Page 139 of Zach
I groan and scrub my nails through my hair. “If I’m going to do this, I meanreallydo this, then I
can’t treat her like the others. I have to be different.”
He whistles through his teeth. “You have tobedifferent? Or you have toactdifferent?”
Hands still clenched in my hair, I stare at him. “Shit. I don’t know.”
He shakes his head and chuckles. “You’re already a good man. I don’t think you should change.
But there’s some shit you do that could go.”
“Like?” I prod, frustrated by the slow sip he takes of his scotch.
“Like that stupid fucking look you do.”
“The women love that, trust me,” I say, flashing the model smile I worked so hard to perfect.
He sneers, making me chuckle. “Yeah, I’m sure they do. But it’s an act. One you’ve relied on for a
long fucking time.”
“I’m feeling a little called out, brother,” I say quietly, dropping my hands into my lap.
He winces and rests his elbows on the table, leaning into the space between us. “I’m on your side.
Always. But you want something different now, right?” He waits for my nod before continuing. “Then
that mask, and that’s exactly what it is, isn’t needed anymore.”
“It’s not a mask.”
“Yeah, kid, it is.” Something about the way he sayskidloosens my muscles. The reminder that
he’s older and wiser brings me back to being a teenager, desperate for his guidance and stability. He’s
the steady North Star all of us gravitate to. And he’s always,alwaysspoken the truth, and only the
truth.
“It didn’t start out that way,” I say, throat tight. “At first, I just wanted people to look at me
differently. Then I liked the way it felt and kept doing it.”
“I like your regular face. Those fucking fish lips…” he trails off, shaking his head.
“You are not my target market,” I say with a grin. “Either way, I hear what you’re saying. But the
problem is bigger than all of that.” Inhaling deeply, I bare my soul. “How am I going to be enough for
her? She’s so fucking smart, she runs circles around me at work. Other than looks and money, I don’t
have anything to offer her. And my past? She’s…” I stop myself because her sexual history, or lack of
it, is none of his business. None.
Ransom’s lips pull back into a snarl. “That’s the biggest pile of shit I’ve ever heard you say.”
This. This is the loyalty he showed us right from day one. He’ll tell us to our faces we’re dumbasses
