9. Zane
9
ZANE
Z ane jumped out of his brother’s truck as soon as it pulled to a stop in front of Stone’s Creamery, and hoisted a three-gallon tub of ice cream out of the bed to carry into the shop.
“Slow down there, brother,” Tripp called out to him, laughing. “At least give me a chance to unlock the shop first.”
Zane scowled, feeling like a complete idiot. It was just so hard to get out of his own head tonight. He was still so mad. As he backed up to give Tripp room to get to the door, he took a second to look around at the little village.
All of the shops were decked out in Christmas lights that reflected merrily in the snow that still frosted the rooftops and window frames. The pavilion in the park was hung with boughs of holly and strung with even more lights.
The whole town seemed to be filled with a sense of holiday optimism and wonder that was at complete odds with Zane’s dark mood.
Why am I letting this get to me? She said it herself—they won’t do anything unless I ask for it.
But the idea that this tiny woman had only come marching into town a few days ago, and already thought she could break all the rules and shake things up was just too much.
“She’s under my skin,” he muttered.
“What’s that?” Tripp asked as he pushed open the door to the ice cream shop.
Tripp’s eyes were twinkling, like he was getting a kick out of Zane being so out of sorts. It only made Zane angrier.
“Nothing,” he growled.
“Listen, I love that you’re here helping out,” Tripp said, stopping in his tracks. “But if you need a minute, you can sit out in the truck, and I’ll finish up.”
“Thanks, but I’m good,” Zane said, shaking his head as he stepped into the warm shop. “It’s not your fault.”
“Of course it’s not,” Tripp said, flipping the light switches and revealing the interior of the shop. “I’m always a joy to be around. But seriously, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Zane said, looking at the art and photos on the walls. “Nothing.”
Last year, his little sister Allie’s friend, Charlotte, had come here and transformed the place. Then she and his brother Tag had fallen madly in love. Now he couldn’t look at the new and improved shop without thinking about his new and improved brother.
Could something like that happen to me?
But that thought was out of the question.
“Are you sure nothing’s going on?” Tripp asked, arching a brow.
“Fine,” Zane said, hefting the massive tub of ice cream into one of the freezers. “It’s this new teacher.”
“The total smoke show you told me about?” Tripp asked, grinning.
“What she looks like doesn’t matter,” Zane said, marching back out into the cold for another barrel. “It’s what she did.”
His cheeks heated, but he was sure it was just from hefting the heavy containers, not from thinking about that annoyingly beautiful woman.
“What did she do?” Tripp asked, following.
They each grabbed another tub and headed back into the warmth of the shop.
The ice cream was heavy, but it was nothing compared to the other work on the farm. Zane wished he had some real physical labor to do right now—something that would exhaust him enough to make this anger lift.
He placed the ice cream in the freezer and headed back for the door before remembering that there wasn’t any more.
“You’re going to tell me on the way back,” Tripp told him as he locked up.
“Fine,” Zane said.
They hopped into the truck and buckled up. The radio came on as Tripp started the engine, and Dolly Parton’s sweet voice sang “Hard Candy Christmas” until Tripp reached over and turned it off.
Tripp pulled out of the parking spot, and Zane set his eyes on the twinkling lights on the shop windows.
“She wants to put the boys in the same class,” he said finally, as Zane turned onto Moose Avenue.
“That sounds awesome,” Tripp said, nodding. “Think how much fun we would have had in class together.”
He turned onto Red Oak, and they passed the park from the opposite side. The ice cream shop looked so small from here.
“Agreed,” Zane said. “But she barely knows them. And there’s a rule that twins can’t be in the same class.”
“She talked to you about it though, right?” Zane asked.
“Not until after she went to the principal,” Zane said. “She told her Cal needed help socially, so they should make an exception to the rule.”
He chose not to share that Nick might need help with his schoolwork. That would feel like a betrayal to share right now, even with his uncle, who’d had his own troubles in school.
“What the heck?” Tripp said, sounding angry.
Zane felt a tiny fraction of his own tension slip, now that his brother was mad too. He wasn’t being unreasonable.
