Chapter Four
Willa wiped down the bar, moving through her rhythm like she had a hundred times before. She enjoyed nights like this. No pressure, no crowd, just the low hum of conversation and the steady clink of pint glasses.
Of course, the conversation was still about the soulmate thing.
Every now and then, someone would glance her way, grinning and gossiping about Cal and her. Just as she’d done for the past two days since Cal’s arrival, Willa ignored it.
Or tried to.
She tried and failed to ignore other things, too. Like Cal himself. Her thoughts kept drifting to him, and she hated that her body noticed him at all. The broad shoulders, the easy grin, the way his blue eyes didn’t let her off the hook when she snapped at him.
That whole need for not lusting after him wasn’t about the legend. It wasn’t about small-town matchmaking or cosmic timing.
It was about Eden.
Willa wanted nothing that ever belonged to that woman. Not a memory, not a second chance, and definitely not a man. Eden had already taken too much. Brent had promised Willa forever, and then weeks before their wedding, he broke that promise for someone else.
For Eden.
The kind of betrayal that didn’t fade. It just settled in, like salt on the skin, always there.
It didn’t matter that Brent and Eden hadn’t lasted more than a month.
In fact, that made it worse. Eden had been a temporary thrill for Brent.
And vice versa. They’d walked away from each other unscathed while Willa had the emotional scars of been there, done that from a relationship gone shitty.
No. She would not fall for the cowboy. Not when Eden had been part of his past and maybe his future, too. Not when there was even a chance that history could repeat itself.
She stacked another glass, wiped another spill, and pretended her heart wasn’t paying attention to all the things about Cal she wanted to shut out.
The door swung open, letting in a sharp breeze and Fia, who practically bounced inside with her current boyfriend trailing behind her.
His name was Mason Stokes, a sweet guy with a scruffy beard and a tendency to laugh at all of Fia’s jokes, which was probably why she kept him around.
Willa liked him despite the fact that he worked for her ex, Brent.
Fia slid onto a barstool and grinned. “Slow night? Where’s your soulmate?”
Willa didn’t bother with a fake smile or a tongue lashing comeback. She kept her hands busy wiping a perfectly clean section of the bar.
Fia’s grin faded a little as she really looked at her. “Okay, what’s going on?”
Willa leaned in and dropped her voice low. “Can we not with the soulmate thing?”
Fia blinked. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, back off. Please. Try to shut some of this gossip down.”
Fia frowned, suddenly serious. “All right. I can do that.” She paused, her voice softening. “Did the cowboy already hook back up with Eden?”
Willa shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t want to know.”
She grabbed a clean towel and turned away, her heart beating way harder than it should. Fia stayed quiet, watching her.
Fia’s boyfriend ordered a couple of drinks from Dani, the other bartender working the shift, clearly giving Fia and Willa some space.
Her sister leaned in again, her voice dropping to a near-whisper. “So, I may have done a little digging on Cal. You know, just a casual background check.”
Willa narrowed her eyes. “Fia.”
“Don’t get mad. I just wanted to be sure the cowboy wasn’t secretly a professional lizard wrangler or married to six other women.”
“And?” Willa couldn’t stop herself from asking.
Fia grinned. “He’s clean. Never been married.
Successful. Runs Bennett Rodeo Promotions out of Dallas.
Former rodeo star. I mean, a real star. A two-time NFR finalist. That’s National Finals Rodeo.
He has a nice house, no criminal record.
Oh, and he once got banned from a mechanical bull contest because he broke the machine by accidentally kicking off the bull’s plastic balls.
It’s in a blog post. Very entertaining.”
Willa blinked. “You’re unbelievable.”
Fia beamed. “I’m thorough.”
Yes, she was, and if there was a red flag, Fia would have found it. Too bad there wasn’t one. Because if Cal had been a scumbag, then that might have cooled down this attraction she had for him. Kicking off plastic balls certainly wasn’t doing the trick of getting her attention off him.
