Dream

by Scarlett Haven

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Sunday, October 14

  Monday, October 15

  Tuesday, October 16

  Wednesday, October 17

  Thursday, October 18

  Friday, October 19

  Saturday, October 20

  Author's Note

  More Books by Scarlett

  Find Me Online

  Dream

  The Zara Chronicles #6

  Scarlett Haven

  Copyright © 2019 Scarlett Haven

  http://scarletthaven.net

  All rights reserved.

  Cover by Scarlett Haven

  Edited by Janet at Dragonfly Editing

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, places, events, or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are products of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  Sunday, October 14

  Burnt.

  The guys are coming over today.

  All of them.

  I can’t wait to see them.

  But until they come over, I have to do something.

  I have to confront Zach.

  Zach has been keeping secrets from me. More than that, he’s asking the guys to help him keep secrets from me and I don’t like that. Me and my guys are a team. I feel like it’s now time to clear the air and make sure that we’re completely honest with each other.

  Okay, there is still the whole ‘having feelings for all five of the guys,’ thing going on, but I did confess the truth to Tristan, which is a start. He’s going to help me figure out what to do. I’ll worry about that later. Right now, I have questions for Zach.

  I love days that I don’t have to go to school. I don’t mind my school uniform, but I also like picking out my clothes. I love that I get to experience fall and winter here—something I never got to do in Southern California. I wear leggings, boots and a sweater.

  I look in the mirror once before heading downstairs. I always thought my blue eyes were from my mom, but they’re actually a shade lighter than hers—the exact same color as Zach’s eyes. My blonde hair I also got from him. It’s strange, because I always just accepted as the truth what my mom and dad told me growing up. I never even questioned it. But now that I know, I wonder why never questioned it.

  I head downstairs where I find Zach in the kitchen. Something smells...

  Burnt.

  Very burnt.

  He is standing by the stove and a cloud of smoke is rising from whatever he’s ‘cooking’ in the pan. I walk over and laugh when I see what appears to be an egg in the pan, though it’s hard to tell because the entire thing is black.

  Zach sighs, turning the burner off.

  “I was thinking we should go out for breakfast,” he says.

  “Good idea,” I say.

  How has Zach made it all these years by himself? He must’ve eaten a lot of takeout. Not that we don’t eat a lot of takeout now, it’s practically all we eat.

  “You can drive,” he says, handing me the keys once we’re out the front door.

  I cringe, but take the keys, anyway.

  The last time I drove, Zach critiqued me pretty harshly. He said he was going to give me driver’s lessons, but there hasn’t been time. I guess this is him making the time.

  I get in the driver’s seat and scoot the seat forward about a foot before I can reach the petals.

  “You definitely didn’t get your height from me,” Zach says, smirking as I slowly scoot the seat forward.

  I laugh. “Nah, I got that from Mom.”

  I start the SUV and sigh as I look in the mirrors.

  “You need a reverse camera,” I say.

  “You need to know how to drive in every situation,” Zach says. “Whether there is a reverse camera or not, or even if it’s a manual transmission.”

  Manual transmission?

  “Aren’t those just for sports cars?” I ask.

  Brad has a car with a manual transmission in it, but he hardly ever drives it.

  “Automatic transmissions aren’t that popular in countries outside of the United States,” he says.

  “Really?”

  I find that strange.

  It’s so easy to drive an automatic car. Who would want to have to worry about changing gears?

  “You know, sometimes I forget how young you are, because you’re so smart,” he says. “But Zara, you really need to learn how to drive.”

  He says this as I back over the curb.

  I laugh.

  “You almost hit the mailbox,” he says.

  I look over and see that the mailbox is inches away from the front end of the car.

  Oops.

  “I’m good at the whole driving forward thing,” I say.

  “Make sure you drive the speed limit this time.”

  I try.

  It’s hard to check my mirrors, watch the road, and pay attention to the speed I’m driving, all at the same time. But I try. Somehow, we end up at the diner in one piece and my parking job isn’t that bad. I mean, I’m not parked straight, but I’m also not taking up two parking spots, so I call it a success.

  I look at Zach and smile at him.

  He doesn’t say anything.

  “Let’s go get food,” he finally says.

  He’s not going to critique my driving this time? Maybe that means I didn’t do bad.

  Well, besides the whole almost hitting the mailbox thing. And maybe I stopped pretty abruptly at the stop sign, but I missed it last time. It’s progress.

  “Wait,” I say, before he can get out of the car. “Can we talk for a second? Before we go in.”

  “Sure,” he says. “What’s up?”

  “I need to know what’s going,” I say. “You’ve been pretty quiet about the whole plane crash thing. I feel like I’ve been left out of everything and I want to know the truth. You’ve even had my team keeping secrets from me and I don’t like it. I went through torture training so my team wouldn’t be forced to keep things from me anymore. It’s not right that you’ve asked them to.”

  “You’re right,” Zach says. “I’m sorry.”

  I’m...

