“Different how?” she broke in, her features awash with skepticism.
I knew I had to give her something if I had any hope of getting her to talk. “Different in the sense that she’s mine,” I said, causing her eyes to flare. “Even if she denies it, even if it takes me a good long while to convince her, she’s mine now, and someone put their fucking hands on her. I can’t let that stand.”
Her demeanor changed significantly. She seemed to deflate right in front of my eyes.
“Stone, you need to let this go—”
“The fuck I do,” I clipped.
“It’s not what you think, okay? Willow’s already having a hard enough time as it is, and running around town trying to exact justice in her name isn’t going to help. If anything, you’re just going to make it worse. You need to let this go,” she repeated, stressing each word.
“That’s not going to happen,” I grunted. “This son of a bitch has to pay.”
She let out a sigh, like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. “It’s not that simple” She shook her head and grumbled to herself under her breath, “I can’t believe I’m about to do this,” and for the first time since stepping up on her porch, I felt a tiny glimmer of hope.
“The only reason I’m about to tell you any of this is because I’m afraid you’re gonna go off half-cocked and make everything so much worse.”
Her words were doing little to comfort me.
“And I swear to God, if Willow hates me because of this, I’m going to make it my life’s mission to burn your world to the freaking ground.”
I fully believed she had the tenacity and can-do attitude to pull something like that off. “Christ, Lark. Just tell me.”
“Her dad is sick,” she started, that initial declaration doing nothing but confusing me. “Like, really sick.”
“What? Are we talkin’ cancer or something?”
“Alzheimer’s. And it’s progressing really fast. Sometimes he doesn’t know who Willow is. Sometimes he thinks she’s her dead mother. But Monday night was really bad. She and her sisters have been splitting shifts, going to take care of him. Making him dinner, keeping him company, that sort of thing. Anyway, Willow went over there that night, and he was in a paranoid rage.” My gut sank to the floor, because I had a feeling I knew where this was going, and it wasn’t going to be good. “He thought she was someone else, someone who had come to take him away, and he hit her. He wasn’t in his right mind. She had to call her sister and brother-in-law to help calm him down.”
Reaching up to rake a hand through my hair, I turned to the side, staring out, unseeing, at the view from their porch. “Jesus,” I hissed.
“Yeah. To say it messed her up pretty badly would be a serious understatement. She hasn’t been able to see him since, because if he gets a look at that eye he’ll freak out just as bad as you did. And if he finds out he’s the one who gave it to her . . .”
She looked at me expectantly, and I didn’t hesitate to finish her sentence for her. “He’ll hate himself.”
“Exactly. And she’ll do anything to prevent him from that kind of pain. But in the meantime, not being able to see him and knowing he’s going downhill fast is killing her. She’s strong as hell, stronger than most women I know. But I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t fall apart if they were living with what she’s living with. The fact that she hasn’t is just a testament to how incredible she is.”
Didn’t I know it. I’d thought there was more to Willow than met the eye, and each day more and more layers of her were peeled away.
Feeling a heaviness in my chest I didn’t know what to do with, I turned back to her. “Thanks for telling me,” I said before moving to the steps and taking them down off the porch.
“Don’t make me regret it, Stone,” she called after me. “She’s one of my best friends. Please don’t mess that up.”
Looking back over my shoulder, I assured her, “I won’t. I promise.”
But as I climbed back on my bike and sped off, I couldn’t help but think. I wouldn’t mess things up for her, but as for me . . . had I fucked everything up so bad I couldn’t possibly come back from it?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Willow
Rolling up my mat after disinfecting it and wiping it clean, I carried it over to the wall of cubbies and stowed it inside.
Aurora’s Saturday evening yoga classes weren’t nearly as packed as the ones earlier in the day, and I desperately needed to talk to her and Lark after what had gone down with Stone and me the day before. The bruise was still there, but with a thicker coating of concealer, I’d been able to make it look more like it was just a dark circle from lack of sleep. Not that that was too far off the mark either. But with all the emotions swirling around inside me, I couldn’t stay locked up in my house, with only my thoughts as company, for another second.
The classroom was quickly emptying, the people with Saturday night plans eager to get on with their night, leaving just the three of us behind.
“Hey, my colorful kumquat,” Aurora said as she and Lark came over to stand by me. “So what did you think? You like your first class?”
“I always feel so calm and relaxed afterward,” Lark added before lifting her water bottle to her lips and taking a sip. “I’m really glad you decided to come with me.”
I gave her a smile that felt a little wobbly. “Yeah, me too. I really liked it.” That wasn’t a total lie. I had liked the class a lot, and I was sure I’d feel more centered or whatever if it hadn’t been for the fact that every time we moved into a new position, I’d feel a twinge or subtle ache between my thighs, reminding me again and again and again of what went down and how brilliantly Stone had used his wildly impressive erection.
Aurora’s forehead crinkled and her head cocked to the side. “Your face is getting all red. You okay?”
“What? Yeah! Yes, I’m totally fine. Absolutely. It was a great class.”
Oh no.
“She’s rambling and getting all high-pitched,” Lark said to Aurora as they both looked at me suspiciously. “She’s hiding something from us.”
“You hated it, didn’t you?” Aurora asked, her expression falling like I’d just informed her that her favorite brand of chocolate was being discontinued.
“What? No! Of course not!”
“Then what aren’t you telling us?” Lark demanded to know.
“I had sex with Stone yesterday,” I blurted out in rapid fire. “That’s why I’m all blushy and stuff. I had sex with him yesterday, and those positions just made me . . .” I shifted uncomfortably, pressing my thighs together to try and ease that incessant throbbing. “I still feel . . . well, you know.”
“Holy shit!” Aurora cried. “Willow Amelia Thorne, you saucy little pink flamingo! Look at you!” She lifted her hand in the air, and I gave her a weak high-five, still unsure how I felt about the whole situation. “I’m so proud,” she fake-sniffled, wiping at a nonexistent tear. “I feel like my baby’s all grown up and getting laid.”