“Wow,” we said at the same time. He held on to my hand until we made our way into the expansive space he called the kitchen. To me, it looked like a buffet area that would serve a hundred people at least, but to him it was just a normal part of his place.
“This is your kitchen?”
“Oh, that’s right, you haven’t seen the house yet.”
It wasn’t a question, but a fact. Zack had moved into this home only two months before, after his last house had burned down in an electrical fire. With most of his possessions destroyed in the process, everything he now owned was brand-new.
“I love the space. It was the main reason I decided to purchase this place.”
After I found my seat at the island, I heard him say, “Hopefully you do, too,” under his breath.
In my limited knowledge of men, both good and bad, I’d become quite good at discovering hidden agendas when I saw one, but this didn’t feel like one to me.
“What are you up to, Zackary?”
With my hands resting on my hips, I gave him the most authoritative stance I could muster at two in the morning.
He actually had the gall to stand there silently, trying not to smile or say a word. Unfortunately, he couldn’t hold onto it for long, since the corners of his mouth began to lift into a grin.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help it. I just want you here with me, for however long I can have you.”
“You really are incorrigible. You know that, right?”
“Aw, see? You do know me so well.”
We laughed as we both poured ourselves some tea. Then he pulled cream from the fridge and sugar from the cabinet, handing me a spoon in the process.
“Okay, now I’m getting nervous. How closely were you paying attention?”
He just laughed it off, even as I was beginning to think that a restraining order might need to be readdressed.
“It’s my job to watch things closely. You never know when you may need the upper hand in a situation.”
“Upper hand, huh? And why would you need the upper hand with me?”
“You’re impressed. Admit it.” He watched as I took a long sip of the tea, drawing out the uncertainty I hoped he was feeling. “I caught you off guard, and you’re impressed. Admit it.”
His smile grew as he looked into my eyes. Seeing whatever he was looking for, he shook his head and took a sip of his tea.
I couldn’t hold off any longer, however, and decided to admit it to him—but with a bit of work first.
“It’s two in the morning. At this point, the kitchen alone would have been impressive.”
“Nope, you’re not getting out of this one. I’ve impressed you with my moxie and keen abilities. Admit it. You’re done in. I got you.”
Placing the cup on the counter, he took me into his arms and wrapped my pliable body into his, crushing away all the angst of the day. My worries faded into the background as his arms circled around, squeezing the loneliness away as he crushed his lips against mine in the sweetest kiss I’d ever received in all my life. We stood this way for what seemed like hours as his mouth molded to mine, his tongue caressing my bottom lip, seeking an entrance I was all too willing to give.
“Yes,” I whispered as he took control of my body. His tongue glided across mine, tangoing his way into my heart with every stroke. He was flicking his way into my soul, and we hadn’t even made it past our first official date. Then, abruptly, he pulled away, holding me so I didn’t fall over.
“God, I want you so much.”
“Don’t stop.”
Chuckling, he just held my arms, keeping the distance between us an arm’s length away.
“Not yet. We need more time to get to know each other better.”
“Shouldn’t that be my line?”
“Too bad, it’s still true. I don’t want to mess this up. We’re good together, and I think we can be great together. I want us to always be together.”
“Why is it that when you say it, I believe you?”
“Gifted politician.”
“No, I don’t think that’s the reason.”
Without missing a beat, he replied, “I don’t either.”
But I was so busy trying to stay awake, suddenly tired after our excursion. A yawn snuck up on me, making me gasp for breath and lose focus.
“I should go back to bed.”
“I’d say the tea helped plenty. Looks like a success.”
“Okay, crazy.”
In that moment, the loneliness was completely gone, as though a weight had lifted off my shoulders. The cloud that had haunted me for so long was just gone. For how long, I couldn’t say, but I felt it all the same. A new lightness was reawakening my senses, making me feel everything again. Making me feel free, at last.
“Good night, Katie. Sleep well.”
When we made it back to the guest room, I felt more relaxed than I had in years, the stress of the day completely forgotten. It seemed as if Zack did that for me; he simply replaced all the bad in my life with…himself.
“Night, Zack.”
His lips kissed my forehead before he made his way back down the hall. I could only stare back at him, watching his rear end sway as he walked away. Taut buttocks bounced with each step he took.
I was captivated by it until he suddenly turned around to see what I was doing.
Busted!
“Night, Katie.”
He said it again quietly, so as to not startle me out of my trance.
“Oh, yeah.”
I shook my head, trying to clear out the cobwebs.
“Night, Zack. Thank you for letting me stay the night.”
“Weekend, Katie. Week…end.”
He purposely extended the last part. And with those words, he was gone.
Shit! We had three more nights before I had to leave to go back to my place. It was definitely going to be the longest three nights of my life.
***
“Morning, did you sleep well?”
Zack wasted no time scooping up some scrambled eggs onto a plate, with a few strips of bacon decorating the edge.
