Chapter 15
Zach
Zach popped the lid off of a gallon of paint and grabbed a stir stick.
He could paint walls. He’d never done it before, but the video he’d watched online promised that taping the edges was the hardest part.
He’d gotten that out of the way last night, and all that was left to do was the actual painting.
How hard could it be? Dip the paint roller in the pan, roll it around, put it on the wall. It would be a piece of cake.
He stuck the stir stick into the goopy paint just as his phone rang where it sat on the floor beside him. Why was Lauren calling him? She’d told him last night that she had to work at the shelter today.
He answered the call and pressed the speakerphone button. “Hello.”
“Hey, are you busy?” Her tone held a hint of urgency—an edge of nervousness she rarely showed.
“You know exactly what I’m doing today. I just started on your first order of business.”
“Could I please borrow your truck for the day? My car won’t start. Gage is coming to look at it, but I need to get going.”
Zach pulled the stir stick out of the paint and replaced the lid. “I’m on my way. I’ll drive.”
She let out a bone-deep sigh. “Thank you. You have no idea how much I appreciate this.”
“No problem.”
He grabbed the keys and slid a cap onto his head as he walked out the door.
When he started the truck, something made him pause.
A weird buzzing energy hummed through his entire body.
Lauren had called him when she needed help.
She’d asked Gage for help with her car, but who else had she called for help? Was Zach the first call or last resort?
Whatever the case, the idea that Lauren needed him caused a physical reaction he couldn’t control.
No one had ever needed him before. He’d never wanted to be needed.
For some reason, hearing Lauren’s desperation, then her relief when she realized he’d help, did something to him that he couldn’t explain.
He shifted into gear and headed toward Lauren’s house. Whether she’d called him first or third, he wanted to be the only one she needed. Would she ever trust him enough for that?
The tight rubber on the steering wheel heated as he gripped and twisted it in his hands.
She shouldn’t trust him. He wasn’t good enough for her.
Not even close. She was so far out of his league.
She was orbiting the sun, and he was hanging out with Pluto.
He was the dog who ate the scraps from her table.
Ugh. What was he doing? She needed a ride, not a kidney. He was reading way too much into this, and it was all her fault. She was making him soft.
Lauren was standing on the porch with her purse strap over her shoulder when he pulled up. She was wearing a fitted beige sweater and brown slacks with her dark hair falling over her shoulders. She was ready for a business meeting, and he was dressed for a day of messy physical labor.
She jogged to the truck and hopped into the passenger seat, tucking her purse beside her. “Thanks so much for this. I really owe you one.”
“What are you up to today?”
She tucked her hair behind her ears and rested back against the seat.
“I have to go to Blackwater Restoration to pick up a bunch of stuff. A new family came in yesterday, and they need winter clothes. A mom and five kids. Whew.” She turned around in her seat to look out the back window.
“I hope the bed is cleaned out because I don’t know where I’m going to put a complete wardrobe for six people.
Oh, and they need stuff for the baby. Car seat, crib, diapers.
Actually, I don’t think this stuff would have fit in my car anyway. ”
“You were going to do that by yourself?” Zach asked.
“Yeah. Then I need to go to the shelter and meet with them before I run by the library and make sure everything is set up for the author signing they have going on tomorrow. This will be the new librarian’s first event, and she’s nervous.”
“And you volunteered to help because you’re the nicest person on the planet. Seriously? You can’t pass up a chance to help someone, can you?”
She settled into her seat and folded her hands in her lap. “If I don’t, who will?”
Zach glanced over at her. There she was, carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders again. Should he remind her that she wasn’t a superhero or congratulate her for being a saint?
They parked in front of the thrift store and got out.
“You don’t have to come in,” Lauren said as they headed for the door.
“I think I do. You’re planning on buying out the store, so I guess I’ll be the one carrying it.”
She flashed her gorgeous smile at him as he held the door open for her. “You’re so sweet.”
“Not sweet,” he corrected. She was getting the wrong impression, and he needed to pump the brakes on the cute talk.
She pinched his cheek and scrunched her nose. “Adorable.”
“Ugh. Stop it already. I’m the opposite of sweet. I’m bitter.”
“Two things can be true,” she said, practically skipping into Blackwater Restoration.
Within seconds, he was in charge of the cart while she tossed clothes and shoes into it. When she’d gathered a mound of things for the family, she sent him to the register.
A dark-haired woman appeared through a door behind the counter as he approached. Her eyes widened when she spotted the rounded-up cart. “Wow. You’ve been doing some major shopping today.”
Zach started putting the clothes on the counter. “Lauren said to tell you these are for the shelter.”
“Oh! Perfect. No charge.” She extended a hand over the counter. “I’m Camille Harding. I co-own this store and manage the shelter. Lauren is absolutely amazing. I don’t know what I would do without her.”
“You and half the town. I’m Zach.”
