"Ms. Morgan," Agent Townsend yells from below. "You're late."

"Sorry," I tell him. I hold up my report. "Almost finished," I say, but he doesn't care about the paperwork.

He nods towards the boy who looks like him. "We have a lead on a rogue asset outside of Kabul. CIA wants the two of you. If you have the time?" Townsend asks, almost condescendingly.

The boy looks at me and smiles. "What do you say Gallagher Girl? Do you?"

I take the file from Townsend's hand.

"Let's go." I said, walking towards the metal doors that led outside the facility. I felt the boy jog in place beside me and an arm wrap around my waist. As the retinal scanner scanned my eye and we waited for the doors to open, he turned towards me with a smirk plastered on his face.

"It's about time you came to see me."

The scanner subsided and I took that moment to turn towards Zach, hand him the file and look straight into his eyes. (Which were way more intense than any scanner anyone could create.)

He had changed since the last time we'd seen each other. Of course, a lot of things had changed over the course of the past six months.

We had finally taken down the Circle.

Zach's mom was dead.

The Gallagher Academy had burned down.

The senior class at the Gallagher Academy graduated in the courtyard of the once prestigious and top school in the country.

The Gallagher Academy was rebuilt four and a half months later.

All in that order.

So I shouldn't have been surprised that the boy that I had known when I was fifteen and in my sophomore year had also changed into the 20 year old man standing before me.

He had grown even taller, and now stood at a towering six feet. His hair was a shade darker than before and one strand fell into the dark green eyes that were peering at me. He had the hint of a shadow along his jaw, and I could see fresh stubble growing in.

Zach was a man. He oozed it.

Perhaps that was why as his smirk grew even larger and the question "Checking me out Gallagher Girl?" came out his lips, I didn't have a comeback.

And maybe it was because his eyebrows lifted up in an amused yet cocky manner and his smirk widened to maximum capacity that I was finally able to get past the attraction and retort,

"You look like your father."

I saw Zach's smirk wipe off his face as I turned and started walking through the metal doors that were now ajar, satisfaction showing in my demeanor.

But, like always, things don't always stay the same. Because as much as I would have loved to have had the last word in our exchange, Zach was never the type to be speechless.

He slyly caught up to me and (again!) wrapped his arm around my waist and turned me to face him with his eyes peering into mine, even more intensely than before. His smirk appeared yet again but more deviously as he replied,

"Well, we have been known to attract Camerons."

Oh.

No he did NOT just refer to my aunt.

Before I could retort, (and I was prepared this time!) his other arm reached behind my waist and set the file on the small table behind us before returning to join his other arm on my waist and pull me closer.

"But," he tilted his head as if he were mentally affirming a fact and shrugged a little, "Camerons have been known to attract us first."

A smile crept on his face, replacing his trademark smirk before it melted away and he leaned in and kissed me.

It was the first kiss we'd had in months.

The first kiss since we'd graduated.

So I couldn't help but melt in his arms a little bit as he held me tighter, all traces of a fight fleeing my body.

How does he do it? How does he know how to time it so when he kisses me, I would want to kiss him back because I missed him?

I didn't have time to think about it nor did I want to because Zach's lips parted from mine and placed a soft kiss on my cheek before he pulled back and smiled at me.

"You ready?" he asked, as his hand traveled down to hold mine.

I leaned in again and gently pecked his lips before turning around and grabbing the file.

"Let's go."