Chapter 6
WILLA
Waking up the next morning was something novel and strange.
The moment that her eyes opened up, she knew what was waiting for her outside in the main room.
Landon had slept over.
Landon.
Goodness. Had it really been eight years?
Had she really been so far off in imagining what he”d look like?
She”d expected him to keep the same clean-shaven look that he”d had when she met him.
Smiling, she paused in her doorway.
Met.
If that”s what you call someone holding his hands against your throat so you don”t bleed out, meeting someone.
And it was that same clean-shaven face that would be in her eyes when she shot up in bed, waking from one of the thousands of nightmares after that day.
It was the determined look in his eyes that kept her from crawling out of her skin.
Landon.
Walking on what she hoped were silent feet, Willa walked into the main room of her house and stared at the man awkwardly sprawled on her sofa.
It was plenty big enough for her.
When she”d bought the thing at a furniture discount store, she”d felt silly buying it, feeling like she”d never really need something so big, but she knew now that she”d been wrong.
Even with the blanket and pillows that she”d given him, he looked ridiculously uncomfortable. One leg hooked over the arm of the sofa, the other stretched out with his stockinged foot on the floor.
One arm behind his head clutched around the pillow and the other with his hand over his heart as if he was pledging allegiance to the flag.
It was all too strange for her to make sense of it.
He should be sleeping in his own bed in his own home, safe and comfortable, but he”d stayed over with her because of her severely lacking security.
Maybe she owed him an apology for being stubborn.
Or maybe, the sassy voice in her head shot back, he should trust that I”m not stupid and can protect myself.
She shuddered at the thought.
That voice had been silent for so long.
And she really didn”t think he was trying to be heavy handed for his own reasons.
Even as angry as she”d been back when they”d met, she”d known deep inside of her that he was a good guy.
One of the few she”d ever met in her life.
But her instinct was to push back.
To put some distance between them.
Licking her own wounds was easier when she was alone.
Taking a few more steps toward the center of the room, she saw the tense line of his jaw. He was frowning in his sleep.
Letting out a soft sigh, she knew that it was probably because of her.
It would be one thing if he was just uncomfortable physically, but she had a feeling that wasn”t all it was.
Yes, she should apologize, but she wasn”t quite sure how to say it in words.
Willa turned her head toward the kitchen and nodded.
Mrs. Rivera had once told her that the way to a man”s heart was through his stomach. Well, she didn”t want to get to Landon”s heart, but she did want to make amends for asking him to sleep in something that looked like dollhouse furniture compared to his larger frame. So, she headed toward the counter to look and see what she had in the way of edible fixings for breakfast.
LANDON
He woke up to the smell of coffee in his nose and something that smelled like pancakes and butter.
Cracking open an eye, he found himself looking up at a ceiling that looked like popcorn stucco.
Out of sorts, he reached for his blanket and found nothing but his plain cotton tank top under his hand.
The night before came flooding back into his head. ”Willa?”
”Oh, hey. You”re awake.”
He sat bolt upright and almost found himself on the floor.
”Careful.” He heard a soft sound of humor in her voice. ”I didn”t realize how uncomfortable you”d be on the couch.”
He saw the not-so-subtle wince on her face and tried to smooth things over. ”Well, you didn”t exactly invite me to stay. I told you I wasn”t going to leave. I didn”t give you a choice.”
She heard his words and shrugged\.
”I have some breakfast for us. If you want to wash up in my bathroom, you”re more than welcome to.”
”Yeah. Yeah.” He managed to right himself before falling off of the edge of the sofa and got to his feet with just a little bit of effort. ”I”ll wash up first.”
He reached over to his bag and pulled out a fresh shirt and walked toward her bedroom. Landon paused at the door and looked back at the kitchen. Willa turned and looked back at him.
”Is there something wrong?”
”No.” He shook his head. ”I guess I should have said ”Good Morning.””
She looked a little surprised. Maybe even shocked. ”Well, good morning to you, too.”
He held back for a moment hoping that she would say his name. Stupid? Absolutely. But that”s where he was in his head.
Landon smiled, blaming his odd mood on his lack of restful sleep and the ache in his neck and stepped inside of her bedroom.
It didn”t take more than a moment for him to find the bathroom, but he turned in a circle to look at the rest of the room.
He wanted to tell himself that he wasn”t curious about her bedroom, that he was just doing it to be observant, but he knew that it was a lie. He wanted to know what her space looked like.
And it was as eye opening as he hoped it would be.
Her bedroom looked like her living room, in that her furniture was all mismatched pieces. If he had to guess, he”d say that she picked them up at different sales or stores. They didn”t look like they were picked for how they looked with the rest of the pieces, but he had a feeling she didn”t care that much about things matching.
He wondered why she picked them.
Her things: blankets, curtains, decorations... They were all in wild colors and textures.
That kind of color made him smile.
That kind of color gave him hope that she was happy with the life she”d made for herself.
He quickly made his way into the bathroom. He didn”t want her to feel like she had to wait for him to start eating and he didn”t want her to think that he was investigating her bedroom.
Which he kind of was.
He flicked on the bathroom light and stared at himself in the mirror above the sink. Yeah, he looked like he”d slept like shit.
”I put some towels out for you on the counter next to the sink.”
He smiled as her voice reached him in the bathroom.
Just a few inches from his hip he saw the towels she was talking about. There was a washcloth and a slightly larger towel. The one on top looked like it was printed like the Texas State flag, the one beneath it was printed with watercolor cactus plants.
They made him smile.
Picking up the top cloth he started the water in the sink and wet it before scrubbing it across his face. The rough scratch of his movements invigorated him, and the heat of the water felt damn good.
When he saw himself in the mirror again, he grinned. He felt better. Ready to face the world.
And ready to face Willa again.
