Page 23 of Timid (Lark Cove 2)

I never got turned down.

Though, I don’t think I’d ever really asked a woman out before. I didn’t date. I hooked up. And the women I hooked up with didn’t get asked to dinner, unless they were eating here at the bar. They got asked to bed, then sent on their way after we were done.

But with Willa, I wanted more than an easy fuck. It wasn’t every day I met a woman who had no qualms about slamming a door in my face. I had to admit, it was kind of a turn-on. I wanted to spend some time together and get to know her. Maybe that would shake the damn dream out of my head.

Though, dreaming about her and all that hair wasn’t really a hardship.

Because, fuck me, that hair was incredible.

It’s what had caught my eye in Thea’s drawing. I wanted to spend intimate hours with that hair. I wanted it wrapped around my hands and threaded through my fingers. I wanted to feel the silky ends tickle my bare skin. Just thinking about her hair made my dick twitch.

I needed more of that hair and the woman who grew it. If she wouldn’t agree to a date, I’d have to learn more about her in other ways.

“Hey, Wayne. You know Willa, don’t you?” I asked.

He choked on his beer. “Willa Doon?”

I handed him a stack of napkins to clean the beer slobber on his chin.

He dried his face and gave me a sideways glance. “Yeah, I know Willa.”

“What’s she like?”

“She’s great. Her dad is the science teacher so I’ve known her since she was little. She used to come into the school with him during the summers. They’d practice his new experiments before school started.”

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“Nate’s a good guy.” He was one of the first people I’d met when I’d moved to Lark Cove. He didn’t come down to the bar often, so I didn’t see him much, but he always waved and asked me how I was doing whenever we bumped into each other around town.

I felt like an idiot for never noticing his daughter. How old was she? Nate wasn’t all that old. And his wife, Betty, looked like she was in her forties, not old enough to have a grown daughter.

“How old is Willa?”

Wayne shrugged. “I don’t know. I see so many kids at the school they all kind of blur together.” He thought about it for a minute. “If I remember right, she graduated the same year I got divorced. And that was eight years ago, so . . . twenty-six.”

Twenty-six. No wonder I hadn’t noticed her years ago. She was too young.

I was thirty-one. She’d been a teenage girl when I’d moved to Lark Cove. I didn’t have a lot of limitations when it came to the women I took to bed—women were beautiful creatures, no matter their shape or size—but they were all women.

Except Willa wasn’t a teenage girl anymore. She’d grown into a stunning woman. A woman I should have noticed long before last night.

How had I missed her?

She came into the bar every now and then. I’d served her and her friends drinks. When she came in with her parents for pizza, she sat quietly and listened while Nate and I shot the breeze.

Oh, fuck. How many times had I called her Willow? I was such a prick.

“She does good work at that camp,” Wayne said. “Her parents have been bragging for weeks about her saving it.”

I nodded. “I’m glad it all worked out. I’ve heard nothing but good things about that camp, and it would be a shame to see it close.”

Logan may have bought the camp, but I liked the idea of giving Willa all of the credit instead. My eyes went back to the door, hoping it would push open and she’d walk inside. But it stayed closed.

“Uh, I don’t know if you know this or not, Jackson,” Wayne said carefully. “I think Willa might have a little crush on you.”

“No shit?” Then why had she turned me down for a date? Twice?

He shrugged. “Just a guess.”