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22
ZAC
“Hello,” Lyndi said in a singsong voice as she came through the door of the bungalow she shared with Layla, two pizzas in hand. She’d picked up dinner for the four of us on her way home from a bridal party she’d been hired to photograph at Aria’s venue. “Who’s ready for pepperoni with anchovies?”
Grayson sat up straight as a rod from his place on the living room floor, his eyes flying wildly from Lyndi to Layla to me. “Wait, what are anchovies?”
“Little black fish,” I replied, rubbing my hands together and licking my lips. “They’re delicious.”
Layla laughed when Grayson pulled a face and stifled a gag. “Please, tell me you’re joking.”
“I actually hope you’re joking, too,” she added, then she leaned closer so only I could hear her. “I’m not kissing you if you have anchovy breath.”
“Okay, you caught me, I don’t really like anchovies,” I replied loudly enough for Grayson to hear, then quietly, for only her ears, I added, “I’d never eat anything that would make you not wanna kiss me.”
The heat in her gaze made my stomach flip, and I looked away, conscious of our audience.
“I’m just teasing, Gray,” Lyndi said as she plopped the boxes on our dining room table. “It’s just pepperoni.”
Grayson’s whole body sagged with relief, and he sank to the floor in an exaggerated faint. Then Lyndi opened one of the boxes and he hopped up, running over to her. Layla and I watched from the couch as she showed him both pizzas, proving they weren’t of the fishy variety.
Then she turned and got a good look at us for the first time, and she gasped. “Whoa, Zac, what happened to your face?”
“Someone threw a shoe at him,” Grayson told her. “Stuff like that happens at work sometimes, right, Dad?”
“Yeah, bud.”
Lyndi’s brows shot up. “Seriously? Who threw a shoe at you?”
I hesitated, wishing it wasn’t such a big, noticeable gash. “It was someone who didn’t want to get in trouble for doing something they shouldn’t have been doing.”
I looked at my hands, my chest tightening. I’d needed to word it that way for Grayson’s benefit, because that was the way I always handled talking about my work-related injuries with my son. It was casual and direct, because I wanted to be honest whenever Grayson had questions, but it was never the full story.
In this case, someone had thrown a shoe at my head when I showed up to a domestic violence call the night before. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the husband, as I’d assumed. It was the wife. She’d just found out her new husband had gotten orders away from South Carolina, and since her whole family was near Beaufort, she didn’t like the idea of having to move away from them.
She’d lost her temper and started throwing things around their townhome, which caused the neighbors on the other side of their shared wall to call PMO. We got caught in the crossfire after we’d shown up to de-escalate the situation, dodging flying plants and picture frames as best as we could. But the woman had a good arm, and she’d nailed me right in the eyebrow with the heel of her stiletto. She eventually calmed down, and the husband didn’t press charges, but none of that was appropriate for Grayson to hear about.
Layla stood, sensing the need for a subject change. “I’ll get some plates and then let’s dig in. I’m starving.”
“Can I help?” Grayson asked.
He followed her into the kitchen, and I watched them interact with a new kind of tightness in my chest.This is really how it will always be, isn’t it?Family dinners with Lyndi, hanging out with Jo and Trevor, blending over holidays. It was perfect.
It had been two weeks since Layla had told me she’d marry me if I asked, and every day since, I’d been unable to think of much else. Unless I was at work, of course. Clearly, I had plenty to keep my mind occupied there, but I loved that my distraction wasn’t the same kind I’d been consumed by when we’d first arrived and things were bad with Layla.
I got up to join them in the dining room, but then I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I answered it, frowning. “Jo?”
It was only five, and I hadn’t expected to hear from her yet. She was out of town with Trevor on a big day trip he’d planned, and she told me she’d wake me up when she got back to let me know they’d made it back okay. It was a four-hour drive, and I’d likely be asleep by then, but she knew I’d worry if I woke up and hadn’t heard from her.
Yes, I knew I’d need to loosen the reins a little once Trevor eventually proposed and they got married. But for now, while she was still living with me, I still had a tight grip on my little sister.
“Zac,” she said, her voice cracking, “it’s Trevor.”
Ice filled my veins. “What happened?”
“We went on a hike after lunch. It was supposed to be an easy one, but there was a storm recently and there’d been a landslide and part of the trail was messed up.”
I held up my finger to Layla when I saw her staring, and quickly crossed the room and went into the bathroom so Grayson didn’t get nervous. I wasn’t sure what Jo was about to tell me, and I didn’t want to worry him.
