Part 14 (1/2)
”I don't know either,” he said. ”I should have called to cancel hours ago.”
”Why would you want to cancel?” she asked in confusion. She opened her mouth to say something else, and he put a finger against her lips.
He'd meant to tease her into quiet, but touching her mouth with his finger put his pulse into overdrive. He traced the line of her mouth, the line his tongue had once tasted, the line he wanted to taste again.
”Zach,” she murmured in a husky voice.
He didn't know what she was asking, so he couldn't begin to answer. He pulled his hand away from her mouth and shoved it into his pocket.
”Mr. Tyler?” the hostess asked, looking at Zach. ”Your table is ready.”
He wasn't ready for his table. He hadn't told Katherine about his father yet. ”Before we sit down, I have to tell you something,” he said hastily.
”Can't you tell me at the table? I'd really like to sit down.”
Zach sighed as Katherine followed the hostess into the dining room. He'd had the foolish notion he could actually avoid sitting down to dinner with her, that he could send her on her way before his father arrived, but as usual, Katherine had gotten in the way of his plan.
Before he knew it, they were sitting at a quiet corner table in the back of the dining room, ordering wine and perusing the menu.
Zach could barely read the entrees. His mind was spinning, trying to find a way out of this mess. He hadn't antic.i.p.ated Katherine looking so stunningly beautiful or so warmly appealing. Right now all he really wanted to do was sit and look at her in the candlelight.
”Zach, when I was leaving the barns yesterday, I took a wrong turn, and I stumbled across this incredible garden.” Her eyes lit up with excitement. ”It was amazing, I've never seen so many flowers. Of course, the weeds are overrunning everything, but if someone took a little time, it could be spectacular. Do you know where it is? Have you seen it?”
Zach couldn't help being taken in by her enthusiasm. Katherine had so much desire to set things right, and she wanted everything to be beautiful. She didn't see the dark side of life, only the light. In a weed-filled garden, she saw beauty. In an old love letter she saw her father. He couldn't help wondering what she saw when she looked at him.
”Mrs. Stanton said I could do some work if I wanted to,” she continued.
Zach suddenly realized he'd lost half the conversation. ”Mrs. Stanton? You saw Mrs. Stanton?”
”Yes. She came into the garden. Haven't you been listening?”
”I wish you hadn't gone there.”
”Why?”
”Because that garden was very special to the Stantons. I don't think they want people in there trampling all over the flowers.”
”I wasn't trampling the flowers, and Mrs. Stanton said I could come back any time, that she'd welcome a little help with the garden. Of course, I said I would. And she said you'd be happy to help me find the gardening tools.”
”Oh, h.e.l.l, Katherine. How do you get yourself into the middle of everything?”
She crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at him. ”I was being helpful. That's all. I don't know why you have such a problem with me doing some gardening. It's not going to bother you.”
She didn't know the half of it. That garden was only a short ways from his house. She was already invading his personal life; the last thing he needed was to see her at work.
”Every time I turn around, I trip over you,” Zach said. ”Of course you're going to bother me. You'll want tools and more tools and directions and suggestions and someone to look at what you've done.”
”That's not true. I won't ask you for a thing. In fact, I'll find my own tools.”
”I thought you were here to look for your father. Now you're going to spend your days weeding some garden that n.o.body cares about? Why?”
”Because it's there, and it needs me.”
”We're talking about a garden, not a person.”
Katherine tucked a piece of hair behind one ear in a gesture that was becoming endearingly familiar.
”I know you don't get it. But at home, in California, I'm not really needed. Everything runs smoothly without me. When I saw the garden and I smelled the lavender, I knew that this place was special and I was meant to fix it.”
”Kat, I don't believe in fate or oblique symbols that people use to rationalize their decisions. You weren't meant to drift through life. You're supposed to take charge. You do what you want to do, and to h.e.l.l with whatever other people think or want.”
”Easy for you to say-I've spent my whole life worrying about what people think of me.”
”Why do you care?”
”Because I do.” She picked up her menu. ”Maybe we should order now. I'm starving. I spent most of the day listening to some woman describe the intricacies of quilting. It would have been great if she'd told me something helpful, but-”
”Wait,” Zach interrupted, suddenly realizing he'd gotten sidetracked, and his father was due to show up any second. ”There's something I have to tell you.”
She sent him an expectant look. ”What?”
”I didn't make this dinner reservation. My father did. I only came to warn you not to listen to him.”
”I don't understand.”
”Jackson heard you were looking for your father. I don't know how or when. As far as I knew, he was on the other side of the world or dead. But apparently he's here in Paradise, and he wants to meet you. His name is Jackson with a J,” Zach said pointedly.
Confusion, then shock, filled her beautiful blue eyes, and Zach had the urge to take his words back. But he'd never believed in pulling off a Band-Aid slowly. Better to yank it off, get the pain over all at once.
”What exactly are you trying to say?”
Katherine sat stiffly. She had that proud, vulnerable look on her face again, the one that made him think of a terrified puppy facing a German shepherd.
Before he could reply, he saw his father out of the corner of his eye, approaching their table like a missile on target. ”Just don't believe a word he says,” Zach said quickly.
”Zach-”
Before she could finish her sentence, Jackson Tyler stopped next to the table, looking handsome and refined in a charcoal gray suit. Somewhere in his travels he'd obviously picked up some new threads.
”Zachary. There you are.” Jackson smiled at Zach, then at Katherine. ”I trust my son has been entertaining you, Miss Whitfield. Allow me to introduce myself-Jackson Tyler.” He offered her a small bow along with his hand.
Katherine shook it somewhat warily. ”You're Zach's father?”
”Yes, I am,” Jackson looked over at Zach.
”Don't say it, Pop. Don't do this.”
”Zach, what's going on?” Katherine asked. ”What don't you want your father to tell me?”
”That this isn't just any dinner,” Jackson replied smoothly. ”It's a family dinner.” Jackson sat down next to Katherine, forcing her to slide closer to Zach. She looked from one to the other, trapped between them.