AllFreeNovel
Share Us
26
Will couldn’t have planned a better kiss. This time, Gretchen had him pressed against the wall in the candy kitchen, but he didn’t mind a bit. He’d missed her far too much to focus on anything but her. Anything to let her know he wouldn’t disappear again. He wouldn’t walk away when she was stressed or when things got hard, even if she asked him to.
He broke the kiss and whispered, “I love you,” before forming his mouth to hers again.
She kissed him back in ways that said,I love you too, Will, but when she pulled away and said, “I love you too, Will,” it sure was nice to hear. Beyond nice.
He smiled at her and touched his lips to her cheek. “I can’t kiss you here?” He moved his mouth to her ear, and she shivered in his arms. “Oh, this feels like a bad spot.”
“Stop it,” she said with a giggle.
Will sobered and looked at her. “You help your daddy on Tuesdays. Do you think he’d like to come to dinner at the farm too? He’d be welcome.”
Her eyes widened, then filled with those tears again. Will’s heart couldn’t take more crying, because he knew every tear was his fault. “Don’t cry, baby,” he said sweetly, wiping her eyes for her. “Please, I hate it when you cry.”
Gretchen smiled, and she was the loveliest creature in the whole world. “Don’t be so amazing then.”
“I can go get your daddy. I took the afternoon off on the farm.”
That sobered her up. “You did? And you didn’t ask me to skip work and go with you?”
“That didn’t turn out so hot last time,” he said. “Or maybe it was too hot.” He shook his head and told himself to stop being cute. “Lee wanted me to switch out this game he bought, so I did that, and I’ve been thinkin’ about calling you or showing up at your house with your favorites, but then I just couldn’t drive by this place again without talking to you.”
“Again?” Gretchen teased. “How many times have you been by?”
“Just the one, to take the game back,” Will said. “And it was torture. Honestly, Gretchen, my life has been pretty terrible without you.”
She smiled at him and took his face in her hands. When she did that, and coupled it with a smile, he felt seen and cherished at the same time. “I love you, Will Cooper.”
He grinned back at her. “Are you going to call me Will Cooper from now on? Both names every time?” She’d done it a lot before kissing him.
She burst out laughing and shook her head. “No.”
“Shoot,” he said. “I kinda like it. Sounds real sexy.” He kissed her again, giggles and all, because it sure felt nice to be loved, and to love another person, and to not have to be perfect to do either.
* * *
“Hello,”Will called into the farmhouse. “We’re here.” He kept a real steady hand on Reginald Bellows, who leaned on his cane on the right side and towed along his oxygen tank with his left hand.
“Right over that little bump,” Will said. “You got it.” Reggie went in the house first, muttering about how of course he knew how to enter a house.
Will smiled behind him and followed him into the farmhouse. Daddy came into the formal living room and foyer, his face all lit up. “Howdy,” he boomed. “Welcome to the farm.”
“I’m not deaf,” Reginald said, and that made Will laugh. If Gretchen were here, she’d probably die from embarrassment and then chastise her father. Will had left her to do her caramel apples, and she’d promised to boogie out to the farm as soon as she could.
“Daddy,” Will said through his chuckles. “This is Reginald Bellows. He’s Gretchen’s daddy. Reggie, this is my father, Wayne Cooper.”
“It’s so nice to have you here,” Daddy said, still smiling. He had taken the volume of his voice down a notch, which was just more evidence that all the Coopers could change at any given point in their lives. He took Reggie’s arm as Will released him. “Come sit with me and Chrissy on the back porch. There’s a beaver in the pond building his hideout.”
Reggie said something in his low, old-man voice that didn’t register in Will’s ears. He watched the two older men shuffle through the kitchen and past the long dining room table where the Coopers gathered for dinner every evening.
“Lord, help us tonight,” Will murmured.
Daddy and Reggie went outside, and Mama turned her head toward them. She tried to get up and couldn’t, which sent Will’s heart to the back of his throat. Daddy couldn’t manage them both, and Will jogged through the kitchen and outside.
“Mama,” he said, arriving a bit breathless, though he’d definitely run much longer distances. “Let me help you.” Together, he got her to her feet, where she faced Reggie, plenty of her Texas charm flowing from her.
“How wonderful you came,” she said, almost sounding like a queen. “Will has been telling us about you for weeks."
