Chapter 49
Forty-Nine
Louise
“Do you want to go grab a coffee with me?”
“We have coffee here,” Zach grumbles, eyeing me as he pulls a hoodie over his head. I grin, because the look he’s giving me is one thousand percent a ‘dad’ look.
“But it’s the last day to get a pumpkin cold brew,” I pout, sticking my lower lip out in a pout.
He steps over to me, ducking his head and catching my protruding lower lip in his teeth in a sharp nip. I gasp before he kisses me stupid.
“Fine,” he grouses, wrapping me up in his arms. “But only because you’re so damn cute, I can’t say no.”
“I bet you say that to all the cute girls in your life,” I tease, winking up at him as I circle my arms around his neck. His hands settle on my waist, and I can feel his fingers strumming along my spine and it sends goosebumps shivering over my skin.
I’m just so incandescently happy.
“You get away with far more, I promise you,” he laughs, his grin wide, those blue eyes sparkling.
Last night was…intense.
I almost said it. It was on the tip of my tongue… and I think he knew it.
I also think he might have wanted to say it, too.
Waking up this morning, everything just feels different. Like we can take on the world together if we need to.
Zach slaps my ass through my leggings and I grin up at him. He groans, smoothing his hand back over where he’d slapped, grabbing a handhold. “Have I told you how much I love this ass?”
“Not in the last few hours,” I laugh, rolling my eyes.
“Get your shoes on.”
“Yes, Dad.”
“Watch that smart mouth, Louise,” he warns, his eyes narrowing.
“You watch it.”
“I do, and then I get lost imagining what filthy, depraved things I can do to it.”
I laugh, flashing him an impish grin, before I flit away to find my sneakers, sliding them on and picking up the hoodie of his that I’ve now claimed as my own.
It smells like him.
Sliding my purse over my shoulder, we head out the door. I head to my car, but he stops at his truck, glaring at me.
“What are you doing?” he calls across the expanse of yard that separates my parking area from his. He gestures to the passenger door that he has opened and waiting.
“Zach, we can take my car,” I laugh, crossing my arms. “I am capable of driving, you know.”
“Not when I’m around,” he growls, stalking over to where I stand. That wicked gleam in his eyes… I bolt.
Well, at least I try.
I only make it two steps before he’s got one heavily muscled arm wrapped around my waist, hauling my back against his chest. He buries his face in the curve of my neck. “You should know better than to try and run from me.”
“But it’s hot as fuck when you catch me,” I breathe, turning to look at him over my shoulder.
A notification sounds on my phone, and then a moment later I hear Zach’s phone ping, too.
Glancing at it, I frown. AirTag Detected Near You.
Zach looks at my phone, then pulls his out. The same notification alert is on his screen. “Do you have an AirTag, Louise?”
I shake my head. “No. I’ve never used one before.”
“Is your car locked?” he asks. I shake my head.
Zach opens the passenger door and slides in, checking everywhere.
Under the floormats, beneath the seats. In the center console, glove box—don’t even get me started on how embarrassing that was—but he doesn’t find anything.
Climbing out, he rounds the outside of the car, dropping to his knees and checking the wheel wells.
“Louise?” he calls, and I circle around.
He sits back on his haunches, holding his palm out.
A small, silver disc sits in the center of it.
He stares up at me, his brows drawn close.
My mouth hangs open. He closes his fist around the invasive little thing, then pushes to his feet.
He shoves it in his pocket. “I’ll take care of this. ”
“That’s kind of terrifying,” I breathe, and he nods. “Holy shit.”
“It could be nothing, or it could be something to worry about,” he says gently. “We’re not going to panic, though, okay? I’ll take care of it, Louise. Lock your car.”
“Okay,” I whisper, pulling my key fob out and hitting the lock button.
He takes my hand in his, then leads me to the waiting truck.
I climb in, and he closes the truck door before circling to climb in behind the wheel.
He drives with his right hand just above my knee, his fingers curving inward around my thigh.
He squeezes gently, anchoring me.
He treats me to the last pumpkin cold brew of the season, and then we just drive. Teddy Swims and Thomas Rhett serenade us to ‘Something ‘bout a Woman’ and Zach grins over at me.
“Can I show you one of my favorite hidden spots?” he asks, squeezing my knee again. I nod, smiling back at him.
“It’s not far,” he says, turning the truck onto a dirt road. The trees canopy over the road, the last remaining leaves filtering the late morning sunlight as he drives with one hand draped loosely over the wheel.
