Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Zander
Addie
Have you seen the USB with all my book research? I can’t find it.
Addie
Obviously no worries in this moment. Bigger fish to fry and all that. Just hoping I left it at your place because it is NOWHERE
I don’t recall seeing it, but I still go back up to my apartment when I get the text. According to Addie, Gran has some elaborate plan for the council meeting today. I choose to dwell on that and not the other news Addie shared with me. Your grandma’s getting laid!
While I am happy for her, I sincerely hope I never have to hear that phrase ever again.
I search every surface in my apartment, Lucy following along, sniffing my hands whenever I move something. She’s not a great search dog, but she is the best companion.
“Okay, let’s go, girl,” I say and leash her up again. “I wish I didn’t have to use you as a prop, but you don’t mind, right?” Lucy pants and licks my arm in response. I take it as a yes. “That’s my girl. You’ll make them like me, I know you will.”
I don’t know what the line between trustworthy dog dad and creepy serial killer luring you away with a dog is…but I’m hoping I lean more towards the former.
Lucy hops into my car and makes herself at home on the backseat. I thread the seatbelt through her harness and make sure she’s secure, then give her a good pat. She scrambles to kiss every inch of my face.
“Let’s do this thing, Luce.”
I shut the door and circle to the driver’s side. My heart pounds in my chest as I sit in front of the steering wheel. Today feels like a make or break kind of day. I can only hope I won’t be making the drive back here tonight with a broken heart.
I text Addie once I can no longer hear my pulse roaring in my ears.
Zander
I looked around. Couldn’t find it. Heading over now!
The half hour drive gives me a lot of time think.
By the time I pull into Addie’s driveway, I’ve thought up at least twenty unhinged scenarios for today’s meeting.
Each one a little less plausible than the one before, but not impossible.
I roll my shoulders and exit the vehicle. Lucy paws at the window.
“Don’t worry, I would never forget about you,” I say, unhooking her from the seat.
She bounds out of the car and up to Adelaide’s front porch, whinnying to be let in. I grab my laptop bag from the backseat. Addie is at the door, wearing an obnoxious shirt embroidered with the words Team Zander. I laugh.
“What is that?”
“Would you prefer I be team Edward?”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“Okay, so after Gilmore Girls, it’s the Twilight Saga for us.”
She lets me into the house and bends down to give Lucy the attention she craves. I drop my bag on the bench beneath the stairs. Lucy circles Addie’s legs, then stretches up on her thighs. Addie laughs at the sloppy kisses.
“Lucy missed you,” I say, which is a thinly veiled confession of how much I missed her in my space. And how much I dread today.
“I missed her, too,” she whispers, but she meets my gaze for it, all soft lines and glassy eyes. Something heavy passes between us. She straightens and wraps her arms around me. “You’re okay, Zander. We’re good. Nothing changes.”
I exhale and it feels like the first time I’ve been able to breathe in days. My shoulders relax. The permanent ache in my neck disappears. I hold her close and kiss her forehead.
“I love you,” I say on a sigh.
“Hey, Addie!” Willow calls, jogging down the stairs and tensing me up all over again. Addie rubs a hand between my shoulders as Lucy lets out a sharp bark. Willow takes in the scene and snorts. “Yeah, so, what’s the big deal with this USB? Do you not have a backup?”
“I do. Kind of,” Addie says, reluctantly pulling away from me. She purses her lips and lets the anxiety over the situation show. “But they’re just emails, pictures, and notes all over. The USB was my centralized place. It would take forever to compile everything again.”
Willow shrugs, like this is nothing. “Can’t help you then. Haven’t seen it. You should be smarter with your research next time.”
Addie moves to respond, but no words come out of her mouth before Willow vanishes somewhere in the house.
From what little I’ve seen of Willow, this seems to be her pattern.
She’ll say something snarky, then disappear.
And speaking as someone who’s lived the bitter and run kind of life, I do hope she figures herself out, just maybe not at Addie’s expense.
I pull Addie to my side, snaking an arm around her waist. “How much time do we have?”
She looks down at the screen of her watch and wakes it up. “Few hours. We could just hang out for a bit, watch TV or something to take our minds off everything. Peggy told me her plan, but if you have any ideas I’m open to them.”
“No, I—Gilmore Girls, right?”
It’s shockingly normal to curl up with Adelaide on her couch after days of uncertainty.
I know it’s short lived. This could be the last time we ever do it if Gran’s plan fails.
So I hold Addie close and linger on the way her mouth moves as she lets me know she’ll judge me for which person I decide is best for Lorelai and Rory.
Time slips away with her in my arms. I try to pay attention to the show and the fun facts Addie throws my way every few minutes, but I’m memorizing the shape of her body against mine.
I’m counting the constellation of freckles across her cheeks.
I’m noting the shades and highlights of red in her hair. I’m—
“Can you stop being so angsty, dude?” Addie says. She twists in my arms, her leg hooking around mine. “I’m not going anywhere. I already told you; you’re not breaking up with me. That goes for everyone else. They are not breaking us up.”
I place a hand beneath her chin, tilt her face further toward mine, and channel everything into a kiss. She returns it with a ferocity that sends want shooting through my body. Want and desire for our future together. When she pulls back, my head spins at the smirk on her lips.
“This is not our last kiss,” she whispers, a breath away.
“I know it’s not,” I say. I run my thumb over her bottom lip. “I refuse.”
A wicked grin transforms her features, and my God, I love her. If it wasn't totally insane, I’d get down on one knee right now and solve our problem with legal documentation that this town cannot get rid of me. Instead, I kiss her again.
