AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What are you up to, Ms. Cole?”
“I was cleaning,” she says, matching my smile as she looks up at me through her eyelashes. “I listen to music and dance around while I do it, makes it less mundane.”
Nothing about this woman is mundane.
“Can you take a break for dinner?”
“Did you clear it with the big guy?”
“Is that what we’re calling him,” I ask, laughing. She only shrugs. “He knows I’m down here trying to get you to come up.”
Willa ushers me inside, taking the second bud out of her ear and setting down the rag I hadn’t even noticed she was holding. Her face is enough to hold my attention, but as I watch her move around her space in tight yoga shorts and a cropped T-shirt, my focus goes to her ample ass and the bare patch of skin showing just above it. She’s beautiful regardless, her fantastic body is a bonus. What Alexander’s kiss started; Willa threatens to finish.
“Did he tell you what happened this morning?”
“He did. Are you okay,” I ask. She blinks rapidly at my question, surprised by it. “What?”
“I didn’t expect that, I guess.”
“Why? You think I’m some kind of asshole Chad who doesn’t care about boundaries?”
“Actually, it hadn’t crossed my mind to be offended by where Zander’s hands were. I’m surprised by my reaction more than yours.”
“You liked it, did you, Ms. Cole?”
“I’m not the one who’s gay. Besides, he’s hot as hell. You can hardly blame a gal.”
“Gay?” Who does she think is…Oh fuck. “Alexander isn’t gay, Willa.”
“What?”
“He’s bisexual. We both are.”
“Oh fuck,” she says, leaning her body against the kitchen counter. “I thought… well, I assumed a lot. You know what they say about that.”
“You are not an ass, Willa. He didn’t spell it out for you?”
“No, he didn’t say much about it. I jumped to my own conclusions,” she says. Not surprising, knowing Alexander. He’s the most tight-lipped person I’ve ever known, especially about his sexuality. I know he’d been friends with Isla for nearly a year before he finally told her. “I spent half the day feeling like I had some sort of womanly superpower that could give gay men hard-ons and the other half hoping it wouldn’t cause a rift between the two of you.”
Laughter erupts out of me, and I realize I’ve never been around Willa without it.
“You humor me like no other, Willa,” I tell her. “Come have dinner with me and the big guy.”
“Let me get changed.”
“No. Come as you are, beautiful.”
8
Zander
Iheard once that there is more unhappiness in the world than happiness, and we shouldn’t expect to deserve to be one of the happy ones. Not sure where I heard it, but it’s been sitting on my shoulder for as long as I can remember. Happiness isn’t something I thought obtainable. The NHL, sure. But not happiness.
When Damian said we could give Willa more, give her everything, the image of my future changed. Hope is a fucked-up thing, though. I don’t believe in hope. Hard work, dedication, determination. Those are the only things I know.
They aren’t anything I’ve applied to personal relationships. Truth is I’ve never had many. Isla and Damian, that’s all. Isla doesn’t require work, it’s not that type of friendship. We could go weeks without talking and still she’d be there the second I needed her for anything. Damian and I have been as casual as possible. That’s something he knew to expect from the start, and something he wanted, too.
But now everything changes. Willa’s not a woman to be dated casually. She’s the one to be locked down for eternity. Damian is someone to be held on too, as well. I’ve never known a more loyal guy.
