Leaving at Noon (3 page)

Still…

He rose to his feet, swearing. “Nope, don’t
argue with him, Chels. Levi’s right. I didn’t go after her.” A
judgment call he’d make differently next time round. He grabbed his
wallet from his pocket, threw a couple of notes on the table and
pushed his chair out. “I’m going now.”

Not because he wanted to, but because he
feared what might happen if Zoey walked the distance alone. He
yanked her handbag from the back of her chair—the same insanely
expensive bag she’d lusted after the instant she’d spotted it. He’d
bought it for her—despite her objections about the price—for no
other reason than to make the woman he loved happy.

When was that?

Six months ago. When they’d still been
happy.

Had he bought her anything in the time
since? Theo couldn’t remember.

“
Apologies.” He looked
around the table, at the worried faces looking back at him. “Zo and
I fucked up dinner. Not cool of us.” He frowned. “Not cool at
all.”

He looked at Levi and nodded a more personal
apology.

Levi nodded back.

Apology accepted.

Before Ava, Liv or anyone else could
comment, Theo left.

He stopped outside the restaurant, scanning
the road and footpaths, looking for the familiar sexy gait and the
shiny red hair that bounced with every step Zoey took. He saw
nothing.

Theo made his way to the car, his gaze
alert. But even when he backed out of the parking spot and drove
slowly home, he didn’t see her. Halfway there, he realized Zoey
wouldn’t have made it this far on foot. He chucked a U-e, sure he’d
missed her somehow. Maybe she’d been in a shadow as he’d driven
past.

He took the same route back to Chelsea’s,
with as little luck.

Fuck.
He was getting a bad feeling
about this.

Theo phoned her.

Voice mail picked up.

He tried again. Three times, with no
answer—and still no sign of her by the time he got back to
Chelsea’s.

Grimacing, Theo drove home a different
route. The streets were smaller and darker, and a knot formed in
his stomach. He reminded himself the Eastern Suburbs were safe but
drove a little slower nevertheless, determined not to miss her. He
made it all the way home without finding her.

The house was dark, and he didn’t bother
going inside to check. If Zoey was home, the lights would be
on.

He phoned her again and went through to
voice mail.

Where the fuck was she?

Theo headed back to Chelsea’s on the main
roads, driving at a snail’s pace, his gaze sweeping both sides of
the roads. Cars flashed their headlights and hooted their
frustration.

He phoned again and again, with no
success.

The knot in his stomach multiplied several
times over. His hands began to sweat, forcing Theo to wipe his
palms on his chinos so he could grip the steering wheel
effectively.

This time when he arrived back at the
restaurant, he called Levi. “Is she with you?”

“
Zoey?” Levi
asked.

No, the fucking queen.
“Yeah,
Zoey.”

“
Last I saw her, she was
walking out of the ladies’ room.”

“
Fuck.” Theo swiped his
hand over his mouth. “You still at Chelsea’s?”

“
Spence and I are.
Everyone else has gone home.”

Before ten? Not regular practice for the
Dinner Club. He and Zoey had messed up a perfectly good evening.
“’Kay, thanks.”

Theo hung up and drove home slowly, his gaze
alert, his calls reaching her voice mail.

The house was still dark.

He called Ava.

“
Hughesy?”

“
Hey, Av. Is Zoey with
you?”

“
Isn’t she at
home?”

The knots dug into the walls of his gut.
Over an hour had passed since she’d left the restaurant. “No.”

“
Let me know the second
she gets in, okay?”

“
Okay.” He hung up and
dialed again.

“
Hello?”

“
Liv, is Zoey
there?”

“
No.” Her voice lacked the
worry Ava’s held.

The knots relaxed a little. A very little.
“Do you know where she is?”

Liv sighed. “She’s at home.”

He looked at the dark house. Zoey could have
used the key they hid near the front door to get inside. “She
is?”

“
She is.”

“
My home? Our
home?”

“
Yeah, Hughesy,” Liv said
softly. “Your home.”

