AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She is very safe. If you could give me a moment, I’ll explain as best I can what’s going on.” Minty stood with her fingers linked together loosely in front of her.
He settled back onto his heels, knowing that short of physically lifting her and moving her out of the way, he was not getting past this cool little woman who was closer to his age than Willa’s.
“I’m listening.”
“Willa is dealing with something right now. She is presently sound asleep on the couch and can’t be left alone for long as she is suffering from nightmares. I would never betray her business, but I feel it is in her best interest that you have every opportunity to be there for her. So, I have one question for you. How much do you care about her?”
He answered immediately. “She’s everything.”
She held out her hand, palm up, reminiscent of himself several months earlier. He unlocked his cell phone and passed it to her. She keyed in her number, messaged herself and returned it to him.
“She’s not to be left alone. If she doesn’t want you here, text me and I’ll come right back up. I’ll be in the parking lot for the next hour. If I don’t receive a voice call from Willa within the next hour, I’ll be back up,” she paused and leaned slightly towards him and looked up into his face, her clear brown eyes full of equal parts hope and warning, “Good luck.”
She stepped out of his way.
The apartment was silent apart from Willa's deep, steady breathing. Her curls spread out on the couch cushion behind her, her hands folded in prayer beneath her chin. That same little velvet bag she’d been holding the day he startled her in her office peeked out between her folded hands. She looked terrible and beautiful at once.
He worried that seeing him there unexpectedly might startle her. Remembering her reaction when he surprised her in her office, he was thinking twice about the wisdom of being there at all. He eased onto the end of the couch and carefully adjusted her legs onto his lap, so she’d at least know someone was there.
She stirred restlessly in her sleep. He began to talk to her softly to bring her out of her sleep without frightening her.
“The first time I saw you, was at the side of the road on Hwy 6. You were with Rebecca, both of you stranded with crates upon crates of some of the most beautiful artwork I’ve ever seen. That beauty had nothing on you.”
She slept on, but calmer now. He continued.
“I remember the shock to my system when you got out of that car. I knew, right away, that you were special. I was in a relationship, but I ended it that day, knowing that even should you reject me, she could not be the one for me, not when you lit me up the way you did. The way you still do. You wouldn't even shake my hand, but you shook up my entire world, curly.”
Her breathing became deep and even once again. He lay one hand on the outside of her bent knee and the other on her ankle and he waited. Twenty minutes later her eyelids fluttered, and he rubbed her calf and murmured, “Hey, curly.”
She murmured his name, “Barrett…”
“I’m here, curly.”
Her eyelids fluttered open, and she whispered his name again, staring off into space, “Barrett…”
He squeezed her foot and softened his voice. “I’m here, curly.”
She cranked her neck around to look at him, eyes wide with hope and surprise, her guard completely down. “You’re here,” she said in disbelief, trying to make sense of what her eyes were telling her.
The moment she believed, her face crumpled, she drew her legs off his lap, and threw herself against his chest face first. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his mouth to the top of her head.
“I’m here, curly.” He kissed her hair. “I’ll always be here.”
She burrowed deeper into his chest, animal-like noises of pain escaping her throat as she grasped and pulled desperately at the sides of his shirt. He struggled to contain her on his lap, whispering soothing nonsense words as she pushed her feet into the couch cushions to leverage her body deeper into his tight embrace. When she could get no closer, she stilled and released the tears of a broken child.
He pulled her legs up into a ball onto his lap and wrapped her up tight while she cried. She cried in a way that reminded him of Rhys when he’d lost his wife, and it was then that he understood that Willa suffered from a broken heart. Or perhaps she had also lost a piece of her soul.
“Ah, curly, what happened to you my sweet girl?”
If possible, his words made her cry harder. She tried to speak.
“I…. sorry... You… d-d-deserve… not good … need... B-b-bet-t-ter… I ca-an’t...”
“Shh, we’ve got lots of time. Don’t try to talk yet,” he rumbled, “although you’ll have to call Minty soon and call her off. She’s waiting in the parking lot until you give her the okay.”
He held his breath, hoping against hope that she’d let him stay. She nodded and something inside him that had been knocked off kilter for the past three weeks clicked back into place.
She relaxed completely against him, drawing in deep, faltering breaths while he stroked his big hands over her back and legs. She slowly unfurled and twisted so that her breasts were flush against his chest, heart to heart.
