CHAPTER THREE

HARPER POLSEN

I close the door behind me as quietly as I can and pull my robe a little tighter around my shoulders. I probably should have put proper clothes on, but I’d only just taken a shower before I saw Zane in the window. Besides, Zane had seen me in pajamas before. It wasn’t like it was all that different.

I pad across the backyard to the spot where Zane and I used to meet when we were kids and then teenagers. I see him come out of the house, and my heart skips a beat, just for a second. Oh come on, it’s just Zane.

I take a quick, deep breath and shake my head slightly at myself for reacting like that to him, but I have to admit that in the time since I saw him last, Zane has become very hot. He’s put on some muscle that I can see beneath his T-shirt in the backyard lights. As he gets closer to me, I can see that he’s sporting some new ink — an army insignia on his right forearm — and the edge of another one that I can’t make out starts just below his shirt sleeve. The high-and-tight haircut looks good with his dark hair and sharp-featured face. I have to admit that altogether he’s damn good looking.

He hurries to me and before I can even think of what to say, Zane hugs me tightly. I wrap my arms around his big, broad shoulders and find myself pressing my cheek to his chest almost without knowing what I’m doing.

“I swear to God you’re taller,” I say.

Zane laughs. “You’re looking pretty good yourself,” he says, pulling back and looking me over. I feel my cheeks heating up with a blush and look away with a laugh.

“You’re just saying that because there’s a breeze,” I tell him. I pull my robe around me even tighter. When I feel like I can meet his gaze again, I look up into Zane’s eyes. “So, happy to be back in town?”

“It’s nice,” Zane says. “The flight was a pain in the ass, though.”

“Yeah, the drive was pretty tough too,” I respond. It feels so awkward, but I can’t say why. I can’t even think about why.

“You came back into town just for my parents’ anniversary?”

I shrug off Zane’s question. “Well, I mean, they’re practically my aunt and uncle,” I point out. “Almost a second set of parents.”

“I don’t think the army would let me off for your parents’ anniversary,” Zane says, sitting down on the grass. I hesitate for a moment and decide to join him.

“I had the vacation time banked,” I explain, “and besides which, it’s better for me to take the time now than later.”

“Why’s that? Vacation’s vacation, isn’t it?”

“Not always,” I say, grinning wryly. “In the publishing industry, at least… well, I guess for any job, there are better times and worse times.”

“Military’s not that different,” Zane says. “Ask for leave during certain times of year and unless you’ve stayed on duty for over a year, you’re probably not going to get it granted.”

“Makes sense,” I say. “I was kind of surprised that you got leave at all.”

“It’s slow right now,” Zane says. “Not a lot going on and I had leave coming.”

“When was the last time you were in town?” I pull my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around them.

“I got a couple of days during Christmas,” Zane says. I nod.

“I must have just missed you.”

“Yeah, I think I remember your parents saying that you were about to come into town, that you’d had some kind of deadline, but that was right before I had to be back at base,” Zane agrees.

“Seems like that’s been happening a lot,” I observe. “It’s been what, like three, four years?”

“Almost five, I think,” Zane replies. “I shipped out for basic about a year after high school.”

“That’s right!” I think about it for a minute or two. “Kind of weird that in all that time we kept missing each other.”

“It is, isn’t it?” Zane shakes his head. “So, what’s your life really like, up there in the big city?”

I laugh. “It’s a lot like life here, actually,” I tell him. “Except, you know, a bigger chance of someone in my building getting robbed.” I pick a blade of grass and play with it between my fingers. “What’s the army like?”

“Pretty much what I thought it would be like,” Zane says after a moment. “I’ve made my way up the ranks a bit. I’m a specialist now, got my certification last year.”

“Making bank?” I grin at him.

Zane rolls his eyes. “Making more than I was making before,” he says. “But if it weren’t for accommodations on base and food at the mess hall, I’d be just about breaking even. What about you?”

“I’m making enough to stay afloat in Brooklyn, which is saying something,” I tell him with a grin. “But supposedly the publishing company I’m working for is underpaying me a bit for my skills.”

“What makes you say that?”

I shrug. “One of my friends who works for another publisher, doing mostly the same thing I’m doing, is making about three thousand a year more than me.”

“Oof, that sucks,” Zane says. “Any chance to talk them into bumping you up?”

I think about that. There’s a possibility that I might be able to talk the publisher I work for into upping my pay, but I’ll have to wait for that, at least for another couple of months. Once the big project is over, I’ll be in a position to ask for almost anything I want, as long as I do a good job at it.

“Maybe,” I tell him. “In the next couple of months, but not right now.”

We chat like that for a while, and it feels weird, but at the same time it actually kind of feels nice. I think about the different conversations that Zane and I have had over the years, before we parted ways, right in that same spot.

By the time I’m walking back to my house, yawning because it’s almost one in the morning, I think to myself that it was worth the little bit of grief I got at the office for asking for an entire week off.

I walk back to my room and turn down the sheets in my bed, exhausted. I know Mom and Dad will have me up early, helping the Lewises get ready for the first big party of their anniversary blowout.

As I drift off, I think to myself that my mom wasn’t all that wrong about Zane.