Willow stewed at her desk for long moments after Finn left her office, her heart racing like a jackrabbit, beating so forcefully she could feel it in her lips. It was like someone had lit a sparkler and set it under her skin, lighting her up from the inside out. That’d always been what it’d been like being in Finn’s presence—intense and raw and all-consuming.
Thankfully, she was older now. Wiser. Had a hell of a lot more life experience under her belt than that naïve seventeen-year-old girl who’d fallen for him in the first place, or the equally naïve eighteen-year-old she’d been when he’d left her. She wouldn’t make the same mistake again, wouldn’t get caught up in his orbit. Wouldn’t allow herself to.
“Holy shitballs.” Avery wasted no time hurrying into Willow’s office as soon as the trio of new business owners left. “It’s not often we get eye candy like that in here, but to get two of them at once? Damn, girl. It was like Christmas.” Her eyes sparkled, her smile huge.
Willow feigned nonchalance, dropping her gaze to the papers on her desk. “Oh, were they good-lookin’? I didn’t notice.”
Avery snorted so loud, she slapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes dancing with laughter. Shaking her head, she dropped her hand as she fell into the chair in front of Willow’s desk. “How long have we been friends, Willow?”
Avery knew exactly how long they’d been friends, so Willow just raised a brow. “You gettin’ at somethin’?”
“Um, yeah,” Avery said with a sharp nod. “How about the fact that you’re lying through your teeth? There’s history there—that wasn’t the first time you’d seen those fine-ass specimens. So, spill. I need details, and I need them right-fucking-now.”
Since Avery was a transplant to Havenbrook, having only lived in their little pocket of paradise for a bit less than three years, she hadn’t witnessed the presence of the Thomas boys. And being Willow didn’t like to talk about the boy who’d flipped her whole world upside down, ripping her heart out of her chest in the process, Avery—even as one of Willow’s best friends—had no hope of knowing who Griffin Thomas was. Least of all, who he was to Willow.
Willow stared at her best friend, seeing the resolve on her face, and sank back into her chair. As much as she definitely didn’t want to rehash the abysmal history, she couldn’t deny it’d be nice to have another ear, besides her younger sister Mackenna, to listen. “All right. I’ll give you a condensed version right now, but all the gory details’ll have to wait until I’ve got at least three glasses of wine under my belt.”
Avery’s eyes brightened as she rested her elbows on Willow’s desk, leaning forward. “I’ll bring the wine. And I can deal with condensed right now. Although there was nothing condensed about either of those boys, am I right?” She waggled her eyebrows, bringing a levity to the situation that Willow desperately needed.
With a laugh, Willow shook her head. “How can you make me laugh when I’m ready to crawl out of my skin?”
“One of my many redeeming qualities.”
“Too true.” Willow bit her lip, then let out a long sigh. “You remember me telling you about my high school boyfriend?”
Avery nodded. “The one who bailed after he took your virginity? Hard to forget that story. What an asshole.”
“Yeah, well. Now you know why I called him that.”
“Wait, what? Those guys…?” She widened her eyes and slapped a hand down on Willow’s desk. “No.”
“’Fraid so.”
“Which one? Baseball Hat or Gray T-shirt?”
Willow tried and failed not to think about the gray material stretching over the broad muscles of Finn’s chest, the sleeves banding tight around thick biceps. She heaved a sigh. “Gray T-shirt.”
Avery’s mouth dropped open. “Damn, girl, you hit the virginity jackpot. That boy is fine.”
“What I hit was the asshole jackpot.”
The awestruck look dropped from Avery’s face, and she frowned. Reaching over, she patted Willow’s hand. “I’m sorry, hon. We’ll save the rest for after you’re good and toasted. Wine and pizza tonight. Sound good?”
Willow honestly couldn’t think of a better end to this truly awful day. Except maybe a chance to go back in time and avoid it entirely. “Sounds fabulous.”
“Okay, but can we talk about how you actually called him an asshole? Is that discussion on the table? Because I have questions. Like, were you maybe having an out-of-body experience? Do I need to perform an exorcism on you?”
