My heart beats harder when I see Zach's eyes light up. He kisses my knuckles and walks backward, our hands entwined.
“One day, a noblewoman who sought refuge here disappeared,” he says. He turns and strolls close to my side. “An angry lynch mob stormed the abbey, and the monks vanished into the surrounding forest. They were never seen again.”
We pause, shafts of pale light piercing through the canopy of leaves overhead.
Zach nibbles his lip, glancing around as if he’s suddenly nervous. “At least that’s how the story goes.”
I get the distinct sense he’s never told anyone this before. The way he looks at me now, with an air of vulnerability, has me in knots. Good knots.
“Come,” he says to break the silence. “Let’s look around.”
We explore the ruins—a fallen pillar here, a crumbled altar there. A faint path, barely more than a disturbance in the grass wind between the ruins, leading to what might once have been the cloisters.
Zach’s shoulder brushes up against mine. “This is where the monks would have meditated and studied.”
How do you know all this?The question is on the tip of my tongue, but Zach steals a kiss, a quick peck on my lips before he strolls forward.
In the center, a sunken grave marker tilts at an awkward angle. I try to read the inscriptions, but they’ve faded beyond recognition.
Zach leads us to a partially collapsed archway, with a stone bench beneath, tucked away in what might have been the cloister garden.
He sits down, his throat bobbing on a swallow as he reaches for my hand. I lower myself beside him on the worn and weathered bench. Around us, wildflowers have sprouted through the cracks in the stone.
“This isn’t weird, is it?” Zach asks.
My eyes fly to his. What does he mean… weird? It’s perfect.
“I don’t…” He takes a deep breath, scratching the back of his neck. “I’ve never done this before.”
Done what? I keep studying him, so he chuckles awkwardly, grabbing his neck now like he wants to disappear through a hole in the ground.
“I guess what I’m saying is that I’ve never…” His cheeks take on a red hue. “I’ve never tried to impress anyone before.”
Zach wants to impress me?
“Fuck, I wish you’d say something, so I’d feel less embarrassed,” he mumbles quietly with a soft, nervous laugh, then slides his fingers through mine.
His touch is hesitant and a little awkward, and I love it.
“I like you, Ark.”
I like you too.
He chews on his lip and looks over at the remains of the abbey’s fountain. Its basin is cracked and weathered and overgrown with moss and wildflowers. But I don’t care about the aged beauty around us. All I see is him.
“Let’s play a game,” he suggests, shifting to face me. “I know nothing about you, Ark. Let’s change that.”
His deep voice drifts over me like a vagrant breeze.
“I’ll ask you yes or no questions. Is that okay with you?”
A rook caws somewhere in the distance as wisps of clouds drift across the pale blue sky, but there’s no sign of a bird.
My heart thuds against my ribs as I nod my approval. The idea of letting Zach know me is both thrilling and scary. No one except my siblings knows me, and it’s safer that way. Information can be used to hurt me and the people I love.
But Zachary is my ocean.
He’s as blue as the sky above.
