Chapter Two
Willa had exactly four minutes of peace that morning.
It was early, barely seven-thirty, the kind of gray Oregon sunrise that dragged itself up over the water like it had a hangover. She was still in her sleeping clothes, clutching a mug that might have contained coffee but tasted more like burnt something or other.
The knock at her door came when she had been just about to sit and wonder why she wasn’t sleeping in, considering she hadn’t dropped off to sleep until around two AM. The knock evaporated the wonder. It was sharp. Insistent. And accompanied by a familiar voice that was way too perky for this hour.
“It’s me,” her unwanted visitor said. The “me” in this case was none other than her sister, Fia.
Willa groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” The knock came again. “Fia, if you’re not here to warn me that the saloon is on fire, you’re about to wear this coffee.”
Willa yanked the door open to find her younger sister grinning as if she had something to grin about.
“There she is!” Fia beamed. “My favorite sister. Which is easy since you’re my only sister.”
“You’re supposed to be at work,” Willa grumbled, squinting at her. “Don’t you have… I don’t know… drones to boss around?”
Fia worked as a wildlife drone pilot for the state park service. She spent most of her days tracking elk herds, seabird colonies, and, on at least one occasion, a suspiciously aggressive seagull that loved to dive-bomb tourists.
“Took the afternoon shift. Nothing exciting in the sky this morning,” Fia said, brushing it off. “Besides, I had a date last night. Missed all the fun here at the Seaglass.”
Her eyes sparkled as if she’d been waiting the whole drive over to unleash the real reason she was there.
“Is it true?” Fia pressed. “You got soul-mated? Is he really a cowboy?”
Willa turned and walked back inside, leaving the door open. “You tell me. I’m sure you’ve already heard half the bar’s version of the story.”
Fia followed her in, practically buzzing with that excitement. “Marta Carpenter says he has the best ass she’s ever seen. I mean, her words, but I gotta say, I trust Marta. She knows a good ass when she sees it.”
Willa shot her a look over the rim of her coffee mug. “If you know all about him already then why are you here?”
“I don’t know everything so I’m gathering intel.”
“You’re here to harass me,” Willa argued.
“Same thing.” Fia plopped onto the couch and stretched her arms out over the back. “Did he kiss you?”
Willa snorted. “No.”
“Did you kiss him?”
“Fia,” she warned her sister.
Her sister shrugged. “That’s not a no.”
“It’s a ‘please stop talking’ before I lose the last ounce of patience I have left.”
Fia grinned, completely unfazed. “Come on. You choked on a beer nut, Mr. Hot cowboy soulmate walked in wearing boots, a Stetson and sporting that fine ass. That’s literally the legend unfolding in real time. This is the small-town romance dream.”
“It’s a ridiculous legend,” Willa muttered, walking into the adjoining kitchen for more coffee. “Besides, he’s here for someone else.”
“Wait, what? For who?” Fia demanded.
Willa hesitated. And hesitated some more. And since her sister would no doubt—no doubt—soon hear all about it, she went ahead and spilled. “His old flame. Eden Preston.”
That took some serious juice out of Fia’s perkiness. “Ouch. That’s not in the legend.”
“Exactly,” Willa muttered.
Fia’s forehead bunched up as she considered that. And dismissed it. “Doesn’t matter. He’s in the apartment across from you. That’s prime matchmaking territory. I’ve heard that story before.”
“Try hearing a new one. He’s off-limits,” Willa reminded her. Reminded herself, too.
“Fine, but I’m still meeting him,” Fia insisted. “For science. For research. For a look at his ass.”
Willa was coming back from her trip to the coffee pot when someone cleared their throat. She turned, and there he was. Cal Bennett, standing in her doorway. Right there. Right in front of her, and the cowboy certainly had a way of grabbing her attention.
His dark brown hair damp from the shower, one hand braced on the frame. His gaze flicked between her and Fia.
“Sorry. I couldn’t help but overhear.” He paused, a trace of curiosity in his voice. “Science? Research? Ass assessment?”
Willa sighed and set her mug down harder than necessary.
Fia popped up from the couch as if she had been waiting her whole life for this moment. She gave him a slow, deliberate once-over and smiled, apparently very satisfied with what she saw.
“So you’re the soulmate.” Fia crossed her arms, still grinning. “Nice.”
Willa rolled her eyes. “Please don’t encourage this.”
Fia ignored her and went over to thrust her hand out to Cal. “I’m Willa’s sister, Fia.”
“Cal,” he said, shaking her hand.
Fia gestured toward the kitchen. “You want some coffee? Come in.”
Cal hesitated, his brow raised, his intense blue eyes narrowed. “Science?” he repeated. “Research? Ass assessment?”
Fia laughed as if it was obvious. “Oh, that. I told Willa I needed to meet you. You know, firsthand observation. I believe in collecting my own data so I can have an informed opinion.”
Cal’s mouth tugged into something that might have been a smile, or maybe he was still too polite to say no.
“Right. Science.” He stepped inside slowly, careful with his knee. “Sounds official.”
“It is.” Fia winked. “I’m extremely thorough. Wouldn’t want just anyone soul mating my only sister.”
Willa groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Why me?” she muttered to the ceiling.
“Because you drank the beer,” Fia muttered, already grabbing a mug for him.
Cal’s gaze slid to Willa, quiet amusement still flickering in his eyes. “Do not drink the coffee,” she warned him. “You drink the coffee, we will never hear the end of this matchmaking.”
“Noted.” He looked as if he was still deciding whether to laugh or run.
Too bad. It was far too late for either since Fia was getting ready to pour him a cup.
