Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
FALLON
“T here is a machine that does this.” Willa huffs in frustration, making her thick bangs fluff out, landing on the top of her glasses. She does, however, keep stirring the bowl with the cake mix.
“You said you wanted to help,” Teddy reminds her.
“I can do more than stir. Have you seen my GPA?” Willa replies.
“Yes, Willa, you are brilliant, but the kitchen isn’t for you. I thought we already established this,” Teddy responds to her, but she sneaks a look over at me, fighting a laugh. I have to admit that I’m enjoying the banter between the two of them more and more.
“You’d think I burnt the house down,” Willa tries to explain or maybe get me on her side.
“Almost did,” Teddy mutters, rolling out a thing of dough.
“Cut off a finger.”
“Close a few times.” Teddy has a quick response to each defense Willa comes up with.
“Or poison someone.”
“Now that one is up for debate.”
“Hey! That wasn't my fault. You said to wash the chicken, and I did. You’re always using that 407 spray on stuff. You used it on the counter earlier, and now you're rolling food across it.”
“She has a point.” I put my fingers over my mouth. Both Teddy’s and Willa’s heads swing my way. Why did I jump into the sister fight they are having? I’m not in this group. “Sorry?—”
“No apologies.” Willa’s face brightens with a smile. “Glad someone is on my side for once.”
“Here we go.” Teddy lets out a melodramatic sigh. “And that wasn’t the poison I meant, but we can go with that one.”
I’m glad I’m still covering my mouth to help muffle my laughter.
"Whatever." Willa plops back in her seat at the kitchen counter. "I have many other good skills." She winks at me. "Just ask my husband. The King."
"The King." Teddy erupts into laughter.
"The husband loves my hands." Willa ignores Teddy's laughter, wiggling her fingers.
I can't help the small laugh that bubbles from me, and I don't try to hide it. I also know my cheeks are starting to heat; my shyness about sex is coming to the surface.
All I know is what I have read in the books I could get my hands on and those small glimpses you might get from a movie or show. It’s not something that was spoken about to me ever when I lived with my father. But this is girl talk. Right? And they're including me in it.
"You haven't been married long. Right?" I ask Willa. If I want to be friends with them, then I need to try and not hide or let myself be different from the background, but it's how I have spent my whole life. I didn't want to be noticed. It was better that way.
“It was kinda a whirlwind,” Willa says with a happy sigh.
“Kinda? The man had you married in two days!” That’s impressive. I see the way her husband watches her. It’s clear how smitten he is with her. She is this delicate flower he is always handling with care but still allowing to get sun.
“You’re one to talk. You jumped my uncle's bones.”
“Well, one bone in particular.” Teddy waggles her eyebrows.
“Oh my gosh.” I laugh harder. Willa pretends to gag.
“And I didn’t jump his bones. He was all growly at first. Not that those growls stopped a girl like me.” Teddy holds up her rolling pin. No, I don't think anything stops her.
"You got married in two days?" I ask. Not that I'm one to talk. I was told I was getting married and then shoved right into it. I'd only gotten away because I risked it with the ocean and sharks over facing the man my father had ordered me to marry.
"I might have been a little drunk." Willa held up two fingers that are close together. "And he tricked me."
"Tricked you!" Is this why Rich isn't a giant fan of the king man?
"Don't let her fool you," Teddy cuts in. "‘Drunk or not, little miss I'm going to be a rebel.’" Teddy makes air quotes with her fingers. "‘Would have married him sober.’"
"I am a rebel." Willa is once again dressed in all pink. She has another bow in her hair, this time secured with a headband, and she's wearing adorable bunny slippers. I'm missing the rebel part, but her husband has that vibe. West seems more straight-laced and stoic, while my Rich falls somewhere in the middle, I think.
“What about you? Will my brother have you married to him soon?” I know Willa is teasing, but a sparkle of longing hits me. I don’t want to let myself dare dream of such things.
“We’re only…” I trail off. “Friends?” That word sounds wrong for Rich. He is so much more to me than that.
They both burst into laughter.
“Sure you are. My brother is obsessed with you.” Willa pushes the bowl she’s been stirring back over to Teddy, who peeks into it before putting it on the mixer. “You see how I’m treated.” She waves her hand toward the mixer.
