The Problem with Falling (Problems #3)

Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

Theo

Present Day

T he day of the anniversary party was a whirlwind. People were coming in and out of my place to set up for the celebration. By noon, I was already peopled-out, yet I kept a semi-smile on my face because the day wasn’t about me—it was PaPa’s and Grandma’s. I’d do whatever was needed and possible to make the day a success for the two of them.

The other day, I stopped by to see my grandparents, and I could tell PaPa wasn’t doing his best. When I asked, he told me all was well, but I knew my grandfather well enough to know that he’d never tell me if something was wrong. He’d always put on a brave face, even in the darkest moments. I knew we were passing through the darkest moment yet. Each second felt like a step closer to goodbye. I wasn’t ready to face goodbye yet. Then again, I didn’t think anyone was.

A few years ago, PaPa fell in the bathroom. He never told anyone about it, and went on as if everything was all right, up until he fell again. And again. And again. That was why he needed the wheelchair. Those falls were the start of his body shutting down over the past few years. Unfortunately, the worst part of getting older was this—growing closer to the end of one’s favorite novel.

Around five in the afternoon, Peter went to our grandparents’ and picked them up to bring them to the party. Nearly two hundred people showed up from town to celebrate the couple. That wasn’t shocking to me—my grandparents had a way of connecting with any and everyone.

Everyone wore vibrant colors to showcase the wild Alice in Wonderland theme, pastels and neon tones. I, myself, wore a light blue suit. And Willow?

Fucking wow.

“How do I look?” she asked, walking into the hallway from her bedroom. She wore a pastel pink silk dress tied around her neck, showcasing her fully exposed back. Her hair was straightened and pulled back into a high ponytail with a yellow ribbon tied around it. Her skin was smooth and her eyes were beautiful.

That was nothing new.

She always looked beautiful. Even when fishing on my boat in my oversized sweats.

My brain must’ve short-circuited because her brows knitted together as she said, “Is it not good?”

I shook my head and cleared my throat.

“No, I, I, y-you…” I took a deep inhalation. “ Breathtaking ,” I pushed out. “You look breathtaking, Weeping Willow.”

Her smile stretched out, growing fuller, and somehow, it made my own lips turn up. It was as if hers had magnetic powers to make my own mouth happy, too. That was a recent new experience for me. It had been a long time since another’s smile could make me grin.

“You look quite nice yourself, Mr. Grump.” She walked toward me. Each step she took confused my heart. “I have a little something for you.”

She opened her hand to showcase two forest-green cuff links. “I had them made for you.” I studied them. One read ‘Mad’ and the other read ‘Hatter.’ She gestured for me to hold my arms out. I did as she requested. As she began to attach my cuff links, she asked, “Does it happen when you’re nervous? The stuttering?”

“Yes,” I replied. “That, or uncomfortable, or angry.”

“Are you angry right now?”

“No.”

“Are you uncomfortable right now?”

“No.”

She tilted her head up, and that small smirk sat firmly against her full, glossy lips. “So do I make you nervous?”

I paused.

She did.

She smiled bigger.

She knew.

She finished attaching the cuff links, then smoothed her hands over my suit. “Dapper, Mr. Grump. Very, very dapper.”

I nodded once. “Beautiful, Weeping Willow. Very, very beautiful.”

Her cheeks flushed, and she blinked those long, stunning lashes a few times. “Ever since we became friends, you’ve knocked it out of the ballpark with your niceness.”

“It’s a learning curve,” I muttered.

“You seem to be a quick study.”

“I have a good teacher.”

She smiled again, and fuck me, were those butterflies fluttering in my stomach? What. The. Fuck?

Reminder to self: Rip off said butterflies’ wings.

Friendships didn’t come with stomach issues.

Before I could lose myself in her eyes once again, the arrival of Grandma and PaPa coming around to the backyard interrupted us. I knew they had arrived by the cheers from the crowd.

“Shall we?” I asked as I held my arm out toward Willow, my friend—nothing more and nothing less. She linked her arm with mine as a friend—nothing more and nothing less.

“We shall,” she replied.

Rip off those fucking wings, Theo.

