Page 65 of Miss Matched

Kennedy

Theskyisheavy, and it’s been raining all week. One of the reasons I stay in Seattle is my love of rain. The sound, the smell, the feeling. But, at the moment, it’s cooping me up and leaving me stuck in my head with thoughts I’d rather not have. Namely, thoughts of Zac—his lips heavy on my mouth, his hands tracing me as if he wanted to remember every inch. Thoughts I can’t shake no matter how many days I put between myself and those two days at his penthouse.

Rainwater bleeds down my office windowpane and skitters across the pavement while I wait for Zac’s car to pull up outside. Every passing moment is a reminder that I should have held my ground with him and not agreed to this. But when he asked me to go to his dad’s house, a hundred ways to say no crossed my mind, and instead I typed yes.

I told myself it was curiosity, a way to get to know Zac better in a setting he might be more himself, and less the billionaire CEO. I convinced myself it was part of my job to understand that side of him if I was going to find a woman who connects with him in every way.

It’s what I keep telling myself.

Zac stops at the curb, but it’s not one of his town cars that I’m used to. Instead, he’s swapped it for a beautiful Pacific blue Aston Martin, and damn if it doesn’t suit him.

He runs to meet me at the door with an umbrella and a hopeful grin.

“Well, don’t you come prepared.” I duck under the umbrella and am hit with the scent of sandalwood that makes my head swim.

“I’m always prepared when it comes to you, Cupid.” His arm cages me against him, and a familiar sense of comfort floods me.

He leaves me with the umbrella. I slip into the passenger seat, and he quickly runs around to the driver’s side door and hops in, shaking his soggy brown hair and dragging it off his forehead with the back of his hand. His skin is damp, and his thin long-sleeved shirt sticks to every perfectly carved muscle of his chest. He’s casually dressed and giving me another peek at the man behind the dollar signs he uses like a shield.

“You’re driving?” I say, surprised because he’s always being chauffeured around.

With no driver, we’re alone in the humid heat of his car. An arm’s reach away.

“The day I show up to my dad’s house with a driver shuttling me around is the day he disowns me.” Zac laughs. “He doesn’t care how much money I have if I can’t take care of myself like a grown ass man.” His voice deepens in what I imagine is an imitation of his father.

“I think I might like him.” I smile.

Zac looks over and beams at me. “I think he might like you too.”

In one swift move, he pulls from the curb, and we shoot out of the city.

By the time we escape Seattle’s limits, the rain lets up a little, and it’s a quiet drive to Monroe. We pass straight through when we get there and follow an empty road to the outskirts.

A long driveway leads up to a moderately sized house. It’s large enough for a family but lacks the grandeur I expected. Simple red bricks set it apart from the trees that surround it, and a welcome sign hangs on the bleached oak door.

“Dad?” Zac calls out, letting himself in with a key.

A cough guides us into a cozy living room. “Here.” Another cough.

Rounding the corner, I spot a man who looks like Zac, but older, draped in a recliner. He has the same strong jaw and sharp eyes, but his skin is pale with dark circles carved out under them.

“Hey, son.” He beams as Zac walks over and gives him a full-armed hug.

“Looking well.”

His dad rolls his eyes. “Well and alive are two different things, son.”

“Looking alive then,” Zac chuckles.

“Against all odds.” His dad nudges him on the arm as he spots me standing in the doorway. “And who’s this lovely lady? A beauty like that will bring an old man back from the dead, that’s for sure.”

“Kennedy,” Zac introduces me, and I step into the room, “meet my dad, Dan.” He waves a hand toward his dad.

“Ah, the matchmaker.” His dad smiles.

“Nice to meet you, Dan.” I walk over and shake his hand, giving Zac a sideways glance. “I see Zac’s mentioned our arrangement.”

“More than mentioned,” Dan says, and it gets him a glare from Zac in response. “You’re the woman who’s gonna turn my boy here into an honest man.”

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