Page 19 of Honey Bee Library (Sweet Tea and a Southern Gentleman #7)

COLE

I was grateful for Jasper. Our relationship was easy. He was a simple kid who spoke fish and cars—my native language.

Willow had left us to play cars in the spare room.

When she checked on us fifteen minutes later, her hair was damp and her skin flushed from what I could only assume was a hot shower.

My entire body responded at the thought of Willow in the shower…

but I quickly pushed that from my mind. It was not what I should be thinking about.

It was evident that Willow didn’t like me. There was no way I was going to entertain the idea that she could be interested in me in the same way that I was rapidly becoming interested in her. I needed reality to slap me in the face. And I needed it to happen right now.

After Willow checked on us, I didn’t see her again. Jasper was busying building a roadway for his cars while I lay on the floor with my hands resting on my chest and my eyes closed when my phone rang. I shifted my weight and slipped my phone out of my back pocket and brought it to my ear.

“Hello,” I said, half expecting it to be Maddie with some Obsidian drama.

“Is this Mr. Watkins?” The voice was soft but forceful, and it had me sitting straight up.

“This is he.” My heart was pounding now as I waited for them to respond.

“Hey, Mr. Watkins. This is Penny at Seabreeze Memory Lodge”—I swallowed hard as fear wedged itself in my throat—“and I’m calling because Georgianna fell.”

I was up and pacing, my nervous energy needing somewhere to go. “Okay,” I said slowly.

“She’s okay. Got a little banged up. We have a doctor coming to take an x-ray.”

“X-ray?” I blurted out. Why on earth did this woman sound so calm when my grandma was going to need an x-ray?

The nurse paused. “We think she might have fractured her wrist.”

“I’m leaving right now. I’ll be in Miami by tomorrow morning.”

The nurse started sputtering, but I didn’t wait to hear what she had to say. I hung up and glanced over at Jasper, who was watching me with wide eyes.

“We gotta get you to bed,” I said as I slipped my phone into my back pocket and waved for him to follow. I was confused as to where Willow had gone. Was she in her room? Had she…I was standing in the doorway when my gaze landed on her bed, where she was fast asleep.

“She’s asleep,” I whispered to Jasper as I pressed my forefinger to my lips.

He giggled and nodded as we both rose up onto our tiptoes and walked past the bed. I had him go to the bathroom and change into his pajamas while I waited in the room. Once he opened the door, I helped him brush his teeth, and then we tiptoed back to the bed so he could climb in.

Willow was sleeping on top of the comforter, so I grabbed a spare blanket from the closet and shook it out on top of both of them. Just as I moved to tuck Jasper in, his gaze met mine.

“Are you leaving?” he asked, his voice soft and his eyes wide.

I reached out and tousled his hair. “I gotta go back home for a few days.”

He blinked a few times. “Are you coming back?”

I studied him before I slowly nodded. “Of course, kiddo. I just have a few things I need to take care of.”

Jasper narrowed his eyes as he kept his gaze trained to my face. I wasn’t sure why he looked so skeptical. In an effort to calm his worries, I gave him a big smile and a wink.

“Get some sleep and don’t wake up your mom,” I said as I tapped my finger to my lips before I pointed to Willow.

I was trying not to stare at her—she looked like an angel while she slept.

Her eyes were closed and her dark lashes spilled across her cheekbones.

Her lips were full, and I ached to discover just how soft they actually were.

I ripped my gaze from her and glanced back at Jasper. He looked a little less worried as he snuggled deeper into the blankets. I tousled his hair once more, said goodnight, and then left the room, pulling the door shut behind me.

With Jasper settled in for the night, I headed to my room to throw some things together.

I didn’t need much, just my essentials. Things that I’d packed to take with me here and that I didn’t have a second supply of at my house.

With my overnight bag clutched in my hand, I headed to the kitchen for a glass of water.

While I was standing there, I realized that I couldn’t just leave without letting Willow know where I was going.

I found a piece of junk mail and turned the envelope over to jot a quick note down.

When I was finished, I debated whether I should affix it to the fridge or just leave it on the counter.

I decided on the counter, under the mug cabinet, was best. That way I was certain that she would at least see it when she went to make herself a cup of coffee in the morning.

With that settled, I went to the trinket dish I always put my keys and wallet in only to find that my keys weren’t there. Confused, I looked around. Had I set them down somewhere? I rubbed the back of my neck as I scoured the kitchen counters and drawers.

When I came up empty-handed, I made my way to my room to see if I’d brought them in there.

Nothing.

The only other place to look was my car, which was strange, I always kept my keys on me and never took them out of my pocket. But my keys weren’t in the house, so that’s where they had to be.

With my duffle bag in hand, I headed out to the garage. The doors were unlocked, so my keys had to be in there somewhere. I climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine. I’d work on finding my keys once I was back in Miami, after I made sure Gran was okay.

I waited for the garage door to open before I pulled out. It was a ten-hour drive from Harmony Island to Miami. I was in for a long night.

