Lib Novel Page 97
Matteo: Why does your face look like that?
Zoe: I’m trying to decide if sleeping with him while he’s dating my friend counts.
Matteo chokes on his own saliva.
Matteo: What???
Zoe: So, about those answers you wanted…
36
Matteo
“Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get–only with what you are expecting to give–which is everything.” – Katharine Hepburn
Joy and Jacob wanted to take Mellie for a sleepover, but I refused. There is no way I was spending a whole night without our little watermelon, especially while she’s wearing that shirt. So instead, Jacob offered to take over bartending and I took that offer faster than he could finish his sentence.
As much as I love my bar and love my job, tonight I wanted to be anywhere but there.
Zoe spent the walk home in silence, even when I asked if she was okay wearing those sexy-as-fuck heels, she simply nodded and kept walking, surrounded by the eerie silence of the night with only crushing waves from the ocean and the fall winds brushing against us.
Mel fell asleep on the way, so when we finally got home, I put her in her little cot in our room, kissing the top of her head and went in search of my fierce woman.
Zoe was sitting on the front porch, her feet free from those heels and tucked beneath her butt. I leaned against the pillar, watching her while a whole movie seemed to be playing out in her head.
“Talk to me or I’ll start cracking jokes,” I say, breaking the stifling silence.
“How about a joke then?”
“How did an Italian man die?”
“Um, how?”
“He pasta-way. Get it? Like pasta and way. Pastaway.”
Zoe looks at me like she is trying to decide if I am the dumb or dumber from that movie but then throws her head back, laughing. “God, Matteo, that was awful.”
“I know.” I twist my lips. “Now put me out of my misery. Or the next one is going to be about a fish.”
“I don’t know, a fish one doesn’t sound so bad.”
“Zoe!”
“I lost it, okay? I lost it tonight when I saw her touch you. I never knew I even had it in me! I saw you two together and the next thing I knew I was planning her funeral! I don’t do that, Matteo! I never have!” Zoe is whisper-yelling.
“So, what do you do?”
“Nothing. I walk away.”
“But you didn’t today.”
“No. Because you made me lose it.”
“How?” I keep probing, keep digging into her half-truths.
“I don’t know how!” Zoe throws her hands up. “You are just…you.” She waves those hands at me as if that is supposed to explain it all. “You turned my world upside down. Made me fall in love with you. I couldn’t even spend a few hours away from you, for Pete’s sake. I’m that pathetic!”
I shut her up, grabbing her and hauling her into my arms. My eyes searching hers.