Tempting Isabel (Paradise South #1) (34 page)

CHAPTER 52

Z
ack woke to
the news that he was being released. He asked for Isabel, unsure of what exactly had happened the day or so before, but the new nurse didn’t know anything about, well, anything.

“Please, have my mother come in.”

Minutes later, Elaine entered, dark circles under her eyes, but a wide smile on her aged face. Before he could ask her anything, Dr. Acharya came in and immediately set to examining Zack.

The man took a closer look at how his head gash was healing. The doctor smiled and nodded, then bobbled his head. “Looks good. Phenomenal.” The doctor moved to grab his chart. “So, you’re leaving us today, but you need to take it really slow the next few weeks, very important. And I’ll see you back here for a follow up, which means of course, so sorry to say”—he winked—“you’re stuck here in paradise until then.”

Zack smiled. He hadn’t intended on leaving paradise,
near-fatal
accident or not.

“Oh, yes…I almost forgot,” the doctor went on, “The paramedics found this at the crash site about twenty feet from the vehicle, like it was ejected to safety…anyway, the nurses charged it up for you.” The man smiled and handed him a device.

It was Zack’s cellphone. He held it in his grasp with great care, as if it was his own pumping heart. He didn’t even hear the doctor’s next comment.

“Zack?” His mother interrupted his mental wanderings.

“Yeah, sorry.” He looked up from the phone.

“Zack, you just remember how lucky you were, and don’t take it for granted!” the doctor said.

He knew the man’s mini lecture was well meaning, and Zack smiled in appreciation. He
was
lucky, the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet. And he needed to talk to Isabel, to tell her that he understood now, that he accepted all of it, all of her! And that they were meant to be together, more than he’d ever realized. He came back from the brink for her and now needed to start his life with her.

“Yes doctor. Thank you for everything.”

The doctor shook Zack’s hand, then his mother’s and left the room.

Finally.
“What happened to Isabel, Ma?” he asked, looking down again at his hand clutching the phone.

“I didn’t even see her leave, sweetheart. I don’t know. I’m sorry. Let’s just get you to the hotel and go from there, dear. I’m sure there is an explanation.”

Yeah, there was. And he’d have to prove her explanation wrong. He’d have to show Isabel that he was the cure to her curse, and she was the missing piece to his heart.

*

“I’ll go and sign the release papers, dear, and will be right back.”

He nodded to her, then refocused his attention on the phone in his hand.

He inhaled, pain taking firm hold of his middle, then he eased out a long breath. He powered the device on. The screen lit up.
Unbelievable!
He couldn’t believe the damn thing still worked.

The display now illuminated, a frozen screen of text messages stared up at Zack.

All from Isabel.

Wednesday, June 4th, 4:23 PM—the exact time he woke from his coma:
Zack, where are
you?

And scrolling up from there, one from Sunday, June 1, 7:31 AM—the time of his accident:
Zack. I can’t fight it anymore…I want you, I want us. I guess we’ll just fight fate
together.

His heart was flooded. Hot, pounding, and alive.

*

He dialed her number from his phone four times. No answer.

And he kept dialing as he was wheeled out of the unit and out into the bright Puerto Vallarta sunshine.

A limo was there to take him back to the hotel.

Antonio came around the vehicle. The man gave Zack a firm handshake. “So glad you’re okay, man. Anything at all I can do, bro, you just say the word.”

Zack nodded in thanks, looking up at Isabel’s brother with hope. “I appreciate it. Really do, man. And…I actually could use your help with something.”

“Anything, bro. Anything.”

CHAPTER 53

S
he put down
the wedding professionals magazine—yes she was now an officially confessed masochist—and hunted for her robe.

On the third buzz of the doorbell she gave up her search and threw on some stretch pants and a comfy tee instead. The bell rang a fifth time.

“I’m coming, one second!”

She looked through her front door window, and a small flat digital screen had taken up her entire field of vision. Skewed by the bevels and colors of the stained glass, she could just make out what it was.

A smartphone with text bubbles.

“Isabel, I know from your texts what your decision about us is…or was! Please, let me in. The accident wasn’t a bad omen…it was just the opposite. Please just let me in.”

In an instant, her back was flat against the door, her breath quickened with indecision. She could get over him with time––if she just
did not
open the door.

But Lucinda’s words rang in her head, about how few people find their one true love. Let alone, for her, a second love!

Then she recalled other words, words of warning from her scared shitless mind…
Isabel, you can’t have love, period! Not Zack, not
anyone
!

“Please, Isabel. We love each other, and I understand now! I get it, the curse…my luck…it’s…written, the universe’s plan! We’re supposed to be, Isabel!”

Damn it! Maybe she was meant to say goodbye the hard way. Fate had teased her to believe it had been with Zack drifting to sleep as she uttered the torturous words. But she guessed she was wrong. It seemed
pure agony
would be the way.

