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“Waiting for Christmas morning was torture,” Zack laughed. “The month of December seemed like it was longer than the other eleven months combined. We would go out here, too, with Mom. Dad rarely came. He was always busy at the office, but Mom loved to take us out here. She and Aunt Kim would lie on a couple of those folding lounge chairs while us kids ran around and wore ourselves out. I think we all slept great when we got home.”
“Is that why you want to go there?”
Her voice was hushed and soft, almost reverent for their surroundings.
“I want to be someplace where I was happy. When I didn’t have any problems.”
“When was the last time you didn’t have problems, Zack?”
“I know you think I’m going to say right before Mom disappeared, but it was earlier than that. Maybe…high school? Shit, it was before that, too. I was probably thirteen or fourteen when I seriously started thinking about getting out of Winslow Heights. I guess I’ve had problems of one sort or another for a long time.”
“Zack, that might be the saddest thing I’ve ever heard. You were old before your time. Did you even enjoy being a kid?”
“I did.”
“You don’t sound too sure.”
Was he sure? Yes, he’d had a terrific childhood. But perhaps it hadn’t lasted as long as it could have.
“I had fun. But I always knew that my dad had plans for me.”
From a young age, Joel had been vocal about his hopes and dreams for his oldest child.
She glanced out of the window and then back at Zack.
“Do you want to come inside for awhile? Maybe have a glass of wine?”
“Lucy, that’s the best offer I’ve had in a long time. Lead the way.”
What was it about this woman that he wanted to be with her all of the time? He’d never felt that way about anyone else. Not that he could remember. He’d always been the cool, reserved one in his relationships. He’d been home less than two days, but already Lucy was the one person he wanted to spend all his time with.
She felt more like home than Winslow Heights did.
10
It wasn’t Lucy’s habit to invite men into her home, especially at night. She hadn’t dated much since returning to her hometown, mostly because she hadn’t met anyone that she was truly attracted to. She’d had her heart broken, but she wasn’t avoiding romance. She wasn’t seeking it out either.
But since running into Zack yesterday, it felt like the whole world had been turned on its head. She hadn’t felt this sort of heat with a man in a long time. It wasn’t just that he was incredibly handsome and sexy. He was a nice person, too.
She’d been surprised to hear herself inviting him in, but when she’d had a moment to think about it, it had been a foregone conclusion. She didn’t want their time together to be over. She wanted the evening to continue. She liked being with him, enjoyed his company.
Lucy wasn’t a virgin or naive. There was a subtext when a woman invited a man into her home after a date, an unspoken offer of physical intimacy. It wasn’t a hard and fast rule. A female could certainly spend time with a man without the expectation of sex, but the thought was out there. It was the elephant with pink and purple polka dots in the corner of the room that she couldn’t ignore.
Inviting Zack into her home meant that there was a possibility that they might make love.
Sex always changed a relationship whether for good or bad. There was no going back after that. They couldn’t pretend they were just pals or that they weren’t all that attracted to one another.
It might just be something that she dealt with, but after going to bed with someone Lucy always felt a bit vulnerable the next day. She’d allowed a man to be that up close and personal and, for her at least, that meant stripping away more than just her clothes. She was letting him see inside her emotions, too.
She wasn’t about to fool herself either that Zack was going to stick around Winslow Heights. He’d confessed that he was at a crossroads in his life and career. This was just a pitstop along the way. If she had any ideas about happily ever after, she needed to get them out of her head right now. If she went to bed with him tonight, she had to expect that it wasn’t going to lead to some grand love affair. Zack wouldn’t hurt her deliberately, but he wasn’t at the point in his life where he was looking for a commitment and to settle down. She didn’t think it was an accident that all the Winslow siblings had yet to find their forever person.
They weren’t looking, and in some cases like Cooper, they were deliberately hiding.
But she wasn’t going to turn back. She’d made this decision, and she wasn’t afraid of what might come of it.
Unlocking the door to her condo, she flipped on the lamp in the entryway and then stood back so that Zack could enter. She loved her home, although it was quite small. Just two bedrooms, one which was postage stamp-sized. She used it as an office mostly. The living room and kitchen were really just one space with an island separating them. She had a small powder room in the entryway, and a full bath in the primary bedroom. There was even a tiny deck in the back where she had a small grill that she used during the summer.
She’d spent time searching shops for the right decor. She liked simple, clean lines with splashes of color. Her favorite color was red, but she tried not to overdo it, happy with the crimson-flowered throw pillows and a red and blue vase on the coffee table.
