by Taylor Hart
She laughed a bitter, sardonic laugh. An idea occurred to her, and she texted him. If you want to make it up to me, meet me at our spot at midnight.
Done.
She stood and stretched, wondering if he would actually go and imagining how mad he would be.
Sophia jolted up in her bed at the sound of someone banging on her door. She turned to her neon clock and noticed it was twelve forty in the morning. Butterflies in the lower pit of her gut went crazy. “Ziggy.” She breathed out unsteadily. Clearly, he had not taken it well.
More pounding. “Open up, Soph. I’m not leaving until you do.”
Throwing the sheets back, she grabbed her robe and rushed to the front of the apartment. The door was made out of steel, so it wasn’t like it wouldn’t hurt his hand to pound like that. She threw back the door and saw an unkempt Ziggy, hair tousled, green eyes furious. “What the heck, Soph?”
She flat out laughed at him. He’d gone, and she’d dissed him.
His face turned smug, and he wagged a finger at her. “I thought you might pull something like this.” He stepped into her apartment.
Sophia hadn’t invited him, so she stumbled back at his unexpected entrance. He caught her by the waist before she could fall. She let out a squeal, not knowing if she would hit the floor.
Ziggy was strong, and he didn’t right her, just pulled her closer to him. Chemistry sizzled between them. Being this close to him was a bit daunting. “You got payback. Do you feel better?” He cocked an eyebrow, then looked at her lips.
Erratic, out-of-control energy surged through her. “Don’t kiss me.”
A smile flashed across his face. “Why?”
Her mouth went dry. She didn’t have a good reason, especially not when she realized all she wanted to do was put her lips against his. The smell of cinnamon and leather and everything Ziggy distracted her.
He searched her eyes. “Why didn’t you come tonight?” He asked it with a fair amount of breathiness, and it sounded seductive.
“I thought you should see how it feels to be treated like trash.”
He let out a breath and a manic laugh. “I told you—the recruiter called, and I totally spaced it.”
Taking a step back, she shook her head to clear it. “You think that makes it okay, Zig?” She put up four fingers. “It had been four years since we’d seen each other. I was back from NYU for a couple of months, and you had just come back from Miami.”
“I know.” He narrowed his eyes. “I missed you every. Single. Day.”
All of the old anger and confusion surfaced, and she threw up her hands. “I can’t do this. We need to focus on Ty, so let’s forget the past.”
He didn’t move, and the moonlight hit his face in all the right ways, making his jaw even more firm, like a warrior’s. He stepped toward her and put his hand on her cheek, staring into her eyes. “I don’t think I can forget the past, Soph, because it’s all right now, right here. Do you feel it?” His breath was on her face.
She shivered and almost leaned in. Almost touched her lips to his.
“Do you remember our weddings, Soph?”
Caught off guard, she thought of all the times she’d made him marry her in her barn. She stepped back, putting her hand to her mouth. “Quit talking about those.”
He grinned. “Do you remember how many times I’d get in trouble for taking that ring you liked out of my mom’s jewelry box?”
Of course she did. “The butterfly ring,” she whispered.
“Yeah.” He scoffed. “Funny thing, Mom gave it to me the other day. She told me I should have it.”
Her heart raced. “Huh.”
He sighed. “Come with us, Soph. Come with me and Ty and make Brady history.” A huge grin lit up his face. “The No Regrets Tour.”
It was almost funny that he was using history as a reason to go with him. She smiled back at him. “I’ve seen Ty’s Instagram posts. I won’t lie. It’s catchy.”
His gaze intensified, and he gently pressed his lips to hers. Fire exploded through her. She pushed uncertainly against his chest, but he didn’t release her.
She gave in to it, unable to believe she was kissing Ziggy again. At one point in her life, all she’d seen was a future of kissing him forever. Their parents had constantly been on them about it: no kissing at school. The thought made her grin. She reached her hands around his neck and pulled him closer.
