Page 78 of Ozzie

She nods. “I don’t recognize the name. What did you want to discuss?”

“This isn’t easy to bring up, but back when we had our friends-with-benefits arrangement, I thought we were on the same page. But Durango recently told me we weren’t.And he hasn’t forgiven me for how I hurt you. Did I hurt you?”

She blinks a few times. “Wow, that’s a lot to unload. Not at all what I was expecting. Um, did you hurt me?” She leans back and stares up. “My feelings, no. My ego, yes.”

I shake my head, trying to make sense of her answer.

“Look, I knew what we were getting into. Did part of me think somehow I could be the one woman to change you into wanting a relationship? Yes. Did I want one with you? No.”

A waitress walks up. “Did you two want to order coffee?”

“Yes, please. I’d like a black coffee.”

Willow glances at the woman. “I’ll have green tea, thank you.”

The waitress leaves.

“If all that is true, why did you cry to Durango?”

She rolls her eyes. “This is going to sound so immature, but remember, I was young back then.”

“Okay.”

“I had feelings for Durango. I’d had a crush on him for a while. And I thought by dating you, maybe he’d get jealous and realize he had feelings for me. Ugh, it sounds stupid, but I was trying to get him to see me as something other than a little sister. And,” she cringes, “I had this fantasy of a threesome with you two.”

I try not to react, but I’m surprised. I never had that impression from her.

“When things didn’t work out between us, I went crying to him, hoping he’d comfort me and that it wouldturn into something.” She shakes her head. “God, it sounds so stupid when I say it out loud.”

“Why didn’t you just tell him how you felt?”

She laughs. “Do you remember how he was? He was a wall, and you never knew for certain what he was thinking. But I knew how he felt about me because I overheard him talking to Pricilla once. He said having me around was like having a second sister.” She covers her face with her hands. “I wasn’t going to say something to him just so he could say that to my face.”

She’s right about the first part. Durango is not an easy man to read. He never has been. He’s also not one to open up and share his feelings. I get why Willow would be hesitant to share anything with him, even if she’d never heard what he said. But what she did do is now causing me problems.

“I need your help.”

The waitress comes back and sets our drinks down.

“With what?” she asks.

“I want to date Durango’s cousin. I’ve been falling for her for the past year, but Durango refuses to be okay with it because of what I did to you. I need you to tell him the truth.”

A bell over the door rings. She jumps as her eyes dart to the door. Yeah, something is going on.

“Wait, the cousin you said was over ten years younger? Is she even twenty-one?”

“She’s twenty-two.”

Willow shakes her head. “I don’t think I can do that.” She wraps her hands around her tea and stares at it.

“Why not?”

“My life’s a bit of a mess right now. I don’t have any bandwidth for humiliating myself in front of an old crush.”

I reach over and touch her arm, but she jerks back. “What’s going on?”

She turns her eyes back to her tea and doesn’t say anything.

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