Willow (6 page)

“
Yes, I do. We went to school together. And it wasn’t him. Tall guy, light hair, intense, maybe a little pissed. The one who put the hickey on your neck.”

Her hand went to her throat quickly. Then she pulled down the visor to have a look in the mirror. When she sat back and groaned, he knew he’d hit the mark. She looked out the window before she answered.

“
He works for me. He…we kissed and it…we might have…I might have let it go too far. It can’t happen again.” She glanced at him when he did her and their eyes caught. “How did you know?”

Alexander looked back at the road. His sister was very smart, brilliant as a matter of fact. But she was incredibly naive about the opposite sex. He glanced back at her and wondered, not for the first time, if she was still a virgin.

She’d gone through high school and college when most kids her age were discovering themselves. Willow had been discovering everything—as long as it was in a book or a class. By the time he’d gotten his first job in the computer world, Willow was working full time as a gopher on a job site. When Alexander was dating and having sex with any woman that was willing, Willow was working her way through a business degree. He doubted she’d had that much fun as a teenager. And now at twenty-six, she was just as inexperienced as most kids half her age.

“
He looked like he was ready to tear me apart for touching you, that’s how I know. How long has this been going on?”

Willow didn’t say anything for a while. He was sure she wasn’t going to answer him. “He started working for me a couple of weeks ago. And you have to be wrong about the touching me thing. He and I only kissed today and nothing before then. He’s too…you’re just wrong about it.”

Alexander wondered about the “he’s too” for the rest of the ride home because she had snuggled down in the seat and closed her eyes. It was something she’d done as a child when she didn’t want to talk about something. Hide out until the other party gave up or something else came up. He decided to talk to their mom. She would know how to handle it.

It was nearly midnight when he got the chance to talk to his mom. But she’d already figured out something was wrong and had cornered him in the kitchen when he’d gone in for another piece of cherry pie after dinner. His mother, Amanda James, was as subtle as a bull in a china house.

“
What’s wrong with Wills? And who is she sleeping with?” Alexander had a mouth full of pie and she’d startled him into just staring at her.

He took his time chewing then swallowing. He didn’t want his sister to be pissed at him. She had a wicked temper. It was quick to ignite and quicker to burn out. But she was vicious when she was at full throttle. Just like their mother.

“
She didn’t tell me his name, but I gathered he works for her. They aren’t sleeping together, but that might change soon if his looks were any indication. Why?”

Amanda sat down and looked at him. She was grinning. He decided he didn’t like that grin and started to leave the kitchen before she brought him into whatever she was thinking.

“
Oh no you don’t, young man. Get back in here right now. Sit.” Alexander sat. His mom was still his mom and he was slightly…okay, he was terrified of her. “Spill it. And don’t leave out anything.”

So he did. He didn’t really know much. The bite mark appearing on her neck, the way she said it couldn’t happen again. And he had to describe the man once for her and then again for his dad. Alexander was sure that when Wills found out, and he didn’t doubt she would, he was a dead man.

~o0o~

Willow got up early the next morning and went to the kitchen. She loved the mornings and was thrilled that Shasta had made her sticky buns for breakfast. This made life all the more worth it. Hot buns and a glass of iced tea.

“
You eat all them Missy Wills. You don’t eat enough for a bird. I think you lost more weight since I seen you last. I’m going to tell that girl of mine she needs to feed you more.”

She was probably right. Willow was eating her third bun when her dad came into the kitchen. They had been sharing breakfast since she was a child. She didn’t realize how much she missed it until just then.

“
You save any for me?” Edgar James got a cup of coffee, kissed Shasta on the cheek, and sat down at the table. “So, girl, tell me who’s been sucking on your neck.”

Willow snorted tea up her nose and nearly choked to death on the bun lodged in her throat. While Shasta beat her back hard enough to break ribs, her dad sat across from her laughing. She was going to kill Alexander.

“
What the heck, dad? Sucking on my neck? I do work on a construction site. It’s a…it’s a bruise.” Shasta snickered; her dad laughed harder.

“
You’re a terrible liar and you always have been. Now, tell me, little girl, do I need a shotgun here or are you telling me you’ve been practicing safe sex?” he sat back in his chair. “I gotta tell you, I’m hoping for both right now. Nothing on this earth would make me happier than you having your own baby. But I’d prefer you did it the right way. You know, married then baby. Right now…well, I wouldn’t even care if it was less than nine months from bride to mother.”

Willow looked at her dad, really looked. He was her best friend, always had been. She really was a terrible liar, but she thought that was more because she hated to lie to the one man she would love forever.

“
It’s not like that. It was a kiss that I let get away from me. It should—”

Her dad suddenly sat up in his chair. “Did he force you, baby girl? I’ll kill the son of a bitch. Alexander didn’t say…”

“
Oh no, don’t stop now. What did my brother, who I might add isn’t long for this earth, have to say to you? Damn it all to hell in a hand basket.” She stood up to find her brother. “Is he still here?”

“
Now Wills, don’t hurt him. He was just concerned, that’s all.” her dad started edging toward the door as he spoke. Whether to stop her or to warn Alexander, she didn’t know. But her brother chose that moment to step through the door.

She lunged for him as her dad tried to push Alexander back. Willow was quicker and caught him around the neck before he could get away. Her dad didn’t move quickly enough and went down when she and Alexander did. She cuffed her brother in the mouth. There were a few stray punches, some to her and some she landed. She was just straddling her brother’s chest to drop his head on the tile floor a few times when ice cold water hit her in the face.

“
Mother fuck!” Willow tried to get away from the spray, but it seemed to be following her everywhere. She moved off Alexander only to have the water follow her there too. She opened her mouth to scream at someone and heard her mother’s voice. The “you are so fucked” voice.

