face to settle briefly on my shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. “Need to do somethin’ inside first?”
“Nah, we can go.”
I led the way down the stairs, asking, “Want me to drive after all or do you want to take your fancy-ass car?”
“Whatever you want.”
We could take mine. He seemed too distracted to be a good driver.
Zac didn’t say a word when I steered us toward my car and still said nothing when we got into it and I pulled out of the complex and onto the road. That was when the idea struck me. We glanced at each other when I stopped at a red light, and I wasn’t even a little sneaky when I slipped my phone out of my purse and tapped a few times at the screen. Just as the light turned green, I found what I was looking for and hit the little triangle at the bottom of the screen.
I waited a second.
Two seconds.
The speakers in my car finally picked up, and I still waited.
And my beloved Zac didn’t let me down.
It took two beats of the song to ring through my car before he snorted and the back of his hand nudged at my upper arm.
I grinned at him just as I hit the gas. Lifting my finger, I pointed at him and sang the last two words of the first bar, “…go girls.” The shoulder closest to him moved in time to the beat of the song I’d been forced to listen to like half a million times around him when I’d been younger. Zac snorted again.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see his fingers tapping along to the beat on his thigh, and I kept on singing, knowing I was pretty much yelling out the lyrics totally out of tune and not giving a single shit, especially not when he started laughing right before the chorus.
And then, then, this fool joined in.
At the top of his lungs, with that accent that felt like a hug, he sang all about forgetting he was a lady.
And together, almost at the top of our lungs, we sang about feeling wild, about short skirts, and mostly… about feeling like a woman.
We were both dying laughing at the end.
There were tears in my eyes, and he was leaning against the seat, both hands on top of his head as that lean torso puffed in and out with ragged breaths as he kept on cracking up.
“Oh, I needed that,” he wheezed, dragging those big palms down his face to wipe at his eyes and cheeks.
“Then get ready for the rest of my playlist, bubba,” I warned him right as the next song started.
And then, we were at it again. I did it for his sake. To get that smile back on his face. The light behind his eyes.
It worked.
We sang about just breathing, about someone named Jolene, and right as I was pulling the car into the parking lot, we thought we were performing on The Voice while we sang about having friends in low places.
I turned off the car then and turned to Zac, wanting to ask him if he was better but not wanting to ruin it when I could see it in his eyes that he was. Because he was smiling that big, old Zac smile that made his entire face resemble Christmas lights. And I couldn’t help but return the expression.
He took my hand from where I’d set it on my lap and brought it up to his face, kissing the back of it with those firm, warm lips.
I’d be lying if I didn’t admit my little heart stuttered a second.
But I didn’t think twice about leaning over and planting a quick kiss on his cheek. “There’s my Big Texas.” I tapped him on the cheek with my free hand and said, “I’m always here for you if you need me.” He knew that. Then I booped him on the nose once more. “Come on. Let’s get this over with so we can gas each other out on the way back.”
He barked out a laugh. “I’ll be fine. It’s you I’m worried about now.”
I pulled my hand out from his and snorted as I sat back and went for the door handle. “You should be. I haven’t eaten this in years. If you’d let me choose, we’d be eating roast beef and melted cheese sandwiches.”
I was pretty sure he snickered as I got out, and he met me by the trunk,