Page 23

TWENTY-TWO

declan

“What’s her favorite color?”

I’m in the kitchen washing dishes while Harlow dries them. I offered to help and now I’m thinking I’ve been left in here alone with her on purpose. Willa warned me to watch what I say in front of her. And if Willa wasn’t somewhere with Belle right now, I don’t think she’d let us be alone.

“She’d tell you lilac like her hair if you asked, but it’s a cop-out, so she doesn’t have to keep telling people it was her mother’s favorite color. Because then they ask about her and Willa still gets pretty broken up talking about her.” Harlow watches me, her face not giving away what she’s thinking. “Her real favorite color is green.”

“Like your eyes?” she asks. My brows raise at the question.

“Is that why? She hasn’t told me if it is.” I grin. “Man, I hope that’s why.”

Harlow laughs at that. “I don’t know, but it wouldn’t surprise me with what she just told us in there.”

“Why did she keep her parents’ house? She could’ve sold it. No one else still has a house in Maine.”

I take a deep breath and hand her the plate I just washed. “That one is complicated. Some days I think it’s just because of sentimentality. She doesn’t have a lot of memories of her mom, but she painted the inside of that house. Her mom hand-painted the unicorns on her bedroom walls.. There are other areas like daisies on a green wall in the kitchen, or the bathroom painted to look like a forest.” I’ve never stepped foot in that house, but I spent many hours on FaceTime with her while she lived there and could describe it from memory.

“And other days?”

I shrug. “Other days, I’m afraid she’s lost and is holding onto it, expecting to need somewhere to crash land.”

Harlow nods as if she expected that answer. I know they’re pretty close, so I’m not too surprised. I am a little worried I shouldn’t have said anything, but I’m so over secrets tonight.

“Why do you call her Princess?”

“Because when I first met him, I said ‘Hi, I’m Willa Prince, but I’m not a prince. I’m a princess.’” Willa walks into the room, a tired and sad smile on her face when she looks at me.

I hand Harlow the last dish, dry my hands and walk straight up to my wife. Grabbing her face in my hands, I kiss her like I’ve wanted to all night. I try to show her how much she means to me and that we’re going to be okay.

“And I said, ‘yes, Princess.’”

“So, does this mean we can go to his games?” I turn to see Cal coming into the kitchen with Cora in his arms. He goes straight to Harlow, pulling her into him too.

“Of course. You let me know when and how many tickets you want. You won’t be able to sit with Willa, though. She sits with Gideon’s wife in her season ticket seats.” Unless Maggie’s parents don’t go. I don’t want to give Cal false hope, though.

Cal smiles. “That’s even better. I went to a few University of Maine games with her and her dad. She’s terrifying to watch with. And a little dangerous. I got an elbow to the nose once because I was too close when the player from the other team tripped our center.”

I laugh and squeeze Willa to me. “That sounds like my girl. You should see the long texts I get after every game.”

“You do realize that I’ve been sending you those texts after every game for nine years, and you’ve still barely listened to me.” Willa smiles up at me, and I would have to be blind to miss the affection there.

“I’ll do better,” I promise her.

“Ready to go home?” she asks.

“Thank you for tonight. Even though you had no idea I was coming. I still had a lot of fun,” I tell Cal and Harlow.

“It was nice to meet you, Declan,” Harlow says.

Willa takes my hand and pulls me towards the door. “Where’s the fire?”

“I want to take you home,” she says. I swear my heart skips a beat at that.

“What about Jo?” I ask. Not that I’m expecting too much, but even if we’re just talking through what happened tonight, I’d like privacy.

“She’s staying here tonight.”

I sweep her up into my arms the moment we step outside. Willa’s house is right next to Cal’s, so I’m at her door within a minute.

“Code, Princess.”

“Zero eight one four.” Her mother’s birthday.

As soon as I have her over the threshold, my mouth is on hers. I let her slide down my body so she can stand, but she pushes away.

“Dec, wait. I wanted to apologize. I swear I never intended to hurt you.”

I grab her chin and force her eyes to meet mine. “There’s something you need to understand, Willa. You’re mine. You can rip my heart out and run it over for all I care because it’s yours. There is nothing you can do that will stop me from wanting you.”

She gasps and the sound goes straight to my dick. I take her lips again, trying to swallow all her sounds. I kiss her again quickly before pulling away.

“Where are we sleeping?”

She takes me upstairs and leads me to the first bedroom. “We’re definitely going to need your bed.”

Willa’s bedroom is large with white birch floors and dark wood furniture. The walls are the same emerald green as my eyes. That makes me smile. Maybe Harlow was right.

“I’ll get it moved here as soon as I can, but I’ll enjoy having you snuggled against me until then.”

“Just snuggling?” she asks, biting her bottom lip. I pull her to me and kiss her softly at first, then deeper.

“Just snuggling,” I say against her lips. “When I take you, Willa, it will be to make love to you. Not just sex. But you’re not ready for that yet. I’ll wait for you to catch up to me. I’ll wait an entire lifetime for you, Princess.” I kiss her forehead, quickly strip down to my boxer briefs and climb into her queen size bed. “Let’s get some sleep.”

She stares at me for a moment, the frustration and confusion warring in her features. Finally, she quickly strips down to just her black lacy panties, but her back is turned so all I can see is her perfectly round ass. I stifle a groan, reminding myself that I want to do this right and not just pounce on her like a horny idiot. Willa knows what she’s doing though, because she throws a smirk over her shoulder before grabbing one of my shirts out of her dresser and pulling it on.

“How many of my shirts did you steal?” I laugh when she shrugs innocently. “Come here.”

Willa gets in and snuggles next to me. I pull her as close to me as possible. Her bed would be the perfect size for most people, but I’m a hockey player. I’m tall and broad naturally but add in all the work I put into my body, and I’m taking up most of the bed by myself. Luckily, Willa is small enough to fit right against me, otherwise she might have to sleep on top of me.

Wait.

Maybe I should get a smaller bed.