Chapter 23 – Willa
TWENTY-THREE
WILLA
The second—well, third, I suppose—morning I wake up in Leo’s bed, I’m not awoken by the sun creeping in or an alarm or even the feeling of Leo’s eyes as he watches me sleep, like the day before.
No, I’m awoken by a banging outside.
I jolt upright, my mind racing to catch up, to wake up and understand what is happening.
Looking around the room, I’m confused for a moment.
Although I’ve woken up in this room before, it’s still unfamiliar, and it takes me a moment to figure out what’s happening with the added stress of the loud noises outside.
Until a rough hand slides over my skin to my hip, squeezing me there, gently.
My eyes drift down to see a sleepy, rumpled Leo beside me. Like this, he looks five years younger, without the pressure or stress of work, his hair a mess, his eyes squinting up at me, and with the look, the past two days come back to me.
I’m in Leo’s bed because I’m now Leo’s.
I smile down at him as he looks up at me, but when the sound comes again, his brow furrows with a mix of irritation and confusion.
“What the hell is that?” he asks. My attention moves back to the sound, which I now realize is someone knocking on Leo’s front door.
Nerves flood my system, worry, and panic so strong, nerves I haven’t felt since I stepped foot into Holly Ridge.
Nerves that my real life has found me here in my fairytale one.
“Someone’s at your door, I think.”
“My door?” he asks, sitting up next to me and turning towards the sound.
The knocking comes again, more insistent this time.
Leo bends, pressing a soft kiss to my bare shoulder, and a shiver rolls through me.
Despite the chaos infiltrating our peaceful morning, he gives me a wicked smile.
“You stay here, I’ll go figure it out. It’s probably a telemarketer.
” I don’t necessarily buy that, but I nod all the same, watching as he shifts out of bed, then slides on a pair of loose shorts before padding towards the door.
“Don’t leave this bed, I’ll be right back.
” There’s a glint in his eye, and I can’t help but smile, shaking my head.
Once he’s gone, I flop back onto the bed and smile at the ceiling, this new feeling bursting from my chest.
A thought enters my mind, one about feeling sunshine inside and outside after a perfect lazy night, and that feeling grows inside me as I realize it’s a lyric. I reach for my phone to get it down, but before I touch my fingers to it, I hear a familiar voice.
“Out of the way, pretty boy, we have work to do.” I sit up quickly, looking towards the door, my brows coming together is confusion, because I think I know that voice, but there’s no reason for it to be in Leo’s house.
“What the hell?” Leo asks, but his voice is more annoyed than concerned.
“We’ve been summoned,” another familiar voice says.
“Hey, Leo, how’s it going?” a third voice asks, soft and lilting, and with it, I whip the blankets back, stumbling to the ground and reaching around on the ground for something—anything—to throw on. I find my panties and Leo’s shirt, sliding both on just in time.
“You decent?” Nat asks, the door to Leo’s bedroom creaking open before the brunette walks in without even bothering to wait for my answer.
“What is happening?” I ask, confused, looking around the room for my shorts. When I spot them, I slide them on, hoping I don’t show Nat my ass, but pretty sure she doesn’t care one way or another.
“An intervention,” Nat says.
“I tried to stop her!” Wren calls, though I can’t see her.
“I didn’t!” Hallie calls, but she pokes her head in through the door. “Oh, she’d been fucked good.” Then she steps in further, the door hitting the doorstop loudly. “Please tell me he’s good in bed. It would be criminal for that man to look like that and be bad in bed.”
“I—”
“You don’t have to answer any of her questions,” Wren says, a smile on her lips as she follows Hallie inside and, even better, a coffee in her hand.
I sigh with appreciation as she hands it to me, and when I check the side, I realize it’s an iced latte from the cafe in town.
Leo smiles at me, and I see he has his own coffee in his hand, his own name on the side.
So very Wren.
“Yes, you do, but we can wait until we’re not in the presence of the man in question,” Hallie says, directing her beaming grin to Leo.
He lifts a shoulder, unfazed, and it becomes glaringly clear he will not be jumping in to protect me on this topic.
“What are you guys doing here?” I ask after I take a long, fortifying sip of my coffee.
“Girl’s day,” Nat says, and my eyes move to Leo. He simply continues to smile, the asshole.
“I have plans today,” I murmur, remembering my date with Leo tonight.
“You have a date tonight. We’re here to help you get ready,” Hallie says with a knowing grin.
