Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 76696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
I nodded, then raised my head to kiss him. “Better than okay.” Then I put my cheek back down on his chest. “I love you, Zach.”
His fingers on my hair paused, then he brushed his lips against the top of my head. He didn’t say anything and eventually I was too sleepy to wait any longer, and drifted off.
***
We were woken the next morning by the ringing of Zach’s phone. He reached for it and answered the call with me still snuggled against his chest. From the way his voice hardened, I knew he was talking to his father.
“Tomorrow?” He paused. “Yeah, sure. I’ll see what I can do. Yeah. I’ll let you know asap.” He hung up and flung his phone back on his nightstand.
“Your father?”
“Yeah, he and my mother want to meet you. They invited us over for lunch tomorrow.”
“Oh,” I said, not able to hide my surprise. Zach had never mentioned that he’d talked to his parents about us and I had never asked. “Your parents know about me.”
Zach pulled back to give me a strange look. “Of course. It’s been more than two months. I told my parents about you.”
“And what do they think?”
Zach’s lips tightened. “My mother is happy, I guess. My father doesn’t believe in relationships.”
“He’s married.”
“Yeah, and that’s working out perfectly,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Sometimes I think marriage was invented to make people miserable.”
I stared. “My parents loved each other. They were happy. My dad still isn’t over my mom. Since she died seven years ago he’s never seen anyone else.”
“Must be lonely.”
“I suppose it is.”
“Would you be angry if he found someone else?”
I pondered that. “No, I want to see him happy. He’s gone through so much, first losing my mom to cancer and then what happened to me. Nobody deserves happiness more than him.”
After that we steered clear off the topic of marriage and love, even though I felt like it was something that we should discuss at some point. Not that I was even considering marriage at this point, far from it, but it was something I might want later in my life. Zach propped himself up and hovered over me, fingers untangling my hair. “How do you feel?”
I smiled. “Good.”
“Not sore?”
I shook my head. Zach kissed my throat. “How about a repeat performance?” His fingers slipped under the covers and began their work.
***
Later, skin covered with sweat, I was back in Zach’s arms. “So will you meet my parents tomorrow?”
“Of course,” I said, trying to catch my breath.
“Expect the worst.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
“It won’t. My father loves to drive me up the walls. He’ll probably go on about law school and why I’m such a failure and all that.”
“Why don’t you do something else then if you hate law so much?”
“I don’t hate law in general. I like human rights law. I’d love to do something that helps people and not multi-billion dollar companies.”
“Then do it.”
Zach shook his head. I didn’t press the matter and rested my cheek against his chest. “I got the job in the café around the corner.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“I kind of forgot to mention it because of my plan to seduce you.”
Zach laughed. “So when do you have to start?”
“The day after tomorrow.”
“Before Christmas? That’s going to be tough.”
“I’m actually excited. I know it’s nothing special, but at least I’m doing something until I decide what to do about college.”
“That’s good. Take your time with your decision.”
The words I love you hovered on the tip of my tongue again, but this time I swallowed them. I didn’t want Zach to feel pressured into saying them back. He’d been patient with me, and I could be patient with him.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Amber
The house of Zach’s parents was outside of New York, but his father had an apartment in Manhattan where he spent most of the time away from his wife. As we pulled up in front of the villa, because you couldn’t really call it house, I was stunned. It had a vague resemblance to the white house and lay in a gated community. Everything about the lawn, flowers and house itself was immaculate. Zach’s parents probably had people who took care of everything for them.
The moment I met Zach’s father I knew he didn’t like me. He was polite, charming even, but there was a trace of condescension in every twist of his mouth and look he sent me. He was almost as tall as Zach but not as broad, though it was obvious that he took care of his body and probably went to the gym when time allowed it. His hair was still mostly dark-brown¸ except for a few streaks of grey. He was a good-looking man and I didn’t doubt that his appearance and his money made it easy for him to find women for his affairs.
His grip on my hand was firm and it took everything I had not to squirm away. Apart from Zach, I still had trouble with physical closeness, especially with strangers. He didn’t let go of my hand when he said. “So you are Zach’s girlfriend.” The word sounded like an insult from his mouth but I kept a polite smile plastered on my face. “You can call me Robert.”
Zach cleared his throat, and his father finally released me. I exhaled quietly, but tension lingered in my muscles. “Where’s Mother?” Zach asked, a hint of worry in his voice.
“She’s getting ready.”
“Ready?”
“For the luncheon at our country club. Didn’t I mention it? We’ll eat there, so you can meet a few of our business partners, and they can meet you and your girlfriend.”
I tensed and peered up at Zach. I wasn’t wearing something that was fancy enough for a country club luncheon. I probably didn’t even own anything that came close to being expensive enough to be considered acceptable in such a club. Robert’s deprecatory expression as he took in my skirt and blouse made that more than clear.
Zach narrowed his eyes at his father. “We aren’t dressed for a fancy luncheon.”