Chapter 30 #2
“I know you think we all hate you and don’t want anything to do with you, but that’s not true,” he says. “The others were shocked. Hayden was just excited he wasn’t losing his mind.”
“What?” I ask.
“Yeah, Eliza sat us all down afterward and told us everything. She said you’d been wanting to tell us, but she said to let her,” Zach fills me in, and it’s weirdly comforting.
Maybe it’s just because it’s him, or maybe it’s just because it’s not the end of the world.
Either way, somehow this is happening right now.
“Yeah,” I say, and look down at the counter.
“It’s okay though,” he says.
“I don’t understand. How is it okay? How is any of that okay?” I ask.
“You admitted it.” Zach shrugs.
“Like weeks after the fact, and after diving headlong into your family,” I remind him.
“Well, lucky for you my family adores you,” he tells me, which I’m having a hard time understanding still. “Plus, you only had me convinced for like a week there at the end.”
“Really?” I ask.
“Yeah, I know my brother…mostly,” he tells me. “And why else do you think I kissed you?”
“Oh!” I yelp, and then we’re both laughing. “I’m still sorry though.”
I’ve forgotten other people exist, let alone those in the shop with us. Suddenly I feel so small and embarrassed as Mr. Franz and his family, Kaitlynn, and Dawn all appear in my periphery.
“We know, and we forgive you,” Zach says.
“We?” I ask, glancing at Kaitlynn, who’s wide-eyed and stunned staring between the two of us. She doesn’t have a poker face, so at least I know she wasn’t in on this.
“Yeah, we. All of us,” he says. “Hayden actually said to thank you. Apparently, he was talking to one of the guys on the basketball team but was afraid to come out, so they’d broken it off. You helped him come out, so they’re back together.”
“Really? He’s not—”
“He’s oddly glad,” Zach says. “It helped him.”
“I…uh…well, that’s good, I guess.” I grin, but I’m still having a hard time looking at him or making sense of how anything good could have come from all this.
“It is. I promise,” he says.
“But you? You don’t hate me?” I twitch when I ask.
“No! I don’t think I could. Well, I mean I did for like a day when we first met, and maybe a little when I realized I liked you but you were fake dating my brother.
” Zach laughs. I try not to take it as a punch and laugh quietly too.
“Oh! Can I come behind the counter a second, Mackenzie? Just a second?”
“Sure,” I say before thinking about it. Technically the rule is employees only, but I spoke before that flashed in my head. Sorry, Dawn. “But stop calling me Mackenzie. It sounds weird from you.”
He smiles and practically bounces around the corner and walks up to me. Without a word, he scoops up each of my hands and holds them between us.
“Well then, Mack! I know I already said it, but I need you to hear it and believe it,” Zachary says, and if I weren’t already nervous, I am now. “I love you. I think you already know that, but I have to be sure.”
He stops and looks at me expectantly. My heart is screaming and beaming red through my cheeks. I want to jump him and kiss him and tell him he’s everything, but I keep calm and think about my words before I say them this time. Guess that’s the new me—thinking a little more before I speak.
“I do. I know, and I lo…I like you. I like you a whole lot,” I tell him.
It feels pathetic not to match his I love you, but I don’t want to lie again.
I do like him. Gods, do I like him. Everything about him.
But it’s time to start being very honest, and that means maybe I have to hold back a little.
“I hope that’s enough for right now. I’m having to reevaluate what it means to love someone at the moment, you know. ”
I want to kiss him so bad, but I don’t. I’m going to let him lead for the moment, even if it’s killing me.
Zachary grins at me. “Of course it’s enough. Honesty is always enough, Mack. Oh! I have one more thing.”
“One more thing?” I ask, and look back to Kaitlynn. She shakes her head and throws her hands up.
Zach steps forward. If he were wearing a hat, the brim would be dangerously close to my head. Well, over the top of my head. He pulls my hands up higher and squeezes my fingers gently.
“Mackenzie Nicholas Jackson,” he says, then stops.
“Whoa, the middle name is coming out, huh?” I joke. “How do you even—”
He lets go of my left hand and presses a finger to my lips. “Shh.”
My eyes blossom at his touch.
“Did you just shush me?” I say once he removes his finger.
“Yes, now let me get back to what I was saying.”
“Oh, sorry.” I give him an amused grin. My bad again.
“So again. Mackenzie Nicholas Jackson.” He pauses and a thought strikes my brain. Oh my gods, it’s way too early for a proposal! Please tell me you know that! Please don’t ask that! “Would you do me the honor of being my date to the Winter Formal?”
My eyes bolt open. The dance! A tear pokes from the corner of my eye and I’m sort of grateful I didn’t put on makeup this morning.
It’s a happy tear though. This boy sees me beyond my mistakes.
I don’t know how he does it when I can’t even do it, but he does.
He sees who I want to be. He sees my heart.
I’ve never known what that feels like until this moment, and it’s better than our first kiss.
It’s a joy that I don’t know I’ll ever be able to express.
“Say yes!” Mr. Franz yells, now across the shop.
