In the end, it took four of us to convince her. Liam did the heavy lifting of course, with a couple of shouts of encouragement from Jake who seemed thrilled at the prospect of getting out from under his sister's watchful eye again.
Then Mrs. Harlow rolled up, dropped off by a friend of hers from the diner at the end of the dinner shift.
She took one pinched, white-faced look at her daughter - the daughter who she had thought was still resting in a hospital bed - and pulled rank. In less than two minutes, she was practically shoving Willa into my truck. I actually had to awkwardly stand in the way and explain that I wasn't prepared for this either. "I have to grab a few things," I told Mrs. Harlow, deliberately avoiding Willa's glare. "I'll be back, uh." I made the mistake of looking in Willa's direction.
She was glaring at me. Like this was somehow my idea. I didn’t want this. Not one fucking bit and the fact that she was eyeing me like I’d had this stupid idea up my sleeve the whole time - even arranged her getting mowed down by a phantom driver to facilitate it - had me instantly pissed. She didn’t like it? Well fuck her, it was happening anyway. "I'll be right back,” I announced. Loudly. Then jumped into my truck before I let loose and started answering in front of Willa’s mother.
What the hell was Liam thinking, ask me to do this? And, more importantly, what the hell was I thinking actually going through with it? I didn't have to do this. It was the worst possible idea. There was no question. If I took this girl into the woods, one of us was going to leave in handcuffs. And from the look on her face, she intended it to be her. With her mother, her brother and Liam all wearing her down, she couldn’t say anything. But I knew what that look meant.
And it served her right.
Honestly, it would be fucking fun thwarting her pain-in-the-ass self for a few days. The worst thing you could do to this girl was make her feel grateful, and I intended to go beyond the worst. She hated having to ask for help? I would be the most helpful fuck on the planet. Mother Teresa had nothing on my Eagle Scout ass.
Take that, Willa.
I shook my head, unable to keep from grinning. Oh yeah. It was wrong, it was mean-spirited, but it would go a long way towards putting things right. A few days in the woods with her having to listen to me?
Yeah. It might actually be fun.
That's why I was doing this. Revenge. Punishment for the shit she'd put me through. Leaving the hospital like that. Slamming the door in my face. How disloyal could you get?
Okay, Willa Harlow. You're going to have to depend on me now, and you're going to shut the fuck up and like it.
The pep talk worked. I grumbled to myself, imagining fake arguments as I stuffed clean clothes into a duffel bag. I won every one of them too. “You’re right, Cooper. I’m sorry I was so stupid. You win.” In my head, she smiled a smile she had never shown me in real life.
Except when the news camera was there. Except when she was looking up at me and pretending she was madly in love.
I paused mid-stride and I wondered if I would ever see that smile again.
Then I shook my head, angry with myself. That wasn’t the point of this. The point of this was… well, it was to win.
By the time I returned to Willa's house, I had actually managed to convince myself that I had done just that.
Right up until I saw her on the porch.
She was sitting, straight-backed and uncomfortable looking but still somehow dignified, on the top step of her porch, waiting for me. The second I turned onto her long drive, she turned her head to watch me approach, and I could feel the heat of her dark eyes burning like coal. It did something to me, her watching me like that. It made me… forget why I was coming to get her and instead be grateful to see her again.
Then I noticed her luggage. She was sitting there with nothing but the clothes on her back and one bag.
One bag. And I knew it too. Sitting next to her on the sunken porch, faded like the gray-shingled roof above her head, sat her old high school backpack. I’d seen it every day from sixth grade right up until the last day of senior year. I knew that bag and I felt the tug of the past like a hard yank. It was threadbare, worn, patched in unfashionable places.
And it was small.
Too small for a trip.
Something shook loose in my chest to see that bag again, and to see that she still held on to for either sentimentality or necessity, I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t quite sure what I was feeling, I just knew I didn’t want to feel it.
Instead, I threw anger up like a wall around me. I needed it if I was going to be able to get out of this truck and be near her.
I pushed open the door with all of my strength and strode up to her with as much bravado as I could muster. “That's it?" I snapped, staring at her bag instead of her.
"You won't tell me where I'm going or what I need, so yeah. That's it." She stood up - slowly and awkwardly. I didn’t help her. Then I felt like a dick. "And I have a fucking broken arm so it's not like I can lift anything heavier."
"Give me that." I grabbed the pack from her good hand. It was even lighter than I was expecting.
She didn't have nearly enough shit.
Isn't that what girls are supposed to do? Overpack? She didn't even ask how long we were staying. And I had no clue either. All I knew was that Liam clearly had enough dirt on both of us to force this.
Grumpily, I slung her too-light case into the back of my truck. "You sure you've got everything?"
She lifted her chin. "I have no idea."
"Fair enough." I slammed the door a bit too loud. "Hold on."
"What?"
I opened her door for her and gestured for her to get in.
Her ferocious frown turned up into a mocking smile. “Are you trying to be chivalrous?"
I rolled my eyes. “You have a fucking broken arm. Cut the feminist crap."
"Feminist crap?" she echoed immediately.
I was getting another headache. “Oh God, just stop, please." I saved her life, and now I wanted to strangle her. Instead, I shut the door a little too loudly. "Let's go."
We drove off in a heavy, suffocating silence. Liam had given me directions, but I didn’t need them yet. For now, we headed out along Highway 12, alongside the winding creek, which hugged the road like it was trying to stay with us as long as it could.
All I needed to do was turn my truck around. Follow the creek right back into town and be done with her. She didn’t even need to give the ring back. I just needed to be free. Free of this feeling that I… I needed to know she was okay. I needed to know she was taking care of herself and wasn’t hurting in any way, but being around her made me as jumpy as a damn squirrel. There had to be some way I could just snap my fingers and have everything go back to the way it was. Liam living in Crown Creek, and Willa whole again and back to being the pain in the ass I was used to. If I could just turn this truck around, I might be able to do just that.
I glanced over at Willa. The setting sun caught her profile, highlighting the pale slope of her forehead, the scar sinking back into shadow and the smooth skin a pearly highlight. The tip of her nose turned up a little, like she was an elf or some other mystical creature who was far too beautiful for this world. The stubborn set of her mouth was softened by the sun’s glow, and as I watched, it turned downward as she nervously ran her tongue over her bottom lip.
I could still remember the way those lips had felt against mine.
If I could just turn the truck around, I could be free of her. But I kept driving farther away from town. And when the road turned away from the creek, I felt like a tether, a rubber band that had been stretched to its limit suddenly snapped inside of my body. A strange weightlessness came over me and I looked back over to Willa, wondering if she'd felt it too.
Her head was nodding. Her eyes were closed and her curls bounced gently as her head bobbed with each swaying motion of the truck.
I blew out a long breath. Fuck yeah, I wanted to tell her. "See?" I whispered under my breath. Half an hour away from that bullshit back at her house and she was already getting the sleep she needed to heal.
We hit a bump, and her head snapped up. She opened her eyes and mumbled. "Crap." I reached into the back of the cab and grabbed my jacket. Using my knees to steer while I rolled it into a pillow, then reached way over and shoved it gently between her head and her shoulder.
Her head lolled and then came to rest against it. With a sigh, she settled in and let out a light snore.
"See?" I muttered. “This is for your own damn good."
Because it sure wasn't any good for me.
Chapter