She fit perfectly against him, their feet moving faultlessly in sync.How the hell could he let her go?
They easily slipped into the next song and the next, his mind clouded by her nearness, his senses overwhelmed by her scent, her voice, her warm body beneath his hands.He wouldn’t mind staying like this forever.
A hand touched his shoulder.Cooper was next to them.“My turn,” he said as he took Willow’s hand.“Mom says you’ve promised her a dance.”
Before he could protest, Cooper was dancing away with his fiancé.
Rubbing his face, he turned around.Fake fiancé.He kept forgetting that.
*
Willow’s eyes followedHunter as he walked to their table and asked her mother to dance.Cooper was a great dancer, she should know, she’d taught him, but she missed her fiancé’s arms around her.
Swallowing a groan, she tried to focus on the music.Fake fiancé; it was so easy to forget that when she was with him.They were both leaving the next day, she’d probably never see him again.
“So, Willow,” Cooper’s amused voice penetrated her thoughts.“Have you told Hunter how you feel about him?”
Quickly she looked up at her brother.He was smiling innocently.“We’re engaged.”
“Are you, though?”
“Don’t do that,” she scolded softly.“You’re not supposed to be able to read human beings.”
“Well, yeah, but what you’re feeling is so loud and fierce and glowing, it’s impossible to ignore.”
For a while they danced in silence.
“I’m leaving tomorrow.It’s too complicated.”
“Even if I couldn’t read you, dear sis, I’d have known you are lying.You’ve never been good at that.For what it’s worth—life is short as we’ve experienced in this family.When you get a chance at love, you grab it and hold on to it with both hands.As you know, I have also been scared to love anyone else besides our crazy family.I didn’t think I could handle it.But here’s the thing, Willow.Whether you’re with the person you love or not, you’re going to feel their pain.”
“Well, I can’t read Hunter.I don’t have that problem.”
“Can’t or won’t?”he asked gently.
“What do you mean?”she asked crossly.Seriously, she didn’t need this right now.
Cooper shook his head.“You can read anyone if you put your mind to it.It seems though, you have successfully blocked everything coming from Hunter.The question, of course, is why?Are you simply afraid of the load of one more person’s feelings, or do you still think you’re the one who was responsible for what happened to Walker and don’t deserve a chance at love?”
Taken aback, she glared at him.“Psychoanalyzing me now, are you?”
“Nope, just saying what you’re telling me without words.”
“I’m not… I don’t know where you get the idea, it’s not…” Staring at her brother, she swallowed her words.It hadn’t been consciously, but had she somehow blocked out experiencing Hunter’s feelings?Was Cooper right and did she, like her brothers had, feel she didn’t deserve love?
Frantically, she looked around.Where was Hunter?She didn’t want to hear what her bother had to say.
Cooper cleared his throat.He clearly wasn’t done yet, it seemed.“I know it’s what you’re doing because it’s exactly what I do around people.Handling other people’s emotions and pain does get to be too much, I agree with you, that’s why I focus on animals.”
“For someone who seldom talks, you suddenly have a lot to say.Why are you going on about it now?”
“Because you’re about to make a decision that could change the course of your life forever.I want you to know you deserve happiness as much as we all do.Remember what you told me not so long ago?Go and talk to Walker, he’ll tell you what happened that night, was an accident.It wasn’t your fault.”
Thousands of thoughts and feeling swirled through her until finally, the dots connected.“I could’ve prevented his accident,” she whispered, as realization dawned that Cooper was right.He’d seen something she hadn’t even been aware of—she was still feeling guilty about their brother’s death and because of that, she’d done her best to steer clear of any kind of relationship.Until Hunter.
All this time, she’d reckoned she’d made peace with what had happened a long time ago.It would seem, though, the reason why she tried to persuade them they weren’t guilty was because she still believed that she was responsible.“If I wasn’t so busy thinking about a cowboy whose name I don’t even remember anymore, I might have known about the elk crossing the road,” she muttered.
“Even you can’t know everything, Willow,” Cooper said.“Talk to Walker.Trust me, you won’t be sorry.”
