twenty-nine
Noah
“Ibroke my lease,” Willow says one morning two weeks later, eyes a little shiny.
We’re having a cup of extremely satisfying coffee, thanks to my ingenious wife’s new partnership with Millie, and our mid-morning breaks around the new dispenser are becoming a routine. I never attempted to kiss her again, after that night with the rescues, and I’m glad I didn’t. It was the puppy love making her act all emotional with me that night, I know it. She doesn’t feel anything for me, and I’m not interested in empty sex anymore. Or so I keep telling myself.
But today she’s distraught, and I hate it.
“You…” Fuck this is hard. I know she needs to hear this. “We’ll find you another place when…”When we divorce? When you move out? When I don’t get to see your lovely face every morning, witness your magic all day long?How do I evenput this into words? “When the time comes. Maybe there’ll be another opening at Sunrise Farms. Who knows?”
“Totally,” she says, gaze focused on her coffee. “I don’t have much personal stuff. Most of the furniture was Colton’s. I can store the rest in the basement.”
“Absolutely not.”
I can’t wait to be surrounded by Willow’s stuff.
“How did today’s coding meeting with Zach go?” she asks.
I don’t call her out for changing the topic. I get it. Rehashing hard stuff doesn’t make it go away. “He needs a summer project, something a little complex that will look good on his college applications. We were talking about his options.”
She gives me a small laugh. “He could come and set up the vacuum cleaners at Lilyvale when we receive them. If he doesn’t mind.”
It’s a small, menial task, but Zach won’t mind. He kept going on and on about what a great woman Willow was. How she taught him to ski independently. Listening to him, you’d think we’re the power couple in town.Fuck, the kid is going to be disappointed.“Sure, I’ll let him know. He’ll be happy to see you.”
At the end of the day, we take the truck to Sunrise Farms and pull up next to the entrance. We grab Willow’s skiing and hiking gear from the downstairs lockers, then go upstairs to her apartment.
When I walk inside, I’m taken by how homey it feels. Sure, there’s Colt’s dark couch and his oversize TV (which he’s switching with Kiara’s), but there are so many feminine touches that scream Willow.
The plants. The decorative pillows in hues of pink and green. The scarves hanging from sconces. Even the stack of trail maps and the local plant guides have her stamp.
But mostly, her drawings and watercolors—serene mountains, colorful flowers, joyous waterfalls. As she removes them one by one from the walls to place them in a large box, the place loses its appeal.
Colton worked it out with the landlord that he can leave his furniture there and the apartment will be rented furnished. So while Willow sorts through her things, I help him carry his TV down to the apartment he now shares with Kiara, and we bring her smaller one upstairs, Kiara in tow carrying the cables.
Willow comes out of the bedroom holding a pile of clothes on hangers. “I’m going to set these on the back seat,” she says, calling my attention to a very familiar dress.
I close the distance between us. “Didn’t end up returning it,” I state, something like happiness at this trivial detail warming my chest. Unable to hide how I feel, I give her my biggest smile.
“I…” A million emotions show on her face, seemingly warring to take over as she focuses her gaze on my chest, the cutest pink tinting her neck, making its way up her face. Finally, she looks up at me. “No.”
“Good.” I take a step forward, grab the tag, and tear it off. “There. Even better.”
Her eyes widen and she steps to the side. “Hey, Kiara,” she says in a funny voice as she scampers away.
“What was that?” Kiara hisses as Willow disappears on the staircase. She pushes me inside the bedroom and shuts the door so Colton, currently hooking up her TV, doesn’t hear us.
“What was what?” The fuck does she want with me?
“Don’t hurt her.”
“What?!”
She actually pokes my chest. “Don’t play mind games with her.”
I take a step back but don’t answer. She has me very confused, and her anger with me is puzzling.
“Don’t make her believe what’s not there, Callaway.”
