“Nothing, sorry I was talking to myself,” Willow said.
Randal patted her hand, “You need to get out in the fresh air more, dear.”
“Something like that,” Willow said.
And she was on again, this time running up steps on stage to a raised platform.
“Who will save us?” she crooned in her prostitute voice. There was a railing since this was supposed to be a balcony overlooking the street below. She waved out to the audience and smiled brightly, trying not to look at Tyler. But he drew her eye every time.
The song started. Rosemary and Joan, a large actress with jet black hair who always played the Madam, began to sing together. Their voices always worked so well with Rosemary taking the high notes, while Joan took the low ones. It was lovely.
Willow moved along the platform, her mind only half on her performance. Tyler was sitting with a whole big group of people. They were all together, passing a popcorn bucket and some other snacks along their row.
Suddenly, the spotlight was on her. Shit she had almost missed her cue. Willow began to sing her verse of the song. While she was busy, she climbed over the railing and grabbed onto the fireman’s pole in front of her. She had done this a million times. And each time she remembered that there was a little nail sticking out of the railing at just the wrong angle. Each time she did this she remembered to lift her petticoat.
This time, with her head full of Tyler, she totally forgot.
And as Willow slid down the pole for the end of her verse, she was accompanied by a horrible ripping sound. When she reached the bottom of the pole and stepped away from it to continue the dance routine with her partner, she realized that her petticoat had ripped all the way down the side and was lying on the floor in a heap.
Willow pulled her face in fake embarrassment, crossed her hands over her crotch in a coy gesture, and then carried on dancing in her white pantaloons. The audience went nuts and clapped like mad for her.
After that Willow relaxed and enjoyed the performance. Whenever she looked at Tyler, he was smiling. He seemed to be enjoying the show a lot. And as they took their final bow at the end, Tyler and his whole row stood up, clapping and cheering loudly.
Willow couldn’t help but beam.
When Willow came into the foyer, she was greeted by several friends she hadn’t even noticed in the audience. She was hugged and kissed on the cheeks, and congratulated on her performance. Of course the petticoat incident was a great hit. Although Willow loved the praise, and under normal circumstances would have wanted to speak to these people for longer, today she had one thing on her mind; finding Tyler.
He waited until she was finally alone.
“Quite the fan club,” he said smiling.
“Tyler, so you came,” Willow said unable to mask her joy.
He bowed. “Of course. I’d like you to meet my brother Jesse and his fine young lady, Jamie.” Willow shook the hand of a man who was exactly like Tyler, only missing the goatee. Jamie hugged her and congratulated her on her performance. Next came Kyle, who shook her hand. Then a couple, Wyatt and Jess who laughed, and smiled and shook her hand, and finally she was introduced to Ryan. He said that tonight was one of her better performances.
Willow was amazed at how all the men looked similar. They were all broad shouldered, with the same eyes. The eyes were the really weird bit, they looked golden. When she commented on this everyone just laughed.
“Well, Jesse here is my brother,” Tyler said, “And Wyatt there is my cousin. So we’re all kinda related.”
“It is a strong gene they say,” Jess told her with a rueful smile. “So have you been in the theatre long?”
Willow nodded. “Since I was nine.”
“You have a lovely voice,” Jamie said. She had her hand in Jesse’s and they seemed very much in love. For a moment Willow was almost jealous.
Willow led them all over to the bar in the corner of the foyer and poured them drinks. She’d cover the tab she said, but Tyler flatly refused, and handed the money over to Pete the barman. They stayed late, talking and laughing all together like a huge family. Willow looked around for Rosemary, feeling the lack of her sister quite acutely, but Rose wasn’t there. Well she was her own person, Willow conceded, and let it go.
The conversation turned to Tyler’s plans for the farm.
“I understand you’re also interested in the Sawyer farm?” Wyatt asked. He had dark brown hair with natural highlights. Willow guessed he worked outdoors a lot.
“Yeah we are. My Aunt Vanessa wants to expand this franchise. You know offer Old West cuisine and a themed hotel,” Willow said. “I know it sounds lame, but it’s her retirement fund. She can’t put on a corset and petticoat, and strut her stuff on stage for ever. Eventually you have to find some other means of income.”
“Well Tyler here wants to open up a camp for teens,” Ryan, a tall man with black hair, said.
“You know the kids from Sun Valley need it,” Tyler said.
“Would it only be for kids from Sun Valley?” Willow asked.
“Yeah, at first I think so,” Tyler said nodding. “We have a lot of trouble teens out that way, and this would be a place for us to try and help them.”
“That’s so sweet of you,” Willow said.
