by Emily Childs
Dot snorts. “Nah, I didn’t mean it that way.”
“I get it,” I say and hold up the shirt. “I didn’t pack clothes to impress, that’s for sure.”
“Oh, you’ve already impressed,” Jace adds. She applies a thin bit of lipstick in the mirror.
I roll my eyes, but after he broke into my hotel room with a toothbrush still dripping in my mouth, I know Zac probably doesn’t care what I’m wearing. “Still,” I say. “I’m interested in him losing his mind too.”
Dot’s face brightens. “I think you can do that wearing anything, but this’ll seal the deal.”
Jace spins in the chair. “So, Jo,” she says, voice low. “You really like Zac?”
I stare at her for a long pause, then grin. “I really like him. The guy I promised myself I’d hate until the end of time broke me.”
“Good. We like you too, and personally Zac deserves a good one like you,” Dot says.
“I’ve got to say,” I go on as I slip into the adjoining bathroom to change my shirt. “I’m surprised one of you never went out with Zac. Just friends? Would it be too weird?”
“Uh-oh, Dot. She’s gauging if we’re going to make a move on her man,” Jace chuckles.
“I am not.” I say and peek out the door. “I’m curious, that’s all.”
“Well, I had a boyfriend when I met Zac,” Jace tells me. “By the time that was over, we were too far into the friend zone. I like it there—doesn’t mean I don’t think he’s sexy as anything gets, though. Don’t worry, he’s fully aware of my opinion on his pleasant face.”
I certainly don’t disagree.
“And Dot,” Jace says, nodding toward the redhead, “As you know, she’s been heartbroken, so she’s planning to join a convent. She’s sworn off men for life.”
“Poor Jace,” Olive says. “The night she met us was the night of—”
“The greatest heartbreak of the century,” Dot finishes. “I figure if Jace can still be friends with us after she’s seen me in one of my chocolate and wine bingers, she’s a keeper.”
Jace balks. “Well, after Mason and I broke up, you saw me in one of mine.”
“True,” Olive and Dot say together.
Just then, Lily breaks through the door, breathless and looping silver earrings through ears. “What did I miss?” she asks.
Olive snorts. “I thought you were meeting us there?”
“No. No. Brin is on a reverse sleep cycle, and by two this afternoon, I was ready to tag team. I’m pretty sure I tossed the sugar snap at August when he got home and just said I’d see him later. I need a hot second of adult lady talk, don’t question me.”
Olive lifts her hands in surrender. “Never again. But, uh, maybe you should bring that cute niece of mine over a little more. Let you and Aug have a breather every once in a while.”
“I thought work would be my breather, you know.”
“Ah, girl,” Dot says. “Work is not a breather. You need to go on dates. You need to kiss in the car, you need to make out in the back of movie theaters—”
“Are you watching a high school drama or something?” Lily asks. She waves at me now that I’m dressed. “Cute top. Zac’s going to love this.”
Dot squeaks. “I told you.”
“Come on, we’d better get going,” Olive says, glancing at her phone.
We’re halfway down the stairs when my phone rings. I groan.
“What’s wrong?” Jace asks.
“It’s Emmitt. This is the seventh call. I should probably get this over with—I can’t avoid him forever.”
“You can,” Lily says her voice sarcastic. “I thought he moved on. What a jerk.”
I shrug. “Give me a second. Maybe it’s just to do with work.” I answer the call. “Emmitt, I’m on my way out.”
“You answered,” he snaps. How ballsy can he be to sound irritated? “I thought I was going to have to fly down there just to get you to talk to me.”
“I don’t want to talk to you, I would think ignoring your phone calls would make that clear.”
“Jo, we need to discuss things.”
“No, we really don’t. Does Greta know you’re calling me?”
He sighs. “Jo, I’m sorry. I never intended for it to happen so soon. I think I was just hurt and angry over what happened with us.”
“I don’t care if Greta was a rebound, Emmitt. It’s officially not my problem.”
