Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Annalee

I woke up no longer wrapped in Owen’s arms and it made my heart beat faster. I sat up and looked around the dark bedroom but still I couldn’t find him.

“Owen?” There was so much panic in my voice despite trying to push it down. He could’ve simply gotten up to pee or to get a drink of water. Nothing nefarious had to be happening, and yet I couldn’t convince myself of that.

“Coming.”

A rush of relief flowed through every part of my body and I sagged back against the pillow.

What did I really think was going to happen in Owen’s house? It wasn’t like my stepfamily was in Texas. They were back in Baton Rouge or wherever they were vacationing at the moment. Most likely a long way from Willow Creek. Neither Dennis nor Seraphina would be caught dead in a small town that didn’t have a single designer store.

“Sorry, I woke up alone and freaked out a bit,” I apologized as soon as Owen came back into the room.

He walked straight over to the bed, but instead of crawling back under the covers, he took a seat next to me. I scrambled so that my back was propped up against the headboard and I was able to look him in the eyes. Something told me I wasn’t about to like the conversation we were going to have.

“Spit it out. Whatever bad news you have, just tell me and get it over with.”

I could see the smallest smirk in the moonlight shining through the bedroom window. It cast a glow right across where he was sitting and allowed me to see every one of his facial expressions. It was how I knew something was wrong. His eyes gave him away.

“Not a very good poker player, am I?”

“I mean, maybe with others but I feel like I’m starting to know you pretty well.”

I didn’t need a mirror to know my cheeks were now pink. I could feel their warmth. Thankfully I was cast in shadow, but I doubt that kept Owen from seeing though. He seemed like the kind of guy who had vision like an owl.

He reached out and caressed my cheek. “Yes, you’re going to know me very well if I have any say in it.”

Suddenly I didn’t care about my job prospects. I didn’t care that in a few months I would need to find something new to do. Owen was right, there was plenty of options if I just put my mind to it. I never shied away from a challenge, and I wasn’t about to start.

“I want to stay in Willow Creek,” I blurted out. No finesse. No buildup. Just put the words out there into the universe without a single thought about the discussion we were having just seconds before.

Owen blinked, then furrowed his brow. “What changed your mind?”

“Baton Rouge isn’t for me anymore. Moving back there just for more job opportunities isn’t a good enough reason. Staying here with you is a better reason.”

I don’t know how I could forget why I moved in the first place. I needed out of Baton Rouge. I stayed for my father and that was no longer a reason. Going back there was counterproductive to what I wanted. But for a few days I let fear push away all rational thought. I couldn’t do that anymore.

“It doesn’t have to be one or the other. We could find someplace else if that’s what you wanted.”

There was no maybe about it. I was head over heels in love with this man.

“I appreciate you giving that to me, but no. Willow Creek is it for me. I came here for a reason. It brought me to you. I’m not throwing that away because I’m too afraid of what the future holds. I’ll jump off that bridge when I come to it.”

“We.”

I tilted my head to the side because I didn’t understand what he meant by that. “Excuse me?”

“ We will jump off that bridge when we come to it. You’re not in this alone anymore. It’s we moving forward.”

Yup, this was the swoon-worthy love people talked about. I was seconds away from choking up and making an ass of myself. I needed to change the conversation stat, so I cleared my throat.

“You never said what was wrong. What dragged you out of bed?”

Owen’s smile was gone instantly and so were the butterflies that fluttered around my stomach just moments before. Maybe changing the subject wasn’t the best idea.

“Oh God, it’s that bad. Is someone dead? Please tell me no one is dead.”

“No,” Owen rushed to reassure me. “I promise you no one is dead.”

Thank goodness. I’m not even sure what made me think that. If it was anyone here in Willow Creek, there was no way Owen would still be here, and so calm. He wouldn’t have let me change the subject earlier. And there was no one from Baton Rouge I cared about except my old neighbor.

Speaking of, I needed to call her and make sure everything was okay. I made a mental note to do that when the sun came up.

“Then what’s wrong?”

“Dennis chartered a private plane to Texas an hour ago.”

I saw red. I knew people talked about it happening, and honestly, I thought those people were exaggerating, but nope. I was so angry that my vision was legitimately tinted with red. I jumped off the bed and started to pace. I needed to move when I was angry. To let off some of the excess energy that was starting to build inside my body.

“How the hell did he find me?”

I ran every scenario through my head. I was so damn careful. I hadn’t used my name since leaving Louisiana. I hadn’t touched a single dime from my bank account or my inheritance.

I was a damn ghost and he still found me.

“My guess is the news article that was in the local newspaper.”

I stopped dead in my tracks and flung my head back to screech at the ceiling. “ Of course! How could I forget about that fucking article?”

I had known that damn thing would come back to haunt me and yet I pushed it out of my mind in favor of everything else that was going on.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

“So what now?” I asked.

Before my father died, I would’ve sworn Dennis was harmless.

Lazy.

Incompetent.

Spoiled.

All words I had used to describe him not too long ago, but then he went and destroyed my apartment. Sure, it showed just how spoiled he was, but it also made me realize there was another side of him that I knew nothing about. I wasn’t too keen to see what else he would be willing to do.

“Lex is on his way to the airport to keep an eye on Dennis. We aren’t the police, so we can’t pull him in for questioning. Besides destroying your apartment, we have nothing to pin on him. We’re better off watching him to see what he does. Hopefully we can figure out what his plan is.”

“Won’t Lex stand out in his monstrosity of a Jeep?”

You couldn’t miss the damn thing.

Owen snickered. “You would be surprised how many people don’t give him a second glance. Dennis will assume he’s just another hick cruising around. Besides, he might take one of the company vehicles. Mav has two blacked-out SUVs we can use if needed.”

“Huh. I didn’t know that. Where does he keep them?”

There was that random curiosity again.

“At his house. Unlike the rest of us, he lives a little farther out where there’s more land than shops. He keeps them there in a garage.”

“You learn something new every day.”

“You’ve been too bogged down in paperwork to see the full scale of everything Mav has for the company. You’ll see it soon though. He prefers we’re all kept in the loop. As great of a boss as he is, Mav doesn’t like all the responsibility that comes with it.”

Don’t I know it.

I walked back over to the bed. The initial anger was simmered down and now the fact that it wasn’t morning yet was smacking me in the face. I doubted I would be able to fall back asleep but that didn’t mean I wanted to start my day just yet.

Owen opened his arms and I crawled onto his lap. With my own arms wrapped around his middle, I rested my ear over his heart and just listened to the beat of it.

The longer we sat there in silence, the more I calmed down. It didn’t take long for my heartbeat to match his rhythm. Owen’s strong fingers ran along the length of my spine and lulled me into a peaceful existence. I could spend hours wrapped up in his arms just like this without a single complaint.

It dawned on me what I had been missing in my life.

This kind of connection. The one I could only have with a man who would be my friend and my lover.

Life was great.