by Abby Brooks
6
Harry wasn’t sure what he was seeing, only that he knew anxiety was eating away at Willow. One second, she was fine, the next, her eyes went tight and vacant while her chest heaved. Her hand was cold and clammy in his and it shook a little as she smiled a too-wide smile. She offered up her morning run as an excuse, but Harry didn’t buy it for a minute. But, if she didn’t feel like sharing, he wasn’t going to push. At least not right now. Not while he was still getting to know her.
The wind blowing in off the ocean was unseasonably warm considering how close they were to December. It swirled in the fabric of Willow’s dress and lifted her hair from her shoulders. Harry wondered what it would be like to touch her like that. Just the lightest of caresses up those lean legs of hers , a whisper of contact at her shoulder, drawing her hair off her neck so he could brush his lips across her skin, lingering at her hairline. His dick twitched in his pants, a surge of yearning so strong he had to draw up thoughts of his grandma in her bathing suit to combat his growing erection.
He led her back to the GTO where she opened up all her purchases and arranged them in a basket, taking the time to make sure each and every item was in a particular place that only she seemed to understand. “Wow,” Harry said when she was done. “I didn’t know that a basket full of basics like that could look so beautiful.”
Willow beamed. “Thanks.” She shoved all the trash in a bag and stowed it in the front seat. Whatever had made her get all weird a few moments ago seemed to have dissipated. She was at ease again. Smiling freely and breathing deeply.
Harry picked up the basket and studied it. “Ellie’s going to love this. She’s really had it bad lately. Even if none of these things help her, just the random act of kindness will help her feel better.”
When Willow had asked if he minded running some errands today, Harry’s first response had been incredulity. He had been thinking more along the lines of first date kind of stuff. A walk on the beach. A drive out to a wine tasting. Something romantic that would get the two of them together and talking, getting to know each other. Wandering through the shops of Bliss hadn’t even come close to being on his radar. But when he heard why she wanted to go shopping, his heart melted a little. She hadn’t even had a full conversation with Ellie and here she was, wanting to do something to help take care of her.
Harry admired compassion. Not many people went out of their way to take care of others nowadays. Especially not strangers. He didn’t know what kind of salary ballet dancers made, but it couldn’t be much. And it certainly wasn’t enough to make living in a place like New York City affordable. And yet, Willow had just spent well over a hundred dollars on little items to make Ellie feel better. Mix in the fact that she was hot as hell and had an easy intelligence that lit her eyes and Harry was all about getting to know Willow better.
“Ellie’s cafe is just across the street,” Harry said and indicated the little corner shop at the end of the block.
“Good Beginnings?” Willow read the name of the cafe off the window. Just last month, Ellie’s shop had been broken into and totally wrecked. The whole Moore family had come together to help her rebuild, both financially and physically and that sign had been a gift from Harry.
“Yep.”
“It looks wonderful! I bet Ellie just loves running her own business.” Willow stared across the street at the cafe as if it were an oasis. “So much freedom…”
“There’s a lot more to it than you’d think.” Harry took Willow’s arm as they crossed the street. “You get out what you put in, which is great.” He shrugged. “Except sometimes that means that you never stop trying to put more in.”
“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”
“You could say that.” Harry loved his restaurant. Loved the control of being his own boss and setting his own hours. It was just that sometimes that meant that the hours he set went way beyond what people considered normal and acceptable.
They pushed through the front door of Good Beginnings and found James perched on the counter, picking off bites of a muffin and tossing them into Ellie’s mouth. “Hey!” James called out, hopping down. “Don’t mind us, we’re just killing time until the lunch rush comes in.”
One of Ellie’s casts had been replaced with a sling and she was thrilled with the little bit of extra mobility it gave her. When Willow presented her with the basket and explained what all the little goodies were and what they were for, Ellie’s eyes misted with tears.
“Thank you,” she said, blinking furiously. “And I’m sorry for the tears, I just … well … it’s been a crazy couple months and the pregnancy has me weepy.”
“Don’t think a thing about it.” Willow smiled and looked around the cafe. “This place is amazing!” she said, artfully changing the subject. “You must be so proud.”
Harry watched Ellie talk to Willow, explaining all the damage that had been done to the place and how the Moores had gathered around her to get things put back together, and all he could think was that he wanted to get her out of here so he could get time alone with her. He didn’t have the rest of his life to get to know her. He only had a few days to learn everything there was to know and he felt exceptionally greedy about them. As much as he loved James and Ellie, he wanted Willow to herself.
“You hungry?” he asked her. “Thirsty? I’d recommend just about anything on the menu.”
Willow studied the sweets in the bakery display and then bit her lip as she turned her attention to the menu. “Coffee is a must,” she said, still reading through her options. “Black please and as caffeinated as you can make it.” She finally settled on a salad with grilled chicken and no dressing and stepped aside for Harry to place his order.
After he ordered and paid—much to Willow’s chagrin—they found a seat near the window and finally, Harry got the one on one time with Willow he had been craving.
