“So she needs a little time,” Willow said taking her aunt’s hand in hers.
“Do you think the other offer came from your boyfriend?” Aunt Vanessa asked.
Willow nodded, “He said he was going to make an offer. But it didn’t sound like it was going to be much more than we could do. I mean Tyler isn’t rich or anything. Maybe you need to go see Sally-Anne again.”
“Maybe,” Aunt Vanessa said glumly. “I’ve just got a bad feeling about this.”
Just then they heard an engine and a truck pulled up. It was blue. It idled for a long while, and then Rosemary hopped out of the passenger seat. She was dressed in the previous day’s clothes, Willow noticed, as she waved to the driver. The truck drove off.
Rosemary entered the kitchen with a huge grin on her face. “Morning,” she said. “Isn’t it a wonderful day?”
“Where have you been?” Willow demanded more harshly than she had meant to.
Rosemary was taken aback. She stopped walking and stood, hands on hips, her chin jutting out, and looking defiant.
“What’s it to you?” she asked.
“You’re my little sister,” Willow said hotly.
“And you’re my darling girl,” Aunt Vanessa said, getting in on the action, “We’re just worried about you. What do you know about this Dave you’re hanging out with anyway?”
“I know plenty,” Rosemary said. “I know he works in IT for a company in town. I know he’s an amazing kisser, and that he can do things with his…”
“We really don’t need to hear that!” Aunt Vanessa exclaimed scandalized. “I would like to meet him you know. Any man who takes an interest in my little girl needs to be vetted.” She smiled sweetly at Rosemary.
Rosemary softened at this and kissed her aunt’s cheek.
“I will bring him round for coffee or something,” she said, “he’s a nice guy. Really. Anyway, Willow met him.”
“I don’t know if saying hi, counts as meeting him properly,” Willow said, the hairs on the back of her neck were rising, and she couldn’t figure out why.
“Sure it does,” Rosemary said smiling. “Well we’ll organize, then we can have family meal or something.”
Just then there was a knock on the kitchen door and Tyler opened it.
“Morning ladies,” he said. “And don’t you all just look as fresh as a June morning?”
Willow felt her insides turn to electrified mush.
Rosemary smiled at her and then at Tyler and said, “If anyone looks fresh Mr. Crowe it is certainly you. What did you do swim in a mountain stream, and then roll dry on spring green grass or something?”
“Nope,” he said walking into the kitchen. “I just have a good constitution. And the rest is all awesome genes.”
Willow smiled at him and turned to kiss her aunt. “Don’t forget what we talked about,” she said.
“I won’t,” Aunt Vanessa said.
Rosemary was making herself a cup of coffee, but she stopped long enough to hug her sister, and watch Willow and Tyler go out the door.
“Is everything okay?” Tyler asked as they walked to his truck, that gleamed silver in the morning sun.
Willow nodded. “Yeah, I think so. It’s just Rosemary is dating this guy and I’ve got a weird feeling about him. I just don’t want her to get hurt.”
“Aw, you’re such a wonderful big sister,” he said in a playfully mocking tone.
She punched his shoulder as he opened the door for her. She climbed up and as she sat down, he planted a kiss on her cheek.
“Morning beautiful,” he said.
Willow knew in that moment, that she wanted to hear him say that every morning for the rest of her life.
The drive to the Lemon Drop was a quiet one. Willow was deep in thought, mulling over her sister’s new boyfriend and another puzzle that was worrying her. The other puzzle was Tyler. Since that night at her show, he had been a perfect gentleman. An old school, perfect gentleman. He hadn’t even tried to kiss her yet. She knew he liked her. The phone calls and the daily coffee run spoke to that, but did he like her enough?
“Tyler?” Willow found herself saying when they were still outside town.
“Yeah,” he said glancing at her, his hands on the steering wheel.
Oh well she had his attention now, so she went for it.
“Do you like me?”
“Of course I do. Why do you ask?” Tyler asked, a note of concern in his voice.
“Well,” Willow began feeling awkward. “In all this time you’ve never…I mean we’ve never.” Now it came to it there was no good way to say this. “You’ve never kissed me.”
Tyler’s smile was suddenly so wide it threatened to circumnavigate his head. Without a word he pulled over onto the side of the road, and turned in his seat to look at her.
“I have a confession to make,” he said. “I’m in love with you. You have taken my breath away from that first moment I saw you, and I have wanted to kiss you more and more each day.”
