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Just like her favorite sunset.No matter how bright and beautiful it could be, at the end of the day, its responsibility was tethered to the horizon, its passionate colors giving way to the necessity of night.
CHAPTER13
KENZIE
It would be a mistake.Mistake. Mis. Take.
Miss. Him.
Zeke.I missed him.
I took another drink from my water and capped the bottle, staring at the now-sleeping laptop screen. My call with Jake had ended almost twenty minutes ago, and I still couldn’t bring myself to leave the seat.
I didn’t know what Stan was about. He wouldn’t let me see Jake at the game—wouldn’t let me visit him at the hospital, but now, he was letting Jake call me regularly. Not just regularly. Every night. Sure, it meant I had to talk to my ex for a couple of minutes. Answer his probing questions about my life here. Listen to him compare everything to how my life had been with him. But then I got to talk to Jake. No runaround. No excuses. No cutoff.
I’d spoken to Jake every night since that first time, and Stan agreed to another afternoon in the park on Sunday. It was… wonderful. A good thing.
And wholly out of character for Stan.
I learned long ago never to look a gift horse in the mouth. Zeke insisted Stan finally realized he didn’t have much room to argue unless he wanted a real legal battle. I wanted to believe it; but I couldn’t.
I knew the kind of games Stan played, and his favorite had always been luring me into a false sense of security. His control was always an invisible fence around my life, goading me into believing I had all the freedom in the world… right up until I ran up against the boundary of his power.
The last shock I almost hadn’t recovered from.
I wouldn’t make that mistake again. So, my happiness, along with my hope, remained cautious.
Just like my relationship with Zeke.
Normally, I’d change, climb into the big empty bed, and then proceed to toss and turn while thinking about the man sitting at the desk in the room directly beneath me.My husband.But tonight… I couldn’t bring myself to leave the stool at the counter, and I couldn’t tear my eyes from the door leading downstairs.
Something had changed today. It shouldn’t have, but it did. We were legally married as of four days ago, but hearing him tell his siblings about the marriage… confess to the way he wanted me… I couldn’t let him keep this distance any longer.
Whatever happened… whatever needed to happen… it wasn’t going to change the way we wanted each other because nothing had been able to change that. Not his position. Not my recovery. Not his boundaries. Not my secrets. Not his chivalry. Not our fake marriage.
We wanted each other, regardless of circumstance or consequence. And we were already fighting for so much, I needed him to stop fighting against this—fighting against himself.
My bare feet hit the floor, and my steps carried me to the doorway. Downstairs. Through the hall. Even my knock didn’t hold me back from cracking the door to Zeke’s office and stepping inside.
His head jerked up from the papers he’d been looking at. His desk lamp was the only source of light, casting harsh shadows over his drawn expression. His hair was disheveled. His shirtsleeves rolled up and the collar unbuttoned. And the way he half leaned back in his chair but kept one elbow on the desk… he looked like a modern Cincinnatus, the Roman emperor who stayed in power long enough to bring Rome through crisis and then resigned and went back to his farm.
That was Zeke. The man who stepped up when everyone around him needed him… but never got the chance to return tohislife.
“Is everything okay?” He set the papers down, the intensity of his focus honed on me. “Jake?”
Tingles ran wild over my skin.
“Fine.” I shook my head and took a few steps forward. “He’s fine—good. Excited for tomorrow.”
“Good.” His shoulders relaxed, and he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Are you okay? Do you need something?”
My mouth opened and closed, working a few times before my throat produced sound.
“You.”
The movement was slight. The smallest of ripples through his frame to turn every muscle to stone. But I saw it. The chink in his armor.
“Kenzie…”
