“It’s not a problem.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “So who’s my, uh… partner for this thing?”
She opened her mouth, but the rumble of a motorcycle cut her off—and sent a shiver down my spine. “There he is now.”
I followed her line of sight to the road.No way…
A shining, deep blue bike came into view, glittering in the relentless, late-afternoon sun. I recognized his Harley immediately, along with his long legs as he came to a stop in front of us. My heart pounded. Heavy biker boots thudded to the gravel at our feet. My eyes trailed up his legs, to the familiar tattoos peeking through the rips of his distressed jeans. A leather jacket was zipped over a black shirt, and when he took off his gloves, I saw his fingers were tattooed with skeletal bones, like I was looking at the x-rayof his hand. Then the hand raised his helmet off his head and his black hair tumbled free.
Zach.
When his eyes landed on me, his lips quirked into a casual grin that made my heart skip a beat. “Hi… again.”
“Do you two know each other?” Sadie asked.
I actually flinched. I’d forgotten that she was there. I swallowed against a dry mouth. “You could say that.”
“We’re neighbors,” Zach clarified, hanging his helmet off the bike’s handlebar. “We’ve spent months smiling and waving from across the street.” He swung one long, muscular leg over the bike to dismount, and I squirmed. Why was that so hot? “It’s nice to officially meet you, Sadie. Julie’s spoken so much about you.”
“If it involves tequila shots, she’s lying through her teeth.”
They laughed, but I was too busy staring at Zach to join in. Now that we stood side by side, I had to lookupat him. He towered over me, with my head barely reaching his shoulder. Damn, he must have been at least six-foot-five. And that smile!
Sadie’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. “Eli?”
“Sorry, what?”
“I said, ‘I guess we can skip the formal introductions and get straight to it.’”
Feeling eyes on me, I returned my attention to Zach. He smiled down at me, unzipping his jacket and shrugging it off his shoulders. Tattoos cascaded down his arms from beneath the sleeves of his T-shirt, barely leaving any skin exposed.
I shook my head to clear it. “Yeah.”
“Great.” Sadie ducked into the back seat of her car and rummaged through her things.
While we waited, Zach shuffled closer to me. “It’s okay,” he murmured. “We can get through this, and you’ll never have to see me again if you don’t want to. I promise. When I see you in the neighborhood, I’ll dramatically turn away and pretend I never saw anything. Eli who? I don’t know an Eli.”
“Shut up,” I laughed. “It’s fine.”
“It will be.”
Sadie straightened again, a camera in hand and an equipment bag thrown over her shoulder. Ducking into her car one more time, sheemerged with water bottles. “Here,” she said, offering one to each of us. “It’s important you stay hydrated.”
“Thank you,” I said with some relief, accepting the bottle.
Sadie moved to the entrance of the graveyard and we followed. “So this is a small, family-owned cemetery. I got special permission from the owners to be here, so you don’t have to worry about trespassing. They only asked we stay away from the Steps—they’ve had enough injuries from kids rooting around in the woods looking for them.”
“I’ve treated enough of them,” I said. “I’d rather not be the next one.”
“That’s right.” Sadie peered over her shoulder. “You’re an ER physician, aren’t you?”
I nodded, painfully aware of how close Zach was to me. His arm brushed against mine with each step, sending a fresh wave of heat through my body.
“Are you okay?” he asked me.
Another nod, and I cracked open my water bottle and brought it to my mouth. “What do you do?”
“High school teacher.”
I choked, and as I tried to clear my airway, I tripped over a tree root. Or, what I thoughtwas a tree root. I cursed and stumbled, but Zach caught me before I fell over. I studied the object at my feet and found that itwasn’ta tree root, but a small rectangular stone. Another sat a few feet ahead, and more were scattered to the left and right.
