Page 119 of Catch and Release

Wyatt nodded. “Ready to see her?”

“Let’s do it,” Shawn responded, squeezing Willa’s hand.

“Perfect. Right this way.”

They followed Wyatt into a room where Grams was asleep in a hospital bed, her right hand in a cast. Shawn quickly moved over to the side of the bed and grabbed her left hand, then pushed some hair out of her face.

“She must’ve fallen asleep,” Wyatt said. “She was pretty exhausted when you brought her in, and the pain meds might have made her a bit drowsy. You can wait in here with her until she wakes up.”

Shawn grabbed two chairs and pulled them up to her bed, gesturing for Willa to take a seat before shaking Wyatt’s hand.

“Thanks, doc.”

32

Silence was their thing, Willa decided.

Even though they had a million things to talk about—even back when they barely knew each other—they could sit in comfortable silence for hours at a time.

But she needed to break it.

“Shawn?” she whispered.

He’d leaned back in his chair to lounge more comfortably, and he tipped his head toward her and grinned.

How could he be grinning at her when she’d caused a scene in the hospital and asked him to leave when her ex showed up?

“Thanks for being here,” he said, grabbing her hand and squeezing it. “For showing up.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner.”

“S’okay,” he said, his voice going deeper, more sullen.

“I know this isn’t the best time to talk.”

“Or maybe it is the best time. What else are we gonna do?”

She pulled her legs up underneath her on the chair and squeezed Shawn’s hand. “I’m sorry I asked you to leave. Leo is…”

Shawn’s face hardened.

“I won’t bury the lead. He asked me to sign an NDA, and I threw him out on his ass.” Shawn’s lips tipped up in a small, exasperated smile as she told him this. “Leo is a powerful man. A prideful one, too. If you’d done something—anything—to make him feel threatened, his attorneys would’ve taken you for all you were worth. I couldn’t let that happen.”

Shawn ran his hands through his hair, lips pressed together in thought.

“Every second he was there, I was wishing it was just the two of us again,” Willa whispered. “We had the perfect night, and then he showed up and ruined it, and it was all my fault, and then when I got here and saw you?—”

“Willa,” Shawn said. “Slow down, baby. Nothing here is your fault.”

He blew out a deep breath.

“I won’t lie. It hurt when you asked me to leave. But now I understand why you did it.”

Willa wrung her hands together. “I could tell you were going to follow through on your plan to punch him in the face.”

Shawn smirked. “I hadn’t gotten that far yet.”

“He’s gone now. I wish I could promise he was gone for good, but I don’t know. He might show up again.”

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