It sends a deep, throbbing pressure south and makes my hands itch to pull her into me. The need to run my nose up the column of her neck and sink my teeth into the soft place where neck meets shoulder is fucking addicting.
Fuck, I’ve always wanted this woman. Six years have only made that need pulse with teeth.
She clears her throat, and I realize she’s said something I missed. I look at her, unable to speak, and wait for her to keep going.
“I was just saying, I’ll let Eli know she’s alright. Nothing serious. She just likes the attention,” she finishes, taking a step back, putting distance between us like she can feel the pull too and doesn’t trust it.
She can barely meet my eyes.
“Right.” I clear my throat, trying to get my head on straight. “What did you find?”
“Stone lodged under the shoe. I cleaned out what I could—you can check the rest.” She’s all business now, professional and distant, like we’re strangers instead of two people who used to know each other’s secrets.
But I can see the way her hands shake slightly as she packs up her kit. Can see the flush creeping up her neck that has nothing to do with the cold.
She feels it too. Whatever this is between us, she feels it.
“Good. I will.” Christ, I sound like an idiot. “So you’re working the circuit now? I heard you were in California.”
“I was. Finished my degree, got some experience. This is an internship with the APBRA.” She shoulders her bag, avoiding my eyes. “Temporary thing.”
Temporary. The word hits harder than it should.
“How temporary?”
“End of the season.” She finally looks at me again, and there’s something guarded in her expression that wasn’t there before. It makes my Alpha want to demand she tell me what put that wariness in her eyes.
“And then?”
“And then I go back. Or find something else. Haven’t decided yet.”
The silence stretches between us, heavy with things we’re not saying… and with the memory of the way she looked at me the night before she left for college.
The night I broke her heart because I was too much of a coward to admit I loved her.
“Caleb know you’re here?”
I think she’s not going to answer as she heads out of the mare’s stall. But she turns and looks me in the eye, that defiance and strength I’m used to now burning in her gaze.
“No… well, at least I haven’t told him yet.”
“He’d want to know. We all would.”
She looks at me long and hard in that direct Willa way. She doesn’t say anything, just stares at me. Her eyes are a maelstrom of emotions.
I find myself wishing she would yell at me, curse me, laugh at me, tease me the way she always used to. But the woman before me is the same and so different from the girl I remember.
“Later, Charlie. It’s been a long night, and I’m going to head out. It was nice to see you again,” she says as she turns and leaves.
And then she’s gone, leaving me alone with the mare and the lingering scent of buttercups, oranges, and vanilla.
At least I know she’ll be around for a little while. That thought is the only thing that keeps me from following her and kissing her until her cries reach the rafters.
I pull out my phone before I can think better of it, scrolling to Caleb’s number.
Saw your sister tonight. Did you know she’s here?
I type it out, then delete it. Because how do I explain that seeing her again felt like coming home? How do I tell my best friend that his little sister’s scent still calls to my Alpha?
