by Jenni Moen
It was all because of her. Everything I was and everything I would become was because of her.
WILLOW
I CLOSED THE DOOR BEHIND the last of the guests, turned, and leaned against it, content and happy. My eyes traveled up the stairs. Quinn had actually pulled it off. In only seven weeks, he’d turned my dilapidated old house into a stunning historical landmark. Well, a historical landmark with some flair since a different crazy theme decorated each of the four bedrooms upstairs.
The Arabian Nights room was his favorite. The floating magic carpet bed hanging from the ceiling was amazing, but the one time we’d tried it out had made me a little seasick. I preferred the Enchanted Forest room instead.
Quinn had turned each post on the four-poster bed into a tree and hung a canopy of leaves over the top. He’d even allowed Les into the house to paint a mural on the walls. It was so incredibly relaxing that I sometimes went in there to unwind when the people at the diner or school became too much for me. To be honest, I was a little sad I was going to have to share with my guests when we opened after the first of the year.
“Thank you so much for everything, Willow,” Vanessa said, stepping into the entryway. The heavy wool coat she wore over her wedding dress hung open. She’d developed a tiny little baby bump over the last few weeks. I was pretty sure she’d picked that particular dress because the empire waist accented it. They were proud of their baby, and it turned out many other people were happy about it too, even if they didn’t know why.
“You’re so welcome. It was a really pretty wedding.”
“The most beautiful Christmas wedding ever,” she said. “Really. It means so much to me that you did this for Ryan.”
I stepped forward and put my arms around her. “For you, too. It’s been fun planning it with you. I know you and Ryan and little bear are going to be very happy.”
She squeezed me a little harder and whispered in my ear, “He could turn out a woodpecker, you know. And wouldn’t that just chap his hide?”
“Nah,” Ryan said, stepping up behind Vanessa. “My hide is fine with whatever she turns out to be.” He wrapped his arms around us both, squishing Vanessa between us. “Look, Willow. We made a pecker sandwich.”
Vanessa squirmed between us. “I swear. Maybe I had better hope for a girl. I don’t think I can handle two infant boys in the house.”
A plate shattered in the kitchen causing us to jump apart. “You want a rundown on what just happened in there?” Ryan asked.
I glared a warning at him. “Stay out of his head, Ryan. I’m serious.”
“If you insist, but I think you’re going to like what’s going on in his head tonight. It’s got your big bad Army boy shaking like a leaf and breaking dishes.”
“I think he’s more pissed off than anything. He finally had it out with his mom this morning over all of the secrets she kept from him. We haven’t had a chance to talk about it, though. I’ve barely seen him today.” I suspected Quinn had been avoiding me all day, and I didn’t like it.
I broke my own rule and directed a pointed look at Ryan. He’d probably picked up on all of the anxious thoughts dancing through my head. Knowing him, he’d been listening to Quinn’s and my thoughts all day. But if he had, he gave nothing away. His expression remained stoic.
“Hmm. Took him long enough. I would have thought he would have done that right away,” he said vaguely.
I shrugged. “Quinn does things on his own timeline.”
“That he does,” Ryan said, shaking his head. “He certainly does.”
“He’s been spending a lot of time with John and Bryson,” I said, ignoring his bad attitude. “I think they’ve been good therapy.” One was a preacher and the other a counselor. I encouraged him to spend as much time as possible with them. Even though Tim had no idea he’d shot me, Quinn preferred not to hang out with him now.
“You’re good therapy,” Vanessa chimed in. “For all of us. Look at what you did for our families.”
“Speaking of, we need to get going,” Ryan said, wrapping an arm around Vanessa’s waist and pulling her toward the door. “You know you and Quinn are welcome to come tonight. Woodpeckers and deer and bears. Oh, my. Think of the fun we’ll have.”
“No,” I said, laughing. “This is a special time for your families. You don’t need any outsiders there.”
“It wouldn’t be happening if it weren’t for you,” Vanessa said. “Who would have guessed all of these years of fighting were because of a spell? It’s like one hundred and fifty years of madness, over what? A little unrequited love?”
“If your great-grandmother had just given it up to my great-grandfather, then all of this could’ve been avoided. Why any woodpecker wouldn’t want to hook up with a big manly bear like me is truly one of Woodland Creek’s greatest mysteries.”
“It truly is,” Vanessa said, rolling her eyes before looking at me. “I’m just glad it’s over, and we have you to thank for it.”
I smiled at the two of them. How they were able to put up with each other was Woodland Creek’s greatest mystery of all. “I swear I didn’t do anything. You guys did it when you made this little pecker bear.” I reached over and patted her tiny round tummy.
“If I’d known the little bastard was going to fix everything, I would’ve knocked her up years ago.”
Vanessa shoved him away from her and stuck her hand in his face. She pointed to the gold band on her finger. “Ryan Balere, don’t you ever refer to my child as a bastard again. My little pecker bear is a bastard no more.”
A pan crashing in the kitchen cut my laugh short. It clanged like a cymbal on the ceramic floor and visions of cracked tiles danced in my head. “I really should go help him. I need my dishes and pans. My livelihood kind of depends on it.”
