Chapter 22
ADELINE
Within thirty seconds of walking through the front doors of Zach’s ranch house, Amber grabbed my arm and hauled me two steps to the side. Her eyes were wide as she spun me to face her, muttering under her breath, “Tell me I’m not seeing things.”
I looked around at the vaulted ceilings and exposed beams, drinking in the wide, open space that was somehow simultaneously large and cozy. “I would love to tell you that, but I think we’re both seeing it. It feels a bit like we’re in a dream, doesn’t it?”
“This is a house?” she asked.
“I think technically, it’s a ranch house.”
“It’s not. It’s a compound,” she countered. “This property is huge.”
She wasn’t wrong on that front. Unfortunately, after being stuck in a car for nearly three hours, Jennifer and Lu were racing around wildly, requiring both Amber and I to stop gaping and start chasing. Jennifer screeched when she reached a long set of glass doors that opened up to the backyard.
“Is that a pool?” she screamed.
“It has a waterfall!” Lu shrieked back.
I strode over to stop them from crashing right through the glass, but honestly, as soon as I got my first glimpse of the yard, I almost shrieked too. It was more private resort than yard with a gigantic, sparkling blue pool, a waterfall, and a water slide.
Immediately, however, I noticed that every feature containing water had been fenced and gated—and it looked like a new install.
I stared at it for a moment, overwhelmed by the fact that he’d actually thought about that.
He had forgotten car seats but he added safety features to the pool. Points for Zach.
Amber, however, was squinting at the yard before she shook her head and turned to sweep her gaze across the expansive first floor of the house again.
It really was frightfully large, living areas fitting into one another like puzzle pieces, all open concept to a massive, farm-style kitchen that also opened up to the deck overlooking the yard.
“Okay,” Amber said slowly, turning back to me. “So he’s obviously not marrying you for your money.” She leaned closer to me. “I can’t believe he’s this rich. I mean, it’s not just me, right? This is beyond belief. Objectively.”
I wanted to laugh again, but I was speechless as I followed the girls around the house. Amber trailed behind us, all of us exploring the place from top to bottom. Finally, I shook my head. “It’s definitely not just you.”
Zach appeared at the top of a staircase, our luggage somehow balanced in his hands. Naturally, because the house wasn’t impressive enough, he was also carrying everything himself.
“The rooms are ready,” he said casually, but his tone didn’t help the place feel less like a small hotel rather than a house. “You’re welcome to come choose where you want to sleep.”
The girls shrieked and thundered up the sweeping wood-and-glass staircase toward him, but when I moved to follow, Amber stayed put. She looked up at Zach, a sweet smile spreading on her lips that told me she was trying to charm him into getting something. I just didn’t know what yet.
“I saw a guest house when we pulled in,” she said. “Just down the road. Do you think I could stay there?”
So that’s what she wants.
Zach paused halfway down the stairs. “You want the guest house? It’s got four bedrooms, so it might be a bit big—”
“I definitely want the guest house.” She paused, then smiled again and added, “You guys should have your space. This is a bonding trip, right?”
He considered her for half a second longer before he shrugged. “Sure, it’s up to you, but if you get scared out there all alone, don’t wake me up.”
“I won’t.”
Digging into his pocket, he pulled out a set of keys and tossed them to her. Then his features took on a stern sort of expression. For just a second, it was like I could see the father he would one day be to a teenager. “Just do me a favor and park your car where no one can see it.”
She frowned. “We’re in the middle of nowhere.”
The girls came tearing back down the stairs, screeching to a stop in front of me. Jennifer looked up with big eyes, already pleading before the words even came out of her mouth. “Can we each have our own room?”
I glanced at Zach, who immediately frowned like he hadn’t known there was any other option, but he nodded. “Sure.”
“I call the big one!” Jennifer shouted, spinning back around and taking off again.
Lu was hot on her heels. “No, I do!”
“You always take everything!”
“I do not!”
The door shut firmly behind Amber, letting me know that she was making a getaway before the argument could get out of hand, and I sighed but followed the girls and Zach up to the bedrooms. I shouldn’t have been surprised that having their own rooms would be such a big deal to them.
They’d been sharing ever since we’d left the Hamptons, but they were old enough to want their own space. Even so, it seemed unnecessary to dirty the bedding in two rooms and to have them argue about who got which one when it wouldn’t last anyway.
“You always end up in the same bed in the morning,” I said as I followed them into the hotly contested bedroom first. “Why don’t you just share this one?”
Lu crossed her arms. “No.”
“You said we can have our own,” Jennifer whined, fixing me with those puppy dog eyes all over again.
“This one and the one next door share a bathroom,” Zach said from the doorway, glancing at me. “They’re Jack and Jill.”
I sighed. “Fine.”
“Really?” Jennifer asked.
“Really,” I said.
They both squealed, then raced around the massive bedroom, through the bathroom, and into the next. It had started drizzling just after we’d arrived, but the storm was picking up now, droplets tapping softly against the windows.
I’d been hoping it would clear up so the girls could go to the pool, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen.
Bear, Zach’s dog, had even come in from the yard.
The huge German Shepherd sniffed at everything before he trotted over to the room where the girls had started some kind of game I couldn’t identify.
