Chapter 25
Willow dreamed there was a chicken violently squawking outside her window, so loudly that it woke her with a start. She sat bolt upright in bed. Except, she could still hear it.
She glanced to her left where Ash lay on his stomach holding a pillow over his head.
“Are you dreaming about chickens too?” she asked him.
A muffled groan sounded from beneath the pillow. “It’s not a dream.” He sat up, finally, his dark hair sticking up every which way. It would make her want to climb on top of him—after brushing her teeth, of course—if it wasn’t for the incessant squawking that sounded like it was coming from inside her head.
“Is this my new internal monologue?” Willow asked. “Because I can’t live like this.”
Ash sighed. “It’s coming from over there.” He pointed toward the window, which they left cracked open but covered by the shade, and crawled out of bed, striding toward it.
“Hey!” Willow called in the space between squawks. “You want to change out of your birthday suit?” She pulled the sheet up to cover her breasts.
“Nope,” he replied, his morning wood on full display. “If our brothers are going to play this way, then I’m going to make sure they regret it.”
He spun back toward the window, at least leaving Willow with an excellent view of his ass to help make up for the rude awakening at… What time was it? She glanced at her phone on the bedside table and swore. “It’s 6:30 a.m. On a Saturday .”
Ash flipped up the shade without a moment of hesitation, and the squawking was replaced with a mixture of yelps and screams. Female- sounding yelps and screams.
“Oh my god!” Willow cried, staring out at Jenna, Casey, Beth, and Beth’s sister, Delaney.
Ash had the decency to cover his erection with his hands as best he could, but he didn’t budge from the window. “Did your husbands warn you of nothing?” he mused.
Willow threw a pillow at him, but it fell short, landing a couple of feet behind him on the floor. “All right, Greatest Showman,” she teased. “Time to close up the tent and let the viewers collect themselves.” She turned her attention to the audience that had unsurprisingly not yet dispersed.
“Show’s over, ladies!” she called. “Wait for me at the front door, and I’ll be right out.”
“You should get dressed too, sugar,” Jenna drawled at Ash, and the chicken in her arms, Lucy, squawked in agreement. “The boys are waiting for you in the barn.”
Willow wrapped herself in the sheet like a mermaid and penguin walked over to the window. “Sorry, ladies. But he’s all mine.” She pulled the shade closed and spun to face her naked bedfellow. “I think you enjoyed that a little too much.”
Ash grabbed the edge of the sheet and unraveled her so they were both in their birthday suits. “Not as much as I enjoy this,” he told her. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him. He dipped his head, giving each of her breasts a good-morning kiss that made her ache between her legs. Then he trailed kisses up her chest to her neck, the side of her jaw, and eventually her lips.
So much for brushing their teeth.
Willow whimpered as he pressed up against her.
“We can’t,” she whispered. “We’re being kidnapped.”
As if being summoned, one of their kidnappers knocked on the front door.
Ash growled. “What are the odds of them thinking we somehow left if we don’t answer?”
“What are the odds of Beth using their key to just walk in?”
“Shit,” he whispered. “Is there a conspiracy to keep us apart now that we’re finally together?” He cleared his throat. “Wait…we are together, right?”
“I love how you can be bold enough to open the window naked and yet adorable enough to ask me that.” Willow leaned up and kissed him. “We’re together, cowboy. No matter how hard they try.” She slapped him playfully on his beautiful behind. “Though I think the conspiracy is more on keeping us clothed than keeping us apart.”
He winced. “Somehow, that sounds worse.”
She kissed him one more time before letting him go and scrambled toward the bathroom and into her robe.
“Get dressed while I let them in. If I put them to work getting the coffee going, maybe we can steal a few more minutes after that.”
Ash’s shoulders sagged as he let out a sigh. “Fine,” he relented, and Willow’s heart grew about ten times its size. Here was this big, beautiful, confident man pouting like a child to be taken away from her.
“I’ll see you soon,” she told him, blowing him a kiss before running out and toward the continued knocking at the door, grinning the entire way.
When she threw it open, she found Jenna still holding Lucy. What she’d neglected to notice before was that Casey was carrying a drink holder filled with four iced coffees while Beth held the solo fifth one in her hands.
“Girls’ day!” Jenna cried as all five of them filed inside. “We have so much planned for my baby sister-in-law, don’t we Lu-lu?” And then she put the hen down on the floor. In the guesthouse.
“Okaaay,” Willow replied, following the train of women back into house. “But why at the crack of dawn? With a chicken?”
Casey set the coffees down on the breakfast bar and pulled one free. She spun and handed it to Willow. “I don’t know if salted caramel is your thing, but this is the best salted caramel cold brew you’ll ever taste, courtesy of one Ms. Trudy Davis at Storyland bookshop.”
Willow accepted the decadent-sounding concoction, swirled the contents around in the perspiring cup, and took a sip.
“Oh my god ,” she said. “This almost makes up for you all waking us at the crack of dawn.”
Jenna waved her off. “Dawn was over an hour ago. I had to get some fresh eggs over to the farmers market. Colt’s manning the booth today so I can partake in the festivities.”
Willow let out a breath. “So Colt’s not one of the guys waiting for Ash in the barn?”
Delaney, who was visibly pregnant, lowered herself onto the couch and sunk into the cushions. “Bethie…can you bring me my pathetic decaf?” She gasped and pressed a palm to the side of her belly, then added, “The little hellion does not like when I complain about my coffee.”
Beth laughed and grabbed the one coffee clearly marked with a big D on the side and a high-octane one for herself, dropping down on the spot next to her sister.
