“No. I’m not going anywhere,” I murmured, lost in his eyes. I needed to get out of his eyes and back into reality, dammit.
“Do we need to talk?” he asked. I glanced at Gracie, who was making no secret of the fact that she was listening in.
“Yeah,” I glanced pointedly at Gracie. “In a minute, okay?” He nodded then headed toward my apartment with the groceries. I watched him walk up the stairs and go inside. I turned around to see Gracie smirking at me. “Y’all totally boned,” she whispered excitedly.
“Gracie May!”
“It’s written all over his face.” She studied my face then reached for my other duffel bag. “It’s all over yours too. He wants you bad. Is that why you were runnin’ away?”
“It’s part of it, but don’t say stuff like that.”
She laughed. “You sound more like a mother than Momma does.” I shook my head. “So, is that it? Is he the reason you were leaving?” she demanded quietly.
“Part of it. Tommy’s out. I think he’s here in Green Valley.”
“Is he coming after you? Like, to hurt you? We can go get some of Momma’s shotguns tomorrow. I can shoot. I shot the heads off all the black-eyed Susan’s up the hill on the back forty. I can sure as hell shoot the head off your asshole ex-husband if he tries anything. Or his dick. I’ll let you choose where I aim.”
“You’re not shooting anything. No one is going to do any shooting. Jeez, Gracie. And aren’t you too young to go shooting back there?” I exclaimed.
She studied my face. “I’m not too young for anything. I hit every single thing I aim for, Willa. I don’t think you’re aiming for anything. I think you’re just running away.” Her eyes narrowed on me. “You’ll end up telling me everything, you know. I might be sixteen, but deep inside I have the soul of a forty-five-year-old divorcée and I’ll probably understand your problems better than you do.” She was too perceptive and clearly way too smart for her own good. I scowled at her, grabbed my other bag, and went inside.
Chapter Twelve
Everett
“If it’s love, you’ll feel it long after the kiss is over. Remember that, Everett.”
Papaw Joe
I placed her bags on the kitchen counter while uncertainty and cold dread filtered through my thoughts. She had packed her stuff. Why? Her eyes had held no clues and I was left to stand here in a state of confusion, wondering if the best night of my life was about to turn into what would be the biggest heartbreak I would ever experience. If the hints she had dropped outside came true, it certainly would.
“Let’s talk out there.” She gestured to the door to the utility area after she tossed her duffel on the table. “Make yourself at home, Gracie. I’ll be back in a minute.” I followed behind, keeping my cool until she closed the door behind her. All pretense of cool was lost when she faced me, all tremulous smile and soft, shining eyes and looking more beautiful than I could believe. She wore my shirt and it unlocked something primal in me to see her clothed in something that belonged to me.
With a huge step forward I grabbed her—one arm behind her waist, the other behind her knees—sweeping her up and slamming my lips to hers as I carried her toward the worktable in the middle of the basement utility space. Her arms wound around my neck while the fingers of one hand drove into my hair to pull me closer. She was rough, needy, and just as desperate for me as I was for her. Her lips opened beneath mine and her soft moan went into my mouth and straight down to my cock, making me hard. Everything about her—every single thing—was magic. She tasted like heaven and she felt like a fucking dream come true in my arms. My head spun through every fantasy I’d ever had about her as my lips moved urgently over hers. Blindly, I found the table and lowered her to sit on it. Wrapping her legs around my waist, she forced us closer, keeping me tight against her soft heat. I rocked against her as she pressed herself against me in return. I couldn’t think when I needed her like this—her body, her heart, her hands on me—and I knew I was made to be with her. She was mine to love and keep safe.
I pressed kisses to her forehead, her temple, her cheek, then finally once more to her lips. She kissed me back, then pulled away with a sigh. Why did it feel like she was about to slip away even though I held her so close? Her hand went to my chest, pushing slightly as she leaned back, avoiding my eyes.
“Everett—” Why did this feel like goodbye?
I cut her off with a whisper. “No, don’t talk. I don’t think I want to hear what you have to say.” Denial forced my eyes shut as I took a step back to let her off the table.
