Page 2 of Zane

Working side by side, they built their sandwiches. Zane also added onions to his, but Kelsey wasn’t a fan of them.

At one point, he wrapped his arm around her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Yum. You smell like a cookie.”

Kelsey laughed as she leaned against him. “I’m that sweet, am I?”

“Oh, you know you are.” He took the time to kiss her and show her how much he appreciated her sweetness.

Finally, they returned to the task at hand and finished putting their sandwiches together. Zane carried the plates with their sandwiches over to the small table set in front of the window that looked out over the city. Kelsey followed with their drinks.

As Kelsey gazed out the window at the dark night, Zane gazed at her. She hadn’t bothered to do more than towel dry her hair with his help, so it was darker than normal, and curled slightly in damp strands on her shoulders.

Her face was bare of the makeup she usually wore in her role as hostess, but to him, she was more beautiful that way. She didn’t wear much makeup when she wasn’t working, and none when they were at home.

Looking away from the window, her eyes widened briefly when she realized he was watching her, then a shy smile curved her lips. When he winked at her, a blush filled her cheeks.

“You look beautiful.”

Kelsey’s gaze dropped to her sandwich, but the smile didn’t leave her face. “Thank you.” She looked back up at him. “You’re rather handsome yourself.”

“Do tell,” he said, leaning forward a bit.

Their flirty banter lasted the duration of the meal, and Zane felt any lingering stress of the day drop away as he and Kelsey enjoyed being in their own little world without phone calls or text messages to draw their attention away from each other.

It was one of the things he liked most about these late-night hours when it was just the two of them awake. Even though his family was a couple of hours behind them, pretty much none of them were awake at this point, so there were no interruptions to their time together.

It wasn’t until they’d finished their meal that Kelsey asked, “Did you hear from your parents today?”

Zane grimaced. “No. Nothing. Wilder did text me, though.”

“What did he have to say?” Kelsey’s voice was low, like she was afraid to ask.

“He said that he thought it washisrole in the family to make out-of-the-blue decisions.”

Kelsey gave a soft huff of laughter. “From what you’ve said, he gave up that role when he and Lexi started dating.”

“That’s true,” Zane agreed. “He even proposed in a pretty conventional way, and their wedding was fairly traditional.”

When he’d gotten the job in Tampa, Zane had known he didn’t want to leave Kelsey behind in Chicago or have to juggle a long-distance relationship. But getting her to move to a new city, only to live on her own, hadn’t seemed right.

And even though he hadn’t been active with his faith in recent years, he hadn’t been comfortable asking her to move there and live with him without being married.

So in the end, he’d proposed, and when she’d said yes, he’d proposed something else… that they elope.

Unfortunately, his parents hadn’t been happy with his decision to get engaged and then elope, especially since he hadn’t told them until after it had happened. In fact, they’d been married for a month before Zane had let his family know. It hadn’t gone over well at all.

Zane didn’t think it was because they disliked Kelsey, but he couldn’t say that with one hundred percent certainty since he hadn’t had a long conversation with any of them about her. They’d warmed up to Sarah really quickly, so he’d hoped they’ddo the same with Kelsey once they had the chance to spend more time with her.

They’d all met her since he’d taken her to Serenity the previous Christmas. That should have been an indication to them of how seriously Zane felt about her. And following that visit, no one had shared any concerns they had about them dating.

If they were unhappy about the situation now, there wasn’t anything Zane could do about it. And even there was, he wouldn’t do anything. He and Kelsey had made a decision that worked for them, and he didn’t regret it.

“They’ll come around,” Zane said, trying to reassure Kelsey. “We just have to give them some time.”

Kelsey nodded, then gathered up their plates and took them into the kitchen. Zane followed her, helping her clean up before they went to the living room with mugs of decaf coffee and some chocolate chip cookies they’d picked up from a nearby bakery they’d discovered.

Over the course of their dating, Kelsey had revealed that she wasn’t close with her family, so it was no surprise that she hadn’t been worried about their reaction to an elopement. If only he could have said the same about his family. The tense situation with them was the only thing marring these first few weeks of their married life.

“So, have you come up with what we’re going to do on our days off this week?” Zane asked.

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