I’m walking out past the nurse’s desk when I hear a familiar voice rising, sounding frustrated.
“… Iswearshe works here. Can you just— let me look at the employee list or something?”
“Zachery?”
He turns around at the sound of my voice, throwing his hands up in the air and turning back to the receptionist, who scowls at him.
“See?” he asks, gesturing to me. “Here she is. Great — thank you fornothing.”
“What are you doing here?” I ask, taking his arm and walking him outside before the receptionist can have him put on ablacklist. He stops, sticking his hands in his pockets and staring at me.
His hair is a soft blue now, his skin a bit more tan than before. I wonder where he’s been and want to ask, but I want an answer to my first question more.
“You texted me,” he says, clearing his throat and glancing to the side. “And I didn’t have the data to text back, so I thought I’d try and find you in person. Talk the old-fashioned way.”
I open my mouth, close it, and try again. “I thought you hated hospitals, though?”
He glances up at me, looking chagrined. “Yeah. That’s why this is a grand gesture, Lara.”
When I laugh, he relaxes, and we move to a bench together, sitting down and watching other hospital visitors flow around us.
“A grand gesture?”
“Something like that.” He takes a deep breath and turns toward me. “I’m not going to apologize for living my life the way I do. It’s fun for me, and fulfilling.”
“And you don’t have to,” I say, reaching out and taking his hand. “I want you to be happy, Zachery. And I realize now that I might have made it sound like I wanted you to stay in Wildfern Ridge. As much as I love having you around, I know you wouldn’t be happy staying here, and that wouldn’t make me happy, either.”
He nods. “But I do have something to apologize for. I made you feel like your house was just a hotel for me. I realized that I was kind of using it that way. I love seeing you and the kids, but it gotto the point where I was only coming when I needed a place to crash. You deserve better than that.”
We talk through the fight, apologize to each other again, and hug. Then Zachery leans back against the bench and asks, “So what are you doing at the hospital on your day off, anyway?”
He was there for me the last time this happened, so it’s only fair that I bring him into the circle again. I tell him about everything that’s happened since Jake came into town. How he feels like the one person in the world that I truly click with, every time.
How I’m right back in the same situation I was in five years ago.
Zachery listens, takes a deep breath, then puts his hand on my shoulder. “I think I should have said this louder five years ago, Lara. So, I’m going to say it now.”
He pauses, meets my eyes, and holds my gaze with a seriousness I didn’t know he was capable of.
“You need to tell him.”
CHAPTER 30
JAKE
The world spins around me.
“Jake?” Lara asks, clearing her throat and rubbing her palms down her jeans. We’re sitting in her living room, and she looks nervous enough that she could come apart at the seams. “Can you say something?”
Before leaving Los Angeles and coming home, I didn’t have kids and had no intention of changing that. Now, I’m the father of three and expecting another. Lara and I haven’t even had time to sort out our relationship fully, and I’m still desperately trying to make up for lost time with the triplets.
“I’m sorry,” I finally manage, lips feeling numb. Before I know what’s happening, I’m on my feet, moving for the door. “I need a second.”
Lara says something, but I barely hear it and can’t sort it out in my head. My feet carry me with an automation that shows how well I know the town, taking me down back streets and alleyways until I arrive at my dad’s old house.
My house.
Stepping inside, it smells like paint and fresh wood, and as I look around, I realize the renovation is basically done. The living room needs drapes, and I’m still waiting on a new stove for the kitchen, but other than that, a family could move in right now.
