I set my alarm for six, even though I hadn’t really decided if I was going to go or not. After a quick shower, I grabbed my phone from the charger and scanned our texts from last night again.

Brody: Not good.

Delilah: I’m sorry. Anything I can do?

Brody: A naked picture might help . . . 

Delilah: LOL. Glad to see you sound more like yourself now. This afternoon when we spoke, there wasn’t one sexual innuendo. I was worried.

Brody: Me too.

Delilah: You staying at the hospital tonight?

I remembered typing that last text and then editing out one word. The initial text read: You staying at the hospital tonight alone? But immediately afterward I felt selfish and was glad I hadn’t sent it. He was going through a horrible time, and my jealousy had no place.

Brody: No. Heading back to Regency soon. I’ll be back for visiting hours in the morning at nine.

Delilah: OK. Hope you get some sleep.

Brody: Call me in the morning. I’ll set an alarm for seven thirty so you can talk dirty to me before I shower.

My mind was busy debating whether I should or shouldn’t as I dried my hair and got my clothes ready. Slipping on an expensive bra and panty set that I’d splurged on last week, I realized my head was bullshitting itself. Who was I kidding? I’d shaved my legs and donned new sexy underwear. I had already mentally decided I was surprising Brody with an in-person wake-up call, even before I admitted it to myself.

Luckily for me, the uniformed elevator operator remembered seeing me with Brody. So when I explained with a blush that I wanted to surprise my boyfriend, he slipped the key into the slot with a sly grin. It was a good thing, because I had completely forgotten access to the penthouse floor required a special key.

There was really no reason for me to be nervous, yet there I was, standing in front of Brody’s suite, a bag of his favorite pumpkin spice muffins in one hand and coffees in a cardboard carrier in the other, and I was anxious about knocking unannounced.

I took a deep breath, raised my knuckles and rapped on the door marked PH2.

No response.

Pulling out my phone, I checked the time—seven thirty-three. Maybe he was sleeping still, or in the shower . . . or had decided to leave early.

I knocked one more time. The second time louder than the first.

I had just started to turn away when I heard the sound of feet walking toward the door.

Brody answered, wearing only tight black boxer briefs. He had a toothbrush in his mouth, and his hair was a sexy mess. His foaming mouth turned to a smile.

I held up the bag of muffins. “I brought you breakfast.”

His eyes swept me from head to toe, making me feel deliciously violated. “You certainly did.”

I was very glad I’d changed my outfit four times and decided on something a bit on the sexy side.

He stepped aside, holding his arm out for me to enter. “Ladies first.”

I handed him the coffees as I passed. “Ladies first is just the Brody Easton way of saying, ‘Let me check out your ass.’”

“You know it.” He chuckled and disappeared into the bathroom, coming back after he had finished his teeth.

“I thought maybe you could use a happy wake-up call and something to eat.”

Brody took the bag from my hand and tossed it over his shoulder before wrapping his arms around my waist and tugging me close. “That’s perfect. I’m fucking starving.”

“What are you doing?” He walked me backward until the backs of my knees hit the couch.

“I’m going to eat.” He gave me a gentle but firm shove so I fell back, landing on the couch. Looking up at him, my eyes stared at his beautiful face, but I was quickly distracted. Trailing down his broad shoulders, across his muscular pecs and abs, my gaze landed on his glorious carved V. That indentation could seriously make me forget my name.

“You look hungry, too.” He smirked, catching me ogling him.

“God, you wake up looking like that. Your body really is ridiculously incredible.”

He rubbed his bulging erection through his tight underwear. Watching him touch himself made me clench my thighs together. “I’m glad you like it. But I want to see more of yours. Pull up that skirt.”

I hesitated for a brief second. I’d only just walked in the door, and daylight was shining in through the living room windows. But I’d come here hoping to bring him some happiness in the midst of a couple of tough days. Plus . . . look at that V.

I reached down to the bottom of my skirt and gathered it, letting it bunch around my hips. I would look like a wrinkled mess at the office later, but I knew when Brody was done with me, I wasn’t going to care in the slightest.

“These are in the way.” He reached down, and with one quick tug tore off my brand new panties.

Before I could retort that I would have taken them off, he dropped to his knees and buried his face between my legs.

Oh God.

He devoured me. Licking and sucking, his hands gripping my hips to hold me in place when I started to wiggle around.

I need to move.

But the more I bucked, the harder he held me down and the more aggressive his tongue lashed out at me. It was frustrating—I needed to gyrate my hips to meet his rhythm. Realizing I wasn’t going to get anywhere pinned by his strength, I dug my fingers into his hair, attempting to take some control back.

He chuckled when I pulled his hair to move his head slightly up, but took the hint and shifted his focus to my aching clit. Alternating between fluttering and sucking, he brought me to orgasm. I had been inside of his apartment less than ten minutes.

He carried me to his bed after that, and we had sex.

Good sex.

No. Great sex.

The kind where he searched my face as he glided in and out of my body with smooth strokes and then, when my eyes fluttered open, our gazes met and he smiled down at me. Breathless and beautiful.

Afterward, he pushed the hair off my face as we both lay on our sides facing each other. “Thank you for giving me that.”

I grinned. “Thank you for giving me that.”

He laughed. “You know what I meant. For letting me get lost in you for a little while. And not complaining when I basically attacked you as you walked through the door.”

Complain? Was he crazy? “I can think of worse ways to be greeted.”

He kissed my lips gently. “Today is going to suck.”

I propped my head up on my elbow to listen.

“They’re warming us up to the idea of removing all the tubes and letting her go peacefully. I just know it.”

