He stopped pacing and slowly crouched down in front of them, his forearms braced over his knees. “I was the first prince. Your mom and I were really, really good friends for a long time before she knew your dad.”
“Before we were born?” Jennifer asked, like she couldn’t comprehend there had been a time that long ago.
“Yes,” he replied calmly. “Back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth and cavemen were running around.”
She burst into a fit of giggles and even Lu’s mouth twitched a little, but then her eyes narrowed again. One day, she would make a great detective if that was what she decided to do with her life. She was already looking at us like she was interrogating a murder suspect.
Zach was undeterred by her glare, his expression open and steady while I felt like I was about to drown. “It’s been a few years, but I’d like for us to be friends again.”
Jennifer accepted this information in stride, but Lu turned to me. I finally managed to offer her a soft smile and jerk my chin in a nod. “I’d like that too.”
I looked between the girls and tried to steady myself. If Zach could do it, so could I. Drawing in another deep breath, I walked back over to the couch they were on and dropped into a crouch beside him. “I’m going to be spending more time with Zach from now on, and he’s going to be… around.”
While the explanation was gentle, it lacked a vital piece of information. This was the part where I should tell them we were getting married. They were getting to know him and even Lu was coming around. We still had some time left in Wisconsin to figure things out before we’d crash back into reality, and we were on the topic, so I could easily segue into it.
I just couldn’t bring myself to say the words, afraid it would be too much for them just after they’d found us in bed together. Especially because Lu looked horrified to learn that he would bearound.
“Why?” she asked, frowning deeply. “What does that mean?”
Honestly, it was a valid question. I even opened my mouth to just say it outright, that he was going to be their stepfather, but before I could force the words out, Zach stepped in again. “Because I love your mom and I don’t want to spend the rest of my life being the prince who didn’t get the princess.”
Shock trickled through me, so intense that I nearly fell over. For a second, I thought that maybe he’d just said it to assure them, but when he turned his head to look at me, he seemed completely sincere.
The wordlovebounced through my skull in a dizzying echo as our gazes clashed and held.Love. That’s not past tense, but he didn’t sayloved. He said love.
When I stared at him, he just stared right back at me, still calm, but his chin lifting ever so slightly, almost like hewas challenging me to argue. Which was definitely a lot less terrifying than admitting I still loved him too.
Amber must’ve noticed the tension rising between us because she suddenly jumped to her feet. “Well, I always knew Zach was a prince. I mean, this place can’t be a castle because it doesn’t have a drawbridge, obviously, but itisa palace. Now, who wants to help me make pancakes?”
Both of Jennifer’s hands shot into the air and she was up moments later. “Me! Me! Me!”
Lu kept staring at Zach suspiciously for another few seconds before sliding off the couch. “I only like pancakes shaped like dinosaurs now.”
“Perfect,” Amber replied without skipping a beat. “How do you feel about misshapen dinosaurs?”
She put a hand on each girl’s shoulder, gently but efficiently guiding them out of the room as fast as she could, Lu’s arguments for how to make the dinosaur perfectly shaped ringing out behind them. The second they disappeared around the corner, Zach rose slowly to his feet, silence reigning supreme between us.
Meanwhile, I wasstilltrying to process what he’d just said. I pushed back up onto my own feet as well but immediately sat down on the couch when I realized the shock was making me dizzy.
“You can’t just say things like that,” I blurted out.
At the exact same time, he said, “We need to talk, Adeline.”
We both stopped. Then I tried again. “You just told my children that youloveme.”
“Alex called me this morning,” he said. “I know what I told your children and I meant it, but we have bigger fish to fry.”
“Bigger fish to fry?” I scoffed, finally standing again. My head was still swimming, but I couldn’t remain seated when hewas looking at me like he knew something I didn’t. “What are you talking about?”
I lowered my voice to a hiss. “Weslepttogether last night, Zach. We’re getting married, we haven’t told them, and apparently, you love me. What could be bigger or more important than all of that?”
He stepped closer and gently took hold of my shoulders. “I need to go back to Chicago. Today. Right now. I should’ve been on my way already, actually.”
Something in his voice made my stomach twist and every other thought, as all-consuming as they’d been a moment ago, suddenly didn’t matter anymore as I searched his face, noticing tension there that obviously hadn’t been eased by the fact that we’d smoothed over the situation with the girls.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. “What did Alex say?”
He blew out a heavy breath through his nose, then met my gaze again and this time there was ice cold steel in it. “Louis is contesting the divorce.”
