Chapter 13
WILLOW
I sit up in bed. “Kaede. Kaede!” I rock his shoulder.
“Baby… morning…” His burly arm wraps around my waist and hauls me to him. His morning wood pokes me in the ass and I briefly consider ignoring the sound and making our night continue into this morning. But I hear it, again.
“Kaede. Wake up! There’s someone at the front door.”
His eyes open. “No one ever comes out here, sweetheart.”
“I came out here.”
And then there are four sharp and powerful raps on the front door.
“Oh, shit.” He slips from the bed and yanks on his jeans from last night. His tight ass glaring at me and I yearn to reach out and touch it.
Or bite it.
He’s out of the bedroom in thirty seconds, but the heavy bedroom door creaks back open a crack.
Voices escape the living area and find my ears.
“Hey, Kaede.”
“Boone, what’s up?”
Crap, Daisy’s hubby… This is not going to go well…
“I really don’t know. You tell me.”
Called it.
“Come in.” Kaede’s feet squeak on the polished maple flooring.
Boone’s voice booms through the room and into the crack of the door. “I went to get Willow to bring her over to the house and she’snotat Wyatt’s cabin. And so I thought I’d ask you to help me look for her, but then I find her car out front. Do I have to go looking, Kaede?”
“Nope.”
“And am I going to like the end to this story?” Boone’s gruff voice cuts the air like a serrated knife through metal.
“The real story is we’re adults, but I’m sure you’re going to want the extended version.”
“I’m gonna need the extended version.”
“Fine. She wasn’t at the right cabin. She accidentally set up camp here, thinking this was Wyatt’s place due to a GPS issue. She left her dome light on and her car wouldn’t start. I allowed her to sleep in my bed for the night.”
There’s a long pause.
“And were you in that bed, too?”
“Yes. Yes, I was,” Kaede says so matter-of-factly that my heart races. He isn’t afraid to say the truth and it seems like he is happy or proud to say the words.
Honestly, I don’t care if Boone knows, but I love hearing Kaede say the words. It sounds sexy as fuck and like he wants to come back to me as fast as I want him back.
“What the fuck, Kaede?” Boone’s growly voice cuts into my happiness. “Daisy’s very protective of her friend.”
“Maybe Daisy doesn’t have to know.”
“No. I don’t lie to my wifeandif I don’t come back with Willow, I better have a fucking good reason. Get dressed. We’ll all go over together for this shitshow.”
“You gonna wait in here?” Kaede asks.
“Yes. I am.” Boone always cuts to the chase, but today he sounds like the sharp edges of a diamond.
“Then do me a solid and make some coffee and don’t look behind you while you’re doing it.”
“Fine.”
I shiver at how Boone says that one word. It’s not fine. I didn’t want to cause a problem with Daisy and BooneorKaede and BooneorDaisy and me! I love my friend like a sister. She understands me. She never gives me crap for how I am. I just wonder what she’ll think about this choice.
Kaede slips into the bedroom and closes the door. “I suppose you heard that?”
“I did.” I nod.
He meets me at the side of the bed as I swing my legs out. “What do you want to do, sweetheart?”
I freeze. Everything I ever wanted is right in front of me. Everything I dreamed about. Everything I desire, but there are only two potential hurdles: my job and probably myself.
“I’ll talk to Daisy.” I need to talk to her. She’s been in my spot. She’s protective of those she loves and she might not like what’s happening, but this is bigger than her mama-bear instincts. This is so much bigger.
“I’ll go with you.”
“Kaede, she’s my sister without blood. She’s very protective. She knows me.”
“Then I’ll go help Boone chop some wood.”
He’s going to come along no matter what and part of me wants him with me, so I decide that fighting isn’t worth it. Someday there will be a fight that will be worth inserting my attitude.
He hands me a fluffy grey robe from his closet. “Want to shower together?”
I thought you’d never ask…