Chapter 8 Zach
EIGHT
ZACH
Wyatt’s visit had unsettled Dare, and it was apparent even as he tried to deny it.
For starters, he barely touched his food when he’d admitted earlier he had been hungry.
Secondly, he hardly said a word when he was usually very chatty.
Though my situation might have had something to do with our somber late lunch.
We sat at the kitchen island and since Dare was far too focused on figuring out the secrets of his salad bowl by staring really hard at it, I passed the time by filling my stomach and passing the odd leaf to the goats gathered around us.
“They’re quite the characters,” I said after one of them headbutted another trying to get the salad leaf for themselves.
“Huh?” Dare grunted. “Ah yeah. They’re full of personality.”
I turned to him and smiled, the only way I could think of to crack that frown set on his face. He bit his lip under my gaze and, well, that was better than the stony expression from two moments ago.
“Wh-what are their names?”
“Oh right. Yeah. The sheepish one is Adam, the bossy one is Eve, and the instigator is Steve.” He pointed at the gray and white one, the black and white one and the beige one respectively and I repeated the names in my head.
“Adam and Eve plus Steve? Are you religious?” I chuckled.
“Nope. Duke’s boyfriend is. Azrael? He named them. I wasn’t going to keep the names, but I guess they stuck.”
“Funny guy,” I said.
Dare sighed and after a beat went back to staring at his salad, tossing it around with his fork but not really eating anything.
When I was done, he excused himself, saying something about tending to the crops and he left with the goats. That left me alone with Lookah and seeing as I had nothing to do, I put away his food and washed the dishes before retreating to the guest room and having a nap.
I was so tired.
So fucking tired.
And cold.
It was so unlike me. I never felt drained in the middle of the day, like I needed to sleep.
I guess when you had nothing to do it was hard to stay energized and active.
Right about now I’d be catching up with wiping surfaces and tidying up the truck after the lunch rush.
Then I’d make a list of the cakes I wanted to bake for the next day.
Place my order with the supplier so it’d be ready to pick up on my way home.
Maybe grab a bite before business picked up again.
Lookah cozied up next to me and when he was so warm and cuddly it was impossible not to let go and close my eyes, even if only for a second and even if my feet were still freezing.
The events of the day flashed before my eyes. The truck on fire. Teddy helping calm me down. Seeing Victor outside my window. Dare bursting in and carrying me. Being driven away to the middle of nowhere.
What had my life even become? Just when I thought everything was going well, that I’d escaped…
That’ll teach me not to embrace any false sense of security. But how could I not when for the first time in my life I had people around me. People who cared and stood by me. People who’d drop everything just to help me. People like my Teddy, like Autumn.
Dare.
I sighed and I couldn’t help the smile that crossed my lips.
I had a community here. Friends. Dare I even say, a family?
I didn’t want to leave here. I wanted to fight for my home. But how could I fight against an evil like Victor?
His face appeared right in front of me and my stomach clenched. I tried to shake him off, to think of anyone else but him but even in my mind he was as persistent as he was in real life.
Eventually he let go of me. And eventually I let go of consciousness too and sank deeper into the depths of my mind and the memories I’d tried to let go of.
When I opened my eyes again I felt heavy and groggy and I had no idea what time, day or year it was.
Lookah was still in bed with me, and he barely stirred when I reached for my phone.
My limbs were frozen, and my throat felt scratchy, but I coughed the discomfort away and breathed in.
As soon as the phone flashed back with the time I shot up, shocked that I had slept all night
Damn. Too fast.
I closed my eyes and steadied myself until everything stopped spinning. As I put my feet on the floor, Lookah jumped off the bed and went from zero to one hundred in a second.
“Good morning to you too, goofball.” I patted his head. “I bet you’re bursting for a pee, huh.”
His tail wagged faster as if he understood me and I tiptoed across the room and opened the door but any efforts of being quiet were futile when I had forty pounds of canine by my feet.
By the time we reached the door I was sure we’d woken Dare up.
The pattering of Lookah’s toes alone was deafening in the dead silence of the early hours.
Even so, I put my shoes on quietly and went out with Lookah.
He found a bush to do his business on right away and I took in the fresh morning chill, using it to wake my body up and to shake off any residue of Victor from my mind.