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay while we’re gone next week?” Ryan asked, reaching for the door.
“We’ll be fine. Quinn is quite the cook. I’d starve if it weren’t for him. Besides, we both know you’re going to leave me soon anyway.”
He ducked his head as he stepped out onto the porch. “I do really like the volunteer firefighting thing. It’s kind of nice, using my special skills for the greater good rather than to eavesdrop on people.”
Vanessa and I both nodded. There was no arguing with that. Just the week before, he’d help rescue an elderly woman from a house fire because he’d ‘heard’ her cries for help when no one else could. “You’ll be an asset to them. I always knew you wouldn’t want to be my chef forever.”
“It’s going to take some time to get certified, so you’ve got me a while longer. Besides, when you open your dinner theater, you’re going to need someone with more culinary expertise than I have anyway.”
I cupped my hand around my mouth and whispered, “I’m thinking about sending Quinn to culinary school. Do you think he’ll be game for that?”
Ryan bellowed out a big grizzly laugh. “Yeah, I’d like to be here when you suggest that.”
“Ryan, say goodbye,” Vanessa said, tugging on his hand. “We’re going to be late for our own wedding.”
“Second wedding. See ya in a week, Willow.”
I stood at the door and listened to them bicker all the way to the car.
“Woman, just because we are already married does not mean you can start bossing me around,” he said before he slammed her door shut.
I was still grinning when I walked into the kitchen. Quinn stood at the sink with a towel thrown over his shoulder as he washed dirty plates. He took one look at me, standing in the doorway with stars in my eyes, and shook his head. “No, no, no. Don’t get any ideas. This will not become a regular thing.”
“But you look so good standing in my kitchen in Janice’s apron. Say the word and we can make it a full-time thing.”
“Nope. You know the deal. I’ll cook it. But someone else has to clean it. This is a one-time exception because it’s a special occasion.”
“It is, isn’t it?” I sounded a litt
le too dreamy, but I couldn’t help myself. I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. I laid my head against his back and listened for the beat of his slightly overzealous shifter heart. “As weird and frustrating as those two are, they really are perfect for each other.”
“Kind of like another couple I know,” he said, turning toward me. He held up his bubble-covered hands and kissed me softly on the mouth. “You look tired.”
“I am. It was an emotional day. For everyone.”
“I thought you might be overwhelmed. I made you a cup of tea. Why don’t you sit at the table and drink it while I finish up.”
“Oh, no,” I said with an adamant shake of my head. “I’ve had enough tea to last me a lifetime.”
His face fell a little. “Was it that bad? Putting up with me?”
I slipped my hands up his chest and around his neck. “I’d drink it every day for the rest of my life if I had to. You’re worth a little nasty taste in my mouth.”
He brushed his lips across mine again and then deepened the kiss. A familiar zing of electricity shot through my body, and I cursed the stack of dirty dishes when he pulled away.
“Well, you taste delicious.” His eyes sparkled mischievously in the fluorescent lighting of the kitchen and I picked up a light red hue in the air around us. “Seriously, you look beat. Have just one more cup. For old time’s sake. I even warmed it up for you. It’s in the microwave.”
I backed away from him, narrowing my eyes as he turned back to the dishes in the sink. “Quinn Dearborn, what are you up to? You’ve been acting odd all day.”
He chuckled. “I’m probably the one who needs the tea.”
“I think so.” I turned toward the microwave nestled so perfectly in the spot he’d built for it. “God, I seriously love this hole,” I said as I popped open the door. “Even if I have to stand on my tiptoes to see inside.”
I reached in and blindly grabbed the mug by the handle. “Did you cook this? It doesn’t even feel warm.” I pulled it closer to the opening and smiled at the writing across the front of a mug I’d never seen before. “You bought me a ‘HIS’ mug. I love it.” I pulled the mug to my mouth and was surprised to find it was empty, except for the folded note he’d hid inside.
My hands shook so hard I nearly dropped it. “Quinn?” I turned and nearly fell over him.
He was bent on one knee, bearing his soul and the most beautiful emerald ring I’d ever seen. It was dark and gorgeous. The exact shade as his eyes. But even as pretty as it was, it was nothing compared to the bright red hue filling the room.
The color of love. His. Mine. It was everywhere. So overwhelming, it had no choice but to spill out of us.
“Willow Ryker,” he began, in a confident tone meant to hide the jitters I felt coming from him. “Will you marry me?”
I laughed. My heart pounded like it wanted to jump right out of my chest and find a home in his. A nest of butterflies fluttered around my stomach. “Quinn,” I whispered. “We’ve known each other seven weeks.”
“When you know, you know. Besides, I think fifteen years and seven weeks is a sufficient amount of time, don’t you?” His eyes begged me to say yes.
“Yeah,” I said my voice wavering.
It was too soon.
But it didn’t feel like it.
I wanted to marry him. There was nothing I wanted more.
He took my hand and slid the ring partially onto my finger. “You can have every day of the rest of my life if you want it. I know when and where. I have it all planned out. ”
I erupted in nervous giggles. “I bet you do, my little strategist. Will there be a big white tent in the backyard?”