Cal shook his head, still half-smiling. “I’ll pass on the coffee. I was actually heading to the grocery store. Figured I’d stock the apartment. Also, any good breakfast spots in town?”
Before Willa could answer, Fia jumped in. “Willa can fix you something. She makes great pancakes. Guaranteed to seal the deal.”
Willa let out a breath, already done with this conversation. “Okay, time to go.”
She stepped out into the hall, still wearing the baggy sweatpants and Green Day t-shirt she had slept in. Cal followed, and she pulled the door shut behind her, muffling Fia’s giggling on the other side.
She crossed her arms and leveled him with a look. “Fia is just the start. You’re going to get the soulmate thing from half the town. Some people will be serious about it, some will just want to poke fun of it. Either way, your best move is to laugh it off and change the subject.”
Cal leaned against the opposite wall, his weight settling onto his good leg. He smiled, and there was an easy heat in it that didn’t help her pulse at all.
He was hot.
Like, unfairly hot. The kind of hot that made women say reckless things in crowded saloons.
“Laugh it off?” he repeated. Heck, even that cowboy drawl was hot.
“Yeah,” she managed.
He studied her, long enough that she had to stop herself from fidgeting. “You’re not laughing,” he pointed out.
The low spark of heat that had been simmering in her gut flickered again, sharp and unwelcome. She shoved it aside.
“It’s not funny when it’s aimed at me,” she pointed out. “You won’t think it’s funny either after another couple of hours.”
His gaze dipped briefly, not in a leering way, but just enough to remind her she was barefoot and wearing sweatpants with a hole at the knee.
The heat twisted again, traitorous and annoying.
Willa cleared her throat, forcing her brain to work again. Time for a change of subject. No more soulmate talk. “Do you plan on seeing Eden today?” she asked.
He straightened, his expression settling into something a little more careful. “Yeah. I figured I’d give her a call later.”
Willa hesitated, the words pressing against her tongue, fighting to stay put. She won that particular fight though. “You’ll hear this soon enough,” she said, voice steady but slower now. “So I might as well tell you. About the curse.”
His brow lifted, waiting.
“I was engaged once.” Willa forced her arms to stay loose at her sides, even though everything in her wanted to cross them like armor. “His name was Brent Larkin.”
“Brent Larkin,” he repeated as if testing it to see if it rang a bell. And it obviously did. “He handles a lot of the rental properties in the area?”
“That’s the one,” she muttered.
“I emailed back and forth with him,” he said, his mouth tightening a little. “Didn’t know he was your fiancé.”
“Ex-fiancé,” she emphasized. There was a twist in her gut, a warning she had ignored the night Brent proposed. She should have trusted it.
She pushed through with the explanation. “After the engagement ended… my ex and Eden… uh, dated.”
His eyes flickered with something she couldn’t quite read.
“They dated,” he repeated, like that explained everything. It didn’t, but it was all she was going to say about that.
He paused, long enough to make her skin itch. Finally, he asked, “What’s the curse?”
She sighed. Of course, he would want details about that. “It’s stupid…as curses tend to be.”
He waited, not moving.
“My grandmother put a curse on them. Well, a couple of them actually.” Willa shook her head, the edges of her mouth twitching with something that wasn’t quite a smile. “It’s nothing. Just nonsense. One of those things grandmothers say when they’re angry and old enough to get away with it.”
His gaze didn’t budge. “What kind of curse? Or rather curses?”
She stared at the scuffed floorboards for a second, then met his eyes. “She said if Brent stepped foot in the Seaglass again, that his most delicate places would always itch where he could never scratch in polite company.”
Cal winced. “Ouch. And the other curse?”
Now, she was the one who paused. “That Eden’s true love would always fall for me instead. A sort of karma biting her in the ass thing.”
Cal studied her, blue eyes still steady, still quiet. “That’s it?” he finally asked. “That the curse?”
Willa nodded. “That’s it.”
He didn’t laugh. He didn’t tell her it was ridiculous. He just looked at her as if he was turning something over in his mind.
And somehow, that was worse.
Cal finally spoke, his voice easy. “So let me get this straight. We’ve got a soulmate legend and a family curse.” His mouth twitched now as if he was holding back a smile. “Any other paranormal stuff I should know about? Haunted rowboats? Ghost raccoons?”
Willa felt her shoulders relax a little. He wasn’t taking it seriously. Good. She could work with that.
She pretended to think it over. “Well, Gus swears the jukebox plays Patsy Cline on its own when someone’s heart is about to break.”
Cal raised his eyebrows. “Really?”
She shrugged. “Or Gus just likes to play Patsy Cline when he’s drunk and wants attention. Hard to say.”
“That’s good to know. I’ll keep my ears open.”
Willa smiled, the smallest crack in her carefully built wall. “Yeah, you do that.”
Cal stepped away from her, still watching her, maybe filing all of this away for later. “I’ll let you get back to your coffee. Thanks for the heads-up about legends and curses.”
She lifted her mug in a lazy salute. “Good luck at the store and the diner. FYI, Abe’s just up the street has good omelets.”
“Thanks. And don’t worry, I’ll be careful. I’ll laugh off the soulmate stuff, the curse, and I’ll try not to trip over any ghost raccoons.”
That almost dragged a genuine smile out of her.
He gave her one last look, a quiet spark still hanging there like he hadn’t quite finished this conversation. Then he headed for the stairs, his steps slow, careful and steady.
Willa stayed in the hall, listening to his boots until the sound faded.
When the silence settled in, she sipped her coffee and whispered to no one, “There’s no such thing as curses and soulmates.”
But her heart didn’t seem to believe it. Nope. Not one little bit.