26. Millie
CHAPTER 26
Millie
“ W ill, you’re not supposed to say stuff like that to me.”
I’m a mess right now. I’ll blame it on my hormones and the fact that this man is on his knees in front of me telling me what I want to hear. Except, I don’t want to hear it, not right now at least, because it only adds to the pain in my chest.
This man has had my heart since I was a teenager, even though I never admitted that to anyone. It hasn’t always been in a more than friends way, but it’s always been his.
How could it not be?
“Millie, I…I need you to know that. If this all goes to shit and I have to move back to the city, I will find my way back. Okay?”
“How can you be so sure? You can’t promise me anything, Will. How many times has this happened to us?”
I try to pull my hands away from him, but he grips me tighter, not letting me go.
“Millie Mae, you’re it for me. Okay? I won’t say those three special words. You’re not ready to hear them right now, I get that. But that doesn’t mean I can’t tell you how I feel. I’ve spent too many years not telling you, and even if it’s bad timing and nothing can happen right now, I need you to know.”
Will releases one of my hands to run his through his hair.
“Fuck,” he whispers. “You’re my person, Millie, okay. I’ll say that. And we can be whatever we want to be. It’s up to us. If you want me to fuck that pretty cunt of yours—and that’s all I get for the next year? So be it. That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“Will…”
“Damnit, Millie. I’m trying to be a good man here. I told you I could walk you home. But now I don’t want to let you go.’
God, he’s so infuriating. Of course I still want to spend time together, even if I don’t want a relationship with him right now.
“Say something, please. Otherwise I might ramble, and you don’t want that,” Will says.
I chuckle watching Will get nervous in front of me. This man normally has everything put together, but not when he’s being vulnerable.
“I’ll stay the night, Will. We need to talk about this more,” I say, biting my lip. The relief in his face makes me smile.
“Okay, okay. Good.”
We haven’t ever talked about us in a way like we are now because there was always an end date. Even if we have an end date now, I’m not sure what it is. And with him saying he’ll try to come back regardless, does that mean there isn’t one If he does have to go back to the city, we could make it work. Or I can offer him my house, if anything, if the store gets taken. That’s too much to muse over right now though.
First, I need to figure out what to do with the events business. And I still need to ask my mom to ask around for more part-time help because I never had the opportunity to ask her last night at dinner. I should have known I wouldn’t when everyone was over. It was hard to find time to be with her alone, and it would have been awkward if I asked her to chat. Everything in our family is out in the open, so she would have known something was on my mind .
And the more I thought about it, I didn’t want to know how I’d react if she said she didn’t know anyone. I wouldn’t know what to do, but I’d figure it out.
I have to.
If I want things to continue as they are now.
“Let’s pack up,” Will says as he stands from between my legs.
“We can watch a movie or something?” I ask, hoping that we don’t have to end the night early.
Things between us won’t be awkward, I know that, but our relationship has such an imbalance at the moment. It’s hard to know what to say, what to do.
“Are you asking me to Netflix and Chill, Millie?” Will shakes his head and laughs.
“I told you I want to reap the benefits.” I give him a sly smile.
“Come on, trouble.”
He holds out his hand, and I interlace my fingers with his.
I help him hold some of the food and drinks, and we descend the stairs to his apartment.
“Do you hear that?” he asks.
“Hear what?” I ask as Will unlocks his door.
And that’s when I hear it. A slight banging on a door downstairs.
“Is someone downstairs? Were you expecting someone?” I ask, wondering who would be here at this hour.
It’s not terribly late, but it’s almost ten and most of the town is either at Jeremy’s bar or at home.
“I wasn’t expecting anyone.” He shrugs and takes his phone out. “No missed calls or texts either.”
“Maybe it’s a neighbor’s kid.”
“You think a child is ding dong ditching in the middle of the night?” Will asks.
I shove at his shoulder. “I don’t know. I was suggesting an explanation. Should we go check? ”
Will takes the food from my hand and walks into the kitchen, putting it away in the fridge.
“Yeah, we should. It could be Grandpa. Who knows.” Will sighs as he says that. It’s a possibility. Although, he’s not to the point where he would accidentally come to work at night and forget his key. But, anything is possible I suppose.
“Okay, let’s go,” I say and turn to walk out the door.
“Wait,” Will calls after me.
“What?”
He walks past me and to the rack of coats next to the door. He pulls his leather jacket off the hook and hands it to me. “Wear this.”
“Why? I’m fine in this sweater.” I pull at the fabric.
Will holds it out and raises his brows in disbelief.
The banging from downstairs comes again. I groan.
“Fine, give it to me,” I say in haste, even though I’m far from mad.
Wearing his leather jacket is as close to being wrapped up in him. He’s had this jacket for over a decade, and it’s the most comfortable thing I’ve ever worn. Add to that the smells that come from it, pine and sage, and I fear it’ll be hard to give it back.
Will leaves first and I follow, shutting the door behind us. We leave it unlocked since we don’t plan to be gone for long. We’ll check on whomever is at the door downstairs, then we will watch a movie.