“She’s been his teacher for like a week,” Tripp said angrily.
“Two days,” Zane corrected him.
“Seriously,” Tripp said, shaking his head, as they turned right onto Fox Hollow and headed for home. “That’s outrageous. Are you going to complain to Chittenden?”
“The new teacher already talked to her about my kids,” Zane said, shaking his head. “I’m not going to make it worse by going in and making a lot of noise too.”
“Making noise isn’t your thing anyway,” Tripp said. “You could just send an email.”
Zane nodded. He actually felt a pang at the idea of complaining, even though he was furious. The young woman did seem like she thought she was doing something good, even if she had missed the mark by a lot.
“Maybe,” he said.
“I can’t believe she thinks she can come in here and tell you what’s best for your kids,” Tripp went on. “You know what you’re doing.”
“Thanks, man,” Zane said.
The truth was, he wasn’t always so sure he did. Being a father to his boys was the greatest gift he had ever been given. But parenting was challenging at every turn. He hadn’t realized until he was in the trenches himself that half the time you couldn’t even take a second to consider your options. Decisions, big and small, were constantly being made on the fly—for better or for worse. And when he lay in bed each night, staring at the ceiling and considering the day, he often looked back and thought about a hundred ways he could have done better.
His best hope was to play the odds, and hope that his prayers, his best efforts, and his fierce desire to help his boys would be enough for him to do the right thing most of the time, and for the two of them to grow up happy and strong.
But when he looked at Cal’s shyness, so much like his own, and Nick’s struggles in school, though he knew the boy was bright, he had to wonder if he was failing them in some way.
And what if he was? That still didn’t mean that some random woman could come storming in and fix it all in a heartbeat.
“She thinks she can just break all the rules,” he murmured.
“Well, she thinks she can break two rules,” Tripp said. “The twin rule, and the rule of respecting the parent.”
Zane didn’t mention the third rule he’d found himself thinking about more and more over the past few days.
That one was his own.
No dating until the twins are grown.
It was unspoken, but he was pretty sure his brother knew it anyway. Plenty of other people in town had tried to set him up over the years, and Tripp never did more than tease him about the ladies chasing him.
And it wasn’t like Zane had ever been in any real danger of breaking that particular rule. The boys and his work kept him so busy he honestly didn’t have the energy left to worry about dating.
But there was something about Miss Hawthorne.
He couldn’t stop thinking of her bright blue eyes and that cute little sprinkle of freckles. And even though he didn’t like the way she was going about it, she really was trying to help Nick and Cal. The idea that she had marched right into Chittenden’s office to fight for his boys… well, now that he was cooling off a little, he couldn’t help feeling some begrudging respect.
Maybe she’s not that bad after all…
And the more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt about the way he had spoken to her. Zane generally got even quieter than usual when he was angry. It was usually easier for him to just shut down than to engage.
But for once, he’d felt comfortable enough to speak up and give someone a piece of his mind. And now he was starting to feel an ache in his chest over it.
Her intentions were good, just like mine always are.
He felt a wave of compassion and his mind showed him a picture of her this afternoon, her cheeks flushed with excitement, blue eyes sparkling while she told him what she had done. She was so determined and so…
Beautiful.
The thought made him feel angry, like she had bewitched him somehow, but that wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t done anything even close to flirting with him. It was clear that she was focused on her work.
She was probably the only single woman in Sugarville Grove who didn’t have some plan to fix the broken man they all thought he was.
Instead, she was trying to fix his boys.
“I don’t know why she doesn’t see that being on his own isn’t hurting Cal,” he heard himself say.
“There’s nothing wrong with being a little quiet,” Tripp said, nodding in agreement.
Zane knew Tripp wasn’t just talking about Cal.
He felt a wave of gratitude for his open-hearted brother who said exactly what was on his mind at all times. Zane didn’t have a good enough way with words to explain to Tripp that his well-expressed anger had made him feel better about his own.
“Thanks,” he told him instead, knowing that Tripp would understand.