“Shut up.” Willow laughed.
“Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you swear around…well, anyone but me and Mac.”
Mackenna was going to have a freaking coronary when she found out Finn was back in town. Which, according to Havenbrook standards, was going to be in, oh, about seven minutes. Nothing much stayed silent in their sleepy little town, especially not gossip as juicy as the Thomas boys being back. Them being back and opening the very first bar Havenbrook had ever seen? Yeah, that was going to spread like wildfire. Her daddy was going to be madder than a hornet when he found out. He’d fought the wet county law tooth and nail, had heavily rallied against it, saying it’d sully their town. And even though it’d passed, he’d thus far somehow managed to keep any restaurants in town from carrying alcohol.
But a brand-new bar in Havenbrook owned by Finn Thomas? Heaven save them all. Her daddy had never been Finn’s number one fan—had, in fact, done all he could to keep Willow and Finn from seeing each other. In the end, he hadn’t needed to do anything. Finn had left all on his own.
“He definitely brings out the worst in me,” Willow finally said.
“I don’t know about that.” Avery stood from her chair, shifting toward her desk in the outer office as the phone began to ring. “I sort of loved seeing that fire in your eyes. Rage looks good on you, Will.”
As Avery answered the phone, Willow straightened her shoulders, arranging the paperwork on her desk into some semblance of order. Her day had been upended, and it wasn’t even noon.
“Hey, Will?” Avery called.
“Yeah?”
“I’m gonna run and grab a couple of cupcakes from The Sweet Spot.”
Willow’s mouth immediately started to water. They had the best cupcakes in Havenbrook. The menu changed with the season and with the day. A Wednesday in May meant Triple Chocolate Raspberry. The divine chocolate concoction, topped with heavenly ganache and filled with chocolate raspberry buttercream, was her and Avery’s guilty pleasure, reserved for the very worst of days. And today definitely qualified.
Willow smiled her first genuine smile of the day. “You’re a mind reader. I could use one. Or a dozen.”
“You sure could. Especially when I tell you Rory’s on line one.”
Apparently, Willow’s original guess of the gossip taking seven minutes to spread through Havenbrook had been a bit generous. She dropped her head back on her shoulders and closed her eyes, exhaustion cloaking every inch of her. After her morning, she didn’t know if she had the strength to put on a good face for her older sister. But she didn’t have much of a choice. She’d learned long ago not to let Rory see her sweat.
“Of course she is,” Willow said to the ceiling. “Maybe later the grim reaper’ll show up to take me to lunch.”
Avery laughed, grabbing her purse and waving as she headed out to grab the treats. “Be right back with enough sweets to keep you in a sugar coma for the rest of the day.”
Willow took a deep breath before picking up the phone and pressing the button to connect the call to her line. Pasting a smile on her face, she answered like she had no idea what would prompt her sister’s call. “Hey, Rory. How’re you doin’ today?”
“Will, you’re never gonna believe what I just heard,” Rory said, diving in without pleasantries. Very unlike her, which meant she deemed the gossip juicier than usual. She wasn’t wrong. “Mrs. Thompson was out waterin’ her flowers—honestly, she waters them fifteen times a day just so she makes sure not to miss Edna with the daily gossip.” She tsked, despite the fact that it was the same reason Rory sat in her porch swing all day, even when it was twelve thousand degrees outside. But as it was Rory, of course her hair always looked perfect, her makeup precisely applied, neither daring to step out of line despite temperatures rivaling hell. “Anyway, you’ll never guess what she heard.”
Oh, Willow probably had a couple good ideas.
Without waiting for Willow to say anything, Rory continued, “Rumor has it, the Thomas boys are back in town.”
“Yep, they sure are.”
“They got in—wait, what?”
“I said, yep, they sure are. The Thomas boys are back in Havenbrook. You heard right.” The number of times she’d thought about saying those words… Lord, she’d dreamed about it for months after Finn had left. That it had all been just a misunderstanding, that he was coming back any day. She’d spent her time daydreaming about it. But at some point, she’d stopped dreaming about it, stopped hoping. And she could honestly say she hadn’t ever thought she’d be uttering them ten years after the fact.