When we get downstairs, Will flips on a few of the lights so we can see our way to the front door.
“I don’t see anyone,” I say, trying to peer ahead of him at who might be outside.
But as soon as I finish the sentence, a young girl appears by the door.
She has long brown hair, dark like Will’s. It’s dark enough that you’d assume it was black, but the faint glow from the street lamps show it’s brown. There’s a duffle bag in her hands and a small backpack on her back. For how cold it is outside, she should be wearing a jacket, but instead it looks like she’s wearing a thin flannel.
We get close enough to the window that I’m able to observe her face. She looks so familiar that it has me stopping where I stand. Her eyes are a deep brown and match the dark color of her long hair. There’s faint purple bags under each eye and they appear swollen, as if she’s been crying for the past hour.
“Millie,” Will calls my name from a few steps in front of me.
Right. Random girl who looks an awful lot like the man in front of me at the door.
I walk toward him and move past to twist the lock until there’s a faint click. I open the door and step outside, feeling grateful that Will gave me his jacket.
“Hi, can we help you?” I ask.
The girl sniffles and looks to my right at Will.
“What’s your name?” I ask a different question, hoping she will talk.
I’d like to find out where she should be and why she chose to knock on this door out of all of them. It’s likely because she’s younger that she didn’t go to the bar, but why did she come here?
“I’m Kristie, sorry, I don’t know what I’m doing here,” the girl, Kristie, says. Her gaze drops to the ground, and she wraps her arms around herself as she fidgets. “I, um, can I come in?”
“Um…” I trail off and my eyes find Will. He glances at me and shrugs. Real helpful.
“Sorry, this is ridiculous, I’ll go…” Kristie looks around as if she’s trying to figure out what to do from here.
Did she travel here? Does she even have somewhere else to go?
“Sorry,” she says again, pressing her lips together, before she turns around and walks away. She tries to pull her flannel tighter as the wind gets stronger.
And before I know it, I’m yelling her name.
She stops and turns back to me .
“If you promise not to steal anything, you can come in for a minute so we can help you,” I say, and luckily she chuckles.
She looks like she’s been traveling all day, so she might be nervous. I’m certain I don’t know her. I know everyone in town, yet there’s something so familiar about her.
Plus, it’s going to get below freezing tonight. What would happen if I let her wander off? That’s the last thing I need on my mind, with everything else.
“Okay,” she says. “Thank you. I tried to plan on the way here, but wasn’t sure what to expect.”
“Of course. Let’s sit down and we can chat.”
I let her follow me into the record store, leaving the door unlocked because I don’t want her to presume I’m locking her in here with us. If anything, we will figure out why she’s here and help her. Maybe she saw the light from the roof and the apartment and the rest of the block wasn’t as inviting.
“Will, would you mind grabbing us…” I turn to Kristie. “Do you like hot chocolate?” She nods and I turn back to Will. “Hot chocolate, please. And a snack.”
Once Will turns to go upstairs, I turn to Kristie and say, “We can go over here.” We walk to the right side of the store, where there’s a small couch and a set of chairs that people can come in and listen to music or simply hang out. It was a favorite spot for me growing up, when I came here to spend time with Jeremy and Will.
I sit on the couch, assuming Will will sit next to me when he comes back. Kristie takes the chair across from me. She keeps her duffle in her lap, messing with the zipper. Her eyes stay on the ground as we sit there in silence. Am I supposed to give her time?
Luckily, Will arrives with the drinks and snacks, which should hopefully help ease the tension. I’m glad we had leftovers from our date, it helped to have something easy to grab.
Her lips quirk up as she takes a cup and a sip. Her body relaxes instantly at the warmth .
“So, Kristie, I should introduce myself. I’m Millie. And this is Will.” I smile at her and she returns it, only briefly looking at Will. “Where did you come from?”
“Michigan.”
Okay, that’s weird.
“Oh, that’s a little far.”
She gives me a thin-lipped smile. “Lots of buses.”
“Right…and you came to Willow Pines on purpose?”
It’s not unusual for people to come here, but it’s a little early. Most of our tourists come for the festival, or when the weather is a bit nicer. We don’t typically have strangers in town in the middle of winter. No one wants to go on hikes when there’s a chance for pouring rain or freezing temperatures.
She nods and looks at Will for a brief moment but doesn’t say anything. She drops her gaze again, nibbles on a cracker, sips her drink.
“Okay, is there something we can help you with? We could call someone for you?”
She shakes her head and laughs to herself. “No, Mom wouldn’t answer anyway.”
Got it.
“Kristie, hi.” Will speaks, and I dip my head for him to keep going. “Right, um, I’m sorry, you look extremely familiar. Do I know you?”
Okay, so it’s not only me seeing it. Could she be a cousin? It’s possible he has family I don’t know about. His grandpa didn’t leave Willow Pines often, but when Will was younger, there were a few family events.
Kristie shakes her head and takes a deep breath. “You don’t know me. But you know my dad.”