  Right?

  I fully expected to come out here, put all my cards on the table, and have him fight me.

  This is unexpected.

  I nod. “So... what is going on?”

  “I haven’t been able to find anything,” he says. “The person who is behind this is covering their trail well. The only thing I know is that I think it’s more than one person. That’s it. I’ve had the guys trying to help me just so I can cover more ground quickly, but I’m just frustrated.”

  “Can I help?” I ask. “I want to. I mean, this is kind of about me. Maybe getting me involved will help your investigation.”

  Zach looks at me.

  I can tell by the conflicted look on his face that he doesn’t really want me helping.

  But he can’t protect me forever. I’m about to tell him so when he finally answers.

  “Only if you listen to me,” he says. “I am in charge of this investigation. If I tell you to do something in regards to this case, I need you to listen.”

  “I’ll listen,” I say.

  He raises an eyebrow. “Zara, you are stubborn. And don’t get me wrong, I love that about you, but sometimes it means you don’t like to listen to authoritative figures. But when we’re doing something like this, something dangerous, you can’t fight with me. You have to just do. Do you understand?”

  I nod. “I promise I will listen to you.”

  “If you don’t, I will have you off the case,” he says.

  It’s not an empty threat.

  “Okay,” I say.

  I will work hard to make s
ure I keep my promise.

  “Let’s get breakfast,” he says.

  I follow him inside, rejoicing over my victory.

  No more secrets.

  I like this. A lot.

  Cook?

  After we get back from breakfast, all the guys come over to hang out. Zach is actually going to be home today, but he has some work to do in his office, so I hang out with the guys in the living room. Zach still has a strict ‘no boys allowed in the bedroom’ rule, but he also doesn’t check on us as much as he used to. I think he’s getting used to the guys and starting to trust them. Maybe he’s starting to trust me, too.

  It’s so weird how different his rules are from Mom and Dad’s. Neither of my parents had rules about having boys in my room. They allowed Jason to have girls in his bedroom, so I assume they wouldn’t have a problem. Actually, I know my mom wouldn’t have a problem.

  My mom has given me the ‘safe sex’ talk many times, much to my dismay. When I turned fifteen, she took me to the doctor and got me on birth control. Even though I didn’t have a boyfriend and wasn’t interested in that, she said it’s best to be prepared. I take the pill to appease her, but maybe it’s not such a bad thing to be on it. Not that I’m planning on anything happening, but I also didn’t plan on getting such strong feelings for a guy so quickly.

  A guy... try five guys.

  For dinner, the guys order pizzas. I am so, so sick of pizza, but nobody knows how to cook and it isn’t like there’s a whole lot of delivery options here. It’s not like it was in LA, where I could order literally anything I wanted and have it delivered to my house.

  “I think I’m going to sign up for a cooking class,” I tell the guys.

  I’m sitting on the couch between Tristan and Dylan. Cam is sitting on the floor in front of me, rubbing my leg. I’m suddenly very glad that I shaved this morning. Stefan is sitting on the other couch and Austin is sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. I’m not sure why he’s sitting apart from everybody else, but he seems upset about something. I want to ask him, but not in front of everybody else.

  The guys laugh at my cooking class comment.

  Except Austin.

  He is just messing around on his phone, not paying attention to anybody.

  “I’m serious,” I say. “I’m so tired of pizza. Zach and I always eat out, all the time. He tried to cook eggs this morning and nearly burnt the kitchen down.”

  “I suppose we should learn,” Tristan says. “We can’t always live on takeout and things you can microwave.”

  “A cooking class sounds boring,” Cam says. “I’m sure I can get by on reading instructions when I want to cook something.”

  Tristan looks at me. “I’ll take a cooking class with you.”

  I smile. “Really?”

  He nods.

  “This is why you’re my favorite,” I say.

  Tristan laughs.

  “That’s all it takes for me to be the favorite?” Dylan asks. “Just me taking a cooking class with you?”

  “I don’t have favorites,” I say.

  “I do,” Dylan says. “You’re my favorite.”

  Cam laughs. “I think Zara is all of our favorite.”

  “I’m only your favorite because I’m new. You’ll all get sick of me,” I say.

  “Doubtful,” Tristan says.

  “Who was your favorite before I came?”

  All the guys say they didn’t have a favorite before I came.

  I don’t know why, but I like the idea of being everybody’s favorite. Who doesn’t want attention from five different guys? Five guys who are all insanely attractive.

  “You’ll really take a cooking class with me?” I ask Tristan.

  “Yes,” he says. “I will find something. You don’t have any extra classes on Thursday afternoon, do you?”

  I shake my head.

  “Maybe I can find something for Thursday then,” he says.

  “If you two learn to cook, does that mean you’ll cook for us all?” Dylan asks.

  “As long as you guys do the dishes,” I say.

  “If you cook, we will all wash the dishes,” Cam says.

  “I need to learn how to cook first,” I say.

  Let’s just hope I’m better than Zach.

  Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen my mom cook anything, either. So, there is probably no hope for me, but I’m definitely going to try to learn how to cook. It’ll be fun to take the class with Tristan.

  My favorite is a day like today, when I’m spending time with all my guys, but I also love the quality one-on-one time I get with each of them. Taking a cooking class with Tristan will be a blast.

  I look over at Austin again. He’s looking my way, but I notice he’s looking at my hand, which is currently laced with Tristan’s. When he sees that I’m looking at him, he sighs and looks at his phone again.

  Whatever is going on with Austin, I need to figure it out.

  Monday, October 15

  Beautiful.

  When I walk downstairs on Monday morning, I am pleasantly surprised to see Stefan standing in my living room. He’s gets the biggest smile on his face when he sees me and my stomach fills with butterflies.

  Stefan is the best way to start out my Monday morning.

  Zach must’ve left sometime in the middle of the night, which doesn’t surprise me. He’s a busy guy. Plus, I’m sixteen. It’s not like I need him to be here twenty-four-seven to babysit me.

  “Your hair is wet,” I say.

  He shrugs, like he doesn’t even care.

  “It’s below freezing outside,” I say, narrow my eyes.

  Stefan smiles. “I’m used to it.”

  “Come on, I’ll dry it for you.”

  He doesn’t protest at all when I grab his hand and pull him up the stairs after me.

  I try to tell myself I’m drying his hair because I don’t want him to be cold, but the truth is I just like running my hands through his hair. Stefan has really good hair.

  I wonder if he’d let me wash it. If it’s this soft from the cheap shampoo in the guest bathroom, I can’t imagine how soft it would be if I used my good shampoo and conditioner on it.

  Stefan sits down on the closed toilet lid, this time not saying anything about the fact that I’m making him sit on the toilet to dry his hair. This bathroom isn’t big enough to put a chair in. It’s actually pretty small, especially compared to my bathroom back home.

  I don’t miss my home as much as I thought I would. Actually, surprisingly, this house that I live in with Zach feels like home to me. It feels comfortable and familiar. The guys are here, too, so that definitely helps.

  I try to imagine the guys at my home in California. Charlotte and Chloe would love them. Actually, so would my mom. I imagine even Brad would find common ground with the guys.

  Maybe I can take them home with me for Christmas.

  No.

  Certainly, they have their own families to visit. They wouldn’t want to go with me.

  “What are you thinking so hard about?” Stefan asks, yelling over the sound of the hair dryer.

  I just shake my head, not wanting to answer, and I keep drying his hair.

  I love how soft his hair is. How his eyes close when I run my fingers through his hair. How a soft sigh escapes his lips.

  His lips...

  I want to kiss his lips.

  To see how they feel against mine.

  But that is something I can’t have. I’ve already kissed Cam and Dylan. I can’t kiss another one of my teammates, so I push those thoughts aside.

  I won’t ruin what I have going with my team, no matter how tempting—how easy it would be to claim him.

  I turn the blow dryer off.

  “I’m all dry?” he asks.

  I nod.

  “You going to tell me what was making you frown earlier?”

  Earlier?

  Oh...

  Right.

  When I was thinking about introducin
g the guys to my family.

  “I was just thinking about Christmas,” I say.

  “Ah,” Stefan says. “We get a whole month off for Christmas.”

  “Really?” I ask.

  “Yeah. Because we don’t really get out of school for Thanksgiving,” he says.

  “You don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, anyway,” I say.

  “Not really,” he says. “But I would celebrate it with you.”

  I grin.

  I like the idea of enjoying Thanksgiving with Stefan, even though he’s not American, and that he would even want to celebrate it with me.

  “I’d like that,” I say.

  “Good,” he says. “But you still didn’t tell me why you were frowning.”

  I sigh. “I guess I’m just going to miss you. During Christmas. I’ll be going to see my family in California and you’ll be on the literal other side of the world. I know you’re probably excited to see your mom. I just... it’ll suck being away from you, is all.”

  His grin widens. “Well, we do have a whole month off. Maybe I can come to California for a little while.”

  My heart races at his words.

  He wouldn’t really do that, though.

  Would he?

  “Really?” I ask, just to be sure. I don’t want to get my hopes up for something that might not happen.

  “Absolutely,” he says. “I’d like that a lot. I’ve been thinking about how much I will be missing you during Christmas break.”

  My heart, which was already racing, feels as though it’s doubled in speed. My mind goes completely blank for a whole second.

  Would Stefan really do that for me?

  I lean closer to him. For a second, I think I’m going to kiss him, but I can’t do that. I promised myself I wouldn’t do that. So instead, I kiss his cheek.

  If I were braver, I would’ve kissed him on the lips, but I’m much too scared for that.

  Stefan stares at me when I pull back, not blinking, not even breathing. For a second, I think maybe I crossed a line.

  Did I read into the situation wrong? Does Stefan not like me like that? For some reason, the thought of him rejecting me hurts my chest.