Chapter 8

Rainey

You deserveto know what it's like to be someone's everything.

That line, said in Zeke's deep grumble of a voice, lived rent-free in my brain, repeating over and over. Surely it was mocking me. I was the last person who deserved what he offered so freely.

I felt like my head was stuck in a frozen cloud hovering somewhere above my body. My limbs were moving like a normal person, but my brain wasn't computing anything that had happened since I pulled up to the courthouse and Danny was nowhere to be found. Thankfully, Zeke seemed fully operational, taking charge of the situation and tugging me along with him.

A deranged giggle escaped my mouth when we pulled up to the trailer Danny and I had been renting. Zeke looked over from the driver's side of his truck.

"You okay?"

He'd asked me that already. Twice. I couldn't blame him though. Our normal roles had been reversed. I'd gone quiet on the ride over here and he kept up the one-sided conversation with inane facts about the town of Blueball. Usually I was the one with crazy schemes and hijinks that got me in trouble, along with a motormouth that hated a beat of silence. Today, Zeke had jumped into the fray like he might have learned a trick or two from watching me back in high school. The switcheroo in personalities was mind bending.

I shook my head and studied him, all handsome and calm behind the wheel. "You just fucking married me."

He shot me a lopsided grin and held up his left hand, showing off his wedding ring. "Yep. Sure did. Now let's get your stuff and move you over to my place."

My brows furrowed. "Wait, what? Why?"

His eyebrows matched mine. "We're married. You can't live by yourself in a trailer. That might be suspicious."

That made a lot of sense. I just hadn't thought this through yet. My brain was still stuck on the plan I'd had with Danny, which was now in shambles. We'd planned to stay in the trailer for a week, make sure I got my money, and then we'd head out on our next adventure. I'd promised him a roof over his head for the next five years in exchange for marrying me. We'd already lived together for two and I had zero plans of actually settling down with a whirlwind romance, so I couldn't see the harm in helping a friend out.

"Yeah, okay," I muttered, climbing out of the truck before Zeke could come around and help me down. He followed behind as I climbed the two steps into the trailer. The place felt even smaller with his shoulders filling the doorway and blocking the sun.

My head was on a swivel and I was shocked to see that all of Danny's things were gone. On the counter, right by the sink that still held my dirty plate of toast that I'd eaten early this morning to calm my stomach was a note in his barely legible handwriting.

Sorry.

Zeke muttered an expletive under his breath. I blinked, feeling ashamed that Zeke saw the note. What kind of loser of a woman has a fiancé that will take a bribe and ditch her the morning of their wedding? The answer was clear and instant: the kind that doesn't deserve to be someone's everything.

"I'll grab my things," I said quickly, moving into the back of the trailer just to get away from Zeke for a moment. I needed to breathe and think through everything without being in his airspace. Zeke made me want to lean on him like a damsel in distress and let him take care of everything. If the entirety of my life had taught me anything, relying on other people was a surefire way to lose everything that mattered. The only person I could rely on was me.

It didn't take me long to throw my clothes and toiletries into a suitcase. The rest of my things that had been in the back of Danny's SUV were stacked on top of the kitchenette table. At least Danny had the decency to leave my things before he ditched me. When I came out of the bedroom, Zeke had already moved all of my things to the back of his truck.

"Ready, wife?" He had to duck to fit in the trailer, but he was smiling like this trailer, this day, this wife of his, wasn't the most inconvenient thing that had happened to him. He took two steps to reach me and pulled the suitcase from my hands. With his other hand on my back, he urged me toward the door. "How do you feel about dogs?"

"Huh?" Again. Brain not working. Conversation skills were gone.

"I have the goodest good girl at home. She's going to lick you 'til you push her off of you." Zeke threw my suitcase in the back of the truck while I tried not to shiver at him talking about a good girl and licking me. Don't even get me started on his calling me "wife."