And opening the door wouldn’t mean she’d change her mind.

Or would it?

“No. Zack, I can’t open the door. You can talk to me from outside.” She spoke with sudden courage––or cowardice, depending on her
ever-conflicted
perspective.

“I understand you’re scared. So am I, but isn’t that life? We can do this…
thing
together, Isabel. I never feel as alive as I do when I’m with you! Do you understand that?”

Yes, she
so
did. But it didn’t matter.

And she just couldn’t handle a
long-drawn
-out thing here.

But maybe if she gave him a little token, some lingering words through the door, then he would go. Yes, let him take her sentiments with him at the very least. “Zack, I can’t deny…that I love you. So much, it burns. And I know you love me, but sometimes love just isn’t enough. The accident was the final warning. I love you too much to be with you, Zachary James. It’s all too much!”

“You’re scared to lose me, but here you are, pushing me away?”

“Pushing you away alive and breathing!”

“Look!” Zack held up a photo to the window now. It was too morphed to see the detail, but Isabel could make out a flattened car with the roof peeled back like a sardine can. “The doctor said I should be dead and unrecognizable. But here I am, walking, talking. And I would have been crushed if I hadn’t been leaning over to get my phone from the floor to see
your
text! Isn’t that a sign? Or the sign that my phone survived for me to know your answer, sent a millisecond before the wreck?”

“None of that matters. The accident was because of me in the first place!” Her hands raking through her hair in frustration.

“I can’t do this through a door!” And he vanished.

*

Isabel slid down the door, balled up in a daze, staring out at the bay through the back slider. Was he gone? Was that finally it?

She covered her face to block out the sun and to be ready for a downpour of tears, but it didn’t come. The numbness washed over her that quickly.

Crash!

A large rock shattered the slider, large glass shards flew across the floor.

Isabel scrambled to her feet, her pulse ricocheting through her body.

“There you are,” he said while clutching his sides, the motion used to break the glass must’ve been excruciating, especially after––
Jesus!––
having to scale her security fence! God, what the hell was he thinking?
And for Christ’s sake, broken glass?
Again?

CHAPTER 54

“
Ay Dios Mio!
Zack—shattered glass! This is so, so bad!” Enraged, she grabbed shoes and then a broom from a closet around a corner, all the while mumbling just loud enough for Zack to hear. “Can there be any more signs to make my damn point?”

“It’s okay, Isabel. I’ll pay for it, I have a guy, and…give me that broom!” he said crunching right through the glass to get to her. But the wall she put up with her palms, her glare, her steps backing away from him like he meant her harm, it all made him halt in his tracks right there in the middle of the
glass-strewn
floor.
Crunching glass
, just like the first time they’d met. Only, she had laughed then, while now she just looked terrified.

“No, Zack, it’s not okay at—” But she cut herself off, her eyes suddenly pinned on a fluttering monarch coming in through the glassless doorway. She stood there, jaw hanging, clutching the broom handle as if she needed it for balance.

Isabel’s eyes still following the erratic movement of the butterfly, completely captivated, he took a step toward her and took the broom, giving her his arm instead, despite the pain shooting through his torso. He moved her slowly with him a few steps so he could lean against the kitchen island, and then he spoke, despite her lack of attention, his tone purposely quiet as not to startle her. “I needed to talk to you face to face, Isabel. I’ll leave, but first I need to get these last words out.” He lifted his arm despite the agony, and turned her face toward his with his finger. “A comedy of errors,” he whispered.

“Excuse me?” Isabel said, finally focusing on him.

“A comedy of errors,” he repeated.

She inhaled through flaring nostrils, agitation radiating from her.

“Look, I woke up from the coma, and I saw things more clearly than I ever had before. I can’t wrap my brain around the rules of your curse, Isabel, but I believe you…and I know now that I am a lucky son of a bitch, always have been. And the luckiest thing to ever happen to me is you, Isabel!” He took a step closer to her, but she took a long step back. He processed her less than subtle message and moved a meter away from her, setting the broom against the wall by the open doorway.

Fine.
Some space. But she would hear him. “From our first time together, before all of this chaos, I felt…whole with you. I felt like I was home. I have never felt so alive. I’m just, well, a better man with you, Isabel. Before you, my life was filled with ease and luxury, but I was an empty shell. Now, being near you, being in love with you, I have challenges to overcome, obstacles to hurdle, but that is what I want! With you! I want to live for the moment, and I want each of my moments to be shared with you, Isabel Ruiz.”

“Feelings are just…feelings, Zack. Emotions are temporary, fleeting.”

“Life is fleeting!” he yelled. Then sighed. “You love me, Isabel. And you naturally want to protect me
and
want me to be happy. As I do for you. But if only one of the two were possible, which would you want more for me, safety or happiness? Which one?” He looked her square in the face. “The ecstatically happy Zack who risks dying sooner than later, or the tortured and desolate Zack, a goddamn zombie for all eternity?”

