Chapter 37 #2
“Which box has your sheets?” Zane asked, crossing my tiny new bedroom in three strides to open one of the two boxes that housed my entire life.
He found them on the first try, opening the cardboard flaps and pulling out the neatly folded white sheets adorned with tiny purple rosebuds.
The pattern mimicked the comforter in the guest room on the ranch, and I bought them because I wanted to keep a little piece of that with me.
“What’s this?” he asked, holding the bundle of sheets in one hand while reaching back into the box and—
“That is not for you,” I said, scurrying over the full-sized mattress that separated us to pull my journal out of his hand.
Zane smirked playfully and tossed the folded sheets to the mattress before clutching my journal to his chest. “Is this a book of your secrets?”
“You know my secrets,” I said with a laugh as my feet hit the floor and I lunged for my book. “But it has my private thoughts and stuff, and you’re not allowed to read them.”
“What kind of private thoughts?” he asked, wearing that same devilishly, playful smirk as he stretched his arm over his head—effectively keeping my journal out of my reach. “Private thoughts about me?” He waggled his eyebrows.
“You wish,” I teased with another laugh and jumped uselessly to try to reach my book.
Zane clutched his free hand over his heart and made a hurt sound.
“You wound me, princess.” His stretched-out arm relaxed some then, and I snatched my journal from his hand, marching it over to my nightstand and closing it away in the top drawer.
Seconds later, two large hands landed on my hips before Zane’s warm breath ghosted over the back of my neck.
Goosebumps rippled down my spine. “Just so you know…” His lips pressed against my heated skin. “…I would never betray your privacy.”
“I know,” I murmured, and loved how I could say that and truly mean it.
Because I did know. I knew that this man would never do anything to intentionally hurt me or harm me in any way.
The knowing was there in the way he looked at me, in the way he touched me, the way he held me.
The way he kissed me and empowered me every single day to take back what I lost—what was stolen from me by a lesser man.
I slowly spun in his arms just as he took a step back and turned, making the backs of his legs hit the bed.
He sat down on the bare mattress and pulled me with him.
I straddled his hips and pinched the brim of his cowboy hat between my fingers, gently pushing it back some so I could meet his gaze.
My heart tumbled over itself when his blue eyes, so full of adoration, met mine.
I went warm all over. “You’re really special to me, you know,” I said, tracing my finger along the outer edge of his face.
The corner of his mouth lifted. “Yeah?”
I nodded, capturing my bottom lip between my teeth as my heart started to thump wildly in my chest. “Zane, I…” My eyes moved away from his, darting over his face as all of those feelings I wanted to put into words clogged my throat. “I…I want to…tell you something.”
That corner of his mouth lifted even higher as he looked at me expectantly. “Another secret?” he asked, voice low and teasing.
A laugh bubbled out of me, but it came out sounding more nervous than amused. “I’m not really sure it’s a secret,” I said, sounding out of breath as my heart brutally banged against my chest. “I think it’s…kind of obvious.”
His smile softened. So did his eyes. “I’d like to tell you something, too,” he murmured, cupping my jaw in his calloused hand.
I closed my eyes and leaned into the touch, like it was the most natural thing to do, before twisting and pressing a kiss to his palm. “Zane, I’ve…” I wet my bottom lip and swallowed hard. “I’ve fa—”
“Please have clothes on!” Norah’s rushed voice sounded from just outside of my room seconds before she burst through the open door. “Oh, thank God,” she breathed, holding a hand over her heart before jabbing a thumb over her shoulder. “Mom’s looking for you.”
“What does she need me for?” Zane asked, grabbing my hips as I slid off of him—I was not about to stay straddling him like that in front of his sister—and pulling me back down onto his lap so my thighs draped across his.
“No, not you,” Norah said and then glanced over her shoulder as Lindy joined her in the doorway.
Lindy’s expression was…off.
So off that every nerve in my body sat up at once.
Zane must’ve felt it, too, because his hands tightened at my hips. A silent reassurance.
“Andi…” Lindy said, her maternal voice sounding a lot like heartbreak.
“Sweetheart…” And what she said next hit like a punch to the sternum, knocking the wind right out of me.
A cold, dizzying kind of hurt followed, stabbing in the center of my chest and spiderwebbing outward until even my fingertips felt numb.
I didn’t hear all of it. Not clearly. Her tenderly spoken words were distorted by the roaring in my ears.
For what felt like the longest time, I just sat there, staring at her mouth as it kept moving.
The room—my new room—felt like it was tilting, and if Zane wasn’t there, slipping his arm around my waist, I might’ve folded right there onto the floor.
He didn’t say anything. Didn’t have to. He just held me steady while Lindy’s news cracked something open inside me.
And all the while all I could think was: when it rains, it pours.
Except this time, the downpour wasn’t good.
Not even close.