Not having the time nor the patience to deal with her antics, I continue for my car. The parking lot is as empty as my bank balance after I paid for my angry outburst the last time we were in the same room as each other. Not willing to part with more of my hard-earned money, leaving is the best thing I can do.
“When I said you needed to find yourself again, I didn’t mean you should go back to who you were before we met. She’s a child, for crying out loud! How is anyone okay with this?”
I take in a deep breath, then continue walking.
While Lillian persists with her belligerent rant on how we’re destined to be together, I remind myself time and time again how much I lost because of her. I repeattwenty-three million dollarsover and over again while my mind replays the unsure expression Willow’s face held when she slipped into the cab. If I needed any more proof on how toxic my relationship with Lillian was, I just got it. None of my thoughts center around our time together—not one of them.
As a security guard cautions Lillian to calm down, I slip into my driver’s seat. The purr of my engine matches the havoc twisting in my gut. Lillian didn’t arrive tonight for no reason. She’s up to something. If my eagerness to beat Willow to her dorm wasn’t on the forefront of my mind, I’d look into her sudden unwanted return. Alas, I only have one woman on my mind. She isn’t the one who makes my blood boil. Well, not in anger anyway.
IMAKEit to Willow’s school a whole two and a half minutes before her taxi. I didn’t run a single red light or floor the gas; I just used my knowledge of the streets to my advantage. It paid off for me tonight; Willow doesn’t look like she’s enjoying the change in our plans as much as me.
“Regretting your decision now, aren’t you?”
Willow stops counting the small change in her purse. Instead, she scoops them out and thrusts them at the taxi driver, pretending she wasn’t counting his fare to the very dime.
“Not really; it was a nice night for a drive.” With the wink of a woman who doesn’t know the phrase “back down,” she pivots on her heels and stalks to her dorm.
Her steps slow to barely a snail’s pace when I say, “Lillian is my ex-fiancée. We were supposed to wed three weeks before I walked in on her in our bed with her yoga instructor.”
Willow swivels around to face me. “Ex-fiancée?”
“Very much so,” I answer without hesitation.
“Does she know that?”
Determined not to lie to her again, I shrug. “I don’t know.” When she turns and walks away from me, I rush out my next set of words, “But I plan on confirming she’s well aware of that fact no matter what happens between us. I didn’t postpone our wedding the first time for no reason. I’ve always known deep down inside that she isn’t the girl for me. Then when I broke my back, I was saved from the fire for the second time.”
I rake my fingers through my hair while cursing the cool fall air. That was not a good analogy for me to use. Mercifully, Willow is as strong as the woman I see in her eyes.
“You postponed your wedding before you injured yourself?”
I step closer to her. “Yes. I made an excuse about it being the end of the season and that I needed to keep my mind focused on the game instead of wedding hoopla.”
“And Lillian bought that?” Willow sounds equally sickened and humored.
I nod. “She was happy for the postponement. Not because she needed more time to plan our wedding, but because it gave her plenty of opportunities to seek out the highest bidder to broadcast our ceremony to the supposed two million people who signed up to watch it live.”
“Yet, you still asked her to marry you. What kind of man does that make you?”
Ouch! Take that, ego.
“Sorry.” Regret fills Willow’s eyes when she spots the shock in mine. “I’m dealing with a whole heap of emotions I’m not used to handling. I’m also hangry. Nobody likes a hangry Will.”
The smile stretching across my face makes it hard to get out my next set of words. “Join the club.”
She cocks her hip and drags her teeth over her lip in an undoubtedly sexy way. “Which part? The hangry part? Or the whole heap of emotions?”
“A bit of both.” I nudge my head to the right. “We could work through both issues over there.”
Her eyes stray to Mickey’s for a few seconds before they return to me. “Who’s paying? I’m living off coupons until Tuesday.” She doesn’t sound the least bit embarrassed. During our conversations the three weeks I was on the road, I verified my college days were just as dire as hers.
“I’ll get this one; you can pick up the next.”
I sling my arm around her shoulder to guide her to Mickey’s, only to have her pull away from me two seconds later. My panic subsides when she murmurs, “You may not want to hug me when you learn how many appetizers I’m planning to order.”
“DOESDANNY KNOW?”A string of tomato-loaded spaghetti wiggles up Willow’s chin, flicks her nose, then gets lost in her O-circled mouth before she locks her light blue eyes with mine.
I’m tempted to lick the smear of tomato paste from her nose but keep my focus on the task at hand. It’s a fucking hard feat. “Know what?”