Clearly, a little encouragement was all it took, because then he was crushing her against him. She could feel the strength of his chest, his shoulders. His hand was in her hair. He pulled back and started kissing down her jawline. “I’ve missed you.”
“No!” As if a switch flipped, she realized what she was doing. Maybe it had been the heat of the moment or the muscle memory, but she pushed him back. “Dang it, Zig!” She turned away, her heart once again on hyper speed. She sucked in a breath and tried to get a hold of herself.
“Soph. Can’t you see it’s never been over with us?”
“Stop!” She couldn’t handle getting into ten years’ worth of crap. She couldn’t. “Or I can’t go.”
He looked like she’d slapped him. “Fine.” His shoulders jerked in a shrug. “We won’t talk about it, because I need you on this trip.”
“No.” She wandered to the large window and stared out, trying to push away thoughts of that kiss. “You know that I would have been engaged four days ago if Marshall would have asked me. Do you get that?”
Ziggy moved closer but didn’t touch her. “I know.”
She turned to face him, catching his eyes. It felt like she was eighteen again. Confused, she took a step away from him. “I’m going on the tour.”
“You are?”
She shot him a warning look. “Not for you. It has nothing to do with you.”
He shrugged. “Fine.”
“There is one condition.” She lifted her hand between them.
He crossed his arms, looking cocky. “What is that?”
“We don’t talk about us. The past. The kiss we just had.” Her mind raced, and she shook her head, trying to clear it. “We focus on Ty.”
“Done,” he said easily.
The electricity between them crackled, undeniable. Determination pulsed through her. “I mean it. Don’t freaking kiss me!”
Letting out a light laugh, he put his hands up. “Fine. You don’t kiss me either!” He pulled open the door and grinned broadly, the kind of grin he’d always worn when he’d won a card game. “See you tomorrow morning at Mom’s place. We leave at nine.” He rushed out the door and yanked it closed behind him.
Crazy feelings pounded through her. “I hate you, Ziggy Brady!”
She thought she could hear the faint sound of laughing down the hall.
Chapter 9
Ziggy waited in the driver’s side of the RV that Ty had rented. The first leg of the journey would take them from Denver to Jackson, going through Rawlins, Wyoming. Ziggy grunted, trying not to think about how he would be spending the next week in close quarters with Soph. Sure, Ty and Paul would be there too, but he already knew it’d be hard to be so close to her. She wasn’t even here yet, and his pulse was elevated. He thought of that kiss in her apartment and all the mixed feelings he’d had since he’d danced with her at the Masquerade Ball.
Soph drove up the driveway, and Ty and his mother and Paul came out of the house. Ziggy clambered out of the RV, nearly tripping over his own feet in his haste to meet up with her.
Ty and his mother embraced her happily, and Ty prattled on and on about the trip. He turned to Paul. “Why don’t you start recording now so you get the whole No Regrets Tour?” He said the last words with pizzazz, and he and his mother and Soph all laughed.
Paul nodded. “Perfect. Come over here, and you can give an opening speech.”
Ty and Paul moved to the side.
Soph pulled her sunglasses off and gave Ziggy a tentative smile. “Ready?”
He gave her a chin up. “Born ready.”
“I got this,” he said, reassuring his mom.
“Hold up, let’s get a shot of this.” Ty grabbed Ziggy and put him right next to Soph. Then he grabbed Ziggy’s arm and put it around Soph’s shoulder. He slipped next to his mother and grinned. “Smile! No regrets, people!”
“Say cheese!” Paul called out, taking a couple of pictures. He put his hand up. “Now, I’m filming.”
Ty motioned between Ziggy and Soph. “These two were sweet on each other my whole life. I was just the little brother, but secretly, I always had a thing for Soph.”
Ziggy could swear Ty’s face had gone red, which surprised Ziggy. He knew Ty had joked about liking her, but something felt off.
“Ty,” his mother said.
Ty laughed and caught Ziggy’s eye. “Unfortunately, Soph only wanted one Brady brother, and that was Ziggy.” He winked at Ziggy. “I think they’ll get back together.”