“I’m so sorry. That’s such a hard decision for you to make.”

“I’m not the one who’s going to need to make it.”

“I thought you were her legal guardian.”

“I am. But she signed a health care proxy years ago. Before she started to show any signs of dementia.”

“Oh. Who makes her health care decisions then?”

“Willow.”

That only made sense. “Has she been handling things okay?”

“She’s upset. But holding her own right now. I’m not sure she would ever come back from this one if she disappeared on Marlene now.”

I nodded. “How long has she been clean?”

“She says eleven months.”

“Do you believe her?”

“I think so. She seems more like the Willow I knew than she has in a long time.”

An uneasy feeling settled in. The Willow he knew was the Willow he fell in love with. If Drew wasn’t gone and walked back into my life tomorrow, what would I do with a second chance?

We stayed in bed for a little while longer. I pushed whatever immature jealousy I had aside.

“Tell me about her.”

“Marlene? She’s tough as nails and soft at the same time. She did nice things for people, but never wanted anyone to know she did them.”

“My father used to say altruism was spelled wrong, it was spelled a-n-o-n-y-m-o-u-s.”

“That’s how Marlene lived. When Willow was on one of her binges, she used to frequent this squatters’ den in Bushwick. It was a real hellhole—no heat or running water—yet a handful of addicts actually called it home. One snowy January, Marlene insisted on coming with me to look for Willow. When we went inside, the place was freezing. Most of the people who were passed out had newspapers piled on top of them for warmth. We took Willow home, and a few days later I was back there to drag her ass out again. Only I went without telling Marlene the second time. When I walked inside, everyone had a coat on—they were all wearing Marlene’s coats. She had went back the next day without telling me and gave away all her coats.”

“Wow. She sounds like a beautiful person.”

“She is. It killed her to go to those places, too. She had to watch her granddaughter follow in her daughter’s footsteps. I’m glad she got to see Willow sober for a few weeks before this happened.”

“I am, too.”

We talked about Marlene until I was going to be late for work. “I need to wash up and get to the office.”

“Take a shower with me.”

“I’m already running late, and you wanted to get to the hospital when visiting hours started. Showering together is definitely not a good idea.”

“You’re probably right.”

“I’m just going to throw my hair up and jump in the shower to wash off. I’ll use the guest bathroom.”

Brody pouted. “I like you with my scent all over you.”

I took a quick shower and was just about to step out when something shiny near the drain caught my eye. At first, I thought it was a coin, but when I bent over to pick it up, I realized it was a necklace caught around the grate.

I untangled it, and when I lifted it, a pendant fell to the floor. A pendant in the shape of the letter W.

I was already dressed when Brody got out of the shower in the master bath. “You’re done quickly.” He snickered. “And that wasn’t the first time today.”

I was inwardly freaking out but somehow managed to deliver my words calmly. Holding out my palm, I offered the necklace. “This was in the shower. It almost washed down, but the clasp was caught on the drain cover.”

He furrowed his brow and picked the necklace up, the W dangling between us. Symbolic. His eyes closed for a moment and then rose to look at me.

“It must be Willow’s.”

I held his stare but said nothing.

“She showered here yesterday. She must have dropped it.”

“She was here?”

“Yes. But by herself. I came home and took a shower, then when I went back to the hospital, I gave her my key and told her to use my place to shower. She lives all the way uptown, and we wanted to be there when the doctors came around.”

I nodded. Then I walked to my purse and fished out my phone, checking it quickly for no reason other than that I needed to focus on something else. Brody just stood there and watched me. When I put on my coat and remained quiet, he spoke again.

“Are you upset with me for doing that?”

“Should I be?”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “I really didn’t think about it. It just seemed like the right thing to do. But now that we’re standing here, I’m thinking maybe it wasn’t.”

“How would you feel if I let Michael Langley shower at my house?”

Brody’s jaw clenched.

“And didn’t mention it to you.”

“Point taken.”

“I have to get to work.”

Brody reached out and stopped me from passing, pulling me in close for a hug. “I’m sorry,” he whispered in my ear. “Forgive me. I should have thought about it more than I did. I don’t want you mad at me.”

I pulled my head back to look him in the eyes. “Nothing else happened? She was here alone, showering?”

“Nothing. I swear.”

I thought about it for a minute. “Okay.”

He blew out a long breath of air. “Thank God. I don’t think I could handle you being mad at me today.”

I forced a smile, remembering what the last few days had been like for him. With or without Willow in the picture, the man loved Marlene. It couldn’t be easy. “I’m not mad. Text me from the hospital. Let me know what the doctors say this morning.”

“Thanks, babe.”

In truth, I wasn’t lying. I really wasn’t mad. Nervous, jealous, scared—maybe. Strangely, I was dating a former player who’d never tried to hide that relationships weren’t his forte, yet I believed him when he said nothing else had happened. What worried me was that he was opening his heart to Willow again, more than his home.

Stepping out of the elevator, I bumped straight into a man who was waiting to enter, never even seeing him until my foot was on top of his. He fumbled before catching the coffee he was holding, but not before a splash of it hit his crisp white dress shirt. I apologized profusely and attempted to make it the rest of the way out of the lobby unscathed. I almost made it, too. Until my collision with the glass turnstile exit—my face actually smacked into the bright yellow Out of Order sign with the big arrow pointing to another door. That accident wasn’t my fault—I was paying attention as I walked. The problem was that my attention was on the beautiful woman sitting in the lobby, staring at me—and not on the electric door that wasn’t working.

Willow.