Page 32 of Keeping Her Safe

“How did you and Della meet, Max?” Zachary asked.

Della laughed and answered for her husband. “He ignored me for ten years and then realized I was the love of his life.”

“I wasted a lot of time not noticing this one,” Max replied and kissed her hand again.

Zoey laughed and said, “Harts accidently find love. It’s never as easy as meeting on a beach. There’s always a long back story.”

“How so?” Zephyr asked. If she and Zachary actually were a couple in love, they had one hell of a backstory.

“Evie here fell in love with Jasper after his grandpa died. But in reality, she had a lot of baggage from her first marriage, but he was so in love with her. Neither was willing to take the first step. A hundred wrong steps were taken before they could take that first right one together,” Zoey explained.

“What’s Zoey’s long back story?” Zephyr needed to know.

“Zoey,” Zoey said with a grin. “She found her soulmate, but it took months to realize it. Gabe and I had baggage to unpack before we could see the truth.”

“Cryptic,” Della said. “In reality, they met during a bar fight. She nearly got arrested by him, and they kept bumping into each other. He dumped her, and then they got back together.”

“It was better than that,” Zoey said to her oldest sister through pursed lips.

“It was. You guys were pretty cute. But I think he should have arrested you that night.” Della laughed at her little sister, who stuck her tongue out at her.

“So, who has been married the longest?” Zachary asked the group.

“Evie had jumped the gun. I was engaged first, but she had to get married first,” Zoey complained.

“She was pregnant. Evie’s always pregnant when she gets married,” Della teased her sister.

“Hey!” Evie argued.

“Don’t ‘hey’ me. It’s true,” Della stated.

“Are you guys coming out to the pumpkin patch tomorrow night?” Zoey asked.

“I hadn’t heard of a pumpkin patch,” Zachary said.

“I have one. It’s open every evening except Friday night when we are in town. You two should come out. There’s a corn maze.” Zoey waggled her eyebrows at them.

“I think we’ll try to check it out tomorrow,” Zachary said. “If I can tear this one away from her computer.”

“You got me off it tonight, so maybe tomorrow you will be just as lucky.” Zephyr hoped she sounded flirty.

A customer or friend came up and broke up the sister’s conversation, and Della and her family wandered off. With the other two busy, she let Zachary lead her away from the vegetable stand.

As they walked away, she realized that she had enjoyed spending a few minutes with her sisters. They seemed nice and fun to be around. Zephyr could tell that they spent a lot of time together and were comfortable with each other and each other’s families. She wondered if she could ever be that comfortable with these people, or any people for that matter.

CHAPTER 13

As he walked back to the B&B holding Zephyr’s hand, he wondered what she had thought of her sisters. He thought they were friendly and fun. Every once in a while, one would do something that reminded Zachary of Zephyr. Though the girls had not been raised together, they definitely had things in common, from tiny gestures to the cadence of their voices.

During most of the evening, he had tried to be touching her; it was the only way he knew when she was getting nervous. At one point, it had almost backfired when his hands had accidentally slid under her jacket and shirt, and he was touching her skin. At that point, he had not been able to let go of her. Feeling her warm skin had mesmerized him.

Of course, his body had been on high alert since he had kissed her when he saw she was crying. He had just wanted to take away her tears and reassure her but had given in to temptation and couldn’t help himself.

Though they had left the Hart sisters behind, he was still holding her hand and couldn’t make himself let it go. Her hand was warm in his, and she didn’t seem to want to let go of him either.

“So, did you make up the story about how we met on the spot or had you thought of it before?”

“The story was true, except for the sexual tension,” she explained.

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