“Should you go talk to him?” she murmured. “It seemed like he wasn’t sure how to take the...news.”
But Zach shook his head. “I have to give him time to think about it. It’s the only thing that works with Joel. When he’s upset about something, he disappears, and takes time to calm down and think about whatever’s wrong. If he doesn’t get a chance to go off on his own, he’ll just get more and more upset.”
“Do you think he’s upset?” Teri stared after Joel. God, she hoped he wasn’t angry.
Zach hesitated. “I think he’s...surprised. Neither of us have been expecting to find our mates. And it’s been just the two of us for so long, I think we were both figuring we’d live in that house together until we got old.”
“I understand that. It’s weird when you think things are going to play out one way and suddenly everything’s different.”
Zach reached out to take her hand. “I hope you know that it’s not like there’s going to be a choice. Even if he doesn’t like this, I’m never giving you up.”
“I know,” Teri said softly. And she did. She could feel their bond, deep inside of her, and she knew that it couldn’t be broken. There was no giving Zach up, no leaving him behind, and she was absolutely rock-solid confident that he felt the same way. They were mates, and that was forever.
“But,” Zach continued, “I can’t tell him what to think, either.”
“It’s okay. Even if he really, really hates it, he’s already more pleasant to be around than most of my actual family.” Teri tried to make it into a joke, but she couldn’t help remembering the fight she’d just had with her mom, and it felt a little flat.
Zach didn’t look like he thought it was funny, either. “I really want you to move out of that house and in with us.”
“I will not move in with you unless Joel says it’s okay.” Teri was totally adamant on this point. “And you can’t try and convince him or argue him into it! He has to actually be okay with it.”
“I wouldn’t do that.” Zach’s hand clenched around hers. “I don’t think I would, anyway. I’ve been wondering.”
Teri looked up at him. He was frowning, looking troubled. “What do you mean?”
“You said your sister acts like she’s the same as your mom, so anxious about you that it’s controlling. That she gets in your business and tells you what to do, and it’s awful. I’ve been wondering if I might be doing the same thing as Joel.”
“No. No way.” Teri shook her head. “You’re not the same as Lillian. You guys are nothing alike, honestly.”
The fight she’d had with her mom came flooding back. Somehow, it hadn’t seemed important in the face of Joel going missing.
And honestly, it was such a relief to be able to just forget about her mom for a while.
“But I do worry about him,” Zach was saying. “I was terrified when he was reported missing. I yelled at him after we found him, and it wasn’t because I was mad—just because I was scared.”
“What did you say?” Teri asked softly.
“I asked him what the hell he’d been thinking, how he could’ve ended up at the bottom of a crevasse, why didn’t he radio in, didn’t he know I’d thought he was dead...” The muscles in Zach’s jaw tightened. “Now that I’m saying it over, it sounds even worse. Just like the sort of thing your mom might say to you.”
“No.” Teri tugged on Zach’s hand until he looked her in the eye. “Zach, you’re nothing like my mother. You were worried and upset because Joel’s life was actually in danger. What did he say back to you?”
Zach looked sheepish. “He explained how he’d gotten into the situation. It was all reasonable, Teri, and that’s the problem. When I yelled at him, I was behaving as though it was his fault, when really, he was rescuing a kid from falling into a crevasse and being killed.” He shook his head and started walking again.
He didn’t drop Teri’s hand, though, and she held on tight as she set out again alongside him.
“Zach. This right here—this is the difference. You were scared and worried, and you did what most people do in that situation. You know—Thank God you’re safe, I’m going to strangle you with my bare hands!”
She made it as dramatic-sounding as possible, and Zach chuckled a little, probably despite himself. Teri smiled and pushed on.
“But once you were done with that, you stopped, you let Joel explain what happened. And you know Joel didn’t actually get himself in trouble on purpose, or because he’s careless or stupid. You asked him what happened, he told you, and you believed him.”
Teri paused, clenched her fists—Zach squeezed her hand back—and took a deep breath. “You know what my mother’s actual problem is?”
“Tell me,” Zach said softly. The love and concern in his voice gave her the strength to keep going.
“It’s not being worried or anxious. I think every parent worries about their kids. The problem is that my mother is...selfish.” Teri blinked a little, because it really hurt to admit this out loud, but she kept going. “What she feels, and what she wants for herself, are always more important than what I feel or what I want. She always has to be right, and everyone else has to bend themselves around her to accommodate her. My dad’s personality has totally disappeared, if it ever existed. My sister is turning herself into Mom’s clone.”
She’d stopped walking again, and she was dimly aware that she should keep going, or Cal was going to yell at them again. But Zach stopped with her and took her other hand in his, and that was what gave her the strength to k