AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Wow. I was expecting it to be a lot worse.”
“You’re joking, right.” She whirled to face Candace, who grinned back at her.
“Yeah, it’s bad. We’ll fill up that dumpster you rented in no time.” The older woman scanned the room. “But it could have been a lot worse. And if I’d lost you and Luna...”
Candace closed her eyes and sank her front teeth in her bottom lip.
“Right. We’re fine.” Willow straightened her shoulders. They could do this.
She tied a bandanna over her nose and mouth, put on the gloves, yanked out the first huge trash bag and handed the box to Candace.
“It was a good idea doing this part first.” Candace donned her own scarf, slid on her gloves and spoke in a muffled voice. “It’ll make the downstairs look a lot better.”
Willow shoved garbage inside her bag, trying not to attach memories to each item as it disappeared inside the plastic. If she did that, they would never be finished. Still, she had to blink back tears as she grabbed what was left of Luna’s crib and lugged what she could of it down the steps to the dumpster on the driveway. Her sweet child had been in that bed when Asher had pulled her from the fire.
“Have you heard from Mr. Rancher?” Candace said, her voice indistinct behind the cloth.
She shook her head and pulled off her bandanna, using the inside to wipe the sweat off her neck. As much as she loved Candace, she wished her friend hadn’t brought him up this time. She’d already stared at the table where they’d shared coffee, the bed where they’d made love. He was as much a ghost in this space as she and Luna were.
“Maybe it was just too much to expect that anything would work out between us in a high-stress situation like the way we met. I’m the former maid’s daughter, and he’s a prince from the local royal family. We wouldn’t even have met if not for a ridiculous claim about switched babies.”
Candace pulled off her scarf. “Yep, and you would have gone on hating the Coltons for something most of them had nothing to do with.”
“Some things just weren’t meant—”
“And neither of you would have found your one true love.”
Willow stopped just as she was about
to tie on the bandanna again. “You don’t believe in all that, do you?”
“Haven’t you ever wondered why I never dated in the ten years that Hank has been gone?”
“I thought you weren’t ready.”
Candace lowered her bag to the ground, pulled off her gloves and flashed the wedding band she always wore. “It’s because I’m still married to my love.”
For several seconds, Willow could only stare at her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.”
Candace smiled. “Asher Colton might be ‘a prince,’ as you call him, but I’ve seen the way he looks at you when he thinks no one is watching. That young man’s in love with you. He put guards on your house. He rescued your baby.”
Each of her friend’s words caused more tears to fill Willow’s eyes until they finally spilled over. Candace was crying, too, twin tears forming lines through the soot on her cheeks.
“And if you say you’re not in love with him, I’ll call you a liar.”
Willow wiped her face on the sleeve of her T-shirt. “I am.”
“Then the question is, what will you do about it? Are you going to wait for him to come to you?”
Willow tied her scarf back on, grabbed a trash bag and tossed some of her destroyed clothes inside. Was that what she’d been doing? Waiting for him? She’d stared at Candace’s front door that whole first night after Luna had been released from the hospital, expecting him to come, at least to check on the baby. But he hadn’t, that night or the next.
Was she brave enough to go to him after he’d had time to conclude that being with her and Luna was too much? She’d waited for him to make the first move, but hadn’t he already done that? He’d been trying to tell her how he felt when the fire broke out. He didn’t get the chance, but hadn’t his sacrifice to save Luna been the best love letter he could have written?
Slowly, Willow lowered the bag to the floor. “Would you mind...?”
Candace grinned. “If we came back to this project tomorrow? I think it can wait a little longer.”
“Then I need to do something I never expected to do once, let alone twice. I’m going to the Triple R.” Willow grabbed an overstuffed bag and pulled open the door. “Coming?”
