Tequila Rose (Tequila Rose #1) - Willow Winters Page 0,36
breath I didn’t know I was holding when she nods a yes and she and Griffin joke about something. I can’t even hear what; I’m too busy giving myself a pep talk to get my shit together.
Something about her has me tongue tied. Could be the fact that I’m hard as a rock for her and it’s a bit difficult to hide in these shorts. I think of everything and anything to rectify that situation.
Other than my lack of a brain when she’s around me, everything is easygoing. The conversation flows and I was right to think Griffin would only put Magnolia at ease.
Something’s still off, though. Every so often she looks at me from the corner of her eye and I don’t know what she’s searching for, but whatever it is, she isn’t finding it if the look on her gorgeous face is anything to go by.
“You all right?” I ask her when I catch her doing it again.
“Yeah, it’s just …”
I don’t speak up when she hesitates. I wait for her to get whatever it is off her chest. She didn’t tell me the other night whatever it was that bothered her. Might as well get it over with now that the awkwardness is gone. Well, her awkwardness. I’m obviously still working on mine.
“It looked like just from a distance, you know … like you might be having a hard morning or something?”
“What do you mean?” A deep crease settles in my forehead.
“This morning … I might have been watching you for a bit … before I got on the boat.”
A gruff chuckle leaves me. “I’m fine,” I answer with the lie, pretending like I don’t know what she’s talking about even though I know damn well she must’ve seen me when I was thinking of Gramps. I can barely get a grip on the easy stuff. Heavy shit can wait till another day.
Quick to change the subject back to something we both enjoy, I tell her, “I see why you love it here.”
“Yeah, the ocean, the sun … the town’s not too bad either.”
I join her when she laughs although I pick up on the dampened tone when she brings up the town.
“Small towns can be rough from what I’ve heard.”
“Every place has its ups and downs but I do love it here.”
“You going to live here forever?”
“Well, I haven’t thought about ‘forever’ yet. It’s hard with—” She stops speaking abruptly but her mouth stays parted, like she realized she was going to say something she doesn’t want to.
“Hard with what?”
“With what happened a few years back. I didn’t tell you … I left that morning, the morning after we met because I had a family emergency and it turned into the worst time of my life.”
“You want to talk about it?”
“No … if that’s okay with you?”
Shrugging to keep it casual I tell her, “I’m happy to talk about whatever you want.”
“You could find out easily, though. You really could find out everything.” Like something’s dawned on her.
“Find out what?”
“Anything really. The town likes to gossip and knows everything.” She gets her confidence back and grabs a drink from the cooler. It takes a moment, and all the while I can practically see the wheels turning in her head. “So what have you heard about me?”
I can feel Griffin watching us, as if he’s a lifeguard on duty and he just knows I’m going to drown out at the helm with her. “I don’t want to hear what the town’s got to say, to be honest.”
“So you haven’t heard anything?” she asks like she doesn’t believe me.
“Nope.”
“I feel like this isn’t second date talk.” Griffin interrupts us, taking up the space to my right, with Magnolia still to my left. I’m tempted to kick his ass overboard.
He continues, “What is second date talk is asking about friends. Like if your friend Renee is single and if she’d like to come sailing … or what her thing is?”
I’m so happy I brought a fifth wheel …
Magnolia laughs and it’s the sweetest sound. “I invited her but she had to decline unfortunately.”
“Ah well,” Griffin says, playing it off well, “maybe next time then.” It’s obvious as all hell that he’s giving us space when he heads to the bow of the ship, looking out over the water as if there’s something to see there. The shoreline does look gorgeous, I’ll give him that.
“You want kids?” Magnolia asks me out of nowhere.
I can’t help but to think about her