Seducing Zeb (Tarnished Saints Series) (23 page)

“Are you about the same age?” Zeb asked him.

“Cat is a few years older than me. I was only ten when my father left and took me with him. He wanted a son who would be just like him. That’s why he put me through law school. Did your father do the same for you?”

“No,”
said Zeb nodding thanks to the waiter as he placed down their drinks. Zeb waited until the man had left the table before he continued talking. “My father was a minister and I come from a family of twelve boys. He didn’t have money for any of us to go to college.”

“How did you pay for law school then?”

“Let’s just say I had to take on a night job.”

“You kno
w Cat always wanted to be a professional someday. She had high hopes to be very successful and of course rich, once she finished high school. Did it ever happen?”

Zeb looke
d at Lorenzo who seemed so well-off and very successful. Then he thought of Cat and her sad story of what she’d gone through growing up. It didn’t seem fair. Especially since Cat had to give up all her dreams and Lorenzo had everything – and all because of a crooked lawyer father. Suddenly he wondered if Cat was going to resent her brother because of this.

“No, Cat never had the chance to finish high school,” he told Lorenzo.

“That’s too bad. I’d like to help her out financially any way I can,” he offered.

“You would?” he asked, thinking this didn’t sound at all like
something Cat’s father would have done and that it was a good indication that Zeb’s gut feeling about Lorenzo being a good guy was correct after all.

“I’ll do what I can,” he told him. “But I have to tell you the truth that since I’ve opened my own law firm it hasn’t been going that well. I’ve been thinking of findi
ng a partner and moving, but my wife and daughter like it here, so it’ll take some convincing. Especially since my wife is due to have another baby any day now.”

“You’re married and have a family?” asked Zeb.

“I am. And I’d love for them to meet you since we’re brothers-in-law now. Why don’t you stay the night with us? Unless you’ve already made other plans.”

Zeb thought about it for a moment. He didn’t know these people at all, but he already liked Lorenzo. And he would love to meet his family and maybe find out more about Cat while he was at it.

“Thank you, that’d be great,” he said.

“All right then, I’ll call my wife and let her know right now.” The man picked up his phone and then looked at Zeb. “Didn’t you want to phone Cat and tell her anything?”

“I wanted to surprise her and was hoping I could just get you to show up without her knowing you’re coming.”

“Oh.” He nodded his head. “All right. I can do that. And I can’t wait to see Cat again after all these years.”

“I’m sure she’ll be just as excited.” Zeb suddenly realized that he didn’t know if this was true. He knew Cat said she’d had a close relationship with her brother but maybe he should have spoken to her about this first. Then again, he thought, picking up his fork. Cat always said she liked surprises. And he planned on surprising her more than she’d ever been in her life.

Chapter 19

Cat had never felt more wanted or needed in her entire life. She’d spent the last two days going over the books for the diner, the police station and even Burley’s bar. She had more requests for her services than she’d expected.

Not to mention, they all paid her twice the amount she’d quoted them, saying she was underselling herself. All but Burley who gave her an I.O.U. because he was so broke that she actually felt sorry for him.

Judas had finally done something about the strippers in the bar and put out an ordinance saying it wasn’t allowed in Sweet Water any more. The girls left and with it went all Burley’s business. He’d put a
for sale
sign out front last night and she knew whoever bought the place was going to get it for a good deal.

She sa
t at Zeb’s desk, yawning as it was late in the day and she realized she hadn’t even had the chance to eat today. She was only glad that Thomas and Levi were back from their trip because now they were able to help out with things and that would take pressure off of all the pregnant women.

Judas had already guessed that Laney was pregnant and he was elated as well as horrified at the same time not knowing what to do to be a father. But their daughter, J.D. said as soon as she graduated high school she’d be free to help her mom with the new baby as well as take care of her own. She’d changed so much according to Laney that J.D. also wanted to start doing day care.

Cat was in a hurry to finish organizing Zeb’s office because she’d been invited to stop by Angel’s house later and she knew tonight Angel and Candace were going to tell their husbands and kids that they were pregnant and she couldn’t wait to join in the celebration.

She was almost ready to leave when the door to the office opened and two young women dressed much too sexy for being clients walked in.

“Is Zeb here?” said the one with the big boobs and the brown hair.

“I’m sorry, but he’s out of town. If you want to make an appointment you’ll have to come back next week.”

“He’s already rescheduled our appointment. We are supposed to go out,” whined the shorter one with the tattoos and the blond hair.

“Go out?” Her head snapped up and she realized these women weren’t clients they were dates.

“Yes, he’s supposed to show us his condo,” said the brunette.

“And his king-sized bed,
” added the other one with a giggle.

Laney just stared at them with her mouth open not able to believe what she was hearing.

“Are you the secretary?” The first one asked.

“No, I’m not the secretary,” she said with a stiff upper lip. “I am his wife!”

“What?” asked the blond one. “He never told us he was married.”

“Well, it all
came on suddenly,” she answered.

“
Suddenly? But we saw Zeb a few days ago and that’s when he postponed our date,” said the dark-haired one.

“No,” she said, shaking her head not wanting to believe it. “I’m sure you’re mistaken.”

“Not as mistaken as you are about your husband.” The girls answered. “Don’t you know you can’t trust lawyers?”

“Get out!” Cat said,
standing up quickly and pointing to the door. If the girls stayed another minute she knew she was going to walk over and throw them out herself.

“Take it easy, we’re going,” they both mumbled and left right away.

