“How do you feel about her?”
He let out an uncomfortable laugh and pushed away from the counter. “How do I feel... That’s obvious, isn’t it? I want her around. I want to raise our daughter together.”
Stefanie sat down at the breakfast bar and pilfered a cookie from an open bag. “Why?” she asked around a bite.
“Pen’s fun. She gets me.” And in the bedroom? Forget it. There wasn’t a high enough rating for how explosive they were when they came together.
“What else?” Stef cocked her head.
“I...miss her.” That hurt to admit.
“And?”
“And what?” He put down his mug before he sloshed hot coffee on his arm. Flattening both hands on the bar, he bent to look his sister in the eyes. “Spell it out.”
“Sorry.” Stef polished off her cookie and dusted her hands together, not the least bit sorry. “Can’t. This is heart stuff not head stuff, and Lord only knows what you’re feeling in there. Do you have feelings?”
She pretended to study the ceiling as she contemplatively chewed.
“I have too many feelings. I’m drowning in feelings! Can’t you see that? I’m willing to turn over my entire life. To get married!”
“You were married to a crazy person last year. Why is Pen different?”
“That was...” He swallowed thickly, on the verge of admitting the truth for the first time ever. “That was a test.”
“A test marriage?”
“A test to make sure I could marry and it could mean nothing.” Damn. He hadn’t meant to be that honest.
“So marrying Pen would be nothing?” his sister asked gently.
“Marrying Pen would mean everything.” That same jittery fear he felt when he spoke to Chase about her returned, spreading through his chest like wildfire.
Stef waited for him to say more. Could he? Could he admit what was quaking in his gut? What was making his head spin?
“She’s...the mother of my child,” he started. Lamely. “There’s more.”
Chin propped in hand, Stef waited.
“She’s...” He closed his eyes and then reopened them. Screw it. The truth was obvious to Stef, so he might as well tell her what she already knew. “I’m in love with her.”
Stef burst off the stool and thrust both arms into the air.
“Yesssss!” She strangled him with a hug.
He smiled against her hair, and embraced his sister. His chest filled to the brim with a feeling of right. That ball-zinging surety that had been eluding him—or maybe he’d been denying it for some time now.
He just as quickly deflated.
The sad reality was that he was in love with Penelope and she wanted nothing to do with him.
“She’ll never come back to you if you keep showering her with gifts. You have to make a big statement,” Stef said. “And trust me, I want her back almost as much as you do.” Stef was on the move, her hand lashed around Zach’s wrist. “There has to be some clue in this house as to how to go about getting her back.”
“She took everything that was hers out of this house,” he said as he allowed Stef to drag him room to room. He followed her up the stairs where she made the same sad assessment he had for days in a row.
There was no sign of Penelope here.
Other than the baby’s room, it was like she hadn’t been here at all.
Stef turned from the Dallas Cowboys decorations Zach hadn’t bothered taking down. He’d meant to, but again, that felt like giving up.
He expected his sister to shrug and state that he was a lost cause, but instead a slow grin spread across her lips.
She grabbed his arm and gave him a shake. “I figured it out. I know how you can win her back.”