Chapter 16 Zach
SIXTEEN
ZACH
Achance at freedom, at long last!
I was so giddy in the car I couldn’t stop tapping my foot. I was like a child on his way to the funfair. I’d been dreaming of this day, the day I could walk amongst people again since day one and it was finally becoming a reality.
Mayberry Cove loomed ahead and as we passed familiar streets and stores on our way to Main Street I turned toward the window and tried to spot friendly faces or any changes that may have occurred while I’d been away.
Some trash cans that weren’t full last time I was here were full now.
A couple of stores that were too eager to put up their Christmas decorations.
A previously quaint clothing store had all its windows covered in whitewash.
It was as if the town had moved on without me.
No one seemed to care that my bakery truck was gone or seemed saddened by the loss.
Of course it was impossible to tell by glancing through the window of a moving car, but still.
I didn’t know what I expected. Did I expect life to stand still while I got my shit sorted? Did I expect time to stop for everyone else while I picked my life back up from the pits of hell?
As Dare turned into the parking lot by the waterfront, I sighed and leaned back, gazing at the beautiful blue sea ahead. At least that had stayed the same. Just as welcoming and comforting as it had always been.
“Are you okay?” Dare asked and I took a deep breath before I turned to look at him and nodded. “Let me know if you’ve changed your mind. I won’t care.”
I shook my head and put my hand on the door handle when Dare reached for me.
I paused, waited for words of comfort or a lingering touch, but he focused on the world outside.
Did a whole three sixty take of our surroundings before he got out of the car.
He reached my side by the time I started to open my door and helped me out.
“I can walk, you know,” I said, conjuring as much of my snark as I could and he stepped aside taking a little bow and smirking.
I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“All right. Where do we start?” I asked and turned to face the boardwalk.
It looked empty without my truck on the other end, yet no one seemed to notice its absence. The only clue of its presence there were the scorch marks on the wooden surface of the boardwalk, but even that didn’t stop people from walking all over it.
A coolness wrapped around me like a blanket that had nothing to do with the cold, and I hugged my coat closer. Dare put his hand on the small of my back and frowned.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Peachy,” I said.
Dare studied me for a moment and then unwrapped his scarf from around his neck, the same scarf he’d given me before, when we went out in the fields, and wrapped it around me for extra warmth and comfort.
My heart thumped in my chest. My breath caught in my throat as he stood inches away from me and I looked away from his eyes before he noticed I was staring. Only my gaze was drawn to his lips and once I’d locked in, try as I might, I couldn’t look away.
It was fine. It was okay. They were just lips. There was nothing dangerous about staring at his lips. Right?
I swallowed a knot in my throat and forced myself to blink, to look away. Instead I zeroed in on the boxes on the back of his pickup. “Okay. Who’s first?”
I walked around the back to open the front panel and pulled a box toward me when I noticed Dare was still in a daze, staring at me.
Had he felt it too? Had he noticed me staring at his mouth? Did he care?
I raised an eyebrow and waited for him to kick into gear because what else could I do? Walk back up to him and shake him? If I did that I ran the danger of doing something silly and I didn’t need to do silly things. Not now.
“Right. First up is Nim. He’d ordered two boxes. Then Martha’s with one. And Carson’s Grill, also one.”
“Perfect,” I said and picked up a box.
I spun around and headed toward Nimit’s Essentials, ignoring Dare’s complaints about not walking too far away from him and needing his help to carry it.
I was no weakling. I could do this. It was an easy job. Dare had no idea how hard it was to carry a twenty-pound bag of flour without breaking it, so I wasn’t too worried about carrying a box.
Yet the closer I got to the waterfront, to the remnants of my truck, to civilization, the wheezier I got. I tried to push through it, to ignore it, but by the time I reached Nim’s store I was gasping for air. It wasn’t the weight that got me, it was my own fear of being so exposed.
Dare caught up with me with his own box and immediately opened the door, disposing of his box before taking mine. I took an instinctive step back and looked around me feeling even more vulnerable than before.
I watched the people walking around and searched their faces, looking for any malice.
“Zach? What’s up?” Dare asked.
I snapped my attention back to him and dismissed his concern with a smile.
“Sorry. I was daydreaming for a second. I’ll go get the next delivery,” I said but I didn’t manage to make it two steps away from him and Nim’s front door when Dare pulled me back.