Soph sucked in a breath.
The moment felt awkward to Ziggy, but Ty only repeated his “no regrets” sentiments, and Ziggy tried not to look annoyed and ticked off already.
Ty pushed his mom toward Paul. “Why don’t you get an interview with her? I think fans will eat that up.”
“Good idea,” Paul agreed.
Ziggy didn’t like the feeling that this was all a promotion. It had gotten way too personal, but he didn’t know what to say. He put his arm around Ty and moved him away from Paul and his mom.
Soph gathered up her luggage and started putting it into the RV.
“What are you doing, Ty?” Ziggy whispered into his ear.
“What?” Ty asked, as if the whole uncomfortable moment made perfect sense.
“Why are you trying to make me and Soph a thing?”
“Because you’ve always been a thing?” Ty looked down, and he seemed to droop. Shaking his head, he said, “Never mind.” He straightened up and smiled. The performer was back. “Paul, let’s have you do a walkthrough of the RV before we go in. I’ll show it off.”
Ziggy stared at him. Ty was acting weird, and Ziggy didn’t like his history with Sophia being on display like that.
After a couple of moments, they all said goodbye to Ziggy’s mom and were off. They settled into the RV with Ziggy driving and Ty sitting next to him, yelling back to Soph different questions and texting something on his phone.
“Oh my gosh, you should see the comments Ocean is making about how you shouldn’t be called Aquaman. He says he should be called Aquaman.” Ty laughed harder. “He actually just posted himself with a long blond wig that looks just like your hair. Ha!”
Ziggy didn’t want to be a killjoy for Ty, so he let go of the whole weird thing that he’d just done to him and Sophia. He grunted. “That’s funny.” His mind whirled with crazy thoughts. Maybe it wasn’t weird. He had told Ty about the kiss, and Ty knew about his feelings for her. Still, Ziggy didn’t like how Ty was acting like this was all just fun and games. Like he wasn’t dying. He sighed, telling himself to chill out.
It wasn’t long before Ty excused himself. “I’m going to go nail some more stuff down with Soph, if that’s okay with you.”
Ziggy nodded, trying to focus on the purpose of this trip and not be annoyed with Ty. “Yep.”
Ziggy drove through Denver, cursing the Denver traffic, which actually wasn’t too bad. They headed through Fort Collins toward Rawlins, Wyoming. When they got to Laramie, Ziggy stopped to check the RV. He’d watched a couple of YouTube videos about everything that it would take to run the RV because he wasn’t going to put that responsibility on Ty, but they’d all agreed they wouldn’t use the bathroom. The RV would just be for fun. They didn’t want to deal with that aspect of it.
After doing a quick inspection of the rig, Ziggy headed into the little gas station. When he came back, Ty was already in the front seat, and Soph sat in the passenger’s side.
Ty leaned out the window. “You good if I drive for a bit?”
“Go for it.” Ziggy climbed into the back, noting that though the nineteen-seventies retro-style RV was in good shape, it had a musty smell.
Paul was sitting in the little passageway connecting the back to the front, the camera going back and forth between Soph and Ty. After a few minutes, he turned and focused on Ziggy. “Let’s talk about your memories of Ty.”
Ziggy took advantage of not being in the front and lay back on the couch. “Let’s not do that.”
Paul laughed, and Ziggy knew he was definitely going to be dodging this guy for the rest of the trip. He didn’t care just then, though. He closed his eyes, put his hat over his eyes, and let himself doze. He heard the faint sound of Soph laughing and wondered what Ty had said that got her to laugh like that.
When he woke, he was surprised they were already at a sign that said “Old Rawlins, Wyoming Prison.” Underneath that were the words “Just Like Alcatraz.”
“Wake up, bro! It’s time to get the full magic of the place where Sloane Kent and his wife fell in love.” Ty scoffed. “Sloane tells a story about this place and how there was the first female prisoner in Wyoming. She was in here for poisoning her husband with an arsenic-laced pie. Creepy, right?”
