Carpentry and Cocktails: A Heartfelt Small Town Romance (Green Valley Library Book 5)

by Smartypants Romance

  “Yeah, Everett’s so nice. Don’t screw it up, Willa. It would be good for you to be with him. Good for all of us to have someone like that in the family.” She grabbed a broom and started sweeping. “No pressure or anything.” She smirked.

  “Oh yeah. It sounds like you’d keep him over me if we—broke up? I mean, we’re not exactly together together. I don’t know. Never mind.” I sat at a table with my Diet Coke and sipped it while she swept the now empty shop.

  “You’re together. It’s just not, like… You haven’t said the words, is all. You haven’t declared it officially. Like, updating your Facebook status, or getting a tattoo together, or a big fat diamond ring. Though, you do have his Netflix password. Don’t forget about that.”

  “Ew. No diamond ring for me. Tommy and his trust fund gave me a huge one, so no thanks. I’d rather have something different. And if I ever have another wedding, it will be all about the cake. Tommy hates cake. That should have been clue number one that he was a huge moron.” I laughed.

  “Who hates cake? What a tool.” She held out her fist and I bumped it. “Y’all have a date tomorrow, right?”

  “How do you already know about that?”

  Her eyes rolled into mine. “From Ruby, of course. You texted Sabrina to borrow a dress. Ruby texted me. We’re doing a find-a-dress-for-Willa party tomorrow morning. You’ll have to get up early. Sorry.”

  “Oh, okay. Oooooh, maybe Weston will be there,” I teased in my best girly girl voice.

  “Shut up. And, no, he won’t be there. He has football camp practice going on, or whatever. He applied to UT. He wants to play football there like Wyatt did.”

  “That’s awesome!”

  “I know—”

  “Ladies,” Everett greeted as he walked through the door.

  “You’re early. Awesome. I have a test tomorrow I need to study for. Can I leave?” Gracie hopped up and ran around the counter to grab her backpack.

  “Go ahead. I’m off early too, I’ll close tonight.”

  “You’re the best, Everett! Bye, y’all.”

  “We need to talk,” I stated.

  “Ominous.” He smirked as he sat down across from me.

  “It could be. Tommy left a huge potted rose bush in the driveway today. I called the Sheriff Department. Do you think that’s okay, even though it was just a potted plant and a note, and I didn’t actually see him?”

  “Absolutely. He’s not allowed to contact you at all.”

  “I—don’t you think I should talk to him and tell him to his face to leave me alone—”

  “No way. Wyatt and the Sheriff’s Department, along with a cop buddy of Wyatt’s in Merryville, are all keeping an eye on him. He’s been there the whole time. Until today, anyway, when he visited your mother. It’s under control. Eyes are on him all the time and this will definitely be enough to have picked him up.”

  “Oh. Okay. Uh, thank you.” I still felt weird. Growing up, me and my sisters had taken care of each other, but that was different because we’d all been in the same boat. Everett was not in my boat. Everett was the captain of his own ship, and I envied that.

  “What’s that look on your face for, Willard? I can almost see the smoke coming out of your ears.”

  “I’m just thinking.” His eyebrows raised. “I mean, I’m getting used to the idea of being taken care of.” My eyes drifted down to the table. “And I’m tryin’ to think of ways to take care of you.” I mumbled the last part under my breath, but he heard me.

  “No worries, sweetheart. When the time comes, I have no doubt you’ll take care of me.”

  My cell phone alarm went off. “I have to get to Genie’s,” I said on a huge sigh.

  “Drive straight to Genie’s and text Patty when you get there. One of the bouncers will meet you at your car.”

  “Have y’all thought of everything?”

  “Everything but how to get him to go away,” he answered with a frown. “Maybe I should just beat the shit out of him.”

  “No, don’t do that. He’s petty enough to have you arrested and sue you. You’d think divorcing him would have done the trick, but I guess not.”

  He chuckled and reached for me as he stood up. “This won’t last forever. Try not to worry.”

  “I’ll try.” His eyes crinkle-smiled into mine, making me all melty inside.

  “Good. Until tomorrow night.” With a sweet kiss to my forehead he walked me to his Bronco and helped me inside.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Willa

  “You haven’t been properly wooed.”