“
Thanks, Liv.” He hung
up.

It took several minutes before he turned the
car off and several more before he got his hammering heart to beat
at a regular rhythm again.

What. The. Fuck?

Theo unclipped his seatbelt and sent a quick
text to Levi and Ava. His hand shook so bad, he had to type the
words
She’s home
three times before AutoCorrect deemed his
message acceptable.

By the time he’d climbed out of the car,
stalked down the garden path and reached the front door, his
apprehension had turned to anger.

What the fuck?

Theo didn’t pretend to be quiet when he let
himself in. He slammed the door and turned on the light in the
entryway. Once he’d tossed his keys and her bag on the table,
eliciting two satisfying
clangs
, he walked through the
house, turning on every light he passed.

Zoey wasn’t in the lounge. Nor was she in
the dining room or kitchen. Frustration bit at him, and he smashed
his fist on the kitchen counter. The
bang
resounded off the
walls and cupboards.

She wasn’t in either of the spare rooms—his
temporary home office and hers, until they had kids—which meant, if
Zoey was indeed home, and Liv seemed to think she was, there was
only one place she could be.

The bedroom door was open.

Riding a wave of fear, frustration and fury,
Theo kicked it, ramming it into the wall. It bounced back at him,
and he kicked again for good measure, hard as he could. The wood
splintered against his foot.

Theo didn’t give a shit. He whacked his hand
against the switch, and light flooded the room.

Zoey gaped at him from her side of the bed,
her jaw hanging open, her eyes wide with shock.

At least, for once, she wasn’t pretending to
sleep.

“
Are you crazy?” she
demanded.

“
What. The. Fuck?” The
breath sawed from his chest.

She blinked. “Excuse me?”

Theo pointed in the general direction of his
car. His hand—which he was surprised to notice held his phone—still
shook. “I have just spent the last hour looking for you. Driving up
and down the streets of Sydney.”

She sat up, glaring. “Well, you found me.
Right here, where I asked Levi to tell you I’d be.”

Yeah, that was true. Levi had told him she’d
gone home. On foot.

“
I drove to and from
Chelsea’s, three times, searching for you.”

Unmoved, Zoey set her lips in a straight,
angry line.

He held up his iPhone to show her, clenching
it so tight he cracked the protective cover. “I called you. Over
and over and over. Couldn’t get hold of you.”

Zoey narrowed her eyes, then said
unrepentantly, “I was on the phone.”

Rage lit his veins. Theo squeezed his mobile
tighter. The damaged cover pinched the skin of his middle finger,
and stinging pain shot through him. Hard as he could, he hurled the
phone against the far wall.

It shattered on impact.

Zoey jerked in shock. Then she schooled her
features in a bland mask. “Feel better?”

“
Not even a
bit.”

“
The phone was what? Four
months old?”

“
I thought you’d been
hurt. Broken a leg maybe.” He’d thought worse. Way, way worse.
“Taken. Attacked.” Twisted visions of rape had haunted him for an
hour, intensifying with every passing moment. His breath was uneven
and his back damp with sweat.

“
I was none of those
things.”

“
You walked home.” In
heels. At night.

She gave him a don’t-be-stupid look. “I
caught an Uber.”

Theo smiled. “Well, that’s great.” The smile
held not a hint of humor or warmth. He’d had dozens of nauseating
images of her mangled body, and she’d caught a fucking taxi. “Easy,
comfortable. Home in fifteen minutes, and in bed, what? Five
minutes after that?”

Zoey stared at him, her hostility clear.

“
Is it too much to ask
that you answer your phone when I call?”

She folded her arms across her chest.

Yeah, obviously it was. “A text telling me
you were safe. Two words.
I’m home
. Too much to expect?”

“
Let me get this
straight.” She looked incredulous. “You ignore me for, what, the
last month? Two months? More? Three, four months? We spend a
weekend together without exchanging a single word, and this
evening, when I decide to go home without you, you suddenly expect
me to open up and fill you in on my every plan? My every move?” She
shook her head in disgust. “You’re dreaming.”