Dot cracks her knuckles like a full-on streetfighter in heels.
“I don’t want to argue—I called to apologize, and to ask you if we could talk about this . . . really talk, when you get home. Please.”
“Why, Emmitt? What’s the point? You’re with someone else.”
He pauses, his deep breaths fill the line. “Because I care about you—about us. I still love you, Jo.”
The words once would’ve had me crumbling, but now they make me angry, a delirious kind. “Funny how you show love, Emmitt. I’ve got to go, I’m going out with the girls and with Zac.”
“Girls? Wait, Zac?” he snaps. “The guy who started all this? Why are you going out with him?”
“Because he invited me, so I am.” I want to be petty and tell him that I plan to sit close, plan to hold Zac’s hand, and plan to kiss the man as long as he wants.
“Jo, what are you doing?” Emmitt’s voice hardens as if he can hear the changes my heart is making.
I grin, a little sadly. “I’m living, Emmitt. For the first time in a long time, I’m living.”
20
Zac
Pins collide and echo over the furious thunder of rolling bulldozers on laminate. Olive shrieks and dances about. She saunters back to the bench like a classy debutante before Rafe claps her hands and steals a quick kiss. Jo laughs at my side, and I get it. Olive thinks she’s a pro, but there are at least five pins still standing.
“I’m getting better,” Olive says.
I scoff and take my spot shoulder to shoulder with Rafe, a silent challenge building between us. We toss the balls. I bark a laugh when Rafe’s ball clangs, almost immediately, into the gutter.
“Well, better than my husband at least,” Olive says.
Jo snorts, and sips a bottled water, and I lean over her knees, meet her eyes for half a breath, then kiss her. “You’re up.” I snatch the water bottle out of her hands and take a long drink.
I know everyone is watching, but I also like living in my own little world with Josephine Richards. The way we have been for the last week. I’d like it if it never ended. And all I can do is hope it never does.
She picks a pink ball with too big of holes for her slender fingers. The bowling alley isn’t classy. A constant hint of grease and body odor lives in the place, but we’re making it a bit of a habit, the lot of us, to show Jo all of our favorite hangout spots and I think she’s enjoying herself more than us.
“Jo can’t hit them,” Will taunts. The guy has a competitive streak to rival them all.
Jo scoffs and flips her hair over one shoulder. “Would you like to take that bet?”
A chuckle rumbles through the group as all eyes turned on Will. He drapes his arms over the back of the bench. One corner of his mouth curls up, and his blue eyes flash beneath the fluorescent lights. “I’ll take that bet. I bet you fifty bucks you can’t hit all those pins.”
“No, no, no.” Jo props the ball on one hip. “Money isn’t enough. How about this: the clinic janitor is on vacation and the biohazard cans fill up quick, so quick I can’t keep up.”
Dot claps her hands and sways as if she’s in a sermon overcome with the spirit. “Yes. Yes, a hundred times, yes. I would love to see this guy scrubbing the gunk off patient tables at that place. Bring him off his high horse, Jo.”
“Wait, you’re saying if you get a strike—”
“You come clean the clinic.”
“Nah,” Will shakes his head. “I’m a busy man, Jo. Make this worth my while. Turkey it—that means three strikes—and I’ll clean toilets, bloo
d, and puss for a week.”
Jo grins and tilts her head. “Is that what a turkey means? I didn’t know, but you’re on.”
“Wait, but if you don’t . . . I get something too.”
She sighs though never loses her smile. “Name your price.”
“I need a good detail on my car.” Will sits back and crosses one ankle over his knee. His smug grin shows off his flashing teeth.
“Don’t do it, Jo,” I say. “The man’s a pig.”
Jace nods with a grimace.
“I’m getting the feeling no one has faith in me,” Jo says.
“Oh, I have faith in you,” I tell her. “I just don’t want you to get an incurable disease from scrubbing that dashboard or something.”
Will slugs me in the shoulder. “It’s not that bad.”