“No,” Jenna finally replied to Beth’s question as Lucy pecked about along the perimeter of the sliding doors that led outside. “Only Ash’s brothers are out there waiting for him.” She nudged Willow’s shoulder with her own. “He told me about what happened last night. I’m sorry for all that, honey. When he left to come back here with Eli last night, he told me it was just to make sure you got home safe since you weren’t responding to his texts. I should have known better.”
Ash emerged from the bedroom fully clothed…in what he was wearing the night before since the rest of his clothes were in the front hall closet.
“Mornin’, everyone,” he called with a grin. Then he held up his loaner phone. “Apparently, I need to get my ‘better-be-covered’ ass out to the barn ASAP before they drop me at the farmers market and make me sell eggs with your brother?” He glanced at Willow and shrugged.
Willow sighed. “Guess that means it’s my turn to get dressed.” She set her coffee on the breakfast counter and briefly turned back toward her guests. “Excuse me for a few, everyone. And feel free to avert your eyes while I plant one on my guy before he leaves for the day.”
She strode toward a resigned Ash, likely with the same resignation on her face, and wrapped her arms around his waist.
“You’re not limping,” he noted, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“You’re right,” she replied, realization in her tone. “Huh. You know what? I don’t think anything could hurt me today.”
He beamed at her. “And you called me your guy. In front of everyone,” he whispered, as if the room weren’t small enough for everyone to still hear.
“I did, didn’t I?” she mused. “Guess I felt like claiming what was mine in case anyone got the wrong idea after your little window display.”
“Hoo boy!” Jenna called. “There ain’t nothin’ little about that earlier display!”
His cheeks darkened, and Willow gasped.
“You’re blushing !” She craned her neck to glance back at the five women who were definitely not averting their eyes. “Look at that, ladies! Country music’s Mad Man Murphy is blushing!”
“You did not just call me that.”
She clasped her hands behind his neck and pulled him down to her. “I did. And your sudden attack of modesty is adorable.” She kissed him and ignored the ooh s, ah s , and low whistles from their small audience.
“Tell me we get to sleep in tomorrow,” he pleaded. “I don’t even want to see a.m. on a clock.”
She kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear. “We’re not leaving the bed tomorrow.” She unclasped her hands and straightened to her full height. “Have fun with your brothers,” she told him.
He sighed and kissed the top of her head. “Only because you asked me to.” He offered a salute to the rest of the room, grabbed his well-worn straw hat from the small table by the door, and headed out into the sun.
Her cheeks warm and every part of her feeling all tingly and light, Willow turned toward her guests to find them all still staring. “There is no such thing as personal space around here, is there?”
She was greeted with a chorus of, “Ha! No ,” and “Absolutely not,” and “Welcome to small-town living.” But despite the unwelcomed morning interruption, Willow suddenly felt surrounded by a sisterly kind of love she hadn’t experienced before.
“I guess I should go get dressed then,” she added and made to pivot back toward the bedroom door.
“Wait!” Jenna called. “Can I…uh…borrow your phone? I forgot to tell Colt something really important about running the tent today.”
Willow’s brows furrowed. “Sure but…don’t you have a phone?”
Jenna laughed. “Of course. But I left it in Delaney’s minivan.”
Delaney rested her decaf iced coffee on her pregnant belly and pouted. “I can’t believe I’m a minivan person now.”
“Hey!” Casey chided. “Don’t knock that sweet ride. It’s got automatic doors and super-comfortable seats. Plus, we all fit!”
Delaney perked up. “It is comfortable as hell. I can’t believe it’s going to have two car seats soon!”
Willow padded into her room, unplugged her phone from the charger, and then brought it out to Jenna, making sure to unlock it before handing it over.
“He’s saved in my contacts under ICE Morgan… You know…in case of emergency?” Willow only had three ICEs in her life, her adoptive parents and Colt. Somehow, though, she felt like after this visit to Meadow Valley, that might change.
“What?” Jenna asked, taking the phone. “Oh…right. Your brother…the guy I’m callin’ with your phone.”
Willow’s brows furrowed, and then she laughed. “How much did you drink last night, Jenna?”
Her sister-in-law laughed. “I guess more than I thought.”
Lucy abandoned her exploration of the back door and strutted her way over to Willow’s bare feet. The hen gently pecked at her bruised pinkie toe that Ash had carefully retaped the night before.
“Ahhh,” Jenna mused.
“Ah what ?” Willow asked.
“She can tell you’re still healing and that you might not be ready. Otherwise she would have pecked the hell out of you.”
“For real!” Beth chimed in. “I wasn’t in this house for two seconds before my sister brought the hen in to greet me, and that monster drew first blood.”
“You’re welcome !” Delaney singsonged.
Jenna scowled at Beth. “And look where you are now, all because my girl knew you belonged in Meadow Valley with Eli, and that was the only way she knew to tell you.”
Willow scoffed. “So we’re back on the chicken being psychic again?”
“Oh, she is,” Beth and Delaney replied in unison.
“She’s just not always gentle about it,” Beth added.
Willow narrowed her eyes. “Uh-huh. Right. So her knowing my poor little toe is still broken is supposed to be some revelation?”
Jenna shook her head. “It’s a metaphor, darlin’. She can tell something else still needs to heal before you can truly let love in.”
Willow huffed out a laugh, shook her head, and pivoted back toward her bedroom to change. She could have sworn she heard a few whispers as she turned her back, but they were drowned out by a hen’s deafening, “SQUAWK!”