I wasn’t going to let him control me even in his absence. I’d been doing so well for over a year now. I wasn’t going to let myself be a victim again.
I followed the dog down the path that led to the main road, and it was only when we walked back to the house that I realized Dare’s car was missing.
Which meant I was alone out here with no way into town. I didn’t know how to feel about that, so I decided not to linger on that.
I let us both back in and warmed up by the radiator for a few minutes before I even thought about taking my shoes off. Then it was my time to do my business and when I came back to the kitchen I found the note on the counter.
**“I’m out in the fields. Be back for lunch. Make yourself at home. Dare x. PS. Could you feed Lookah when you get up? Pouches are in the fridge.”
I focused on that “x” for far longer than I cared to admit and only stopped when my stomach grumbled.
“Right. Let’s see what’s there to eat, huh pal?”
Lookah was sitting by the fridge, clearly trying to get me to hurry up. I gave him a good pat before I opened the fridge and found his food.
As he wolfed that down, I checked the contents to find something for myself which wasn’t hard seeing as the fridge was full of unopened food. Had Dare gone shopping as I’d slept the previous day away?
“Agh. Why does he have to be so sweet?” I asked but Lookah didn’t even bother looking back at me.
I didn’t think that man realized the effect he had on people. The effect he had on me. A man like him should be illegal if he wasn’t available and willing to date.
I guessed he was the former, but the latter? Yeah, even I wouldn’t want me.
I tried to shake those pesky thoughts away and focused on breakfast. After I made omelets with cheese, tomatoes and Greek feta, I made myself a cup of coffee and tried to sit in the living room and read a book.
But my leg kept shaking, and my mind kept wandering.
Rightfully so. It had been years since I’d read a book.
I tried audiobooks on the way to and from work, but when the ride was less than ten minutes there wasn’t much progress that could be made, and I was usually too tired by the end of the day to stay up and read some more.
No. I was used to being up and busy. It was no wonder my body had woken me up at six in the morning despite having slept the whole of yesterday away. It was my body’s clock at this point. Bake for three hours then go to work.
I glanced at the kitchen. It might not be mine, but it was calling me.
“Fine. I’ll answer it,” I mumbled and got up.
Lookah followed me to the kitchen. He probably thought I was playing chase with him, so I gave him a treat as a consolation prize and got to work.
Naturally there were a ton of blueberries in the freezer and more in the fridge. Thankfully there was also flour and sugar which I guess made sense considering Dare’s famous blueberry pies.
Try as I might, I couldn’t get them right, so I didn’t even attempt to make a pie.
But I did make muffins with a lemon curd filling.
As those baked, I made a banana batter, sprinkled some crushed blueberries and chocolate chips in it and poured it in bread pan and left it next to the oven so it could go in after the muffins were done.
I scratched my chin as I inspected the contents of the fridge, trying to quell the million ideas floating in my head.
I settled on blueberry cream cheese braids. It would take a while but seeing as I had nothing better to do, why not make dough?
By the time Dare got back, the kitchen island was full of treats. He walked up to me, goats running around in circles behind him and he stared at everything I made.
“What is all this?” he asked.
I froze.
Shit.
I looked at everything I’d baked to see it from his point-of-view and I cringed so hard.
“I…I think I went a little overboard. I’m sorry.”
There was enough food here to feed an army.
“I guess I’m so used to making huge quantities, habit took over.” I grimaced.
“You don’t need to apologize,” he looked up at me. “Do you think I’m mad?” He raised an eyebrow.
I chewed on my lip and shrugged.
“You probably needed all the blueberries. Oh god. You needed them didn’t you? Agh, I’m so silly.” I slapped my forehead, and he grabbed my wrist before I could do it again.
“Are you seriously worried the blueberry farmer will run out of blueberries?” he asked, a smirk appearing on his face.
I gazed into his dark blue eyes and forgot how to breathe for a second.
“You…” I started but had to refill my lungs before I continued. “You have more?”
His laugh was so deep it made my very bones vibrate with its energy and timbre.
“You do know I have freezers full of the stuff, right? How else would I make it through the winter?”
“Right,” I sighed. “But surely you need it for your clients.”
“You let me worry about that. I’m just…” he turned to look at my food, letting my hand go.
The absence of his touch made me feel…hollow.
“I’m amazed you went through all the trouble. That’s so much food and it all looks and smells delicious.”