“Oh, dear William,” Jace quips, her eyes wide and brow furrowed. “It is that bad.”
“Well, Dot, shall we see if we get a free janitor for the week?”
Dot fists the air and nods. I’ve got to admit, my stomach turns in a weird knot when Jo holds the ball to her chest, stares at the pins, then releases. Strike.
“Luck,” Will says, but he’s nervous. His knee is bouncing.
Jo wheels back again. Strike. Now all of us but Will are cheering.
“Third time’s the charm, babe,” I say, and don’t even care that I let it slip. I have a whole lot of things I’d like to call her, that I’d like to say to her.
Jo takes a deep breath, a smile plays on her lips. She bends, then releases. I’m on my feet, arms in the air one minute, then pulling her to my chest the next. She laughs, probably at my over-the-top reaction, but I can’t help it. Three strikes like it wasn’t anything. I kiss her in front of everyone and I love it. Everyone is splitting at the seams laughing and poking fun at the defeated.
Will’s mouth parts, and his face pales. “How. . .” He points a single finger at the empty hole where ten fallen pins are being swept away by mechanic arms.
Jo pats his shoulder. “Bowling club. All of high school and into college.”
Will gapes. “Information of epic bowling ability was withheld. I call for a rematch.”
I shake my head and glide my arm around Jo’s hips. “No way, man. You’ll bet a dollar or something now.”
“Fair is fair, Mr. Will,” Dot says. “Be at the clinic at eight to start the shift. Should only take you three hours or so. Unless someone comes in with bowel issues then . . .” Dot pats his cheek. “All I can say is good luck.”
I press a kiss to the side of Jo’s head, loving how she melts against my body.
Later, after we all part ways, Jo stretches at my side in the truck and yawns. “Are we going to your mom’s house tomorrow?”
I laugh and kiss the back of her hand.
“What’s funny?” she asks.
I shake my head, chest tight. “Nothing. I was just thinking I like how you said that. Are we going—I like the we, Jo.”
Her fingers trace my knuckles. “Then why do you sound sad about it?”
“Not sad, never sad,” I whisper. It’s worse than sad, I guess. It’s more like longing, fear, a little of both. “It’s just that four weeks is almost up.” Her brows knit together. “Did you forget?”
Jo rests her head on his shoulder. “Maybe I did. I haven’t thought much about anything the last few days. We don’t need to worry about it now. It’s not like I have anything besides work waiting for me there.”
I nod, but it feels like I’m running forward and a steep hill is waiting in the dark. One I can’t see but am going to fall down until I’m broken at the bottom. At the motel, I kiss her with meaning, hoping she knows what I really feel about her. Hoping to get the guts to say it out loud someday soon.
Four days before Jo is set to return to New York, I bribe Dot to give her the day off and steal her away to the beach. I’ve never laughed so hard, and my skin is officially toasted by the time radiant ribbons of gold, green, and a touch of violet ignite the sky in a tapestry of color along the horizon. Ocean air whips Jo’s hair around her cheeks, and I’m positive I’ve never seen a more beautiful woman.
“I can’t think of a better day,” she whispers against the breeze.
My throat feels dry, and I hope she doesn’t notice the subtle way my fingers tremble when I take her hand in mine. I clear my throat and cup my palm on the side of her face. “Jo, there’s something I need to say.”
“Everything okay?”
Taking her hand, I give a brisk nod, then kiss her knuckles. “It’s all great. I just . . . you’re leaving soon—”
“Zac, we don’t need—”
“No,” I say. Am I doing this? “Please, I need to get this out.” What is she thinking? Her face is guarded, and I wonder if she expects something awful. I curl my arms around her waist and pull her close. “I’ve got to tell you that . . . you should know, I don’t want you to leave. Stay. It’s a lot of me to ask, but if I let you get on that plane without saying it, then I’m nothing but a coward and an idiot.”
