Chapter 12
ADELINE
Sunday was a beautiful day and the girls and I were exploring the city on foot. I figured we’d burn off a bit more energy this way while simultaneously being free to discover little nooks and alleys we would otherwise never have spotted.
Cloudless blue skies stretched out overhead, the sun was shining, and the park we were at was bursting at the seams with happy families, artists, and pedestrians.
Since Amber took the weekends off to be young and free, I was alone with the kids.
Jennifer and I were desperately trying to teach Lu how to ride a bike.
We’d pushed it all the way here, navigating our way through the Sunday morning foot traffic with it in tow, but no matter what we did, Lu just didn’t seem to get it. Jennifer huffed out a breath. “You need to follow through with that foot too. It doesn’t work if you only use one.”
“The pedal is stuck,” Lu snapped, kicking her foot against the pedal in question. “Look, it’s not moving.”
“Because you’re not following through,” Jennifer countered, so exasperated that it looked like she was about to start tearing her hair out. “If your foot stops there, the pedal stops moving too. Push down on it.”
Their little tiff escalated when Lu hopped off the bike and jabbed a finger at it. “Fine, you try then. We’ll see if you can do it!”
Jennifer sighed and swung one leg over the seat. With no issues at all, she took off and rode a few yards forward. She twisted in her seat to widen her eyes at her sister. “See? There’s nothing wrong with it.”
“There’s something wrong with you!” Lu spat furiously, then stomped her foot, spun, and sprinted away.
Shit.
“Stay put,” I said to Jennifer, already jogging backward so I wouldn’t completely lose sight of her sister. “Just stay at this playground, okay?”
I pointed at the brightly colored equipment right beside us and then turned around, racing after Lu. “Stop! Lauren Caroline Weatherby, stop right there!”
Unfortunately, Lu was both fast and headstrong, and she didn’t listen at all. My heart nearly stopped when she ran right onto a path where a group of runners were pretty much sprinting flat out right for her.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Lu still didn’t stop, her blonde ponytail disappearing as she kept running straight into the pack of supremely focused, fully grown adults. My palms started sweating, panic overwhelming my senses as tears sprung to my eyes.
I knew better than to think the worst, but I couldn’t help it. They’re going to trample her. They’re going to crush her airway and—
The next thing I knew, before I’d even reached the path even at a full sprint of my own, the runners had passed and there he was. Zach was holding a wriggling, furious Lu by her overalls like she was a fish and he was posing for a picture.
I threw my hand up over my heart and willed it to calm down as I struggled to catch my breath. Oh, thank God. Thank. God.
Zach and his brother, Theo, cut across the path to come over to me instead of racing to catch up with the others. Theo had just turned twenty-one when I’d last seen him, which would put him at almost thirty now, but he still looked exactly the same.
Dark hair, deep green eyes, a boyish grin that was out in full force right now. His handsome face, as chiseled as his brother’s, was beet red, but he was positively beaming at me.
Zach, on the other hand, was more subdued and only a little flushed. He carried Lu all the way to me, only setting her down when they were a couple feet away. “Lose something?”
“Thank you,” I gushed before I could even think about reining it in. “You saved her life. Seriously, thank you.”
“It was nothing,” he said easily. “She came right at us. She’s fast, though. And she does not pay attention to where she’s going.”
“Maybe she can take my place in this ridiculous Sunday morning running club Zach made me join,” Theo said. “Hey, Adeline. Good to see you, by the way.”
I laughed, so relieved in so many ways that I didn’t even try to hold it back. “Hey, Theo, and I’m sure she’d love to, but it doesn’t look like Zach agrees.”
He was frowning a little, but it was pretty obvious that he was trying to hold back a laugh too. “I didn’t make you do anything. What happened to you wanting to get more cardio?”
Theo waved a hand like he didn’t have a clue what Zach was talking about. “I just wanted to find time to move a little more during the day. Sprinting from one continent to the next was never on my agenda.”
Zach rolled his eyes, his head shaking as he pushed his fingers through his damp blond hair and kept bickering with his brother. “What are you talking about? We’ve only run two blocks. When did you get so dramatic?”
Meanwhile, Lu was inspecting Zach with interest, but from afar as she crept back to the playground, clearly seeing how far she could get without me noticing.
Leaving the Westwoods to an argument that seemed like it was continuing rather than beginning, I pointed toward Jennifer.
