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“Now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, my love. We have to stay focused, or we’ll make mistakes.”
“I don’t make those.”
“That’s why I chose you, honey. To be mine.” She added the last almost too late.
“When can I see you again?”
“Soon. I promise. Now let’s both get some rest. We have so much more work to do.” Well, he did anyway.
He finally acquiesced, and she was able to cut the call with a singsong “sweet dreams.”
She hung up just in time, it seemed, as her doorbell rang.
* * *
Asher climbed into the driver’s seat of his pickup in the hospital parking lot and gripped the steering wheel, his shoulders curling forward and his chin dropping to his chest. That night’s visit with his father had been tougher than any he’d experienced in weeks, and he wasn’t sure why. Could it have been that some part of him hoped Dad would wake right then so he could introduce him to Willow? If she was the reason, he had bigger problems than only a bomb threat and a vandalized fence.
“It’s still so hot tonight,” she said.
Willow slid off the sweater she’d worn over her sleeveless blouse and skirt in the hospital’s air-conditioning, and all he could think about was how soft that exposed skin of her arms would feel. On his fingertips and his lips.
When he didn’t respond, she glanced over at him. “You okay?”
Other than realizing he was getting in over his head with this independent beauty and that it might have to do with more than her sexy curves and all that dark hair? Or that he’d already learned a lot about her, and he craved more details? If not for all those things, he was just fine. He’d told himself he would never let another woman get close to him, yet, for a reason he couldn’t explain, Willow tempted him to break his own promise.
Still, he straightened and glanced her way. Her delicate nose and chin, along with those beautiful curls, were outlined in both light and shadows coming from the parking-lot lamps.
“I’m fine. It’s just tough sometimes.” Letting her believe that this was only about their time in his dad’s hospital room was a coward’s way out, but it was easier than admitting the truth.
“It’s so hard to see
our parents when they’re frail like that. I had a tough time with it before Mom died.” She jerked her head back suddenly. “I didn’t mean... That’s not what I was trying to say.”
“Don’t worry. I understood what you meant.” He was quiet for a few seconds, and then he added, “Every time my phone rings, I’m praying that it will be the news that he’s finally awake. Then I’m terrified to answer because there could have been some complication, and he’ll just be...”
Asher didn’t finish his words. He couldn’t think about that awful possibility after he’d looked at his father through Willow’s eyes that night. Dad wasn’t getting better. He was just existing, with oxygen filling his lungs and an IV drip feeding him.
“I know it’s hard, but you can’t think like that,” she said. “You have to be strong for him, just like you are for Harper.”
“You, of all people, have to know who my dad is. He’s not a perfect guy. He put the company and the ranch ahead of not just me, but all his kids. I can’t remember a single time he ever took me outside and threw a baseball with me.”
“Do you even like baseball?”
He cleared his throat. “No. But that’s beside the point.”
Asher shifted toward her in the seat, his right leg coming up on the upholstery. “He’s the type of hands-off parent I’m determined not to be for Harper, and yet—”
“You love him,” she finished for him, turning to face him, as well. “He’s your dad.”
“He’s my dad. I guess it’s pitiful, but I want him to wake up so he can see that I’m a good father. A better one than he was to me.”
“Harper was born a few months before your dad was shot, right?”
“Yes. So?”
“Then he knows.”
“What do you mean?”
