AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He casually flopped on the couch and rested his feet on the coffee table, then nodded toward my ice cream. “How is it? Still your favorite?”
“How did you know it’s my favorite? Another childhood sleepover memory?”
“Nope. I ran into you once at the Zany Zebra. You were with some guy and when you told him they didn’t have your favorite flavor, he tried to argue with you about it. As if mint chocolate chip shouldn’t be anyone’s favorite.”
“I remember that. He did not get a second date.”
“I figured. You’re too smart for that.”
I waited for him to say I was too smart to be dating Preston, too, but he didn’t take the opening.
Maybe Zachary Haven had manners after all.
Instead, he changed the subject, going back to funny stories from when we were kids. He told me about the fort he and his brothers had tried to build out of sticks and his favorite pranks they’d played on the Bailey brothers.
We laughed about the time the Baileys hijacked the drive-in movie theater with their homemade version of Dirty Dancing. I’d been there that night, with Isabelle. We’d pretended to be outraged with everyone else, but really, we’d thought it was hilarious. It was interesting to discover Zachary and his brothers had found the humor in it, too. Zachary even admitted he and Gavin had struck up something resembling a friendship.
I told him things too. About my dad replacing my range without asking and how my mom was always forgetting things. I shared a few of my worst first date stories and told him about what it was like to watch Annika fall in love with Levi Bailey during the time of the feud. I gushed about my non-biological nieces and nephews—Annika and Isabelle’s kids—and even admitted how much I hoped I’d be a mom someday.
Through it all, he kept it friendly. He listened and talked and laughed with me, but never made an excuse to move closer. Never tried to brush his hand against my thigh or move into my space.
We were so absorbed in conversation, neither of us noticed the hours passing until I covered my mouth while I yawned. He helped clean up and when he left, he simply said goodbye.
As I shut the door and listened to the sound of his truck pulling down the driveway, I couldn’t help but think how easy that had been. I hadn’t thought for a second about my lack of makeup or my outfit. I’d enjoyed an evening of greasy pizza and ice cream with someone I’d known forever.
I’d seen a different side of Zachary Haven. And I liked it.
I liked it a lot.
Maybe he wasn’t the unattainable bad boy I shouldn’t want. He was a man who’d known me for years. A man who was comfortable and easy to talk to.
And a man who seemed to care more than I thought he could.
CHAPTER 16
Zachary
Gavin tossed me a jar of peanut butter.
“You sure this will work?” I asked.
“The Fiona method? Oh yeah. It’s foolproof.”
I twisted the lid to open it and pulled off the inner seal, then dug out a scoop of peanut butter with a spatula. I smeared some on the tree limb.
“Just make sure it’s thick enough for the cookies to stick.”
“Got it.”
The Fiona method was named after Gavin’s sister-in-law, Fiona Bailey, who was known around town as the squirrel whisperer. She’d trained the ones out at her house to go through an obstacle course, and although none of the Baileys would admit it—even years later—she had to have been involved in the nut bomb prank at the Timberbeast.
Granted, we’d deserved it. We’d hit their hangout, the Caboose, with a similar prank.
But Fiona had also figured out the best way to clean up a squirrel situation without hurting any of the squirrels. Which was why I was out in the woods with my former enemy building a giant squirrel lure.
Only in Tilikum.
We’d loosed the squirrels on Preston’s job site, but I didn’t want them to stay there. He’d probably start picking them off. Sure, they could be a nuisance, but I didn’t want any of them to get killed for the sake of a prank. I wasn’t a total asshole.
