Chapter 44
ADELINE
Amber came in clutch that night. Honestly, when she quit working for me, it was going to be a tragedy, but surprisingly, Theo turned out to be just as vital.
We were at Westwood Manor with him and Zach, the girls in awe of the size of the house and absolutely crazy about the massive yard. They were running around like overeager antelope who’d just been set free.
After letting them burn off some energy, Amber got to her feet and announced, “I’m taking them to a movie.” She glanced at Zach, who was lying on his bed with an ice pack and a mountain of supplements on the nightstand. “You need to recover and that’s not going to happen with those two around.”
She gave me a meaningful look as she picked up her purse. “Stay here and take care of him. I’ll get the girls to bed after the movie. Do not, under any circumstances, worry about us.”
“But—”
“Under any circumstances.” She widened her eyes pointedly at the ring sitting on my finger. “Your man needs to be nursed back to health and there’s probably a lot to talk about.”
“I’ll help,” Theo said, rising from the armchair he’d been lounging in and sweeping an arm toward the door. “Lead the way. Let’s give these guys some space. God knows, if they’re finally ready to talk to each other, I’m not standing in the way.”
“You were supposed to run with me today,” Zach said to him. “Babysitting is the least you could do for weaseling your way out of it.”
“And look like you tonight?” He scoffed. “Please. There’s no chance. Besides, I facilitated this reconciliation. You should be thanking me.”
“You used my and Adeline’s situation to get yourself out of the race,” Zach retorted. “You’re going to owe me forever. Who uses their brother’s broken heart as an excuse?”
“The same guy who helped repair that broken heart. Me.” Theo grinned proudly and turned to face me. “For the record, he signed me up for it without asking, but I’m glad I ran into you this morning. Life is going to be a lot easier around here without him moping around all day.”
Zach adjusted the ice pack on his knee. “I wouldn’t call it moping.”
Amber rolled her eyes at Theo. “Why did you wait so long? If you ask me, you should’ve done this weeks ago.”
“What do you know?” Theo asked, smirking as he ushered her toward the door. “You’re basically like their third child. How old are you even?”
“I’m not a child,” she said stubbornly, but her tone didn’t make her seem like any less of a teenager and she seemed to realize it. “I don’t need your help taking the girls to a movie, but if you insist, you’re paying.”
“Fine by me,” he agreed without even pretending to argue. When he reached the door, he turned back to wink at us. “Have fun, but not too much of it. His body is in a fragile state, so no—”
“Kids,” Amber hissed in warning when the girls came thundering down the hall. As they reached the door, she waved them in. “Say goodbye to Mommy and Zach, ladies. Uncle Theo and I are taking you out to a movie. He’s paying, so go all out tonight at the concession stand. Whatever you all want.”
Theo groaned. “Come on. That wasn’t part of the deal.”
“It is now.” Amber batted her lashes at him innocently. “You shouldn’t have implied that I was a child.”
“I didn’t imply anything,” he told her. “I straight up said it. Now let’s go. I’m driving.”
“You didn’t bring the motorcycle, did you?” Zach asked, sitting up.
Jennifer and Lu looked at each other with excitement, and I shook my head firmly. “Absolutely no motorcycles.”
Theo laughed. “I brought the car today.”
“Does it have car seats?” Amber asked. “Because if not, we’ll be taking my car, and I’ll drive.”
“Can’t we just move the car seats?” he asked.
Their banter kept up as they waved their goodbyes and left the room. The girls raced over and carefully embraced Zach before jumping onto my lap and smothering me in kisses. Once they were gone, I sighed, wondering if things were going to be awkward now.
The weight of the ring on my finger was still unfamiliar. The knowledge that it was his ring this time was mind-blowing. But it would only be awkward if we made it awkward.
My mind raced, but I took myself back a decade, to when he was my best friend and nothing had ever been complicated or awkward between us, and suddenly, I knew exactly what I would’ve done with this same man ten years ago.
That seems like a good place to start, our friendship.
I rose slowly and kicked off my shoes before climbing onto the massive bed with him. Thankfully, it was large enough that I could comfortably take up the space on the other side of the bed without touching him. I was too afraid that his body would give out if I came anywhere near him right now.
“What do you think?” I asked, inclining my head in the direction of the door. “Theo and Amber?”
“Nah.” Zach groaned under the ice pack. “He’s talking to her like he does Charlotte. I think he’s already adopted her as another niece.”
I chuckled. “That actually makes me feel better about letting them take off alone tonight. I know she’s going to Utah soon and that we won’t be there to watch over her, but I still worry.”
“So do I,” he admitted after a beat. “She really has started feeling like another kid in the house.”
“Don’t ever let her hear you say that,” I warned, but then I fell silent, simply looking around a bedroom I honestly never thought I’d see again.
Although the rest of the house hadn’t changed at all, Zach’s room was very different.
There were no more posters on the walls and no more clothes littering the floor.
The giant stereo that used to be on his dresser had been replaced by a tiny speaker and the schoolbooks that used to line his bookshelves were fiction novels now, adventure, and fantasy, and suspense.
“How are you feeling?” I asked when my gaze finally came back to him. “You’re looking a little better.”
“Yeah, I’m okay.” He pushed himself up into a sitting position as he said it, finally pulling the ice pack away and half-turning to look at me. He was still moving slowly and gingerly, but he wasn’t wincing anymore. “Are you?”
“You mean after your unintended PR stunt?”
“It wasn’t a stunt,” he objected, then groaned. “How many videos have been posted of us online?”
“Many.” I raked my phone closer. “Do you want to see?”
