His for the Taking by Julie Cohen Page A

connection, not a recognition of features but something more basic. As if he saw an aspect of himself standing in front of him.
    Nick frowned. None of the men he could see in the church was the least bit familiar, either to his mind or to his feelings. But hardly any guests had arrived for the funeral yet. He shifted his attention back to Zoe.
    She had shaken hands with John again and had turned into the side chapel. At the front was Xenia’s gleaming mahogany coffin, surrounded by fountains of lilies and white roses. Nearby, Zoe’s parents and three sisters stood with assorted men and children who he assumed were the sisters’ partners and the young beneficiaries of Xenia’s will.
    It was almost imperceptible, but Nick saw Zoe straighten her spine and set her shoulders before she walked down the aisle to join them. Deciding he’d look for his father again in a few minutes, he followed her without waiting for an invitation.
    ‘Zoe,’ Mrs Drake said, stepping forward and giving her daughter a light hug and kiss on the cheek, ‘are you all right? You ran out so quickly at the lawyer’s.’
    ‘I’m fine.’
    ‘You’ve done a wonderful job arranging the funeral. And you look lovely.’
    ‘Thanks.’ Zoe’s voice was cold.
    From where he stood, Nick could see the expressions on both mother and daughter’s faces: Zoe’s smile had become strained, an imitation of her usual self-confident grin, and Mrs Drake’s face showed pain at her daughter’s rebuff before schooling itself back into a smile.
    ‘Did you go shopping?’ she asked.
    This time, Nick could see the pain on Zoe’s face, too—only for a split second—and he could tell she was catching a sub-text in her mother’s words.
    ‘Don’t worry, I didn’t blow the fifty million dollars yet.’
    When Zoe turned away neither one of them looked happy. Their disappointed expressions, unguarded for a moment, were exactly the same.
    He remembered what she’d said the two days before, after the reading of the will: I guess I can never disappoint them if I confirm their worst suspicions, right?
    It looked as if he wasn’t the only one who had some issues with a parent.
    And he could see that Zoe’s defensiveness, her inability to accept a compliment, didn’t just apply to her relationship with him. It seemed as if her defences were something she’d learned a long time ago.
    ‘Nicholas, was it?’ Mr Drake had noticed him, and was regarding him with a wary eye. Nick nodded and put out his hand to shake.
    ‘I’m sorry I had to leave without saying goodbye the other day, sir,’ Nick said, ‘or thanking you for allowing me to listen to the reading of Ms Drake’s will.’
    He nodded, and Nick had the impression his apology had fallen distinctly flat. ‘I can’t blame you for chasing after Zoe, of course. Especially after the news of her inheritance.’
    Nick was catching some sub-text of his own. He chose to ignore it. ‘It was a very emotional moment for her—’ he began, but Zoe interrupted him.
    ‘You’re right, Dad, I’m bound to have all the men chasing after me now,’ Zoe said loudly and cheerfully. ‘Gosh, I must be the most eligible bachelorette in NewYork now that Aunt Xenia has died.’
    ‘I wasn’t expecting you to run out,’ the eldest sister, Jade, said. ‘I mean, it couldn’t have been a surprise to you that she left you all your money. You were staying in her apartment already, weren’t you?’
    Zoe’s smile got broader. ‘Oh, Aunt Xenia’s still full of surprises, believe me.’
    ‘Do you have any idea of why she left everything to you?’ the youngest sister asked. From the eager way she asked and the expressions in the rest of the family’s eyes, Nick could tell it was a question that the Drakes had been discussing quite a bit over the past two days.
    ‘I don’t know,’ Zoe said. Unlike her other answers, it was said without any defensiveness, and of course Nick knew that Zoe had been wondering as much as the rest