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She smiled at me and slowly sat down, her gaze not moving off mine as she leaned over to me and whispered, “You better not have been with her.”
I raised a brow. “With who?”
“Don’t try and act like you don’t know,” she ground out, keeping her voice low.
“Of course I wasn’t with her.” I reached for a burger on the platter in the middle of the table.
“Good. Because I wouldn’t want to have to tell people what she was really like.” I heard her threat loud and clear, and there was nothing I could do about it. Aria was right—all we could be were friends, but I realized that was going to be hard when it came to Willow.
Willow smiled up a storm as she spoke to Jan next to her, and I kept quiet. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. All I wanted was to get this over with and then drop Willow off and go home. I wanted to be alone.
“Is she your girlfriend, Cade?” Belle asked, and I nearly choked on my burger at her words. I coughed and spluttered, taking a drink of my beer to try and calm myself.
“I—”
“I am,” Willow answered for me, and placed her hand on my arm. I stared down at it, hating how her long fingers looked against my tattoos. It didn’t look right, but nothing would ever look right compared to Aria.
“So is this the lucky lady you were talking about a few months ago?” Lola asked, her face carefully masked. I met her gaze, my stomach dipping at her words. She didn’t know what her words would cause, and I was sure Willow would put it together if I didn’t handle this right.
“I…” I flicked my gaze to Aria and then back to Lola, who raised a brow at me. “Yes.”
Lola nodded but didn’t say another word to me. Instead, she spoke to Ford and Belle, the conversation forgotten—until Willow’s hand tightened on my arm. She knew I wasn’t talking about her because we had only been colleagues a few months ago. I turned to look at her and wished I hadn’t. Her blue eyes swirled, and her lips flattened in a straight line. I couldn’t say anything to her here, not while we were surrounded by my family, so I pressed a kiss against her cheek, hoping it would satisfy her…for now.
The conversations slowed down around the table as I ate what was left on my plate, and just when I was about to ask Willow if she was ready to go, I heard Dad ask, “How’s school going, baby girl?”
Everyone around the table knew who he was talking too, everyone but Willow. When I picked her up, I hadn’t told her about Aria. I hadn’t explained she was part of the family, afraid of what she’d say. It was a mistake on my end, one I knew I had to rectify because the longer we sat opposite her, the more Willow shifted and tried to gain my attention.
“It’s going good,” Aria replied to Dad who was next to Lola. “I got my best time in track yesterday.”
“Yeah?” Dad asked, his gaze flicking to mine. “Probably be that awesome coach you have, huh?”
Aria threw her head back, her red hair flowing down her back as a soft tinkle of laughter left her mouth. I couldn’t look away, fascinated by her. “Probably,” Aria said, and then she glanced at me, but it was so brief, I wasn’t sure I would have known if I hadn’t been staring at her.
“And what about that girl? She been giving you any more trouble?” I whipped my head to face Dad, my eyes widening. Why the hell was he bringing that up in front of everyone? Not only was I sure Aria didn’t want her business talked about in front of everyone, but the girl he was talking about was Willow’s sister.
“It’s all been good,” Aria’s soft voice replied to him, but when I turned to look at her, her face was down, her gaze not meeting anyone around the table.
Willow cleared her throat, and I hoped to hell she didn’t—
“What girl?”
Fuck, she went there.
“Maybe we should talk about something else, huh?” Ford interrupted. “I’m sure Tyson don’t want her shi…stuff talked about in front of everyone.”
A breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding whooshed out of me. Ford knew who Willow was, and not only that, but he knew I had to keep on her good side. This would definitely not bode well for me if it wasn’t stopped.
“I’m sure Aria doesn’t mind,” Willow said in her sickly sweet voice. When I’d first met her, I thought she was a nice person, but I was starting to see it was all an act she’d carefully created. “We’re all friends around this table, right?”
Aria cleared her throat, trying to gain some attention. “I’d rather not talk about—”
“Why?” Willow asked, and I gripped her knee under the table, trying to stop her, but it was no use. “Why don’t you want to talk about it?” Her voice was no longer sweet and gentle, but firm and insistent. “Do you have something to hide?”
“Willow,” I growled out. “Stop.”
She turned to face me with a brow raised. “Why? I’m just asking a question.”
“Is there a problem?” Jan asked from beside Willow.
