37. willow
CHAPTER 37
WILLOW
THERE WOULD BE HELL TO PAY
My dad had a poem that won all these awards about how sometimes letting go is the best thing you can do. It was actually about my pet hamster who escaped into the woods, and we searched for two weeks before holding a mock-funeral with tiny bouquets bought from Michaels. But now I finally understood the poem in its entirety.
It was time to let King go.
No teasing him, no torturing him, no contact. I stayed as far as I possibly could while still seeing him every day.
At the training center, I made sure to scan our little walking area before Kassie and I left to grab Piper for mani-pedis. Which was exactly the distraction I needed from my dad’s surprise. I wanted to ditch and focus on nail polish, not the inevitable conversation I needed to have with him.
Kassie yawned. "I am so hungover."
"I told you not to have that last drink."
"I should’ve hit my cap two drinks before that but Hanif makes the shit out of those rainbow rim concoctions."
Every night, I kept checking for King in the audience, and I needed one night where I didn’t do that, so I invited Kassie along. Ryan dropped her off and we hung out with the bar staff Kassie knew on a first-name basis and ate pretzel bites until midnight had come and gone.
She drew in a quick breath. "Oh, there’s Piper. Pipes! "
Her call echoed across the hallway and Piper perked up, hurrying to meet us.
"I have news," she blurted out. "King’s with that girl again."
I froze.
" What? " Kassie demanded. "I thought King cut it off with her?"
"They were in a meeting for Austin yesterday, and someone had a Vanysh notification—it’s like the hamster squeak? King dropped his phone trying to check it, and when he realized what happened, he left the meeting."
"He bailed? "
"I think he said he had to grab something? Either way, he walked out."
A flush crept up my neck and I fidgeted with my jacket.
Oh, god.
Kassie dropped her voice to a whisper. "What happened with the boyfriend shitshow? That’s got to be where the bruises came from."
"I have no idea. What do we do?"
I cleared my throat. "I—um—he told me he ended that between them. Permanently."
"Yeah. Okay." Kassie snorted.
"No, he told me. Really."
"So he looks like an extra on Fight Club for fun? King was not like this. At all. Trust us, whoever this girl is, she’s working him over."
"I’m going to talk to him and figure out who she is," Piper said. "I think if he’s open about it, he’ll feel better. All of this sneaking around has to be weighing on his shoulders." She wrung her hands together. "Ugh. I feel horrible."
My palms started sweating.
"I don’t think he’d bring her around here," Kassie said thoughtfully. "Too risky. But he’s spending time with her on campus and I got no idea how he’s doing that without us seeing her."
I swallowed. Hard.
Kassie turned to me. "You seen any girls in his truck? That shit goes fifteen miles an hour, that’s our best bet of spotting her."
"I—I?—"
"Oh, here he comes." Piper made a sympathetic noise, looking behind me. "Poor King."
God, no . All my careful effort not to see him, wasted.
My heart leaped to my throat at the sight of him. Dark circles were under his eyes and for the first time I’d known him, he had an actual scruff, a five o’clock shadow he clearly hadn’t bothered with.
Oh no.
His eyes were fixed on me. "Willow, I need to talk to you."
"I—um—we’re getting mani?—"
"Alone."
There was a tightness with his gaze that wasn’t usually there and his entire body was uncomfortably stiff. Something was clearly bothering him.
But could I talk to King?
Nope.
"I can talk to you in class?—"
"Don’t worry." Kassie shrugged. "We can wait."
Oh my god.
Knowing I was about to regret this, I followed after him, trying to stay calm. King didn’t say anything. Not one word. I pushed up my glasses, trying to figure out how to ask what he wanted.
"King—"
"Do you have endometriosis?"
l blinked. "What?"
"Endometriosis. Do you have it?"
"I—no?"
"Did you have an episiotomy done?"
"King, why are you listing vagina diagnoses?"
