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“Are you sure? It’s getting late. I wouldn’t want to impose.”
Zander raised an eyebrow. “Are you kidding? I’m heading home to my cat and the news. You’d be doing me a favor, saving me from a night of my lonely bachelor existence.”
Rachel knew she should say no. She was crossing lines she couldn’t uncross. She was letting Zander in, could feel him worming his way into her heart. But as he stood before her, his dark eyes practically begging her to give in, she found she couldn’t say no.
“Okay. Just one drink. Besides, I have a surprise for you.”
“Really? Well, now I’m just plain intrigued,” he replied as he led her toward the back of the theater out into the summer air.
“Good,” she replied, and they walked down the sidewalk, the roses still in her arms, Rachel thrilled at the prospect of what she was about to share with him.
* * *
Tuckedinto a corner of the hectic bar, Rachel felt energized by the music and the vibe running through the place. She hadn’t been out for a drink after a show in forever, and it felt good to do something different. More than anything, it felt good to be here with the man sitting across from her.
“So, what’s this surprise you have?” Zander asked after taking a sip of his beer.
Rachel grinned, digging into her bag and pulling out a piece of paper. She slid it across the table to him.
He studied the paper. “What’s this?”
“A theater group in town. They’re looking for new members. They do a few plays a year, but mostly they’re an improv acting group that meets once a week. I think it could be a good place to jump back in, you know, until you’re ready to dive in fully.”
“Dive into what?” he asked, studying the paper.
“Your acting career, of course. Come on, Zander. You’ve told me yourself how you thought you’d be on stage one day. So what’s stopping you? You live in the perfect city to chase that dream. You need to get back out there and go for it. It isn’t too late.”
Zander looked up at her, and for the first time, she wondered if she’d made a mistake. He peered at her intently, his eyes piercing into hers.
And then he smiled. “Thank you. That was really nice of you to give me this.”
She shrugged. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. And it’s just dumb for you to give up on it because of whatever happened in the past or whatever didn’t happen. You can do it, Zander. I can see it in your eyes when you talk about acting that you’ve got the passion. And now you’ve got a place to jump back in. I think you’d really like it. One of the girls in the chorus was actually talking about it, and I asked for more information.”
“It sounds fun. I don’t know. I’ve been away from it for so long. But maybe, you know? Maybe this is what I need to start again.”
Rachel reached across the tiny table they sat at, careful not to spill her drink. She touched his hand, covering it with hers.
“Go for it, Zander. What do you have to lose? You can do this, I know it.”
The smile on his face said all she needed to know. She’d accomplished her goal. She’d made him believe in the dream again, even if only for a short minute. She’d helped him reignite the fire for his goal he’d lost sight of.
And that made Rachel burn with a newfound passion she hadn’t expected.
“This means more than you could know, Rachel. Thank you.”
Looking at him sitting across the tiny table from her, Rachel stared into the eyes of the man who had wandered into her life on one of the worst days. When she looked at him, though, she didn’t see any of the things she probably should—all of the fear and guilt and hesitation. She didn’t see all of the ways she had been burned in the past by Seth, by love, and by entrusting her heart with another.
Instead, as she looked into the dark eyes of Zander Riley, the teacher with a passion for theater who complimented her own personality in so many ways, she saw something even more terrifying than betrayal.
She saw a man she could envision a life with, a man who might be worth breaking her promise to herself. She saw, in a word, love, which was something she never planned to make room for again.
Zander stared back at her, as if waging a similar internal battle. Rachel knew he understood her hesitation, as he was clearly sporting some sort of battle scars when it came to love as well. They were two broken spirits chasing two similar dreams, both pushing love to the side. Now, though, at a pivotal point in life, they’d crashed into each other as if the universe had been lining up their lives for this exact moment.
Something about Zander invited her in, made her feel like she could let go of all of her past ideas about love and relationships. She felt for the first time in years that maybe she’d been wrong about what love looked like, what it felt like.
She felt, in many ways, like Zander was opening her up to a new kind of love.
So despite the cheesy music in the background and her head screaming for her to stop what was about to happen, Rachel didn’t pull back. She didn’t run from the feelings, instead savoring them as Zander inched closer and closer. Her hand still on her margarita glass, she let him lean in before she followed suit, meeting him in the middle.
