dealing with a dozen different traumas, worried and anxious and madder than hell because he couldn’t just leave. Leaving would have been a firing offense, though, which might not have stopped him except that he would never deliberately walk away from seriously injured people. And that’s what he would have had to do. He thought Rebecca was okay, that she’d made it to the hospital and they were taking care of her…”

“But?”

Josh got up from the table. Like Zack’s house, she had a window right over her sink, and that’s where he went. He shoved his hands into his back pockets and stared out at the yard. “The contractions came too fast and she couldn’t drive. She lost control of the car and it went off the road, flipping into a ditch. She took two other cars with her, but no one else was seriously hurt. By the time she was airlifted to the hospital, she’d died. They managed to save Dani.”

Wynn nearly strangled on her own emotion. Her throat felt tight, her stomach ached and her heart beat painfully. She could only imagine what Zack had gone through.

“He’s usually a rock,” Josh said quietly. “Nothing rattles him. He’s always calm and polite and reasonable. Always.”

She looked up.Zackwas calm and reasonable? Well, yes, he could be, she supposed. But he could also be forceful and outrageous and around her, he was seldom calm.

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