Page 24 of More Trouble
7
Andre
Willa was here.
Despite everything, those were the three words reverberating the loudest in my head. I don’t know who I was trying to kid, but it was obvious she would be. Scarlett wouldn’t have called anyone else at three in the morning. They were still best friends. Even after what I did to Willa.
Nothing prepared me for seeing her though.
Scarlett told me she was coming straight from bed. The one time she attempted a laugh was when she announced that Willa wasn’t even wasting time putting on a bra.
It was one image I didn’t need in my head while I waited for her to arrive.
I’d seen her naked.
No imagination necessary.
She had the perfect body still. When she’d shown up at the door in yoga pants and a t-back tank, I saw she still did. Her curves were womanlier now. My gaze had strayed to her chest to see if she’d made good on her declaration of showing up braless. It was confirmed and my dick had twitched in response.
Shit.
Her blonde hair was perhaps a little shorter than when we’d been in high school, but I suspected she thought it made her look more professional and grown up. It did. Willa was still as hot as ever.
I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d been alone when Scarlett called. If she’d had to explain to her current beau what had happened. If he’d comforted her when she cried after Scarlett first told her. My chest tightened. I didn’t like the thought of anyone else touching her.
I screwed up my eyes. This was all so fucked up. All of it. Wes being dead, Willa being here.
Maybe I’d wake up from this nightmare.
Although Willa was the one part I wouldn’t want to wake up from.
When she’d first arrived, I couldn’t take my eyes off her, which was why I volunteered to go to the store. Being around her and not being with her was too hard.
Being out of Scarlett’s apartment for a few minutes gave me the opportunity to breathe. It had been one hell of a night. I honestly didn’t know how I was still awake. Given what had happened to Wes, I was ultra-careful on the short drive to the store, making sure I kept my speed down, my hands on the steering wheel and my eyes on the road. I couldn’t risk falling asleep at the wheel and causing more damage.
I parked up in the relatively empty lot, preparing myself to go inside.
Cali Cross was a small town and no doubt word would already have gotten out about what had happened to Wes. As his best friend, I knew I’d be asked a lot of questions and I wasn’t sure I could handle them. Steeling myself, I took a deep breath and walked inside.
Luckily, it seemed the store was quiet. It was shortly before nine, so I would have missed those people popping in to get lunch on their way to work and hopefully I’d missed the school run.
I pulled out my phone and checked Willa’s list. It contained the basic breakfast ingredients. I went up and down the aisles making sure I got everything on there, and more besides. Scarlett had refused all offers of food so far, but she’d have to eat sometime. I knew her weaknesses, Wes told me. Chocolate and cheesecake.
Given the army of people back at the apartment, I shoved two cheesecakes into the cart and went off to find the brownie mix. Surely no-one could resist brownies. For good measure, I tossed in chocolate chips for cookies, plus flour and everything else on the back of the Nestle bag. Willa would probably be able to make cookies from scratch anyway, but I wanted to look as if I was doing something to help.
As I was about to go to the till, my phone pinged with a message.
Willa.
She asked me to get mushrooms if I was still at the store. I tapped back a reply to say I was, then turned the cart around and headed back down the vegetable aisle, but not before rereading her message. There were kisses on the end. I frowned. Had she meant that or was it purely a texting habit that she did to everyone? A streak of mischief coursed through me and I sent her another message with a smiling emoji and kisses. My mouth quirked as I saw she’d read the reply. I waited a couple of minutes, standing in the aisle, staring at my phone like an idiot, a total crazy person. When she didn’t respond, I bit my lip. Perhaps it had been a step too far.
Tossing the carton of mushrooms into the cart, I headed back to the counter to pay. Mr. Danvers, who seemed to have worked in the store my entire life, gave me an understanding nod when I reached the front of the queue.
“Andre, I heard about Wes. So sorry to hear the news.” He reached over to squeeze my arm. “How’s Scarlett doing?”
I suspected Scarlett didn’t want the whole of Cali Cross knowing about her pregnancy at this early stage, so I chose not to tell him. “As you’d expect, Sir. She’s devastated.”
It was such an understatement.
