Page 43 of Jay Bird

CHAPTER SIX

Willow woke slowly, surrounded by warmth and softness she hadn’t felt in so long. The mattress beneath her was ridiculously comfortable, the pillow cradling her head instead of fighting with her neck, and the blanket was pulled snugly around her.

She sighed and reached across the bed, only to find her hand meeting cool, empty sheets.

Willow’s eyes snapped open as she shot upright and saw the empty space beside her.

Lily!

Panic hit so fast that every rational thought disappeared. Willow threw the blankets aside and scrambled from the bed, nearly catching her foot on one of the shopping bags she had left on the floor the night before.

“Lily!”

Willow’s gaze flew toward the door, and her stomach dropped when she saw it wide open.

“Oh, shit!”

Willow raced barefoot into the hallway, her pulse pounding as every horrible possibility her mind could create assaulted her at once.

“Lily!”

She made it halfway down the hallway before a smell finally registered in her sleep-fogged mind. Bacon.

Willow rounded the corner into the living room and stopped so abruptly she nearly tripped over her own feet.

Lily was sitting at the kitchen table, perfectly fine. She was perched on some sort of booster cushion while scribbling furiously in a coloring book with a purple crayon. Her tablet sat propped beside her, playing one of her cartoons, although Lily seemed far more interested in whatever masterpiece she was creating.

Relief hit Willow so hard that her knees nearly buckled.

Then she looked toward the stove, and suddenly found it difficult to breathe for an entirely different reason.

Jay Bird stood in front of the stove with a spatula in one hand.

He wore black athletic shorts and a gray tank top, and judging by the dampness of his longer, slightly wild dark hair, he had either just finished working out or recently showered.

The tank top did absolutely nothing to disguise the width of his shoulders or the muscles in his arms, and when he reached for something beside the stove, Willow caught herself staring at the way the fabric stretched across his back.

She really shouldn’t have been looking, but apparently three years in hell hadn’t managed to kill that particular part of her brain. It knew when to appreciate something good.

Jay Bird turned, and their eyes met. A slow grin spread across his face.

Heat flooded Willow’s cheeks, and she immediately went to Lily.

“Lily.”

“Momma!” Lily announced happily.

Willow leaned down and kissed the top of her head, breathing in the familiar scent of her shampoo as she wrapped an arm around her.

“You scared Mommy.”

Lily looked completely unconcerned. “Jay pancakes.”

Apparently that explained everything.

She straightened and looked toward Jay Bird. “How did she get out of the room?”

Jay Bird picked up a plate of pancakes and carried it toward the table. “Funny story. I was in here making a protein shake when your little escape artist came strolling down the hallway dragging a shopping bag behind her.”