“Why don’t I do the carrying and you do the following?” he said.
I shook my head.
“You’ve just gotten better from a nasty virus. I’m not going to let you do all the heavy lifting.”
He didn’t reply. He just raised his eyebrow as if he was challenging me to stop him and I pouted.
“I’m not a princess, you know,” I mumbled a few minutes later when we were walking toward Martha’s store, me empty-handed, of course.
“Never said you were.” He smirked.
“No, because you won’t let me carry anything. I’m just saying. I’m not weak.”
He stopped.
“And you think princesses are weak? That’s not very feminist of you.”
I huffed and rolled my eyes.
“That’s not what I meant,” I groaned. “I’m just saying…I can do my share of work.”
Dare shrugged and picked up the pace again.
“I know you can. You have been for the past week. So, think of this as your vacation.”
I wanted to bite back, to retort with something clever or cute, but I caught something from the corner of my eye, and I didn’t have the energy to think of anything beyond finding out what that something was.
I had hoped being indoors would help, but even when we walked into Martha’s I felt unsettled. I couldn’t see who was behind every row of the store, or how many people could see me from outside, if anyone was staring.
God. Keep it together, Zach. Keep it the fuck together.
I couldn’t let Dare see me like that. Hell, I couldn’t let myself be like that. This was what I wanted. I’d wanted to come here, back to where the people were. Back to my old life.
I can’t help it that my old life is haunted by Victor though.
Still, I couldn’t let Dare see me like that. If he realized I was scared he’d never let me step foot in town again until Victor was gone. If he ever would be.
Gosh, how had I ended up this man’s prisoner a second time?
Dare checked on me with a glance and held the door open for me as we left the store. On our way back to the truck, someone caught my attention.
“Zachary! Zachary!” An elderly Black man said, and his dog launched at me as they approached me.
“Mr. Rogers! How are you?” I said and the dog, Prince, stopped at my feet, looked up, and growled.
I laughed.
“Silly dog. Zachary is a friend,” Mr. Rogers chuckled whole-heartedly, the way only old men could, and put his arms around me. “How have you been, my dear? Terrible business what’s happened to your truck.”
I hugged the old man back and hummed in agreement.
“Where have you been? I haven’t seen much of you since.”
“I…I’m staying with a…” I started and glanced at Dare who was watching us like a hawk.
Goosebumps filled the back of my neck at his towering presence and protective gaze.
“With a friend,” I finished.
Mr. Rogers cocked his head.
“Did something happen to your place? I thought you got an apartment at Chestnut Hill.”
“It’s a long story, Mr. Rogers. Long story.”
One I wasn’t keen to tell any time soon.
“Well, you’re always welcome to stop by or stay. You know that. Luna’s Lodge is always open for you.”
I thanked him and hugged him again before we parted ways.
“I hope to see you back in business soon,” he said as we walked away and I sighed, put my hands in my coat’s pockets and bit my tongue.
I had no idea if that would ever happen again. But I guessed that was why I needed to stop by the insurance broker’s office.
Dare was staring at me when I got back in the truck.
“What?” I asked.
“You know Mr. Rogers too?”
I frowned.
“Yeah, I stayed with him for a few weeks while I looked for an apartment.”
“So did I. Where was my hug?”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. I laughed so loud it gave me an instant headache.
“I don’t know,” I said. “What did you do to him?”
“Nothing. I swear!” he answered.
I narrowed my eyes and hummed, staring at him.
“Why don’t I believe that?”
“I swear. On my life.”
I crossed my arms and waited.
“What?”
“I’m waiting.”
“For what?”
“For you to drop dead. Mr. Rogers’ is the kindest person I know. If he’s not talking to you, you must have done something.”
Dare gasped. Then bit his lip as if trying to choke down a smile.
“You little shit! How dare you? Maybe he didn’t recognize me.”
I nodded with a pinched expression.
“Sure. He is old, after all.”
“Exactly.”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head in despair and after a moment, Dare turned the engine on and drove on Main Street, stopping outside Carson’s Grill to drop off the next delivery.
The minutes spent waiting for him to return were agony. My gaze darted all around me, at any reflective surface searching for a sinister face or a creepy starer.