Jo is silent. Part of me wants to take it back. It was too much, too soon. But I can’t help it. Like lightning, she struck me and I can’t let her go, not without her knowing everything. She rests her forehead against my throbbing heartbeat. There’s a distinct sniffing over the lapping waves. Is she crying? I trap one side of her face and urge her chin upward. Jo’s eyes brim with salty tears.
“Hey,” I say. “What’s wrong? I didn’t mean to upset you—”
“Why?” she interjects.
I shake my head. “Why, what?”
“Why do you want me to stay?”
I swallow past a knot in my throat, scanning the horizon. I don’t blink when I tell her, “Because I’m in love with you.”
Two tears drip down her cheeks. “How can you say that?”
Pressing a kiss to her head, I hold her tightly. I’ve never said those words before, but now everything is warm and real and perfect. “I mean it.”
“The woman who pulverized your shop? Zac, I . . . we come from different places and . . .”
“So what?” I trap her face between my hands. “Maybe I was too stubborn that it took someone like you to wake me up. Of course, I almost ruined it by getting some community service slapped onto your record. But you know what, Jo, I’m glad I did.”
She laughs softly as her fingers dance across the back of my neck. “Proud of yourself, huh?”
“A little.” I kiss her forehead before resting mine to her brow. “What I said, Jo, I meant it. Doesn’t mean I expect anything of the same back, I just needed to tell you the truth.”
She pulls back, her eyes searing into my core. Jo kisses me, fiercely. I’m lost to it all, her scent, her touch, her heart. When she pulls back, her breaths pit against my neck, and her fingers trace my jawline. “I love you too. No question. I love you so much.”
I’m not even embarrassed when my breath comes out shaky. “Then stay.”
She sighs. “It can’t be that simple.”
“Why not?”
“It just never is.”
I grin. “But maybe it can be.”
“Will it be enough if I say I’ll think about it?”
I nod and wrap her hair around my fingers. “I’ll take anything.”
She nuzzles my neck. “Let’s think about things, together, Zac. But tonight, can we just stay like this?”
I claim her lips again. Right then, I know I’d do anything to keep Jo in my life for as long as she wants me.
21
Jo
“I think it’s sweet,” Dot says as she scans neon bait jars. “I’ve never seen Zac like this, and I’m not just saying that.”
“Keeping me on at the clinic has nothing to do with it?”
Dot laughs and tosses me a few shiners and hooks. “Not saying I don’t have ulterior motives, but it doesn’t matter anyway. The clinic’s struggling, Jo.”
“What do you mean? I thought it was doing okay.”
My insides twisted. The clinic helped so many people, but what could I do? Worse, what would I do without a place to work? As much as Zac means to me, I need a place to work if I stay. “That’s awful.”
“Yeah, Raymond, as strange as the man is, feels pretty terrible. Offered to work without pay and all that. But I’m not sure it would be enough.”
“I wish there was something I could do to help. Don’t doubt that the clinic does a lot of good for people, Dot.”
“I see it, and I’m trying to use all my persuasive powers to convince my father of the same.”
“What about fundraising?”
Dot tilts her head. “That’s an idea, maybe the community would pitch in to help save it, but daddy is already looking for buyers. I’m not sure there’s time.”
I pick up a red pole and hold it out to Dot as if to check if it’s right. She just shrugs and probably has about as much experience as me. “Well, maybe it would stall any sales for a little while.”
“I’ll give it a shot. I like living in Honeyville, and if the clinic closes, I’d probably head back to the offices in Raleigh to work.” Dot waves her hands in front of her face and grins. “Enough about me. Let’s get this day going.”
“I’m nervous,” I admit.
“Why? You’re not planning to propose to the man, are you?”
“No, but Zac used to do all this with his dad.”
Dot’s grin fades. “As I said, Jo, I’ve never seen Zac like this. If anyone can get him out there, you can.”
“We’ll see, I guess.” I place the supplies on the counter. “What do you think about all this? Honestly.”
“What do I think about you staying?”