We walked to the backyard, and as I looked out, it was a full sea of color. When my eyes met with Grandma and PaPa, my cold heart skipped a few beats. They looked stunning. PaPa was in his chair, but he seemed so happy wearing his olive suit with a purple tie. Grandma looked as if she had just walked the red carpet in Hollywood.

And the way they looked at each other?

That. Was. Love.

We all headed to the front of the archway I’d made, covered in flowers that Jensen decorated for the ceremony. Willow stood on Grandma’s right as Peter and I stood on PaPa’s left.

Peter’s father was the officiant for the celebration, and when it came time for my grandparents’ vows, I was almost certain there wasn’t a dry eye in all of Westin Lake.

Grandma requested a wooden chair to sit on, so when she spoke her vows, she’d be at eye level with PaPa.

At that moment, they were transported back to their youth. They weren’t facing their current issues. They weren’t worried about tomorrow or what would come. No. They were just two dumb kids falling in love for the first time, promising one another forever.

Grandma reached out and took PaPa’s hands in hers.

Her vows came first. “My Harry, my love, my friend. The past sixty years have not only been the most colorful years of my life but they have also been the most joyful times. Before you, I was convinced I was too much. Too loud. Too wild. Too unpredictable. Too bright. Just too much. Then I met you on the back of my father’s fishing dock, and you said I was just the perfect dose of everything. You never asked me to change; you never requested that I dull my color. You found me wild and still left me free. If I could tell anyone a love story, it would begin and end with you. My life was empty before you stepped into it. And you brought me the greatest days of my life. My heart is always yours to keep. Thank you for keeping it safe. Thank you for loving my wild. And I promise you, no matter how close we come to a goodbye in this realm, I’ll find you again on the other side,” Grandma said before placing a homemade colorful bracelet around PaPa’s wrist, the sign of her renewed vows.

That got me slightly choked up.

Then it was PaPa’s turn. “My favorite artist, my greatest love. Molly Rae Langford, my world was a blank canvas before you spun into it. And spun, you did. If I remember correctly, I was on that dock, saving you from almost falling in. When I caught your arm, you told me you were too busy counting the stars.” At that moment, I understood why Grandma and Willow were friends—they were both obsessed with the night sky, almost injuring themselves from looking up toward the moon and stars. PaPa continued, “Ever since then, you’ve made everything brighter. Before you, my world was black and white. Your presence has enhanced my entire existence. Because of you, I see the world in a different way. I am more in touch with myself because you’ve taught me what it means to be unselfishly oneself. Over these past sixty years, you have been my rainbow. It has been my greatest privilege to be loved by you, and my greatest honor has been to love you back. And even as we get older, just know I still mean what I said on our wedding day many moons ago: Forever, Molly Rae. In this lifetime and the next, forever. I’ll always meet you on the dock.”

I was choking on a sob that I swallowed down from PaPa’s vows. As I looked up, I caught Willow’s eyes on me. Tears streamed down her face because it was my Weeping Willow. The girl who cried over any and everything. She smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back. Lately, she’d been dragging those out of me.

Wait, rewind.

What did I think before?

My Weeping Willow?

I meant my friend Weeping Willow.

We were friends.

Nothing more, nothing less.

She bashfully looked away, and I missed her stare the moment she stole it from me.

I’d have to lie to myself and pretend I hadn’t, though.

“Everyone’s having a great time.” Willow beamed as she sat down at the table I’d been stationed at since dinner was served. There were people scattered all around my property, some laughing by the dock, others signing the colorful souvenir bench that Grandma would place in the middle of her garden as a memory piece. Yet most people were on the dance floor, moving as if they didn’t have a care in the world.

I turned toward Willow, then looked back out at the crowd. It was hard for me to stare at her for long periods of time. My mind became too jumbled. “People love my grandparents.”

“They are very lovable.”

I could feel her smile. My hands grew sweaty, and I rubbed them against my legs. “Shouldn’t you be on the dance floor yourself?”

“I’ll need a dance partner first.”

At the hopeful stare in her eyes, I parted my mouth to tell her how there was no chance in hell she’d see me on that dance floor tonight, but another voice spoke on my behalf before I could get one syllable out.

