I hip check her, because if there’s one thing guaranteed to make me cry, it’s Willow reminding me I’m good enough for my kid. She’s witnessed one too many breakdowns as Cooper was growing up, when I would doubt my ability to be a single parent, to give Coop everything he needs, to act as both a mom and dad for him. And it’s simple statements from her like that one that send me straight to tears.
“Thanks, Wills.”
“So. Moving on from the crispy cookies, what are we getting up to this weekend? Aside from dealing with the unintentional box fort you’ve got going on in your living room.”
A short laugh escapes me. “You have no idea how grateful I am you’re here to help with that.”
Tossing her hair over her shoulder, Willow gives a smug smile. “You know I love to organize. Just call me Marie Kondo. We’ll have this place sorted in a day. So, then what? I want to see this adorable town, and might I just say, on the drive in, I saw a couple of absolute hotties out for a run. If the firefighter doesn’t float your boat, looks like there’s plenty of options.”
My insides warm at the very mention of Sawyer. “Trust me, it’s not that he doesn’t float my boat —” I pause, tilting my head at her “— which is a seriously bizarre statement, but anyway. Sawyer has made it pretty clear he’s not thrilled I’m in town.”
I fill her in on the strange grocery store encounter, which has her laughing so hard a tear rolls down her face. “Why is that so funny?” I ask, genuinely confused.
“Oh my sweet, sweet girl. Are you seriously so naive? His poor little man brain can’t handle the fact that you’re suddenly here when he likely never expected to see you again. But I highly doubt he’supsetby that. If anything, a man like him is trying to rationalize the fact that he wants to hit it again, the ‘it’ being you, and trying to figure out the best way to do that.”
I’m already shaking my head in denial before she even stops talking. “Nope, I doubt it. He looked, I don’t know, confused when he saw me at the school, and I pretended not to know who he was. Then at the store it was like he couldn’t believe he was seeing me again. Which is ridiculous, and he’s going to have to get over it because I’m here to stay. It was weird, Willow.”
Placing her hands on her hips, my best friend looks at me as if she’s ready to prove me wrong. Which, knowing her, she is. “Okay. Here’s what we’re gonna do. Tomorrow, we unpack your house. Then we send my beloved nephew to his grandparents for the night, and you and I are going out to the bar I saw on my way here. It’s a Saturday night, and I’m going to guess there’s a good chance he might be there if he isn’t working.”
“I’m not looking for a relationship, Willow. We just moved here. My focus is on Cooper.”
If eye rolls were an Olympic sport, Willow would win gold with the one she gives me. “Woman, are you or are you not a writer of extremely spicy romance novels?”
I nod slowly, fully aware of where she’s going with this.
“And are you or are you not a single woman with needs that no vibrator can possibly handle as good as the real thing?”
An indelicate snort escapes me, but I nod again.
“And are you or are you not open to a no-strings-attached fling that would help satisfy those needs?”
Here’s where I pause. “Willow, I don’t —”
She interrupts me with a wave of her hand. “No excuses.” Her face softens. “You’re a good mom, Tori. You give everything you have to that kid, and because of you, he has an awesome life. There’s nothing wrong with taking just a little bit of that time and energy and devoting it to yourself.”
I know my resolve is crumbling, and I’ll be texting my parents to see if they want Cooper for a sleepover tomorrow. But that doesn’t stop me from pushing back, just a little. Because I’m not the only one who’s guilty of prioritizing everything else over myself.
“Okay, I won’t deny what you’re saying is true. But can you admit that you also need to find some better work-life balance? Why are you in the office late so much these days?”
Willow doesn’t even try to hide her exhaustion. And it only makes me worry more because normally, she’s unreadable.
“Wills. What’s going on? Is your uncle okay?”
Willow’s uncle Mike is the owner of the Vancouver Tridents, one of two Canadian major league baseball teams.
“He’s fine, it’s just the usual work stuff, plus the drama with Rafe Montego having a kid no one knew about.”
I study my best friend, looking for any hint as to what the issues could possibly be, but she’s back to her usual poker face. “But everything’s okay?”
“It will be. We’re waiting to hear if he’s going to retire after this season, that’s all.” She brushes imaginary lint off her pants and tilts her head to the door.
“When do we have to go and get Coop?”
I glance at my watch. “Now, I suppose.”
Willow claps her hands together with genuine excitement. “Great, I miss that kid. Let’s go.”
A short while later, we’re back home, kid in tow. Cooper takes one look at the burnt cookies still sitting in the sink and blinks up at me owlishly. “You tried to bake while you were writing, didn’t you?”
