“Ah, I see. And what is it that you do for work—Zeth, was it? That’s a really interesting name…”
In no world was this ever supposed to happen. These two men—one who raised me and took me to church every weekend, the other who recently administered some positively sinful corporal punishment to my behind—were never supposed to meet. It seems as though a black hole will form any moment and suck us all into its vortex, destroying all evidence that this meeting ever took place. Or maybe I’m just wishing that will happen.
“I’m in information security. I mostly work with computers. And yeah, I’ve had a few comments about the name. Easier if I let people call me Zee sometimes.”
“Information security?” My dad pulls his mouth down, nodding—this is how he looks when he’s surprised or impressed. “I bet that’s interesting work. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Zee.” He holds out a hand and Zeth takes it, not missing a beat.
Zee? My dad just called him Zee. I’ve only heard Michael and Lacey call him that before. This is wrong. This is oh so very wrong. And yet…my stomach clenches at the sight of Zeth shaking my dad’s hand. They seem completely at ease. I’m the one nearly snapping off parts of the table in my iron grip.
“We should really be going now, I guess. Zeth, didn’t you say we needed to be going right away? Traffic. The traffic’s gonna be horrendous.” It’s like my mouth just vomits the words out in one nervous, high-pitched word-puke onto the kitchen table. Lacey snorts, and my mom gives me her patented that-was-unbelievably-rude,-Sloane look. Raised eyebrows and everything.
“Yeah, I did say that,” Zeth says, tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans. His voice is so low, it makes the very bones inside my body hum. However, no one else seems to be affected by the rumbling tenor when he speaks. Just me…and maybe my mom. A slight red flush is staining her cheeks. Oh, god, no. Please, please, no. I’m already freaked out enough. I don’t need to be creeped out by my mother’s wandering eyes, too. “Although,” Zeth continues, utterly oblivious to the look of horror developing on my face. “Did I just hear something about a cup of tea?”
I could shoot him. Such an act of violence seems totally appropriate, and yet we find ourselves doing something entirely civilized instead. We don’t leave right away. My parents, Lacey, Zeth and I sit around the kitchen table, and my mom pours Lady Grey for us all from an actual teapot like she’s the goddamn Queen of England. Zeth Mayfair’s gigantic hands somehow manage to navigate my parent’s best wedding china without breaking a single thing or spilling a single drop. And I feel like I just dropped acid.
This…this just can’t be happening.
Things get weirder when Lacey lays her head on Zeth’s shoulder, smiling happily to herself, and my father nearly chokes on his mouthful of tea. He obviously assumed that Zee and I are together, so Lacey laying on the affection must really be throwing him for a loop. I don’t bother explaining. I’d have a hell of a job even trying; I still don’t get what’s going on with their story from Zeth’s side of things. Yeah, Lacey is his sister, but he doesn’t know that. Maybe I should ask him one of these days. Maybe I should actually swallow my pride and forget about the fact that he’ll think I’m jealous long enough to figure out what the hell the deal is with their whole living arrangement.
“So, Sloane tells me you guys have found Alexis?” My mother. My poor, poor mother. I know her; I know how her brain works. She doesn’t care what Zeth looks like—how big or tall or scary or tattooed he may be. He could be a convicted serial killer and it wouldn’t matter to her right now. All she cares about is my conniving shit of a little sister.
Zeth clears his throat, shooting me a loaded sideways glance. He’s missed the part where I fibbed through my teeth about Lexi, so he has no idea what I’ve told them. “Yeah, well. I met her. Briefly. I’m really just Sloane’s road trip partner.”
Nice. The bastard’s just too damn smooth. Shirk all knowledge of the situation with one small, very concise bending of the truth. Zeth, my road trip partner. Zeth, my constant major headache, more like.