Zach is the last to climb out from where he was sitting in the passenger seat. Our eyes
immediately meet and like every time he looks at me, my stomach flips…in a good way. Maybe I do
have someone to call mine. At least for now.
He gives me a cautious smile, and I frown before I can stop it. I don’t understand these smiles
lately. He’s seemed so…careful around me, and I hate it. When did the brash playboy get to be so
cautious?
He stops in front of me, and I automatically reach out to finger the buttons of his shirt. It’s become
a habit lately, but it settles me, having this little connection with him. “Why was your shirt off
before?” I ask him, conscious of all the eyes on us. Abby, bless her, steers the brothers toward the
front door of the rescue. She’s walking a little bent over with the weight of Maverick and Nick’s arms
over her shoulders.
Zach winces and covers my hand, cradling it against his warm chest. “I was a little…frustrated.
Kade was helping me work it off.”
“Work it off…without your shirt?” I ask with a raised brow. “And then you all ended up drinking
to…blow off steam?”
Zach shakes his head absently, “Mostly to celebrate. Colton’s brother’s going to be getting out
soon. Thanks to you, mainly. Your idea of him working at the garage was the right one. He agreed to
try.”
“That’s really good news. Colton must be relieved.”
He nods, absently as he traces his fingers over my face. “You’re so pretty. How’d you get so
pretty, huh?”
I clamp my mouth shut to stop the instinctive denial. I’m not pretty. Not according to current
beauty standards, but I’m not going to point that out to him. “I haven’t changed.”
He snorts, tips his head back, and wobbles. “Woah,” he mumbles, reaching for me to steady
himself. He wraps his arms around my shoulders, sighing when he’s got my head tucked against his
neck. “That’s better.”
“Yeah, it is.” I never spent much time thinking about how men smelled. Don’t get me wrong, of
course, I registered pleasant or unpleasant smells, but only in the context of how close I had to be to
someone. It only mattered if I was seated next to them at a meeting or on a subway.
But with Zach, I seem to be developing an obsession with all his smells. The aftershave lingering
