Chapter 16 #2
Carefully sliding the papers back into the folder, he stood up and immediately swayed and grabbed the counter for balance. My eyebrows shot up. “Oh, good. You’re dying. You should’ve just taken that damn medicine sooner.”
“I’m not dying,” he argued lamely. “I just stood up too fast.”
“You stumbled like a Victorian woman in a corset,” I said. “Sit down before you hurt yourself.”
“I’m fine.” He took in a deep breath, then slowly released the counter and picked up the folder. “I’m returning these to your lawyer, then I should get back to the office.”
“You’re sitting down,” I countered. “Do you honestly think you can drive right now?”
Although he’d been turning toward the door, he suddenly stopped and looked back at me. Breathtakingly handsome as always, he also looked like complete crap. His eyes were bleary and bloodshot, his complexion totally off, and he didn’t seem very steady on his feet.
“Okay,” he said finally. “I’ll stay, but I want it on the record that I don’t like this.”
“No one does.” I waved him toward the couch and watched as he dropped down beside the girls.
Within twenty minutes, I had fully committed to disinfecting every surface in the apartment while my head pounded and my body strongly disagreed with all the movement, but with all four of us sick and here, it had to be done.
Meanwhile, Zach kicked off his shoes and even undid the top few buttons of his shirt. He curled up under a blanket with Jennifer on the couch and was watching the movie with them.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “I mean, that’s not possible.”
“It does make sense,” Jennifer argued without hesitation. “What’s so impossible about it?”
“How about the fact that she just jumped off a building and landed without getting hurt?”
“She’s a demon hunter.”
“Physics doesn’t work that way and neither does gravity.”
Lu glanced at him from her perch on the armrest. “He’s right.”
I paused with the spray bottle still aimed at the counter and the cloth halfway through a swipe. Zach’s eyebrows arched. Jennifer gasped like she’d been betrayed. “Lu!”
“I’m just saying.” Lu shrugged weakly. “It’s not realistic. Mommy said demon hunters aren’t even real.”
“It’s a movie,” Jennifer said, dead pan. “It’s not supposed to be realistic.”
“It should still follow some internal logic,” Zach argued lightly. “This doesn’t.”
Jennifer threw her hands up. “You’re both ruining it.”
I pressed my lips together to hide a smile. Lu didn’t do that. She never agreed with anyone and she didn’t just soften, but she was looking at him now like she might not hate the very fact of his existence. For everyone else, that wouldn’t have been much, but for her, it was huge.
I didn’t want to make a big deal about it though, so I went back to cleaning. Zach shook his head but turned back to the movie. A short while later, a knock sounded at the door and he twisted on the couch, straightening up to look at me.
“That should be the runner Alex sent to collect the papers. Do you want me to get it?”
“No, I’ve got it.” Swiping the folder off the counter, I headed over to the door and pulled it open to find a man in a suit on the other side. “Are you from W&S?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I handed over the folder. “Then I believe these are for you.”
He inclined his chin in a curt nod. “Your lawyer will receive confirmation shortly. I’m headed straight there from here.”
“Thank you,” I replied, and then he was gone.
After more than a year of threats, negotiations, and demands dropping like bombs during a war, it was actually done. The papers were signed. Louis and I were officially over.
I stood there for a second after closing the door, just breathing and trying to accept that it had taken the Westwoods less than a week to achieve what I hadn’t been able to in a year.
It was crazy, really, but I was too relieved and it felt too surreal to absorb the full truth of the fact in just that one moment.
I pushed off the door and walked back to the living room.
Zach and Jennifer were still arguing about the movie while Lu watched, quiet. It did something strange to my chest to see them all there together, just bundled up and bonding.
He stayed for two more movies after that, not once seeming bored or put out by whatever they chose. When the sun started dipping lower and the girls finally lost some of their impossible energy, he stood up again, definitely a little more steady on his feet now that he’d had two doses of medicine.
“Alright,” he said, sliding his feet back into his shoes. “I should get going. Ladies, thank you for the movie day. It was insightful.”
The girls both giggled and politely said their goodbyes. Even Lu, which was a first. After he’d gotten his shoes on, he slid back into his jacket, stuffed his tie into his pocket, then strode over to the door where I was waiting to let him out.
As he reached me, he paused. His green eyes bored into mine for a touch too long before he dragged a hand through his hair and glanced back at the girls. When he finally looked at me again, his voice was quiet, too low for them to overhear us.
“You don’t have to do this.”
I frowned. “Do what?”
“Get married to a stranger again just because someone else decided it would be a good idea.”
I held his gaze. “You’re not a stranger.”
As soon as I said it, the softness I remembered returned to his features. For just one, fleeting second, he looked like the guy who used to hold me like I meant something to him, but it was gone in a flash. “Right. Of course not.”
He looked at me for just another beat, nodded like he was trying to accept a truth he wasn’t entirely sure about, and left. The door clicked shut behind him and I sighed heavily, wondering if maybe he was the one who didn’t want to do this.
Ultimately, however, now wasn’t the time for me to try to figure out what was going on in Zachary Westwood’s head. I had two sick girls to take care of and they were sprawled across the couch, arguing weakly about what to watch next.
I walked back to them, but all through the night, the bedtime routine, and administering more medication than felt humanly possible, one question kept rattling through my head—and I truly didn’t have an answer to it.
Now what?