Perhaps my body somehow got some wires crossed and thought this marriage was real. I'd be smart to remember that it wasn't. Zeke opened my door and stepped back so I could climb in. Even that little gesture made my stomach swoop around like a schoolgirl with her first crush. Danny had never held a door for me. I definitely didn't need him to, so why did Zeke doing it make my heart thump?

The drive over to Zeke's house was marginally better. I managed to string together answers that were more than a single word. The neighborhoods had changed, obviously, since I'd lived in Blueball, so most of our conversation was about that. He made a left onto a long gravel driveway that led to a white shiplap house with shutters framing the windows. The wraparound porch was the stuff of architectural dreams. I couldn't help comparing it to the tiny one-bedroom apartment I'd shared with Danny.

"Welcome home," Zeke said, sliding out of the truck and coming around to help me out while I gaped at his property.

"This is yours?" I glanced around at the land surrounding the place. I had zero frame of reference for measuring land, but it looked like he had at least an acre to go with the house.

"Sure is. Built the house myself. With the help of some friends for some parts, but it was mostly me." Zeke hauled my suitcase out of the back of the truck and then his hand was on my back, ushering me up the five stairs to his porch. I felt like he'd been doing that all day, just pushing me around to where I needed to be. It should have annoyed me. I certainly wouldn't have let Danny, or any other man for that matter, push me around, but with Zeke, it felt less like telling me what to do and more like taking care of me when I was unable to do it myself.

Zeke opened the front door—a gorgeous light wood double door—and a reddish-blonde mass of fur bounded out. She skidded to a stop and sat on her haunches, tail sweeping the entire front porch while she whined from the back of her throat.

My face split into a smile, and when I let her sniff my hand and she licked it immediately, I buried my face in her neck and gave her a hug. To my surprise, she lifted up her front paws and laid them on my shoulders as if she understood the need for a hug.

"Oh, aren't you a sweetheart?" I murmured, scratching her back and behind her ears.

Zeke's chuckle broke us apart. "Told you Daisy would like you instantly."

I kept petting her, even as I stood back up. "Thankfully I'm only allergic to cats. Dogs are way better anyway."

Zeke shrugged and whistled for Daisy to go back inside. "I think so, but that's only because cats don't generally take to a leash and go on runs with humans."

So that was how he stayed in such phenomenal shape. I followed Daisy, stepping inside Zeke's house and immediately coming to a stop. The place was gorgeous. Warm tones, lived-in areas, and just enough light coming in through the tall windows to make you feel like nature surrounded you. Zeke stepped around me and wheeled my suitcase through the living room and into a hallway. I hustled to keep up, thinking he'd show me to my room and I could get changed. Instead, he wheeled my suitcase right into a large bedroom that had a rumpled bed. The covers had been tossed over the bed, but not tucked nicely. Basically, the bare minimum needed to say you'd made your bed. Pretty much what I'd done every day I'd lived with Grandma Gertie.

"I made some room in the top drawers over there and the closet is only half full anyway, so make yourself at home," Zeke said, letting go of my suitcase and taking off his suit jacket. Daisy ran over to a doggie bed by the window and curled up, though her eyes tracked my every move.

Alarm bells rang out over my sudden awkwardness. "Oh, I can't possibly take your room." I would only be here a few days anyway. No need to kick the guy out of his own bedroom.

He was already shaking his head. "I only have the one bed and you're not sleeping on the fuckin' couch. I'll sleep out there if you want."

Dumbfounded, I looked back down the hallway to the living room. The couch wasn't more than an oversized love seat. "You won't fit on the couch."

Zeke shrugged and began to unbutton his dress shirt, a line of tan skin being revealed with each button. My gaze followed the movement until I realized I was ogling my best friend. "It's fine. I can sleep anywhere. Floor will work."

I shook my head. Zeke had been so kind. Well, other than scaring off my fiancé. But he'd given me a diamond ring, saved me from losing my inheritance, and now was giving me a place to stay for a few days. Surely I could compromise a bit.

