Page 240 of Out of Left Field

Willa came here? The guilt and shame I already felt somehow doubled. “What exactly happened?”

“Megan stopped me. She told me you were out of town.”

Which was almost certainly a lie. I wasn’t exactly a world traveler after I quit. “And then?”

“I insisted on seeing you. Told her I was worried about you. That I…missed you.”

Willa was here. On my island. And for reasons I couldn’t fathom, Moms turned her away. “Why would she do that? And why didn’t she tell me?”

Willa shrugged, her shoulders curving inward. Rejection from my mother, on top of her own mother’s rejection, mixed with my silence…damn. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight, resting my chin on the top of her head. “I love that you came for me. I hate that she stopped you.” Then I pulled back and tilted her face up to mine again. “I wouldn’t have turned you away. Maybe you would have knocked some sense into me. I don’t know. But thank you. Thank you for loving me and caring about me even when I was being a self-destructive asshole.”

She nodded but didn’t say anything. She looked overwhelmed. So I whipped my shirt over my head and stripped down naked. Then I got to work on her sundress. Willa watched with wide eyes and a lot of questions. When we were naked I washed us. I soaped up her hair, massaged her scalp, and then took my time combing conditioner through all those curls with my fingers.

Neither of us said a word.

Then I held her. This was a side of Willa she didn’t show very often. The vulnerable, hurt, uncertain side. Normally she refused to let the past pull her down. She faced the future with a smile tilted towards the sun. It was hard to hide the cracks after the night we had.

They were there. They were a part of her—a part of us. And I couldn’t steamroll past them no matter how badly I wanted to.

I traced the perfect line of her cheekbone, followed the drop of water down her delicate jawline. Her lips were soft and full. Her breath puffed against my fingers as I moved over each peak. The urge to kiss her was extreme. Instead I kept my lips inches from hers, which only made it easier to feel each shuddered breath.

The water from the shower was hot, and yet we both shivered.

Maybe I stripped us naked because I wanted to feel her skin on mine, but most likely I wanted to prove to both of us that this was so much more than chemistry. It wasn’t awkward to be naked together. It was…right.

I took one of her long strands of hair and rubbed it between my fingers. Wet or dry, her hair transfixed me. The wet curl wrapped around my finger the same way I craved to wrap it around my fist.

“Everett…”

I swallowed hard as I forced myself to look into her eyes. “Yes Willa?” She used my name so I used hers.

“What is this?”

“This is two people being together.”

Her chest rose and fell harder and faster the longer we stood like this, pressed together, touching, but nothing more.

I cleared my throat, fingering her hair as I stared down at her trembling body. “It’s recently been brought to my attention that family is sacred. That it’s important to hold the people you care most about, that treat you well, as carefully as possible. And it’s just as important to reserve those spots only for the people who most deserve it. So I’m holding you, Willa. I’m holding you because you are sacred. I’m holding you as carefully as I can because I love you and you deserve to be loved.”

Willa was such a ball of fire that it was easy to forget her family was just her and her dad. They were as close as two people could be, but that meant they didn’t have anyone else to rely on.

Then Seth and I became part of her family. She granted us two rare and sacred spots in her life.

And I made the critical mistake of not treating that position with the same care and attention. I couldn’t just step back into the spot and expect it to be mine free and clear. I had to earn it, starting now, by showing her that I wanted her in every way: as a friend, as a lover, and as a life partner.

“I don’t want anything between us. Not as Willa and Everett or Cooper and Anson or whatever it is we’re becoming to each other. There shouldn’t be any iteration of us where we hold back.” I threaded our fingers together, connecting us. “I won’t hurt you ever again. I’ll prove it to you.”

I kissed each knuckle on her hand, my eyes locked on her the entire time, to drive the point home. Then I turned off the shower.

When we were dry I held out a robe for her then slipped into the spare. My wet clothes went into the plastic laundry bag. She walked me to her door looking a little embarrassed. Whether it was because of everything I just said or because I was leaving her hotel room in a robe, I wasn’t sure. Maybe it was both.

I cupped her face and ran my thumb over her cheek before kissing her once lightly on the lips. “I’m not going anywhere, Willa. Never again.”

“Are you listening?” Seth kicked me.

“Nope.”

“What’s up with you? You’ve been a million miles away today.”