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“I do feel the same,” her voice husky and full of emotion. “I’m glad you want to try. I want to do that, too.”
“I think…I think I might be in love with you, Lucy Gilbert.”
The happiness that was bubbling inside of her was like a gigantic bottle of champagne that threatened to spill over. He’d sounded so earnest, so serious, and here she was grinning and almost laughing. She couldn’t help it. She was relieved and thrilled all at the same time. She’d been bracing for heartbreak, but somehow, she was getting something that she’d desperately wanted but couldn’t admit even to herself.
“I think I love you, too, Zack. It’s kind of scary, but I can’t imagine my life without you now. I didn’t expect this, but I’m so glad you came back for that wedding.”
When they kissed, it was different somehow. Warmer, deeper, more…something. It simply meant more to be kissing someone that she loved and loved her back.
The door swung open, and Cooper stepped in, his eyes widening at the sight before him like a deer in headlights. Clearing his throat, he hastily stepped back out again.
“Pardon me, I’ll just wait downstairs.”
Zack and Lucy both burst into laughter, breaking the romantic bubble they’d wrapped themselves in, if only for a few minutes.
“I think we scared him,” Lucy giggled.
“We were standing up with all our clothes on,” Zack observed. “And that sent him flying back downstairs. I guess we should get going since he’s waiting for us. I want to make sure that you get to the bookstore safely.”
She’d be walking on clouds the entire way. She and Zack were in love.
* * *
Zack and Cooper pulled up in front of Lloyd Daniels’s rundown apartment building on the outskirts of an even smaller town about a half-hour from Winslow Heights. They didn’t know if he’d be home, but they’d decided to wait for a while if he wasn’t. They really wanted to talk with him about Sarah.
Pushing open the driver’s side door, Zack didn’t even have time to step out of the vehicle before Cooper spoke.
“You got a good woman, bro. Don’t blow it.”
Zack’s first instinct was to tell Cooper to go fuck himself; the second was to realize that this was his brother’s awkward way of worrying and trying to give advice. It came from a place of love and concern, although the manner in which it was expressed left a great deal to be desired.
“I wasn’t planning to mess it up, but it’s clear that you think that I might.”
“You’ve said out loud that you’re not sure if you want to go back to the city. I’m just making sure that you don’t make a life-altering decision that you’ll regret.”
“Do you have any decisions that you regret?”
“Yes, one.”
“Okay, I’ll bite. What is it?”
“I should have told our father to shove it up his ass years earlier than I actually did.”
That sounded like something Cooper would do.
“If you’d done it any earlier, you would have been a toddler and typing him an email on a Fisher-Price toy computer.”
Cooper threw back his head and laughed.
“I wasn’t much older than that when I realized that Dad was a jerk. Seriously, Lucy is the real deal. She’s perfect for you.”
“I know. That’s why I’m not going back to New York City. I’m going to stick around for a while, see what happens. Is that okay? I intend to find my own place, but I might be around a little longer until I do.”
“I told you that you can stay as long as you need to. And good for you. You’ve finally realized that you don’t have to have all of the answers all of the time.”
Since coming home Zack hadn’t had basically any answers, and so far, he hadn’t done too badly.
They walked up the sidewalk and the door swung open. Daniels stood there, looking a lot older than Zack remembered but it had been eighteen years. They’d all aged.
