“So what did you forget?” she asked, cool as a cucumber.
Clearly she didn’t intend to make things easy on him. Zoe was a lot of things. Easy wasn’t one of them. Not that he deserved it, anyway. Nope, Zoe was tough on the outside, and though she’d deny it, on the inside she was sweet and warm and capable of such staggering emotion that she scared him to the bone. Right now, way on the inside. She wasn’t going to give an inch; she never did.
He loved that about her. “You,” he said. “Zoe, I forgot you.”
Not looking impressed, she crossed her arms. “I don’t buy it. You never forget a damn thing.” She looked at her watch. “And I don’t mean to be rude, but I’ve got plans.”
“I get that. I had plans, too,” he said. “But things change.”
She just stared at him. “What are you doing here, Parker?”
It was a legitimate question, one that he’d asked himself only every hour or so since he’d last seen her.
He’d gone home. Spent time with Amory. And with his parents. Things were going to be okay there; he’d been shocked and surprised. He’d been welcomed, and together they’d come up with a plan to allow Amory to have some more freedom. They’d all spent a whole twenty-four hours together and no one had raised their voice.
Progress.
From there it had been onward to D.C., where he’d gotten the shock of his life to find out he wasn’t fired. His job was still there if he wanted it. A month ago, hell yeah, he’d have wanted it, but he wasn’t that same guy. He’d never be that guy again. “I didn’t lose my job,” he said.
She softened slightly. “I’m glad it worked out for you,” she said genuinely.
“I resigned, Zoe.”
She blinked. “What?”
He’d walked away and then taken the job with the ATF. Right here in Idaho. He’d have cases much like he’d had for the FWS, but it would be regional. Close to home.
He’d gone his entire adult life not wanting to be like his parents and yet in the end, that was exactly what he’d become. He’d visited with them for a day and realized something else—they had each other, always. He’d realized how much he wanted that, wanted to let someone in.
Zoe.
The job here with the ATF would challenge him and keep him on his toes, but there was a balance to be found between work and a personal life.
And he’d found it.
And then walked away from it.
He’d been a boneheaded dumbass, and all he could do was hope that he wasn’t too late because when it came right down to it, all he really wanted was for Zoe to be his.
And for him to be Zoe’s.
The sound of a vehicle coming down the street had Zoe giving him another push. “You’ve got to go,” she said quietly. “I’ve got a date—”
The car drove right by.
“Kel’s not coming,” Parker said.
“Why not?” She narrowed her eyes. “You messed it up somehow, didn’t you?” Giving up trying to push him away, she poked him in the pec. “You know that I manage to mess up these things all on my own. I don’t need your help. Dammit, I needed that date tonight, Parker. I needed it to get you off my mind. You had no right to—”
“I’m your date, Zoe.”
She blinked. “What?”
“I’m your date tonight,” he repeated. And if things went okay in the next few minutes, he was hoping to be her date until the end of time.
But she was shaking her head. “We don’t date. We just f—”
He hauled her up to her toes and covered her mouth with his. He kissed her until she sagged against him, until she sank her fingers in his hair and wrapped herself around him with a soft moan that went straight through him. Only when they were both breathless did he pull back, just a fraction of an inch, because he needed to see her.