She just shook her head and hugged him again, closing her eyes to breathe him in. “You’re safe. That’s all that matters right now. The rest of the questions will get their answers later.”
His eyes cut to the stack of boxes. “You’ve been busy. Did you take the offer on the house?”
“Not yet.”
“Where will you go?”
“I-I’m not quite sure.”
“You probably have lots of choices,” he said quietly, still looking at the boxes.
“I don’t know. I like this coast, a lot.”
He turned back to her. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She swallowed past a lump of emotion the size of a basketball. “There’s lots of coastal cities hiring EMTs right now.”
“Including Santa Rey.”
“I know.” Brooke ran her hand over his sooty chest. “I have a tub filled with hot, bubbling water. Interested?”
“As long as you’re in it.”
“That could be arranged.”
They ended up draining the tub so he could shower the grime off him first, then filling it back up. Then they climbed in together, her back to his chest, his legs alongside of hers, his arms surrounding her, cast carefully out of the water. For a long moment he just pressed his jaw to hers. “Rationally, I knew you weren’t going to die today,” he murmured. “But I’ve found I’m not always rational when it comes to you.”
“Ditto.” She was grateful that he couldn’t see her face, or the tears that suddenly filled her eyes. Rational had gone out the window weeks ago, somewhere around that night on a rock overlooking the ocean.
“Brooke?”
She shook her head and forced herself to laugh. “What does rational have to do with us anyway? We just clicked, that’s all.”
He ran a finger up her wet arm, leaving a trail of bubbles and goose bumps. “We could keep clicking. If you weren’t leaving.”
Craning her neck, she looked into his face.
There was no humor in his gaze, not a single drop. “I realized something that first day with you,” he said quietly.
“What, that I was going to be a pain in your ass to dump?”
“That my lifestyle, the one I’ve reveled in for so long, had finally caught up with me and bit me on the ass. Because for the first time since losing my parents, something was going to matter. You were going to matter, Brooke.”
She stared at him. “Is that why you wanted to keep this light?”
“That, and because it was what I thought you wanted.”
“You told me I shouldn’t fall in love with you. Remember?”
“Yeah, that’s because I’m insanely stubborn. I’ve always thought I was so damn brave. I mean I put myself on the line every single day on the job.” He laughed, and it was not in amusement. “But not my heart. Never my heart. And that doesn’t make me brave at all. It makes me a coward.”
His gaze held hers. “Until I met you. I met you and something happened. The walls crumbled. I put my damn heart on the line for the first time in years, with absolutely no backup, no safety net. And it worked. It felt right,” he said sounding staggered. “Hell, it felt amazing.” Zach shook his head. “I want to be with you, Brooke.”
“For tonight.”
“For tonight,” he agreed. “And tomorrow night, too.”
She looked into his eyes, feeling a little kernel of hope and love, so much love she couldn’t draw a breath.
“And the night after that. I want all your nights. I love you, Brooke. But there’s something even more shocking.”
She managed to breathe. “Are you sure? Because that’s…that’s pretty shocking.”
He finally smiled and, oh baby, was it worth the wait. “Turns out I wasn’t out there without a backup at all.”
“No?” she whispered.
“No.” He cupped her face, stroked his thumbs over her jaw. “You’re my backup. You’re my safety net. You’re all that I need.”
“So…”
“So stay. Stay here in Santa Rey with me. Or go. But take me with you.”
Now Brooke was the one staggered. “You’d leave here?”
“My home is wherever you are.”
Twisting all the way around, she propped herself up on his wet chest. “I don’t want to go anywhere.”
“You don’t?”
“Nope. I know you planned to stay at Aidan’s house, but I have this big place all to myself, and I don’t really want to leave it, or my job. I think New Hire has a certain ring to it, don’t you?”
Laughing softly, Zach pulled her close. “How does New Hire Thomas sound?”
Her breath caught. She could hardly speak. “Like everything I ever wanted.”
Jill Shalvis
