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"He's good with Ethan," Nate said, not realizing that Zoe wasn't really listening to what was going on around her until she paused what she was doing and looked over at him, her eyebrows drawn together quizzically. Nodding towards the window embedded in the wall in front of them, streaming light across their faces, Nate clarified, "Taz. He's good with Ethan."
Zoe smiled, turning to look through the window. It offered a view of the backyard, where Zoe could see Taz and Ethan kicking a ball back and forth to each other, talking indistinctly to each other as they did it. Palkia was out there as well, tail wagging happily as she ran back and forth to follow the ball.
"Ethan's a good kid. He makes it easy," Zoe said, tilting her head back down to focus her eyes on the chopping that she was doing. Taz had offered to help Nate in the kitchen instead so that Zoe could spend some time with Ethan, but her heart had felt heavy in her chest when she awoke that morning and having something to do with her hands was helping.
Nate nodded, turning his body a little to rest his hip against the counter, watching Zoe as she worked. Then, quietly, he asked, "So is there a reason that Jay thinks that you guys getting back together is a bad idea?"
Zoe's eyes flickered back up to the window, making sure that Taz wasn't paying attention. Once she was sure that he was still too focused on avoiding accidentally kicking Palkia as she continued to chase the ball to notice anything else, Zoe said, "I don't know for sure. I only heard about it after the fact, but I imagine it's because of how cruel I was when I broke up with him."
"Did Jay say that?"
"No, but I wouldn't blame him if he did," Zoe said, setting her knife aside, having finished cutting up the vegetables that Nate had given her. As she moved to wash her hands in the sink, Zoe continued, "It was sudden and I wasn't gentle about it and I don't think I'm ever going to stop regretting that. He deserved so much better."
Nate turned away to look out the window, just in time to watch Ethan fling himself at Taz, who caught him and swung him around as if he weighed nothing. "He doesn't seem that bothered by it."
"Yeah," Zoe agreed, drying her hands on the hand towel that Nate kept over the rail that ran across the front of the oven door and walking over to join Nate in front of the window. They stood there in silence for a moment, watching Taz and Ethan, before Zoe admitted in a quiet voice, "I love him, Nate."
Nate squeezed her shoulder before he picked up the chopping board holding the vegetables that she'd cut up and crossing the kitchen with them. As he stood in front of the stove on the other side of the kitchen, scraping the chopped vegetables into a boiling pot, Nate asked, "Have you told him?"
"No," Zoe answered, folding her arms over her chest and turning so that her back was facing the window. "I don't want to fuck this up by saying it too soon."
"Zoe," Nate sighed, setting the chopping board aside. "You know better than anyone how quickly things can just happen and there's nothing we can do about it other than do what we can to pick up the pieces afterwards. If you love him, you should tell him."
