I interrupted him with a deep sigh.
He had a point. He’d stopped living his life overnight as if he had no responsibilities, but…that asshole was still out there and I didn’t want him to be put in any unnecessary danger.
Then again…
“Okay. Fine. But only if you stick by my side at all times. Okay?”
He nodded, and his smile grew, making him look like the cute, adorable Zach I knew and loved.
“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!” he said and leaned in, planting a kiss on my cheek.
A kiss that set my body and my heart on fire.
SIXTEEN
ZACH
Achance at freedom, at long last!
I was so giddy in the car I couldn’t stop tapping my foot. I was like a child on his way to the funfair. I’d been dreaming of this day, the day I could walk amongst people again since day one and it was finally becoming a reality.
Mayberry Cove loomed ahead and as we passed familiar streets and stores on our way to Main Street I turned toward the window and tried to spot friendly faces or any changes that may have occurred while I’d been away.
Some trash cans that weren’t full last time I was here were full now. A couple of stores that were too eager to put up their Christmas decorations. A previously quaint clothing store had all its windows covered in whitewash. It was as if the town had moved on without me. No one seemed to care that my bakery truck was gone or seemed saddened by the loss.
Of course it was impossible to tell by glancing through the window of a moving car, but still.
I didn’t know what I expected. Did I expect life to stand still while I got my shit sorted? Did I expect time to stop for everyone else while I picked my life back up from the pits of hell?
As Dare turned into the parking lot by the waterfront, I sighed and leaned back, gazing at the beautiful blue sea ahead. At least that had stayed the same. Just as welcoming and comforting as it had always been.
“Are you okay?” Dare asked and I took a deep breath before I turned to look at him and nodded. “Let me know if you’ve changed your mind. I won’t care.”
I shook my head and put my hand on the door handle when Dare reached for me. I paused, waited for words of comfort or a lingering touch, but he focused on the world outside. Did a whole three sixty take of our surroundings before he got out of the car. He reached my side by the time I started to open my door and helped me out.
“I can walk, you know,” I said, conjuring as much of my snark as I could and he stepped aside taking a little bow and smirking.
I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“All right. Where do we start?” I asked and turned to face the boardwalk.
It looked empty without my truck on the other end, yet no one seemed to notice its absence. The only clue of its presence there were the scorch marks on the wooden surface of the boardwalk, but even that didn’t stop people from walking all over it.
A coolness wrapped around me like a blanket that had nothing to do with the cold, and I hugged my coat closer. Dare put his hand on the small of my back and frowned.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Peachy,” I said.
Dare studied me for a moment and then unwrapped his scarf from around his neck, the same scarf he’d given me before, when we went out in the fields, and wrapped it around me for extra warmth and comfort.
My heart thumped in my chest. My breath caught in my throat as he stood inches away from me and I looked away from his eyes before he noticed I was staring. Only my gaze was drawn to his lips and once I’d locked in, try as I might, I couldn’t look away.
It was fine. It was okay. They were just lips. There was nothing dangerous about staring at his lips. Right?
I swallowed a knot in my throat and forced myself to blink, to look away. Instead I zeroed in on the boxes on the back of his pickup. “Okay. Who’s first?”
I walked around the back to open the front panel and pulled a box toward me when I noticed Dare was still in a daze, staring at me.
