I snorted. “Nah, he doesn’t need me. He knows what he needs to do.”
She squinted at me a little, kind of smiled, and then shrugged a shoulder. “He’s got a heart of gold, that one, but I still—”
“What are you two gossipin’ over?”
It was Zac who set his hands on top of my head, fingers slipping through my hair.
“You,” I told him.
He groaned, his fingers still kneading at my scalp. I wanted to moan it felt so good. And of course that was when his phone started ringing. I heard him sigh and knew he pulled it out after he took his hands off my head. He tapped me on the shoulder. “It’s Amari. I’ll be right back.”
I tipped my head back to meet his gaze and nodded.
He smiled at me before he turned around and walked off a little bit. When I turned back toward the table, five faces were looking at me. Three small ones and two big ones. Vanessa was the only one smiling. I hadn’t even heard the other three come around.
They stared at me. They stared at me expectantly. I didn’t think a child had ever made me want to squirm more. Because I knew what they were doing. What they were asking themselves.
“I’d never do anything to hurt him or take advantage of him. He’s been my best friend since I was Fiona’s age, give or take,” I explained, so hopefully they wouldn’t keep looking at me like I was the bad guy.
The older boy narrowed his eyes at me with his little-kid/teenage face. “What’s his favorite color?”
“Sammy!” Vanessa hissed at him. “Don’t use that tone of voice with her, and you aren’t giving an interview.”
He was interviewing me? I almost burst out laughing. He really was worried I was going to… what? Hurt Zac? Not be his friend?
“Mom, you said that we need good friends. Not a lot of them, just good ones. And I just want to see if she’s a good one or a bad one,” the little boy replied, super seriously.
Well.
I met Vanessa’s eyes right as she was going to scold him and tried to tell her it was fine. She must have got what I was implying because she said, “Three questions before he gets back and that’s it, only because it’s okay with her. We don’t assume we know what other people think or feel, do we?”
“No, Mom.”
I was pretty sure even the Aiden man was trying to bite back a laugh when I glanced at him. He was staring at his wife really hard, telling her who the hell knows what with his eyes.
Then the little boy focused back on me and asked, “What’s his favorite color?”
I folded my hands on top of the table and told him, “Green.”
It was the right answer because he asked another question, ready to fucking go. “What’s his favorite food?”
“Spaghetti.”
He narrowed those little boy eyes at me a little more. “Do you love him?”
Wasn’t that the fucking question. But I told him the truth. “Very, very much.”
The seat beside mine got pulled out, and the next thing I knew, Zac was slipping into it, asking, “What are y’all talkin’ about now?”
I nudged him. “Still you.”
That hand of his landed right between my shoulder blades as he smiled. “What about me?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I joked right before the older boy, Sammy, asked about food.
It wasn’t until a couple minutes later that my phone vibrated. I took a peek at it.
ZAC IS MY FAVORITE 2 new message.
When the hell had he changed his contact information again?
I opened the text.
ZAC IS MY FAVORITE 2: Want to run around with me after this?
To do what? I wondered. I really did want to go home and get a video edited. I’d only come here because he’d asked.
I texted him back.
Me: I’d rather go back to Trevor’s if that’s all right. I really need to get some things done.
It wasn’t until half an hour later, while we were busy tearing up a pizza—while I noticed that the Aiden man ate three salads—that he messaged me back.
ZAC IS MY FAVORITE 2: Whatever you want darlin
* * *
I woke up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water and peeked out the front door.
I paused.
There were only two cars in the driveway: mine and CJ’s. A certain BMW was missing.
Back in my room, I texted Zac.
Me: Are you okay?
I waited an hour to get a response that never came.
Chapter Twenty-One
It was my cell phone ringing that woke me up the next morning.
Cranky and tired, I glared as an unknown New York number flashed across the screen as I held it up to my face with one eye closed.
Was it WatchTube?
“Hello?” I hoped I didn’t sound as tired as I felt. I’d forced myself to go back to sleep after an hour of waiting for Zac to text me back, and I’d tossed and turned all night, totally restless. The times I woke up enough, I’d checked my phone to see if I’d had new messages in my inbox.
But there hadn’t been shit. Just a couple emails and some social media notifications.
I’d been expecting a stranger, but that wasn’t what I heard. “Bianca, it’s Trevor. Where the hell is Zac?”
Both my eyes shot open even as that slightly disgusting feeling from the night before—at the reminder that his car hadn’t been out there last night—ballooned up all over again. Gross and thick and reckless.
And totally useless because who was I to get jealous over him? He was my friend, and that was the beginning and the end of it. I had never expected any different.
“I don’t know, Trev,” I answered him honestly.
Because I didn’t want to rat him out. I didn’t need details, but Trevor wouldn’t be calling me at…
