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Gran pats my arm, gentler this time. “I, on the other hand, have been asked to join the cast ofMarrying an Alaskan Mountain Man.I get to play an outrageous grandma! Filming starts next week. So I need you to stick around and give me a ride to Aurora Springs. Any-who, I’ll let you two sort this out.”
“I look forward to watching you on TV, Maggs,” Willow says to her. Gran doesn’t correct her. Wow, that must’ve been one helluva conversation. Or a strongly boozed-up pie. I wait until Gran gets into her car.
“You’re really going to turn down a half million dollars?”
“Yeah.” Her arms are folded over her chest, a pitiful shield against my rejection. She looks so vulnerable without her makeup all done up. Her cheeks are raw from crying, and dammit if that doesn’t kill me inside. “When I said I didn’t want that dream anymore, I meant it. I was just so mad at you. I thought you were the developer everyone was talking about. I jumped to conclusions.”
“I was in a bidding war with one,” I admit. “Until Etta Carver got involved.”
“She still toting around that old shotgun?”
“And banned from half the businesses in town. The other half hire her part time as a bouncer.” Soft laughter breaks the tension and shatters the walls I’ve put up. “I bought the theater for you, Willow. I wanted you to have a new dream, here with me. I wanted to make sure you were happy, and you never would’ve been if some city slicker had torn down your building. It’s yours, babe.”
“Are we okay, then?” She glances at my stuffed storage compartment. “Because I really am staying. Even if you don’t want to be with me like that anymore.”
“Are you kidding?” I reach for her, running my hands from her shoulders to her elbows. “You’ve always been the only one, Willow.”
“Same.”
“You didn’t have some boyfriend with a bad haircut and skinny jeans in LA?”
“I never even went on a date. Why do you think I’ve been so horny?” she teases.
“Is that so?” I tug her closer, cup her cheeks, and tilt her face up toward mine. Her lips beg for me to bruise them with my kiss.
“I love you, Mason. I’ve never stopped.”
Our lips meet, the tender brush turning animalistic in seconds. The back door of the plane is open, and I lift her by the ass to set her inside. Her legs dangle, her knees pressing into my hips. “It’s been a long time since I fucked you in this plane,” I growl.
“Never on the airstrip!”
“We’re alone. Tower can’t see us from this angle.” I slide my hands beneath her shirt and squeeze her tits. “Unless you’re not as horny as you claim.”
“Shut up. You know I am.”
I lift one corner of my mouth as my hands slide to her back, working at the clasp of her bra. “Just one more thing,” I add as her bra slackens and my hands slide around to cup her tits. “Would you fucking marry me already?”
“Where’s the ring?” she challenges, that playful glint in her brown eyes.
“In my pocket. But my hands are busy. You’ll have to fish it out for yourself.”
Epilogue
WILLOW
About a week later…
“Is this it?” Kinley holds up a lavender file folder covered in daisy stickers as she heads down the theater aisle toward center stage.
“Yes!” I feel so relieved that she found it I could cry. “Those are the missing scenes.”
Kinley stops short of the stage and stares in awe at the storm of papers around me. Pages and pages of scripts I dabbled with over the years. The airline jumbled them a bit, and I’ve spent the day trying to sort out which pages of script go with which play I wrote. “Are you sure acting is your passion?”
“Honestly? I think it’s writing. And directing.” Which is why out of the dozens of plays around me, I’ve picked one to work on producing first. The final scenes are in the purple file folder. I hug it to my chest when she hands it over. “When’s our short order cook arriving?”
“She’s not.”
I snap my head to her. “But Grandma Rose leaves for her cruise the day after tomorrow.”