She glared at him. “Which one? Come on, this is stupid.”

“Stupid or not, Isabel, would you be alright if I was miserable and lifeless?”

“Like I’ve been miserable for all these years! No, of course not, Zack!”

“Well, without you, angel, that’s what I’d be. And above all else, I want
your
happiness. And whatever your answer is, as long as it makes you happy, that is what I’ll do. I will go or I will stay, but I believe in the pit of my soul the car wreck proves that I don’t need your protection, but what I do need is your love, Isabel. You, your heart. Now and always.”

She shook her head, obviously unsure of what to do, but his logic seemed to be making an impact. She looked at him with narrowed eyes, but then got distracted by the butterfly again, which was finally making its exit out the back door.

She flicked her focus back to Zack then shifted toward the ceiling, toward the sky. “What the fuck do you want me to do here?” she yelled. “Because I sure as hell don’t know! Tell me, for God’s sake, what am I supposed do! What the hell do you want from me?” And with that, she dissolved to the floor, disregarding the remnant glass splinters, crying from the depths of her being.

Despite his pain, he knelt down slowly, not wanting to crowd her, but needing to comfort her somehow and protect her from the scattered glass debris.

“Marry me. That is what I want you to do. I want you to marry me, Isabel Ruiz. Fuck fate, just be my wife. Marry me, angel.”

Wincing, he pulled out from his jeans pocket a diamond ring. He got down next to her, pulled her onto his lap, and held her while she gawked at him, then at the ring.

*

She had lost her first love before
they
ever got to say their vows. Then tragedy had prevented two other arranged marriages. But Zack had already cheated death once, and he was willing to accept the unknown threat of tragedy again, and apparently forever after, in order to be with her.

If he was willing to take the risk, why shouldn’t she? Why the hell shouldn’t she? And in doing so, make him happy, and attain some happiness for herself.

But what of her penance? Honoring her lost love, and her mom, and the others?

Isabel, wouldn’t your mother and Sebastian want you to be
happy?

Yes.
Of course.
And she knew her surviving family wanted that for her, too.

Could she finally toss her haunting guilt out to sea and let a wave of joy crash over her once and for all?

Goddamn it, yes!
Yes!

For now, which was all anyone really has, why couldn’t she and Zack be alive and thriving together? And happy, blissful even.

She shook her head, not believing any of what was happening. Then, melting into his arms, she looked up at his face and gave him a solid nod. “Yes.”

She would finally stop fighting Zachary James. Instead, she’d give into his heart and her own.

She reached up, both hands holding his chiseled face firmly in her grasp, and kissed him with a sweet,
all-confirming
kiss. And he kissed her back, the first of endless kisses to come.

*

He was in a heightened state of bliss. Fucking floating from the virtual morphine straight to his heart.

While his mouth lingered over hers, savoring each dip and brush of her tongue dancing with his, he took her hand and threaded her finger through the simple diamond and gold ring.

“Wait,” she murmured through their kiss, then pulled away. She looked down at her finger. At the ring. “I thought I saw”––she slid the ring off her finger––“something inset here.”

She took a moment to read it, then read the inscription aloud. “‘
Combinación Perfecta de Destino’—
Fate’s Perfect Match.”

She nodded her head and pressed her lips tight to his again, as if she’d never let them part. He wouldn’t ever mind that. Then her arms reached around his body somewhat gently and clawed his back––not so gently. “That’s so you always remember this moment,” she whispered.

He laughed, which also hurt. Like he needed a memory aid. He couldn’t forget this landmark in time if he were in a true
brain-altering
accident. This moment was imprinted on his soul.

“We’ll have to have a really long engagement so I can make sure you aren’t clinically insane. Because…
this
is
really
insane!” she said, soaking him in with her gaze.

He drew his thumb down her cheek, catching a few drops of her salty emotion and licking them off his thumb. Then he held her tight with one arm and grunted from a shockwave of pain as he shifted to reach into his other back pocket. “I almost forgot the other gifts I have for you.”

On the way over, Antonio had helped Zack gather a collection of items for his grand gesture, and so he felt obliged to play the full hand in appreciation of the other man’s efforts.

“What are you doing? Can I help you?”

“No angel, I got it.” He exhaled as he relaxed back into his sit and displayed the first item. “Good, it didn’t break, because that would’ve sucked.”

“A ketchup packet?” Her lips pursed, and her eyes sighed.

“Never know when an emergency pizza situation’ll crop up.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.

She broke out laughing.

“But wait…there’s more.” He fanned out in his other hand two tickets and a flattened white lily.

She tilted her head to read the horizontal detail of the tickets. “The Marco concert? Really?”