  Everett

  The Logan Ranch was bustling with activity at way-too-early o’clock in the morning. Sabrina’s dad and her newly adopted son, Harry, had provided me with a blueberry muffin and cup of coffee after they’d answered the door. Now I was sprawled across Sabrina’s bed listening to her, Ruby, and Gracie trying to guess what type of dress Everett would like best. Who cared about crap like that? I just wanted a dress, not hours of speculation.

  “This is way better than homecoming dress shopping was.” Ruby was sprawled on Sabrina’s bed, sipping a glass of orange juice while Sabrina pulled dress after dress out of her closet for me to try on.

  “This is just like a girly rom-com movie,” Gracie added. “We need big glasses of wine, and a cheesy pop song to montage it. Oh! And Willa, you need to pout and be cute. You know, act all harried and frazzled.”

  “Ugh, that’s too many dresses.” I flopped onto my stomach, burying my head under Sabrina’s pillow. “Pick your top three, and make them all black,” my muffled voice instructed. There was no way I was going to try that many dresses on. I was not a dress kind of girl—I was jeans and cowboy boots, tank tops and leather jackets—and fancy dresses were way out of my comfort zone. Thus, the reason why I was here, borrowing a dress for my date with Everett tonight.

  “That was awesome, Willa!” Ruby exclaimed.

  “I’m being serious. It’s too many. I’m not doing it.”

  “Shut up, Willa. Don’t be such a poop. You missed this experience, the whole getting-ready-for-a-date-with-your-girlfriends thing. I’m going to check it off the list.” Gracie lifted the pillow from my head then hit me with it.

  “What list?”

  “We made you a list of stuff you missed out on because of Tommy.” I looked at her out of the corner of my eye as she held her cell phone out to show me.

  “Y’all did what now?” I sat up. These girls were nuts.

  “We made a list of the most important things a woman should experience before she dies,” Ruby explained. “Some of this applies to you too, Sabrina, so pay attention.”

  “Girls, we don’t need a check off list,” Sabrina protested, giving me a wide eyed—a.k.a. WTF?—look.

  “No list. I’m barely into this whole dress thing as it is,” I protested.

  “I got it. This one.” Sabrina held out a tiny piece of black fabric. My jaw dropped as I sat there and stared at her. With a laugh, she threw it at me.

  “I can’t believe you own this dress, Sabrina.” I said as I draped it down my body and looked in her mirror. It had spaghetti straps, was cut in the center almost to the navel, and it was short with a flippy little skirt.

  “Uh, well, since I married Wyatt I’ve been—”

  “She’s been dressing like a sex kitten on date night. She’s giving new meaning to the whole sexy-librarian thing.” Ruby finished for her.

  “Ruby!” Sabrina blushed, and I laughed and tossed the dress at her head. She caught it with a sheepish smile.

  “What? You know it’s true, Sabrina. I mean, that’s why you do it, right? To drive Wyatt nuts. Date night comes around and Sabrina lets her hair down and takes those glasses off.” She looked at Gracie and they rolled their eyes together. “Anyway, you should see his face every other Friday night. It’s priceless. Oh wait, here you go.” She tapped on her phone then held it out to me.

  “You made a YouTube page of Wyatt?” I asked as I scrolled
through.

  “Heck yeah, I did. It’s monetized now. #StopAndGoSuperman for life. I made six-hundred bucks off my page last month.”

  “We should add Everett and split the money. If we filmed him working on his house, we could retire at age eighteen. He never wears a shirt,” Gracie whispered to Ruby.

  “No. No way,” I protested. But then all the times I’d watched him through the window as he worked outside ran through my mind as I scrolled through the thumbnail images of Wyatt on Ruby’s YouTube page and I reconsidered. Six hundred bucks? No, it would be wrong...

  “Yeah, don’t worry. I would never do that,” Ruby scoffed. “Wyatt lives here. It’s like, no effort involved to just aim my phone at him.”

  “Delete it, Ruby. All of it. I mean it this time.” Sabrina turned to me. “Here, go try this on.” I caught the silky slip of a dress with a smirk as she tossed it back to me.

