“How did blondie sound?” Zac asked. Tabitha had called her friend and said she’d stop by before returning to the hotel.
“Better. Livelier.”
“Did you tell her about what happened?” Why did he hope she had, not necessarily the details, but the bullet points would get the message across.
Climbing? Check.
Boulder fell? Check.
Made it to safety while also stranded on a ledge then hooked up with my ex? Check.
Who was he kidding? He wanted to shout it from the rooftops that they’d reunited. Not in a creepy way. More of a full-to-the-brim-with-pride-that-she-was-his-again kind of way.
“That’s more of an in-person conversation.” Her words made Zac’s heart dip a little. “I want to make sure she has what she needs tonight. The drama can wait.”
Drama?
“Do you regret . . .” Zac’s question fizzled on his tongue, unable to get the words out.
“No,” Tabitha insisted. “The third pitch wasn’t ideal, but I don’t think what we did was a mistake. It was fun.”
“Fun? Just fun?”
“You know what I mean.” Tabitha closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the headrest. Light from the few streetlamps they passed swept over her tight features. The dark circles beneath her eyes were visible, as was a scrape along the side of her neck that he hadn’t noticed until now.
Zac felt selfish for pressing her when she had nothing left to give.
Typical Zac.
No. Not anymore.
He lifted her hand to his lips and he brushed a feather-light kiss there. “Let’s get you to blondie’s so you can check in on her and then go get some rest. Things will look better in the morning.”
“Thank you.” She squeezed his hand and then returned hers to her lap.
Tomorrow. They could talk about what came next tomorrow.
Chapter forty-eight
Saturday morning, Leavenworth: Zac
“Gone?Gonewhere?”Zacwas fully aware that his voice had taken on a shrill quality and that blondie did not deserve the brunt of it, and yet he couldn’t help himself. “I know you guys are heading back today, so I assumed she’d checked out and come here.”
“And I’m trying to tell you that is exactly what she did,” Lark explained, standing on the top step of her RV wearing a short pink robe and matching towel wrapped around her hair. The shower caddie dangled from her fingers, still dripping from the shower she’d taken in the KOA’s communal bathroom.
“Then why are you here and she isn’t?”
“Because I wanted to stick around an extra week and she had to get back and write her article. You know there’s a lot on the line for her, right? Like, career make or break kind of stakes.”
“Yes, I’m fully aware. But . . .” Was his chin quivering? No, stop it. There must be some kind of mistake. Someone was confused, but Zac refused to believe it was him. “She didn’t say goodbye.”
“Oh!” Lark’s eyes widened like she’d just remembered something very important. “I have that part covered.”
“Covered how?” Zac demanded. She wrenched open her RV door, which slammed shut in Zac’s face. “Blondie. Covered how?”
“Be with you in a moment,” she warbled from inside the Winnebago. The sound of pots clanging to the ground and a sharp expletive said in that sweet voice of hers would have made him chuckle if it had been the time for laughter.
Zac had woken up bright and early, taken the fastest shower of his life, and knocked on Tabitha’s door with coffee and a bag of warm scones. But as soon as his fist made contact, the door popped open. He walked inside and scared the poor headphones-wearing housekeeper half to death.