“I’m so sorry. I can’t do this with you. I just can’t right now, I—” Tears shimmered on her lashes. She blinked once, and then they were gone. Just like the light in her eyes.
“You’re breaking my heart, sweetness. Please don’t.” I was stuck in this terrible moment where fighting her words would get me nowhere and accepting them was my only choice.
“No. Oh, Everett, no, no, no. I don’t want to break your heart.” Her words were broken breath as her hands caressed over my chest to come to rest above my heart. She wouldn’t meet my eyes as she shook her head softly from side to side while looking at the floor.
With a fingertip, I raised her face. Her eyes, soft and sorrowful, met mine. I couldn’t understand how after everything we did and said and felt last night—and just now—why she would do this. I couldn’t have been this wrong about her. We’d made a connection last night, talking together, then later in my bed. I felt her now in a way I didn’t before. I sensed the untruth in her words by the way she gravitated toward me, staying near even though her words threatened to tear us apart. Touching me even though she was letting me go. My gaze roved over her face, taking in the heartbreak in her lowered eyes and the hopeless resignation that colored her expression. I needed to know what had put that look there. “Tell me what happened,” I softly demanded.
“I can’t,” she choked on the words as her eyes finally met mine and screamed the truth she tried to hide from me. I was not wrong about her. She didn’t want to do this, to pull away. Her tears fell like pieces of a puzzle. I wanted to put her back together, to discover the truth, but she wouldn’t let me.
“Last night was no lie, sweetheart. This spark between us is real. When I was inside of you, your heart opened to me. I saw it in your eyes, and it was beautiful. It’s still open—I see you, Willa—and I can see the truth in your eyes. So why are you lying to me?” I tried to hold her eyes, but they slid away to find the floor again. “Look at me, please.” Her stricken gaze met mine, along with a determined expression. I braced.
“Because I have to,” she cried. “Because it’s the right thing to do. I’m not the kind of girl you should be with, Everett. I’ll mess everything up. And if I don’t ruin it myself, the baggage that comes with me will.” With a rough swipe over her cheeks she brushed away her tears and steeled herself.
“What baggage? Tell me what happened. How can I help you?”
“You can’t help me, no one can. I have to—”
“I’ll do anything for you, anything you need—”
“I need you to let me go, Everett.”
“No, please—”
“You said anything I need. I can’t talk about this, and I need you to let me go.” She was unwavering, resolute, and at this moment, gone.
My jaw was tense as I agreed. “Fine, we don’t have to talk about it—now. It will be like this never happened until you are ready to talk to me.” My heart fell apart with each word from my mouth, but what else could I do?
“Thank you…” Her whisper drifted over the air like one last touch. But I couldn’t help myself, I needed one more. I placed a soft kiss to her lips and realized I was wrong before; this kiss was goodbye. But I didn’t want a goodbye kiss. I wanted all her kisses—the hellos, the goodnights, the see you laters, and the ones that are given just because.
If all I ever got was one night to share with her—one night when I’d felt what love should truly be—
then I guess I was still a lucky man. Maybe I should try to accept that, but I knew my impossible feelings for her would never allow it. I watched her enter her apartment and close the door. I ran upstairs to grab my jacket. It was time I got some answers. If she wouldn’t give them to me, Wyatt would.
This was far from over.
I turned off the ignition to my truck and slammed the door before stalking toward the front door. Wyatt’s new home with his new wife was on her family’s horse ranch on the edge of town. Flipping my wrist, I checked the time. Since it wasn’t that late, and I figured someone should be up. I knocked and waited. I pounded and waited some more. If Wyatt wasn’t here, I decided I’d grill Sabrina.
The door flew open. Ruby, Sabrina’s sixteen-year-old niece, and Wyatt’s niece now too, stood there, eyebrows up and a grin on her face. “Hey, Everett. No one’s home, they’re all at Daisy’s Nut House eating pie. Whatchu need?”
