Neither of us needed to feel so much as a drop more pain because of the other. By the time I rejoined my family, I certainly hadn’t forgotten about him, but my focus at least was back where it belonged—on my children.
I dropped into a crouch in front of Lu and gently took her shoulders, turning her to face me. “You need to be nicer, baby.”
“I’m only nice to girls,” she said stubbornly, literally digging her heels.
Amber snorted a laugh she quickly tried to stifle, but I heard it anyway. Shaking my head, I pushed to my feet and glanced at her. At twenty-two, she was a fun girl who was very much enjoying early adulthood in Chicago, but she was also fiercely loyal to the girls and me.
Her father’s business had been acquired by my family after it had gone bankrupt when she’d been young, which had made her very much against old-money families in general, but the fact that my grandfather had given her dad a job had redeemed us in her eyes.
“Can we go play now?” Jennifer asked once I was standing again. “We don’t need to leave yet, right?”
“No, we don’t.” I nodded toward the nearest playground, only about a dozen or so yards to our left. “Go on.”
The girls ran off, not needing to be told twice. Amber hauled the scooter over her shoulder and tilted her head toward the market. “Who was the guy?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but apparently, Jennifer was still within earshot and she screamed it for me. “That was Zach!”
Then she raced off after Lu. My cheeks caught fire, burning as if they’d been dipped in acid. “Yeah, she’s right. That was Zach.”
“And Zach is…” Amber trailed off with purpose, obviously wanting me to finish the sentence.
“He’s my—” I cut myself off before I could say the word. Honestly, I felt like hell. All I wanted was to crawl into bed and not emerge for a long, long time. Just the thought of having to tell our story right now was too painful to even think about, so I pivoted. “Jennifer likes to look through my old yearbooks. She still doesn’t believe I used to be young. It’s rather shocking to her, I think.”
“You’re only thirty.” Amber laughed, nudging my shoulder as we headed over to a bench. “You’re notthatold.”
“To a seven-year-old, I’m ancient,” I said. “She can’t fathom someone actually having lived for a full thirty years.”
On the other hand, I felt much older. Like I’d lived several lifetimes at this point. Amber, however, just chuckled and shook her head. “Yeah, okay. I guess thirty must seem impossible when you’re only seven, but you still haven’t answered my question. Who is Zach? Obviously, he was someone important?”
I took a deep breath, recognizing that she wasn’t going to let this go until I gave her at least something. But I seriously couldn’t bring myself to go into the details right now, so I kept itas vague and brief as I could, focusing on the parts that hurt the least.
“We met at boarding school several millennia ago,” I said lightly, hoping that joking about it would help. It didn’t really. “Zach and I just got along really well from the word go, you know? He became my best friend, and we reconnected when I graduated from college and came to Chicago to work.”
“Oh, right. You came here to work at the same gallery you are now, right?”
“Yep.” Getting my old job back eight years later had been a blessing I knew I couldn’t take for granted. It was a lifeline I’d been praying for, even if it barely paid enough to keep a roof over our heads and to pay Amber to watch the kids for the summer, but it was something and that was better than nothing. More than I’d had for myself in a very long time. Eight years, to be exact. “So yeah, that’s the story.”
“So he’s just an old friend?” Amber glanced over her shoulder, back in the direction of the market.
I didn’t tell her that he was a lot more than that. So much more. What had happened between us was also my biggest regret, but that was the thing about regrets. You had to live with them. Forever.
“He was a friend but not anymore,” I said finally.
CHAPTER 5
ZACH
Iopened the back door and stepped aside just in time for Emma to barrel past me like a small, determined force of nature, and I chuckled. “Hey, you. Do you want to come to Uncle Zach?”
“Emma! Emma, slow down.” Nate was right behind her, sounding like he’d aged five years in the last three seconds as they both raced past me without even making eye contact.
Kate followed, smiling like this was normal. For her, I supposed it probably was. At least she stopped to give me a quick hug. “Hi, Zach. I apologize in advance.”
“For what?”
Emma shrieked excitedly from somewhere down the corridor, and Kate’s eyebrows swept up a little. “For that.”
Jesse and Jacqueline came in behind them, with Jesse carrying two pizza boxes as carefully as if they were precious cargo. “I’m starving. Please tell me you have the plates ready.”