“My cousin doesn’t dance,” Peter said, walking over with a glass of whiskey. It was clear he’d been drinking and was plastered out of his mind. I wasn’t trying to judge him as most people at the party were drunk off their asses. But Peter became fifty times more annoying whenever he drank. His already unfiltered mouth only became more absurd.

Peter held his hand out toward Willow. “But I do. Besides, I think I owe you an apology still.”

Willow shifted slightly in her seat; her discomfort was apparent.

I swallowed hard, choking down some of my own pride, then stood. I held my hand out toward Willow. “Shall we?”

Her doe eyes widened with surprise. She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, almost as if asking if I was serious.

I nodded.

It was funny how we could communicate without words.

She placed her hand in mine, and I pulled her to her feet. We walked to the dance floor as a slow song was playing. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Peter down his whiskey, then head back to the bar for another.

As Willow and I made it to the dance floor, she wrapped her arms around my neck, and I placed my hands against her hips. I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. I’d never slow danced with a woman before. But something about Willow made it seem effortless. It was as if my feet knew where to go, and she followed me without any thought behind it. Her eyes stayed on me the whole time, along with that soft smile against her full lips.

“Thank you,” she whispered, tilting her head up to meet my stare.

“Have you two spoken since the incident?”

“No. I’ve been going out of my way to avoid him.”

“So I guess you and I have something in common,” I joked. She smiled still, but it looked a little sad. “What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing, I just…” She lowered her head. “I’ve been thinking about what Peter said. How I was coming onto him. How I was putting out signals. Maybe it was my fault, and I overreacted. Maybe I came on too strong or seemed flirty, and he just read the signs wrong. Maybe… I don’t know. Maybe I was too much at the beginning.”

“Do you do that often?”

“Do what?”

“Overthink everything.”

She nodded. “Oh yes. I’m a professional overthinker. If there were an Olympic medal for it, I’d take gold.”

“I’d probably give you a good run for your money.”

She quirked an eyebrow. “You’re an overthinker, too?”

“When you talk as little as I do, all there’s left to do is overthink.”

“Hmph.” She kept swaying with me. Was this dancing? Was I a dancer? “I just thought when you were quiet, you were thinking about fishing.”

“To be fair, that is ninety-five percent of my thoughts.”

She laughed.

I loved the sound.

“You didn’t do anything wrong with Peter,” I told her. “He’s always been like that. You could’ve been as disinterested as ever, and he would’ve assumed you were playing hard to get.”

“Noted. I’ll remind my overthinking mind of that repeatedly,” she said. I smiled. “If you could do that more often, I’d be forever grateful.”

“Smile?”

“Yeah. They look good on you.”

I wondered if she knew she was the reason I’d been doing the smiling thing more often. I shifted in my shoes. “Grandma and PaPa seem happy today.”

“That’s all I wanted. I know things have been hard for them both…speaking of, how are you doing with Harry’s health?”

I frowned. I parted my mouth to speak, but no words came out. The sting of emotions behind my eyes burned slightly.

Willow stopped her movements. She placed a hand against my chest, against my heartbeats. “It’s okay, Theo,” she whispered. “I can tell when some things are too hard to speak about.”

I nodded. “Thank you for understanding.”

“Thank you for sharing.”

I huffed out a chuckle. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You said a lot. You just didn’t use words.”

A tiny grin found me. “So what? Are you saying you can understand me with no words?”

“I think I’m saying I can hear you loud and clear in the silence.”

I wanted to kiss her.

Right then and there. I wanted her mouth on mine. I wanted to part her lips and taste her tongue. I wanted her.

Fuck.

I was failing at this friendship thing, and it had only been a few weeks. But it seemed that when I decided to break down my walls with Willow, she came in like a wave and knocked me off my feet.

I didn’t know what it was about Willow. I didn’t know why my brain seemed to short-circuit whenever she was around me. All I knew was I was becoming more and more like Alice in Wonderland when it came to Willow Kingsley. I was becoming curiouser and curiouser.

“You know what we should do after this party is over tonight?” Willow asked.

“What’s that?”

She glanced over toward the boat.

And my crush on my new friend was fully activated.

Shit.