Ah, right. So her inability to let him know
she was home safe was his fault. “What I am is pissed off.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “You’re pissed
off?”

“
I spent an hour thinking
you were dead—or worse.” A fucking hour of hell. “And you’re
oblivious to my concerns now?”

“
Oblivious? Great choice
of words. Because you’re oblivious to my existence. To my sharing a
house with you. And a bed. And a marriage. Not to mention a
life.”

Was she fucking kidding him? Zoey didn’t
make a move without him being aware of it. She walked in the front
door, and the air around him changed. He climbed into bed beside
her, and an ocean opened up between them. She walked, and the echo
of her steps told him how far and how fast. She undressed, and Theo
stood up and took notice. Every part of him stood to attention. She
dressed, and disappointment crept through him. Unless she wore
those skin-tight jeans of hers—or the lacy bra and panties that
drove every ounce of blood to his groin. Or she slipped on her
heels. Jesus…those heels.

Point was, if Zoey breathed, Theo knew about
it. He was that in tune with her movements.

Was he currently enamored of every one of
her actions? Yeah, not so much. But oblivious to her? Not for one
goddamned second.

Ever.

“
Hard to be oblivious to
your icy frigidness. The temperature drops every time you walk into
a room.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What are you
objecting to? The fact that I’m cold, or that I’m frigid?”

“
I have to
choose?”

Zoey’s shoulders stiffened, and she sat up a
little straighter. “Is there anything about me you don’t object
to?”

“
At this moment in time?”
While his blood still boiled? “Not that I can think of.”

Zoey closed her eyes and kept them shut for
a good few seconds. When she opened them again, the brilliant green
of her pupils seemed duller than usual, and the whites were more
red than anything else. “You know what I realized tonight, talking
to Levi?”

How could he? She’d spoken to Levi, not to
him. “No.”

“
I realized that after
more than eight years of loving you, I’ve reached a point where I
don’t particularly like you anymore.”

The words hit him like a sucker-punch. Had
Theo’s muscles not already been set rigidly in stone, his head
would’ve jerked back in shock. “And you came to this conclusion
tonight?”

“
I did.”

“
You enjoy yourself with
Levi? Have a good chat, then?” He spoke out loud, but his mind was
stuck on her comment.

I don’t particularly like you anymore.

“
You know what? I did, and
we had a really good chat. It’s a funny thing, holding a
conversation with a man I care about and who cares about me. I’d
forgotten how nice it could feel.”

Zoey and Levi had been a couple once. Years
ago. Their past relationship didn’t bother Theo. It never had. But
the idea of any man connecting with Zoey, while he, her husband,
couldn’t seem to bond with her on any level, burned.

And damn it, when she burned him, he burned
her straight back. “Having regrets, Zo?”

She grimaced. “More than I care to think
about.”

“
Bit late to realize that
now. Eight, nine years after you and Levi called it
off.”

Her face creased in confusion. “Pardon?”

“
Wish you’d chosen him
back then?”

She shot him a strange look. “Care to
clarify what you mean by that?”

“
You having second
thoughts about marrying me? Disappointed you didn’t choose Levi
instead?”

Zoey stared at him for a very long time, and
when she spoke her voice was void of the frostiness he’d come to
expect. “There was never a choice to be made. Not ever, at any
time. Levi and I were over. He knew it, I knew it and you knew
it.”

Of course Levi and Zoey were over. Theo
would never have made a move on his mate’s girl. In fact, Levi had
given them both his blessing. But Theo wasn’t exactly concentrating
on that right now. What he was focused on was Zoey’s realization
that she no longer liked him and she preferred Levi’s company.

Her comments burned through his chest,
searing his ribs, and the need to strike back beat persistently at
his head. “How about now? Wish you’d married him rather than
me?”

Zoey didn’t answer. She just shook her head
in disdain.

“
Would have gotten
interesting if you had chosen him. You could have had Spence as
well. Like Chelsea. Two for the price of one, so to
speak.”