“Is your car locked?” he asks. I shake my head.
Zach opens the passenger door and slides in, checking everywhere. Under the floormats, beneath the seats. In the center console, glove box—don’t even get me started on how embarrassing that was—but he doesn’t find anything. Climbing out, he rounds the outside of the car, dropping to his knees and checking the wheel wells.
“Louise?” he calls, and I circle around. He sits back on his haunches, holding his palm out. A small, silver disc sits in the center of it. He stares up at me, his brows drawn close. My mouth hangs open. He closes his fist around the invasive littlething, then pushes to his feet. He shoves it in his pocket. “I’ll take care of this.”
“That’s kind of terrifying,” I breathe, and he nods. “Holy shit.”
“It could be nothing, or it could be something to worry about,” he says gently. “We’re not going to panic, though, okay? I’ll take care of it, Louise. Lock your car.”
“Okay,” I whisper, pulling my key fob out and hitting the lock button. He takes my hand in his, then leads me to the waiting truck. I climb in, and he closes the truck door before circling to climb in behind the wheel. He drives with his right hand just above my knee, his fingers curving inward around my thigh.
He squeezes gently, anchoring me.
He treats me to the last pumpkin cold brew of the season, and then we just drive. Teddy Swims and Thomas Rhett serenade us to ‘Something ‘bout a Woman’ and Zach grins over at me.
“Can I show you one of my favorite hidden spots?” he asks, squeezing my knee again. I nod, smiling back at him.
“It’s not far,” he says, turning the truck onto a dirt road. The trees canopy over the road, the last remaining leaves filtering the late morning sunlight as he drives with one hand draped loosely over the wheel.
“Are you sure you didn’t plant that AirTag and now you’re bringing me out into the middle of nowhere to murder me?” I tease.
He laughs out loud, his head tilting back with it. His grin is wide, unchecked. There’s a dimple that I don’t usually see.
“You caught me,” he teases back, then brings the back of my hand to his mouth, staring at me over the console. “I could never hurt you, Louise.”
“I know,” I whisper, tears stinging my eyes. Fuck I’m so lost in love with this man.
Turning us into a tiny, winding two track, I gasp when the trees open up and a small, glassy lake appears. Across to theother bank, the fall colors are in full show, the sun lighting everything up like a blaze. It’s stunning.
I love it.
I love that Zach wanted to share it with me, too.
Zach unbuckles, and I do the same. We angle our bodies toward each other, simply staring. I could look at him for a lifetime and never get tired of memorizing his face.
“What the fuck—” Zach snarls suddenly, startling me. Shoving open the driver’s side door, he climbs out, slamming it shut. Whipping my head around to follow him, I’m startled again when the passenger door opens at my back and a rough grip bites into the flesh of my upper arm.
“Excuse me?!What the fuck do you think you’re doing with my husband?!”
Yanking my arm away and turning my head toward the female voice on instinct, I recoil when a cellphone is shoved in my face. A flash of blond hair is all I see around the cellphone camera being aimed directly at me, and I freeze. She continues to shout at me, but the roaring in my ears is deafening.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
Zach is around the truck a heartbeat later, grabbing the woman by the shoulders and moving her away from the door. He slams it shut and shouts at me to engage the locks as he continues to move her away.
“Get your hands off me!”
“You need to go. Now.Goddammit, Britt,” he snarls through clenched teeth. “What the fuck are you doing?”
I’m shaking, trembling so badly my fingers miss the auto lock three times before it engages, the sound ricocheting through the sudden quiet of the car.
“What the fuck amIdoing? What the fuck areyoudoing?” the woman shouts. He’s still got his hands on her upper arms, moving her further away from the truck and toward a minivanthat we hadn’t noticed pull up next to us. “You’re cheating on me!”
My stomach drops, and I think I might actually be sick. The roaring in my ears intensifies, and I don’t hear whatever Zach says in response.
Has…has he been lying to me this whole time after all?
I dispel the thought as quickly as it pops into my mind, refusing to believe it. No.