“There were lumps in it.”
“Powdery surprises, I call them.”
I want to laugh at their banter, but my mind is hung up on Rich being obsessed with me. “He’s a good guy that’s helping me,” I tell them. “Super sweet.”
“Are we still talking about my brother?” Willa points to herself. “I mean, he can have his moments and fill the big brother protective spot, but I don’t think anyone would call him sweet.”
“At school some of the girls call him Rich the Dick and not because they’ve seen his dick.”
“Rich the…”
“Dick,” Both Teddy and Willa say at the same time when I don’t finish it.
“You can say it.” Willa wiggles her brows at me.
“I suppose I’m a bit sheltered,” I admit. “It feels strange to say it.”
“But don’t forget that you can. If you want,” Teddy adds.
“Why do they call him that?” I ask, not sure if I’m there yet. It’s a stupid word; just say it .
"Well, Rich, because his real name is Emmerich, and he's super rich." He told me what his real name was but that everyone called him Rich. "And dick because he's in the habit of being a sarcastic dickhead.”
"I haven't seen that side of him. He's as sweet as can be to me."
"Yeah, to you. That's why I'm saying my brother is obsessed with you. He's been an even more massive dick these past few months, but now his voice is calm and he's staying home. He wasn’t even staying here much before he found you. Since you're here, he hasn’t left, so I'm guessing he's not going anywhere unless you do."
"So, I'm different," I mutter more to myself.
"Yeah, you're different," Teddy says with a warm smile. "The good kind of different."
"I don't want to be away from him either." My eyes glance over to the clock. He left an hour ago. I am dying for him to get back home, but I also don’t want him to have to stop his life because I came into it. "But it seems as though the fights are important, right?"
"I think he wants to go pro, or Vasily tells me that he has it in him to go pro. I'm not really sure what my brother wants, honestly. This past week he's been so different." Willa's eyes soften. "The good kind of different too, though. I don’t think I’ve seen him this happy in a really long time. Maybe ever.”
Her words make me both happy and sad at the same time. While I’m elated that my presence has caused this shift in him, it also saddens me thinking about him being unhappy for so long.
“I miss him. Is that crazy? He’s only been gone an hour.”
“No, I miss my husband too.”
“Is he at the fights too?” The night Rich pulled me from the water, both Willa and King had been there.
“Yep.”
“But you didn’t go?” I ask. Is everyone changing their lives around for me?
It makes so many conflicting emotions rise inside of me. That they would care to do such a thing is truly heartwarming. No one has ever done that for me, but it’s laced with anxiety. This is how you wear on people, and they end up locking you in your room for a week. They wouldn't do that, but that’s what I knew.
“Girl time.”
“But we could go?” We could do girl time there. Then everyone would get what they want. Willa would see her husband, and if Rich is missing me, he’ll have me there too.
“You’d want to go?” Willa’s eyebrows rise in suspicion.
“It might be nice?” With Rich being gone and me settling in with the girls, I should be growing more comfortable. I think I am to a degree, but the anxiety that Rich might not come back and the idea of something happening to him keeps creeping higher up my spine, making it difficult to sit still.
“Are we sure that’s a good idea?” Teddy asks, popping right into the motherly role.
“This is why I’m the rebel.” Willa shakes her head at Teddy with a mock disappointed frown on her face.
“So we can’t?” I ask.
“I didn’t say that.” Teddy takes off her apron. “No one is going to tell you that you can’t do something.”
“Do we live in the same house? These men are bossy.” Willa hops down from the chair. “It’s a good bossy but still bossy.”
“They let us do pretty much what we want within reason. I just don’t want her thinking we’re keeping her locked up here on the Haven Estate.”
“I don’t think that.” I didn’t know that was an option, and I might not be as opposed to the idea as they might think. Still, Teddy’s words are reassuring.
“So, we’re going.” Willa does a little happy dance. “We should get changed.” I glance down at myself. I’m wearing one of Rich’s sweaters that falls almost to my knees. “I got stuff you can wear.” Willa hooks her arm into mine. “How do you feel about bows?”
I think I’m about to find out.