I offered him a sheepish smile and looked down.
“Yeah, a little too much food,” I said. “Are you hungry? I also made a quiche. I thought you might be hungry after work.”
“So that’s not all?” He chuckled.
I shook my head and pointed at the oven.
“Well, I’m not going to say no to lunch.”
“Okey dokey.” I smiled. “You go shower and I’ll plate the food.”
Dare raised an eyebrow again.
“Are you saying I smell?”
My eyes popped wide open, and I gasped.
“Oh my God. No. That’s not—”
“Relax.” He laughed. “I was kidding. I do need a shower.”
I almost breathed a sigh of relief, but I didn’t. Because I was still an idiot. And too forward for my own good.
“I guess I took your advice a little too much to heart.”
“What advice?” he asked.
“Make myself at home?”
He smiled.
“I’m glad you did.” He patted my shoulder sending a new wave of sensations through my body and walked away. “Oh, just give me a small slice. I want to leave plenty of space to try all these.”
He pointed at all the baked goods with so much enthusiasm that…that made my heart skip a beat. I guess I was that pathetic kind of person who could melt into a puddle just because someone wanted to eat my food.
When he appeared again, his hair was wet and his face flushed, and I’d be damned if he didn’t look ten times sexier like that.
I had to force myself to look away, to focus on the food, before I did something stupid and took a bite out of him.
We both sat at the dining table and had the quiche with some salad but as soon as he was done, he pushed his plate back and dove into the muffins.
His face looked orgasmic after the first bite and his eyes rolled back after the second.
“My God, Zach. This is far too good for my own health.”
I tried to laugh. I wanted to laugh, but I was far too focused on the tiny bit of lemon curd stuck in the corner of his lips.
I wanted to lick it. I wanted it lick him.
I wanted to feel his body against mine as he moaned and ate more of my food.
But that would be a wild thing to do. Good thing I was too cowardly to act on my thoughts, and I stayed strapped in my chair.
“A muffin a day keeps the doctor away is what I say,” I managed to croak before the silence got too awkward.
“I like that saying,” he said and I laughed.
The tickle in my throat returned, shifting my laugh into a coughing fit.
Dare rushed to my side and patted my back.
“Are…are you okay?” he asked.
Damn. Why did he have to be so considerate and sweet?
“Yeah. I’m good. I think maybe I’m coming down with a cold. Nothing a tea can’t fix.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded and got up to make that tea and put some distance between us. Before I did something wild like kiss him or something.
As I put the kettle on, Dare walked out of the room. He returned moments later, cursing.
“The fucking heating is busted. I’m so sorry. I should have checked,” he said.
“Oh don’t worry. It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine. You’re supposed to be safe here. You’re not very safe if you catch your death now, are you?”
I stared at him for a moment and he frowned in confusion.
“What?” he asked.
I smiled.
“You do know that you can’t catch a cold just because the room is cold, right?”
Dare opened his mouth to say something but seemed to regret it before he uttered anything and then huffed.
“Of course I know. But still. Sleeping in a freezing cold room can’t be good for you.”
I chuckled.
“I’ll just take an extra blanket if you have it.”
He shook his head.
“No. That’s not good enough. You sleep in my bedroom tonight and I’ll try and get it fixed tomorrow.”
I gasped.
“No. I couldn’t. Please. I don’t want to inconvenience you.”
“You’re not.”
“But I’m dragging you out of your own bed—”
“I offered.”
“I know but—”
“No buts. You’re sleeping in my bed tonight and that’s that.”
“What about you?” I asked and cast away any hint of a fantasy that had him sleeping next to me in his bed.
“I’ll take the guest room.”
“What? So you can catch your death?”
He huffed. “I’ve slept in worse conditions.”
“Oh don’t you pull that SEAL crap with me. That doesn’t mean you should suffer.”
He rolled his eyes and smiled.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be quite fine.” I opened my mouth to protest but he just said, “I thought I can’t catch a cold from just being cold,” and I had no choice but to shut up.
Was I really going to sleep in Dare’s bed tonight? As if I needed any more fuel for my crush on him.
This was a bad idea.
All of this was a bad idea. Unfortunately I had no other place to go so there wasn’t much I could do.
I’d just have to make sure to keep my longing for Dare under control, no matter how out of hand it was getting being surrounded by him.