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Willa
“DON’T WORRY, MOM, I got your cookies with me. I’m sure he’ll love them,” I said with a chuckle as I waited my turn to drive up to the gated community.
There’s a black sedan ahead of me and the guard at the gate was speaking with the driver. I used the time wisely by calling my mom to tell her I arrived safely. I knew if I didn’t, she’d pace around the house worried I was dead in a ditch somewhere. She had been a worrier all her life.
It was her fear and prodding that forced my dad to go to the doctor. Of course, by that time, it was too late. I wished my mother would turn that concern toward herself sometimes. When she was almost run over two and a half weeks ago, it scared me. She insisted on taking daily walks, which is how she found herself in that predicament.
I was foolish and let her walk ahead of me, not realizing we were so close to the corner of the street. My head was lost in pity for myself over losing a job I wasn’t very good at to begin with.
Instead of owning up to my mother nearly being run over because I wasn’t paying attention, I blamed Hunter. That wasn’t fair.
“Take a picture of him with the cookies. I want proof that you gave them to him,” she said, and I rolled my eyes.
“I’m not going to eat the entire box, Mom.”
“You have in the past.”
I gasped. “That was one time.”
“What about Emmie’s birthday? I made a batch for you to bring and she conveniently never received them.”
There’s something you should know about my mom’s chocolate chip cookies . . . Addictive wasn’t a strong enough word to describe them. The cookies looked like any other chocolate chip cookie, but therein lied the deception. Because all it took was one taste and you would be hooked.
“I told you they fell on the ground. I couldn’t give her dirty cookies.”
Yes, that was a lie. I had eaten them, but it wasn’t a good time for me. A guy I dated broke up with me the day before we even had a chance to have sex and the cookies were right there, begging to be eaten. What could I do?
I had to make up for my sexual frustration somehow.
Sighing, I said, “I’ll take the picture just as soon as this car gets out of the way, and I can get into the community, okay.”
Seriously? It never took me this long before. Did their car break down?
I rolled down the window and instantly understood the problem.
“What do you mean I’m not on the list? I’m his girlfriend!” The woman in the car screamed at a decibel that caused animals to run and hide.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but Tucker Six has permanently removed you from the list. There’s nothing I can do.”
“Is this about me borrowing the car because as I explained to you, I was taking it for maintenance. This is obviously a misunderstanding. I told you I wanted it to be a surprise. I hope you didn’t tell them anything. If you let me inside, I can talk to him.”
Opening the door, I stepped out of the car, hoping to help. Usually, my help involved causing more problems, but it never prevented me before. Why stop now?
“Excuse me,” I said as I walked up to the guard.
The woman with frizzy blond hair and a red scarf tied around it as a headband lowered her sunglasses and stared up at me from the driver’s seat of her black BMW.
“What do you want?” the woman asked with attitude.
“I couldn’t help but overhear . . .” Because you were as loud as a red fox in heat, “that you know Tucker Six.”
“I might. What’s it to you?”
“I know him, too. And his brother. I’m going to see Hunter right now. Maybe I can ask Tucker to contact you?”
I smiled, trying to be sincere but wondered if I was overstepping my bounds. They banned her for a reason. But I was all too familiar with being kicked to the curb for putting my foot in my mouth. Perhaps this was just a misunderstanding, like she had said to the guard.
Us ladies have to lend a hand where we can.
Her lips curved and she reached out a hand. “I’m Chelsea Coulter. I’m Tucker’s girlfriend.” She paused, waiting for some response from me.
I shrugged. “Okay. Nice to meet you. I’m Willa Jones.” I shook her hand.
“You know, being with Tucker, I worry about him so much. Stuck in that chair, it’s not like he has a lot of friends.”
I began to narrow my eyes and a tingling went up my spine, but I ignored it. “He seems fine to me.”
“That’s the thing. He tries so hard to be like everyone else. But he isn’t, is he? He’s special. He needs extra attention. I just want to take care of him, but I don’t think Hunter likes me so much.”
I wonder why? I tried hard not to roll my eyes. Was this bitch for real? She acted like Tucker was some baby fighting for his life, instead of the intelligent grown man I know.
“Honestly,” she waved me closer, and I leaned down, “I think Hunter wanted me and was mad that I was with his brother.”
Her gray eyes slid up and down my body before she said, “As you know, Hunter likes a lot of ladies. After all, he is a rock star. It’s almost part of the job. He has a new girl every month.”
I gritted my teeth and something uncomfortable settled in my chest. Something akin to a jagged rock, tearing at my heart.
“Oh yeah?” I could barely get out the words. For some stupid reason, my eyes began to tear up and I fought hard not to let it show.
If what she said was true, that would be fine. She was right. It’s part of the rock star lifestyle. So why did her words cut me like a thousand ripped guitar strings aiming for my heart?
“But I only want Tucker. That’s why I’m so confused about why I can’t get in. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him, and I miss him. Can you tell him that for me? Let him know that I’d love to have lunch with him. I even baked him a pie.”
