Page 87 of Zane

By the time Lee and Rori reappeared, everything was ready.

As the four of them ate dinner, Zane found himself enjoying the evening. He’d never spent any significant time in Serenity as an adult. Once he’d left to get his degree in Culinary Arts, he’d only been home for a few days around the holidays each year or if there was a wedding.

So being in Serenity—if he ignored how he’d ended up there—was actually enjoyable. He’d always been closest to Lee, and since they’d both spent time in Chicago, they’d also been roommates for awhile. Now they were roommates again, but this time, with wives.

He enjoyed hanging out with his whole family. But the quiet times when it was just the four of them, he enjoyed even more.

He’d never imagined living in Serenity as an adult—and he still wasn’t sure he could—but at least it wasn’t as bad as he’d thought it would be. Especially since he was living with Lee. If he’d continued to live with his parents and without Kelsey, he probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much.

He loved his parents and appreciated all they’d done for him. But now he needed to focus on Kelsey, and he couldn’t have done that very well if they’d still been living separately. And he was pretty sure that Kelsey wouldn’t have wanted to live with his parents, at least not initially.

Making the move to Lee’s seemed to have set him on the right path, especially where Kelsey was concerned. And now he was back to doing some cooking.

He still wasn’t sure what the future held, but at least he felt like he’d taken some proactive steps forward. He just prayed that God would give him clear guidance in the days and weeks ahead.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Kelsey woke with her alarm at noon the next day. She hit the snooze and turned onto her back, but stayed under the covers, wishing for more than four hours of sleep. She couldn’t stay in bed too long, though. She and Zane were headed into Coeur d’Alene and the place where she’d arranged to have their belongings stored.

After her alarm went again, she tapped the screen to silence it, then flung her blanket off and swung her feet over the side of the bed. She sat for a moment before heading to the bathroom to get ready for her day.

A check of the weather showed that it was a cloudy, cooler-than-usual day, but thankfully, there was no rain in the forecast. With that in mind, she pulled on a pair of skinny jeans and a long sleeve T-shirt. If they were digging through boxes and stuff, she wanted to be comfortable.

She brushed her hair back into a ponytail, then glanced down at her hand. She’d gotten into the habit of removing her wedding and engagement rings before she went to work, then she’d put them back on once she was home. The last few times she’d put the rings back on, it had been with some reluctance.

That day, she decided to leave them off completely. It wasn’t that she was rejecting her marriage to Zane. But it didn’t feel right to wear the outward sign of their love when they weren’t acting like a married couple. Zane also wasn’t wearing his ring. He’d never even asked about it.

Going to the high dresser in the bedroom, she opened the top drawer and lifted out the small jewelry box that contained Zane’sring. After a moment’s hesitation, she laid her two rings next to his, then she stared at them before snapping the lid shut.

Please, God, let there come a day when we once again place these rings on each other’s fingers as a sign of our love and commitment to each other.

Kelsey had no idea if God would answer her prayer, but she was pretty sure that she wasn’t the only one praying that things would work out for her and Zane. Though she did wonder what Zane’s prayer for their situation was.

Did he pray that things would work out for them?

Or had he suggested trying so that when he eventually walked away from her, he could say that he’d given it a good effort?

It was hard not to consider that, because aside from spending time together like they had the previous day, just talking, they didn’t do anything else together. He didn’t take her on any dates or try to arrange for them to hang out, just the two of them. Any time they spent together was purely incidental.

Even going to the storage unit together wasn’t because he wanted to spend time with her. It was because he wanted something from there, and she could help him get it.

She thought that perhaps they might be becoming friends, but more than that? She just didn’t know.

With a sigh, Kelsey picked up her purse, phone, and keys and left the bedroom.

Once downstairs, she headed for the kitchen, drawn by the aroma of coffee. Zane was there, leaning on his crutches at the counter.

He looked up at her and said, “Good morning.”

“Good morning.”

“The coffee is fresh. Do you want it here or in a travel mug to go?”

“Maybe in a travel mug,” she said.

He got a couple of tall travel mugs down from the cupboard, then filled them from the coffee carafe. Kelsey went to the fridge to get cream.

“Do you want toast before we go?”

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