Page 51 of Call it Fate

Her eyes lit up. “Oh, ahim, hmm?” Her eyes followed the direction of my stare. “Isee.” She looked at her cronies. “You know, when I was a young woman, a man would never settle for meeting me somewhere. He’d show up at the door with flowers and—”

“Excuse me, Mrs. B.” I sent her a quick smile. “I need to go.” I left her to commiserate the downfall of modern youth with her friends and marched toward the back of the diner.

The blonde turned just enough to confirm my suspicions; it was Trinity Brown. There weren’t many people in this town I didn’t get along with, but she was one of them. She’d been the Queen Bee in high school, and those she didn’t like definitely felt her sting.

Even though I did my best to avoid her, she still made my school years unpleasant. She was pretty, but beneath the makeup and nice clothes was an ugly shrew. I watched as she threw her head back and laughed, resting her paw—I mean hand—on Zach’s shoulder.

A few steps behind Trinity, Zach saw me. I felt a mild satisfaction when his emerald eyes lit up with a smile that was more genuine than the polite one he gave the woman who was doing her best to flirt, her efforts growing bolder the less he responded. It was typical Trinity.

“Sunshine, about time you got here.” He stood and took a step toward me, forcing Trinity to take a step backward. She spun around in a whirlwind of heavy perfume and attitude.

“Emalee,” she purred, linking her hand through Zach’s arm. “Have you met our new vet? We were just having aprivateconversation.”

“How nice.” The sarcasm in my voice seemed to go right over her head. “I’m here for a lunch date.”

“Really?” She pretended to look around. “With who?”

“You’re currently making a fool of yourself with him.” I turned to Zach. “Sorry I’m late.”

“No worries,” Zach answered, taking my hand and pulling me in for a kiss on my cheek. I was tempted to turn so he got my lips, but I didn’t want to play games with him, even though it would have served a dual purpose of getting a one-up on Trinity. But I didn’t remove my arm from where it had landed around his waist when he’d greeted me with that kiss.

Sparks flew from Trinity’s eyes as she raked them over me. She swung wide eyes toward Zach, who was still looking at me with a slight smirk. “I don’t understand.”

Of course, she didn’t. It would never occur to her that any man would chooseanyone over her, despite it happening several times. I braced myself as she shifted her gaze back to me. Her chin jutted out, and a shrewdness darkened her eyes.

“I see. Well, it’s lovely as always to see you, Emalee. You should stop by my shop sometime. I’m sure we could find you something that doesn’t look so,”—she paused and wrinkled her nose—“somaternal. How is your little rugrat anyway?”

She glanced up at Zach. “Em was quite the talk of the town a few years back, coming home…disgraced, if you know what I mean.” She whispered the last part as she was embarrassed for me, but there was a look of triumph in her heavily mascaraed blue eyes.

“Your concern for my wellbeing is appreciated,” I said dryly. “And Iain is great, thank you.”

“He most certainly is, baby.” Zach’s warm voice flowed over me like honey over a hot biscuit, coating me with a sense of warmth and sweetness that soothed the sting of Trin’s words. Then he not so subtly brushed Trin aside to usher me to the side of the booth opposite where he’d been sitting. “If you’ll excuse us.”

Trin’s eyes went back and forth between the two of us, and suddenly, her eyes opened wide. “Oh, my god. You’re the rugrat’s father, aren’t you?Nowit makes sense.” Her laugh was almost giddy as if she’d just solved a mystery of why anyone would choose me over her. “I mean, why else would you pick…”

Her words faded as Zach crossed his arms and glared at her. I was glad to see not even Trin was dumb enough to finish that sentence.

“I have to go. Enjoy your little lunch.” She wiggled her fingers at us like we were old friends and swung around, her huge purse barely missing a waitress carrying a large tray of hot food.

Zach and I stared at each other before bursting into laughter and settling into the booth across from each other. The same waitress who was nearly taken out by Trin’s purse took our order.

“So, how’s your new place?” I asked.

“It’s fine.”

“You don’t sound very convincing.”

He grimaced. “It’s a nice house. Very modern. But I miss the sound of running feet, sudden laughter, and even hearing the water run through pipes.”

I heard the loneliness in his voice. “You know, you’re welcome to come by anytime.”

“Careful. I’ll be there all the time when I’m not working.”

Why did that thought make me happy? “Seriously, Zach. We’ll work something out.” We’re going to have to regardless.

We chatted about several things after that. It was more like the easy conversations we used to have. He told me how he’d ended up going to vet school and shared some funny stories about some of the animals he’d treated.

He shared a more emotional story of how he’d met a homeless veteran who had a dog, both living out of the guy’s car. Zach said he gained a new perspective from the man when he saw how the dog provided the vet with a reason to get up each morning. He recognized an opportunity and started an organization to match pets from animal shelters with returning warriors. He’d been traveling around meeting with various organizations to set it up when I’d tried to find him to tell him I was pregnant.

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