Page 122 of Love, Just In

My face flings up, my stomach hitting the concrete. At first, I see Zac in silhouette, the sun’s shadows hiding the expression on his face. Trouble’s hovering at his feet, sniffing some old food caked into the ground. He gives her little lead a tug.

‘What are you doing here?’ I ask in a breath.

He steps forward, looking so good it hurts in grey jeans and a navy T-shirt that says ‘My Eyes Are Up Here’. The words are unnecessary, though: his honey-green eyes are all I’m looking at.

He exhales and sits beside me, his hair releasing the faintest waft of mint shampoo. Trouble flops down at his feet.

‘I know you didn’t want me to come,’ Zac says, his voice deep and nervous. ‘And I don’t want to upset you. I’m sorry. But there’s something I really wanted to give you. I hope that’s OK.’

It’s the perfect opportunity to break it to him that I’m not moving to Sydney anymore, but the words hover in the back of my throat.

He digs inside the pocket of his jeans and reaches for my hand, miniature fireworks bursting between our fingers as he presses something cold into my palm.

I gasp at the small silver charm bracelet he gave me for my fourteenth birthday. ‘What? How did you—’

‘I swiped it from your jewellery shoebox just after you moved in.’ His lips quirk up. ‘You didn’t notice?’

I shake my head, and he carefully clips the bracelet around my wrist, a string of new charms brushing against my skin.

‘No,’ I say in a stunned breath. ‘You added these?’

He rakes a hand through his hair. ‘I’ve added a charm for every year that’s passed since I gave you the last one, just like I said I would. Better late than never, right?’ He smiles through his blush.

‘Oh my gosh,Zac.’

His soft fingers gently pull my hand into his lap so that he can explain each charm. ‘The bicycle is for your first year at uni when you insisted on riding that shittybike all over Bathurst. The graduation hat is for the year you finished, the microphone is for the year you started your first reporting job, the sea turtle is for that year you became obsessed with scuba diving and didn’t want to do anything else.’ Tears spring to my eyes as he talks me through the rest of the charms—a puzzle piece, a sloth, a coffee cup, a musical note—each one capturing favourite things and moments that I thought only I’d remember. When his fingers pause at two identical charms of broken hearts, sitting side by side, his voice tightens.

‘And those represent the two years we spent apart after I moved up to Newcastle.’

My abdomen clenches as my eyes lift to Zac’s. Our gazes cling together for a few heart-stopping breaths before my fingertips nudge the last charm on the bracelet—a tiny silver door.

‘Which year is this one for?’

Pink spreads over his cheeks. ‘That one isn’t just for one year; it’s for fourteen. All the years we’ve spent together. Because the truth is, Josie, since the day I met you, I feel like all I’ve been doing is fumbling around in the dark, trying to find the door to your heart.’

My lips fall open and emotion clogs my throat.

He sighs heavily, his gaze falling to his lap. ‘I know I haven’t been the greatest friend to you in the past couple of years. Two broken heart charms aren’t nearly enough to express how hard it was to not have you in my life. And I know I’ve been running away for a very long time. Running from the accident, from the memories of it, from the images I can’t get out of my head. But mostly,I’ve been running from you. Because of my guilt over what happened with Tara after she found out about my feelings for you. But sunbeam, something’s dawned on me in the past few days.’ He sucks in a long, deep breath. ‘I need to stop thinking about what I’ve lost and start thinking about what I’ve found.’

He reaches out to pull my fingers into his lap, squeezing them as he traps me in his gaze.

‘I’ve been so fucking wrecked these past few weeks, you have no idea,’ he says thickly. ‘Seeing you in Sydney wassohard. You’ve turned me inside out.’

I do know, I want to say, but I’m too choked up to speak.

He glides his hand down my cheek, his eyes travelling over my face. ‘Next to you, every other girl is a blur. When you’re in the room, I feel like there’s no one else in the world but us. And I’ve been so worried about losing you and going through the worst kind of grief all over again. But the problem is that I feel even more lost when you’re not there. And if there is one person in the world I would risk my heart for, it’s you.’

An overwhelming feeling of longing bursts through me, spilling warmth into every corner of my body. I cup the back of his neck with both hands, bringing our foreheads together.

‘There’s something about you, Josie Larsen, that I don’t want to live without,’ Zac says against my lips. ‘And I’ve told you a thousand times before that I love you. But what I’ve never told you is that I’m hopelessly in love with you. It’s always been you.’

A tear rolls down my cheek. ‘I’m so in love with you, too,’ I whisper. ‘Zac, I’ve been so lost and alone without you.’

He sighs as he presses his mouth to mine, and for a moment, we breathe each other in before our tongues catch and slide together in a dizzying kiss that leaves me panting. I grip the back of his neck again and push against him, kissing him deeply and thoroughly, claiming him for eternity. I want to hear one of his moans that drive me crazy, so I scrape my fingernails down the ridges of muscle through his T-shirt and sweep my tongue hard against his until I catch the sound I’d been hoping for.

When we break for air, Zac brushes his thumb over my bottom lip, his eyes foggy and his cheeks flushed.

‘I don’t want to do long distance,’ he says. ‘So, if it’s OK with you, I’m going to ask for a transfer to Sydney. Even with this new role; I’m going to have to figure something out.’

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