“Uh, I was hoping to talk to Wyatt or Sabrina—”
“Oh, about Willa? Am I right? Come on in, I just got all the information.” I hesitated in the doorway.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Matchmaking is like, my hobby now.” She glared at me impatiently, tapping her foot. “I mean, I guess we can talk here. Whatever. I’ll just lay it out for you, okay?” She sat on the little bench perpendicular to the door, next to a huge pile of shoes. “So, Willa is real stubborn and her ex-husband is a giant douche bag. He was in prison, you know?” I nodded. I’d already known that much. “He threw her through the front window of their house after she told him she was leaving him—that’s where that huge scar on her arm came from. Wyatt drove up right as it happened. He was the one to arrest him.” Ruby watched me carefully after she dropped that bomb of information. I grabbed hold of the doorframe and flinched, upset that Willa had gone through something so horrific. The urge to hunt down her ex and hurt him was real. My anger was so palpable that Ruby eyed me knowingly and stood up with a smirk. “Well, come on in. I know you want to hear what I have to say. Don’t try to deny it.”
I followed her into the living room and sat on the couch. I needed to hear this, even if it broke my heart even more to know what Willa had gone through. “Go on. Tell me,” I urged.
“Tommy, her ex, just got out a few days ago. I overheard Wyatt talking about it to Sabrina, all pissed off and upset that Willa was leaving town because of him. She’s not leaving anymore though, you know that, right?” I nodded and gestured for her to continue. “Gracie texted me about a half hour ago and told me you two were talking in the basement. How’d that go? She dumped you, right? Don’t worry, it won’t stick. Gracie said you two were eye-boning all over the living room before you went to talk, and that Willa has it really bad for you.”
“You know Gracie?”
“Duh, is this Green Valley? I’ve known Gracie since kindergarten. We’re in the same grade. Everybody in school always knew not to talk to her about Willa or she’d start crying so hard she’d have to go home. We started hanging out this year, after she joined the debate club. And I grew up knowing Willa until she ran away. I love Willa. She used to let me win at Candyland all the time, and sit on her lap, and twist up her hair—her curls are so boingy—and… Gah! So basically, I’ll do anything for her, including piss her off by meddling in her business.” A small smile crossed my face. All the stuff Wyatt had told me about this girl was not an exaggeration.
“Okay…”
“Shush, Everett. Okay, sooooo…” She looked at the ceiling, lost in thought, before her eyes snapped back to mine with a decisive gleam. “You just back off for now, and she’ll come to you. I guarantee it. Just be all sexy and protective from afar. Trust me, she’ll love it. All us girls do. Act broody and hovery, like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. But without the creeptastic qualities. And don’t worry too much—I overheard Wyatt talking to Sabrina on the porch earlier and he said Boone and Jackson James and all the other deputies are helping keep an eye out for Tommy. Plus, I have my own contacts keeping an eye out too. No one effs with Cletus Winston in this town, and I called him first thing. I mean, after the roses on the porch? None of us are taking any chances—”
“What roses?”
“The smashed up white roses all over Willa’s porch this morning. Wyatt cleaned them up. I overheard him telling Sabrina that it freaked the heck out of Willa. She packed up her stuff in a panic and he couldn’t stop her from leaving. Then of course, she ran right into Gracie getting busted at The Wooden Plank. I mean, classic Gracie.” She shook her head in amusement. “Anyway, Willa took Gracie home. Talk about perfect timing, right?”
“Right. Um—”
“It’s a lot. I get it, Everett. But you almost ripping the frame out of the doorway told me you’re totally in love with her—”
“I’m not in love—”
“You’re not?” Our heads whipped to the side as Wyatt entered the living room followed by Sabrina. I waved to her and the kids as she hurriedly led them upstairs to let us talk.
“No, I haven’t been with her long en—”
“You’re so full of crap, Ev.” Wyatt chuckled.
Ruby smirked. “Well, he is a man. Most of y’all are pretty dumb about love, right? Like, he’s here taking advice from a teenage girl. I mean, it’s good advice, but still. I’m going to go call Gracie. Later.”
“But I didn’t actually ask you for—” Wyatt smacked my arm to shut me up. “Uh, later. Thanks, Ruby.” I called as she rushed upstairs. The vast amounts of information she had just imparted on me filtered through my mind but what stood out the most was that Willa was most likely in danger and I would do whatever it took to keep her safe.
