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Suddenly there was a snake coiling in my belly, and it was ready to strike.
“Um, yeah,” I whispered, tempering that, containing it. “Joel lives here.”
“Is he…home?”
No. He wasn’t home.
He was at practice.
The only reasonIwas at home at a two o’clock on a weekday afternoon was because I had this home office. Well, that and because the Civic Center was complete, and I’d let the trailer go.
AndI had the home office.
I had myhome…with a beautiful woman standing at the front door.
“He’s not here right now,” I said softly.
“Oh.” A long,longpause. “Do you…” She glanced over her shoulder like Joel was going to appear behind her. “Um…do you know when he’ll be back?”
Okay, this was weird.
That snack flexed in my belly.
“Not for a couple of hours,” I told her. “Did you want to, um, leave him a note or something?”
She bit her lip but didn’t answer.
Off. My spidey senses were prickling because this wasoffand wrong and…that snake in my belly was slowly tightening, tensing, readying itself to strike.
But I was the mayor of a small town.
I was friendly by default.
“I’m Billie Rose,” I said, extending my mostly free hand again, the roll of washi still dangling around my thumb.
That plump bottom lip was released, and she stepped forward, shook my hand. “Willow.”
Her skin was likesilk.
And she smelled nice.
And, just a pace away, she was even more beautiful.
Did the woman even have pores?
She looked like one of those Facebook ad videos for a fancy foundation.
“Nice to meet you,” I said, ignoring that and falling back onto my manners.
An awkward pause. “Nice to meet you, too.”
Silence fell between us again.
Then manners took over again.
And later…I’d really—really—wish they hadn’t.
Later, I wished I’d slammed the door, gone back to my brand-new office, blew off my meeting, and got lost in my planner stuff.
