“What?” Bridgette squealed. “Muff marauder? I’ve never heard that.”
“Oh yes. Heaven Love made out with him when she was in twelfth grade.” Aurelia turned her arm over and ran her finger from wrist to elbow.
Bridgette’s eyes widened, and she inhaled her cupcake.
Willow laughed. “Oh my.”
“No shit, right?” Aurelia agreed.
“You guys are pigs,” Bridgette teased.
“Hey, I’m being serious,” Aurelia said. “It’s not my fault he’s blessed with a godlike penis. Zane, too. Don’t you remember Frances whatshername saying he was hung like a horse?”
Willow held her hands up. “Okay. Stop. I can’t talk about my man’s manhood.” She scooped frosting from a cupcake and sucked it off her finger, trying to drown the image of Zane with any other woman.
“That’s confirmation right there,” Aurelia said. “And, Bridge. Jesus, girlfriend. Go get laid already.”
“Don’t bother, Aurelia,” Willow cautioned her. “Half the single men in town would give anything to take her out, and Bridge acts oblivious to them all.”
“I’m not oblivious,” Bridgette insisted. “You see things that aren’t there. But enough about that. What happened with Kent?” Kent was Aurelia’s on-again, off-again boyfriend.
Aurelia plunked down on a chair with a loud sigh. “First of all, he had a small pecker. Not that I really care that much about it, but it should have tipped me off. Guys with small dicks have all sorts of crazy shit in their head. They’re always trying to prove their manhood. I finally had enough of his nonsense. He grated on my last nerve, and I ended it. The phone throwing was just a momentary lapse in judgment.” She pulled her phone from her pocket and showed them the shattered screen. “I pretty much just carry it like a security blanket. You know, to remind myself to stay away from men. Or at least guys with small peckers.”
“Lordy.” Bridgette hugged Aurelia. “I’m so sorry. What can we do to help?”
Aurelia shrugged. “Nothing. I’m thinking about moving back here and starting over. Clean slate and all that.”
“Really?” Willow’s mind zoomed ahead twelve steps. “Would you consider reopening the bookstore full-time?”
“I’m not sure of anything right now. Since my grandfather was put into a year-round care facility and my grandmother decided she won’t be coming back, we need to give Mick Bad, the attorney who bought the bookstore, a decision one way or another. You know his apartment is above the store, and I’m sure he’d like to have that space to actually live in. I don’t know what to do. I’ve worked at Pages since college, and I love it. But I can’t be around Kent. He makes me want to throw more than my phone.” Pages was the largest bookstore chain on the East Coast, and Aurelia worked in their flagship store in New York City.
“I have an idea I’ve been tossing around,” Willow said.
“I know all about Willow’s fantastic plan, which I love, by the way. I’m going to take off and pick up Louie so we don’t miss Harley.” Bridgette wrinkled her nose. “Who, thanks to you guys, I won’t be able to look at again without wondering about the muff marauder. Ew. Geez. This should be fun.”
Willow and Aurelia laughed.
“Sorry, Bridge,” Aurelia said. “After you put your little guy to sleep, do some recon and report back. I want details.”
Bridgette shook her head on the way out the back door.
“She’s so cute it kills me. If I move back here, my first job is going to be to make sure she gets some action.” Aurelia folded her arms on the counter and rested her head on them. “What should I do, Willow? What’s your idea?”
“Selfishly, I wish you’d come back to Sweetwater and consider going into business with me.” She watched confusion setting into Aurelia’s features. “Think about it.” Willow waved her hand in an arc, as if she were presenting something. “Books and Bites, or Pages and Pies, or Sweetie Pies and Great Reads.”
“I know nothing about baking, and my family doesn’t own the bookstore anymore. Mick’s been nice enough to let me run it when I’m in town, but it’s not mine.”
“I know. That’s why I think we should consider buying it back from him.”
Aurelia sat upright. “You’re serious?”
“Totally.” Hope swelled inside her.
“But what about you and Zane? What if you get married and move away? I can’t run a bakery.”
“I know that, too,” Willow conceded. “I don’t have all the answers. It’s just something I’m kicking around.” I don’t have any answers.
“I can’t do anything yet anyway, no matter how much I want to. I have to go back this weekend and get my head together. If I decide to move, I have to give notice at Pages, deal with my apartment lease, and deal with tiny pecker once and for all. Ugh. I wish I could just crawl up in the corner with the rest of those cupcakes and go into a sugar coma.”
Willow swallowed hard. A sugar coma sounded just about perfect. If anyone needed to get her head on straight, it was Willow. She was wearing a rented ring from the man she had no doubt she was in love with, but how could their lives ever mesh? Their worlds were on opposite sides of the country. Could they ever be more than just a two-week fantasy?
Her phone vibrated with a text, and Zane’s name flashed on the screen, chasing her anxiety deeper into her chest. I’ll pick you up at seven. Can you pack a picnic?
“Romeo?” Aurelia asked.
“Yeah,” she said a little breathlessly. A picnic. Her big, cocky, smart-ass actor wanted to take her on a picnic. She’d never stood a chance around him. Not all those years ago and definitely not now.
“WHY DO I have to be blindfolded?” Willow clung to Zane’s arm as he helped her from the car. “I mean, in the bedroom, sure, but on a picnic? Did you become a cult member while you were out today? Are you taking me to a secret ritual? Because if you are, I’d like to eat before I’m burned at the stake. No one should ever die hungry.”
Zane laughed and gathered her in his arms. “Do you have any idea how happy you make me? I love your sense of humor.” He kissed her lips. “And I love this sexy little picnic dress.” He ran his hand up her thigh and kissed her again. “Knowing I can bring the blindfold into the bedroom is just the frosting on the cake.”
Her lips curved up in a seductive smile. “You can bring frosting into the bedroom, too.”
“That’s been on my list ever since you made me a birthday cake when I was seventeen.” He grabbed the picnic basket from the car and wound an arm around her waist, guiding her through the gates of the airfield. He’d been too wrapped up in preparing for his role and, thanks to Willow’s encouragement and Sam’s nudge in the right direction, polishing his screenplay. He hadn’t had nearly enough time to do special things for Willow. He knew their lives were only going to get busier, and he was going to make damn sure that no matter how crazy their schedules got, Willow knew that she was his priority.