“Your parents called you Baby,” he said, “then decided to pair it with Ann?” Humour danced in his eyes now, and something else, something warm and glad. She felt a surge of connection, as if she’d taken a step toward him after weeks of standing scared and still. It should alarm her. Instead, it made her giddy.
“My dad wasn’t around for the birth. He travelled a lot with the army, and Mum never wanted to follow.”
Zach huffed out a laugh, shaking his head. “He must’ve been pissed when he came home.”
“Oh, yeah. He’s the one who started calling me Rae.”
Zach’s smile gentled. “He’s gone now, right?”
She’d mentioned it before, probably. Dad had been much older than Rae’s mother, but his heart attack thirty years ago had come as a surprise. “Yes,” she murmured.
Zach brought one of her hands to his lips and kissed her palm. “Alright,” he said. “Baby, then.”
Oh, God. She winced. “Just because you know my name, doesn’t mean you can use it.”
His expression darkened for a moment before he carefully smoothed out his scowl. “Kevin sure as hell does.”
“He was trying to piss me off. I barely let him say my name at our wedding.” She wrinkled her nose at the memory.
“You really hate it that much?”
“I don’t hate it,” she said honestly. “It’s just not mine. Not really. Anyway, you can’t tell me you seriously want to call me Baby.”
He grinned. “I want to call you a lot of things, babe.”
“Don’t start that shit, Zachary Davis.”
“You’re so grumpy.” But he looked at her like she was a welcome sunrise. His thumb skated over the inside of her wrist in a movement she was starting to associate with comfort, and Zach, and that excitable dip in her stomach that happened whenever he smiled. Carefully, he asked, “Are you okay?”
That gave her pause. Hadn’t they just fixed things between them? “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Seeing Kevin for the first time—I know you were nervous about it.”
Huh. She had been nervous, hadn’t she? Possibly seeing her ex had been high on the list of reasons why she’d dragged Zach here in the first place. But it had happened, and Kevin himself had barely fazed her. He’d looked…
Kevin had looked like the past. He’d sounded like a mistake. And once he was out of sight, his sneer had vanished just as easily from her mind. She was astonished and relieved and grateful all at once.
But all she said was, “I’m fine.”
“Good.”
There was a pause before she added, a little belatedly, “Sorry he was such a dick to you.”
Zach arched a brow. “Was he? I barely noticed.”
Her mouth curved into a reluctant smile. “I should’ve realised he’d ask about your age.”
“Is he always so pathetic, then?”
Her mouth hung open for a delighted second before she burst out laughing. “He’s bad at keeping quiet about things that bother him.”
“And my age should bother Kevin because…?”
“You know.” She rolled her eyes when Zach didn’t respond. “Because I’m too old for you.”
“Bullshit,” he said easily.
She choked out a disbelieving laugh. “I’m sorry, what?”
“If I were too young for you”—she didn’t miss the way he rearranged those words— “we wouldn’t have been such good friends for so long. I’d bore you or get on your nerves. Be honest: how often do you think about the age gap between us?”
“Not that often,” she mumbled, which was a tiny white lie. In reality, the answer was never. It just didn’t seem to matter.
“See?” He looked way too pleased with himself. “Now, stop worrying about your pissy ex-husband and come here.”
“Come where? I’m practically in your lap.”
“But not quite.” He tugged her closer, lifting her up until she was literally in his lap, straddling him instead of the bench. She realised, with hot cheeks and no little satisfaction, that she was being semi-scandalous in a public place. And this public place wasn’t part of her new, carefree life back in Ravenswood—it was in a hotel where her old life lingered like a bad smell.
Maybe the two pieces of herself were slamming into each other, finally connecting, for better or for worse. Maybe Zach’s support, as solid and unflinching as his current grip on her arse, had helped that happen.
“There,” he said softly, his eyes burning into hers. “That’s better.”
She pressed her hands to his chest, felt his heart racing under her palm. “Much. Kevin interrupted us.”
His voice deceptively mild, Zach asked, “Did he?”
“Yes.” She said it firmly, almost formally, because this was a serious