As tired as I was from my restless night, the smell of bacon, eggs, toast, and coffee woke me right up.
“Toast will be ready in a few seconds. Go ahead and start eating.”
“Aren’t you joining me?”
The crease from his dimples formed as his smile extended from a slight, panty-dropping grin to a sexy, broad—oh yeah, you’re mine—cocky nostalgia.
“Of course, just let me grab our toast first.”
“If it’s all the same, I’ll just wait until you join me.”
“I’d like that.”
He grabbed my hand, which was tiny in comparison to his, as he pulled me to his chest for an earth-shattering kiss. It left us both breathless until we heard the toast pop. With that, he was off, leaving me standing next to the counter, wanting more of everything he had to offer.
“Sit,” he commanded as came back with the toast in hand.
I was awestruck at how much this man had affected me in such a short amount of time. We just started dating yesterday—heck, last night for that matter—and already I was staying at his place, having breakfast and agreeing to spend the weekend with him.
“I, uh…”
The words just didn’t come out as I contemplated the situation further.
Twisting his head to one side and studying my face, it was as though he could read my every thought. It had always been like that with us, actually. It felt natural for him to know what I was thinking. I had no idea how he did it, but I found it comforting. Well, most of the time.
“Relax, it’s just breakfast. We both need to eat, so whatever that brain of yours is trying to decide, we can figure it out after we eat this delicious meal I made just for you.”
Somehow, he was able to put all my worries aside with just a few words. Then he watched as the turmoil broke and I was finally able to expel the breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding.
“Yes, of course. You’re right, we need to eat.”
As though on cue, my stomach let out the loudest growl I had ever heard escape my body. Embarrassed, my face turned bright red.
Zack just turned his fork toward me, laughing as he chewed through bites of food. “See? Now have a seat and join me before your food gets cold.”
Resigned to the situation, I sat next to him, brushing my leg against his as I climbed onto the stool. The action drew his attention as his fork stopped in midair, just inches from his mouth. The move had been unintentional on my part, but the reaction I got out of him gave me a whole new shot of confidence. Eliciting such a response from a gorgeous man like him caused my ego to swell, just a little bit.
“After we eat, I’d like to talk with you.”
“I’d like that, too.”
“Katie, you don’t have to worry about whatever it is that you have to say. It will change nothing between us.”
“I don’t know about that. Given your career, I worry that it may change everything between us.”
Just as he was about to say something to persuade me otherwise, his phone vibrated on the counter. He reached for it reluctantly, with a sympathetic look in my direction.
“Sorry, I have to get this.”
“This is Zack.”
Watching him take the call when I was just about to ’fess up to a life I no longer lived had me second-guessing my decision to tell him everything about myself. About my previous life. About who I was.
“No, I can come into the office for a few hours to get it done. That shouldn’t be a problem.” Our eyes met as his anguish became apparent with every word. Mouthing the words I‘m sorry, he listened intently to the person still talking on the other end of the line. As soon as the caller finished, Zack hung up the phone without saying another word. It was kind of abrupt and against his usual nature, and this caused some alarm bells to go off in my head.
“Bad call?”
“Katie, I’m so sorry, but it looks like I need to be in the office for a few hours. I hate to do this to you, but apparently pipes burst down Main, and the businesses in the area can’t afford to shut down while we make the repairs. I’m going to have to work with the contractors, as well as the business owners, to try and figure out a feasible solution. I promise, once I’m finished, we’ll have the entire weekend to ourselves to talk about everything.”
“Zack, it is okay. You had no idea pipes would burst. Go.”
Scattered and trying to find his satchel with his office laptop in it, Zack scurried around the living room as I finished my breakfast. The show he was putting on in an effort to find everything while getting dressed in work clothes had me rather worked up, to say the least. I wanted to launch myself into his arms every time he passed, just to feel that security from last night all over again. The conversation we were going to have had my skin crawling and hairs standing on end. But it looked as though this time apart would be a good thing, since it would give me a chance to get the distance I needed to better prepare for our discussion.
I must have been in quite a fog during his last efforts to get ready, because his peck on my cheek barely registered. His parting words were to make myself comfortable while he was gone. It didn’t take long for the silence to become deafening, so I decided to explore the house and nearby grounds I had seen last night.
The house was enormous, and the furniture was typical Zack, surrounded by rich leather and dark woods. Even though I worried that we might not know each other well enough, I found little things that reminded me of him throughout every corner of the house. The railroad stake paperweight on his desk was just like the one in his office. It was from the early days, when the town was just forming and his great-great-grandfather had had to work with the railroad to bring more people in for what we now called tourism. At that time, they just needed the influx of traffic to keep the restaurants open and the town going. Zack always cherished stories like those; he said they kept the past alive. According to him, remembering where we had come from is what made this town so majestic in the eyes of tourists and residents alike.
