Willow reaches over and rests her small hand on my wrist. “It will get better, Connor. I know it doesn’t feel like it, but I promise it does.” She offers a soft smile. “I’m happy. Killian and I are. And if anyone had told me it was possible when I woke up in that hospital bed so lost and confused, I would’ve thought that they were crazy.”
“I am crazy.”
“No, you’re not.” Her dark hair spills around her as she shakes her head. “You’re the most rational person I know.”
I snort. “I don’t think your best friend would agree with that.”
She laughs and squeezes my arm before releasing it and shoving her hand through her hair. “Raven and I disagree on a lot of things. I think that’s why we’re best friends. You know, opposites attract and all that.”
“They certainly don’t in our case.”
Her lips twitch trying to contain her amusement. “No, they certainly don’t. I heard about your little showdown at the bakery the other day.”
“I figured you would…”
I’m frankly shocked Raven hasn’t written a massive article about it and splashed it all over town by now.
Willow chews on her bottom lip nervously. “You don’t…know what she’s up to, do you?”
I raise a brow. “What do you mean?”
She shakes her head, staring into the fire. “I’m not sure, but she’s been lying to me lately. Says she’s been working on stories for her community page, but I know that woman and she’s definitely up to something.”
“She’s always up to something…”
Usually no good.
“I know.” Willow nods. “That’s why I’m worried.”
5
CONNOR
It was a dick move to slip out before the sun even came up and leave the homestead to come to town, yet again avoiding the confrontation with Killian that I have known has been coming for days. But after my conversation with Willow last night, I knew she would walk right back into that cabin and tell him everything…and that he’d come looking for me today. And I wouldn’t be able to get away from him this time.
I’m a fucking chicken shit for driving down the mountain when I knew he wasn’t up yet, but after another sleepless night filled with the demons that always haunt me and Willow’s words, I couldn’t handle that confrontation.
Not from my big brother.
In a few hours, he’ll come into the McBride Timber office and it will happen, but a little time away from the homestead, a breather from those memories will at least prepare me better for it.
I wasn’t even sure where I was going when I drove past the lumberyard and into town. Now that I’m on a deserted Main Street, I could go to the diner and wait for Matt and Elaine to open when the clock hits five a.m. and their early bird customers start pouring in, but something about what Willow said last night has been battering around the back of my brain ever since then.
Raven is up to something.
For the first time in months, Willow’s worry for her friend competed with my demons for attention as I laid in bed, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what the fuck Raven might be doing.
It isn’t like her to keep things from Willow.
She’s always been sneaky, slinking off to talk to people, to write her stories—to do the devil’s work, as I like to call it—but this is different.
Willow finds that almost entertaining.
But now, Willow seems genuinely concerned.
God knows I shouldn’t give a shit about the woman who hates me so intensely and who goes out of her way to make my life, and that of my brothers, source material for her sleazy gossip column. But just like Raven pointed out the night she came to my cabin, I do care about Willow, and if anything were to happen to Raven, it would destroy that sweet, beautiful woman, and, in turn, my brother, and I can’t let that happen.
Which is probably why, against my better judgment, I pull to the curb outside the bakery, and stare up at the windows above it, at Raven’s apartment…and the lights on in it.