I’d forgotten about them being here, and retract a little, but Zachary doesn’t let go. I give Mr. Franz a nervous grin.
“Listen to that man,” Zach laughs.
“Uh. Yes! Of course!” I finally say it. “Yes, I’ll go to the dance with you!”
“Awesome,” he giggles. “Oh and, would you maybe be my enbyfriend too?”
Excuse me? Why else would I go with you to the dance?
“I thought that was evident.” I stick out my tongue.
“So that’s a yes, right?” he chuckles.
“Yes!” I say so he’ll stop asking.
“Thank you, Mack,” he says, and pulls me toward him.
Just like that night in the old, empty, dark house, everything quiets and I swear his eyes close in slow motion, or maybe it’s everything else that’s going slow.
I don’t know which, and I don’t really care, as our lips touch and I lose myself in his kiss.
That same vanilla-mint soothes my senses while his warmth pushes through my skin and he squeezes me closer.
“Thank you, Zach,” I say when we part.
Not ten minutes ago I felt like my life had ended, but here I am in the arms of the most genuine guy I’ve ever met, and he said he loved me, and more importantly I believe it. But there’s always something else; it’s not just him that I lied to.
“What about your family?” I ask, bringing some tension back into the situation.
“Oh yeah! About them…” He grins mischievously, and taps his phone a few times.
“Huh?” I purse my lips, but before he can answer, the door chime rings and my eyes light up.
It’s Mary-Anne and Mr. Marcus. Holly, and Eliza, and Catina, and Jeffrey.
They’re all smiling, rushing into the store, hands up and yelling, filling the tiny shop with a raucous laughter and joy.
Then there’s Super Old Gran hobbling in behind them, yelling, “Kiss them again!” and my heart practically melts all over again.
I love her so much. Gramps and Kiki are behind her, helping her get through the door.
Then at the end of the entourage is Hayden.
He's the only quiet one, but he’s grinning.
“Kenzie!” It’s said so many times by so many people I don’t know who’s talking until Mary-Anne rushes around the counter and engulfs Zach and me in a big hug.
“I want you to know that you are family, Kenzie,” she tells me, looking between us. “You have been for weeks. We just didn’t know how to react.”
“It was a lot to take in, you know?” Mr. Marcus admits. “But you really are part of the family.”
I’m awestruck. I don’t know what to say. How do you handle such unconditional love?
Hayden walks around them and stands across the counter the way he has so many times before. It’s weird seeing him, really seeing him, but even more so now that the obsession is gone. I squeeze Zachary as the thought puts a grin on my face.
“Of course we wish you would have told us earlier, but you really grew on us,” Mary-Anne says.
Eliza cocks her head to the side and smiles with bright white teeth. “I told you you were family.”
I laugh and nod back at her.
Yeah, I effed up. I shouldn’t have let all this happen.
I should have told the truth at the beginning.
I’m not trying to excuse that, but somehow, it all worked out.
It’s beyond anything I could have imagined.
Maybe Freyja is smiling down on me right now.
Maybe it’s fate. Maybe it’s something to do with my spell.
I don’t know, and honestly I’m not sure it really matters.
“Kiss them!” Holly screams.
I look at Zachary and smile. He’s laughing right back.
“Yes! Kiss them,” Eliza echoes and winks at me. I couldn’t have made it without her. She’s my saving grace. My witch mother. I hope she doesn’t mind that she’s going to have to teach me everything now.
“Oh, come on! Kiss them before I die,” Super Old Gran croons.
I giggle and look at Zach again. He’s smiling. It’s something I want to see as long as I can. I don’t want to hurt him ever again, or any of them. I want them all just like this.
Finally, Zach leans in and kisses me. His hand falls to my lower back and he pulls me in closer.
It just feels right. Eyes closed, taking in the taste of his mouth, the feeling of his soft lips gliding against mine, and a warmth that I don’t think I could ever get enough of.
A few seconds go by with hoots and get its playing as background music, before we part again.
My eyes open and it’s all I can do to pull my gaze away from his.
“I love y’all,” I say once we break away, and I’m rushed by a mob of people I now can truly call family. Even Kaitlynn joins in.
Warmth takes over, and I stare into Zach’s steel eyes as they look back with not a doubt in the world.
Moments ago I thought my little world was over, and now I’m standing in the middle of a brand-new family who loves me despite my flaws, with a boy I never expected to come into my life, who simply watches me with love in his eyes.
“Okay, back off. Back off.” Zach squeezes between Eliza and me, and wraps his arms around me. “Give them some space.”
I giggle, and his eyes find mine. This is what I was missing.
What’s truly amazing right now is that I thought if a day like this ever came, it would be with Hayden.
I was stuck on him, maybe even a little obsessed, but he’s on the outside watching.
He’s not the guy holding me. Not the one I can’t stop giggling at.
And yeah, I know this isn’t the way most love stories go.
Honestly, it’s probably the exact opposite of how you should fall in love, but I did.
Somehow, some way, against all I thought was going to happen, I did.
Honestly, maybe that’s the beauty in all of this weird chaotic world.
I thought I knew what I wanted, but life said hold on and watch.