WILLA
On the way to the Texas Rangers office, Willa couldn”t help but move her fingers. Keeping her hands still when she was nervous wasn”t a thing. She tapped her fingers on her knees in no particular rhythm or rhyme. Just movement to release some of her stress. Every so often she”d flick her gaze toward Landon in the driver seat, hoping that he hadn”t noticed.
”You, okay?”
”Okay? Sure!”
She winced. That sounded a little too bright.
”Right.” He nodded his head. ”Do you want to stop somewhere?”
”Somewhere? No! I don”t need to stop somewhere. Do... do you?”
”No.”
They made it another couple of streets before he spoke again.
”Do I make you nervous? Should I have someone else be your contact for the task force?”
”No.” She shifted in her seat and looked at him, trying to ignore how much she wanted to reach out and touch him. Touch him to reassure him, but also to reassure herself. ”I think it”s just nerves since we”re not on my home turf, you know?”
He cast a quick look in her direction. ”You”re going to miss the home turf advantage?”
Smiling easily for the first time since they climbed into the SUV, she nodded. ”Kind of. At the house I”m in charge. At the Ranger offices, well... I”m afraid I”m going to feel like a perp.”
”Perp?”
”That”s what Gus calls our... targets.”
A soft ”hmm” reached her ears.
”You don”t like talking about the men in those terms.”
She adjusted her position on the seat, rubbing her back against the cushion. ”I don”t like talking about them at all. I just want to be able to do something about them. That”s why I guess this is the best way to go. It”s one thing to put all of the information in a hypothetical box and then drop it into the hands of law enforcement.”
”You want to see them put away.”
She felt her teeth slide back and forth against each other in her mouth. ”I don”t need to see them in a cell, but I want to know that we”re making a difference. I want to know that we”re protecting people who can”t really protect themselves.” She turned a bit and looked out of the passenger window. ”I remember the first time Jack Reynolds got me alone at school. I was curious what it was like to kiss. Or rather, what it would feel like to be kissed, but the first time he got his hand under my shirt, I knew I didn”t want to try that.”
She drew in a breath through her nose and let it out.
”I moved his hand away and hoped that would be that, but he tried to shove his hand down the front of my jeans. I pushed him away and he almost fell on his butt. I had a chance to put him on his ass that day because we were both about the same age.”
”He shouldn”t have touched you like that.”
Willa heard the cutting tone of anger in his voice and in her head, she agreed with him, but that wasn”t the immediate point. ”He shouldn”t have, but I saw it coming... No, that”s not exactly true. I was face to face with him. I had a chance to say no. I had a chance to push him away and stop it. These young girls? The ones like Kimmy? They don”t know that they”re dealing with a man, sometimes twice their age! They see a fantasy. They”re playing around. They”re curious. Just like I was curious-”
”Willa, stop-”
She felt his hand settle on her leg and knew he was trying to comfort her and stop her from digging into herself, but that wasn”t what she wanted. Not exactly.
”I was though. I was curious to see what kissing a guy felt like. I wanted, on some level, to maybe see what came after that, but these men online? They know what they”re talking about. They know what they want to do. And,” she sucked in a deep, shuddering breath, ”they know that these girls they”re playing with don”t have a clue. They know how naive they are. They”re counting on that, Landon. They”re using it to get the upper hand on these girls. That”s what I”m fighting against. I”m just trying to give these girls a fighting chance, whether they know it or not.”
They continued down the street and when the roaring rush of sound in her ears eased away and she could hear the soft strains of a Lee Ann Womack song on the radio, she exhaled.
And almost smiled.
It wasn”t until they slowed down to a stop at a corner and Landon had to lift his hand away to flick on the turn signal that Willa realized that he”d kept his hand on her leg, but that she”d covered his hand with her own.
Reaching out and touching someone wasn”t something she normally did.
Especially with men.
But it hadn”t been an issue with Landon.
Touching him... being touched by him... was easy.
No, easy wasn”t the right word.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The turn signal stopped as they eased into a straightaway and her mind cleared again.
Touching him was natural.
Another exhale.
This one shaking her from the inside out.
”I think you”re doing something amazing for the world, Willa.”
His words lifted her mood. Lifted her spirits.
”Really?”
Her shoulders tightened as she realized how silly she must sound.
”Willa?”
”Hmm?” She had her eyes on the windshield before her.
”Look at me, please?”
She turned to look at him and barely suppressed a smile.
”I mean it, Willa. I wouldn”t say it to you if I didn”t mean it.”
She bit into her bottom lip. ”I”ll believe it coming from you.”
Willa thought she saw him smile before he rolled down his window to key in his code for the security gate. Once the mechanical arm lifted to allow them into the secured parking lot, he turned back to look at her.
”I won”t ever lie to you, Willa. Never to you.”
Then he focused straight ahead through the windshield and pulled into the lot.
She didn”t put any energy into watching where he was going.
Willa was busy processing the words he”d said to her and her own reaction to them.
It was crazy in a way. For nearly eight years she”d thought about Landon, wondered where he was, and what he was doing. And now, in a couple of days she found herself leaning on him, believing his words, almost more than what she said to herself.
Crazy?
Probably.
But then her life had never been something she thought of as normal. It wasn”t even what she saw her classmates going through. What she called her life was like walking on an iced over pond that cracked just by looking at it.
She knew even back before Kimmy was taken from her that her home life could barely be called that.
It wasn”t really home.
It certainly wasn”t life.
The SUV went over a speed bump near the back of the building and she wondered if what she had now was any closer to life.
Well, she didn”t have an answer to that either.
Landon put the car in park and turned it off.
He took a breath before turning to look at her. ”You ready?”
Her instinct was to answer no.
But with Landon looking at her, his eyes full of concern, all she could say was, ”Yes.”