Page 34 of Play Pretend

Before the thought could fully form and take root in my mind, Trin rushed back into the office, a stack of books in her arms. Stumbling forward a step, she tried to catch her breath as she dropped them on the desk, the thud echoing in the room like a gunshot.

Leaning to the side, I stared at her around the stack. Her cheeks were rosy, and sweat had broken out along her forehead. “What is this?”

“Your study material.”

“What?”

“You need to learn how to treat a girl right,” she said with so much authority, I nearly caved. But then I remembered I was a thirty-three-year-old man, and I knew how to treat a woman. Inandout of the bedroom, thank you.

It’d been a while, but it was like riding a bike. Right?

Everything was still in the same place, and it didn’t vary that much person to person. I knew what made them explode, what made them beg, what made their toes curl—I needed to stop.

Heat crept along my spine, settling in my lower belly. Yeah, I definitely needed to stop thinking about that—about Willow on her back in my bed, naked…

Get it together, man.

Roughly, I cleared my throat. “I don’t need to study anything,” I muttered. “I know how to date a woman. I’ve done it before.”

“Yeah, but that was a century ago. Things have changed.”

“Things haven’t changed.”

“They have.” She nodded confidently. “Like, did you know you’re supposed to open the door for her and buy her flowers and get her hot chocolate and rub her feet? Fight her demons—go to Eden’s apothecary. She’ll hook you up with some sage. That’ll smudge those demons right out.”

She’d lost her mind. She’d honestly and truly lost her damn mind.

“I don’t think Willow has any demons,” I said softly. My sister shrugged and propped her feet back on the edge of my desk.

“I have been reading a lot of paranormal romances lately, so maybe that’s why, but I swear girls love a good smudging.”

“I’m sure that’s one-hundred percent true,” I muttered, my lips fighting to not curve into a smile.

“So, you’re gonna do it? You’re gonna date her?”

I hated how hopeful she sounded, how excited. But a part of me would be lying if I said I wasn’t excited, too.

Even if I’d dated before, that had been years ago. This was new territory for me, so as excited as I might’ve been, I definitely felt more nervous than anything.

Because what if Willow rejected me like I’d rejected her? What if I’d already ruined everything before it even began?

willow

Afather was a little girl’s first love.

He was supposed to be the first man to show her unconditional love, teach her how her future partner should treat her, and prepare her for the big, scary world she’d someday enter. His touch should always be gentle and his voice always soft.

But what happened when that man was the first one to destroy her, too? What happened when he was her first heartbreak?

Her first disappointment?

For me, I waded through murky water, clinging to every ounce of approval I could squeeze from him—from any older man. I searched for it high and low, and thought I finally found it when I spread my legs and let them use me, discard me, and watch me crawl back, begging for scraps. For attention.

For love.

I always believed my heart lived between my thighs, but when that stopped being enough, when they inevitably expected more, when I was desperate for something real, a connection that wasn’t physical…it all went up in smoke, disappearing into the humid Ohio air like it never existed.

And when I’d had my heart broken by the man I’d settled for, the man everyone expected me to marry, I ran. I ran as far as I could, as fast as I could.

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