Page 4 of Courageous Demands

He had been brutally dumped with no reasoning from Willow, other than ‘I want to have fun’ being the excuse – just like his friend. Colton’s girlfriend had ditched him without a word after an argument, never to be seen again. At least his nightmare came around, and he knew she was alive from the gossip his mother passed along – his buddy had no answers, no resolution and it ate at Colton.

“I’m not doing that!” Colton said bluntly, looking at Mrs. Kendall, who wagged her eyebrows at him mischievously.

“You’ll do whatever I say, Handsome,” she crooned. “I paid dearly for you, and I’m gonna frame our picture.”

“Good luck, brother,” Alec said, slapping him on the shoulder and laughing as the chief hollered for Colton.

“Fischer! You’re up.”

“C’mon, Handsome…” Mrs. Kendall grinned, yanking him forward by the arm. He saw several of them look at him with pity and hesitantly took off his shirt. Lance was standing in the distance, still shirtless and frowning at the dark-haired woman who didn’t look too happy either. No, this was a nightmare and was officially putting an anonymous card in the comments box to complain since the chief read them to the team without filtering them at meetings.

“It’s good to see you, Alec…” Willow said from beside him, and he hated the soft spot she obviously still had within him. Soft - and festering. Rot. It was like zombie-rot in his soul, wishing he could take a grapefruit spoon with the little teeth in the front and just dig it out — painfully.

“Yup. Hope things are going well for you,” he muttered, refusing to look at her, and heard her heavy sigh.

Alec was trying so hard not to pay attention to her, focusing blindly instead on Colton and Mrs. Kendall for sheer entertainment of a happier kind. This wasn’t a reunion or some lovey-dovey tryst. It was manipulation, and he was stuck with his ex-girlfriend for charity.

“Look, can we talk, please?”

“That’s what this is – talking.”

“No, don’t be smart with me. I know you, and this is not talking. Yeah, your lips are moving, air is being expelled from your lungs and vibrating against your vocal cords – but this isn’t really talking, and we both know it.”

“I’m not sure I want to talk to you. I mean, we could have talked years ago but didn’t, and…” Alec clamped his mouth shut, refusing to give her anymore ammunition to use against him. Especially now that Lance was walking over toward them, donning his T-shirt and still frowning.

“Is this about when we broke up?”

“This is me focusing on my job today, which includes a charity event – the photo shoot.”

“I’m part of that.”

“Barely and yes – you bought your way into this.”

“All of us did… and I’d like to talk.”

“Meh, I’m good.”

“Well, I’m not,” Willow admitted softly when Lance joined them, making a very uncomfortable trio as Colton and Mrs. Kendall were put into position for their photos. The fire chief’s grim expression, the photographer’s laughter, Willow’s gasp of awareness, caused Alec to look up, and he began laughing. Lance turned around, and his mouth dropped open before he began cackling wildly.

It took only two seconds, and it was over – only to hear his mother’s best friend exclaim in sheer delight. “Can I see what it’s going to look like? Oh, I’m framing that thing and putting it in my bedroom!”

“Wait… what?!” Colton nearly yelped, marching over to look at the photographer’s camera – as his mouth dropped open. If that photo was ‘simple’ or ‘innocent,’ then he was a ‘billionaire.’

Mrs. Kendall had put her hand directly in front of Colton’s pants, curled it, and in the photograph where he was making a face – it appeared like she had his genitals in a death grip for all time. It would be on every calendar, in every home, and in the county.

“See? I promised I wouldn’t touch you,” Mrs. Kendall said sweetly, actually patting Colton on the head like he was a toddler. “And I didn’t, young man. Mama Ruthie keeps her promises to her good boy – and you were a very, very good boy, young man.”

“That woman is atrocious… yet brilliant,” Willow whispered, causing Alec’s head to swivel around in shock as he finally looked at her – really looked at her.

Gosh, time had not changed her as much as he wished it had. Why couldn’t she grow a mole on her nose, lose a few teeth, gain two hundred pounds, or get wrinkles at an early age. The inside was supposed to match the outside - and the pit viper should have sprouted fangs and venom by now.

How did she get more appealing?

She still had that same soft innocent face that almost looked angelic. Full lips and that riot of ash-brown curls were frosted and piled on her head like a loose bun. She was breathtaking in an ethereal way, and it was an act.

The real Willow he knew was razor sharp, plotting, conniving, and always three steps ahead of everyone. She had been going to college to become a teacher, and he really fretted about the youth of Ember Creek if she taught school here. Oh, they’d be smart, but there would be a price to pay.

“I’m not doing this,” he said bluntly, drawing from deep down and trying to shore up his defenses. “We’re not friends, and you made that abundantly clear that I was nothing to you.”

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