“
One more, Willow Dawn James, one more cuss word and you will eat an entire bar of soap. Alexander Patterson James, get up from that floor this minute. And you.” She snapped at her husband of thirty-five years. “You are well grown and should know better.”

“
Me?” her dad asked incredulously. “I was trying to keep her from hurting her brother.”

A single raising of her hand had the three of them shutting up. Willow wanted to kick out at her brother, but her mother simply looked at her and she drew her foot back to her body.

“
Who started this?”

Willow opened her mouth to say Alexander had when her brother beat her to it, blaming her for the whole thing.

“
I was coming in for breakfast when Wills attacked—”

“
I most certainly did not,” she snapped at him. “You, you big-mouthed as…wiener head had to blab about my hickey. Why couldn’t you just—”

“
I didn’t say anything until Mom cornered me in the kitchen last night. And if you ask me, it’s about time you get laid. You must be the oldest living virgin on the planet.”

Pain ripped through her heart as silence blanketed the room. Her mouth hurt and so did her jaw. She was soaking wet sitting on the cold floor and none of that mattered as much as the embarrassment and humiliation she felt. They knew, all of them knew. She stood up and so did her father. She couldn’t look at any of them.

“
Honey,” her dad started. “Don’t, baby. He didn’t mean to—”

She brushed past him with a mumbled “excuse me,” left the kitchen, and went up to her room quickly.

She heard Alexander shouting for her, her mom too. But she didn’t slow down. When she got to her room and locked the door, she let the tears fall. She went to her bathroom and with that door closed and locked too, she crawled into the tub and let go.

Even over her sobs, she could hear someone at the door. Her cell phone went off twice in rapid succession, but she wasn’t in the mood to speak to them just yet. Willow wasn’t really mad at them…well, maybe her brother, but she knew she wouldn’t stay that way for long.

This wasn’t the first time their mother had hosed them down to get them to stop fighting. But it was the first time in the house. Willow grinned when she thought about the look on Shasta’s face. Willow and Alexander were always fighting as kids. They never stayed angry with each other. But if either of them needed help with a bully or even another kid, they’d be the first to stand up.

Willow was embarrassed that her family knew she was still a virgin. Leaning her head back against the tub wall, she wondered if she was a freak or something. She knew that her brother was a ladies’ man; hell, the entire campus where they had both gone to college had known that. But little Wills James was too young and then too smart to be considered anything but a nerd.

Climbing out of the bath an hour later, Willow looked at herself in the mirror. There was a bruise on her jaw forming and her nose had been bleeding. Turning on the taps at the sink, she tugged the rubber band out of her messy braid and pulled out a comb. The water was ice cold by then so she washed her face of the blood and tears. While she tried to get her hair back under some sort of order, she closed her eyes and thought about Jared.

No one had ever made her lose control like he had. She had always been the one to stop men from getting past kissing her. With Jared…Robert, she hadn’t wanted him to. In fact, it had been everything she could do not to order the men out of the building and have him take her against the hard floor, or the wall, or the window. And his hands…she knew they’d feel good against her skin and couldn’t wait until next time. Her eyes popped open.

Staring at her reflection, she pointed at herself. “No next time. This can’t happen again. He works for you. Enough people already think you slept your way to where you are. Behave.” With that, she straightened up and went to her room.

Stripping down, she went to her closet to get some dry clothes. She knew that she was leaving tonight and decided to get something soft on now for the drive. Alexander was staying on for a few days before heading back to his home in Cincinnati. She was making the return three hour trip by herself and wanted to be comfy for the drive. When she opened her door, her brother was sitting on the floor across from her room with his back to the wall behind him.

She walked over, sat on the floor next to him, and leaned her head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry I hit you.”

“
I’m sorry I embarrassed you. I shouldn’t have said that to you.” She felt the tears well up again as he kissed her head.

They sat that way for a while then went back downstairs. No one mentioned the incident and the water had been cleaned up. Willow kissed her father’s fat lip and told him she was sorry. Her mother held her tight then they all went to the pumpkin patch to buy their Halloween decoration for beggar’s night, which was in ten days.

~Chapter 7~

Jared was drunk. He knew this because he’d wanted to get that way and had worked his way through all of Saturday night getting there. It hadn’t been as hard as it used to be, but he was quite happy with the results.

He’d been pissed about something, but had completely forgotten what it was by his eighth beer…or was it his ninth? He grinned sloppily when he thought of the woman he’d brought home with him. He turned to look at her. He frowned when he couldn’t find her.

“
Willow?” He looked under the cushions on the couch. “You got some explaining to do.”

He laughed like a loon when he realized what he’d said then forgot what was so funny, and that made him laugh harder. He continued his search of the girl and her name.

“
Not William…Willow. Nah, not that either. Come out, come out…pistol? No that’s not it.” He looked under the coffee table and got distracted by the reflection of himself in the glass. He was making faces at himself when something occurred to him.

“
Who would name their little girl after a gun? Smith and Wesson?” he shushed himself when he realized he had been talking really loud. “Course who’d thunk to name their kid after a tree? Willow? Where are you?”

Beard came into the room when Jared came out from behind the couch. He laughed again when he had startled the man.

“
Sir, are you all right? You seem to be…well, inebriated.”

Jared nodded at the man, but had to stop when it made him dizzy. “Nope. Drunk. Drunk as a skunk.” Jared frowned. “Do skunks get drunk as a skunk when they drunk…drink? Beard, did you see my tree? I can’t seem to find her.”

Jared dropped behind a chair, sure something had moved. He lay down for a minute while the room took a turn. He closed his eyes and that made it worse. When he opened them again, there stood Beard.