Broken Fairytales (42 page)

“Why not?
Do
the
girls
not
like you
?” I knew making a joke might have been inappropriate, but I wanted keep things light.
“Were you a late bloomer?”

He laughed. “Um, no.
The girls were interested. I wasn’t.
Usually I just ignore
them when they
flirt with me
at the bar
. Daphne knows that, so she
’s good about helping
me fend the persistent ones off.”

“Except me.”

“Except you. Of course, I wouldn’t have wanted Daphne to fend you off anyway – especially after you told me about my kissable lips.”

“You have very kissable lips, and I have enjoyed kis
sing them every day since that first time
.”

“Well don’t let me stop you,” he said, as I turned my head and kissed him, relishing in the absolute perfectness of what a kiss with Zack could be like.

“
So Daphne
seemed personally slighted w
hen she found out we were seeing each other
,
”
I said when we finally pulled back after a few heated moments.

Zack sighed. “Yeah,
sorry about that.
I sort of had a thing with her two summers ago, and I think she thought that might continue when I moved back here, but I wasn’t
interested
.”

I could ask why, but I thought I already knew the answer.

“She wanted to get serious with you?”

He nodded. “Yeah, and
I
just
wasn’t into it
. I actually hadn’t had a girlfriend since I broke up with my ex, Jennifer, a few years ago, and the idea of being in a relationship was
a little foreign
. Especially with everything that happened between us. I just wasn’t ready for something serious.”

I realized that he wasn’t going to share what had happened with his ex, so I tried to steer the conversation in a different direction.

“Tell me you didn’t swear off girls when you guys broke up,” I said, trying to lighten the mood again
as I looked back at him
. “You weren’t like celibate for years, were you?”

“Um, no,” he said, looking down at
the sand
, confirming what I’d suspected. “I definitely . . .. wasn’t . . . celibate.
I just didn’t . . . um,
date
girls.
”

“Got it,” I said slowly, connecting the dots
, all light-hearted feelings gone
. My number was two, and his was decidedly much higher.
I didn’t know if I should be concerned about that.

“Does that freak you out?” he asked.

I shook my head just a little
as the doubts crept into my head
.

“I would understand,” he said, “if it freaked you out, I mean. I’d get it.”

Then h
e hugged me tigh
ter against him as if he was afraid
I might run away
, and my concerns melted away.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said, and I felt him let out a breath. He loosened his grip just a little.

“I keep thinking you’re going to bolt each time I tell you something more about my past, and you never have. I don’t understand. Why would you want to be with me after everything you know?”

I turned around to look at him. “Zack, you said it yourself, you’re not that guy anymore, and I think the person you are now is pretty amazing. Sure, without knowing the gritty details, I
understand
you have a pretty screwed up past, but you asking me why I want to be with you is like me questioning why you’d want to be with
me
– and you already told me I was crazy for thinking that
.
Don’t overthink it
, okay?”

He kissed me then, pulling me away from everything we’d been talking about. I moved so I was facing him, my legs straddling his, my arms around his neck
, wanting nothing more than to be as close to him as possible
.

“So why me?
” I asked. “
You had
a firm
no dating policy for
years
, and
then
we me
t and that
was
it?
Policy out the window?
I mean
I know we haven’t actually been out on a real date, but at this point, I’d consider what we’re doing to be dating.”

“I would too,”
he said, lacing our fingers together.
“In fact, I think I should probably take you on a real date.
You know, make it official.
”

It wasn’t lost on me that he hadn’t answered my question, but I guess I really didn’t need to know why he’d picked me. He’d picked me, and he
wanted to be with me
. That’s all that mattered.

“Really? Like dinner and a movie – that kind of date?
It sounds kind of cheesy and redundant at this point.
”

“Hey, I’m all for being cheesy and redundant, as long as I get to be them with you.”

I
smiled at him, but before I could respond, he kissed me, pulling me into a moment that made me forget about everything else around us.

Chapter
Twenty-One

During our
seven
th
week at the beach, Ra
chel came to visit. I was excited for her to meet Zack, although at that point, I had to keep reminding myself that it was just
a summer fling – something I didn’t want to dwell on
too much
.
I’d talked Rachel’s ear off about Zack
, so s
he knew
almost everything about him, but I was still nervous for them to meet.

“Wo
w,” I sai
d, as soon as she got out of her
car
. 

“I know,” she said, fingering her hair whic
h had been
auburn
for twenty-one years, but
was now dyed a dark chestnut co
lor
.
“I wanted to do something different.”