With that thought skipping through her mind, the door opened again. Willa didn’t need to turn to know it was him. She felt it, that familiar blast of heat that rolled through her.
Cal had just walked in.
And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t seem to shut him out.
Willa took one look at Cal as he crossed the room and knew. He was in pain. He moved slow and easy as if he was trying to hide it, but the tension in his jaw, the stiffness in his stride, the way he shifted his weight told her exactly how much he was hurting.
She didn’t hesitate. She stepped out from behind the bar and went straight to him.
“You all right?” she asked, even though she already knew the answer.
“I’m fine,” he said, brushing it off, but his voice was tight, and he wasn’t walking fine at all.
“Uh-huh.” Willa slid her arm under his, steadying him. “Come on.”
“Willa, you don’t have to—”
“I’m helping you up the stairs. Just accept it.”
He looked like he wanted to argue, but the truth was written all over him. He gave a quiet nod, and she led him toward the staircase in the back.
She felt the eyes of the bar trailing after them. The soulmate gossip would double by tomorrow morning, but for once, Willa didn’t care.
Together, they moved slowly up the stairs, his breathing short, his grip tightening just slightly as they climbed.
“What happened?” she asked. “Did you twist it again?”
“Overdid it,” Cal admitted. “Went out sightseeing. Thought I could handle more than I should’ve.”
“You mean you pushed it.”
“Something like that,” he admitted. “But I got to see a lot of pretty places.”
She gave him a look but didn’t stop climbing. Willa wondered if he’d seen a lot of pretty people as well. Or rather one pretty person. Eden.
“The town’s not going anywhere, and it’ll still be pretty in a week or two. Next time, take it easy,” she muttered.
His lips curved, but the pain didn’t leave his eyes. “Where’s the fun in that?”
She tightened her hold on his arm, guiding him the last few steps. “You’re lucky I’m feeling generous.”
“I must have impeccable timing.”
She didn’t answer, but her grip stayed firm as she helped him reach the landing. And Willa realized she wasn’t just helping him because he needed it. She was doing it because she wanted to.
Cal fished his keys from his pocket and unlocked the door to his apartment. Willa followed him in, letting the door swing shut behind her.
The place was tidy, but the small table near the window was cluttered with a laptop, notepads, and a stack of folders. She hadn’t expected him to set up a whole office in the few days he’d been here.
She glanced at the table, her curiosity getting the better of her. “You’ve been working?”
He noticed her looking and rubbed the back of his neck. “Some stuff came in from the office. Nothing urgent, just keeping an eye on a few things.”
“Does that mean you have to head back to Texas soon?” she asked.
Cal shook his head as he opened the cabinet, pulling out a bottle of pain meds. “No. I can do most of it remotely. That’s part of why I stepped away. I built the business that way.”
He downed the pills with a quick sip of water and carefully lowered himself into one of the worn, comfy chairs by the window. He stretched out his leg with a slow exhale and settled in like he planned to stay a while.
“I figure I can do a little nighttime sightseeing from here,” he said, glancing out at the street below. “Feels a little like Jimmy Stewart in that old movie, Rear Window.”
Willa crossed the room, drawn in before she could talk herself out of it. She looked out the window with him, the quiet street glowing soft under the scattered lights.
“Let’s just hope nobody starts murdering their neighbor and carting off their body parts,” she said.
Cal smiled, his voice low. “You never know. Small towns have secrets.”
“Wild Rose Point’s secrets are usually more along the lines of who’s been sneaking extra pastries from Abe’s before sunrise.”
He turned his head slightly, studying her. “Still sounds like a mystery worth solving.”
She kept her eyes on the street, trying not to let the calm between them feel like something bigger. “Good thing you’ve got a front-row seat.”
He suddenly leaned forward, his attention snagged on something across the street.
“What is it?” she asked.