Willow was ecstatic. Tyler loved her. Her heart did cartwheels in her chest.
“There is one thing though,” Tyler continued and now he looked serious.
Her heart stopped mid cartwheel and hung there frozen, as ice slid down her spine. Oh no there was something wrong. Was he going to tell her that he was what? Married? Had sixteen love children? Was actually a woman? Or worse, that he had loved her but it was all gone now?
“It’s complicated,” Tyler said looking really uncomfortable now.
Willow stopped panicking and took his hands in hers. “It’s okay,” she said.
Tyler looked deep into her eyes. His golden ones looked so sad and scared. What could he be scared of she wondered? But Tyler turned away then and opened his car door. Willow began to panic. Had she said something wrong?
He came to her door and opened it.
“Willow,” he said and her heart wanted to cartwheel again but she held it in check. “I need you to know me. I need you to see who I really am, what I really am. So please, come with me.”
He took her hand and she let herself be led out into the open field. There was a small clump of trees and bushes just up the hill a little way, and Tyler took her there. He found a fallen log and spread his jacket on it for her to sit.
Then he said, “Now I’m gonna go behind that bush over there. Please don’t freak out when I come out.”
“Okay,” Willow said not knowing what to expect.
He disappeared. There were some horribly organic sounds and then a huge black bear padded out from behind the bush, and stood in front of her. It sniffed her. Willow sat dead still, not daring to breathe.
“Tyler!” she called when she found her voice. “Tyler!”
The bear nodded at her. It did, it nodded. Willow sat with her mouth open. The bear sat in front of her and pushed his head under her hand. After a moment’s hesitation she patted him, feeling his soft fur.
“Oh,” she said and giggled. “You’re a bear. Like a werewolf?”
He leaned towards her, his wobbly bear nose inches from own human one. Then he licked her. She laughed. He licked her face again and Willow patted him, sliding her hands through his fur.
“Okay,” she said. “You can change back now.”
Tyler the bear went back behind the bush. There was another moment of organic noise and then Tyler the man walked out, doing up the button on his jeans.
“So, you see that’s why I don’t jump into physical relationships with women,” he said. “It’s amazing how badly some people take the fact that, some of the time, I look and smell like a bear.”
“I think you’re kinda cute for a bear,” Willow said standing up and wrapping her arms around his neck. “So about that kiss…”
Tyler grinned like a naughty boy who was about to raid the cookie jar. He bent his head down to her, as she stretched up to him and he picked her up, pressing her to him. She could feel every firm muscle in his abdomen, and hers turned to jelly. She breathed him
in and after an eternity, his lips met hers.
It was a kiss she would always remember.
Tyler and Willow had just pulled up to the Lemon Drop when his phone rang. Willow went inside and ordered a cappuccino for him and a hazelnut, honey latte for herself. She was about to find them a table, somewhere in the busy little place, when Tyler appeared next to her.
He looked tense.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Tyler leaned across the counter and flagged down a barista. “Can you make our coffees to go?” he asked.
The barista, a short, plump girl with very rosy cheeks, smiled and nodded.
“Great, thanks,” he said then turned to Willow. He lowered his voice. “It’s the bank. They called to say that they aren’t going to approve the finance for buying the Sawyer farm.”
“What? Why not?” Willow asked feeling genuinely sorry. “Didn’t they already approve you?”
“They did, but now they’re saying there was some glitch in their software system, and now I don’t qualify,” Tyler said. He swore and banged his fist on the counter.
The barista was about to put their coffees down and she glared at him.
“Sorry,” Willow said, taking the coffees.
She steered Tyler outside with the take aways in her hands. Then she handed him his cardboard cup.
“I’m so sorry Tyler, I think your camp idea is a wonderful one,” Willow said sincerely. But Tyler was angry. She could see that. His usual grin had vanished and been replaced with a scowl.
“Well I suppose I should congratulate you then,” he said with a waspish tone. “I guess this means that Mrs. Sawyer will sell the place to you.”
“We aren’t the only two people interested in the farm, Tyler,” Willow said sipping her coffee.
“Yeah well,” he said. Then he shook his head, “There’s something not right here. I’m going to the bank. You wanna come or what?”
Willow was less enchanted with Tyler in this mood, so she sipped her coffee again to buy some time while she thought. As she swallowed she said, “I think you’ll need to go to the bank alone. I would just feel weird about it.”