I smiled. “I love it,” I said, thinking how it made her blue eyes pop. Her e
ye make-up was darker
too
.
She
looked amazing
,
edgy, but in a good way.

“I’ve missed you,” she said, throwing her arms around me.
It was then that I noticed something glistening on her lip.

“
Me too,” I said, embracing her.
“I have so much to tell you, but first, what is that?
”
I pulled back and held her at arm’s length.

She bit her lip, pulling it back along with the small silver ring attached to it. “I pierced my lip,” she said, suddenly shy.

“You sure did,” I said, not sure if I was really in a position to judge since I’d gotten a facial piercing myself, but I was honestly kind of surprised that Rachel had gone to that extreme.

I smiled.
“It looks good on you, babe,
”
I said, because I knew it’s what she wanted to hear.

She grinned back at me. “Thanks.”

Once she pulled her suitcase from the trunk, I grabbed her hand and
dragged both h
er and the suitcase
inside
.
W
e raced by Chase who had been loitering on the front porch, chain-smoking ciga
rettes and
seemingly
on edge
about something. 

“Hi Chase,” Rachel called
,
as
I ushered her past him
into the house.

He opened his mouth to say something in return, but we were inside before he coul
d get the words out. Oh well.
Whatever it was couldn’t have been as important as what I had to say.

“
I am so excited that you’re here
,” I
said
breathlessly, as I pushed Rachel
into my
room, shut the door behin
d me
,
and collapsed on
to
the bed.
“This has literally been the best summer, and it’s just that much better now that you’re here, and you
get to meet Zack
.”

She grinned widely. “I know!
Can I just tell you how dreadfully bored I’ve been al
l summer without you two
!”

I paused for
a second, looking over at her.
“Who is you two?”

Rachel looked up at me, and I thought I caught a flash of panic in her face, but I might have just been reading her wrong.

“You and Michael, of course.
Who else would I be talking about?”

“Ah, so when is the elusive Michael returning to Charlotte?
And
do I finally get to meet him? Please tell me you have pictures
of him from his surprise visit.”

When Michael had surprised her a few weeks ago, he’d only been abl
e to stay for a few days
since he had
to get back to the internship he was doing in Chicago, but
it had been enough to squelch any concerns that he wasn’t being faithful to her. Rachel’d called when he left, waxing on and on about how amazing he was and providing too many details on all the things they’d done
during his visit
, but I let her go on and on because it was the first time she’d ever been serious about a guy, ever, but also because I was pretty sure I’d been guilty of doing the same thing to her all summer
.

“Right arou
nd the same time you get back
, and yes, you can meet him
. I’m overly excited to see him.
Oh, by the way,” she said,
changing the direction of the conversation as she leaned
over to dig her bathing suit out of her su
itcase, “I love the nose ring.
It’s so not you that it totally works.”

“Thanks, I think.”

“It’s a compliment,” she said,
tossing something small at me. 

I reached out a grabbed it in mid-air,
closing my fingers around it.
I opened my han
d to reveal a tiny package that was wrapped in green paper.

“What’s this?” I asked, looking up at her.

“Just something I picked up,” she said, smiling widely.

I opened the package in a hurry, letting the paper fall to the ground and fumbling slight
ly with the lid of the box.
Inside w
as a tiny, silver ring, similar to the one now gracing her lower lip
.

“Rach!” I said, realizing what it was.

She shrugged.
“I figured you’d want to have some variety – you know, switch up your look every now and again.”

I hurried over to the mirror, taking out my tiny sapphire stud and placin
g it carefully on the dresser.
It was the first time I’d taken it out, and my nose looked funny with the tiny hole in it.  It was like a large pore – kind of ugly
–
so
I set to work on putting
the tiny ring in place and foun
d it was not the easiest task.
For five minutes, I struggled with it while Rachel watched me in amusement from the bed, lea
ning back on her hands, her legs
extended out in front of her.

It was a relief when I finally
had the ring securely
in pl
ace, and even though my nose
was a little sore and red from the small a
mount of abuse I’d inflicted
upon it
, the ring
looked really good.
I spun around to show Rachel.

She grinned.
“I love
it,” she said, nodding.

“Me too,” I giggled, feeling like I was ten years old again.

Rachel slowly ran a hand through her long
dark
hair, letting the str
ands fall through her fingers.
I was having a hard time getting used to her n
ew look.
She looked so different
from the
girl I’d hugged goodbye six weeks earlier.

In that moment, it seemed like she w
as contemplating something, as she
had a faraway look in her eyes
, and I waited a few beats to see if she would tell me.