Page 90 of Catch and Release

Shawn was behind her. She knew it. She could feel it.

“Shall we go to our table, ladies?” he drawled from behind her.

“Not until you vote, Scoob,” Grams said. “I wore my best dress for this. I’ll be crowned Bingo Queen if it’s the last thing I do. And at my age, it very well might be.”

“I already voted for you, Grams,” Shawn said.

“Me, too,” Charlie chimed in.

“I guess I’m the only one who hasn’t,” Willa said with a sheepish smile. “I’ll go do that next.”

“Shawn will escort you,” Grams said before grabbing Charlie’s hand and heading off.

“That’s not necessary,” Willa responded.

“Of course it is,” Grams said. “Wouldn’t want the cramps to slow you down.”

Shawn came up beside her, and Willa kept her gaze on the floor. After the revelation she had in the bathroom, she was afraid to lock eye contact with him.

“Cramps?” he asked, his voice drenched with concern.

“Charlie told her I’m on my period,” Willa said. “You know. As an excuse.”

“Ahh.”

“Yeah.”

They stood there in silence for a moment before Shawn extended his arm to her. She gently rested her hand on his forearm as he led her toward the voting station. She walked up to a station with an iPad and selected Ida’s name. Apparently, to be eligible for Bingo Queen, you had to have attended at least 75 percent of the Bingo nights.

After she finished voting, they headed toward their table, where Charlie was animatedly chatting with Ida and her Bingo friends.

“Are you alright?” Shawn asked, his lips brushing Willa’s ear.

Goosebumps covered her body as desire coursed through her. “Fine. Why?”

“You’ve barely looked at me the past five minutes. Is it… Did I do something?”

Willa’s heart cracked, realizing her own discomfort was feeding Shawn’s insecurities. She stopped in her tracks and turned toward him, tracing his jawline with her forefinger. “Sorry. Just Charlie getting into my head about our… arrangement.”

“She disapproves?”

Willa sighed. Maybe she said too much, but she didn’t want to keep things from Shawn. She didn’t want to dive into this conversation right now, though. Preferably, she wanted to wait until after Charlie left—until she had some time to think about it.

“Not exactly,” she finally said. “But don’t worry about it. We’re all good.”

He stared at her for a beat longer, then nodded and led her to the table.

Something was off with Willa. That much he knew.

He wished he could’ve been a fly on the wall in the bathroom when she talked to Charlie earlier. He wished he could reassure her that everything was fine. He wished he could fix whatever it was that made her avert her gaze from him all night. He missed those ocean eyes, that piercing stare, that perfect smile.

He had barely kept his eyes off her all night, hard as he tried. He hoped Grams was too caught up in the race for Bingo Queen to notice. He couldn’t help it. She looked fucking perfect, and he swelled with male pride when he thought about how he made her come on his tongue earlier. The memories of that particular interaction had been replaying in his brain ever since.

Grams’ friend from Bingo, Mary, was accompanied tonight by her grandson, Wyatt. Shawn remembered that he was a doctor. Mary had mentioned it a time or two or twenty. Shawn tried to make small talk with him, but his attempts to take his mind off Willa failed miserably. And he couldn’t help but notice that Wyatt was eyeballing Charlie with a keen interest.

They’d eaten dinner and had done a ceremonial round of Bingo, which Nancy Siders won, much to the displeasure of everyone at their table. It was almost time to crown the Bingo queen. He glanced at Grams and saw that she was clutching her rosary and praying feverishly. He looked over at Willa and gave her a look that said, Are you seeing this? She giggled and nodded.

“Alright, folks,” Amos came over the intercom. “It’s time to crown our Bingo King and Queen.”

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