“Are you sure you didn’t plant that AirTag and now you’re bringing me out into the middle of nowhere to murder me?” I tease.
He laughs out loud, his head tilting back with it. His grin is wide, unchecked. There’s a dimple that I don’t usually see.
“You caught me,” he teases back, then brings the back of my hand to his mouth, staring at me over the console. “I could never hurt you, Louise.”
“I know,” I whisper, tears stinging my eyes. Fuck I’m so lost in love with this man.
Turning us into a tiny, winding two track, I gasp when the trees open up and a small, glassy lake appears. Across to the other bank, the fall colors are in full show, the sun lighting everything up like a blaze. It’s stunning.
I love it.
I love that Zach wanted to share it with me, too.
Zach unbuckles, and I do the same. We angle our bodies toward each other, simply staring. I could look at him for a lifetime and never get tired of memorizing his face.
“What the fuck—” Zach snarls suddenly, startling me. Shoving open the driver’s side door, he climbs out, slamming it shut. Whipping my head around to follow him, I’m startled again when the passenger door opens at my back and a rough grip bites into the flesh of my upper arm.
“Excuse me?! What the fuck do you think you’re doing with my husband?!”
Yanking my arm away and turning my head toward the female voice on instinct, I recoil when a cellphone is shoved in my face.
A flash of blond hair is all I see around the cellphone camera being aimed directly at me, and I freeze.
She continues to shout at me, but the roaring in my ears is deafening.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
Zach is around the truck a heartbeat later, grabbing the woman by the shoulders and moving her away from the door. He slams it shut and shouts at me to engage the locks as he continues to move her away.
“Get your hands off me!”
“You need to go. Now. Goddammit, Britt,” he snarls through clenched teeth. “What the fuck are you doing?”
I’m shaking, trembling so badly my fingers miss the auto lock three times before it engages, the sound ricocheting through the sudden quiet of the car.
“What the fuck am I doing? What the fuck are you doing?” the woman shouts. He’s still got his hands on her upper arms, moving her further away from the truck and toward a minivan that we hadn’t noticed pull up next to us. “You’re cheating on me!”
My stomach drops, and I think I might actually be sick. The roaring in my ears intensifies, and I don’t hear whatever Zach says in response.
Has…has he been lying to me this whole time after all?
I dispel the thought as quickly as it pops into my mind, refusing to believe it. No.
Twisting in my seat to watch through the back window of the truck, I see when she manages to get out of his hold, skirting around him and rushing back to the passenger side door.
She yanks on the door handle, but with the locks engaged it doesn’t open.
The phone camera is back in her hand, pointed through the window at me.
Her piercing blue eyes are blown wide with fury.
“You should be ashamed of yourself! You’re helping my husband cheat on me! ”
Zach is back, his hands on her shoulders as he forces her away from the passenger door again. Everything is muffled through the windows, but I can still hear what’s being said. “Nope, we’re not doing this. We’re divorcing, Brittanee.”
“You’re cheating on me!” she screams again. “Let go of me!”
“Jesus Christ, have you lost your fucking mind?!” Shoving his hands up through his dark hair, he spreads his arms wide in astonishment.
“We’ve been separated for two years! You’ve had another baby with a different man since you took off!
You tried passing that baby off as mine when we both knew there was no fucking way that was possible…
And you want to talk to me about cheating?
” He points over her shoulder to her car.
“You need to leave before I call the cops. This has gone too far—”
“You’ve manhandled me! I’ll have you arrested! I have it all on camera!”
“What you’ve got on camera is the entire encounter which showcases you stalking us and assaulting my girl first.” Digging into his pocket, he tosses the tiny metal disc into the ground at her feet.
“I’m assuming this AirTag belongs to you?
If I ever find out you’re tracking me, the girls, or Lou again, the next paperwork you get from the courts will be a goddamned restraining order. ”
The air leaves my lungs. Fuck, I’m shaking in my seat.
He crosses his arms over his chest, planting his feet wide. Standing between her and me. Protecting me. “Do you understand me?”
“I want to talk to her.”
“Absolutely not.”
“I have a right to know who is around my daughters—”
The laugh that bursts out of Zach is ugly and so foreign it sends shivers up my spine. Goosebumps break out over my skin. “You abandoned those daughters. Do not talk to me about what rights you have when you’re the one that chose to walk away. You replaced them. You replaced all of us.”