Willa was humming the next morning when Gerri came into the diner. Even with an armful of plates, she managed to lean over and give the other woman a big kiss on her cheek. “You, Gerri Wilder, are a goddess! Go ahead and grab a seat, any seat!” She grinned at the customers in the diner. “I’m putting you all on warning, if she wants your seat… heck, if she wants your meal… I’m giving it to her!”

Laughter filled the diner and Gerri made her way to Bob’s table. “I’ll save everyone the trouble and sit with Bob.”

“Bob,” Willa grinned as she set down plates at a full four-top, “you know the drill.”

“Right,” the older man agreed, “if she wants my omelet, she gets it.”

Willa gave him a satisfied nod before turning back to her four-top. “Anything else I can get for you folks?”

They all shook their heads.

“Just let me know if you do,” she took a step back, “I’ll be happy to get it for you.”

She turned to the rest of the diner. “Happy to get whatever anyone wants!”

By the time she made it to Gerri’s side, the other woman was beaming ear to ear.

“Good Morning to you, Willa.”

“And a Good Everything to you, Gerri!”

The elegant woman swept her snowy white and stylishly coiffed hair back from her temple and Willa sighed, remembering Boone’s fingers combing through her hair.

“Well,” Gerri’s smiling tone matched the grin on her elegant face, “someone looks like they had a really good night.”

Willa set her hand on the back of the booth and sighed aloud. “A very good night.”

Bob’s grin was a little weak underneath his smiling eyes. “Just no details, please.”

Rolling her eyes, Willa laughed. “No worries. Boone is a gentleman and sweet as they come.”

“Sweet?” Gerri leaned her elbow on the marble-like laminate table. “He’s a shifter, sweetie. With a smile like the one on your face, I would have thought you’d jumped in with both feet.”

“Oh, I was tempted… so tempted.”

Bob hung his head and covered his ears with his hands. Willa crooked a finger in Gerri’s direction and the matchmaker followed her into the kitchen.

When they were safely in the other room, Gerri started their conversation back up. “Tempted sounds good, right?”

Willa spun around. “Very very good. Your order?”

“Surprise me.”

The blush on Willa’s cheeks made her lift her hand to make sure they weren’t on fire. “That’s what he said when I offered to cook for him last night.”

“Oh?” Gerri stepped up beside Willa, leaning her hip on the counter. “And did he like his surprise?”

“Very much.” Willa cracked a few eggs into a bowl and tested the flat top. “I made him something I’ve been working on of my own. It felt… right.”

Gerri grinned back at her.

“He ate it and the look on his face,” Willa let out a long sigh, “was just about heaven. I love cooking for people and when I make them happy, it feels like I’m glowing from the inside.”

Willa set her hand over her chest and again she felt the tremors of her heart under her ribs.

She felt Gerri’s hand on her shoulder and looked up at the other woman. “Well, from where I’m standing, you’re glowing from the inside out like a painted lantern. Seriously, the two of you didn’t…”

“We kissed.” The words almost stole her breath. “And Boone… he knows how to kiss.”

“Should I take it that the first date went well enough that you’re planning to see him again?”

Willa’s smile only deepened as she poured the egg mixture onto the flat top. “You would be right. We’re going out tonight.” Setting the bowl aside, she gave Gerri and impromptu hug. “Thank you, Gerri.” She released her soon enough and stepped back. “I started the evening feeling like a basket case and ended it believing that there just might be a happy ending for me after all.”

Taking up her spatula, Willa deftly finished the omelet and slid it onto the plate and then added a generous portion of country fried potatoes. “You, Gerri Wilder, are always welcome at my table.”

Gerri took the plate from Willa’s hands and brought it up to her nose. She drew in a breath and smiled. “Coming from you, my dear,” she smiled, “that is a priceless offer.”

* * *

That evening, Boone picked Willa up in his rental and brought her back to his hotel. When they stepped off the elevator, Boone stopped and lifted her hand to his lips, brushing a kiss over the back of her hand. “Are you sure you’re comfortable coming back to my room?”

She grinned at him and lifted her free hand to his cheek, enjoying the soft scratch of his beard against her palm. “I’m not comfortable,” she felt him tense and start to pull away, but she slid her fingers around the back of his neck. He was so tall she had to get up on her tip-toes. “It’s just because we’re going to be alone and while I know you won’t ‘try’ anything that I won’t want to happen. I can’t guarantee that I won’t try something with you.”

“If you’re not ready-”

“That’s the thing, Boone,” she felt her heart pounding in her chest, “I barely slept last night. Once I was home, all I could do was play everything over and over again in my head. My dreams, when I managed to sleep, were about you.” She blew out a breath. “About us.”

“So it wasn’t just me?” His chuckle felt like a touch, making her shiver.

“And tonight,” she smiled at him, “tonight, I don’t want to worry about what I’m leaving behind. I want to concentrate on what could be.”

“I’d like that.”

She stepped from him and tugged on his hand. “Let’s get inside and see what kind of trouble we can get into with room service.”

* * *

Boone couldn’t help smiling. At work, he was always worried. Time cards, profit margins, ordering to stay ahead of need and making sure that his employees had all the training they needed to provide his customers with what they needed to do their home projects.

At home, he worried about the boys.

But here, sitting with Willa on the floor of his hotel room, their backs against the bed, the large screen TV tuned to some movie that he didn’t even remember the title of, he was truly enjoying himself.

“So how did you find the boys?” Willa took a fry from Boone’s plate and gave him a sly smile as she bit off the end.