She reached over to the passenger seat and lifted a white box. It looked an awful lot like a bakery box to me. I believed she did less baking of that pie than she did buying it from a bakery.
“Can you take it to him for me? I’d be forever grateful.” She shoved the box in my hands.
“Sure. I’ll give this to him and let him know.”
She nodded, and I stepped back as she rolled up her window and did a U-turn out of the entryway of the community.
I turned to the guard. “Am I on the list? Willa Jones.”
The guard nodded and pushed the button to open the gate.
Once I was back in the car and driving toward the house, I pondered her words about Hunter. Why was it bothering me?
This was a fling, nothing more. I chewed on my bottom lip as I parked and exited my car, walking toward his front door. The lawn was still green despite the cooling temperatures, but now yellow and orange leaves blanketed the surface.
I must have stopped, staring at the manicured greenery, without realizing it because I jumped when I heard Hunter’s voice. “Beautiful.”
His warm, smooth voice, like hot chocolate, sent my heart racing. I nearly dropped the cookies that teetered on the pie box in my hand. If I did that, I’d take photographic evidence to show my mom that they legit fell, knowing she wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t.
“Uh, yes. The colors. I love this time of year.”
“I wasn’t talking about the leaves . . .” His eyebrows wiggled.
My hand flew to my cheek as if that would stop the deep blush that I knew had painted my face. These were the times I cursed my pale-ass Irish genes. My mother always complimented my skin, told me how jealous she was that I got my grandmother’s fair complexion. Sure, it was nice . . . until I blushed so hard that it looked like I was slapped with a pepperoni pizza.
I thinned my lips. “I bet you weren’t.”
Shit. My words were laced with snark. I could feel the irritation grow in my chest—something that always happened. At some point, a guy I was with would start staring at other women. Sometimes even go up to them and flirt, then act like I was crazy for getting mad.
But that usually didn’t happen for months. I hadn’t even known Hunter for three weeks yet.
His hands went on his hips. “No, I was talking about you.”
“Look, my mom made these cookies for you.” I shoved them into his stomach too hard. He grabbed them with an umph and a cough.
“And the white box?”
“That’s pie. For Tucker. His girlfriend made it, or so she says.”
He looked around me. “She’s here?”
“No. I ran into her at the gate. She was upset because she couldn’t get inside.”
“Good. That woman needs to stay away. Come on inside. I’ll dish you up some cookies.”
My mouth watered at the mention of my mom’s cookies, but I held my ground. “How did Chelsea and your brother meet?”
He stopped and turned just before he walked through the door. “Uh, let me see. Oh, I remember, it was at the coffee shop. I got a table and was waiting for our order. My brother was in the bathroom. Chelsea was by the pickup area, which was near our table. I hadn’t noticed her until she practically fell over my brother as he was coming back from the bathroom. He flirted with her, but I could tell . . .” He shook his head.
“Tell what?”
“That she was trying to flirt with me. Right before she left, she wrote down her number on a napkin, as if I wouldn’t notice. Especially, after she winked at me. My brother thought the number was left for him. He’d been so down that I didn’t have the heart to tell him that she was flirting with me.”
“Is that so? Funny, I remember it differently.” Tucker appeared in the doorway.
“Tucker. I didn’t realize you were there. I’m—”
“Obviously, you didn’t, or you wouldn’t have made your own brother out to be such a pathetic loser.”
I groaned. Not at them, but at me. This was the trouble I created. My nosy, smart mouth always caused me and the people around me problems.
“This was my fault. I didn’t mean to—” I stepped forward, trying to salvage the building catastrophe before these two weren’t speaking to each other. Not that I knew it would go that far, but I had, in the past, caused friends to fight. Never on purpose, but because I didn’t understand when to shut up.
Tucker waved his hand at me. “No, don’t blame yourself because my brother is a stuck-up asshole.”
“Stuck up? I’m stuck up now? At least I’m not some bitter man who would rather wallow in what went wrong in life instead of all that’s good. You act like your seventy, not twenty-six, Tucker.”
“You were jealous. You were always the one to get the women and took full advantage of that. Then a sexy blonde comes along and she wanted me, not you. You hated her for that and that’s when your assholery went into full effect.”
“Look, guys, can we just—”
I made the mistake of stepping between them. That was a bad idea.
Tucker moved forward, nearly crushing my foot, at the same time Hunter tried to shield me. I nearly fell over.
“I’m the asshole? You nearly killed Willa!”
“I’m fine. Really. How about we—”
“You’re the one who nearly killed her mom with your car. Which, may I add, you never apologized for.”
“Stop lying! You even said yourself that we were in Florida and it couldn’t have been me.”
Tucker folded his arms and gazed out toward the lawn. “I changed my mind. I take it all back. Willa, I’m sorry my brother likes to try to run over old ladies in his spare time. He’s a monster.”
I frowned and knew there weren’t going to be any cookies for me now that the Sixes family’s very own Pandora’s box was fully open. And here I stood holding the key.