I could see his rationale when we first came to town. My family and I had fallen in love with the stories of the past that made for the town’s upbringing. To me this place just felt right—like home. It was somewhere I could make roots and be part of the bigger picture of things in the community. I’d always wanted to live in a place I could not only enjoy living in, but that I could fall in love with. Meadow Pines was that place, and so much more. I’d come to realize this in just a few short years.
When I’d first met Zack at the Thomas’ summer picnic, I’d had no idea that he was the mayor. After we’d arrived, I was drawn to Zack as he recanted a story his father had once told of hikers getting trapped on the side of the nearby mountain. They’d wandered into the woods late one afternoon, only to be stranded for the night after walking in circles for hours. It had taken rescue works almost eight hours to find them huddled against a tree, right next to the ranger station. They had been so tired that they’d never even ventured past the tree. If they had just turned around the oversized trunk to the other side, they would have seen the ranger station just a few hundred yards away.
Laughing at how insane a story it was, Zack’s attention had zeroed in on me as I’d tried to take a sip from my glass of wine. He never broke eye contact with me as he continued the tale. To everyone else, the story was what had their attention; to me, though, it was the man telling it. I was still drawn to him in this way. He had become the one constant in my life that I’d never realized I was growing to depend on. Us finally ending up together just turned out to be the natural next step in a long, drawn-out affair that had started with a story at a picnic. It had never really been a true affair in the sense of the word, but an affair it had been by its mere definition.
I felt peace in his presence—well, most of the time anyway. He was the light in a dark room at every function we’d find ourselves both attending. I was still amazed that I’d never thought of going any further with him. Maybe if I had sooner, we would have been much further in our relationship than we were now, or maybe we would no longer have been in a relationship at all, since I most certainly would have ruined all my chances with him.
Stop it! Stop it right now! I told myself as doubt crept in, clouding all reason and stealing any chance I felt I had with Zack. I just didn’t know if I had it in me to be the person he needed in his life. Don’t you think that’s for him to decide? My conscience grated at my nerves. It was true I may not have been the person he thought I was, but I knew I was still the right person for him. I could tell when he’d had a stressful day. It usually didn’t take long before all the worry lines would fade from his face.
I believed in my gut that he would understand and not judge me for the decision to keep my past from him until now. He might become angry with what I have to say about the life I once led and the way it ended, but I know for certain that he would be glad I was here with him.
Looking at the clock on the wall, I realized it had been an hour since I’d walked into this room. An hour of musing that led me to conclusions that I would much rather not face. But I had to for us to start off our relationship the right way. Leaving the room to continue my exploration, I forced my thoughts aside for the short time left before he returned. I was dumbfounded at how fast the time went once I made my way back inside from the gardens. It was amazing how much the fresh air relieved the stress weighing on me. As I entered the living room, I saw Zack’s back to me, but he turned on his heel when he heard the door close.
“There you are! I was about to send out a search party for you.”
Chuckling at his own playfulness, he welcomed me with open arms that I was more than willing to enjoy as they wrapped around me.
“I was just finishing up my own tour of your place. Zack, I love this house!”
“Oh good. I’m so glad you do. It was hard to find a place after the fire, but this house drew m
e in right away.”
“I can see why. Do your parents like it, too?”
His last house had been the one his family had lived in for over fifty years. It was hard to reconcile the loss of everything in the fire with how amazing this place was in comparison.
“They do love it, but they miss some of the history associated with the old house.”
“I’m sorry, Zack. I forgot how much you and your family lost in that fire. You grew up there, and your parents lived there for most of their lives. It must have been like losing a loved one.”
A tear slipped down my cheek, and Zack softly brushed it away with his thumb.
“You remind me of myself when the fire just happened. I was a basket case just thinking about how my parents would react. But do you know what my mom said?”
Puzzled, I just held onto him, watching as he remembered her reaction.
“She said, ‘Zack, it’s just a place. The memories we had there cannot be destroyed by anything, let alone a fire. Stuff can be replaced and houses can be rebuilt, if that’s what you want. You being safe is all that matters. Not some silly place with walls and stuff inside.’”
My tears began to fall again just thinking of her response. Zack’s mother was one of the bravest people I had ever had the fortune of getting to know.
“She’s amazing,” I said, before realizing I had spoken aloud.
“That she is. Plus, she’s right, so that helps a lot, too. It was just a house with stuff inside. Thank goodness no one was injured—or worse, killed. I still wonder how the fire started, though.”
“I thought you said it was an electrical fire, an accident?”
“That’s what the fire department said, but I’m not so sure. I had the wiring checked regularly. The place was old and repairs were getting out of hand, so I made sure to have all the fixtures, panels, and outlets checked regularly for any issues. Old wiring is tricky at best, but with the new upgrades I had done to the place a year before, I found it best to try and avoid any issues from happening in the first place.”
Isolated Encounter (Meadow Pines Series Book 1) Page 6
