Knowing that Zach probably wouldn’t want that, she had persuaded him to wait till morning to see if he would show.
Once they’d heard the truth, her sisters had been just as eager to thank him. Sammie and Bri had arrived home last night with a completely different story of what had happened. Rumors had been running rampant that a drunken Zach Tanner had shown up at the prom and had beaten up two boys in the parking lot. There had been no mention of how Zach had rescued her or what Clark Dayton and his friends had tried to do.
Savannah had been appalled at how the low-life rednecks had twisted the truth, making Zach into a villain instead of the hero she knew him to be. Thank heavens her grandfather had been wise enough to realize something else. It hadn’t occurred to her that Zach could get into trouble. Why would it? He’d saved her life! Daniel Wilde was smart in the ways of how this town worked, so instead of going to Zach’s house to thank him, he had gotten into his car and made the short trip to the police station. And had arrived in the nick of time.
Granddad had said that Chief Mosby had been hell-bent on arresting Zach. It had taken over an hour to convince Mosby, plus a phone call to Savannah to corroborate the story, before he had agreed to not pursue the matter. Just the thought of what could have happened if her grandfather hadn’t intervened chilled Savannah to the bone.
Though she wished Clark Dayton and his drunken friends could be arrested, Savannah knew that wasn’t going to happen. There was no doubt in her mind what they had intended to do … when she closed her eyes, she could still see the evil intent on their faces. However, other than grabbing her arm once, they had never touched her. She could prove nothing.
“I heard rumors that you’re going into the army, son. Is that true?”
Savannah jerked her head around at her grandfather’s words. Zach was joining the army? Leaving town? When?
She watched as he swallowed a mouthful of food and then said, “Yes, sir, I leave for basic training in a couple of months.”
“Service to your country is a fine and noble endeavor. You’re a brave young man.”
His face flushing, Zach mumbled, “Thank you, sir” and dipped his head down to his food again.
Pushing aside that disturbing news for the time being, Savannah searched for a safe conversation topic that would put Zach at ease. The way he kept his head down and barely looked at anyone, it was obvious he was uncomfortable. Since she knew so little about him other than all the rumors she’d heard, it was hard to come up with something. However, she did know a little bit about his half brother, Josh.
“Your brother is a good football player.”
The statement came out of left field and was as lame a conversation starter as she’d ever given. Even her sisters were giving her wide-eyed stares as if she’d lost her mind. She knew almost nothing about football and had declared on more than one occasion that she would never understand why everyone in Alabama was so consumed with such a barbaric-looking sport. However, she did know that Josh was a football star in school, so she had taken a chance.
Expecting Zach to either ignore the comment or give her the same astonished look as her sisters, she was thrilled it had the opposite effect. That same smile she’d experienced only briefly last night brightened his too-solemn features. “He’s amazing. College recruiters are already talking about him. I’d love to see him get a football scholarship to Alabama.”
That was the longest speech she’d ever heard from him. Eager to seize on what appeared to be a topic of interest for him, she asked, “Did you play football in school, too?”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to withdraw the question. Of course he hadn’t played sports in school. If her brain had been working at all, she would have remembered that.
His smile dimmed only slightly as he answered, “Nah, I was never any good at it.”
Most likely it wasn’t his lack of skills that had kept him from playing, but the responsibilities he’d taken on after school. She had heard that he’d had several part-time jobs while he had been in school. While other kids got to participate in extracurricular activities, he was working to