“Go back to your sister. I’ll meet you there in a minute. ”
She stuck her tongue out at me even though she’d been heading in that direction anyway, but then sprinted off before I could scold her for it. I sighed, and when I looked back at the Westwoods, they’d stopped arguing and were both now looking at me.
“I’ll go watch them,” Theo offered precisely one awkward beat later. “You guys take your time.”
He gave me a quick smile, then started literally running, and not walking, away from us, making it brutally clear that he was giving us a few minutes to talk alone. Still shaken, I turned back to Zach, but instead of talking about our predicament, he just glanced toward the playground.
“She’s a force, huh?”
“Lu? Yeah, she’s driving me crazy.” What I didn’t tell him was that I was seriously starting to think that she might actually hate me and that the expensive therapy sessions I’d been taking both girls to weren’t helping.
“She’s really not adjusting well to the move.
I thought maybe homeschooling them until they could start fresh in a new schoolyear would help ease the transition, but there’s been a lot of change for them to adapt to. ”
He nodded. “I’m sure it’s hard for her, being this far away from her dad.”
I swallowed past a lump forming in my throat as I tried to decide what to tell him. He was clearly fishing for information and I knew it, but that left me with a couple of options. Either I could open up and be honest, or I could just say yes and move on.
My pride wanted me to try to hang onto any shred of dignity I could find, which would mean brushing this off, but in my heart, I knew that being truthful was the only option.
After everything I’d put him through, I owed him the truth, and with our families in the kinds of talks they were currently participating in, it was only a matter of time before he’d find out anyway.
“Honestly, Louis was hardly around for her,” I explained quietly, trying not to notice the intensity that sharpened his gaze when I said it.
“As soon as we found out she was a girl, he lost interest. With Jennifer, he used to be a little more involved, but he… had other things going on when Lu was young.”
“That must be hard for her too,” he said after pausing for a few seconds. “It can’t be easy. You and I both know what it’s like if your dad is so busy at that age.”
“Of course, but I think she’s also upset with me because I’m not around so much anymore,” I said, deciding to stick with my honesty policy.
“I used to be at home with them all day, every day, except for when they were at school, but even then, I’d be the one who got them ready and dropped them off, and I also picked them up when they were done.
She’s not loving that I have to keep office hours now. ”
He nodded. We turned to watch Theo push Jennifer on the swings while Lu pouted at the very top of a structure made to look like a rocket. I felt a sad smile spread on my lips as I looked at her, sitting up there all alone with her knees pulled up to her chest and her chin resting on them.
“She’s great when she wants to be, but I’m afraid I’ve ruined her life,” I said softly, my voice cracking no matter how hard I tried to keep it even. “All she wants to do right now is learn to ride a bike and I just… she’s not getting it.”
“I can teach her,” Zach said, then closed his lips tight, like he hadn’t mean to say it.
When I looked back at him, I didn’t accept or turn down his offer right away, instead just watching his eyes for a moment.
A myriad of emotions played out behind them, and although I could tell he was still trying to keep them all a secret, seeing them there made me say out loud what had been on my mind for the last few days.
“You can’t want this, Zach.” He glanced at me, his mouth already opening, but now that I’d started, I was intent on getting it all out. “I mean, marrying someone with this much baggage just because I need a savior.”
He scoffed. “You don’t have baggage and I’m no savior.”
“I have two daughters who are… really going through it,” I said on a soft sigh. “Marriages like this don’t happen in our world.”
“Then we’ll be the first.” He was staring at Jennifer as he said it.
She was running toward us while Theo seemed to be doing his best to convince Lu to come down from the rocket. As far as I could tell, Lu was resistant to his charms.
Jennifer ran straight up to Zach, and I knew before she even said anything that she was about to tattle. I just thought it would be about her sister, but nope. “Theo is using naughty words.”
Zach didn’t hesitate for even a second, nodding down at her like he was taking this precisely as seriously as she was. “Tell him he has to give you twenty dollars for every bad word he’s said so far. Don’t take no for an answer.”
Jennifer grinned up at him, and for just a minute, I let myself wonder what my life would’ve been like if I’d had the opportunity to choose for myself in the beginning. Because I would’ve chosen him. I knew that as well as I knew my own name.
Zachary Westwood had been it for me. I never would’ve chosen anyone else if the choice had been mine and mine alone.