Page 14 of Heartless
Summer:She’s going to be great. You’re going to love her.
Cade:No. I’m not. I’m going to tolerate her.
Summer:Po-tay-to, po-tah-to! Just be nice.
Cade:I am nice.
Summer:No. You’re kind of an asshole.
Cade:With family like you telling me things like this, I just can’t imagine why.
Summer:Don’t worry though. It’s part of your charm.
Cade:I’m a charming asshole?
Summer:Exactly!
* * *
Iwish I could pretend I’m not standing on the front porch waiting for her. But I am.
She grates on my nerves, sure. But my kid seems to like her and I’m still a gentleman at my core.
I pull my cell phone out of my back pocket and check the time. My countdown is on. She seems like the type of person who would be late. Scattered. Disorganized.
Or maybe I just want her to be so I can be justified in not liking her. If she’s late the first time we make an agreement, I’ll be able to show everyone that I was right. That she isn’t responsible enough to take care of Luke.
Truthfully, I don’t know who is. I don’t trust easily. Especially not women.
She has six minutes.
I smile to myself, prop a hip against the banister, feeling like there’s a good chance I’ll be right.
And it’s at that moment the crunching of gravel draws my gaze up.
It’s at that moment I’m proven wrong.
Because Willa’s red Jeep is rolling down my driveway five minutes early.
She pulls right up beside my black truck and hops out. I stare at her feet, starting at her Converse sneakers, letting my eyes trail up long, slender legs to simple denim cutoffs topped with an oversized, distressed Led Zeppelin shirt. There’s a hole in it near her stomach, and I can see a little peek of milky skin through it.
Big Ray-Ban aviators sit on her nose, and her coppery hair is wild and wavy around her shoulders. It frames her delicate face like dancing flames. A wisp of it blows across her lips.
The lips that are all glossy and tipped up in a smirk.
“You’re early,” I growl, because I don’t know what else to say. I can’t peel my eyes off of her, even though I want to. Even though she’s not at all my type at this point in my life.
She has city girl written all over her. She has wild child written all over her. She’s not some sweet, small-town girl.
She’s the girl who told me she’d be ready for me to inspect her undergarments and didn’t think twice about it.
She has temptation written all over her.
But she doesn’t act like it, instead she shrugs and pulls her sunglasses off her face, pinning me with her emerald eyes. The kind of eyes that stop you in your tracks.
If nothing else, Willa Grant is a stunner.
Too young for me. Too unpredictable for me.
