—
It ends up taking me far longer to pack up Ben’s room than I had anticipated, because I had forgotten that his closet was packed with a bazillion pounds of clothes and more toys. His clothing was outdated, and by that I mean he had outgrown the stuff in there. Apparently, Zack would throw stuff that didn’t fit Ben in the closet and just buy new stuff. I had to go through each piece, make sure he couldn’t wear it anymore, then pack up boxes to Goodwill as well. As soon as I can take a shower to wash off the grime and sweat of the work I did today, I will borrow Zack’s car and run the donated clothes over to the drop-off center.
“Kate…Daddy needs your help and says come down into the kitchen,” Ben says from the doorway, one hand holding on to the doorknob and the other holding a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
“Hey, Booger Butt,” I say with a smile. “When did you get back?”
“Just now,” he says. “Daddy came over to get me at Michelle’s.”
“Okay,” I tell him as I push up off the floor where I had been taping the boxes shut. “I’m going to get a shower really quick and then I’ll be down.”
Ben grins and then turns to run back downstairs. I hear his little feet stomping down the back staircase and he yells, “Kate’s coming after she takes a shower.”
I smile and push the last box I just packed up against the wall. As I exit Ben’s room, Zack calls up the stairs, “Kate…can you come down right now?”
“Is the house on fire?” I yell back as I walk to my room.
“No,” he answers in exasperation.
“Is anyone in danger of dying in the next fifteen minutes?”
“No.” Then a huff of annoyance filters up.
“Then you can wait fifteen minutes for me to shower,” I yell back down. “I’ve been busting my booty up here all day and I’m tired and hot. I need a shower.”
Silence, then a muttered, “Fine.”
I nod to myself with a satisfied smile and walk into my room. I am efficient when it comes to getting ready, basically because I don’t do anything to my hair or face. I open my top dresser to grab a pair of panties. After closing it, I open the next one for a shirt and scream in holy terror as I see the snake lying there.It takes only a second for me to understand it’s a fake. Another three seconds for me to process there’s no danger. It will take me several minutes for my heart rate to slow down.
“Enough.” I turn my face toward the open doorway and yell out in anger, “No more hidden surprises.”
Zack and Ben are laughing unapologetically back at me and the anger builds hotter.
Screw the shower, I growl at myself. I’ve had it. It’s my freakin’ birthday and I’ve been working my ass off all day. Only one person in the world cares that it’s my birthday, and he’s my daddy and he’s supposed to care. The man I’m having sex with doesn’t care and has made it clear he doesn’t want to care about me, and he even turned the dagger a bit when he didn’t even bother to say a lousy happy birthday a few hours ago when he found out.
Now he scares the shit out of me by placing a rubber snake in my drawer?
Asshole.
Ben, on the other hand, has immunity because he’s totally adorable.
I fly out of my room and stomp heavily down the stairs, each clomp of my foot radiating my annoyance. When I clear the bottom and land in the kitchen, my eyes blazing, I come to a dead halt as I take in the scene before me.
Zack, Ben, Sutton, and a man standing beside her, whom I recognize as Alex Crossman but have never met, are standing around the kitchen table and looking down at a cake sitting there. They all look up at me, eyes smiling, and Ben yells, “Happy birthday.”
My eyes cut quickly to Zack, and he looks back at me with apology and a small smile on his lips. I melt and I give him a smile that says, It’s okay…you’re forgiven for not caring about me, although I don’t convey in my look the fact that I know he must care just a little bit, since he clearly orchestrated this.
He orchestrated this, I think in wonder. In just a few hours too. Impressive.
Birthday cake, and he invited Sutton over…the woman whom he does not want me making a relationship with because it threatens his boundaries. Suddenly, the attention of my birthday seems a bit oppressive, especially since I’ve been putting Sutton off this past week. Ever since Zack laid his feelings out to me about developing a friendship with Sutton and Olivia, I actually decided to pull back.
Not because Zack wanted me to and it threatened his security. That didn’t concern me at all. That was his cross to bear.
No, I started pulling back because I knew I was the one who was going to get hurt. Sutton and Olivia are the type of women I know I could become very close to. I know that just as I know that eventually those friendships would pull me into the Cold Fury world and that would be threatening to Zack. He would not like that. And if Olivia and Sutton ever learned the truth about my relationship with Zack—that it’s not really a relationship but just a mutual deliverance of orgasms—they would not take kindly to that idea. Either they would take it out on Zack, which would cause friction among him, Alex, and Garrett, or they might side with Zack and realize that it would not be a good idea to mix their friendship with a woman who has Zack tied up in a precarious situation.
No matter how it all shook out, the one thing it spelled for me was either a ruined or a strained friendship with Sutton and Olivia, and that would hurt me.