He had so many things to ask her, so many things he wanted to know, he couldn’t decide what to ask her first. And to make matters worse, his need to touch her was tangling with all the questions in his head and making it difficult to speak. Even sitting across from her, with only a table between them, well … that was too much space between them for his taste.
He wanted to run his fingers across her cheekbone, let his mouth explore that elegantly long neck. He wanted to run his hands up that trim little body of hers and watch goosebumps spread across her skin. He wanted to start kissing the nape of her neck and work his way down her stomach until he spread her legs and pushed his tongue inside her, tasting her.
“So,” Willow said, interrupting his thoughts. “When you’re not running a business or restoring cars or jogging on the beach, what do you like to do for fun?”
I’d like to do you for fun, he thought and tried not to grin like an idiot.
“Believe it or not,” he said and sat back as James arrived with their food. “That all pretty much takes up the majority of my time. Being passionate about what you do is both a gift and a curse.”
“You’re telling me.” Willow picked the croutons out of her salad with her fork and pushed them aside. “Luckily, dancers like to play just as hard as we work, so there’s almost always somewhere to go after rehearsal, but it’s always with other dancers. Which is fine,” she said quickly, although something in her posture made Harry think that it actually wasn’t fine.
“If you didn’t have to work so hard, and you didn’t always spend time with other dancers, what would you do?” The question took Willow off guard.
She put her fork down and leaned forward, threading her fingers together and placing them underneath her chin. “What would I do?” she asked, almost to herself. “What does it say about me that I don’t know the answer to that question?”
“It says that you’re happy with the life you live.”
There it was again. That flash of darkness in her eyes. The one that Harry didn’t think she even knew existed. “That sounds about right.” She took another bite of h
er salad. “Oh! I know! I’d actually put dressing on my salad and eat french fries whenever I wanted. That’s definitely something I’d do.”
“Have you ever been surfing?”
Willow’s eyes went wide. “No. Do you surf?”
Harry shrugged. “Nope. But, I thought you might like to take a lesson with me. It’s been unseasonably warm lately. Maybe we could do that before you go home at the end of the week.” Suddenly he was afraid that she would think his idea was a terrible one. That she’d tell him to go to hell. That she’d wouldn’t be interested. That she’d laugh at him.
A slow smile stretched across her face and she stabbed at a piece of lettuce and dunked just the very edge of it in her dressing. “I would absolutely love that. When?”
A surge of excitement fluttered through his stomach and he had no idea what to do with the feeling. “I’ll make some calls and see what I can get together. You good with it being kind of spur of the moment?”
“Sure,” she said. “I like spending time with you.
“Good. Because I like spending time with you, too.”
It was probably the worst idea of his life, trying to get to know this woman before she left for her home in the city at the end of the week. He was certain to be angling for heartbreak, but, he couldn’t imagine not getting to know her. He couldn’t imagine her being in this town and him not being with her. He was going to use every excuse he could possibly make for them to spend more time together.
They left Good Beginnings and he took her to the beach. She carried her shoes as they walked along the edge of where the water met the sand, the ocean licking up over her feet and lapping the edges of her dress while she laughed and hopped out of the way. They talked about all there was in their hearts and heads. No filters. No practiced answers. Well, not until Harry asked her about dancing and then Harry felt like he was speaking to Willow on auto-pilot. Like she was giving him answers she recited in front of a mirror. Answers she had repeated and repeated until she believed they were true whether they were or not.
Hours passed like minutes, yet each one felt like an eternity in an of itself. As afternoon faded into evening and the time to take Willow back to Juliet drew near, he felt like he and Willow had known each other for an entire lifetime, and yet, he still had an entire lifetime of getting to know her ahead of him. He led her back to the GTO and watched as she bent ever so gracefully to pull on her shoes. That desire to touch her surged through his body, so strong and so undeniable that as she straightened, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
The wind rustled in their hair and blew her dress against his legs. There was a moment of stunned silence, of a stillness that was fear and anticipation all wrapped up into one terrifying moment of self-doubt. And then Willow returned his kiss, her sweet lips parting and inviting his tongue into her mouth.
Her hands drawing ever so lightly up his back before they clutched at his shoulders, kneading into his muscles. Harry ran his fingers up into her hair and it was just as soft as he’d imagined. Then he ran his hands down her back, shocked at the hardness of bone and muscle underneath her dress. She was so strong, yet so delicate. Just a tiny waif of a thing and when he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in close against his body, he was completely amazed by how small she actually was.
He pulled back ever so slightly, just enough to free his lips. “I suppose I should say I’m sorry, but I’ve wanted to do that since the first moment I saw you and I refuse to apologize for something that wonderful.”
“Good,” she murmured, her voice deep and warm like sunshine and amber. “I don’t know what it is about you…”
Harry desperately wanted her to continue her thought, but she reached up to kiss him again and that was just as good as knowing what she was about to say.
7
Harry drove her home and dropped her off and Willow couldn’t think about anything other than the way his lips felt on hers. Up until this point, she thought she knew what it meant to want something, to want it so badly that she defined her entire life around that one thing. From the moment she was born, her every waking thought was about ballet and how to get further in her career. To be better. More.
