I take Willow’s hand, the feeling of her fingers closing on mine all I need.
Lane leans back in her chair. “Arranged marriages are common in other cultures. There’s nothing inherently messed up about it.”
Beck runs a hand in his hair. “But this wasfake.”
“Was it, though?” Lane asks.
A small smile plays on my wife’s face. “Didn’t feel like it,” she whispers.
I pull her to me, kissing her lips lightly.
“Aw please!” Beck all but yells, and Muffin yaps and jumps on Beck.
Beck crouches and ruffles Muffin, jaw still set.
“Come and finish your beer,” I tell him.
I want to ask Lane how long she’s known, but then I might have to answer questions about why I kept this to myself.Maybe another time.
“Beck, seriously, Noah and Willow were always meant to be together,” Lane says.
My heart thumps. As if she hadn’t dropped enough bombs yet. What is she even talking about?
“Oh, come on!” she cries, looking between Beck and me. “Like you don’t know Mom always had a soft spot for her. Always said she loved Willow’s drawings because she captured the soul of Lilyvale.” Beck snorts, but Lane ignores him. “No one else ever spent hours in the garden, drawing and painting. I remember Mom telling me I shouldn’t bother her. That she needed this time to herself. That Lilyvale was a refuge for her, but that one day, Willow would be Lilyvale’s refuge.”
Willow’s hand is spasmodically clenching mine, tears falling down her cheeks.
“No one else?!” Lane looks, astonished, between Beck and me.
“I just thought she meant Willow had enough shit in her life, we needed to let her be when she was here,” Beck says.
Same, brother. What the hell?
“You never said anything,” Willow says in a voice so raw I barely recognize it. She bites her lip to stop the trembling.
Lane smiles softly at her. “It all made sense to me at Colt and Kiara’s wedding. Except this idiot was supposed to fall in lovebeforeproposing.”
Idiot sums it up, and it’s not the first time I’ve felt like one.
Willow’s grip on my hand has loosened, replaced by a soft stroke. “He was too worried about the estate, and what it would do to you guys if he lost it, to think about himself. Or to worry about falling in love.”
Beck clears his throat. His gaze is still fixed on mine, but the animosity is replaced by an eagerness to help. “So what are we gonna do? About Gail.”
The hell if I know. “We don’t know what she wants.”
“So what—we just wait?”
Pretty much. “A while back she filed some paperwork about our marriage not holding water. But she hasn’t continued that—at least not in court. Your guess is as good as mine as to why she’s in Emerald Creek.”
Beck stands and stretches with a grunt. “We can ask around at Ethan and Grace’s wedding. See if anyone knows anything. If she’s been asking questions about you guys.”
“No one at Game Nights believes there’s anything weird about your marriage,” Lane says. “I did some recon when you were gone for the Phish concert.”
“Oh yeah, thesecond onewe couldn’t come to.” Beck pretends to complain, but his smirk belies his words.
I shrug, warmth spreading inside me at my brother’s change of attitude. “It was our honeymoon.”
“You asked about us at Game Nights?” Willow asks, clearly shocked.