“Yeah—Lucinda helped.” He grinned.

“I actually don’t
love
Marco’s stuff,” she said through her laughter. “I’m all about metal from the 90s.”

“I knew it!” He squeezed her arm. “I knew! On the boardwalk.” He narrowed his eyes. “Well good, ’cause it looks like we’re gonna miss the concert anyway.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because we’ll be busy attending the sold out
Isabel show
. It actually starts in a few minutes here and it goes all night long.” He tossed the tickets over his shoulder, pulled her tighter to him, only grimacing for a moment from his achingly sore rib cage, and devoured her mouth, a torrential kiss.

*

She shifted her hips, pressing vigorously into his steel, returning the kiss with equal angst. She reached behind him as she gently rocked her hips, and slid her hands in his back pockets, gripping his ass, as if trying to pull him harder into her.

But an involuntary grunt came from his chest, not accurately expressing the total and utter bliss their kiss delivered, but instead, the sharp pain spreading through his torso.

She pulled back, concern in her eyes.

“I’m good, I’m good. More, give me more.” He took her face in his hands, and met her mouth again without mercy.

“Wait, Zack, I’m taking you to bed to—”

“Yes, to bed…is good.”

“To rest, Zack. However badly I want to
not
rest with you, you’re in pain, babe.”

But he chose to ignore her and trail kisses down her neck instead.

She slapped his shoulder lightly. “Come on.”

Heady and delirious, he lifted his head. “That hurt,” he teased, “but fine, my angel, I will let you take me to bed. Tend to me. I’ll have my way with you”––he slid the mangled lily behind her right ear, some of the disheveled petals falling to the floor in a delicate heap—“soon enough, my future wife. Soon and always.”

“I’m glad you know enough to listen to me.” She winked, then slid off his lap. “A good habit from the got go.”

“It’s ‘get go,’” He smirked.

“Huh?”

“Nothing, angel. Nothing. Um, hey, let me have a second here…” He had to gather his strength to get up. As he caught his breath, pooled his energy, he smiled at her. He moved both hands to her cheeks, stroking her smooth skin with his thumbs. “Isabel?” God, he could say her name a thousand times just to feel it roll from his tongue.

“Zack.” She blinked her eyes. Emblazoned on his soul, those eyes.

“Did you visit your grandfather, this house, a lot when you were little?”

“Just about every other weekend. We loved it here. We’d be at the beach from dawn ’til dusk.”

“Did you have lots of friends, or did you just play with your brothers and sisters?” He wanted to know everything there was to know about her.

And he wanted to jog her memory.

“Most kids stayed away from me. I wasn’t called a jinx then, but I was so accident prone and clumsy, I might as well have been. But the foreigners would play with me.”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Remember? Remember what?”

“Did you play with a boy named Bennie on the beach? He was scared to surf with the rest of the kids, so he was always left behind, but he’d build—”

“Sandcastles! Yes, wow, Bennie! How…do you know?”

“Bennet Zachary James, Jr.,” he said, holding one of his hands out to her in mock introduction. “I dropped the ‘Bennet’ and replaced it with my middle name the day he left.” He watched her eyes studying his, recognizing, remembering.

Her chest lifted, hitched, then finally released as she exhaled a forever breath. “Oh my God, Zack! I had
such
a crush on you…for years! And you stopped playing with me when I was like ten or eleven. I was devastated! This is just…insane!”

Why she was so shocked at anything anymore, he couldn’t say. He knew now that Fate did what she had to in order to get
her
story done right, written just the way she wanted it. The ultimate author.

“I crushed on you hard, too, but you were younger than me…by what, three or four years?

“Six, I think.” Eyebrows lifted. “Amy told me you’re
thirty-two
. Older than dirt,” she teased.

“God, do you remember how huge that gap was as a teenager, though? But how I wished and dreamed we’d know each other when we were older.” He smiled, leaning in to kiss her neck. He nuzzled her, inhaling her essence. “So here we are, engaged and neighbors,” he said through his repeated kisses, now to her collarbone moving down to the swell of her breast.

“Just a few condos down…I remember. I used to stalk you…just a little bit.”

“I know. And are you ready after all these years to claim your victim?”

“Yes, but you’re not ready to
be
claimed. Still damaged goods. Like I said before, I’m puttin’ you straight to bed. You need rest, Mister.”

He kissed her cheek. “Fine, but you’ll rest with me. Kiss my hurts?”

“Now there’s the corny crap I fell for when we first met—or
re-met
—at the Five Breezes. Come on my lucky charm,” she said with a wink, “I’ll kiss your hurts.”

She helped him up and led him to the bedroom. She held his hand tight, the sweet pressure making him even more eager to be skin to skin and heart to heart with his angel. Even though each elated breath sent sharp stiches of pain shooting through his rib cage, he relished the excitement, the joy.