“How do you know that?” Rory asked.
“Because they just left my office.”
“What in heaven’s name were they doin’ in your office?”
Willow felt every ounce of disdain Rory put into the word office, like Willow having dared to pursue a career instead of finding a nice man and popping out babies was akin to peddling drugs on the elementary school playground. She took a deep breath, knowing it was a delicate balance, playing this game with Rory. Especially when their daddy did not need to be informed of all the plans just yet. But word was going to get around to Rory one way or another, whether Willow delivered the news or not. It might as well be the truth coming straight from the source… “You know Pete’s place in the square?”
“The old soda fountain?”
“That’s the one. I thought it was just Nola who bought it, but it turns out Drew and Finn are her partners.” She paused, closed her eyes. “They’re opening a bar.”
Rory gasped. “A bar? For heaven’s sake, Daddy’s gonna throw a fit. Does he know?”
There wasn’t a doubt in Willow’s mind he had no idea, because if he did, there was no way he’d have been gone at his conference this week. He’d have done everything in his power to make sure he was there to keep an eye on the Thomas boys while they ran around in his town.
“No, and I’m not tellin’ him. Neither are you.”
Rory made a sound that managed to project irritation and superiority all at once. “I can’t believe you’d ask me to lie to Daddy, ’specially on account of them.”
“I’m not askin’ you to lie, Rory.” Willow rolled her eyes. Their daddy wasn’t even there to see Rory suck up, and still she did it. “I’m just askin’ you not to say anything right this second.” Willow would rather pull out each of her eyelashes, one by one, than admit defeat to her perfect older sister. Because of that, she couldn’t tell Rory how challenging her job had been lately, how letting their daddy in on this was going to do nothing but make her life even more of a hell than it had been the past few weeks. So she fibbed. “Daddy needs to focus on this conference. It’s important. He can’t afford any distractions. And the Thomas boys are a big one.”
Rory hummed. “I suppose they are. Especially Finn Thomas. At least where you’re concerned.”
Willow didn’t say anything in response—didn’t need to. Of course Rory knew about Willow’s history with Finn—at least the basics. Daddy had made sure everyone in the family knew of her misguided path…and how far she’d fallen when the boy she’d thought was the love of her life had bailed without so much as a Post-it note stuck to her window.
“You’re not gonna do anything stupid again, right?” Rory asked.
Again. Because of course Rory wouldn’t let an opportunity pass to remind her sisters of all their multiple failings, and Finn would forever and always top Willow’s very long list.
And do something stupid? Like falling head over heels for a boy who had trouble written all over him? Yeah, she’d been there, done that. And she had absolutely no desire to do it again. Not as long as she lived.
She took a sip of her coffee in an attempt to hold back the heated reply sitting on the tip of her tongue. When she was sure she wasn’t going to bite her sister’s head off, she said, “No, I plan to stay away until they do their disappearing act again.”
Rory hummed. “You don’t think they’ll stay?”
The words Finn had said to her so long ago—words she’d worked damn hard to forget—came rushing back. Be very sure of what you’re saying right now, Willowtree, because if I take these last steps between us, it’ll take Jesus himself to tear us apart.
Apparently, their Lord and Savior had made a trip to Havenbrook that day all those years ago because from her vantage point, it’d seemed like Finn had left with little thought to what—or whom—he was leaving behind. So, did she think he’d stick around now? Not a chance in hell. He’d do whatever he’d come here for—to make sure Nola was set up with the building and the construction plans were on track, then go back to being a distant partner, just like Willow had caught Drew mumbling about as they’d been signing papers.
She shrugged to no one, as if talking about the only boy ever to break her heart didn’t cause the old scars to rip open at the seams. “They don’t have a reason to. Their life isn’t here anymore and hasn’t been for a long time. We’ll see the dust of their rental car as they drive off in a day or two. Mark my words.”