Page 106 of Heartbroken Husband
I pushed back from the table so abruptly that Jesse jumped. “Are you okay?”
“No,” I answered honestly as I grabbed my keys. “I think I know how to fix it, though. Seriously, congratulations, but I have to go.”
Jacqueline smiled like she knew exactly where I was headed and Jesse pointed at me with his beer bottle. “If you chicken out again, I’m telling Adeline you cried during?—”
I was already out the door before he could even finish the sentence. My pulse was hammering so hard by the time I reached Adeline’s building that any cardiologist would have a stroke. Frankly, I didn’t even really know how I’d gotten here, feeling a little delirious as I raced up the stairs to her apartment and started banging on the door.
It opened a moment later and Adeline stared at me in obvious shock, blinking much too hard and much too rapidly. Her strawberry-gold hair was down and slightly messy, like she’d been lying on the couch, and she had on leggings and an oversized sweater that shouldn’t have been sexy but really was.
“Zach?” she finally asked. “What are you doing here?”
When I realized that I’d been able to hear her despite the fact that she’d spoken in a hushed, shocked, almost whisper, I frowned and looked past her. The TV was off, no demon hunters kicking ass on the screen. There was no K-Pop blaring and no arguing, singing, or obvious sounds of dancing emanating from deeper inside the condo.
“Zach?” she repeated. “Are you okay?”
For the first time in my life, I understood why people in movies so often declared their love in the rain like absolute lunatics. Rational thought clearly left the body in these situations.
“I was nearby,” I said, and it was probably the dumbest sentence ever spoken in the history of mankind considering I lived nowhere near here. “I thought I’d pop in.”
“You look a little…” She trailed off, her gaze sweeping across my face with curiosity burning in her eyes, but then she stepped aside and swung the door open a little wider. “Would you like to come in?”
“Yes.” I didn’t even try to sugarcoat it, stepping past her and looking around while she shut the door and locked it behind us. “Where are the tiny terrors?”
“Amber took them camping this weekend.” Adeline slid her hands into the large pocket on the front of her sweater and tilted her head at me. “They’ve been a little down recently, so we’re hoping the trip is a bit of a pick-me-up.”
“A camping trip?” I repeated lamely. “The only thing people pick up from those are mosquito bites.”
“She brought industrial-grade bug spray and enough snacks to survive the collapse of modern society,” she said on a slight smile. “Kids love camping, so there’s a possibility it’ll lift their spirits.”
“Right.”
Her smile faded as she drifted past me further into the condo, her eyes never leaving mine. “So, uh, what are you really doing here? I know you weren’t just in the neighborhood.”
She leaned against the kitchen counter, studying me as I tried to come up with a grand, romantic speech. What came out instead was, “So Amber took the girls camping to try to make them happy, but are you?”
“Am I what?”
“Happy.”
When her eyebrows swept up, I could’ve kicked myself. I didn’t even know why I’d asked. Obviously, I wanted her to be happy. I would never wish for her not to be, but I also didn’treally want her to be happywithoutme, and I doubted she was happy but not because of me.
God, my brain has officially left the building.
Adeline didn’t question me, though. Instead, she just looked down at the floor for a long moment before slowly lifting her gaze back to mine.
“I was happy,” she said quietly. “For a minute there. Back in Wisconsin.”
Hearing her admit it stole the air from my lungs and the uncertainty from my chest. “Me too.”
After that, we just stared at each other for a few seconds, even the mountain of history between us suddenly seeming less important under the weight of the look we were sharing. I honestly couldn’t tell who moved first, but the space between us disappeared in record time and we crashed together out of nowhere, her hands gripping my shoulders while I kissed her like I’d been starving for it.
Frankly, I had been and I was so fucking sick of pretending otherwise. Maybe my brothers had been right and it really was time to just sit down and talk to her, but not right now. Right now, I just wanted to keep kissing her for at least a little while longer.
CHAPTER 40
ADELINE
Zach’s tongue moved against mine in deep, hungry strokes that ignited a wildfire in the very core of my being. It should’ve been impossible, how completely he wiped the slate clean with only a kiss, but there was so much emotion in it that I even forgot how afraid I’d been that I’d severed our connection.
