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"Oh, I can make you suffer with me, if you'd like," Willow assured him. "I've already had a couple hormonal moments as it is. And trust me, they weren't lovely."
"Bring 'em on," he said softly as his fingers combed through her tangles. Still nestled against him, Willow smiled. She wiggled another inch closer until something suddenly stopped her, nudging her ribs.
Her eyes flew open and she frowned. "Are you turned on?" she
asked, lifting her face so she could look down. When she found him aroused, she gasped. "Oh my God, you are!"
"What?" he demanded. "You're in... that."
She glanced at his shirt she was wearing.
"And your legs are all bare and sexy," he added.
But Willow just looked up at him and shook her head. "Malloy, I look like hell."
Raith snorted. "Well, if this is as bad as you get, then you've got nothing to worry about."
Touched by his kindness, Willow's lips parted. He glanced away and briskly pushed to his feet only to hold a hand down to her.
"I've got to get to work," he said, ignoring his own arousal. "Still feel like you're going to puke?"
Willow shook her head.
"Good. I'm going to throw some clothes on and run to the store to get you some bagels."
He walked out of the bathroom with Willow gawking after him. He'd spent enough mornings with her to know she only ate bagels for breakfast. But to remember and volunteer to go out and buy her some, without her even asking, was just plain nice. It shocked the hell out of her.
~ * ~
When Brenda arrived to take her daughter off Raith's hands, Willow was sitting in the kitchen, eating her bagel and reading the morning paper while Raith finished getting ready for work.
"It's open," she called when she heard the knock. The handle jiggled, but no one entered, assuring her the door was not open after all. Suddenly remembering she wasn't home and she would probably have her door locked there too if she was, Willow popped to her feet and hurried to the exit, only to check the window to see who it was first.
When she saw her mother's face, she let her in, feeling awful she had to do a security check on her own mom.
"Where's the cop?" Brenda asked, glancing around as soon as she entered.
"Still putting on his uniform," Willow answered, returning to her seat and picking up the paper again. She studied the columns of houses for sale, wondering if she'd ever be able to sleep in her own home again by herself.
"You know," her mother said, plucking up one of Willow's bagels and snipping off a bite to eat. "I knew you two would end up together as soon as I met him at the courthouse, and Walt told me who he was."
"And why's that?" Willow asked, not really paying attention to her mother as she continued to peruse the classifieds. There was a lovely thre
ebedroom place on Winston Boulevard. Maybe she'd drive by it sometime. She needed to set up a nursery soon, anyway. Might as well go all out and get an entirely new house.
"Well, honey," he mother said, dragging another piece of bagel through a clump of cream cheese before popping it into her mouth. "You said you were going to marry him when you were seven."
That finally captured Willow attention. She lifted her face. "Excuse me?"
Brenda smiled. "Don't you remember? You met him at his father's funeral. And you hugged him when he cried. Then, when we were leaving, you proclaimed you were going to marry that boy someday."
Willow blinked as a long ago memory hit her. She saw a beautiful teenage boy with inky black hair and sad eyes that refused to cry for his father.
"That was him?" When her mother nodded, she shook her head. "No, wait. It couldn't have been. That boy's name was Peter."
Brenda bit her lip and frowned. "Are you sure? Walt told me he was the son of Pete Malloy, the officer who died in action during a simple traffic stop."
"Yes, I'm positive that boy's name was Peter," Willow insisted. "I made you look it up in the newspaper in his father's obituary, remember. His name was definitely Peter. Named after his father"
