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“I wouldn’t expect anything different from you.”
“Oh, Zane.” I cover my face. “I don’t want you to be here because you feel sorry for me, because you feel bad for the poor girl who lost everything. I want you to be here because you want to be here, not due to guilt or remorse.”
His expression turns intense. “I’m here because I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone in my entire life, more than you can possibly comprehend.”
I stand there on the sidewalk, dumbfounded and blank, our second frozen encounter.
An older lady walks by with a tiny poodle on a leash. “Hey, if you don’t want him, I’ll take him.”
Neither one of us laughs or responds.
“Will you join me on the patio? Please? We need to talk,” Zane says with a pleading tone. “We need privacy.”
He’s right. Too much has been left unsaid. “Okay,” I say when I start breathing again.
This is it. The moment I’ve been waiting for.
Explanation time.
chapter thirty-six
~
ZANE ESCORTS MEto my transformed patio, and closes the gate behind us. He puts my roses in a vase on the table, adding to the elegance of the décor and causing a sweet scent to waft around us.
He has me sit down, placing a pillow behind my back, and a light throw blanket over my lap, like I’m an invalid or something.
“Comfortable?” he asks.
I nod, dumbfounded by the royal treatment. I can’t believe he’s doing all this for me.
The sound of a barking dog at my patio door makes him pause. “Is that... Articus?”
“Yes, I’m sure he needs to be let outside.” The door has a large window on it, but the blinds are closed.
“I’ll do it.” Zane holds out his hand. “Keys?”
He unlocks the door and Artie bursts outside to pee. Amazingly enough, he doesn’t knock over a single candle. When he’s done, he runs to Zane, jumping up and down in his excitement to see him.
Zane picks him up. “Hey, buddy.” Artie is going nuts in his arms, hardly able to calm down. To me, he says, “Ryker’s got you dog watching again, I see.”
“No, he gave him to me.”
“What? Articus is yours now?” Zane holds Artie up, so they’re face to face. “You lucky dog, you.”
Zane rubs Artie’s neck while tucking him under one arm. He immediately closes his eyes and rests his head as though he’s in a state of euphoria.
Maybe I just need Zane to do the same for me. If only that could cure me.
“Are you ready to eat?” Zane asks.
“Okay.”
He lifts up the steel dome in front of me with a flourish. I look down and bite my lip. I want to laugh. So hard my stomach will ache. But I just don’t have it in me. Instead, more tears spill down my cheeks at the memories his meal choice evokes.
Before me, is a heaping bowl of Lucky Charms.
“In memory of one of our first meals together,” he says, subdued.