“Yep. And those heater things.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Swans?”
He cocked his head and grinned. “Do we know any?”
“Maybe. But I want fifteen of them. One for every year I’ve waited for you.”
“Sixteen then.”
I stuck my lips out in a pout. “Why sixteen?”
“Because it will be sixteen before the next first snow rolls around again.”
“We’re getting married on the first snow!” I squealed.
His face erupted with a big happy grin. “Is that a yes?”
“Yes!” He slid the ring all the way onto my finger, and I leaped at him, knocking him backward onto the floor. I held the mug and note against my chest to protect them as we fell to the ground and then I smothered him with kisses.
His hands came around my head, pulling me to him until I didn’t think I could get any closer. I pressed my body against him, wishing for nothing more than for him to engulf me and set me on fire. When we finally came up for air, I was so breathless and drunk on his love that I couldn’t see straight.
“I have one condition,” I panted.
He narrowed his eyes at me. “You already said yes.”
“It’s a tiny little thing.” His eyebrow arched in question, and I stroked my finger along his jawline. “Grow the beard again for me.”
He laughed so hard I almost bounced off him. “Seriously? I’m not furry enough for you?”
I couldn’t really explain it—not to him—but there’d been something so primitive and masculine about the beard. “I want to feel it against my face.” I smirked at him. “And maybe somewhere else.”
“Do you know how crazy you make me when you talk like that?”
“I have an idea,” I said pressing against him.
“And I have an idea, too, but first I need to show you something.”
“Do we have to get up for it?”
“Yes,” he said, laughing.
I crawled off him. “Are you sure? ‘Cause I was sort strategizing a plan of my own while I had you on the floor.”
He shook his head once. “I do love the way you think.”
Before I could even stand up, he’d swooped me up into his arms, causing me to burst into another fit of giggles. “What are you doing? You can’t do the threshold thing until you get me down the aisle.”
“It’s never too early for thresholds.” He maneuvered us through the tight kitchen doorway. “Okay, can I trust you to close your eyes and keep them shut, or do I need to blindfold you?”
“Hmm, well, I don’t know. They both sound interesting.” I nuzzled into his chest and covered my eyes with my hand, drinking in the scent of Quinn. Breaking the protection spell had changed his scent, making him even more enticing. All my life I’d thought I wanted a normal boy from the ‘right’ side of town, one untouched by the magic of Woodland Creek. It turned out all I needed was Quinn. Just the scent of him set my senses on fire. “Okay, they are closed.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
I heard a door open and then I was being carried down steps. I hadn’t been in the basement since we’d cleaned out Janice’s stuff. I forced myself not to peek, but it was hard to resist.
Quinn didn’t speak until his feet hit the basement floor. “Don’t peek,” he warned. “Or I’ll have to take the ring away.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“I don’t know. My mom had a hard time giving it up,” he teased.
“Your mom?” It was hard not to peek at him after a comment like that, and my hand slipped off my eyes. With one look into his, I knew the visit with his mom had gone well. “Tell me everything, Quinn. Everything.”
“Okay. Well, I was just giving you a hard time when I said she didn’t want to give up the ring. She wants you to have it. My dad gave it to her after she told him she was pregnant with me.”
I gasped. “An engagement ring?”
“More of a promise.” He turned as if he was trying to maneuver us through another doorway. “But isn’t that all an engagement is? And marriage, for that matter? A promise that I’ll never look at another woman as I look at you. That I’ll never stray. That I will do everything in my power to make every single day better than the one before. That I’ll do things like this for no other rea
son than to see the smile on your face.”
I split my fingers to peek through them at a room that was positively glowing. “What is this?” I whispered.
“Our room. Do you like it?”
Tears pooled at the corners of my eyes. “It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”
He set me down on my feet so I could explore. Nothing other than a bed filled the middle of the room. It was so large it had to be custom. The bed coverings were a hundred different shades of green, and when I ran my hand across it, it was softer than any grass. A lit fireplace graced the wall closest to the foot of the bed.
But the very best part was the trees Quinn had somehow transplanted into the basement. They seemed to grow straight out of a seemingly unmarred floor, stretching to the ceiling where they fanned out, creating a canopy more natural and stunning than even the one upstairs. Through the bare branches, he’d strung Christmas lights creating, I thought, the most romantic place on the earth.
“It’s gorgeous,” I said, spinning in a circle. “I want to stay here forever.”
“And it’s just ours. No matter who comes and goes through our house, this space is ours and ours alone. This is where you can come to get away from everything and everyone. When it becomes too much, when the world wears you down, this is your refuge.”
I sat down on the gargantuan bed and curled my finger at him. “No, Quinn. You are my refuge.”
He stalked across the room with a glint in his eyes that I’d come to know well. His hands were immediately on my face in a move I’d also come to know so well.
“You love it,” he said.
I nodded my head, pulling him closer until his lips just barely hovered over mine. “I love you.”
They were only three little words, but they promised a lifetime of magic.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my novel from Woodland Creek!
All reviews are appreciated.
If you would like to read more from the Woodland Creek series, please click on the link below:
Woodland Creek Website