Page 80 of Somewhere You Belong

Damn. I can only imagine what a ballbuster this woman is. That explains a lot more about how she carries herself and the fact that she’s always working.

“Thank you.”

“So while you’ve been down here…”

“I’ve been managing things remotely. Honestly, I was apprehensive about it since I’m very hands-on in my business, but the break has been kind of nice.” She stares out the window, sighing.

No wonder she’s so eager to get back to D.C.

Fuck. Maybe this is more complicated than I thought.

Not sure of what to say after her admission, but knowing one thing she needs is some fun in her life, I tell her, “Let’s roll the windows down.”

“What?”

“See that handle down there?” I point to the handle on her door since this car is so “old” you have to manually roll down the windows.

“Yeah?”

“Turn it toward you.” I do the same to my side as a gust of ocean breeze flows through both sides of the car.

“Oh my God!” Willow shouts over the sound of the wind, her hair blowing wildly all around her face. “You have no idea how much time I spent on my hair, Dallas!”

“Doesn’t matter to me.” I smirk over at her as her grin builds. “I like you a little messy.”

Her smile drops as she stares at me. “You have no idea how messy my life is.”

“Willow, there’s nothing you could tell me that would make me want you any less.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

I reach over and cup her face, feeling something take shape deep in my gut. “Yeah, Goose. I do.”

***

“This spot is incredible.”

Willow and I are standing on the edge of the pier that extends into the ocean a few miles up the coast, staring off over the water. There’s a reason I brought her up here, but we have a little while to wait until I can let her in on that.

“It is.”

“This place—the scenery, the people, the way it makes you feel like you’re in your own little slice of heaven...” She sighs. “It’s beautiful.”

But my eyes never look anywhere but her as I say, “Yeah. It is.”

And then she turns to face me, realizes I was staring at her, and the space between us grows louder somehow, like we’re waiting to see who’s going to make the next move.

“I didn’t realize there was a pier up the coast from town.” She looks around us, breaking the moment. “And those crab cakes?”

“Best you’ve ever had, huh?”

“Yet another food item I’m addicted to here.”

Franny’s Crab Shack is a Carrington Cove restaurant that survives on tourism much like my own, but word of mouth keeps her business thriving when the locals can’t manage to visit. Franny opened this place when I was in middle school, and to date, she still serves up the best seafood, and crab cakes particularly, that I’ve ever had in my life.

“I know the feeling. This place gets overlooked sometimes because you can’t see it from the highway when you’re driving down the coast,but the locals make sure to point tourists in this direction, especially because of the businesses out here.”

“It’s amazing.”

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