Chapter 14 #2
Looking at him, I could see that he meant it, but I could also see his true feelings simmering right there beneath the surface. It darkened his eyes and injected tension into his shoulders and jaw, the old hurt. The betrayal. Maybe even the fear of it happening again.
My throat tightened in response and I almost told him that I wished we could turn back the clock. It had been sitting in the back of my mind since the moment I’d walked into that building. I wish I’d fought for you. I wish I’d chosen differently. That I would’ve been braver.
The words rose but failed to materialize. Especially when Jennifer came racing up to us, her voice ringing out across the noise of the dining room.
“Mommy!” She skidded to a stop beside the table, slightly out of breath and grinning as she pointed at Zach like he was a piece of equipment she wanted to borrow. “Can he come play with me?”
Zach recovered from the deeply emotional moment we’d been having at super speed, a smile spreading on his lips as he turned toward her. “Are you asking or telling me?”
“Telling,” she said without skipping a beat, and then, because I had done my best to instill the concept of manners, she shot him a sweet smile. “Please?”
“Fine, but if I get stuck in one of those tunnels, we’re not telling your mother.”
She laughed. “I won’t.”
“Excellent,” he said, standing and sliding out of the booth without having to be told twice.
I watched them go, seeing Jennifer grab his hand like it was the most natural thing in the world. She pulled him toward the play structure and he let her, although he was keeping her at a distance like he didn’t quite know what to do.
Despite that, from the moment she’d arrived at our table, he’d been present and engaged, and now he was grinning from ear to ear as she sped down a slide and he caught her at the bottom. My heart melted completely at the sight.
Louis had never done this with them. He’d been around sometimes, technically, but he hadn’t been present. Zach, however, was here for it. Right now, he didn’t look like a guy who’d announced that we would be getting married not ten minutes ago.
As I watched them, however, my eyes automatically started scanning for Lu. I was curious about how she’d react to Zach being at the playground with them, but I didn’t see her anywhere. I straightened immediately and then stood up so fast, the table rattled slightly.
Zach noticed me racing toward him, and before I’d even said anything, he glanced down at Jennifer. “Where’s your sister?”
She pointed vaguely at the play structure next to the slide. “She was there.”
“Lu?” I called immediately, already moving toward where she’d apparently been, but she sure wasn’t there anymore. A flicker of panic started low in my stomach.
“She’s probably just hiding,” Zach said calmly, giving my shoulder a quick squeeze. “She strikes me as someone who hides on principle.”
He wasn’t wrong. She did make a habit of keeping my blood pressure elevated, but still. Zach disappeared into the larger structure on the other side, climbing up into it like he did this regularly. I hovered, my hands starting to shake as I kept searching for her below.
“Lu,” I heard him say a minute later, his voice echoing slightly through the plastic tunnels. “Are you planning on living up here now, or do you want to come back down with me? I need to know what kind of pizza you like.”
There was a brief pause, then a small, but very stubborn, “No.”
I exhaled. Thank God he found her. He actually found her.
Another moment passed before I heard him speak again. “You know, I don’t think there’s room in here for both of us long term.”
“What are you doing?” she asked suspiciously.
“Negotiating,” he said. “I’ve been told you respond well to that. It worked for Theo, anyhow, and I’m much better at it than he is.”
I pressed my lips together to fight a smile. This was absurd and yet it was happening. Zachary Westwood had climbed up a plastic play structure and was using his corporate negotiation techniques on my five-year-old.
What a time to be alive.
“Come on down and we’ll get milkshakes.”
There was a beat before she asked, “Chocolate?”
“Obviously.”
Another much longer pause. Then I heard the faint sound of movement. It took them longer than it should’ve, so long in fact that I was almost convinced I was going to have to explain to someone with a clipboard that he’d gotten stuck in there, but then, they emerged.
Lu climbed out first, but Zach followed, slightly less composed than her as he brushed something off his sleeve and grimaced at me. “I regret everything.”
I laughed. “Just you wait. You’re not regretting it nearly as much as you will.”
He frowned at me but kept his promise about the milkshakes and pizza. By the time we were herding the girls toward the exit later, both were flushed, happy, and thoroughly exhausted in a way that promised a very easy bedtime.
But then Jennifer sneezed.
I stopped walking, my eyes closing briefly as I nodded to myself. As I opened them again, I looked straight at Zach, who’d already turned and was looking at me. “Problem?”
“No, not yet,” I said calmly, but I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that in approximately three days, all four of us would have the flu. “Hey, do you think we could stop at the drug store on the way home? I just need to pick up a few things.”