Page 42 of Only in Your Dreams

Where is all this coming from? It’s never been like this between us. Never, and it’s really messing with my head.

“I’m going to wash up in the lake. Alone,” I tell him, reaching for my backpack before I do or say anything stupid. Like offer to take care of this particular hard-on.

Zac zeroes in on my ankle. He starts to reach for it, but I jerk away, unconvinced I can stand to have him touch me without properly combusting.

He holds up his hands in surrender. “How is it? The bruise looks pretty bad.”

“Sore,” I say truthfully. “I’ll be fine. Just stay in here a few minutes while I clean up, okay? I’ll be back in a bit.”

* * *

Someone should come for us any minute now. Any hour.

I tug up my leggings and continue down the path leading to the road, hoping to catch the early signs of tires crunching.

Three days post-storm and it’s still wet out. The mud under my feet is soft, and the leaves above me leak rainwater whenever the wind blows hard. Not that it’s blowing much today. The sun’s out in full force, and the early-September cold snap brought by the storm has evened out to a warm end-of-summer temperature.

I’m going to miss spending fall in the city. The walks along the river. The professional sports seasons starting up, playing right around the corner from Connor’s apartment. Not that he’d ever wanted to go to those with me.

The more I think about our relationship, the more I feel like what I was really cheated out of was the experience I’d wanted from living in a bigger city. His hobbies became mine, his friends became mine, and it was just as much my fault as it was his. Maybe he’d been carefully manipulating me under the guise of love, but I let myself get swept up in Connor. Trusted him, relied on him for so much.

I still can’t believe how wrong I’d been about him. How blind I’d been to all the red flags.

I’ve never trusted my own judgment less.

Which is why I’m staying the hell away from Zac until the moment someone shows up for us. I’m not prepared to revisit any kind of relationship with him beyond platonic. I was wrong about him once, and considering my losing track record with men, I’m not risking it again.

He can consider himself friend-zoned for all eternity.

“Melody?”

Zac’s voice echoes through the woods from the campsite, and the sound of it sends a rush of warmth below my waist. He went into the lake for a makeshift bath after I did, and I made my way out here to avoid any chance of seeing more than I should. Again.

God knows what would have happened after this morning.

I shiver at the thought of him yanking me to him, all strong and wet and—

I push deeper into the woods, off the path and away from the sound of his voice calling my name. This breakup has me all turned around. That’s all it is.

I haven’t been with anyone since Connor, that’s all it is.

Summer is right. I need a palate cleanser. A rebound. I need someone to drown out the last memory of me and Connor together. I need my skin to stop crawling at the thought that he was the last man to touch me. To relieve some of this tension built up over the course of this nightmare weekend with Zac.

I have no idea how I’ll find someone in as small a town as Oakwood Bay, where everyone knows everyone’s business, but…

“Mel? What are you doing over there?”

Zac finds me at last and picks a path toward me. I don’t notice the panicked look on his face until he’s within a few feet.

“You scared the fuck out of me,” he says, gripping my shoulders. “Don’t ever wander off alone again, do you hear me? Who knows what’s out here—”

“What, like you expect an axe murderer to pop out of a bush and chop me up?”

He lets a breath hiss through his teeth, pressing his palm into his eyes. “Better a fucking axe murderer than whatever the hell was out here stalking us that night.”

He looks so on edge it makes my chest twinge. Stressed Zac. It’s always been my Bat Signal.

“How is an animal worse than an actualaxe murderer?” I say, scoffing just enough to distract him. “Ever seenFriday the Thirteenth?”

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