“Addie, I gotta go! Can you get this dog out of the way?” Willow shouts from the foyer.
We separate with a groan. I call for Lucy, but she doesn’t come, so I wind up at the front door with Willow.
She side eyes me as I crouch next to my fluffball who has zero interest in her.
Lucy sniffs and scratches at my computer bag like I have the motherlode of treats inside.
At most, I have a sleeve of arrowroot cookies or a granola bar, both things she is generally disinterested in.
“What’d you find, Luce?”
I unzip the front pocket of the bag. I keep my computer cord and spare phone charger in there.
But among the white wires is something bright pink.
I breathe out. Huh. I take back everything I said about Lucy being a poor search dog, because here in my hand is Addie’s USB stick.
I have a split second of joy that my dog is so smart before…
A gasp sounds next to me and I catch a flash of dark red hair, darker than Addie’s, more artificial. “It was you.”
Willow stares down at me. I know how it looks. The USB was in the front pocket of my bag and now it’s in my open palm. There’s a chain of actions that leads to this point, coupled with my past and…I know how the dots connect. I also know they’re wrong. But I’m powerless to stop them.
“No, it wasn’t.” I straighten, but Willow’s a few inches shorter than Addie and it just looks like I’m trying to intimidate her. I take a step back. “I promise I didn’t take this. Maybe I just didn’t search hard enough. Addie might have dropped it in here on Wednesday.”
Willow laughs, ugly and incredulous. It makes goosebumps rise on my forearms.
“Are you serious? Do you know how that sounds?” She turns away from me. “People like you don’t change. Addie!”
Oh shit.
It’s all going to burn down around me, isn’t it?
Addie walks into the foyer like she would rather be anywhere else in the world.
She crosses her arms over her chest and tilts her head.
Her eyes flick between me and Willow like we’ve orchestrated some major betrayal.
I wait for the other shoe to drop when I should be the one getting ahead of this.
I could claim I just found the stick, which isn’t wrong.
It’s just not the story Willow is already weaving.
“What’s up?” Addie asks.
“I found out what happened to your research,” Willow says, then pauses dramatically.
Addie blinks in confusion before her eyes snag on the bright pink.
My fingers close around it because I can’t ever make anything better, not when I’ve been conditioned to run and hide and lie when things go wrong. “He took it.”
I haven’t done anything wrong this time, and yet, I’m resigned to Willow’s words. He took it. Who will believe I didn’t?
Addie’s chin wobbles. She walks toward me and holds her hand out for the stick. I drop it into her palm. I swallow. There’s a lump in my throat that won’t allow me to form words. I damn myself with every second I say nothing.
But I say nothing.
How fucking ironic I would memorize her for three episodes, then ruin everything.
“Zander.” Addie’s voice breaks on my name. Her eyes shift behind me, brows furrow. She reaches out and latches onto my forearm. “Come with me.”
She takes me out to the backyard, pushes me onto the patio, two hands against my chest. I stumble and catch myself by chance on her patio umbrella. She bites back a smirk as she slides the door closed behind her.
“Is she watching?” Addie whispers.
I don’t move. I squint into the house, trying to make it look like I’m mad at her. I nod.
“I thought so. Fight with me.”
“What?”
“You didn’t do this.” Addie speaks low and hurriedly. “I believe you didn’t do this. It has Willow written all over and, like, why would you even? What reason would you have to take Camp X research when you’re working on a book about a murder on Lake Superior set in the current century?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t act all confused just fight with me.”
I take a deep breath. I don’t know if I can do this.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to pass out. Addie waves her hands at me, like she’s waiting for an explanation.
She mouths an I love you my way. The difference in the character she’s playing and the woman she is is so jarring.
I open my mouth to start a few times, but still, nothing comes out. She shakes her head.
“Say something,” she commands.
“You think I did this?” I blurt. I’m not a good actor, but I channel everything I felt in that moment her eyes landed on the USB. There’s raw hurt in my voice and it brings tears to Addie’s eyes, which I immediately regret. I reach out to her, but she steps away. “Addie.”
“I trusted you,” Addie says, using the tears to her advantage, letting the rasp take over her voice. “I shouldn’t have trusted you.”
I close my eyes. I know she doesn’t mean it, but it kills me. I know I’ll hear the words in her voice for as long as I live.
“Addie, you have to understand—”
“What? What do I have to understand?”
I don’t know how to finish the sentence. I look skyward, unsurprised that the heavens are mad today as well. The dark clouds rolling into Beaver Creek confirm everything I’ve ever thought about superstition. I focus on the yellow siding of her house.
“Addie, please,” I say, then spot Lucy at the door. “Willow’s gone.”
“Fuck,” Addie says. She fully deflates and sits down on her stone steps. “Fuck her. I knew she was doing something. I figured it out today: she’s doing everything in her power to make you leave because she knows I’ll go with you. She wants the house.”
“Even now?”
Addie laughs, sadly. I join her on the step and she moulds herself against me.
“I’m not sure I’d want to stay here without you,” Addie admits.
She turns my hand over and runs her fingers along the lines along my palm, like she’s reading my future.
“This house is so big and empty. In my dreams of the future, it’s filled with you and us and Lucy and, I don’t know, whatever else comes along.
If she got her way, I’d leave because this place would be forever tainted. ”
“But it’s not.”
“No. And we have a fight to win.” She stands, pockets the offending USB stick, and holds out her hand.
I take it.