The end of the hallway broke to the main floor, but he snagged my elbow, pulling me back to the glass windows. "Willow, I’m going to ask you a question, and I need the truth."
"Um…okay."
"You have to promise you won’t lie to me."
My heart beat in an unsteady rhythm, a broken metronome. Gingerly, I nodded.
"Did someone hurt you?"
"What do you mean?"
King had to hold back for a moment while he rubbed his jaw. His voice was so deep, I could feel the vibrations in my fingertips. "Willow, did someone touch you?"
Suddenly, I realized exactly what he was talking about. A heavy blush seared my skin but I hurried to shake my head. "No—no one."
"You wouldn’t lie to me about this."
"No, of course not."
It was easier to tell him because there was nothing to tell. My four previous experiences had been disappointing but that was it. Nothing happened beyond the frustration and kicking them out of my dorm before cracking open a pint of Bluebell. The worst was the orchestra composer who tried to serenade me in the campus park but that had just been mortifying.
"That’s not why…?" King's eyes lingered.
I pressed closer to the windows as a few soccer players walked by.
"I was in a bicycle accident when I was a kid." That wasn’t hard to talk about. It was the after effect that had me flustered. "I can still ride bikes, it’s nothing like that, but…where are you getting this from?"
"I talked to a pre-med student about your condition."
Oh.
I had no idea what to say. Because why was that so…sweet?
"Willow, if someone hurt you?—"
"No one hurt me," I promised. "If you want to hit the guy who invented bikes, he’s definitely dead."
King nodded again but the stiffness in his limbs didn’t disappear. I had the distinct feeling he was trying to calm himself down. "If someone hurts you, do you know who to go to?"
I could’ve said a dozen things off the top of my head. My dad, who would immediately take a flight halfway across the country to comfort me, or my mom, who would round up her best friend, a lawyer from UT, to sue someone’s balls off. Or one of my many, many relatives in San Antonio who, despite the family drama, would have my back if anything happened.
None of them were my real answer.
If anything happened, I knew the first person I’d go to.
He was standing in front of me.
"Yes," I whispered.
If anything happened, even something as small as getting my ass grabbed, and King witnessed it firsthand, I knew I wouldn’t have to lift a finger.
Elijah was right. I did have a bodyguard.
There was that little twitch along King’s jaw. I could see how much this conversation weighed on him when he faced me again. "If anyone ever hurts you—I don’t care if it’s twenty years since we’ve seen each other—you need to tell me. Do you understand?"
I nodded.
"My d—" King stopped himself. "Willow, if anyone ever makes you feel unsafe, I’ll take care of it. I promise. You’ll never have to worry about them again." He hesitated. "Including me."
"I don’t feel unsafe with you, King."
I could see him swallow as he gazed down at me. The longer I looked at him, the longer I’d regret it, but that didn’t change the fact that I couldn’t look away. God, he meant it too. Every word.
The silence stretched until I spotted Elijah out of the corner of my eye, walking with his new hockey captain.
Oh, shit.
I shouldered my backpack. "Elijah knows."
King’s eyebrows furrowed.
"He knows you have a thing for me," I hurried to tell him. "Or thinks he knows. I’m doing everything I can to convince him otherwise, but I need you to leave that way and I’ll go with the girls."
"Is this…part of the mind game?"
"Game?" I repeated.
" The game."
"What game?"
"Fuck." King’s eyebrows furrowed. "You’re so good at this."
"You need to go ."
But he didn’t move.
It would’ve looked better if we turned in opposite directions, but taking matters into my own hands, I pushed away from the window in a direct line towards Kassie and Piper. When Elijah caught my eye, he waved and I waved back, trying to hide how much my face burned.
"I’m going all turquoise," Kassie said. "What are you picking?"
"Um…my mom wants us to go dark blue for Austin," I replied and stole a look over my shoulder.
I couldn’t help glancing back at King. Still standing by the windows. His eyes still on me.