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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Piper James
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January 30 - February 2, 2024
Willow Bardin is different. And I’m going to make sure I don’t fuck this friendship up.
Hell, when was the last time I laughed like that? I try to remember, but nothing comes to mind. At least, not in the last decade. Not since Willow.
And now, I’m even grumpier than I was before. Is this what Trace used to feel like before he met Keegan? I don’t know, but if it is, I don’t know how he lived with himself. It sucks monkey balls.
He’s just a man from my past. A first love who didn’t return the sentiment. I’ve had ten years to get over that heartache. And I did. My head knows I did, but somehow, my heart forgot the moment I laid eyes on him again.
“I’m coming back for you, Willow Bardin,” I say, my voice firm and sure. “When all the crazy dies down, I’ll be back in Evening Shade as often and for as long as I can.” “Promise?” she asks, hope shining in her gorgeous eyes. “I swear it.”
“It means I fell in love with him, but everything he ever said to me was a lie.”
I run as fast as I can, but it’s not fast enough. Because there’s no way to outrun pain. No way to escape heartbreak. But still, I run.
Gavin: Of course, I want to be friends. I’ve missed our friendship more than you know, and having you in my life in any capacity is better than not having you at all.
And so is the smile I can see in my peripheral vision. Turning my head, I meet her eyes and return it. That smile warms my soul and makes me think I can face any hurdle. Even her brother. That smile is everything.
But I know him as just Gavin, the boy who made me fall in love for the first time and also taught me the pain of heartbreak…however unintentionally.
Fuck. She looks exactly like she did when we’d hang out together over a decade ago, and seeing her like this––so naturally beautiful and real… I’m literally speechless.
“I remember everything.” Her favorite pizza. Her favorite soda. The way her skin smells after a dip in the lake. The color of her hair when backlit by a bonfire. The softness of her lips…
I hear the hellos, but my gaze is focused on Gavin, who’s smiling like he’s seeing the sun for the first time in months.
I’d given up, all right, and as it turns out, he was there the whole time.
She tastes just the same as she did back then, like heaven and hell mixed together in a blazing inferno that shoots lust through every pore in my skin.
She is worth the effort. And maybe someday soon, she’ll decide I’m worth it, too.
“I had nothing holding me in Seattle. But what you’re not realizing is that even if I did––even if I had the world at my fingertips in the city––I would’ve given it up for Trace. He’s worth it. We’re worth it. And I think you should find out if Gavin is worth it, too.”
As I push through, the bells jingle and the birds sing and the sun comes out after a long winter’s break. Okay, now I really am waxing poetic. But I don’t give a shit. I have a date with Willow Bardin, and nothing is going to bring me down from this high.
This is not the Willow I knew before. That shy, inexperienced girl is all grown up, a woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to take it. And I fucking love it.
Though I know I should pause to take a few deep breaths, I can’t bring myself to do it. If this is the way I die, so be it. At least I’ll go out deliriously happy.
God, I love you. I don’t say the words aloud, for obvious reasons, but I think them so hard, I’m pretty sure she feels them by osmosis or some shit.
Me: Pizza and beer at my place tonight after work? Gavin: Order the pies, and I’ll bring the beer. Seven o’clock? Me: Six-thirty. Gavin: Ooh, she’s eager. I like it. A lot. See you, then.
“And you think you can make her happy now?” he asks after digesting that. “I’m certainly going to try,” I say, the words a solemn swear.
Willow matters most of all, and I aim to make her see it.
I think I loved her even then, when we were just strangers getting to know each other.
I know I love her. I’ve always loved her.
They’re just simply happy to see me, and I have to say, it feels fucking good.
“You’re going to stay here…with me?” she asks like she needs further confirmation. “There’s no place else I’d rather be than here with you, Willow,”
“I need you to understand how serious I am, Willow. I fell in love with you over a decade ago, and I never stopped loving you. Not for a second. This isn’t some fling or fly by night affair. Not to me. I’m in this for the long run. I intend to marry you one day and spend the rest of my life making you deliriously happy.”
I need her to know the truth––that I love her and will never stop. That she’s it for me. My end game. My very own happily ever after.
“I never stopped loving you, either. I tried to move on, I really did, but it never stuck because no one else is you. Gavin, I love you so much. I always have, and I always will.”
A love that’s healed its wounds and is ready to grow into more than either of us ever dreamed of or expected. A love that will last forever and always.
“I’m saying I love you, and you belong here, with me. Always.”
“Willow, you know I love you. But what I don’t think you’ve fully realized is that I’m going to love you forever. I want this to be our home. I want to marry you someday. Have babies with you––if that’s what you want. Maybe get a dog, too.”
Gavin Reese may have fangirls all over the world, but sorry ladies, he’s mine. And I’m going to love him for the rest of our lives.