  “Yes, ma’am.” I headed into her bathroom, slipping off my boots on the way. I quickly changed and then threw open the door.

  “Hubba hubba, look at your legs.” The wolf whistle from Ruby almost sent me back to the bathroom.

  “It’s too short, isn’t it? I’m taller than you, Sabrina. And I can’t fill out the top part of the dress like you.”

  “No, no, it’s perfect. With Sabrina, it’s all about the boobs,” Ruby explained. “You’re all leg. He’s going to flip, especially if you wear heels—” I watched as she and Gracie had what had to be an entire conversation with their eyes. I would have to be on the lookout for rogue teenage girls and hidden cell phone cameras tonight.

  I had to borrow heels from Sabrina. They told me I couldn’t wear my cowboy boots, even though they were high heeled. Whatever. I was dressed and ready, hair down in wild curls, wearing heels—platform, four-inch, with one strap across the toes and one around my ankles—that would make me almost as tall as Everett. The idea excited me. These shoes were not made for walking—or pacing as the case may be—and I was wearing a path in the carpet in front of my door as I waited for him. With a glance at the clock I determined that I was ridiculously early. I had no concept of proper getting-ready-for-a-date timing.

  I blew out a sigh and contemplated adding more lip gloss. Or maybe some eyeliner? I should have made up my face like I did for work. Gah! A knock on the door startled me. With a laugh, I shook it off. It had to be Everett. I paced back to the door and opened it, almost falling on my ass when I took a huge step back to slam it in Tommy’s face. I locked every lock and stood there with my heart in my throat.

  “Go away!” I yelled.

  Bang. Boom. Crash.

  This was not the sound of Everett working outside. This was the sound of Tommy about to break my freaking door down with his foot. I ran for my back door, threw it open and darted up the stairs to Everett’s kitchen. With a twist of the knob, I was inside, locking the door behind me and freaking the eff out.

  “Everett!” I shrieked. His footsteps pounded down the stairs as he ran down. I ran across the kitchen to meet him only to freeze slack-jawed at the sight of him in nothing but a pair of tight black boxer briefs. Whoa. Holy crap, whoa.

  “What! What is it? What’s wrong?” He froze in alarm. His eyes grew wide as they moved up and down my body, while a flush spread up his chest to heat his cheeks.

  “Tommy. It’s Tommy. I ran up here.”

  “He’s here?”

  “At my door. I slammed it and locked it.”

  “Stay here and lock the door behind me.” He raced through the kitchen and down the basement steps. I locked the door and ran to the window overlooking the driveway to watch. I couldn’t see my porch because of the overhang, but I saw Tommy’s truck idling at the curb. No sign of Tommy though.

  I tried to quiet my breathing so I could hear. Then I tried to reason with myself. There was no need to be scared like this. In all the years I had been with him he had only hurt me once—physically, anyway. He wouldn’t do it again, right? I had already left him. I’d done my worst to him. Maybe I should just go down there and tell him to leave me alone for good.

  I gulped in a huge breath of air, which did nothing to calm my racing heart or my panicked imagination.

  Why was I panicking?

  No, I could do this. Everett would be down there. I wouldn’t be alone with Tommy. After descending the stairs, I made my way through my apartment to the closed door where I heard muffled voices on the other side. I threw open the door to see what was happening.

  “You can’t just stun gun people, Gracie!” Everett’s voice filled the air as I watched him throw his arms out to the sides in frustration.

  “But, he’s a dick! Clara told me to shock first, ask questions later whenever it came to him,” she shouted back.

  I stepped onto the porch to see Tommy sitting off to the side, propped up against the house.

  Ruby knelt at his side, waving her hand in front of his face. “How many fingers am I holding up?” She stood up as he hefted himself to his feet with a murderous scowl on his face.

  “I should have you arrested,” he shouted at Gracie, who flipped him off in response. I wished I had even half of her nerve.

  “For what?” Everett growled. “You’re on my property. You dented my fucking door with your boots, and you wouldn’t leave when Willa told you to. I should have you arrested.”

  “I don’t need this shit. Go on and call the Sheriff Department. Tell them to meet me at home. I’ll be waiting with my father’s attorney. I’m leaving. I’ll call you, Willa. We’re gonna have that talk.” He stalked off to his truck and left. As if my slamming the door in his face and running away was not enough of a hint that I didn’t want to have a talk with him.

