I know he said that. I know.
But I can’t believe those words. I can’t. Not after everything he’s done and how callously he rejected my love.
We stop at a diner to eat as soon as we arrive at Blue Dot.
I sit at one end of the bar and he sits on the other. The waitress is young and a chatty one, and she and I strike up a conversation.
When I tell her that I might be staying here for a while, she tells me that they are hiring. She also hooks me up with a bed and breakfast, a couple of blocks down from here.
The town is small, smaller than Princetown, but I like it. It’s cold here. Winter is in full force. There’s wind. Oh, and there’s a lake, too. It’s so blue that I fall in love with it the first moment I see it. Kinda like I fell in love with Zach.
The next day I arrive at the diner at seven and he’s there.
God, doesn’t he sleep? Take a day off or something?
The waitress who told me about this job walks me through everything and tells me which section is going to be mine for that day.
And whaddya know? Zach’s already sitting there.
I walk up to him. “What are you doing here?”
He tips his chin to the menu. “I love the coffee here.”
“You love the coffee.” At his nod, I continue, “You’ve never had coffee here.”
“I had some yesterday.”
“No, you didn’t. You had a hamburger and a slice of pie. I saw it.”
When he smiles, I realize I shouldn’t have said it. It makes me look like a creepy stalker. A stage-five clinger.
He folds his arms on the table and nods. “Yeah, you caught me. I’m just here for the pie.”
I rest a hand on the booth and cock my hip. “Are you going to watch me work all day?”
The rays of sun enlighten his jaw and criss-cross through his hair, making him look so handsome that I have to take a deep breath and compose myself.
Don’t cave, Cleo. Do not cave.
“No. But I can, if you want me to.”
“You know what I want.”
“Well, then I’ll just come back at lunch.”
Sighing, I stand up straight. “So what? Pie. Is that your order?”
“Uh-huh. And a cup of coffee with it.”
I make a show of writing it down on my brand-new pad. “A piece of pie and coffee with a side of spit, coming up.”
As I turn around, I hear him give a chuckle that melts like butter in my bones, and I know I need to be strong.
Much stronger, actually, than I had planned because after that, Zach shows up at seven every morning, orders the same thing and simply watches me bustle around.
It reminds me so much of when he first came back. He’d watch me run to the mansion in the morning or sometimes in the hallways, wearing my uniform.
He’s doing the same thing here.