Cal pointed with a slight tilt of his head. “Second floor of that building. Curtains wide open.”
Willa shifted closer and saw a man appear in the window, wearing a sharp black suit and one of those fancy Venetian masks.
A moment later, a woman in a lace robe and a matching silver mask stepped into view.
She gave the man a playful push, and he caught her around the waist, spinning her toward the window in a way that didn’t look innocent.
Willa blinked. “Wait. Is this…?”
Cal squinted as if he wasn’t sure if he should answer. “Looks like… role-play?”
The man dipped the woman low, spinning her out of view. They came back a moment later, moving closer to the window.
“That’s an upscale rental house called the Driftwood Manor,” Willa said, still watching. “Real fancy. People rent it for the view of the beach.”
“Yeah. I looked at that place online when I was planning the trip,” he muttered. “But it was too big. Didn’t need that much space.”
“Apparently someone else needed the space,” she said. Willa let out a quiet laugh and pulled over the chair beside him. If the entertainment was going to continue, she might as well get comfortable.
The man and woman disappeared into the shadows with the curtains still wide open.
Cal made a sound of agreement. “Guess I won’t need cable here.”
Across the street, the couple slipped back into view, closer to the window now. The woman’s mask glinted in the lamplight as she leaned into the man, her hands pressed flat against his chest.
The man slid his hand up her thigh, slow and deliberate, fingers disappearing beneath the hem of her skirt. Willa’s breath caught, her body tightening with a spark she hadn’t expected.
“They’re filming it,” Willa said, her voice coming out lower than she meant. A camera on a tripod stood in the corner of the room, its red light blinking steady.
Cal let out a quiet sound that might have been a laugh. “Looks like it.”
Neither of them turned away.
The heat in Willa’s chest wasn’t just from what she was seeing. Her skin tingled, her pulse picking up as her thoughts started to drift in a direction she couldn’t quite pull back from. She wondered what it would feel like to have Cal’s hand sliding up her thigh like that, warm and rough and sure.
She shifted in her seat, trying to clear the rush from her head. And other places. Then, she made the mistake of glancing at him.
His gaze was already on her.
There was heat, clear and steady, and it wasn’t from what they were watching. It was for her.
Her breath snagged.
And she kept on wondering what it would feel like to kiss him. Not a soft, polite kiss but the kind that burned. The kind that left a person a little unsteady.
Willa turned her eyes back to the window, but her skin was still humming, every nerve paying a little too much attention to the man sitting beside her.
She told herself she was just caught up in the moment. That it didn’t mean anything. But she wasn’t sure she believed that. Not at all.
Willa cleared her throat, trying to sound casual, but her voice still came out a little rough. “Maybe I should go over there and tell them to shut the curtain.”
She didn’t move.
The man’s hand stayed under the woman’s skirt, his grip firm on her thigh. The woman arched against him, her masked face tilted toward the ceiling. Even without seeing her expression, the way her body trembled and the sharp toss of her head said enough.
Willa’s breath snagged again, heat rolling through her in waves that refused to settle.
She glanced at Cal.
His eyes were still locked on her.
The heat between them tightened, sharp and magnetic, pulling her in before she could think of a reason to stop.
She leaned in, just a fraction, her pulse thumping hard as if her body had already made the choice. The space between them felt too small, too charged, and for one reckless second, she needed to kiss him.
The second didn’t last.
Because the image of Eden flashed in her mind. Brent’s betrayal. Eden’s part in it. The mess she barely survived.
Willa snapped back as if she’d been scalded.
“I should go,” she said quickly, pushing up from the chair before she could change her mind. “I need to get back downstairs.”
Cal straightened, his brow pulling tight. “Willa—”
“I’ll see you later.” She forced herself toward the door and stepped into the hall without looking back.
Her pulse was still racing, her body still buzzing from the pull of him.
But no matter how fast she walked away, the heat didn’t fade. It clung to her, stubborn and unshakable.