“She thinks you uh…you might’ve been trafficked,” I said. “Like a prisoner.”
Willa went quiet then, exhaling a long sigh after a moment.
“They traded me,” she said. “My papa and Mr. Daley.”
I didn’t let her see how angry that made me…how much it made me want to drive right over to the homestead and fucking strangle that monster. “I remember,” I said.
“But I think that means something, doesn’t it?” she asked. “That maybe…”
She paused, covering her mouth with her hand, and then she sank down on the edge of the clawfoot tub.
“Do you think I was ever a person to them?” she whispered.
I moved closer to her, and she wrapped her arms around my waist without even thinking about it. I held her close, her face buried in my shirt, and I stroked her long hair.
“You wanna get in the bath?” I asked. “I can give you some time?—”
She pulled back. “I want you with me.”
I nodded. “I can stay.”
“No…no, in the bath with me,” she said. “I just want to—” She stopped. “—I want to be with someone who thinks I’m a person?”
I looked at her for a moment—her bare shoulders, her eyes bright and a little wet, her chin still up even now.
"Yeah," I said. "Okay."
I reached past her and turned down the taps, the water already deep and steaming. Then I straightened up and she stood with me, and we looked at each other in the small bathroom.
Nickel huffed and left us alone, clearly annoyed that we were doing yet another activity that wasn’t fawning over her.
I reached for the hem of my shirt.
Willa's hands got there first.
She pushed my shirt up slowly, her palms flat against my stomach, and I let her, lifting my arms so she could pull it over my head. She dropped it on the floor and looked at me the way she'd been looking at me all morning—taking inventory, making sure of something.
Whatever she found settled her.
I reached for her then. She was already bare from the waist up, had been since I walked in, and I put my hands on her waistand just held her for a moment—warm skin, the steam rising around us, her eyes on mine.
“I’m gonna be honest with you,” I rasped. “I really want to fuck you right now. But…I want you to know that you’re more than that to me, okay? I respect you. Respect your choices. Your desires. You’re more than just a person to me, Willa.”
She nodded once, quick.
I hooked my thumbs in her underwear and she stepped out of them, steady, no hesitation, and then she sat on the edge of the tub while I got out of the rest of my clothes. She watched me do it with those blue eyes sparkling, lips parted.
I climbed in first. The water was hot enough to make me hiss. I settled back against the curved end and held out my hand.
She took it and stepped in slowly, her breath catching at the heat, lowering herself until she was leaning back against my chest with the water up to her shoulders and my arms around her and her hair spreading out around us like dark silk.
She exhaled.
We didn't talk for a while—just listened to the drip of the faucet, Nickel’s footsteps outside the door every so often, each other’s breathing. Eventually I tilted my head to kiss her temple, my arms around her waist.
"Willa Pruitt," I said eventually. “Not Willa Daley.”
She let out a bitter laugh. “Not much better.”
