She scoffed. “Right…like I’m going to be the kind of girl who tells her guy not to do something that he wants to do and that is well within his right to do.”
If it was possible for Ash Murphy’s smile to grow any bigger or brighter or moreknock-her-off-her-feet gorgeous, it just had. Luckily, her feet were already off the sandy bottom of the swimming hole.
“What now?” Willow asked, worried he was about to ask her if it was okay if he went and risked life and limb again while she watched.
“Willow Morgan…did you just call me yourguy?”
Her mouth fell open. Then she threw a hand over it as if something else incriminating might leak out.
“Holy shit,” Ash remarked. “I’m Willow Morgan’s guy!”
“Shh!” she hissed. She might fly under the radar, but if someone nearby recognized her name, their whole fairy tale would end, and they’d have to go back to the real world.
He tilted his forehead against hers. “Youlikeme,” he teased.
“Shut up,” Willow mumbled.
“Youcareabout me,” Ash added.
“Seriously, Murphy…” she warned this time. “You better shut that stupid mouth and throw away the key.”
“You weresoworried about me on that cliff, and now that you know I survived what a bunch of teens and preteens have been doing since they got here, you want to kiss the hell out of my stupid mouth.”
He grabbed her thighs and hiked her higher and a little closer so that now they were practically mouth to mouth.
Of course she wanted to kiss the hell out of his stupid mouth. In barely more than a week she’d gone from hating him, to trying (accidentally) to kill him, to tolerating him, to forgiving him, and now to what? Caring about him so much that she couldn’t breathe when he did exactly what a middle schooler was doing right then and there?
“I don’t want to care this much yet,” Willow finally admitted.
“I know,” Ash replied.
“This is supposed to be the fun, easy, fantasy getaway where we don’t think about the after.” But Willow was thinking about the after, things like… What if he’d hurt himself jumping off that cliff? What if he’d done something worse? How much would it hurt to lose him a second time? Yeah, those were not questions she wanted to be asking or answering on an impromptu trip where the only thing on her mind should be how great the sex was and when they were going to do it again.
Ash nodded. “Then let’s get back to fun and easy,” he told her and dropped her back to her feet. “Last one to the waterfall has to makeandclean up dinner tonight.” And then he dove beneath the surface and popped up only when he was already a few yards away. “Better catch up, Morgan!” he called over his shoulder. “Not sure if I have any mac and cheese left, but I bet there’s a fish or two swimming around your feet right now!”
He dove back under, and Willow yelped as she felt something touch her ankle.Please let it be seaweed. Please let it be seaweed.Willow wasn’t going to wait around to find out. She dove after him, kicking and paddling like she was aiming for Olympic gold rather than simply trying to get out of dinner duty. Then she found herself smiling even as her arms, legs, and lungs worked overtime to not only catch up but overtake her daredevil of a guy just before the spray of the falls hit them.
Her guy,she thought again.
Hers.
She could admit it, right? At least to herself. Ash was different now.Theywere different. Maybe she didn’t have to think about the after as far as this little getaway was concerned. Weren’t her two months in Meadow Valley a getaway—albeit a working one—in and of itself? She treaded in water barely over her head, pumping one victorious fist into the air as Ash popped up beside her.
Because he could stand, he shook out his hair like a golden retriever and then scooped her into his arms.
Willow laughed as he spun her in a circle singing Queen’s “We Are the Champions.”
“We?” she cried. “What’s thiswe, you cheater! I beat the pants off of you even after you gave yourself a head start!”
He flipped her over his shoulder caveman styleas she continued to laugh and pretend to beat at his back as if she were opposed to being taken prisoner. Ash strode through the waterfall toward a small patch of sand on the other side, a spot you could only reach by swimming, and a spot that—as of right now—was free of any other visitors.
Even when the water had made it to his knees and then his ankles, Ash held her tight, only relinquishing her when they finally reached shore.
He laid her down on the sand, cradling her neck with his hand as he hovered over her, dripping wet and smiling like he had when he’d leaped off the cliff—with complete and unmistakable joy.
“You look happy,” Willow told him, still breathless after the race and her subsequent capture.
“That’s because I’m happier than I’ve ever been, ever in my life…ever,” he replied, staring down at her with his hypnotic blue eyes.