“No.”
“Neither do I. Amber told me that we’re trending, though.”
He sighed and squeezed his eyes shut. “That’s what I get for proposing in front of hundreds of people. I couldn’t wait, though.”
I reached over and wrapped my fingers gently around his, staring into those twinkling green eyes that seemed so happy despite the obvious exhaustion lining them. “I’m glad you didn’t. I was so scared to tell you how I felt. If you just walked away or said okay, I’m not sure I would have recovered.”
Fiancé. The word kept hitting me at random intervals like a dodgeball to the face. Zach Westwood is my fiancé.
“You were braver than me,” he said quietly after a beat. “I’m man enough to admit that. I’m not sure what Theo told you, but he’s been after me for weeks about just opening up.”
“So why didn’t you?”
He shrugged, then winced with the movement. “God, I need a new skeleton.”
“What you need is more electrolytes.” I reached for the glass on the nightstand and passed it to him, waiting until he’d taken a long drink before taking the glass to refill it.
As I moved to stand, he took my hand again, stopping me from climbing off the bed.
“I didn’t want you to feel like you had no choice, Adeline.
I guess part of me thought that if I told you how I felt, you’d feel obligated to say you felt the same way.
Either because of guilt or maybe just because you’d feel like you owed it to me.
All along, I’ve been wanting it to come from you.
I needed you to know our future was in your hands, but I suppose I could’ve been clearer about that. ”
I blinked a few times. “You’ve never made me feel like I have no choice, Zach. In fact, you have always been my only choice.”
After a long pause, I set down the glass and buried my face in my free hand. “Theo was right about us, huh? We really have been incredibly frustrating and stupid.”
He stared up at the ceiling for a moment before speaking again. “I was about to quit.”
Thrown by the sudden change of topic, I frowned, but I knew better now than to think he was trying to avoid anything. One way or another, this would circle back to us. “Quit what?”
“Toward the end of the race, during the last five miles, I slowed down. Everything just got too much for me all of a sudden. I was literally about to step off the route, but then I saw Lu. At first, I thought I hallucinated her because I was dying, but then I thought she’d run away again.”
“Oh my God.”
“She was flying on that bike, Adeline. It was beautiful, but also completely fucking terrifying.”
I chuckled and stroked my thumb across his knuckles. “She rode around for over an hour before she finally spotted you. Amber almost had a heart attack trying to keep up with her.”
“Over an hour?”
“She was determined to find you,” I admitted quietly. “I don’t think she’s ever been as excited to see anyone as she was when I told her we were going to your race today.”
He swallowed hard. “I’m trying really hard not to screw this up with them, but you’re right and so was Theo. I have been an idiot. All of this could’ve been avoided if I’d been honest.”
The vulnerability in his voice would’ve knocked me on my butt if I hadn’t already been sitting.
“You’re the best thing that has ever happened to them, Zach.
To me, too. We were both afraid and we had good reason to be.
The only thing that matters is that we’ve worked it out and we’re okay now. Right?”
He looked back at me, disbelief crossing his face before he moved to lean toward me and suddenly groaned, abruptly stopping the movement. “I’d kiss you, but I genuinely think my whole body would become a cramp.”
I scooted a little closer, gently lifting a hand to his jaw and brushing the faint stubble there with my thumb. His breath caught, his eyelids fluttering shut. “I’m not a hundred percent convinced any of this is actually happening.”
My hand stilled on his face. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m afraid I’m going to wake up in the hospital after collapsing during the race, and this is all going to turn out to have been a coma dream.”
“It’s not a coma dream.” I leaned forward, brushing my lips gently across his. “I love you, Zachary Westwood. I’m right here and I’m never going anywhere again. What can I do to help you believe it?”
“The kissing seems to be working,” he murmured against my lips and I smiled. “Kiss me again, Adeline.”
I pressed my lips to his just as his hand slid up to my waist. “Just so you know, we’re not doing anything more than this tonight, Zach. Theo was right. You’re in no state for what I want to do to you.”
His eyes popped open immediately. “You can’t say those kinds of things to me if all you want to do is kiss,” he argued lightly, brushing his lips across mine again. “You might have to do most of the work, but if you’re okay with that…”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You couldn’t.” He pulled me closer, deepening the kiss until my thoughts scattered and his breathing hitched again. “I really thought I’d lost you, Adeline. For so long, I thought you were gone.”
Tears filled my eyes, but I pressed my lips back to his and wrapped an arm around his neck. “I know. I thought the same thing, but we’re here, Zach. I was gone and so were you, but we found our way back together. We made it.”
“We made it,” he repeated after me, sounding as incredulous as I felt. “I love you.”
“I love you.” I smiled against his lips, letting the tears fall as we finally abandoned all pretense of talking.
His hand slid up my back, bringing me even closer. Although we moved slow, I lost myself in him entirely. Careful and reverent, I stripped him of the sweats he’d changed into after his shower earlier.
He stared at me like I was a dream come true when I slipped my sundress over my head and unhooked my bra, tossing them away without a care in the world. Right now, the only thing that mattered to me was him.
Zach kissed me with the intensity of a man possessed. His fingertips roamed over me as I straddled him and slowly sank down. Fully aware of every sound he made so I’d know if I accidentally hurt him, I rocked my hips carefully back and forth, my mouth never leaving his.
With the weight of his ring on my finger and finally, after all these years, the promise of a lifetime together, every little touch was electrifying, both of us completely absorbed in the other.
I didn’t know what the future would bring, but I now knew for an absolute fact that no matter what, Zach and I would always face it together.