Page 27 of The Little Things
I shifted my focus back to Zach, worry prickling my skin at the way his chest was heaving like he was struggling to take in a full breath.
“Zach,” I tried again, but it was as if an empty vessel was standing in front of me. “Zach!” I gripped his arms and gave him a shake, letting out a breath of relief when he finally blinked, the focus returning back to his eyes as he looked down at me. “Are you okay? What just happened?”
“Nothing. I-I have to go,” he said, taking two steps backward, like he was preparing to take off at a dead sprint.
My chin jerked back in shock. “What?”
“I just remembered, I have somewhere I have to be. But I’ll call Lennix and have her come pick you up.”
“Wait. Zach.” That didn’t make any damn sense. I didn’t know who or what he just saw, but whatever it was had been enough to scare him in a way I’d never seen before. “Talk to me. What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry, Rae. I’ll see you back at the ranch.”
That was all he gave me before turning on the heel of his dusty boot and taking off toward the exit like the hounds of hell were nipping at his heels.
Chapter Fifteen
Rae
Asmall red two-door coupe pulled up to the curb in front of where I was sitting, surrounded by shopping bags I’d paid for on auto pilot after Zach ditched me in the middle of a grocery store I’d never been to before in a town I wasn’t familiar with. The driver side door opened and Lennix climbed from behind the wheel. “Hey. Everything okay?” she asked as she rounded the hood and met me on the sidewalk. “Zach just called and said you needed a ride, but he hung up before I could get a word out.”
I stood up and dusted the seat of my pants off, still trying to piece together what the hell had happened earlier. “I... don’t know, honestly. He insisted on driving me here when we both discovered I didn’t have a clue how to drive a standard transmission. Everything was fine, we were shopping and joking around, then it was like he just shut off.”
Lennix’s brow furrowed deeper, concern for her older brother carved into the planes of her face. “Shut off? What do you mean?”
I shook my head, not fully understanding it myself. I wasn’t sure if I should be worried about him or mad that he’d bailed. “It was the strangest thing. He was fine one moment, and the next it looked like he’d seen a ghost.”
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, biting down hard as the worry on her face grew. “But you didn’t see anything out of the ordinary? He didn’t say anything?”
“No. He just said that he suddenly remembered he had to do something, then he took off, leaving me here by myself.”
I watched as she worried her bottom lip between her teeth. I could practically see the wheels turning in her head before she seemed to shake everything off and reach down to grab some of my bags. “Let’s get this stuff back to your place before it spoils.”
The two of us loaded my groceries into her trunk then made the drive back to the ranch. This time the silence was nearly unbearable. The tension was so thick it could have been cut with a knife.
With each passing minute, the uncertainty of how I was supposed to feel swayed closer and closer toward concern as I recalled the fear etched into every line of Zach’s strong frame.
As soon as Lennix parked in front of my cabin, I said a quick thank you for the ride and grabbed all my bags from the trunk, looping the handles over my arms so I only had to make one trip. I gave her a wave over my shoulder and rushed inside, making quick work of putting everything away. I stuffed the food into the fridge and cabinets in no particular order before heading out the door once again.
As I got closer to Zach’s house, I noticed his truck parked out front. The windows were dark as I made my way up the porch stairs to the front door, but I knocked anyway, my heart racing and my throat growing tight. I needed to make sure he was all right. After a minute passed with no answer, I pressed my ear to the wood, straining to hear signs of life on the other side, but there was no noise coming from the other side.
“Zach?” I called out, anxiety gripping at my chest as I knocked again, but I still got nothing. With a sigh of defeat, I started back in the direction of my cabin, but instead of going inside, I passed right by it and headed toward the barn instead. I knew if I went home I’d just pace the floor and worry. Fortunately, Sassy had a way of leveling me out when my day wasn’t going as planned.
Her head peeked over her stall door as I entered the barn and flipped the lights on, her big black eyes landing on me like she had been anticipating my arrival.
“Hey there, pretty girl,” I said gently, rubbing a hand up her muzzle to her forehead as she snuffed around my waist, trying to get at my pockets for the peppermints I always kept on hand whenever I came to visit her. “I’m sorry. I forgot your treats today.”
She made a chuffing sound like she understood what I said and was making her displeasure known.
I smiled when she butted me with the side of her head and tugged at my hair with her lips. “You really are living up to your name today, aren’t you, sassy girl?” Another bump of her snout had me holding my hands up in surrender. “All right, fine. I give in. Let me see if I can find any peppermints around here.”
I moved through the barn toward the feed room to see if Hal had anything stashed back there. Sure enough, there was a big bag of individually wrapped peppermints sitting on a shelf along the far wall. I grabbed a handful and started back out to Sassy’s when a loud thunk from a couple stalls down drew me up short.
I moved in the direction the noise had come from, glancing over the door to Roam’s stall. “Zach?” I grabbed the latch and yanked the door open. “What the hell are you doing?” I demanded at the sight of the man sitting on the floor of his horse’s stall.
He looked up at me with a goofy grin on his face, his eyes bloodshot and bleary. “Heeeey, pretty lady.”
I moved toward him, giving Roam a pat and a gentle shove out of the way so I could get to his owner. “Why are you on the floor?”