Page 31 of Fall for You
Willow looked like she might cry, her big eyes so round and glassy.
Ah shoot.He forced a bigger smile. “Look, it’s okay, Willow. I swear. I’m fine.”
“But you thought you were going to marry her!” Willow was way more upset about this than he’d been, and if there’d been any remaining doubts, they disappeared with that fact alone.
If it’d been true love—real love, the sort of lasting love his parents and grandparents had—wouldn’t he have been as devastated as Willow seemed to be on his behalf?
I bought a ring.He almost blurted it out. He wasn’t sure anyone knew how close he’d come to proposing, and that was probably for the best.
If Willow and his parents pitied him now, he could only imagine how they’d react if they knew he’d had to return an actual engagement ring.
“Willow, it’s fine,” he said, hoping that would end the conversation.
It did not.
He turned his attention to dismantling the rusty old frame, drowning out Willow’s worried rambling.
She was fretting about him, and that was lovely and all, but it was hard to get across why she didn’t need to be.
Finally, he turned to cut her off. “Willow. It’s okay.”
She fell silent, but her pitying stare was worse.
He sat back on his haunches and brushed grime off his shirt. If he’d known he was going to be doing manual labor, he would have dressed for the occasion.
A silence fell as he gathered his thoughts. “I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a jerk…”
Willow’s lips twitched. “When has that ever stopped you?”
He let out a huff of amusement. “Okay then.” He stood and crossed his arms. “I think Loretta and I…” He couldn’t hold Willow’s stare. “We kinda…fell into our relationship.” He winced. Man, this sounded worse when he said it aloud.
“What do you mean?”
He tipped his head from side to side. “You know how close our parents are, and everyone wanted us to get together…” Dallas closed his eyes, and for a moment he was back in time. Fresh home from college—bright-eyed and ready to take on the world. “I don’t think either of us had bad intentions. We genuinely liked each other. It was…” He looked up at the cobweb-covered ceiling as he searched for the right word. “It waseasy.”
His heart gave a sharp squeeze with that last word. Maybe if he was, as Brandon put it, “in touch with his emotions,” he’d be able to decipher it. But as it was, if forced to name it, he’d say it was something like regret.
Not that the relationship ended, but that he’d let it get as far as it had. That he hadn’t stopped to wonder if it was really what he wanted. Whatshewanted. If maybe they both deserved more.
“Easy doesn’t sound so bad,” Willow murmured. But then she pursed her lips. “But it doesn’t suit you.”
He choked on a laugh, and Willow smiled in turn. “No, it doesn’t, does it?”
She looked thoughtful. “You’ve always been someone who needs a challenge to thrive. You should be with someone who can stand up to you. Someone who makes you…feel passionate. Because you’re a passionate guy.”
An image of Ronnie flashed through his mind again, but he brushed it away as quickly as it arrived.
Willow still looked thoughtful, and he suspected she wasn’t thinking about him anymore.
He arched a brow. “And what about you? What do you need?”
She blinked, her eyes focusing and then going wide like she just remembered where she was and what they were talking about. Her cheeks flushed, but she shook her head. “No idea. Guess that’s why I’m single.”
He smiled. There was more there, but he couldn’t exactly pry now—not when he was trying to get her to stop talking about his love life.
She planted her hands on her hips with a nod, like she was coming to some big conclusion. “Yup. You’re right. It’s for the best that you two split.”
His lips twitched. “I’m so glad you approve.”