I’d just stopped for gas and to use the bathroom.

I’d been on the road five hours, and I was in desperate need of an energy drink.

I was standing in front of the coolers at the gas station when my phone rang.

I pulled my phone from my back pocket to see that it was Willow.

My heart instantly jumped and started galloping around in my chest.

I was exhausted, but my heart hadn’t gotten the memo.

I closed my eyes for a moment while I took in a deep breath, preparing myself to hear her voice. “Willow?” I asked once I finally swiped the phone on.

“Where’s my son?”

I blinked once. Twice. Three times. “Jasper?” I asked, still confused as to why she was calling me.

“Of course, Jasper. What other son do I have?” Her voice was curt, and I could tell that she was panicking.

The urge to help her rushed through me so I reached into the cooler and grabbed out the first energy drink I could see before I let the door swing shut behind me.

I headed to the counter, where a man in a stained white tank top with his long, greying hair pulled back into a low ponytail was watching me.

I set the can down before I switched my phone to my other hand so I could pull out my wallet.

“Listen, I tucked him into bed next to you before I left. That was the last time I saw him.” After tapping my card, I stuck it back into my wallet, shook my head no when the attendant asked if I wanted a receipt, and then grabbed the drink and headed out of the gas station.

Willow sounded like she was moving things around, so I waited for her to respond. “He’s not here. I’ve checked everywhere.” The panic in her voice was rising, and it was taking everything inside of me not to jump into my car and hightail it back to Harmony.

“Did you check the room with the toys?” I asked as I grabbed the driver’s door handle.

“Yes, I did.”

I dropped onto the driver’s seat before shutting the door. I set the drink down in the cup holder and then settled back against the seat. “Did you check my room?”

Pause.

“Um, no.”

“You should check there.” I tried to picture how I’d left my room. From what I could remember, it was decently clean, and even if it wasn’t, I doubted she would notice or care.

I heard Willow open a door that I could only assume was mine. Just as I moved to crack the tab on my energy drink, I heard a rustling noise coming from my back seat. Confused, I glanced back, and my soul almost left my body when I saw a little foot sticking out from underneath a blanket.

“Willow?” I asked as I held onto my phone and shifted in my seat to free my arm.

I didn’t wait for her to answer as I slowly reached back and grabbed ahold of the blanket.

I slowly pulled it away to reveal Jasper curled up on the seat.

He whimpered and felt around for his blanket.

When he found it, he pulled it to him before he flipped to his other side so his back was now to me.

I collapsed back against my seat. This did not look good.

Willow was going to think that I kidnapped her son.

Suddenly, the fiasco with my keys now made sense.

Jasper must have taken them when I was in my bedroom getting ready.

That’s why they were missing from the trinket dish but I could still open and start my car.

I closed my eyes and rested my head against the seat rest. “Willow,” I said again, this time more forceful.

“He’s not in your room. I looked everywhere,” Willow said, her voice a whisper.

“I know where he is,” I said as I lifted my phone up so I could speak directly into the microphone.

“You do?”

I nodded. “Yeah, he’s sleeping in my back seat. I think he snuck into my car when he heard I needed to leave.”

Willow let out a sob. I could only imagine how stressed out she’d been.

I opened my eyes and sat up in my seat. “Listen, I had no idea that he was in the car with me. I would have never driven off.”

She didn’t respond, just the sound of her sobs filled the air.

“I can…” I closed my eyes once more. I didn’t want to say I could head back there.

I needed to check on Gran. I felt torn between my grandmother and the woman who was rapidly becoming very important to me.

My time with Gran was finite. Plus, I was already halfway to Miami.

She could probably get a redeye flight faster than it would take me to head back to Harmony.

“Listen, I’ll keep Jasper with me. He’s fine. Book the first flight to Miami, and we’ll pick you up from the airport.”

Willow sniffled. “He’s okay?”

Jasper snored his response. I chuckled as I glanced back at him. “He’s fine. He’s passed out right now.”

“Okay,” she whispered.

I paused. “I’ll send you a picture when we get off the phone.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. I stared at the steering wheel, wrapping my fingers around it before stretching them out. Willow hadn’t hung up yet.

“I’ll reimburse you for the ticket,” I finally offered. The silence between us felt deafening.

“Oh, you don’t?—”

“I want to.” No truer words had ever left my lips. It was overwhelming to me how much I wanted to take care of Willow. How badly I wanted to protect her and Jasper.

They were rapidly becoming…my family.

I blinked a few times, trying to push that thought from my mind. I needed to remain detached. At the end of all of this, I would walk away from Harmony. My life wasn’t there. It was in Miami.

“Thanks.”

“Of course,” I replied.

Silence.

“Cole?”

My entire body responded to the sound of my name on her lips. “Yeah?”

She paused. “Take care of my son.”

I wrapped my fingers around the steering wheel as a protective surge rose up inside of me. I would never ever let anything happen to that little boy.

“I will.”