“Well, Bolt was the first one that I met, and he found me.” He nudged the plate of fries toward her. “I went back to the store late one night, I forgot to take out the trash and leave it in the dumpster. I heard some noise outside in the alley.”

Boone felt a hand on his arm and looked down. Willa’s hand was holding onto his arm, not a painful grip, but a reassuring one. When he followed the length of her arm to her face he saw the worry in her eyes. The raw emotion he saw there pleased him and his bear. The grumpy old bear inside of him was quickly becoming a cuddly teddy where Willa was concerned.

“I found him in the dumpster,” he felt her fingers tightening on his forearm and gave her a smile. “He wasn’t looking for food.”

Her shoulders relaxed the littlest bit.

“He was looking for cast off building supplies. He was using what he could find to build shelters for a few of the homeless teens that he knew. It took a few days for him to trust me enough to let me accompany him back to where they were living, but I was impressed by what he had done. He’d managed to take so little and make structures that were neat and tidy. Mostly waterproof.”

“Did you give him a job at the hardware store?”

Just hearing her talk about his hardware store made his chest puff up with pride, and deep inside of him his bear rolled over on his back and presented his belly. Boone scoffed at him, but he understood the feeling. He wouldn’t mind having her hands on his belly too.

“He didn’t want to work selling the pieces. He liked the building part of it.” He smiled at the spark he saw in her eyes. “So, you want to see pictures of the buildings?”

She grabbed up a napkin and swept it over her lips.

Boone’s eyes followed the path of the napkin, wondering what she’d think if he offered to lick her lips clean next time.

“I can’t wait to see them.”

He heard the pang of excitement in her voice and it fed his hunger… for her. “Then come over here, Willa.”

Boone nudged a few of the plates that sat between them and heard his bear growling from his throat as Willa crawled through the impromptu picnic on her knees.

He enjoyed the view too much and patience lost out to need as he reached out and picked her up by her hips, and pulled her onto his lap.

Her gentle peel of laughter sent heat coursing through his veins as he set her down on his thighs.

Willa leaned back against his chest and he felt her wiggle against him, trying to find a comfortable seat.

He wasn’t so sure she understood exactly what she was doing to him. Her search for comfort was only making him more un-comfortable.

Wrapping his arms around her he held his phone in his large hands and pulled up a photo album. “This is Bolt’s cabin. The boys decided to go with his cabin first, since he was the one who designed them.”

He paged through the images, showing her the features of the cabin.

“It’s like those little houses,” she pointed out the features she liked the most. “You’re planning for the boys to have their own places, but they also have the main house with you. They must love it!”

“The idea was to give them some space of their own, but I think of them as my boys in all the important ways.”

“Anyone that hears you talking about them can tell how much you care about the boys. Did you have a big family growing up?”

He paused for a moment and he felt Willa start to tense in his arms. She was only asking a question that anyone would ask, especially trying to get to know someone that they might marry or consider being in a long-term relationship with. Releasing the tension in his jaw, Boone gently gathered her closer in his arms.

“I had a large family,” he began, “but like any family, we had our problems. My father was what most would call the Alpha.”

She nodded slightly. “That’s the person… the shifter leader, right?”

“Some species have different names for their leaders, but Alpha works in this case. He had a strict idea of what it meant to be a leader and a father.

“Weakness was dealt with, eradicated like disease. I watched him destroy my family. He sent my eldest brother into exile and nearly turned my sister into a shell of who she could have become.

“When I left it wasn’t just freedom I wanted, but I wanted to save my soul. I was on my own when I was barely old enough to know how stupid I was.” His laughter felt like glass in his throat.

He felt Willa shift on his lap, but the movement didn’t stoke his passion. She leaned her head on his chest, rubbed her hand over his chest, her fingers feathering over the flat plane of muscle.

Willa Barnes replaced the pain with her warmth, her kindness… her heart.

“And then…?” She drew in a breath and sighed, and it only made her gentle curves fit against the hard wall of his chest even more.

“Then?” The sound vibrated through his skin into her. He heard her soft gasp and it stirred him from deep down inside.

“You didn’t stop there,” she sounded like she knew him, “you wanted more.”

“More?” The smile he felt on his lips felt foreign to him, new, and perfect.

“Once you saved yourself… you wanted to save others. You took in the boys.”

“I don’t think of it like that.” He huffed out a breath. “I’m not-”

“Generous? Helpful? Amazing?” She gave him a playful nudge on his shoulder. “I guess I need to add humble to the long list of your positive traits.”

“You think you have me all figured out?” He couldn’t help but smooth his hand up her back, feeling the ends of her hair tickle the back of his hand. It felt like silk threads, tying themselves around his heart.

Willa straightened herself a little, and even though she was quite a bit shorter, he managed to reach her lips when her hand looped around the back of his neck and drew him closer.

“Boone?” she whispered the question against his lips.

“Hmm?”

“Anyone who meets you knows you in a heartbeat.” She pressed a kiss to his lips and a growl escaped his lips, one that she drank in with another kiss. It took another three of four kisses before he could manage to mutter his next question.

“Do you like what you ‘figured out’ about me?”

As close as they were he couldn’t help but see the look in her eyes, feel the way she trembled against him.

“Do you have to ask?” She pulled in a breath and sighed. “You can’t tell?”

He felt her fingers against his neck, dancing over his pulse. A pulse that went wild when her perfectly rounded backside shifted just enough to cradle the rock-hard length of his erection. “I’m having a bit of trouble thinking at the moment.”

“Then maybe,” she took hold of the collar of his shirt and tugged him closer, “you could stop thinking for a little while.”

She met his lips in a kiss that stripped him of the ability to think for the rest of the night.