  “I want you to delete those pictures, Gracie.” Everett pointed a finger at Gracie.

  “I didn’t take any pictures.” She shrugged, the face of innocence.

  “Delete the video, Gracie,” I said.

  Her lips pursed and her eyes shifted to the side. “Fine, sure, okay. Come on, Ruby. We’re going to Daisy’s. This was stressful. We need pie.” She hugged me and whispered in my ear, “I got video of him in his underwear, Willa. Think of the money we could make.”

  I tugged her to the side. “He’s in his underwear. That is hugely different than Ruby filming Wyatt reacting to Sabrina and you know it.”

  She thought for a second. “Gah! You’re totally right. I’m a jerk. I’ll delete it right now, from the cloud too.” After a few swipes, she held her phone out. “It’s gone!” She called over her shoulder as she ran to join Ruby.

  “Thank you, Gracie,” Everett called out to her retreating back.

  “I’m really sorry. I didn’t think it through,” she yelled from the passenger side of Ruby’s Jeep as they pulled away.

  “Well, that was interesting,” he said with a chuckle.

  “Yeah, at least this time he left without having to get half the town involved.” My attempt at a joke fell flat; he didn’t laugh.

  “Let me borrow your phone to call Wyatt. I’m pressing charges about my damn door. And they can pick him up for violating the restraining order.”

  I tried to listen as he spoke to Wyatt, but I was distracted by the way he was checking me out as he talked. The heat in his eyes burned away any fear I had felt from seeing Tommy. Everett ended the call and passed my phone back to me.

  “They put out the call. He’ll be arrested on sight.” His eyes roved over my body, smiling as they roamed. “You look fucking beautiful, Willard. That dress is uh…I, uh... And those shoes. You are stunning. And here I am. Standing in the driveway. In my underwear. This isn’t what I had in mind when I said I wanted to woo you properly.” His head shook side to side as he stood there grinning sheepishly at me.

  “I don’t know about that. You? In those underwear? Pretty freaking woo if you ask me.”

  “Pretty freaking woo?” That smile, big and white, combined with those dimples? He was so insanely dreamy and ridiculously hot standing there that I wanted to
just skip dinner and eat him instead.

  “Totally.” I grinned. “I wouldn’t mind getting the whole woo right now, in fact.”

  “Oh yeah? Maybe I’ll give you a woo, just for you, then take you to dinner. How about that?”

  “Just for me?” I almost backed away as he stalked toward me, like maybe he was the one getting the snack before dinner instead of me. I squealed as he put a shoulder to my stomach and picked me up in a fireman’s hold to carry me around the side of the house to the back porch. He opened the back door, slammed it shut with a kick and took me to the living room. As I slid down his body, he grabbed the hem of my dress to lift it over my head and toss it to the floor, leaving me in nothing but my heels and a pair of black lace bikini panties.

  “Now,” he said.

  “Now?” I breathed, my eyes wide with curious amazement. What was he up to? He nodded and chest to chest, eye to eye, walked me backward to the couch while his hands slid over my bottom to push my panties down. I kicked them aside as I walked.

  “Sit.” I sat. He knelt in front of me, nudging my legs apart with his shoulders. With his hands behind my knees, he lifted until my feet were on the couch, my legs spread wide, him in between.

  “Ready?” His blazing eyes roved over my body, up and down coming to rest between my legs. Holy crap.

  I nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, please,” I breathed. I was soooo ready for this. Words failed me as he lowered his head then stopped. He was right there, but not quite touching me.

  “Do you remember what I said when I was inside you all those nights ago?” His fingers traced lazy circles over the insides of my thighs, tickling my skin, holding me open, driving me crazy with anticipation.

  I remembered everything about that night. I nodded again as my eyes found his.

  “Tell me what I said.” I could feel his hot breath on my slick skin, so close. “Tell me, sweetness, and I’ll give you what you need.”

  “You said…um, you said you wanted to taste me.” I murmured as I watched his eyes smile into mine with a satisfied gleam. How was he able to be as sweet as he was, while also being so absolutely, gloriously naughty?