Zach turned to me, that dark blond hair as perfectly styled as always despite the fact that he’d just survived his first road trip with kids and juggled all our luggage by himself.
He was dressed casually today too, in jeans, a fitted black T-shirt that wasn’t doing me any favors, and his feet were suddenly bare.
“I can show you around,” he offered after just looking at me for an awkward beat. “They’ll be okay alone, right? I mean, they have Bear, but—”
“They’ll be fine.” I smiled, nodding in response to his offer. “I’d love to see the place. It’s beautiful, Zach. Honestly.”
“Thanks.”
I fell into step beside him when he moved further down the hallway, pointing out more bathrooms and bedrooms than seemed reasonable. Still trying to take everything in, I looked around like my head was on a swivel, surprised by how tasteful, but comfortable the place was.
The girls raced past with Bear, who seemed to be having the time of his life herding two children away from anything his dog brain deemed to be a threat. The balcony overlooking a more formal living room, for example, seemed to be completely off limits to them.
Zach and I walked in silence for a while, but once we went up yet another flight of stairs, I finally turned to him again. “How long have you had this place?”
He paused for a moment, like he had to think about it before the answer finally came to him. “About five years. I was closing a deal in Milwaukee and the client had a family emergency to attend to, so I had a few days to myself.”
“You didn’t just go back to Illinois?”
He shook his head, sliding his hands into his pockets and suddenly looking pretty sheepish for some reason. “Nah. I thought about it, but I’d never spent much time in Wisconsin before, so I gave myself a tour.”
“And what, you just stumbled on a massive ranch and bought it?”
“Pretty much.” The corners of his lips curved into a crooked grin. “Don’t laugh at me for this, but the place spoke to me. It’s quiet out here, you know?”
A door slammed downstairs right on cue, happy laughter and barking ringing out a moment later. “It was quiet. We might ruin that for you on this trip.”
Strangely, his grin widened instead of fading. “You’re not ruining anything. I think it’s been quiet for long enough. This is nice, having some life in the place.”
I nodded slowly, then glanced into a couple rooms when Zach pointed them out as an office and storage space. “What else are you hiding? A hotel in Hawaii, maybe? An actual resort in Florida?”
He chuckled, and the sound sent a warm, fuzzy feeling through me. “No, this is it, actually. The only home I own.”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “Are you serious?”
He glanced back at me. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know,” I teased. “All this time, I thought you still lived at home in your dad’s basement, but here we are, in a house the size of an apartment complex, and you’re telling me you haven’t bought any others?”
He laughed, but it wasn’t the polite or surprised laugh I’d been getting used to from him over the past few weeks. This sounded more like the Zach I remembered and hearing it again coated my insides with heat instead of just warmth.
God, I love his laugh.
“I never really had a reason to let go of the bachelor life until now,” he said, almost absently. “Alex keeps harping on about investing in real estate, but it seemed pointless, buying up so many places just to own them when I hadn’t even moved out of the Manor.”
“Are you happy there?” I asked, genuinely curious.
He and I hadn’t talked much since we’d signed the contract, and since he seemed a little more open to actually talking today instead of just switching into business mode, it was nice getting to know a little bit about his life now.
“I always thought you and Theo would end up being the last ones there. Although I thought Charlotte would be with you, if I’m being honest.”
He let out another chuckle that did funny things to my insides. “Yeah, she was. Until she married Trent Shepard. Do you remember him?”
“Alex’s friend?” I frowned. “Sort of. He’s from Texas, right?”
“Yep.”
“I’m surprised Alex let him run off with your little sister,” I said, smiling. “I honestly never saw that coming.”
He laughed. “None of us did, but desperate times called for desperate measures. It’s a story for another day, though.”
“Yeah, it feels like there are a lot of those.”
“There are,” he agreed, his voice a little quieter now. “It’s been a long time, though. A lot of things have changed.”
“Ain’t that the truth.” I folded my arms lightly as we walked, heading down a back staircase that deposited us back on the first floor.
The girls’ voices echoed faintly from down the hall, followed by the unmistakable sound of Bear skidding across hardwood floors. “Thanks for bringing us here, Zach. I mean it. The girls and I haven’t had a proper break for a long time.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, but not stiffly. “You’re all obviously free to go anywhere you want on the ranch. The house is yours. There are no rooms that are off limits or anything like that.”
“Thank you,” I said softly, meaning it to the deepest recesses of my being. “They’re already feeling at home here. It means a lot that you’re so welcoming to them.”
“Of course,” he said, then looked at me again. “Did you have a hard time getting off work?”
I glanced up into his eyes and let out a slow breath to steady myself. A couple days ago, I’d taken a leap of faith and now I was about to find out if it had been the biggest mistake I’d ever made. “I quit, actually. I’m going to start cataloging your family’s art. Like you suggested.”
“We’re really doing this, then?” he asked after a much longer pause than I would have liked and I couldn’t tell what he was feeling.
If he was happy or resigned. Terrified. Maybe all the above. But I wasn’t entirely sure what I was feeling either. There was definitely relief and more than a little bit of fear, but there were also a lot of other things.
“I guess we’re really doing this,” I said, the words feeling too small for something this big.
His gaze held mine for a second longer. Then he nodded, and unless I was very much imagining things, there might’ve been a hint of a smile forming on his lips before he ducked his head and started walking again.