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She pulls me into her arms and holds me close while I sob into her shoulder, soaking her T-shirt with my tears. She still doesn’t say anything and I remain quiet as well, getting it all out of my system.
I appreciate her silent comfort more than she’ll ever know.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Willow
I wake up to bright sunshine filling the bedroom. The heavy silk white and pink toile curtains are pulled back, letting an abundance of light in, and I swear I even hear birds chirping. Like I’m waking up in a Disney movie full of talking animals and fairy tales.
“You’re awake,” Iris says when I sit up and shove my hair out of my face. I slept in the same clothes I wore last night, and I feel all grimy and gross. “How did you sleep?”
“Okay, I guess.” I glance down at myself, pulling my crewneck sweatshirt away from my chest. “I tossed and turned a lot.”
“I’m sorry.” Iris smiles at me, but I can’t manage to muster one up in return. “Do you want to talk about what happened?”
“I think Rhett hates me,” I tell her, pressing my lips together when I feel a sob try to form in my throat. Nope, I refuse to cry over this again. I’m being silly.
“Why would you think that?” She sounds genuinely confused.
I explain everything that happened last night, leaving out a few not so important details to the story. Like how good of a kisser Rhett is. And how I basically threw myself at him.
“And then I said I wanted to keep what we’re doing a secret.” I bite my lower lip, not about to tell her why I said that. The moment I tell her about Westscott’s threats, she’ll blab to everyone—the first person being her dad who will make it his life’s mission to get Westscott fired, which is pointless. God knows what Westscott would tell him about me. I’m sure he’d make up lies and maybe even try to spread rumors about me? I don’t know how vindictive this man is.
I can’t risk it.
“He was offended by my suggestion and accused me of wanting to hide our relationship like I was ashamed of him. And then when I said I had a reputation to uphold, he became even angrier and kicked me out of his room.” A single tear streaks down my face. “See? He hates me.”
“You said you had a reputation to uphold?” Iris winces. “Oh, Willow.”
“I didn’t mean it like that! I don’t know what I meant.” I throw my arms up in the air, frustrated with the entire situation and myself in particular. I’ve only made everything worse.
“You’re going to have to apologize to him.” Iris’s expression is somber, and I know she’s right. Iris is not big on apologies. She never wants to admit when she’s wrong. And she tries to get me to act the same way when I’m the one who’s ready to say sorry, even if it’s not really my fault.
“I know.” I blow out a harsh breath. “I want to. I just … I hope I didn’t ruin everything.”
“What did you mean by the reputation thing? That’s probably what hurt him the most,” Iris points out.
“Everyone has all of these expectations for me. They all want me to act and look a certain way. I’m not supposed to cause any issues and I’m always expected to be a—good girl. And I sort of said that to him but without enough context, so he immediately assumed I was saying he isn’t good enough to be seen with me.”
“Sounds like you’ll really need to explain yourself.”
“Yeah.” I know it’s bad when Iris isn’t telling me I’ll be okay. She’s the biggest hype girl around.
“It’ll be fine.” The false smile on Iris’s face tells me everything I need to know. She has zero faith I’ll be able to work this out with Rhett. “You just need to get your feelings across to him the best that you can so he’ll understand. Hopefully.”
“Yes. Exactly.” I climb out of bed and go to the window, staring out at the front drive. There’s an unfamiliar car idling in the driveway. Sleek and sporty and gleaming black. I watch as Brooks climbs out of the driver’s seat and goes to the trunk, extracting a large, black duffel bag out of it.
That’s right—Rhett told me Brooks was showing up today. I didn’t think he’d be here this early.
“You’ll never believe who just arrived,” I murmur, eager for the subject change.
“Who?” Iris sounds bored, and she doesn’t budge from her bed.
“Come and see.”
“Seriously, Willow? Is it that big of a deal?”
“Oh yeah.” I keep my back to her, my heart leaping to my throat when I see Rhett emerge from the front door, his brother and mine flanking either side of him. They all go to Brooks and greet him enthusiastically. “You better hurry before he disappears.”
