Page 78 of Honey Bee Library
I blinked. Once. Twice. Three times.
“Willow?” I asked in disbelief.
“Willow,” Gran whispered with a soft smile on her lips. “I like that name.” She glanced over at me. “Is she special to you?” Her voice turned knowing, and the wiggling of her eyebrows had me rolling my eyes.
“Gran,” I said, my heart squeezing in my chest. “She’s…not anything to me.” Those words hurt. Especially when I wanted to say something completely different. Something much more meaningful.
“Why?” Gran folded her arms across her chest, and I didn’t appreciate the accusatory way she said that word. Like Willow not being mine was somehowmyfault.
I sighed. “She doesn’t want to be.” Why did the truth have to hurt this much?
Gran didn’t look like she believed me, so I launched into the story of what happened. As I neared the end, I glanced over to Gran, hoping that she now understood why Willow was no longer here. I should have known better than to think Gran would be sympathetic to my woes. Instead of offering me a reassuring hug, she narrowed her eyes.
“What?” I asked.
“I’ve never known you to shy away from a deal before.”
That felt like a challenge. And in truth, Gran was right. In the end, I always got what I wanted. But not this time. Not with Willow. “She asked me to go,” I said, my voice low with emotion.
“Pish posh. She’s just scared. Dumping you before you can dump her.” She tapped her nose a few times. “Classic single mom move.” She pointed her finger at me. “I would bet that she is just as miserable without you as you are without her.”
I hated that Gran was giving me hope, but maybe, just maybe, Gran was right. “Should I go get her?”
“Do you love her?”
I took a moment to ponder Gran’s question. If she only knew how much I cared about Willow, she wouldn’t have had to ask that question. “Yes,” I whispered.
She shrugged. “Then there’s nothing you can’t overcome together.” She patted my hand as she leaned back against her pillows. “It will do me good to know that you’re being taken care of.”
“But…what if she doesn’t want me?” I’d already been rejected by my mother. I wasn’t sure I could survive being rejected by Willow when my true feelings were out in the open.
Gran raised her head slightly to look at me. “That’s the risk we have to take sometimes.” She grinned at me. “But the reward of love is always worth the risk.”
I grinned, grateful that I got to have this moment with her. I missed her so much that it hurt. “I love you.”
Her smile was so familiar that it made my heart ache. “I love you, too.”
I knew she wanted me to go get Willow, and I had every intention of doing that, but I wasn’t going to squander this time I had with her. We played chess until she grew tired and her memories began to fade once more. After she fell asleep, I tucked her in, turned off the lights, and quietly left her room.
As I walked by the waiting room, Bethany caught my eyes. She was sitting on a chair next to the man I had no interest in meeting with her head resting on his shoulder and her eyes closed. I really had no intention of talking to her, but I knew Gran would want to see her, so I crossed the space between us.
The man jostled his shoulder as I approached, and her eyes opened. When she saw me, she stood. “Hey,” she said, her voice soft from sleep.
“Hey. I need to head out. Gran’s asleep, but you’re welcome to go in.”
I didn’t wait for her to respond. I just gave her a weak smile and headed toward the sliding doors.
I was going back to Harmony.
24
WILLOW
Cole’s housewas dark when Jasper and I walked into the foyer after a long day at the diner. It was my first 24 hours without him, and it didn’t feel right. Nothing in my life had felt right ever since Cole left. It was strange to think that a man who had driven me crazy when he first got here created such a hole in my heart now that he was gone.
I secretly knew what this ache inside of my chest meant even if I wasn’t ready to admit it out loud.
“Where’s Cole?” Jasper asked, his words broken up by his yawn.
