Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 63716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
So many questions, and no damn answers. Landon had dug into her past without me asking, but he hadn’t found much. She’d led a fairly conventional life up until her father sent her undercover to spy on me. And seduce me? I still didn’t know if that was part of the plan. If it wasn’t, why had she done it? If it was, why hadn’t she used it?
They were questions only she could answer, and I could never ask her. At least, not when I was actively trying to forget she’d ever existed. Although I could have gotten every detail of her time on set with Miller, I stopped asking for them after the initial information that she was still working there. I could have had her fired–Miller would have thrown a shit fit, but I could have done it. But even that felt too heavy handed. I wanted to wash my hands of her, not get them dirtier.
“Fastest way to get over her is to get under someone else,” Garrett advised, and Dominic nodded sagely.
“Didn’t you spend twenty years following around your ex-wife before you met someone new?” Con asked Garrett. Garrett gave him the finger while the others snorted.
Landon didn’t offer any advice. He sat back, arms crossed over his chest with his usual frown. When the others began shuffling out, headed back to their perfect little home lives, he stayed.
“Don’t you have to get back to Cami and the kids?” I asked when it was down to just the two of us.
“Soon.” Landon leaned forward, his dark eyebrows pulling together. “What if I found something out about Willow that I think you should know?”
My heart stumbled unpleasantly. I craved information about her even as I denied myself access to it. But here was Landon, offering it up. “Like what?” I hoped that it would be something that absolved her, that explained the whole deception, but I knew from Landon’s expression that that wasn’t the case. His frown deepened. He didn’t know where to start.
“I had a guy on her for a few days. She went somewhere interesting.” He paused, waiting for me to tell him to stop or to go on. I couldn’t say anything. I had no idea where he was going with this.
Landon sighed and leaned back in his chair. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and slid it across the table. “Here. Look if you want to know.”
I couldn’t help myself. I looked. At first, all I saw was Willow, dressed in sweatpants she usually slept in and a T-shirt. She had her head down, and there was a woman walking beside her who I didn’t recognize, but I would have bet money was her mom.
“Look where she’s going,” Landon said quietly.
I scanned the picture. The answer swung out at me like a punch I couldn’t avoid.
Willow was headed into a doctor’s office, but not for her head.
She was going to an OBGYN.
29
WILLOW
I was about eight weeks along.
“You didn’t know?” my mom kept asking on the drive back to my apartment, her voice amazed. “I knew the instant you were conceived.”
I knew this story, and I didn’t like it. It made me think about my mom having sex. Worse, it made me think about her having sex with Fletcher. “Please, Mom,” I held up a quelling hand. “I’ve made it this far without morning sickness.” I stared out the window, running the timeline in my head. The baby was due in November, right around Thanksgiving. Post-production of Miller’s project should be wrapping up around that time, too. I still couldn’t believe he wanted me to stay on. I was so grateful, but it presented a dilemma. If I left, I’d be leaving a job I loved and a director I wanted to work with again. But if I stayed, inevitably it would get back to Julian that I was pregnant.
“It’s going to get back to him anyway,” my mom said when I shared. “For one thing, you’re going to tell him.” She said it so matter-of-factly, so reasonably, like there was no other option.
“What? No.” I shuddered at the idea. “I don’t want anything from him. I’m not going to–there’s no reason…”
My mom wouldn’t let me finish though. “You have to tell him, Willow. It doesn’t matter if you want anything from him. It doesn’t matter if you never want to speak to him again. You have an obligation to tell him because it’s his child.”
I turned my head to stare out the window, knowing she was right but hating it. “How did you tell Fletcher?” I asked the scenery streaking by.
My mom laughed wryly. “With great excitement. There may have been balloons, or maybe my mind added those in post-production.”
I winced for her and wished again that I could keep this my little secret. I had no idea how to tell Julian. It seemed strange to tell him in a text, but I couldn’t bear the thought of calling him. Hearing his voice in my ear would be almost as bad as seeing him, and the idea of telling him in person was inconceivable.