Camille rolled her eyes, but her smile stayed in place. “I know who you are.”
“You do?” Uh-oh. If she was friends with Lauren, then she knew about what he’d done to her. That wasn’t ever a good first impression.
“Of course. I’ve been friends with Lauren since long before you came into the picture. Plus, I’m an attorney. We’ve met in the courtroom before.”
Yikes. Double bad first impression. “Now I don’t have to tell you my life story. You already know everything about me.”
Camille shrugged. “Pretty much. I’m especially interested in this new dynamic between you and Lauren. She’s pretty sure about you.”
“She doesn’t know anything. I’m just a bad influence waiting to happen.”
“Ha! You couldn’t be a bad influence on Lauren Vincent if you tried. That woman knows who she is, and she’s rooted in her faith. Good luck shaking that tree. She’ll be influencing you if you’re not careful.”
Zach would fall in a pit of vipers before he’d admit this stranger was right, but Lauren was definitely smoothing out some of his rough edges.
He’d never met anyone as sure about her faith as Lauren, and as far as he’d seen, she couldn’t be bought.
She didn’t lie or treat people unfairly.
There was a reason he called her angel. Lauren Vincent was straight from heaven—perfect and radiating light.
Lauren walked up and jumped right into a conversation with Camille. When the clothes were bagged up, he loaded the bed of the truck and made three more trips before Lauren was satisfied with their haul.
At the shelter, he carried the bags of clothes inside, lining them against a wall in the room Lauren indicated while she met with the family.
With four beds, four dressers, and a small TV in one corner, the place looked move-in ready.
When he’d finished the job, he found a seat in the lobby and waited for Lauren.
Had his mom run to a shelter like this? Or had she gone to the grocery store and just decided to keep on driving? If she’d taken Zach and his brothers with her, would someone like Lauren have helped them get on their feet?
It didn’t matter. If the woman who’d given birth to him was selfish enough to leave without him, she wouldn’t have been a good mother whether she had help or not.
The clicking of heels on the tile floor had Zach lifting his head. Lauren strode toward him, but a somberness covered her usual smile. Seeing what the evil of the world did to innocent people pulled the glow out of her eyes.
“Thanks so much for waiting. Can you still take me to the library?”
Zach stood but kept his chin down. “Sure.”
The library looked a lot different in the daylight. It could have been any other building in Blackwater, but driving into the parking lot had sweat beading on Zach’s neck.
Lauren hefted her purse onto her shoulder as she opened the truck door. “Come on in. I’m not sure how long this will take.”
“I’ve never been in a library before.”
Lauren was already walking across the parking lot when she shouted over her shoulder. “There’s a first time for everything.”
Zach groaned and got out. Sitting inside wouldn’t be as much of a reminder of that unfortunate time when he’d kidnapped her from this exact spot.
A musty smell hit him as he stepped through the double doors. There were rows and rows of books in every direction. Some were even laid in neat rows on tabletops and on rolling carts. How did this many books even exist?
Lauren had already disappeared, but a small, frail woman with curly gray hair and glasses folded her hands on the counter.
“Hello. Welcome to the Blackwater Public Library.”
Zach tipped his chin at her. “I’m just waiting on Lauren.”
“Oh. She’s in the back with Denise. Feel free to browse.”
Right. The selection of boring literature that was rotting in the stale air.
With nothing else to do, he walked through the rows one after the other.
Flowers, mental health, politics, economics, folklore.
This place had a little of everything. He finally stopped and picked up a book about prohibition in the United States.
Claiming one of the oversized chairs in the corner, he flipped through the pages, scanning for anything interesting.
“Find something you like?”
Lauren was standing with one shoulder propped on the nearest shelf. Her smile was back, and she was getting a kick out of catching him with a book.
Zach closed the book and stood. “Not really. I have no idea which shelf I got this from.”
Lauren took it from him and placed it in one of the bins located around the room. “No worries. Let’s get out of here. I’m starving.”
The bright sunlight hit them as soon as they stepped outside.
It was a stark reminder of the return of Lauren’s smile.
She went to the shelter and came out looking bleak, but she spent thirty minutes in the library and got her joy back.
How did that even work when she clearly loved both jobs?
Nothing about the woman was cut and dry, but not everyone loved a job that made them sad.
Lauren buckled her seatbelt and turned to face him. “So, what do you want?”
That was a loaded question. One minute he wanted the familiarity of his old life back. The next, he wanted to find out what it would take to make Lauren Vincent give him a second look.
He wanted her. He wanted what she had. He wanted her glow and her outrageous optimism. He wanted her happiness and self-assurance.
But he didn’t want to take any of those things from her. He wanted her to keep them and use them to brighten the world.
Lauren pointed at a Mexican restaurant. “I’m thinking tacos.”
Oh. She was talking about food.
Zach turned toward the restaurant. “Yeah. Tacos sound good.”