His eyes meet mine again. “Lila isn’t a woman.”
“What?” My heart stutters.
“She’s my assistant’s dog.”
My brain struggles to process the sentence. “A dog.”
“Yes.”
“Adog.”
“Yes.”
Tears spill before I can stop them.
Zach steps forward immediately. “Hey—”
“I thought…” My voice breaks. “I thought you kept something important from me on purpose. To hide it.”
His face softens instantly. “No. Never. I made her up.”
“What?” I’m so confused I don’t know what to think.
“Julian and Marisol have been riding me for years about you,” he says quietly. “About how I let the best thing in my life sit right in front of me without doing anything about it.”
My breath catches.
“So I invented a girlfriend.” He rubs his forehead.
I throw up my hands. “And named her after your assistant’s dog?”
“In my defense,” he says carefully, “Lila was in the office. Seemed easy enough.”
A shaky laugh escapes me through the tears. Relief floods through my chest so fast it almost makes me dizzy.
“Hey.” Zach pulls me into his arms.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“You actually thought I was hiding someone.” He pets the back of my head.
I clutch his shoulder. “I thought you lied to me.”
“Sky.” His arms knot around me. “If you want to know the truth, ask.”
I pull back enough to look at him and nearly start crying again. “You could have told me.”
“How about I tell you this: I’ve been in love with you for years.” Zach thumbs my jaw.
“You could have told me.”
“Yeah, so could you.”
Fair point.
My fingers curl into his shirt. “So what happens now?”
He kisses the tip of my nose.
“We finally stop pretending.”
