The Complete Irreparable Boxed Set

Instead of waiting for her by himself in the living room, he grabbed the wine he had brought and followed her.

“Do you want me to help with anything?” he asked.

“Can you cook?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder as she filled a pot with water.

“Of course I can cook. I mean, not foie gras or anything, but I can cook regular stuff.”

Willow shook her head. “Thank you anyway. You can get out the wine glasses if you want,” she said, indicating the cupboard.

It wasn’t much, but he grabbed the wine glasses and took them over to the table, which she had already set prior to his arrival. There was already an empty glass for each of them, and she even set up a candle in the center of the table nearest their spots. That made him smile a little.

“So, which one of your boyfriends was going to be the lucky date if I would’ve been busy?” he asked, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms as he watched her put a lid on the pot she had just placed on the stove.

Adjusting the heat, she turned around and smiled. “Why? Jealous?”

“No. Well… maybe if he was also going to get dessert first…”

Willow grinned, but didn’t confirm or deny it. “My reserve tonight was actually my ex-boyfriend. I should probably text him, come to think of it,” she said, walking to the other end of the counter to find her phone.

“The one you dumped?” he asked, frowning slightly.

“Uh, no, not that one,” she said as her thumbs flew rapidly across the screen. “My ex-boyfriend before him—Caden. He was the big brother of one of my girlfriends, but I don’t really talk to her much anymore.”

He wasn’t sure if he should appreciate the ease with which she seemed to switch between guys, or be a little insulted by it. “So the dress wasn’t specifically for me then?”

Apparently finished texting, she put her phone down and shoved it to the back of the counter, returning her attention

to him with a smile. “No, the dress was for you. I was wearing jeans earlier.”

“What about panties?”

Her grin widened. “I was wearing panties earlier, too.”

Ethan shook his head in amusement. “You’ve never been dumped before, have you?”

“I have. Actually Caden dumped me—part of why he doesn’t get the dress,” she informed him with a wink.

“I don’t know that I deserve the dress either, to be honest.”

Willow merely shrugged. “We don’t get what we deserve out of life, Ethan.”

That little nugget of truth wiped the smile right off his face, but she just turned around, reaching into a cabinet above her head and pulling down two shallow bowls.

“Do you want bread with your salad?”

He watched as she pulled a giant loaf of bread out of its brown paper sleeve, placing it on top of the cutting board and reaching for a large knife.

“Uh, yeah, I’ll have a piece.”

She nodded and sliced off two pieces of bread, placing one on the edge of each shallow bowl and moving the knife to the sink.

With the knife safely out of reach, he walked up behind her and slowly moved his arms around her waist. She tensed initially, but then she relaxed and leaned back against him, resting her hands on top of his.

“Can I ask you a question?” Ethan asked.

“Of course.”

“Are you having bad dreams again?”