And then Harry’s lips met hers and never before had she wanted something as much as she wanted Harrison Moore. Words like destiny and soulmate and true love kept flitting through her mind, distracting her from whatever conversation she tried to have with him on the all too short car ride back to Juliet’s house. She loved her friend. Dearly. But today, she wished she could just give all her time to the man sitting next to her.
Harry pulled into Juliet’s driveway and Willow searched for the right words. Wanted to tell him what a great day she had. Wanted to give him some clue as to how much fun she had with him. Couldn’t for the life of her figure out how there was one single word in the English language that would mean all the things she wanted to say.
So instead of trying to speak, she put her hand on his. Traced a lazy circle around one of his knuckles and then looked deeply into his eyes. “Thank you,” she finally said and she meant thank you for all the different parts of him that had come together to make her feel so connected. Thank you for seeing her. For hearing her. Thank you for taking her out and making her feel like everything from this point forward would be different because she had met him.
She met his eyes and hoped he understood and something so wonderful it hurt flooded her system when she saw that, yes. He did understand.
“No, Willow Tamran, thank you.”
“Can I see you again?” she asked.
Harry met her gaze and she fell into his eyes. “I was going to ask you the same thing,” he said.
“Tomorrow?” She had never wanted someone to kiss her as badly as she wanted Harry to kiss her right now.
“Yes please.”
She traced her hand up his arm and turned to him, pressing her palm against his cheek, enjoying the feel of his stubble growing just beneath his skin. He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch and damned if her breath didn’t catch in her chest and if tears didn’t prick ever so lightly against her eyes. Without thinking, she leaned across the seat and kissed him, just the lightest of kisses, her lips barely grazing his.
She heard his breath catch in his throat and need blazed to life in her body. Heat pooled between her legs and she pulled away, awash in a lust and a tenderness that took her breath away.
“Until tomorrow,” she breathed, and then she climbed out of his car and dashed towards the porch, her body too keyed up to tolerate the simplicity of walking. She skipped up the steps and turned to wave at Harry as he pulled out of the driveway, the wind moving in her hair, tangling her dress around her legs. The sun blazed down from it’s point in the sky and sent him off in a miracle of gleaming red paint and white leather, of light dancing in his hair and the memory of his skin against hers.
When he was out of sight, Willow waltzed into the house, humming to herself. “Oh Juuuliet!” she called. “I’m hoooome.”
From upstairs came the muffled sounds of cursing and hurried whispers, a bit of giggling and thumping and some more giggling before Juliet appeared in the bedroom doorway, wearing nothing but Ian’s shirt and a sheepish grin.
“Your timing is impeccable as always.”
Willow bit her lip and smiled up at Juliet. “You need me to leave?”
“Nope. We’ve … uhh … we’re good.” Juliet flashed a thumb’s up at Willow and then looked at her hand in confusion, as if it had acted of its own free will before dropping her arm and blushing furiously.
“Hope you had fun,” Willow said as she wandered back into the kitchen to check on the status of the coffee pot.
“You better believe we did,” Ian yelled from somewhere still in the bedroom. Willow listened as Juliet chastised her fiancé, and from the sound of it, leaped back into bed with him. Shaking her head and smiling, Willow washed out the empty coffee carafe and filled it with water. Scooped coffee from a bag labeled Good
Beginnings Morning Blend into the filter and started the pot brewing.
With so many good people surrounding her here in Bliss, it was getting more and more clear why Juliet ended up so swept off her feet. Why she decided to settle herself here after she left New York. Willow had never seen her friend so happy.
She waited for the coffee to brew and entertained herself by watching the ocean roll up to meet the sand, leaning against the window as the delicate aroma of the Morning Blend filled the kitchen. As the coffee maker gurgled happily on the counter, Juliet padded into the kitchen, her bare feet making tiny slapping sounds on the tiles.
“Sorry,” Willow said without looking away from the window.
“Don’t be. I’d apologize, but I’m not the least bit sorry for what just happened in there.”
Willow turned around and groaned. “Really? Too much information Juliet. We don’t need to share all the gory details.”
“Oh, but we do. It’s just that good.” Juliet sighed and leaned on the counter. She had put on a pretty little dress that showed off her newly tanned legs.
“Oh, believe me. We don’t. But if it’s good enough for you to want to go there, then I’m really happy for you.”
“Speaking of happy, how was your time with Harry?”
Willow couldn’t stop the smile that lit up her face. She tried to hide it by opening the cabinet and digging for a coffee mug, but Juliet caught it anyway.
“Willie!” Juliet shrieked. “Look at you. Are you falling for a Moore?”
“Who’s falling for a Moore?” Of course, Ian decided that was the most appropriate time to join them in the kitchen, wearing nothing more than a pair of low hanging sweat pants. His chiseled chest and Greek statue abs made Willow remember Harry running shirtless on the beach. Those Moore genes sure were something spectacular.