He shrugged. “So I’ll find you around here?”
Willow nodded and kissed his cheek, “I really am nuts about you, you know.”
He looked at her with no more anger in his face, and drew her into a hug. “I’m sorry, I’m just mad.”
“Perfectly understandable,” Willow said and waved him goodbye as she trotted across the street.
On her own, Willow made her way into a grocery store. She needed a few things anyway and this was as good a time as any to get them. She took a few minutes to buy what she needed and then she went to the park across the street from the bank, to wait for Tyler. She was sitting on the swings when she saw him.
At first she didn’t recognize him. After all she had only met him once, but after staring for a while she realized it was him. It was the dark hair and grey eyes that she remembered. It was Dave, the guy dating her sister. He was dressed in smart trousers and a golf shirt that had a company name printed on it. He crossed the street and entered the bank.
Willow wondered what he was doing there. After all, there were very few things that actually required a bank visit these days. But here he was. She contemplated following him into the bank, but thought better of it. Just because she was suspicious of him, didn’t mean there was really anything to be suspicious of. She was Rosemary’s older sister and with that came a certain amount of over protectiveness.
The sunlight was warm, the sky blue with little white puffy clouds drifting by, and she was happy. So Willow let it go. Later she would wish she had followed him.
Tyler dropped Willow off at home in time for her matinee performance, but he didn’t stay. He had things to do, he said. So Willow trotted into the house to grab a bite before heading over to the theatre.
As she opened the door she realized there was something wrong. Aunt Vanessa was sitting at the kitchen table a box of Kleenex in front of her. She was sniffling into one now.
“Aunt Vanessa what’s wrong?” Willow asked, quickly moving to sit in the chair closest to her aunt.
Aunt Vanessa blew her nose loudly. “We aren’t getting the farm, Willow.”
“What? How do you know that?” Willow asked.
Her aunt blew her nose again and wiped her eyes, then scrunched up the tissue and dropped it with the rest on the table.
“The bank called today, they said there was some malfunction in their computers. They said that I don’t qualify for the finance,” Aunt Vanessa sobbed. Then she swallowed and looked angry. “As though thirty years of good credit meant nothing!”
Willow put a hand on her aunt’s arm. “I’m so sorry.”
Aunt Vanessa turned red rimmed, puffy eyes on her and sighed. “Oh well, at least Tyler’s in with a chance.”
Seeing her aunt in such distress had driven everything else from Willow’s mind, but now when her aunt mentioned his name, it all came back.
“Actually, he’s not getting the money to buy the place either,” Willow said. “The weird thing is, he got the same phone call today. Almost exactly the same.”
Aunt Vanessa began to snuffle and took another tissue. She blew her nose again.
“I was so hoping we could expand,” she said sadly.
“I know,” Willow said but her mind was racing. What were the odds of two people, up for the same property, being denied loans after they had been told they were approved? A glitch in the system? How convenient.
Willow had the worst show of her life that afternoon. She was so preoccupied she forgot her cues, messed up her duet with Randal, who went off in a huff, and then only managed to hold on until the final number was finished. By then half the cast and crew were mad at her, but Willow just had to know something.
Rosemary was in the dressing room before her.
“Wow! You had a shocker of a show!” Rosemary said her feet up on the counter as she lazed in her chair. She was reading a magazine again.
“I have a lot on my mind,” Willow said. “Hey by the way, I saw Dave today.”
“Oh?” Rosemary asked but her ears pricked up.
“Yeah, he was at the bank,” Willow said.
“Okay.”
“Where did you say he worked?”
“Some IT company, why do you care?” Rosemary asked. “Sad about Aunt Vanessa’s news isn’t it?”
“Yeah it is,” Willow said. She was almost having a thought. It was hovering annoyingly just out of her reach, and she knew it had something to do with the unsettling feeling she had about this Dave person. After all, he had practically stalked Rosemary, and her sister was too blind to notice.
Maybe she was being unfair. Maybe Dave was a nice guy. But somehow Willow just couldn’t fit that image in her head.
The second show went better. Willow had decided that she really had no idea how to help either Tyler or Aunt Vanessa, and that she was being silly and mean. She hardly knew Dave. It wasn’t fair to judge him on a feeling.
Dancing Bearback (BBW Shifter Cowboy Western Romance) (Bear Ranchers Book 3) Page 4
