Chapter 25 The Space Between
Davina's POV
My phone buzzed and I glanced down. It was Liam, with a text that simply read, “Still here,” followed by the address of the hardware store. His way of saying he hadn’t budged and wouldn’t until he’d seen me properly.
I looked back up at Zane. “Give me ten minutes,” I said, and stepped out before he could reply.
Liam was sitting on a bench outside the hardware store, two cups from the café down the road in hand. When he spotted me, he held one out without a word, and that was exactly why I’d missed him.
I settled onto the bench beside him, wrapping my hands around the cup, even though the air was only slightly chilly. It felt good to hold something familiar.
“So,” he said, breaking the silence.
“So,” I echoed.
He shot me a sideways glance. “You’re not going to tell me what actually happened, are you?”
“I can tell you I’m safe,” I replied. “And that I’m sorry for disappearing without a word. I thought about you and those coffees you bring on slow mornings, so much in the last two weeks.”
He paused, turning his cup in his hands. “Are you actually safe? Because you can say you’re safe and mean something completely different. Even within the short time I've known you, I know that.”
I looked at him, this simple, genuine man who never made me feel like I had to shrink myself to fit around him.
“I’m actually safe,” I promised.
He nodded slowly, not entirely convinced but willing to accept it for now. “And him,” he said, tilting his head toward the shop without looking.
A laugh escaped me. “He’s complicated.”
“Complicated is one way to put it,” Liam said, taking a sip of his coffee. “You like him.”
It wasn’t a question, and I didn’t answer.
He nudged my shoulder like he always did when he wasn’t going to push. “Okay,” he said simply. “You know where to find me.”
“I know,” I replied, smiling.
I finished my coffee, stood up, and he joined me, pulling me into another hug, a shorter one this time.
“Don’t disappear again,” he murmured into my hair.
“I’ll try,” I said honestly. I couldn’t promise more than that, and he deserved the truth over empty comfort.
He let go, stepped back, shoved his hands into his pockets, and gave me one last look that spoke volumes without saying a word. Then he turned and went back inside.
I stood on the pavement for a moment, the shop behind me, the truck waiting at the end of the street, and Zane leaning against the driver’s side, arms folded, watching me with an unreadable expression.
I picked up my bag and walked toward him.
The first few minutes of the drive were completely silent.
Zane drove with both hands on the wheel, his eyes fixed on the road, and I stared out the passenger window as Silver Ridge slid past, saying nothing.
I wasn’t going to be the one to break it.
He finally did, just as we reached the edge of town, where the last buildings gave way to trees.
“Who is he?” His voice was even.
I kept my gaze on the window. “Liam. I told you his name.”
“I know his name. Who is he to you?”
I turned to look at him. His jaw was clenched tight, and his eyes were straight ahead, and there was something in his expression that he was trying hard to keep in check.
“A friend,” I said.
His hands shifted slightly on the wheel. “That hug didn’t look like a friend.”
“Well, it was.” I turned back to the window. “He works two doors down from the shop, brings me coffee on slow mornings, and checks on me. That’s all it is.”
“He’s in love with you,” Zane said.
I opened my mouth, then closed it again. The honest answer was that I wasn’t sure he was wrong, and I really didn’t want to have that conversation in a moving vehicle.
“He’s my friend,” I repeated.
Zane didn’t respond.
I watched the trees blur past. “You’re jealous,” I said.
“I’m not jealous,” he shot back immediately.
“Zane.”
“I’m not.” A pause stretched out for almost five seconds. “I just didn’t know you had someone like that here. Someone that close.”
I looked at him, taking in the slight tension around his eyes that he couldn’t hide.
“He’s not someone like that, he's just a safe friend.” I said, quieter now.
He glanced at me then, just briefly.
“And I’m not safe,” he said.
I thought about last night, his hand on the wall beside my head, and his mouth on my neck.
“No,” I said honestly. “You’re really not.”
He took that in and we drove in silence for another minute.
“He’s going to come looking for you,” Zane said. “When you don’t come back to the shop.”
“I know.”
“When he reaches out, I need to know about it.” He glanced at me again.
“Why?”
His hands tightened on the wheel just a bit. “Because Grayson is watching this town, and anyone you care about in it is going to be a weakness he hasn’t used yet.” He simply said.
The trees closed in on both sides of the road, and the compound gates appeared ahead. I sat with his words, feeling the warmth from the coffee and Liam’s shoulder and the familiar scent of my apartment slowly drain out of me.
Safe things had a very short shelf life around me lately.
“Zane,” I called.
“Yeah?”
"Thank you for doing this for me today" I said.
The gates opened in front of us, and he pulled through, parked, and cut the engine, leaving his hands on the wheel. The silence between us was completely different now.
He turned to look at me as the gate closed behind us with a heavy clang, and neither of us moved to get out of the truck.