referred
to my first meeting with Zach.
The second he touched me a
bolt of electricity shot through me.
But opening the front
door to see what I thought was Lee standing there—well, that
definitely counted as a shock, too.
If we never met, his life
wouldn’t be complete. Which one of them did that pertain to?
Lucas—that’s who. I held a key to his past that he
would never find without me. I spent twelve years of my life
with what had to be his twin brother, a brother he probably
had no idea existed. There was so much I wanted to share
with him about Lee, so much I wanted to find out about Lucas
himself. Was Lucas the boy I was destined to be with?
I loved Zach in a way I never thought was possible but
being together seemed to cause both of us so much heartache.
Our chemistry was the fuel Scarlet used to torture me. Garnet
pushed Zach down
the
stairs
to get my
attention.
Our
relationship brought out anger and jealousy in Zach which
almost got him kicked out of school. Would we both be better
off without each other?
Grrr!
Confusion
was
so,
well, confusing .
My
relationship with Lee was quiet and comfortable. The time I’d
spent with Zach was nothing but a series of highs and lows,
going
from
turbulent
to passionate and
back
again
at
whiplash speeds. If I knew for certain that my battle with the
paranormal was over, things would settle down between us
and we could be happy. But if there were any more ghosts in
my future, maybe everyone involved would be safer if we
weren’t together.
I picked up the bouquet of roses and inhaled wistfully.
At least one thing was clear—I owed Zach a huge apology. I
reached for my phone and brought him up on speed dial. As I
waited for him to pick up, I rehearsed an apology in my head.
“Hello.” Zach sounded even more depressed than he
did when he left Rosewood.
“Oh, Zach—I’m so sorry! Seeing Lucas really shook
me up and passing out sure didn’t help either! Dad and Shelly
still aren’t back yet—if you came back right now….”
“I don’t think that would be a good idea, Ruby. “I’ve
been thinking things over since I left and—”
Oh no!
What did I do?
My heart began to pound
violently. “Zach, you’re not breaking up with me are you? I
can make it up to you—I promise !”
“Slow down, Ruby. Of course I’m not breaking up with
you—I love you.
You know that. I just think that we should
slow things down a little.
Your reaction today made me see
that you still have unresolved feelings for Lee. You need to
deal with them before we go any further. I don’t want to feel
like I’m second best.”
My heartbeat slowed down a little but was far from
normal. “You’re not second best, Zach! You never have been
and you never will be!”
His voice softened and I could visualize the emotions
on his face as clearly as if he were sitting beside me. “But
that’s how I felt today.”
I felt truly terrible.
Thinking you were second best
was an awful feeling and I never meant for him to think that
was the case. “If it makes you feel any better, I love
everything—everything you tried to do for me today. More
than anything, I just wish I’d never answered that stupid
door.” I dipped my finger in the chocolate again and rolled it
around on my tongue. Chocolate always made me feel better
but today’s dilemma was
too much even
for its
creamy
richness.
“You know, I thought that, too—at first.
Then
I
realized that if you hadn’t, it just would have prolonged the
inevitable. We would have slept together and then you would
have seen Lucas
tomorrow at school and
had
the same
reaction.” Zach paused for a second. “And I would have felt
even worse than I do now.”
“I’m sorry, Zach. I never meant for any of this to
happen!”
“I know you didn’t, but it happened anyway. Now all
we can do is deal with it.”
“I know but I just feel so awful about everything!
At
least let me pay you back for all the things you bought for me
today—I