I cornered her against a mountain of cardboard boxes and slid my hands onto her hips. “I think last time turned out pretty damn good for us,” I murmured against her lips.
Willow tipped her chin up and smiled before meeting me in a kiss. “What would you have done if we didn’t get along? Or if you were actually an ass and we were stuck with each other and miserable for three months?”
“Well, I know I’m not actually an ass. I just had to convince you of that.” I said before I pecked her lips again. “And if you had actually hated me, I would have had to buckle down and work a lot harder.”
“And what if we didn’t have chemistry?” she asked as she wrapped her arms around my neck. “Because, if I’m being honest, I’ve never had chemistry like this with anyone. You can’t fake chemistry. Either it’s there or it’s not.”
“Check-out line,” I whispered against her lips. “I knew from the get-go. There was never a doubt in my mind.”
The door to the back room opened, and Lisa slipped in. “Am I interrupting something, kids?”
I stepped back from Willow and adjusted my glasses. She pressed her palms to her cheeks, trying to tamp down the flames between us.
“Nope. Not a thing,” Willow blurted out.
Lisa’s eyebrows rose. “Well that’s a bummer. Let me go back out so you two can keep canoodling.”
I laughed under my breath.
“We weren’t canoodling!” Willow shrieked.
If I had to guess, I’d say she was still getting used to the idea of this being real. But she was there. I could feel it.
Lisa giggled as she rummaged around her bag and pulled out a tube of makeup. “You have hickeys on your neck. A lot of them.”
Willow glared at me as she snatched it up, then used her phone’s camera as a mirror while she dabbed on the concealer. “Great. Now it just looks like I have weird dark spots.”
“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes,” Lisa said as she took a seat in a spare folding chair. “Although I wouldn’t say this is a stupid game.” She twirled her finger around in our direction. “I love this.”
“I thought you were officially back to work on night shift?” Willow asked. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping? And how did you know we were here? I didn’t tell you.”
“Ryan told me,” Lisa said with a shit-eating grin. “So that I could come yell at you in person for not telling me you had a book event.”
“Did you just get off work this morning?” Willow asked.
“Yes,” Lisa said.
Willow huffed. “Then you should be asleep. Not two hours away at a bookstore so you can watch me talk to people.”
Lisa’s eyes were sad. “I wanted to be here because you know he would have been.”
Instead of hugging Lisa, Willow leaned into my side.
I wrapped my arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “Let us celebrate you for him.”
“Thank you,” Willow whispered as she hugged me, then held on.
Lisa stood. “I’m going to go browse. But don’t think you’re getting out of the picture tradition just because Shep isn’t here. I need a new one for the shelf back at the house.” She squeezed Willow’s arm. “See you out there.”
“Thanks for coming, Lise.” Willow rested her head on my chest as Lisa closed the door behind her.
“He’s proud of you,” I said as I cradled the back of her head, careful not to mess with the curls she had spent an hour on.
“I know.” There was hope in her admission. Acceptance.
We stood in silence, leaning on each other in the sanctity of the moment.
When the bookstore owner poked her head in and said it was time, I wished Willow luck, then headed out first to meet up with Lisa so Willow could make her grand entrance.
