to have sex tonight. With a totally hot guy. Who tonight will be Zach, just Zach, and not Sheriff Zach.”
Her doorbell rang. She shut her eyes and drew a deep, bracing breath. Pasting on a smile, she went to open her door.
Zach’s easy grin died as he got a look at her. His lips pursed and he gave a soundless whistle as he gave her a thorough and blatantly masculine once-over. “You look gorgeous. You sparkle like sunlight on Hummingbird Lake.”
Her smile went from nervous to genuine, and she resisted the urge to twirl. “Thank you. I’m happy. Heavenscents had its best day ever.”
“Congratulations. Maybe I’ll break out a bottle of champagne and some caviar.”
“Really? I’ve never tasted caviar.”
“Oh, honey. We can fix that tonight.”
Wonder what other “nevers” he could fix …
Zach told her about his workday during the short drive out to his house, thoroughly entertaining her with a story about a fox in a construction site Porta-John. Savannah remained surprisingly relaxed, and when he excused himself to clean up, since he’d picked her up on the way home from work, she grabbed a tennis ball from a bucket near the back door and went outside to coax Ace into a game of catch. It didn’t take much coaxing. Inny liked to play catch. Ace loved it.
Zach exited the house twenty minutes later wearing worn blue jeans and a white oxford shirt and carrying a tray holding two flutes filled with bubbling champagne and a plate of bread crusts with a small bowl of black caviar surrounded by ice. She gestured toward the plate. “Is this a staple of yours, Zach?”
“Caviar? Not hardly. I can handle steak just fine, but I ordered hors d’oeuvres from the Yellow Kitchen.” He set down the tray and handed her one of the glasses. Lifting his, he toasted, “To record-breaking sales days.”
The champagne bubbled on her tongue, and when he offered her a toast topped with a dollop of caviar, she added, “And new experiences.”
She tasted the caviar. It had the consistency of butter and melted in her mouth. “Oh, that’s good. It’s not salty at all.”
“Ali said good caviar is supposed to taste like a fresh ocean breeze.”
“It’s wonderful. So is the champagne.”
He named the label, then asked, “Are you hungry?”
Oh, yes.
“I can put the steaks on now, or we could wait a little while to eat.”
Dinner. He means dinner, stupid. “Either way is fine with me.”
“Then let’s walk out to the point. I have a new addition I want to show off.”
They strolled hand in hand toward the tip of Reflection Point. Drawing closer, Savannah spied the addition he’d mentioned. He’d placed a lovely, two-person wooden lawn swing at the end of the point. “You do like your swings, don’t you?”
“It’s a recent acquisition. Something about sittin’ in a swing with a luscious Georgia peach makes me content as a dog with two tails.”
He led her to the swing and sat beside her, close to her, and gave the swing a push with his long legs. “Tell me your favorite Fourth of July memory.”
After a moment’s consideration, she talked about her family. “I told you I have a nephew. He’s my middle brother’s son. Gary is four years older than me. He got his girlfriend pregnant in high school and they got married, but that was a disaster. She ran off and left Tommy behind. By that time, I was living with my grandmother, my dad was sick, and Gary asked us to babysit for a week while he delivered a car for someone to California. He had some trouble—it was a big mess and not entirely his fault—but he didn’t come back for six weeks.”
“He dumped his kid on you for six weeks? And you were just a kid yourself?”
“I enjoyed it. Tommy was such a sweetheart and so affectionate. When you asked about my favorite Fourth of July, that’s the memory that popped into my mind. It was the first time he’d seen fireworks, and he oohed and aahed and squealed and screamed. It was so much fun. Once the show was over, he hugged my neck and told me he loved me.” Her smile turned bittersweet as she added, “His dad showed up to get him three days later.”
“Where are your brother and Tommy now?”
“I didn’t hear much from them after I went to jail. When I got out …” She shrugged. “They’d moved away.”
He laced his fingers with hers, then brought her hand up to his mouth