“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“You’re scarred for life, darlin’.”
There hadn’t been an initial bill, and I wasn’t going to bring it up either. I could pay for it, even though I felt like Gunner should. But with the three weeks he claimed to be giving me off, I figured it balanced out. It was his fault for not just opening the closet and getting us the damn vacuum like we’d asked. And Deepa was going to be leaving anytime now and her poor mom was sick, so….
I managed to make it all the way until we were about to get into his car before I started crying.
Finally.
I was pretty sure he froze in his spot next to me, about to open the passenger door, when he stopped. “What’s wrong? Does your arm really hurt?” he asked in just about the softest, most tender voice in the world before palming my cheek. Tears splashed against the skin of his million-dollar hands.
But I managed to tell him, with big gulps in between every other word, “Zac, I lost control of my Lazy Baker channel. Someone hacked me this morning.”
Before any other words came out of his mouth, he was there, right in front of me, his other hand going to my waist. “Say that again, honey. I’m not sure I heard you correctly.”
So I tried to tell him again. From the beginning. “Someone hacked my account this morning. My Lazy Baker WatchTube account. I got an email from a company asking to advertise on my channel this morning. It looked legitimate. When I clicked on the link for the product they wanted to push, an installer buried itself into my computer.
“I knew what was happening, and I forced my computer to restart and changed all my passwords, but I guess I was too late. The hacker bypassed my two-factor authentication and got into my account and pulled my WatchTube information from my email. It happened while I was at work and… and….”
Zac stepped in close, and I felt his chin brush my temple. “Take a deep one. All right. Someone hacked your account then, darlin’?”
“It’s all my hard work,” I whispered.
Something warm and damp pressed against my temple. His lips. It had to be his lips. “I know. Okay, take another breath. What can we do? How do we get it back?”
“I need to call—”
“Hey, shh. You can cry, but don’t do that sobbin’ thing. I don’t like you hiccupin’. Okay, so we need to call. Can you call on the drive? What if I call too, will that help?”
I shrugged under his face and felt the press of his mouth against my temple again. “Probably. Yes. I’m sure it will, but you—”
“If you tell me I don’t have to, I’m gonna wring your neck, kiddo. ’Course I’ll do whatever I can. I’ll tell Trev to call too if it’ll help. I’d ask if you could go through some other way of gettin’ back into your account and changin’ the password to get them out, but you know better than I do what can be done. Hey, no, no. No more cryin’.” He leaned back, and I saw his hand go toward his stomach before he pulled his T-shirt up and used the bottom of it to mop my cheeks and under my eyes with it. He even swiped under my nose with it, and that made me cry more.
“Bibi, darlin’, this has happened before, right? Other people have gotten hacked too? We’ll get it back, I promise. You’re not losin’ all your hard work. You’re not losin’ a thing.”
I sniffled under his gaze as he dropped his shirt back into place, but lifted his hand to frame my cheek. “But what if they delete all my videos? Or delete my channel?”
“Is that why they hack into ’em? To delete ’em?”
“Well, no. They sell them….”
He started to nod that perfect face. “Okay, so then they’ll sell it. For how much? I’ll buy it back for you.”
I reached and grabbed his hand, giving it a squeeze. “I really do love you, and I don’t know why you’re so nice to me after what I did.”
“You didn’t do a single goddamn thing, do you understand me? We’re not talkin’ about that and what happened with that girl anymore. She’s nothin’. You’re my friend, and I’d do anything for you. All you gotta do is tell me.”
All I had to do was tell him.
He didn’t understand. I loved him, but not like that. Not when he was doing all this nice shit to me like coming to a hospital even though he had to be sweating it and sitting beside me while I got stitches and offering to pay for my bills and pay to get my channel back and—
His hand slipped out of mine, and then both of them were on my face, cupping my cheeks. “Hey, shh. We’re gettin’ it back, all right? You’ll still get to quit your job. We’ll make these hackers regret ever even hearin’ your name by the time we’re done with them, yeah? You don’t need to worry. I’ve got you, kiddo. I’m not goin’ anywhere.” His head ducked, and that warm mouth brushed across my forehead. “We’ll go to Trev’s, you call WatchTube, I’ll make you some soup, and I’ll call too. And if they won’t do anything, we’ll unleash our secret weapon: Trev.”
He was killing me.
I had learned to trust my instincts over time, and they all got fried in his presence. Tilting my head back, I looked at him through blurry eyes. “Zac, you know you’ve paid me back about a million times over for the snake thing, right?”
I thought the corners of his mouth tilted up, but I couldn’t be sure when my eyes were trying their best to turn into water fountains. I felt his thumb rasp over my chin. “We’re not even close to bein’ even. Come here, gimme another hug, and then let’s get in the car and do what we need to do.”
I didn’t nod or anything. I went straight into his arms and wrapped my good one around his waist instead of his neck, one of his going around the middle of my back and another around the back of my neck. Zac curled around me and into me, his presence warm and steady. Eternal.
“You scared the hell outta me earlier, kiddo. Tellin’ me you’re at urgent care.” His fingers nudged a spot right behind my ear that made my knees weak. “Don’t you dare ever do that to me again, okay? Next time just don’t get hurt, is that a deal?”
I snickered, watery and light, but nodded against him.
“What else you need?” he asked, nuzzling my head while his fingers did that thing by my ear again. “What else will make you feel better, huh?”
I only had to think about it for a second. “Can I smack one?”
His arms jerked, and I felt his chest do a little puff. “Are you askin’ for what I think you’re askin’?”
“Yes.” Pressing my nose into the bone between his pecs, I said, “It’ll make me feel better; I know it will.”
He was trying his hardest not to laugh, but I could feel him doing it. “If it’ll make you feel better,” he said, and I could hear the amusement in his voice.
He took his time pulling away. He gave me a long look too before turning around with a smirk on his face.
Zac glanced at me over his shoulder, then popped a hip to the side… which also popped his butt cheek out. His smile pulled his mouth into the best grin of all time, all teasing and loving and amazing. Just like Zac.