Page 86 of All Bets Are Off

I didn’t disagree with her. I just didn’t think I had the strength to do what she was suggesting. “I’ll think about it,” was all I could manage.

“That’s enough.” She smiled. “I mean … just remember, you had to spend thirty minutes talking a grown ass man down from a ledge because he lost a golf match. That’s some weird crap right there.”

She didn’t even know the half of it. My father had spent thirty minutes ranting about Cliff King cheating to get the win. He wanted to know if he had any legal recourse to get the win stripped and handed to him.

“It’s not that I think you’re wrong,” I hedged. “I just … that’s not the way that it’s done in my family.”

“You said that you went to my parents when you needed good advice,” she pointed out. “You could never go to your own father because you didn’t trust him. That says a lot about him, not you, because you’re one of the most trustworthy people I’ve ever met.”

“I am?”

“Of course you are. I wouldn’t marry someone I didn’t trust. When you came to me with this idea, my reticence wasn’t because I didn’t trust you.”

“Why were you reticent?” I was honestly curious.

“Well, first off, it was a crazy idea.”

I laughed. “It was, but it’s working out well so far.”

“Secondly, I wasn’t sure I could let the past go. I’m not fifteen any longer, but sometimes I check for braces out of the blue because you make me feel the same way I did back then.”

“And what way is that?”

“It wasn’t just that you were hot—which we’ve established you are—but you made me feel safe. I knew, even if Rex encouraged you to be a jerk, that you would still protect me if it came to it.”

That was all I wanted, I realized. To protect her. To make her laugh. What did that mean for us going forward, though? Was she capable of living in the world I wanted to build? Because—and this was becoming more and more obvious—I wanted a very specific life.

That’s why I’d stopped dating six months before my father insisted I find an “appropriate” woman. I’d already come to the conclusion that I didn’t want an empty life. That didn’t mean she would fit into the world I wanted to build, because she had her own plans. Could I make myself fit?

“You can be whoever you want to be, Zach,” she said. “You’re built to be a great man. I want to be built to be a great person too. You have time to figure things out, just like I do.”

Was she giving me permission to figure things out with her at my side? I liked the idea. A lot. I also didn’t want to hurt her, because truth be told, if we allowed our emotions to take us over—which we were obviously in danger of letting happen—then she would end up more hurt than me if things imploded.

I’d been taught to put my emotions in a box and never open it. She’d been taught to wear her emotions like a pretty new dress. Losing her wasn’t appealing. Hurting her would kill me, though.

“Let’s finish eating,” I said, brutally shoving the conversation to the side. “Then I want to meet those alien weirdos next door. I bet they know how to party.”

A dare slid across her face. “Oh, you want to party, do you?”

I looked her up and down. We’d stopped at the penthouse long enough to leave a note for Rex and pack some clothes. “Amongst other things,” I acknowledged.

She laughed and slapped my arm. “We’ll get to that. Let’s watch for aliens first, though. I bet that’s something you’ve never done.”

“You would be right. Will s’mores be included in the alien watching?”

“What is it with you and s’mores?”

“I’ve never had the authentic variety.”

“Well, you’re in luck. I’m an expert s’more maker. This is going to be the weekend to end all weekends.”

I already knew that. Just Olivia and me? It was the perfect weekend.

Reality was right around the corner, though, and that couldn’t be ignored. For the next two days, however, I was going to live it up.

After that, it was anybody’s guess how things would work out.

21

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