“Don’t worry. I’m skilled at getting people to talk without asking obvious questions.”
“And?” I ask.
“And everyone thinks it was about time you got your head out of your ass and saw what was right in front of you.”
That evening in bed, Willow cuddled on my chest while we catch our breath, the sweet scent of sex in the air, I start chuckling stupidly.
“What?” she asks.
“Remember how we used to “study” each other? Did you ever answer all those questions we came up with?” The idea seems so silly now.
She sits up in bed, pulls the sheet up to cover her breasts. “Yeah. I put it in an online document folder so we could add to it from our phones. Remember?Idid my homework.”
I pull the sheet down to her waist, watching as her nipples pebble under my light touch. “Maybe?” I don’t remember that at all. But now I’m curious what she put there, so I grab my phone and open the spreadsheet I’d all but forgotten about. A line catches my eye, underHeartbreaks—something Willow must have added herself.
Mom lied to me because she didn’t think I could handle the truth.
I scoop her so she’s straddling me. I want her full attention. “I don’t care about your politics or how you talk to God or even your first kiss, though I’m mildly jealous of the fucker. I already know you don’t care for blueberries but you’d get in a fight for the last blackberry. That the way you take your coffee depends on the weather, but you got to have almond milk because soy gives you inflammation and oat milk bellyaches and real milk the shits. I know the sound you make when you’re about to come, but I’d kill anyone who’d even go there and ask. I’ll never admit knowing your clothes size, and I love that you buy cruelty-free shit for your face.”
There’s so much more I want to tell Willow. How she’s permeated every aspect of my life. How she’s part of me. How sometimes I’m scared this is all a dream and I’ll wake up alone, terrorized not about losing the estate, but about going through life without my dream girl.
But there’s one thing I need to do for her.
“What really, really makes me sad is that you’re carrying into this beautiful life of yours a pain that your mother gave you—her lie—but really she just wanted you to be shielded from the ugliness of the world. And I almost think I should thank her for that. Because all the shit that was going on in her life and yours,you didn’t deserve it and she knew it. So kudos to her for lying to you if she thought that would make it less painful.”
She cups my face in her hands. “I was always right about you. You’re the best there is. The only one for me.” The tenderness in her gaze is so deep it brings tears to my eyes.
forty-three
Noah
Standing next to Ethan as his best man, I’m having déjà vu. Same group of friends, different lineup. This time I’m the best man, Grace is the bride with Alex her maid of honor, and one of the bridesmaids is my wife.
We’re at the King’s farm, in the midst of acres and acres of green pastures and fiery woods. The Vermont sky is huge above us, brimming with pinks and gold in this witching hour.
And this time my wife is looking at me with adoring eyes instead of…shit… stealing glances at me. Shewaslooking at me all those years. I just never saw it. Never saw hertruly. What is wrong with me?
This should be us, standing at the altar with all our friends around us, exchanging vows. Willow should have had the wedding of her dreams. I shut my eyes briefly. How blind was I, that I didn’t see her? Didn’t sense what she felt for me?
Speaking of which, I need to get to the bottom of how and when this all started for her. I see some tender confessions in our future, a hint of sorrow soothed by an orgasm or three.
Shit. Wrong time to get a hard-on. My eyes open on instinct on Willow, her gorgeous body molded by a brand-new dress the color of sunset,no tag,her gaze on Grace and Ethan, and… tears in her eyes.
Is she thinking the same?
She deserved a wedding like this, something no one would ever forget, with pictures for generations to come in the hallways of Lilyvale.
She smiles feebly now, something Ethan said. What was it? Oh yeah. The man on my right is going on about the years being apart, when they should have been together. Some stuff about mistakes and making up for lost time. Smooth talker, my friend.
I won’t get public declarations of love and she won’t get a lavish wedding. But I’ll make damn sure that ’til death do us part, she has the sweetest life she could ever dream of. I’ll love her fiercely, entirely, and with devotion. She deserves nothing less.
When Grace and Ethan walk past us, I’m faced with Alex, Grace’s maid of honor. “You owe me a swap,” I say with a smile as I take Willow’s arm. Alex slides behind me. “Hey handsome,” she whispers to Chris.
I lean toward my wife as we follow the bride and groom and give her arm a squeeze. “You’re getting better at this.”
She smiles at me. “No tag to bother me.”
“Oh, that’s the only difference?”