"It's okay. We can share a bed." I laughed, but it felt strained, even to my own ears. "Not like we haven't done it before."

There'd been plenty of nights in high school when he'd snuck into my room and spent the night when I asked him to. Nothing had ever happened, of course, though if Grandma ever found out, she would have grounded me.

Zeke pulled his shirt off and tossed it on the bed. My eyes had no choice but to drop down his body and take in the chest and abs and arms and shoulders that had most definitely not looked like that when we were eighteen. I'd already seen him shirtless just yesterday, but the change was still startling. Holy cow, Zeke had grown into the kind of man you saw on the movie theater screen. I swallowed hard.

"Uh, yeah, okay. I'm just going to go change." And like a total coward, I grabbed my suitcase and hightailed it to the first door I saw. Sadly, it was the closet, not the bathroom, but I went inside anyway, slamming the door shut behind me just to get away from the half-naked sight of Zeke. The door closing put me in total darkness however, and I had to fumble around until I found the light switch.

I opened my mouth and screamed silently into the closet. The secret outburst helped ebb the nerves that were frayed from today's events. I was so embarrassed, I wanted to find a shovel and dig my way out of this town, never to be seen again. Why was I awkward like this? It was just Zeke out there. My old best friend. No need to drool all over him.

It was the lack of sex. That had to be it. Danny didn't have a strong sex drive. Hell, we hadn't even slept together. He claimed we were waiting to be married, but I think he just wasn't much interested, which was fine by me. I wasn't much interested either, but that meant it had been years since I'd had sex. That was it. I was just sex deprived. That's why even my best friend looked like a tasty snack. Surely I could hold my shit together for a few more days. Then I'd leave Blueball and find my own life. And a boyfriend with an actual sex drive. Or a really nice vibrator.

"I'm going to make us a late lunch. Meet me in the kitchen when you're done?" Zeke called from the bedroom.

I stood up straight and smoothed my hair over my shoulder. "Sure!" I called back, voice wobbling.

"Fucking pull it together, Shaw," I told myself under by breath before opening my suitcase and changing into my oldest sweatpants and the baggiest T-shirt I owned. I absolutely would not think about how his closet smelled like him: generic soap and a faint whiff of cologne. Leaving my stuff in a neat pile in his closet, I meandered out to the kitchen where Daisy skid across the tile floor to get to me.

Zeke was in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, his feet bare. "There's a container of treats over there if you'd like to give her one." He pointed his knife to the opposite side of the kitchen. I got one out and had her sit, then gave it to her. I could have sworn Daisy smiled at me before she bent her head to crunch on the treat.

"So, you have a dog and a house. What else is there to know about grown-up Zeke Burns?" I asked, leaning back against the countertop and trying to ignore how good he looked even in casual clothing.

"What do you want to know?"

Everything. "Well, for starters, what do you do for a living?"

"I'm a contractor. I mostly work on people's homes in Blueball and surrounding area, everything from small jobs to building a custom house." He spun around with a stacked sandwich on a plate. "You still hate mustard?"

I took the plate, touched he remembered my aversion to the yellow goop. "Thanks. I do. Evil stuff."

Zeke picked up his own plate and waved at me. "Let's eat out on the porch."

We sat on the white wood furniture out front, the chairs rocking back and forth as we ate. His neighbors were fairly far away, most of the lots in this area looking like estates with plenty of land in between. The sandwich was the best thing I'd eaten in weeks and the conversation flowed easily. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. I could use the next few days to catch up with Zeke and patch up our friendship, and then I'd be gone before I lusted after him so much it made things awkward.

Over an hour had passed before the first lull in conversation. Zeke looked at me and pressed his lips together.

"What?"

He ran his teeth over his lip and the gesture brought back a flood of memories. He'd done that before every big test. Or when he had to be social and he didn't want to. Zeke was nervous.

"So, when's our expiration date, wife?"