I grin before flopping onto the bed beside her. “Immensely so.”
Side by side, we silently stare at the ceiling. With Willow, I don’t feel any pressing need to fill every void with useless conversation. I like her as much in the quiet as I do when she’s screaming at the top of her lungs.
But a thought occurs to me and I roll on my side to face her, putting elbow to mattress and propping my head in the palm of my hand. “I assume your parents are coming in for the first two games?”
Willow nods. “My sister Meredith and her husband, too.”
“Even better,” I reply thoughtfully. “So, I’d love to have them all over to my house for dinner one night. Maybe in between games one and two?”
Willow’s head tilts my way and her brows are furrowed. “You want to invite my family to your house for dinner?”
“Yes,” I drawl.
“Why?”
“Why not?” I toss back.
Her eyes snap back to the ceiling and she worries at her lower lip, frowning in what looks to be consternation.
“Does your family know we’re dating?” I ask cautiously. “I mean, besides Dax, do they know, for example, that you’re here in California with me?”
Willow rises onto her elbows, turning to me. It makes her breasts push out, which is distracting, but I refuse to take the bait.
“They don’t necessarily know we’re dating,” she says hesitantly. “I mean, Dax knows we’re seeing each other. And my parents probably suspect it, given how you were on that call. But we haven’t really talked about it.”
“Well, me inviting them to dinner at my house will put that to rest. Then you won’t have to worry about announcing it to them,” I say.
“I’m not worried about announcing it,” she snaps. “It’s just… I’m not sure we should—”
“What? Make it official that way?” Her expression says that’s exactly it. Bringing others into our relationship will make it real to her, and that’s clearly still a wall.
Reaching over, I brush some of her hair behind her ear and the touch causes her to sag onto the pillows with a sigh, her gaze focusing on the ceiling. “Willow… I understand you’re averse to relationships. You’ve been clear about that. But since we’ve gotten closer, I guess I don’t understand what’s still holding you back.”
Again, she nibbles at her lip, a sure sign that brain of hers is spinning.
“Willow,” I say softly, and her eyes meet mine. “You have feelings for me. I know this, and so do you. Those same feelings are returned by me. We enjoy spending time with each other. Why can’t you just push past whatever hang-ups you have to admit we’re seeing each other in a real way?”
She briefly squeezes her eyes shut before opening them. I’m shocked at the pain and fear I see in them. “Because I was badly hurt by someone, and I’m afraid it’s going to happen again.”
I recoil, shocked by that admission. Willow always comes off so fiercely independent and courageous that it’s hard to think about her as even having the ability to get hurt. “What happened?”
She shrugs like it’s nothing, but we both know that’s not true. I reach out and take her hand, giving it a soft squeeze of reassurance. She studies our fingers where they’re laced together, her voice coming out hollow. “I was engaged a few years back.”
Again, a jolt of shock goes through me at this news. I had just assumed Willow had always been opposed to relationships. Sort of like me. It’s hard for me to form attachments because I went so long without them. It never occurred to me that she’d had a singular bad experience that put her off them.
“Look…” she starts. In what seems to be a wave of strength, she sits up against the headboard and looks me right in the eye. “I was serious about this guy. He was wealthy. Not billionaire wealthy like you, but he made good money. He was always buying stuff because he could. He had sort of an entitled sense about him. Thought he could have anything he wanted, which turned out to include his choice of whatever woman he wanted. He cheated on me. That’s all there was to it, and well… I’ve never really been able to trust since then. And frankly, you’re so much wealthier than he is. You could have anything or anyone your heart desired, so it’s hard for me to invest myself fully into this. I’m holding myself back because we agreed at the beginning this wouldn’t go any further than the playoffs, and—”
“Have I ever given you any reason to believe I’d be like him?” I can’t help but interrupt because it’s offensive to be lumped in with someone like that just because I’m rich.
Willow vigorously shakes her head. “No. Of course you haven’t. But still… When I gave my heart up to someone before, they abused it, and the pain isn’t something I ever want to feel again. So, in my mind, it’s easier to not allow feelings to become involved. If you’ve never had your heart broken before, you wouldn’t understand.”