Cat slumped back down into the chair and felt like she was going to cry. She opened the desk drawer to look for a tissue and instead found a little black book. Her hand reached out to pick it up, shaking slightly as she knew exactly what it was.

Sure enough, she flipped through it and found one girl’s name and number after another and not a single male name inside. And to top it off, he’d even rated the girls with one to five stars.

“You pig!” she said, throwing the book into the garbage. But when she did, a page fluttered out and fell to the ground. She picked it up and looked at it and realized it was the number of an airline flight, yesterday’s date, and also a phone number after it in big bold black marker. She was going to throw it out as well, then wondered if this is where he’d gone. She had to know if he was with another woman and decided she was going to call the number on the paper.

She picked up the desk phone but then realized if it was a woman’s cell phone and she saw Zeb’s office number on it she’d tell him and he’d know she was spying on him. Instead she picked up her own cell phone
hoping whoever answered wouldn’t recognize the number and she could claim she misdialed.

She punched in the number and it rang twice and Cat’s heart about beat from her chest. “Please be a male that answers, please be a male,” she said again, listening to it ring for the third time. Then someone picked up and said hello and it was obviously a woman’s voice. She clicked off her phone without saying a word, more disappointed than she’d ever been in her life.

The office door opened and the mailman came in and handed her Zeb’s mail and then turned around and left.

She put the bills on the desk, noticing a letter peeking out that looked different than the rest. She picked it up and reali
zed it was from the court in Vegas. She tore it open and looked at the paper inside, her eyes scanning the contents quickly. It was the Decree of Annulment signed by the judge. If she understood it correctly, it said there was no need for a court date since they’d both signed the papers and agreed, so their annulment was now finalized. Cat’s heart beat rapidly and she felt faint as she realized exactly what that meant. She and Zeb were no longer married.

Chapter 20

Zeb was sitting in Lorenzo’s kitchen playing checkers with his three-year-old daughter, Alissa and eating ice cream when the phone rang. Lorenzo’s pregnant wife, Maria went over to answer it.

Zeb purposely lost
the game and acted surprised as Alissa jumped his last checker on the board.

“Oh, you win!” he said shaking his head. “I can’t beat you at all.”

The little girl laughed and she looked so much like Cat when she did that Zeb started realizing how much he missed his wife. He felt so at home with Lorenzo and his family and they’d convinced him to stay another night. And Zeb had taken them up on the offer.

H
e could see himself being married and having a family now. That is, with Cat and someday a child of their own. He realized he was holding on to bachelorhood so hard that if he didn’t let go he was going to lose the best woman who ever came into his life.

“Who was on the phone?” Lorenzo asked his wife.

“I don’t know, but I didn’t realize until after I answered that it was the line from your office that transfers over here when you’re at home. But I guess it was a wrong number. When I answered they just hung up. The caller ID said Cordovano she stated. Why does that name sound familiar? Wasn’t that your mother’s maiden name?”

Zeb and Lorenzo both looked at each other
.

“T
hat’s my wife and your husband’s sister,” announced Zeb. “It’s Cat, I’m sure of it.”

Lorenzo’s wife took their daughter and headed upstairs.

“Do you think that was
really my sister calling?” asked Lorenzo.

“One way to find out,” he said, going over to their pho
ne and hitting the redial button.

“Hello?” came Cat’s voice from over the phone.

“Cat?” said Zeb. “Did you just . . . call here?”

Silence on the other end of the phone.

“Where are you, Zeb?”

“I’m in St. Louis
,” he said, not lying. “How did you get this number?”

“Does it really matter?”

“Honey, you sound angry about something.”

“Why haven’t you called me since you’ve been gone?”

He realized now that maybe he should have called, but he’d been on his own so long that he wasn’t used to telling anyone where he was or what he was doing or when he was coming home.

“Is everything alright, Cat?”

“You had a couple of visitors today,” she said snidely. “And they wanted to see your bedroom and try out your king-sized bed. They said you postponed their date.”

Zeb just cringed, knowing exactly who
m she was talking about. He also knew now that he’d made a huge mistake when he saw those girls and tried to avoid them without telling them he was married. He was never really going to date them while he was married to Cat, but he just couldn’t bring himself to say the M word in front of girls at the time.

“Cat, I can explain all that.”

“And the mail came today. There’s a certain piece you might be interested in.”

“Just leave the mail on my desk.”

“So, are you going to tell me who you’re with or not?”

“I . . . can’t,” he said, looking at Lorenzo, not wanting to relay information as important as this over the phone. “But you’re going to fin
d out as soon as I get home. And I guarantee when you find out who I’ve been with and what I’ve been doing, your life will never be the same again.”

He heard a click on the other end and realized she’d hung up on him. He looked at the phone and
then redialed. Her phone rang several times but she didn’t pick up. Then it finally went to voice mail. He listened to the automated voice on the other end that sounded like a male robot and it only made him desire to hear Cat’s voice more than ever now.

“Honey, don’t be mad at me,” he said into the receiver
as he left a recorded message. He thought about the fact that Lorenzo had asked if he was going to call her earlier and he hadn’t done it. He also thought about Jenny and Melinda and how he should have shook them off and told them the truth inside of avoiding the issue. Now he wished he had. “I’ve been a bachelor for a long time, and sometimes I just can’t change my ways. Please, just accept me for who I am. I’ll be home tomorrow and I’m bringing someone home with me. I’ve got something important to tell you. This is going to change both of our lives forever, Cat. It’s already changed mine more than you can imagine. Okay, I’ll see you soon. Bye.”