Zach shrugged. “I’m better with a whip… but I can try a whisk.” He let out a slow breath, his fingers tight on the steering wheel. “Do you think you might consider hiring someone with my experience?” he asked.
She twisted in her seat to face him as he drove. His smile had faded and he looked so serious. So worried about her answer. A light scratch tickled past the back of her eye, and—just for a moment—Emma thought she saw a vibrant mulberry-red butterfly resting on their joined hands. “What are you really asking, Zach?”
His hand on her thigh twitched, and then slowly loosened as if he was forcing himself not to grip her so tightly.
“I don’t want to live without you, Emma,” Zach said quietly. “If you want to stay in Swanage, I’m asking for you to make room for me in your life there.” He glanced at her, hope written all over his face. “I’ve lived at the Circle House for years and I’ve been saving my salary that whole time. What if I invested in The Holly Tree? I was thinking maybe forty-five percent partner. You’d still have final decision-making power.”
“And then what?” she whispered.
“Then you could expand. Maybe open a branch in Wales or London. We could divide our time until we decide where we want to settle. If you want, I could help with the business and leave you to manage the creative side. I’m happy with whatever works best, I just want to be with you.”
It was like a dream. A dream where everything she’d wanted was coming true. “You’d do that? You really want to?”
Zach pulled into Bryn’s rough drive and parked beside Ethan’s car, but neither of them made any move to get out. He lifted his hands and cupped her cheeks, his thumbs drifting gently over her skin. “I love you, Emma. I want to be where you are.”
Her smile grew wide enough that she could feel it tugging at her cheeks. His Shadows twined around hers, holding her, and his skin pressed against hers. His eyes were clear and filled with certainty, looking back into hers.
“I love you too,” she whispered. “I want to be where you are too.”
He leaned down and kissed her slowly. “We’ll destroy Gordon’s plans and then we can start our life.”
“Yes,” she murmured. “Yes, to all of that.”
She was about to kiss him again when the front door of the cottage flew open and Riley strode out. Her face was pale with high spots of color on her cheeks, her eyes wild as she called, “We need you in here!”
They climbed out of the car and hurried over to Riley together. “What happened?” Emma asked.
“It’s James.” Riley clenched her fists at her sides. “He’s gone.”
“What do you mean?” Zach asked as they followed Riley into the cottage and up the stairs to Bryn’s small spare room.
Bryn was already there, perched on the side of the bed with his head bowed. David and Elizabeth stood on opposite sides of the small room. Ethan was leaning against the wall, his face bleak, and Kay was searching through the desk.
“What’s happened?” Zach asked, his voice rough with dismay.
Bryn held up a scrap of paper and Zach took it slowly, holding it out for Emma to read at the same time.
I have to go back. Please forgive me.
Tell Riley I did love her.
James
God. What the hell had James done? And why? It didn’t make any sense.
Riley leaned heavily against the wall, her eyes wet with unshed tears. “Why would he do this?” she whispered raggedly.
“His phone is still here,” Kay muttered.
“He left everything,” Bryn admitted. “Maybe he didn’t want us to use it to find him.”
“No,” Zach protested. “That doesn’t make sense. James was helping us. It took me a long time to see it. Too long. But he is one of us, he always has been.”
“What’s his pin?” Kay asked, looking up from James’s phone. “It needs four digits.”
“Try his birthday,” Zach offered.
Kay punched in the numbers and then shook her head.
