Page 46 of Honey Bee Library
I ripped my gaze from her face. Those were the kind of thoughts I shouldnotbe having when it came to Willow. She was not here to date me. She was here to…well, I wasn’t really sure what she was here to do. After all, she had Jasper back, there really wasn’t anything keeping her here. But I knew one thing: She wasn’t there to be mine.
The sound of the rear door slamming seemed to be exactly what we both needed to snap us from our thoughts. I glanced over at Willow, who was pulling on the door release, so I did the same.
Jasper was already across the garage, and I chuckled as Willow once again hurried to catch up with him.
“Jasper,” she snapped. “What did I tell you about barging into other people’s houses? We talked about this.”
Jasper groaned and twisted his arm in an effort to break his mom’s grasp. “It’s not a stranger’s house,” he said matter-of-factly. “It’s Cole’s house.”
I couldn’t help the smile that emerged as I rounded my car to open the trunk. My chest swelled at Jasper’s declaration. I was no longer Cole the stranger. I was now just Cole. And that felt good. Really good.
My ears pricked to hear Willow’s response. I waited for her to tell him that he was being ridiculous. That Iwasa stranger. But those words never came.
“Still, we need to be polite and wait for him to invite us in.”
Still.Never in my life did I want to know what one word meant so badly. Did she see me as more than a stranger? And if so, how much more? The kind of more that my entire body wanted?
I grabbed the handle of my duffel bag and yanked it from the car. I was frustrated with myself for allowing my thoughts to wander. I wasn’t this man who obsessed over every little word. I was freaking Cole Watkins. I was confident and I knew what I wanted. But all it took was Willow coming into view for my resolve to melt. I didn’t want to be that guy anymore.
I wanted to be whoever I got to be with Willow.
“Come on, kid,” I said as I passed by them and nodded toward the door that led into my house. “I’ve got something I want to show you.”
I pushed through the door and dropped my bag onto the mudroom floor. I didn’t have to look to see if Willow and Jasper were following me, I could hear his suppressed footsteps as Willow no doubt held onto him to keep him from running ahead.
When I heard Willow’s exasperated sigh and saw Jasper hurriedly join me, I knew that he had broken free. I reached out and tousled his hair, loving the fact that he felt safe enough to walk alongside me. Spending the morning with him had been the highlight of my year.
“Are you Batman?” he asked, his wide, innocent eyes tipping up to study me.
“Batman?” I asked as I led him through my kitchen and into my living room. “Naw, I’m not that cool.”
“Fish!” Jasper shouted as he ran over to my saltwater reef tank.
I chuckled as he rushed up to the glass. I’d put in a lot of work, acquiring all kinds of vibrant coral and fish for this tank. Clownfish, tangs, and angelfish swam around lazily in the water while starfish dotted the ground. Blake had done a great job taking care of my tanks while I was in Harmony.
“Which one is your favorite?” Jasper asked as he kept this nose pressed right on the glass.
“Probably my emerald crab,” I said as I moved to stand next to him.
Jasper shifted his head from side to side, but didn’t pull back from the glass. “I don’t see it.”
I knelt down next to him so I was at his level. I pointed at the cluster of coral on the far end of the tank. “He normally hides back there.” I paused and glanced around until I finally spotted him. “See? Right there.”
Jasper pressed his palms and nose further onto the glass. He was doing everything he could to see what I was pointing at.
“Jasper,” Willow hissed from behind me. I turned to see her reach for his shoulder.
“It’s okay,” I said, meeting her gaze. “It’s just glass.”
Willow’s hand froze inches from Jasper. She held my gaze as if she were waiting for me to take my words back, but I wasn’t going to. Glass could be cleaned. Broken things could be fixed or repaired. But a boy’s love for his hobbies, once lost, could never be ignited to the same level.
I slipped my phone out of my back pocket as I stood. I hadn’t noticed how close Willow had gotten until I glanced over and saw she was only centimeters away. My entire body froze as her gaze met mine. I wanted to believe the shy, nervous expression that passed over her face was for me, but it was easier to believe my eyes were playing tricks on me. Iwantedher to react that way to my presence, but in reality she wasn’t.
Willow dropped her gaze and took a few steps back. With some distance between our bodies, I focused back on my phone screen and swiped it on. Once I found a picture of the emerald crab, I handed it over to Jasper.
“This is what you’re looking for,” I said.
Jasper didn’t even look up. He just grabbed my phone from my hand and went back to studying the inside of my fish tank.