“She tell you everything?” Wyatt asked.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Good. We tried to talk loud enough so she would hear.”
“What?”
“I told you before—Willa is my friend, she trusts me. Sabrina and I didn’t tell have to tell you anything. Yet, you still know what you need to know to be there for her.”
I shook my head. “She told me to be sexy and protective.” I chuckled.
“And don’t forget to brood like Heathcliff. I heard that one from outside. We waited on the porch so she could finish telling you everything,” Wyatt added.
“How the hell do I do that?”
“Ask Sabrina when she comes downstairs.” I laughed and sank back into the couch.
I shook my head against the cushions. “This feels impossible. She was so determined to let me go. And love? It’s too soon for that. I’m not in—”
“You’re in love with her,” he argued.
My head shot up in denial. “No, I’m not. I just never felt this way before, is all.”
“Like what? How do you feel?” he prodded with a grin, goading me into an answer like he always used to do.
“Like, being with her last night was the right thing to do—the only thing to do. Like I was finally at home and I never wanted to leave.”
“Yeah, that’s love. You love her,” Wyatt insisted.
“Fuck.” I ran my hands into my hair, digging my palms into my eyes as I sat up, elbows to my knees. “I do love her. I am in love with her. Shit, how do I fix this?”
“You just will. You can rebuild anything, Everett. It’s what you do. Look at your house, the shop…look at Willa. I’ve been her friend for years and you managed to fix her heart enough so it would open again. You can fix it, and you will.”
“Right, okay. I’ll just go home, be sexy and protective, and hover broodingly from afar, just like Heathcliff.”
He shot me a grin. “Good plan.”
I heaved out a sigh and stood up to leave. “No more secrets, Wyatt. You keep me informed so I can keep an eye on everything. Finishing the security system just got bumped up to the top of my to-do list.”
“I will. Between the two of us and the sheriff department, nothing will happen to her.”
Chapter Thirteen
“You know I don’t mean
the things I say when I get mad. Momma loves you, Willa. But you need to try harder to act right.”
Momma
I had to move—again. It wasn’t right to stay here, with Everett, after I just broke his heart. I stared at the wall as I contemplated where to go. I mean, I had Gracie to think about now. I couldn’t leave town again.
“Willa, are you going to stare at the freaking wall all night?” I jumped and refocused—on reality, I guess—to notice that Gracie was sprawled on my couch, cell phone in hand, furiously texting with someone. Her phone was going off like crazy. Ping, ping, ping. Jeez.
“No. Uh, are you hungry?” I asked, still in a broken-hearted daze, frozen against the closed door behind me. Kids needed food. Regular home cooked meals and stuff, right?
“Yeah, I could eat. Let’s make sandwiches. Oh wait—are we eating a late dinner, or your feelings? I threw some pizza rolls into the cart at the Piggly Wiggly.” She studied my face and stood up. “I’ll preheat the oven. I also got some cookie dough ice cream and hot fudge—dessert for the win! Don’t worry, Willa, I got you. Go sit down.”
“Okay…” I whispered as I wandered to the couch. When I felt it behind my knees, I sat. Unconsciously, I rubbed my chest. I hurt. I was a little bit scared of seeing Tommy, and my heart was burning a hole in my chest. I missed Everett already. I felt Gracie’s hands gently push me back into the cushions. Startled, I looked up at her, softly smiling at me.
“Relax, Willa,” she whispered.
“Okay, thanks. I’m glad you’re here, Gracie.” She grinned and tugged the afghan from behind the couch to rest over my shoulders.
“Me too.” Her grin shifted sideways before she bustled off to my tiny kitchen. I really liked this place. The thought of leaving made me sad. I shook my head against the cushions. It wasn’t this place, it was Everett. The thought of leaving him made me sad. It was more than just sad; it felt unbearable, unimaginable. I quit thinking and let my eyes drift closed. Belatedly, I realized I was supposed to be at work right now. My eyes flew open as I sat upright with haste. Shit!
Carpentry and Cocktails: A Heartfelt Small Town Romance (Green Valley Library Book 5) Page 10
