Page 38 of You Can't Fight Lightning
Why was this so fucking hard?
Z stood as I stopped at the table. “Hi.” His voice was deep, husky, and made all the nerves in my body come to attention. “Have a seat.”
“Actually, Z—”
He held up a hand. “No pressure. The table next to me is open.” He crossed his hands in front of himself and waited.
“I came to tell you I wasn’t coming.”
“You’re not making sense.” His sunny demeanor disappeared like it had never been there.
The sky darkened. I looked up. It wasn’t supposed to rain today. We were supposed to have clear weather all day. All week in fact.
I threw myself into the chair at the table next to him. “This isn’t going to work, Z.”
“Why not?” His question was soft, his words quiet even as a great power radiated from him.
“Because.” I stopped. Was I going to tell him? Open my heart to him?
No.
That was the way of danger and the road to me standing in front of an open gravesite.
“You can say whatever you need to, Roxy. I’m not going to judge you.”
“I just don’t date anymore.” My frustration was tying my tongue, which irritated me even more.
Z was silent, his head tilted down slightly.
I wished he wasn’t wearing sunglasses so that I could see his eyes. See what he was thinking.
Which was insane. I was pushing him away. It didn’t matter what he was thinking.
“Will you sit there, across from me, and just have something to eat?”
“Um. Well. Okay.” I sat back in the seat.
Then I looked across the distance between us, to the book he’d set down when he stood up.
“A Knight in Shining Armor?” The book was tattered and worn, the cover creased with white lines of much use. “Did you get that from Pete’s bookshelf?”
He nodded. Then he took off his sunglasses and wiped his eyes.
“Are you crying?”
He nodded again. “I just got to the part where she has to leave. And I keep reading his words to her. And then she just disappears!” He pushed at the book as though he could change it.
I knew this one well. It was a tear jerker.
And this guy, this guy in front of me, was crying over a book. Over the way the two people in love had to separate.
He’d been crying.
“Haven’t you ever read romance before?”
Z shook his head, putting his sunglasses back on. “Never. I never thought I’d be interested.”
I couldn’t help but smile. I just couldn’t—even though I’d come here to make my speech and walk away.
