"You really think my quilts would do well here?" she asks.
Jack gives me a nod acknowledging that I'm with them now.
"Local handcrafted stuff does pretty well. I don't see why I quilt wouldn't either. You could bring one in, and we could put it up and test it and see how it goes."
"Oh, that would be great." Then her smile drops, and she looks over at me, "as long as that's OK with you."
"Sweetheart, if that's what you want to do, you're more than welcome to it."
That seems to stun her for just a moment before she breaks into a huge smile.
"Just in case proper introductions were not done, Jack here owns the store.” Then I look to Jack, “This is Willow my soon-to-be wife." Willow's eyes go wide when I introduced her that way. She may still have the choice to leave, but as far as I'm concerned, she's going to be my wife. Even though Jack was here when I made the announcement that I had found my wife, he still looks a little shocked. Maybe he, much like my friends, didn't believe me when I originally said it.
"Jack here used to be a lawyer before he opened the shop. He still practices, but only takes on cases that he chooses. Though he's worked with all of us that live up on the mountain with different things from contracts to probate."
"I also volunteer down at the local women's shelter a few towns over,” Jack says. ”When I was practicing law, I had to defend whatever case the practice gave me, even if they were guilty of some horrific crime. It was my job to get them aquitted, and I didn't enjoy getting the guilty off. So, I came down to Whiskey River for a weekend away to clear my head, and the shop was for sale. Before I went home, I had bought it and now I just take on cases where I know I'm truly helping someone and not helping the bad guy."
Willow gives a polite smile but doesn't say much, but I hope she understands that I plan to surround her with people that can help her with whatever her problem might be.I In time, maybe she'll trust me enough to tell me what has her frightened. If she doesn't reach out to me, hopefully, she'll tell someone who can help her.
But I want her to know that there are plenty of ways that I can protect her, and I plan to do just that. She doesn't say much afterward, but I'm assuming she's just processing everything that was said. I'm not going to push her for an answer she's not ready to give. So, I'm already trying to find a safe topic for the drive home as we go out to the car.
But once in the parking lot, she surprises me.
"Jack seems like a nice guy, but the only experience I've ever had with lawyers is how they manipulate the system."
It's not much to go on, but it is insight into what is going on in her life.
"Some for sure do. Maybe more than many people realize, but Jack isn't one of them,” I say. He is one of the good guys and damn good at what he does. I wouldn't even bring you around him if he wasn't. He's at a point now where he only helps people that truly need it, people that have been wronged or need help fighting against those crooked lawyers. They’re the ones that keep trying to manipulate. "
She nods her head and turns to look out the window. A million things run through my head. Has she been accused of something that she hasn't done? I Is someone chasing after her or is she hiding?
For a brief moment, I think of contacting a friend down at the police station and having him look into her. Then I decide that if I'm going to want her to trust me, I have to give her the same trust and that means waiting until she's wanting to talk.
Chapter 7
Willow
Todaywe'recampingatthe lake and Bennett insists on setting up the camping area himself. He tells me that it's his job to take care of me. It wasn't until I realized he only had one tent that I started to get a little nervous. Of course, Bennett being Bennett picked up on this right away.
"There’s plenty of room inside this tent for both of us, but I'd rather have you close because we are out in the wild. Though I will make you this promise that there will be no sex until we are married. I won't push for it."
I know he's a man of his word and for some reason that little admission and promise was enough to make me relax. Also, I don't want to be alone out here either, even though I feel safer here than even at the house and for the most part, I feel pretty safe at the house. Here on the mountain it feels like no one can find me and that feeling of freedom has allowed me to start to really relax.
"But Willow?" he says getting my attention again.
"Just to be clear, I do want to marry you. All you have to do is say the word."
The look in his eyes is so intense there's no doubt that he truly understands and means what he's saying.
I don't know what else to say which seems to be a common occurrence around him so once again I just nod. He’s leaving the choice up to me, so I want to take our camping trip here as a time to get to know him and relax.
Once the tent is set up and we've had lunch, we decided to go for a swim in the lake. I go to the tent to change into my bathing suit. It isn't anything overly sexy, it's a one-piece. I'm pretty modest, especially by today's terms, and yet when I step out of the tent in nothing but my bathing suit, time seems to stop. The look of pure heat and appreciation on his face is one every girl wants to see.
His eyes run over me and there is no hiding the bulge in jeans. Though I'm glad he likes what he sees, because the feeling is completely mutual. When he finally pulls his eyes away from me, he clears his throat and I make my way over to the lake.
Sticking my toes in the water, I gasp at how cold it us. But my body quickly adjusts, and just like my dad taught me, I dive in headfirst. Once I get the shock of the initial cold out of the way, I resurface and turn toward Bennett. He’s already waist deep in the water and heading my way.
He doesn't slow down until he's right in front of me, and scoops me up out of the water and into his arms. Then he continues to walk deeper to the point where I wouldn't be able to stand up.