Ziggy got out, and Soph smiled at him. Then she gestured to Ty, who was already up ahead with Paul, telling him what shots he wanted and how to post them. “He’s like a kid in a candy shop,” Soph said.
Ziggy breathed deeply, satisfied. “Yeah, he is really into this.”
“Ty has some great ideas. I think this is going to be huge for raising ALS awareness. I reached out to an organization that does a bunch of fundraisers for ALS, and they agreed to cross-promote, so we should get a ton of exposure.”
“Nice,” Ziggy said. They walked toward the little storefront that was the entrance to the old prison tour.
She grinned. “We’re also invited to Sloane’s house tomorrow night. Cameron Cruz will be there with his wife, and we’ll talk about the river rafting.”
“You’re good at coordinating all of this.”
She looked semi-offended. “It’s my job, right? I mean, that’s why I’m here.”
“Right. Looks like you got everything handled, Soph.”
They got to the little shop doors, and he reached out to get the door for her. He hesitated, remembering what had been on his mind since the kiss the other night.
Expectantly, she looked at his hand on the door. “Are you going in?”
All the old feelings about her wouldn’t leave him alone. “What made you laugh earlier?”
She frowned. “What?”
“When you were talking to Ty in the front?” He felt stupid for asking, but he couldn’t stop thinking about her, about them. How it had been all those years ago
“Zig?” Soph laughed in confusion. “What are you doing? We need to get in there.”
He didn’t pull the door open, and his heart pounded in his chest. “Just …”
“What?”
Ziggy tugged his hand back from the door. “I just have one question I don’t think you’ve ever really given me a good answer about.”
“Okay.”
“Do you want to know the real reason I didn’t show up at our spot that summer?”
Her brow furrowed. “What?”
He took care to tamp down on his anger as the memory resurfaced. “I didn’t show up because I was still mad at you, okay? For graduation night.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Why did you kiss Travis Miller at the bonfire on the night of graduation?”
“Oh my gosh, you’re really asking that?”
He rushed on. “I know we’d been arguing about me staying at a close college or going to Miami, but why did you make out with Travis Miller like that? It felt like you were shoving it in my face or something.”
H
er expression hardened, and she let out a puff of air and threw up her hands. “You think I was shoving something in your face the night of graduation?”
Dumbstruck by the way she was acting, he nodded. “You show up with Travis and make out with him right in front of me. Do you know that’s the whole reason I left the next day? Do you know that I only went to Miami because I wanted to get away from you and your cheating face?”
Wild anger lit up her face. “Me! You were getting away from my cheating face?”
“Yeah. And why do you keep repeating my questions back to me? It’s super annoying.”
She shoved him hard in the chest. “Annoying! Annoying! Why aren’t we talking about that annoying breakup letter you taped to my door? Why?” she said loudly, shoving him again.
“What are you talking about?” Ziggy stared at her, baffled. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Paul coming out of a side door, holding up his camera. Ty stood next to him.
Her lips pinched into an incredulous line. “The breakup letter you taped to my door the day of graduation. I found it as soon as I came back with my mom and dad.” She cursed, and her eyes misted with tears. “Do you know how devastated I was?”
“Soph, honest to God, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She blinked in confusion. “What do you mean? You broke up with me in that letter, and I quote: ‘We’re getting too serious, and I don’t know what team I’ll go to. We should cool it off.’”
Ziggy’s brain scrambled to put this together. “I never wrote you a letter.”
Chapter 10
Sophia stared into Ziggy’s face, confused at the bewilderment in his eyes. “What?” She let out a puff of air, feeling like she’d been sucker punched.
His nostrils flared, making him look like a bull that was about to ram someone really hard. “I never wrote you a letter and taped it to your door.”
“I wrote it,” Ty said, moving closer to them.
Paul was still at his side, recording the whole thing.
“What?” Ziggy growled, turning to face him.
Sophia could barely breathe.