Despite herself she could see the old Sawyer place as a camp. With a bit of money invested and some honest hard work, it could be great. She chided herself. Tyler and his friends, no matter how wonderful, were the enemy. She and Aunt Vanessa wanted the land too. She couldn’t afford to go soft. Yet in the dim light of the foyer, with only his friends around, she found herself liking his idea, and genuinely hoping he got the farm. There was no denying that she was drawn to him. He seemed to be feeling something similar, because she kept catching him staring at her.
The conversation turned again from topic to topic, and eventually everyone decided to call it a night. Tyler was the last to say goodbye. He took her hands in his and held them for a while.
“This was really nice, talking to you,” he said.
Willow looked up into those impossible eyes and smiled, “I had fun.”
“Come for coffee with me,” Tyler said. “I’m sure we could find an all-night diner somewhere.”
Willow really wanted to, but her busy day was creeping up on her, and she really just wanted to sleep. So she shook her head.
“Tyler, I would love to, but I’m beat,” she said smiling sadly. “You have my number, call me tomorrow and we can meet up. If you’re free that is?”
He smiled then and kissed the backs of her hands. It was a strange gesture, familiar and yet not. Willow wasn’t sure what to do with it. So she smiled back and hugged him. That was a mistake. Getting so close to him sent shivers through her whole body. Being this close to him for any time was clearly going to impede her judgement, so Willow pulled out of the hug. Then as he got into his truck and drove off she stood waving, until he was out of sight.
It took a moment to lock up the theatre and walk down the path to the house she shared with Rosemary and Aunt Vanessa. It was a little cottage, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The kitchen light was still on when she made her way up the steps.
Aunt Vanessa was sitting at the table, a cup of chamomile in her hands. She said she needed it to get to sleep. She had her hair in curlers and her face looked oddly colorless without its usual layer of makeup.
“You had some adoring fans tonight,” she said as Willow came in.
“It was Tyler and his friends,” Willow said. “You know the guys who helped us today?”
“Oh right,” Aunt Vanessa said. She nodded and drained her mug. “Well I’m done and off to bed. You know where Rose is?”
Willow shook her head.
“Oh well, hopefully she took a key this time,” Aunt Vanessa said and stood up, put her cup in the sink and with her slippers making a hushing sound on the tiles, she shuffled off to bed.
Willow sat at the table. She had a lot going on in her mind, not
least of which was an action replay of each look she had shared with Tyler. The hug featured hugely, and made her heart race each time she thought about it.
The kitchen door opened suddenly and Willow jumped in her seat.
“You’re edgy,” Rosemary said as she stepped into the kitchen. Willow looked up and realized that Rose was hand in hand with a man. He was tall and slim, but with muscle. That was obvious in the way he moved. His face was thin and he had a look about him. Oh, he was handsome with his firm jaw, slim nose and black hair. But one look was all it took for Willow to decide she didn’t like him.
“Willow this is Dave. Dave this is my sister Willow,” Rosemary said beaming. “Dave came to both shows today.”
“Is that a fact?” Willow asked thinking that it was desperate to say the least.
“Pleased to meet you,” Dave said and shook Willow’s hand. She nodded curtly. A feeling rose in her stomach at his touch. It was almost revulsion but not quite. Willow put it down to her being so tired. All she wanted was bed.
“You look like you’re falling asleep there,” Rosemary said looking concerned.
“You know, I am,” Willow admitted, ‘’I’m going to bed. It was nice to meet you, Dave. Perhaps next time I won’t be dead on my feet. We’ve had a long and very eventful day.” Then she turned to Rosemary who was filling the kettle. “Rose, don’t forget we have another busy day tomorrow.”
“I won’t,’ Rosemary said pulling mugs down from the cupboard.
Willow gave up, and standing up, went to the bathroom. She washed her face properly, brushed her long hair and tied it into pigtail plaits, something she had learnt to do as a child, to stop her curly hair tangling itself up during the night, and hopped into bed. She was so exhausted that although Tyler’s gorgeous face floated in front of her, offering basket loads of imaginary kisses, she drifted off to sleep.
Tyler called Willow at eight the next morning. By ten she was sitting at a table in the Lemon Drop Café in town, and he was seated opposite her. They spent hours there, talking and drinking far too much coffee, and then they went on their way.
He called her the day after that again. And they followed the same routine. By the fourth day, Willow was up and waiting for the call before it came. And by the fifth day, neither of them needed a call at all, to know that they were seeing each other that morning.
Willow was so preoccupied with Tyler and the show, that she almost missed everything else in her life. Aunt Vanessa was worried. She had made an offer to purchase the Sawyer farm, but had heard nothing back for three days.
