“Yeah. Maybe.” He keeps his attention focused there for a moment, then shifts it back to me and claps his hands. “Come on, let’s get you out of here. She’s making dinner, and I have some work I need to do over there.”
“Zane—”
“Tessa. I will be with you the whole time.” His tone is firm but understanding. “I promise, I won’t let anything happen to you.”
It’s not me I’m worried about.
Then there’s the fact that I’m already getting too used to having him around. I can’t afford to become so reliant on the warmth he offers that I forget how to handle the cold. “Okay. If you think it’ll be fine.”
“I do.” He reaches up on top of his refrigerator and pulls down a blue baseball cap. After tucking it low on my head, he grins in such a way that makes my heart flip in my chest. “Perfect. I barely recognize you.”
I roll my eyes, but don’t take it off. It’s a running joke between us after we bonded over the whole superhero thing where people hide their eyes behind a pair of glasses. Who would have thought I’d be trying to shield my identity one day? Turning toward the door, I look for my shoes. And then remember what happened last night. “Um, I don’t have any shoes.”
“Sure you do,” He raises one of the bags he’d carried in and pulls out a shoebox. He opens the lid and reaches inside to pull out a pair of boat shoes with pink plaid on the side.
“You bought me shoes?”
“I did.”
“Why?”
“Because yours fell in the ocean last night.” There’s no frustration in his tone, no anger. Just a simply stated fact that hits me like a bolt of lightning to my heart. I don’t know why I’m surprised. Zane has always been thoughtful, but it catches me off guard.
“Why are you doing this? Why are you being so kind to me?” I rip the baseball cap off my head and set it aside. “You could have drowned last night.”
“Out of the two of us, I was not the one at risk,” he replies smoothly. Zane takes a step closer, his expression full of emotion I don’t trust myself to see. Because if I fall again, I don’t think I’ll ever stop. “Navy SEAL, remember? And I’m doing this because I want to.”
“Why? I left you, Zane. And since I’ve been back, you’ve been shot and had to retrieve me from the ocean in the middle of a storm. You’ve given up your bed, your space, your time—I just don’t get why.” My throat constricts.
“I already told you, Tessa.” He takes another step closer, those gorgeous green eyes piercing straight through to my soul. “Because I want to keep you safe. Because I want you to see what I always have.”
“This is a mistake. All of it is a mistake.” My throat burns with raw emotion and the weight of this moment. Of his declaration.
Zane’s hand cups my cheek, his calloused palm scraping delicately against my skin. I freeze beneath the contact, terrified that, if I move, if I breathe, he’ll pull away. “Tessa Lane, I made you a promise. That I am going to make you see just what you’re worth. I’m helping you because I want to,” he repeats. “Because even if I can’t keep you when this is all over, having you here is soothing an ache that nothing has touched since the day you disappeared.”
His thumb caresses my cheek, and I close my eyes as a tear slips free. His touch feels so right. It’s the absolute last thing I deserve, but I never want him to stop. Even though I know without a doubt that this is going to end badly.
Even if whoever is after me doesn’t succeed, leaving this man is going to kill me.
“More coffee, honey?” Linda asks as she comes back toward the table and retrieves our empty mugs.
“No, thank you. I’m okay.” Sitting here at the small four-seater table in her tiny kitchen is the most at home I’ve felt in a long time. It’s a different house, but there are so many similarities in the décor that it’s like stepping back into a happy memory.
The lemon curtains she had in the house Zane grew up in are over the main kitchen window, the large cross Zane made for her in woodshop is hanging on the wall beside the table, and a vase Anastasia made for her in art class is overflowing with wildflowers on the counter.
There are pictures everywhere. The walls are covered in happy moments frozen in time. It was one of the first things I noticed when I went over to his house for dinner that first time. In my house, the only things that made it up on the walls were holes from fists and inappropriate posters my dad hung for his own enjoyment.
Walking into the Knox home had been my first look at what a family truly could be. Even as they were still reeling over the death of Zane and Anastasia’s father.
Linda hums as she chops potatoes. I remember how kind she was that night, too. How welcoming. Linda Knox is the strongest woman I’ve ever met, and I aspired to be half the wife and mother she is.
And then I failed before I even had a chance to be either. Get out of this pity party, Tessa. It is what it is. I clear my throat.
“Can I help?” It’s been a long time since I cooked, but I used to love cooking with her. She taught me everything I do know.
“I would love that.” Linda beams at me over her shoulder. “Do you remember how I slice the Brussels sprouts?”
“I do.” With a smile, I get up and limp over toward the counter. My leg is doing better this afternoon, though the soreness from last night’s unplanned swim definitely makes movement harder than I would like.
