You Always Go And Rescue Me

Ch. 5

When it was around ten in the morning I woke up to my phone going off, indicating I had a text, which of course was from Zach.

Morning love, I can’t wait to see you! Until I can though, I’m giving you something else. If you haven’t figured it out, you’re getting a delivery today! Hehe.

What the heck? A delivery? What was he possibly sending over? I jumped in the shower and by the time I was out the doorbell was ringing. My doorbell hadn’t gotten so much action until I met Zach.

When I went to open the door there was a box for me. I signed for it and went inside. When I opened it I saw there was a note.

This is my favorite hoodie, I wear it everyday. I want you to have it so that when you wear it you’ll think of me. Know I miss you and that I’m not with anyone else.

-Zach

Inside the box was a really nice devils hoodie. It was red and soft and smelled exactly like Zach. I buried my nose into it and slipped it on. It was too big but it was the most comfortable I’d ever been.

I wore it all day as I started prepping for my night with Zach. I still had to figure out what I was making him. I decided on fresh salmon with a side of veggies. I had to go run some errands to get everything I needed, straighten up my apartment and decide what I was going to wear.

The day was flying by and before I knew it, it was already five thirty. I started cooking dinner and getting dressed because I knew he would be over around seven. I was just finishing the final touches of dinner when the doorbell rang.

I ran over to open it and saw the face I’d been missing for the past couple of days.

“Hey beautiful.” He raised his head as he sniffed in the aroma of my apartment. “Wow, what smells so good?” He gave me a tight hug and pulled my body close to his. He reached to kiss me and looked into my eyes. “I missed you.”

I could feel the blood already rushing into my cheeks. I smiled as I said, “I missed you too. And what smells so good is your dinner. I made you salmon. I hope that’s okay.”

He grinned. “I don’t get very many home-cooked meals, and I love seafood. Thank you, I can’t wait to eat it!”

We walked into the kitchen as I showed him where to sit. “How was your trip?” I said as I placed his dish in front of him. “Thank you for the hoodie by the way. It was an amazing surprise.” I kissed him passionately to show my appreciation.

When we pulled apart, he laughed. “You amaze me. The trip was like most trips are. Tiring. I’m glad we won obviously, but for some reason I was itching to get home this time more than usual,” he said as he looked up at me. “I’m glad you liked it.”

“I know the feeling. I got stuck covering the Rangers.”

“Did he bother you at all?” Zach was concerned. It still amazed me how much he cared.

“No. I didn’t see him. I was running around so much that I didn’t have time to see him, and when I was done I hopped in a cab and got home and that’s usually when you would call me.”

He took a bite of his dinner. “This is fantastic! You cooked this?”

“Yeah, I did. Believe it or not I actually did find the time to learn to cook,” I said sarcastically.

“Well that’s wifey status,” he laughed and took another bite of his food. “So I told some of the guys about you.” I knew why he was telling me this. He was basically asking my permission on if that was okay with me or not.

I was surprised. “Really? What did you tell them exactly?”

“Just what happened with Sean and how perfect I think you are. They threw some insults my way, joking around, but they know I care about you.”

I didn’t know how to respond. Of course I thought it was great that he was telling his friends about me, I just didn’t know if it was such a great idea. We both had the potential to come under some scrutiny if too many people found out.

I kissed him quickly on the lips. “Well, that’s awesome, I’m flattered. Who did you tell though?”

“Trav and Jamie. We spend a lot of our time together…and I live with Travis so he finds out a lot anyway.” He paused. “Is that not okay with you?”

“No! No, it’s not that. I just don’t know if it’s the best idea for a lot of people to find out our business just yet. I don’t want either one of us to hear any crap from anyone until we…”

“Until we what?”

I was sitting in my chair at the perfectly sculpted counter I had set our dinner at. He looked at me, curiously, almost as if he knew what I was thinking.

“Well, ya know, until we find out…until we know where this is going…” I was nervous in saying that, but I didn’t know how else to word it.

He smiled quickly as he stood up. He walked the two steps over to me and straddled himself above me to bring him closer to my seated level. He put one of his hands on my waist and the other softly under my chin and tilted my head so we were looking into each other’s eyes.

“I don’t know how you feel, but I can give you my word that I don’t plan on going anywhere. I’m not seeing anyone else, I don’t want to. What I want is you.” He brought his face closer to mine and as he finished speaking he gently kissed me. “I think I’m falling in love with you, Sarah.”

I smiled up into him. “You are?” I gushed.

“Yeah, I am.”

I continued to look into his eyes, “I don’t want you to go anywhere. I don’t want to see anyone else either…Zach, I’m falling in love with you too.”

He smiled and we both reached for one another.

“I’m sorry,” I said sincerely as we pulled apart, “I just thought it was the smartest thing to do so that neither one of us was jeopardized.” I then reached up to kiss him again.

“How about this. I won’t tell anyone else yet, not until you’re ready. Meaning, when you’re confident that you won’t lose your job-because I know exactly what you’re saying-“ and he was definitely right. “and you realize I don’t care what other people say, until then I’ll keep it on the down low.”

“You’re not upset?” I looked up into his eyes.

“No. I know you worked hard to get to where you are. If you think your bosses will have a jaded opinion of you because of us, then we’ll keep it quiet for now.”

My head was spinning. “So this is for real? You and me?”

“That’s what I want.”

I slowly nodded my head. “I just hope you don’t get tired of me,” I joked.

He laughed. “That isn’t possible. I’ve never been this over my head so quick, not that that’s a bad thing, I think it’s amazing. I just hope you realize that even though I have to travel a lot doesn’t mean I’d ever hurt you. I don’t even notice other girls since we met.”

I had a feeling he was keeping something from me. Not anything bad, just that he knew something and I couldn’t quite figure out what it could possibly be.

I couldn’t do or say much more. I was speechless. My initial reaction was to wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him passionately, kiss him with all the love, happiness and emotion I could muster up from my soul. I wanted him, and I wanted him to know that I was falling for him just as hard for him as he was for me.

He looked at me intently as he said, “I just want you to know you can trust me. I’m not going to mess this up.”

He was putting his heart on the line and in that moment I knew I could trust him. I was at least willing to try. Slowly but surely he was rescuing me from my past and we were entering into an exciting future, together.