“And you know to top it off, both of you girls are just vanishing all the time,” she moaned to Willow one afternoon. It was their day off and Willow was sitting with her in the kitchen waiting for Tyler come pick her up.
“Well we both met people,” Willow said shrugging. “Look I can call Tyler and cancel if you like?” she said the words praying that her aunt wouldn’t make her act on them. A day without Tyler was a day without air.
“Oh, no its fine,” Aunt Vanessa said shaking her head. “I just…well. It doesn’t matter. I just don’t think we’re getting the farm is all.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I called Sally-Anne,” Aunt Vanessa admitted. “I just wanted to know what she was thinking. It sounds like there’s been a massive offer made on the house and she’s torn. She says she’s not sure what to do.”
“So she needs a little time,” Willow said taking her aunt’s hand in hers.
“Do you think the other offer came from your boyfriend?” Aunt Vanessa asked.
Willow nodded, “He said he was going to make an offer. But it didn’t sound like it was going to be much more than we could do. I mean Tyler isn’t rich or anything. Maybe you need to go see Sally-Anne again.”
“Maybe,” Aunt Vanessa said glumly. “I’ve just got a bad feeling about this.”
Just then they heard an engine and a truck pulled up. It was blue. It idled for a long while, and then Rosemary hopped out of the passenger seat. She was dressed in the previous day’s clothes, Willow noticed, as she waved to the driver. The truck drove off.
Rosemary entered the kitchen with a huge grin on her face. “Morning,” she said. “Isn’t it a wonderful day?”
“Where have you been?” Willow demanded more harshly than she had meant to.
Rosemary was taken aback. She stopped walking and stood, hands on hips, her chin jutting out, and looking defiant.
“What’s it to you?” she asked.
“You’re my little sister,” Willow said hotly.
“And you’re my darling girl,” Aunt Vanessa said, getting in on the action, “We’re just worried about you. What do you know about this Dave you’re hanging out with anyway?”
“I know plenty,” Rosemary said. “I know he works in IT for a company in town. I know he’s an amazing kisser, and that he can do things with his…”
“We really don’t need to hear that!” Aunt Vanessa exclaimed scandalized. “I would like to meet him you know. Any man who takes an interest in my little girl needs to be vetted.” She smiled sweetly at Rosemary.
Rosemary softened at this and kissed her aunt’s cheek.
“I will bring him round for coffee or something,” she said, “he’s a nice guy. Really. Anyway, Willow met him.”
“I don’t know if saying hi, counts as meeting him properly,” Willow said, the hairs on the back of her neck were rising, and she couldn’t figure out why.
“Sure it does,” Rosemary said smiling. “Well we’ll organize, then we can have family meal or something.”
Just then there was a knock on the kitchen door and Tyler opened it.
“Morning ladies,” he said. “And don’t you all just look as fresh as a June morning?”
Willow felt her insides turn to electrified mush.
Rosemary smiled at her and then at Tyler and said, “If anyone looks fresh Mr. Crowe it is certainly you. What did you do swim in a mountain stream, and then roll dry on spring green grass or something?”
“Nope,” he said walking into the kitchen. “I just have a good constitution. And the rest is all awesome genes.”
Willow smiled at him and turned to kiss her aunt. “Don’t forget what we talked about,” she said.
“I won’t,” Aunt Vanessa said.
Rosemary was making herself a cup of coffee, but she stopped long enough to hug her sister, and watch Willow and Tyler go out the door.
“Is everything okay?” Tyler asked as they walked to his truck, that gleamed silver in the morning sun.
Willow nodded. “Yeah, I think so. It’s just Rosemary is dating this guy and I’ve got a weird feeling about him. I just don’t want her to get hurt.”
“Aw, you’re such a wonderful big sister,” he said in a playfully mocking tone.
She punched his shoulder as he opened the door for her. She climbed up and as she sat down, he planted a kiss on her cheek.
“Morning beautiful,” he said.
Willow knew in that moment, that she wanted to hear him say that every morning for the rest of her life.
The drive to the Lemon Drop was a quiet one. Willow was deep in thought, mulling over her sister’s new boyfriend and another puzzle that was worrying her. The other puzzle was Tyler. Since that night at her show, he had been a perfect gentleman. An old school, perfect gentleman. He hadn’t even tried to kiss her yet. She knew he liked her. The phone calls and the daily coffee run spoke to that, but did he like her enough?
Colby (BBW Western Bear Shifter Romance) (Rodeo Bears Book 3) Page 138