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“Seems like it.”
He shuffled his feet. “And, uh, is that a good thing, or a bad thing?”
I thought about it for a second, my mind trying to pick out the differences in this version of Zac compared to the one I’d been with before. He was still the same protective, steadfast, and assertive guy he’d always been. But there were subtle changes that were easy to spot now that I was looking for them.
Back then, he’d been pretty serious. Not in a bad way, because we still spent a fair amount of time making each other laugh. But he’d carried himself a little differently. More rigid, maybe? Now, he had this easygoing way about him, giving off the impression that he didn’t take himself too seriously. All of those silly songs in the car must have loosened him up quite a bit.
I stepped closer, sliding my gaze over to Grayson to make sure he was still nearby and occupied with the massive selection of costumes. Then I reached my arms around Zac’s middle and tugged him against me.
His hard torso was familiar under my hands. His muscles were just as solid and swoon worthy as they always had been, despite the sudden appearance of a softer, gentler side.
“I spent a long time missing you, Zachary Miller. So, if you want to say cheesy things to me, I promise I’ll like it.”
Heat flashed in his gaze as he looked down at me, and he untucked his hands from his pockets and circled his arms around me. “Oh, you will, huh?”
“Mm-hmm.”
He leaned down, his lips close to my ear. “Well, when you said Gray was adorable, I almost saidyouwere adorable. And that I felt like I could stand here all day and watch you guys talk because it does crazy things to my heart.”
“Ooh, yeah. Thatisnice and cheesy,” I murmured, chills running down my neck from the feel of his warm breath on my skin.
He trailed kisses along my jaw then, and right when he neared my mouth, a startled scream cut through the moment. We jumped apart, looking around wildly for Grayson. He stood at the end of the long aisle, frozen in fear.
Without pause, Zac and I dashed through the aisle, him nearly running at full speed while I lagged behind to let him handle it. He reached his son and pulled him against him, looking for the source of his limb-locking fear.
As I reached them, I immediately saw the horrific sight that had scared him. An animatronic zombie—complete with blue-gray skin hanging off its skeletal frame—had launched out from behind a nearby headstone. It looked alarmingly real, the sheen from the fake blood dripping from its nose and mouth catching the light and shining like it was wet.
“Dad, it’s just like my nightmare,” Grayson wailed, his face pressed into his dad’s body as he clung for dear life.
Zac rubbed his back, then stepped away and went over to the incredibly realistic Halloween prop. Instinctively, I moved to Grayson’s side, putting an arm around his still shaking shoulders. He surprised me by turning into my arms and hugging me around the waist, burying his face.
“Look, buddy, it’s not real.” When Grayson peeked over at him, Zac reached out and touched the zombie, running a hand over its ghoulish face. “It’s just a decoration. It can’t hurt you.”
Grayson nodded but didn’t speak. I rubbed his back like Zac had done, feeling so bad for the little guy. If that thing had jumped out at me, I probably would have had a similar reaction to it.
Seeing that his son still wasn’t convinced, Zac stooped down and pointed at the black circle at the front of the tombstone. “See this?”
Grayson nodded again.
“This is a motion detector. It uses something called sound waves. We can’t see them, but they’re kind of scanning the area, and when someone steps into the spots where the sound waves are, it triggers some kind of action. You know how Grandma and Grandpa have that light over their garage that you said was magical because it turned on when you walked onto the driveway?”
Again, more wordless nods.
“Okay, so it’s like that. But in this case, the motion detector made the zombie pop out.”
Finally, Grayson let go of me and stepped closer, eyeing the decoration. “So, he can’t see me?”
“No, buddy, he’s not real. It was only the motion detector.”
Zac stood, and Grayson hugged him again before stepping back and walking backward down the aisle the way we’d come. “Okay, but I still don’t like it. Can we just look for costumes again?”
“Yeah,” Zac replied as we followed him.
“And no scary ones,” Grayson added.
“No scary ones.”
When Gray turned back to the packages of colorful family costumes, I reached out and took Zac’s hand. “That was really impressive.”