“What?”
“Leo told me it’s at three.”
I blink at her, then look to Leo, who suddenly is looking anywhere but at me. Hallie continues to explain. “You texted us to tell you you weren’t murdered by a serial killer—”
My eyes widen, and Wren steps in.
“No one thought you were murdered by a serial killer; Hallie just has an overactive imagination.”
Hallie glares at her best friend and soon-to-be sister-in-law before continuing.
“And then told us you finally got with Leo. So I texted him on the side to ask when he would be taking you out on a date and making an honest woman out of you, and what do you know, he already had plans. So I called up the gang, and here we are, ready to make your first date perfect.”
I blink, first at Hallie, then at Nat, then at Wren, and finally, at Leo.
“Did you know he planned a whole date for you two? By himself? Dinner, an activity, other fun stuff I’m not allowed to talk about. All by himself! I called to ask if he needed help, and he was all, no thanks, I’ve got it covered,” Nat says, looking both baffled and put off by this news.
“Uh,” I start, both intrigued by this potentially Nat-approved date and trying to figure out when he had time to plan it and when he could have possibly texted the girls about it, but Wren cuts in, eyes shifting between her friends and Leo.
“Nat, I don’t think that’s for you to share just yet.”
Leo doesn’t look annoyed, though; he’s leaning in the doorway, smiling at the chaos in his bedroom.
“Fine, I can't tell you that part, but I can tell you that then he told me to get the girls together and come here to help you get ready for your date, that you’d like that.”
My heart skips a beat, and not for the first time, I’m struck with the thought that he gets it. He gets it, and more importantly, he gets me. He gets the small moments of normalcy I’ve missed out on, and he told me he wanted me to have it all.
And here he is, once again, giving it all to me.
“I don’t think I said to come at nine a.m., though,” he says, but Nat ignores that, instead, continuing to ramble on.
“And really, Willa, I hope you know just how much you hit the jackpot with this one. He knows how to fuck, and he’s a gentleman? May this kind of love find me one day,” she says, clasping her hands together and lifting them up in a plea to the heavens.
“Nat!” I say, giving her wide eyes, but she just grins at me. “You don’t even know if he knows how to…you know.”
Nat gives me a deadpan look, then turns to gesture at Leo, still leaning in the doorway, arms crossed on his chest like he’s the hot male lead in a romcom movie poster.
“Willa, look at him. He knows how to fuck.”
Hallie shrugs as if she can’t disagree, and even Wren remains silent at that. I decide it’s not a topic worth arguing, so instead, I turn back to Leo to argue with him.
“I don’t need to go on any kind of fancy date, Leo.”
“I know that,” he says. “I’m going to do it anyway.”
“Leo,” I say. “I don’t want you going out of your way, I—”
“Jesus, Willa, I know you’re like a bajillionaire, but if a man offers to take you on a fancy date, you just nod and say thank you, daddy,” Nat says.
“Nat!” I say, snapping towards her, embarrassment burning on my face.
“For the record, I am not into the daddy thing,” Leo says.
“Please, do tell what you are into,” Nat says, grinning.
“Do not dare,” I say without thinking, giving Leo a stern look, and Nat and Hallie start laughing instantly. That's when Leo pushes off the wall and steps towards me.
“Oh, I cannot wait to get all the details of that,” Hallie says.
“And on that note, I’m going to head out. I’m gonna go get ready to head out in the other room and then run a few errands before tonight.”
“Errands?” I ask, and he smiles wider before pulling me into his arms.
“Yes. Now have fun with your girls, honey.”
I don’t know if it’s the thought of having girls and the joy that brings me, or the soft way he says honey, or maybe the way he dips his head in front of a room full of women to press his lips to mine, but I don’t argue any longer. Instead, I kiss him back until he ends it, it’s far too soon.
“Tonight,” he says against my lips, then steps away, before waving to the room at large.
“Later, girls.”
There’s a chorus of Bye Leo!s before he leaves the room.
After a moment, I hear the bathroom door click behind him, then three sets of eyes land on me.
I groan, needing way more caffeine to handle what I already know will be the third degree that, at the very least, Hallie and Nat are going to subject me to.
“Can I shower first at least?” I ask, and Nat grins.
“Yes, but at your place. I don’t trust that one letting you shower alone,” she says, tipping her head towards where Leo went.
“Natalie!” Wren says, eyes wide. “My goodness, give the girl a break!”