Page 21 of Keeping Her Safe

“And I am the worst card she ever got,” she whispered.

“She didn’t think that, Zephyr. She loved you.” He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder.

“When she was drunk, she would tell me I was her biggest mistake. I was the reason she was in Florida, and the kids she loved were not with her.”

“She didn’t mean it.”

“I lived in the shadows of these girls for twelve years. I just hope they live up to it,” she replied, clamping back the tears from the memories of days past.

The hand that was once on her shoulder was now resting on the nape of her neck, under her now-straight hair. His fingers were lazily rubbing the side of her neck. Zephyr stayed perfectly still, knowing he would pull away if she leaned into the touch.

“Do you remember your parents?” she asked to get the conversation off her. She had never asked him about his past before Brian adopted him.

“Not really. They were already dead when I was six. Dad first in a car accident, he was pretty high when it happened. Years ago, I read the file on it, and it was his fault. He hit a tree going close to eighty miles an hour. I don’t remember him. I was around two. Then Mom took me and left Jacksonville and moved to the beach. We had a little apartment near a park, but the drugs found us there, too. She was high most days, usually too high to feed me. Sometimes a neighbor would feed me, but mostly, I ate only at school. All I remember is being hungry all the time.” He stopped talking and turned off the interstate as the voice on his phone told him to do.

“When I was six, she overdosed while I was at school. I came home and found her. By that time, we were living in a dive apartment. The landlord called the cops. One of the cops was Brian, and within a month, he had adopted me. After that, I had it pretty good. At the time, you couldn’t have told me that. I was a jerk kid sometimes. But through it all, Brian loved me,” he finished, and the car went silent again. The road was narrower now, and the cars coming towards them were fewer.

“Brian was the one that told me about my mom. He was really good with kids. Do you know why he never married or had kids of his own?” she asked.

“No, he never said.”

“To me, either,” she whispered, his hand was still resting on the nape of her neck, but his pinky had slid under her shirt and was caressing her back. The touch was nothing intimate, but Zephyr felt the tingle and sparks that it caused coursing through her body. Just a week. Get through this week without embarrassing yourself, was her only thought.

CHAPTER 8

Her skin was so warm and soft, and he couldn’t stop his hand from touching it. He’d tried. But here on the dark, lonely road, he let go and caressed the pale skin he had wanted to touch all day. It felt better than he had ever dreamed it would.

It had been the quiet comfort of the car that had made him talk about his past. Or was it the comforting way Zephyr talked? Her story about her mom had broken his heart and made him hate the woman just a little bit more. Every time she talked about her mother, there were good times tinged with sadness. The only reason that Zephyr had never sought out her sisters was because of her mom. Her mom had spent years making Zephyr guilty for being there when her sisters were not. Guilty that it had been her fault the woman had never gone back to her other kids. So much of her mother’s talking about Zephyr had been in comparison to the kids she loved and lost that Zephyr didn’t get to feel loved or wanted.

As his hand brushed the nape of her neck, he missed the curls grabbing at his fingers. When he had seen her walking towards him in the hair salon, he had been rendered speechless; tongue-tied like a teenager. She had started the trip as a young woman who preferred frumpy, comfortable clothes, and he was having a hard time keeping his hands off her. The woman who walked towards him was a sleek and stylish version of Zephyr. There were curves that had been hidden under the sweatpants and T-shirts, and he had wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her. Or run his hands through the sleek hair or maybe just around her waist where her white pants met the gray sweater. He wanted to run his hands under the sweater until he felt soft skin beneath his fingers.

Thankfully, all he did was stare. Maybe a little too rudely, but he couldn’t take his eyes off her transformation. He started to worry that he was going to look drab compared to the woman in front of him.

When Zephyr had first gone off with Paige, he had purchased a few sweaters and long-sleeve shirts from the other saleswoman. He had run them out to the car, and when he had gotten back, she was gone. He had frantically searched the store and the street outside. Back inside, he searched the dressing rooms and the bathroom. She was gone. His heart was pounding—he had lost her. Had she been kidnapped?

His mind was racing with all the possibilities when she had calmly walked back into the store, just as cool as could be. As he pushed her into the corner of the store, he knew he was overreacting, and she didn’t need to be treated like a baby. The relief washed through him as he held her by the waist. She was safe, and she was back.

After that, he stuck close by, maybe to close sometimes. When she had walked out of the dressing room in the white sweater, desire for her overtook him, but he slammed it down. He was sure she saw it, though. Their eyes had been glued to each other.

When she wore clothes that didn’t cover her body like a blanket, she was all curves. All he wanted to do was pull her to him and touch her.

Clearing his throat and pushing those thoughts away, he said, “We were supposed to be there hours ago.”

“Where?” she asked.

“I booked us in a B&B in Birch Cove,” he explained.

“Doesn’t one of the husbands have a B&B?”

He could tell she was on to him. Once he had seen that information, he knew exactly where they would be staying. No reason to stay at a hotel when they could stay right with the people they had come to see.

“Yes, and that’s the one.”

“No, Zachary, it’s too close,” she said and dropped her head to look at her lap. Taking full advantage, he spread his fingers wide to touch as much of the exposed skin as possible.

“If we are going to run into them, we better be underfoot. It will be fine. But we’re late.” He tried to calm her.

Reluctantly, he pulled his hand away from her neck and put it on the steering wheel again. They were pulling into town, and he needed to make a turn soon. The highway that they had been driving on turned into Main Street. Halfway through the town, the road he needed came up. Turning, he knew the house was only a block away.

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