A knot rose in her throat, and she worked hard to swallow past it. They had less than twenty-four hours together, and she wasn’t about to waste any of it being sad. There would be enough time for that on the long plane trip home tomorrow. And in the coming weeks.
She ran her fingers along the back of the deep-cushioned sofa, wanting to flop down on it with Zane, wrap herself up in his arms, and not think about this time tomorrow, when they’d be apart. Her eyes were drawn to pictures hanging on the wall. Five pictures from their childhood. She moved closer, and the knot returned to her throat. The first picture had been taken on the island. She and Bridgette lay on beach towels in the sand, Bridgette in a pink bikini, Willow in a blue one-piece bathing suit. Willow lay on her stomach, her hands folded beneath her chin, smiling and watching Talia and Ben splashing in the water. Bridgette lay on her back sunbathing, her eyes closed. Piper’s backpack sat discarded on a towel. She was probably in the woods. Willow remembered that summer. She’d been sixteen, and she’d had a major crush on Zane.
She glanced at him now, and he lifted a shoulder, crossing the room toward her as she looked over the next picture. Zane sat beside Ben on the top of the picnic table in her parents’ backyard. He was gazing across the lawn at Willow with a faraway look in his eyes. She sat cross-legged, reading on a blanket in the grass. Her hair was a tangled mess, with leaves sticking out of it. She remembered that afternoon. Ben and Zane had raked the yard for her parents, and she’d jumped into every leaf pile, which had started a leaf war. She laughed softly at the memory.
“Who took this picture?” she asked.
“I took the first one, but I don’t know who took the rest. When I came back one Christmas a few years ago, your mom was going through pictures, and I asked her for a few of them.”
“She never told me.” She glanced up at the third picture, of Zane and her father on her father’s boat. Her father had a prideful look in his eyes, his arm draped around Zane’s shoulder. Zane’s head was tipped back, caught laughing. “I love this one.”
She moved to the next picture, of him and Ben wearing their football uniforms. They were arm in arm, grinning like fools. The lights of the football field lit up like diamonds against the night sky behind them. Zane’s face still held the softness of youth, not yet blessed with ever-present scruff or sharp edges, but his eyes were as focused and determined as ever.
“No wonder I chose you.” She slipped her finger into his pocket. “You were hot.”
He laughed. “I weighed, like, a buck thirty. I was a wiry kid.”
“Hardly.” She took a step up to look at the last picture, and her heart tumbled in her chest. The two of them were studying at her parents’ kitchen table. Willow was pointing to something in the textbook, and he was leaning over, cheek to palm, gazing up at her with a vacant look in his eyes.
“Told you so,” he said. “I have no idea how I passed math, because I was totally into you.”
“Osmosis?” she teased.
He retrieved the suitcases, and she followed him into the master bedroom, taking in the king-size bed with a masculine, navy-blue comforter, a leather recliner beneath a lamp in the corner, and a single long dresser.
He set their bags beside the bed and picked up a photograph from the nightstand, running his fingers over the picture as he came to her side. “This is my favorite picture. The one Patch told you about.”
She took it from his hands and sank down to the mattress, the significance of the image clinging to her like a second skin. Her back was to the camera, her head bent forward, the red rose he’d given her that night—their night—barely visible in her hand. She sat on the green-and-blue blanket.
Zane sat beside her on the bed, their shoulders touching, his familiar scent lulling her toward him.
“You took this that night?” She met his eyes and was bowled over by the emotions in them.
“Yes. Are you mad?”
“I might have been back then, but not now. I . . . That’s a nice memory.”
“Thank God. I wasn’t sure if you’d be pissed off.” He put his arm around her. “I followed you home that night.”
“You did? After I told you to let me be so I could process what we’d done? That was rude.” She smiled and added, “And pretty romantic.”
“What did you expect? You don’t have sex for the first time and just walk away, no matter what rules you thought up. I’d broken your other rules. I felt even though you said no feelings. Who am I kidding? I fell. Hard. I looked at you differently even though you said not to. You can’t control everything, sweet girl.” He took the picture from her hands and set it back on the nightstand.
“I followed you home to make sure you got there safely and because I still couldn’t believe you’d chosen me. Of all the guys in Sweetwater, I was the lucky one. That night, as I followed you home, all I could think about was that one day you’d realize your rules were stupid and that we should be together. And you did, so let’s enjoy it.”
He pushed to his feet, and she happily took his hand, following him into the living room.
“So you moved all this way, but you kept Sweetwater alive. It’s in the pictures, in this house. I had the complete wrong impression of you.”
“No, Wills. You didn’t. I wasn’t a saint just because I didn’t bring women here. I had my fair share of meaningless hookups.”
She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t mean that, but thanks for that visual. Geez, Z. Just what I needed.”
He hugged her. “No lies, remember? Yes, I couldn’t wait to leave Sweetwater. I didn’t want to end up like my parents, living an unfulfilling life, paycheck to paycheck. But I didn’t want to leave all of Sweetwater behind. That’s where you were. That’s where Ben was. It’s where my life was.” He kissed her softly. “I left a piece of my heart by the creek all those years ago. Did you really think I’d never come back to get it?”
“Yes,” she said honestly. “But I’m glad we both finally came to our senses.”
ZANE AND WILLOW decided to forgo the crowded tourist hot spots and hit the Hollywood Hills for a late-afternoon hike. A few fans stopped for selfies with Zane, and he dragged Willow into them, which embarrassed her but thrilled him to no end. At least this way when they ended up on Instagram or Twitter, none of the fans could say they were out with him and make up nonsense stories. Being back in Sweetwater had reminded him what it was like to have a normal life, and even after being interrupted by only a few well-meaning fans today, he missed it. Terribly.