Page 69 of Love in Tandem
Zach slugged back the rest of his coffee. “I don’t know, Charlotte. I don’t know. What do you want me to do here? I’m trying to fix this. I found us some clothes and a couple of cheap helmets, but Salvation Army wasn’t exactly bursting with options.” He immediately hung his head and crumpled his coffee cup. “Sorry. I slept awful last night and my coffee hasn’t kicked in. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
“You didn’t snap. And I’m sorry too. I know you’re trying to fix this as much as I am.”
Zach stood and tossed his empty cup into a trash bin a couple feet from the bench. “What about this?” He motioned his hand back and forth between them. “Us? How do we fix that?”
Was he sure his coffee hadn’t kicked in? This seemed like a pretty ambitious conversation to have first thing in the morning. “Zach, I . . . I don’t know that there is anything to fix. We knew from the start a long-lasting relationship between us would never work. Why don’t we—”
“I love you.”
Charlotte held her breath, frozen in place, while Zach seemed to be experiencing the opposite effect from his declaration. He blew out a giant breath, nearly sinking to his knees as he clutched the top of his head and stumbled back several steps. Any further, he’d fall in the pond.
“I can’t believe . . .”
“That you said that?” Charlotte gripped the edge of the bench. Splinters dug into her palms.
Zach stared at her, a devastating grin slowly spreading across his rugged face. “No. That it took me so long to say it.”
“Are you sure this isn’t the canoodling talking? We’ve literally been together for less than two weeks.”
“No, this is me, Zach Bryant talking. And I love you, Charlotte Carter.”
If she thought his smile was devastating before, the look of pure wonder radiating from the sparkle of his eyes all the way out to the creased laugh lines would have buckled her knees had she been standing.
“Wow,” he said. “I get it now. This is what was missing with Shannon. I see the difference. I do. I love you. And you know what? Now that I’ve said it, I think I might have to keep saying it. A lot.”
“Oh, I wish you wouldn’t.”
A bit of the light in his eyes flickered with doubt. “You don’t love me?”
Charlotte dropped her gaze to her legs. The area below where her bicycle shorts ended had darkened from all the recent sun exposure. She clasped her hands over the severe tan line, wishing she could cover up her feelings as easily.
“Because I think you do,” Zach continued, his shoes inching through the dew of the grass, closer and closer to her.
She stared at her hands, clutched together over her thighs, willing herself not to think or feel anything. He didn’t mean it. He couldn’t mean it. And now wasn’t the time anyway. Not when they needed to focus on finishing the challenge.
When he dropped to his knees in front of her, she had no choice but to meet his gaze. “I know we’ve said there’s a wall between us. But if love doesn’t knock down walls, what does?”
“It’s not that simple.”
“So let’s make it simple. Do you love me?”
“Zach . . .” She was sitting outside a dumpy hotel in secondhand clothes about to fail the biggest opportunity of her life. This was not the glorious moment she envisioned for ever confessing her love to a man.
“Yes or no, Charlotte. Forget about everything else for just one second and answer the question.”
Charlotte closed her eyes and tried pressing her lips together, but her heart slipped out a whispered answer before she could stop it. “Of course I do. You think I would’ve made out with you in the mud if I wasn’t crazy in love with you?”
Her eyes opened in time to catch Zach leaning forward, probably to start another make-out session based on the hungry look in his eyes. Charlotte palmed his chest. “But that doesn’t fix this. If anything, it makes it worse.”
“Why?”
“You know why.” She lifted her gaze to a cloudless azure sky that offered no help in return. Which annoyed her. How dare the day act so bright and sunshiny when she faced nothing but troubles this morning, including this much-too-handsome man who had the audacity to fall in love with her.
“Why?” Zach pressed closer.
“We want different things. Different lives. I want to stay close to my family and build a music program in Bailey Springs. Can you honestly tell me that’s what you want?”
“I . . .” He blew out a breath. “I want you by my side. That’s what I want. That’s all I could think about last night. It doesn’t feel right thinking about us not being together after all of this.”
