Her work had always increased incrementally depending on Alex’s output. Zach was doing something he didn’t want her to know about, he had to be. She was almost certain of it. But it was anyone’s guess what, exactly, that was. Could he somehow be involved in Alex’s disappearance? Was he actively hiding his tracks? The questions were never far from the back of her mind, even though she didn’t want to believe Zach was entangled in whatever had led to Alex virtually vanishing off the face of the earth.
There had to be some way she could find out.
“I do appreciate your hard work, Sophie,” he said, dragging her attention back. “And I know you put in some very long hours. Doesn’t your boyfriend object?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she answered, feeling warm color flood her cheeks again.
Silently she cursed her fair complexion. There was only one man she was interested in and he was sitting right opposite her. What would he say, she wondered, if she told him exactly that? She fought back a smile. He’d probably make some excuse to draw the evening to a close early.
“I’m surprised. You’re a very attractive woman,” Zach said seriously, ensnaring her in his gaze like a predatory cat with its prey.
“Thank you,” she said, dipping her head.
“So, no boyfriend, huh? What do you like to do in your spare time if you don’t have a significant other filling it with you?”
“I read a lot, romances mostly and the occasional crime thriller.” She shrugged. “And I keep house, see friends. The usual things.”
“Did you grow up around here?”
She nodded, “Sure did, and I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Big cities aren’t my thing and I love the lifestyle that Royal has to offer.”
“It’s a different pace here, that’s for sure.”
“What about you?” she asked, happy to turn the tables on him for a change. Even though she was fairly certain of the answer, she couldn’t help probing. “Girlfriend?”
His face closed again, all warmth replaced by a sorrow that flashed briefly across his face. “No girlfriend,” he said emphatically. “Too many other things going on in my life.”
And what would they be? Sophie wondered as the waiter interrupted them to take their orders. After ordering a lamb shank braised in red wine, she wasn’t at all surprised to hear Zach order the eye fillet steak. He looked like a man who liked his red meat.
“Lamb?” he said to her after the waiter had taken their orders and moved away from the table. “You come to what is essentially the best steak house in Texas and you order lamb?”
Sophie shrugged. “It’s what appealed to me at the time. At least I ordered a domestic wine, not some fancy imported beer. And here I thought you were proudly American all the way?”
“Fair point.” Zach nodded slowly, then smiled as said fancy imported beer was put in front of him and her Californian white zinfandel placed before her.
She watched as he took a long pull of the chilled lager, her eyes mesmerized by the muscles working in his throat and then by the smile of satisfaction on his beautiful features as he put the glass back down in front of him. Oh, how she wished that she could be the reason behind a smile like that from him one day. The second the thought formed, she beat it to the back of her mind again. That way could only lead to trouble.
“Now that makes a hard day at the office worthwhile,” he said with a soul-deep gratification that brought another smile to her face.
“Simple pleasures, huh?”
He looked at her as if to check if she was still teasing him after the imported beer comment, then gave another nod of acknowledgment. “Yeah, when it comes down to it, it’s the simple things that matter the most. Don’t you agree?”
“Totally. For me it’s home and family. One day I hope to have both.”
“You’ve made a lovely home out of your apartment.”
“Thank you, but it’s still not mine, y’know? Soon I hope to be able to put a deposit on a place of my own. Something small, with a bit of a garden. Somewhere that I can truly call mine.”
And that was another reason why she was so darned worried about Alex Santiago. What if he didn’t come back? Would Zach continue to keep the business running or would he fold things up and go back to where he’d come from? Where would she be then? She earned good money now and her options within Royal to earn the same weren’t bountiful. If she lost her job, that could be the end of her dream of owning her own home—she’d never earn enough to make mortgage payments and to afford extras like the private investigator she’d hired to find her sister.
“And that’s important to you because?” Zach coaxed.
She took a moment to think before answering. “Stability, not being at someone else’s whim or mercy.”
“Sounds like there’s some history there.”
She shrugged. “Isn’t there always?”
“Can you tell me?”
Sophie sighed. It wasn’t something she tended to bandy about, but there was something about Zach’s gentle questioning that made her actually want to tell him.
“Nothing spectacular. My dad died when I was a baby and my mom remarried. They had my sister and life was great for a while, but then a few years later my new dad died in an accident at work and our lives turned upside down. We had to move out of our home and my sister went to live with her aunt, because Mom couldn’t cope with us both with the hours she had to work to make the rent. It was hard for her,” Sophie added just in case Zach felt inclined to be judgmental. “We had to keep moving around, which I hated, but even then I used to keep house to help Mom out. She’d usually juggle two jobs, or pull double shifts when she only had one source of income. Things settled down a bit after I finished college. She met someone new, they married and I moved out and got my own place.”
“They kicked you out?”
Zach sounded defensive and Sophie rushed to disabuse him of that. “No, not at all. But I was ready to stand on my own two feet. Mom and Jim marrying didn’t make any difference to that. No, that’s not entirely true. I felt better about moving to a place of my own, knowing she’d be taken care of.”
* * *
Zach looked at Sophie across the table. She’d talked more personally to him tonight than she ever had in the time they’d worked together, but there was a huge amount she wasn’t saying. Listening to her, he could begin to understand why she was so good at what she did. She was used to keeping things together, keeping things calm. It was a sure bet that she’d done her best to help her mother out at home from an early age—that capable manner of hers was second nature now, but there had probably been a time when it was all about security.
His own upbringing had been completely the opposite. At least up until his dad had been laid off from his job. Even then, forced to take on a menial position at a much lower wage, his father had insisted on paying Zach’s way through college. It was one of the reasons Zach worked so hard now. He didn’t ever want to be in the position his parents had been when his father’s job had been downsized. And he’d made it up to them for all the sacrifices they’d made to ensure he’d had the best opportunities available to him. It didn’t sound like Sophie had been so lucky.
“And your sister? She’s the one in that photo you had with you on Monday, right?”
Sophie inclined her head, her cap of hair swinging gently forward to caress her cheek. His fingers itched to do the same and he reached for the dewy glass in front of him instead.
“You said