"You see a tiff. I see a pattern. My pattern. How can you not see that?" How could he not get it?
He grimaced, and Piper felt that flinch of his doubt. It kicked her heart from up under her ribs.
"You're right. I don't get it because I'm not worried about Anna and Drake," Zach continued quickly. "Yeah, the pictures look bad. But those two? They love each other. Listen, every relationship struggles at some point. That doesn't mean anything. Theirs got caught in a picture. That's all."
She turned her head slightly. "You didn't see in it what I did."
He moved his palm to rest against her jaw. "Their fight is not because you worked on their wedding. I mean… it's, just, not."
She looked away again, her voice breaking. "But what if it is?"
Her throat tightened with the weight of it all.
"It's not," he said, but his voice was strained. A forced certainty that did nothing to soothe the panic clawing up from her stomach.
"This always happens," she whispered, the words trembling. Her breath caught, chest taut, heart thudding.
"That doesn't mean anything," he replied gently, but the syllables landed like stones.
She wanted to believe he was right. She really did. But evidence was not in his favor. This wasn't a theory. It was solid logic.
"I'm trying to believe in love," she said, and her mouth trembled with the effort to keep control. "But it's terrifying. I need some time to think. To figure out what I actually think without all the outside chatter." Her voice cracked on the last word, raw and exposed. "I need some space to breathe so I don't accidentally break us." She needed a minute. She needed a damn week.
Gah. The sound broke out of her, half sob, half curse.
"Running happens in fairy tales," Zach said. "But this is us. This is real. You don't need to run. Not when I'm right here."
She pressed her hands to her cheeks, fingers digging in like she could somehow hold herself together.
And then without waiting for answers, without waiting for mercy, she turned and walked away.
Her coat flapped behind her in the wind, unbuttoned and uncaring. Her eyes ached with tears, every blink a battle.
But her chest… her chest burned, tight and hollow all at once. She didn't look back, not until the corner loomed like a cliff she didn't want to fall from but maybe already had.
When she did turn around, Zach stood frozen, one hand half-lifted as though he were going to try to stop her. Slowly, he dropped it to his side.
His mom said that detours were part of the path.
But, what if the detour always led back to the wreckage instead?
CHAPTER 25
2 DAYS AFTER ANNA & DRAKE'S WEDDING
ZACH
The hum of the sewing machine buzzed under Zach's fingers like it needed something to stitch more than fabric. Answers. Like him, it needed answers.
He'd settle for a goddamn glass slipper at this point. Anything to prove she was real, and she was coming back.
Outside, Denver was tucked into night. Inside, they were neck-deep in a new cut inspired by Roman gladiators.
Those were Noah's words, not his. But Zach couldn't concentrate. Not even close.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and tried not to check his phone again.
Noah sat across the worktable, poking at a pile of waistband prototypes like they might bite him.
