After wiping her mouth with a napkin, she relaxed back and closed her eyes.
“Jamaica, huh?”
Her eyes popped open and she saw Zachary standing a few feet away. She noticed he looked tired and thinner than he did, and he hadn’t had the shadows in his eyes before.
Her hands tightened on the napkin in her lap. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve been looking for you. I finally got in touch with your mom and asked her about the address in Jamaica.”
“Why?”
“To find you. She actually gave me the address, or at least I think it was the right one, but on a hunch, I thought I’d check here before I flew there.”
“Why?”
He pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. She guessed part of what was causing his expression was a headache, but another part was frustration.
“Can I sit down?”
She sighed and then nodded. She just wanted to get this over with to go into her office.
He pulled up the chair until it was close to hers and then bracketed her legs in between his. Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his thighs and gripped his hands together.
“We caught the men who hurt you and burned the house.”
“Good.”
“You know why I pushed you away, right?”
“Travis said it was to protect me.”
“I can see the doubt in your eyes. You don’t think that’s true?”
She shook her head. “No.”
He sighed. “Anna, there was no way I would let anyone hurt you. It would kill me if something happened to you.”
“Something did happen to me.” She regretted saying that right away when his face paled, and fear mixed with pain filled his eyes.
“Fuck, baby. I know that. I wish you had said something to me.”
“When? You were too busy pushing me away, remember?” she asked.
“The only thing in my head was to get you to safety. I had planned for you to stay with Travis until I found the people. His house has great security.”
“Instead, I came home. I wasn’t going to have you push him to take care of me because you didn’t want to.”
“Dammit, it wasn’t that. I was a target, sweetheart. So that made anyone around me one, too.”
She didn’t know what to say. “I’m glad you got the bad guys.”
“Are you going to forgive me?” he asked.
“There’s nothing to forgive. But there’s nothing between us either.”
He sat back and stared at her. “Did you care for me at all?”
She almost choked. “God, yes.”