“Oh, my God! Stop it!” she cried, horrified. “And hold on!” Pulling the phone away from her ear, Willow swiped at the screen to try to pull up the text. When she finally got to it, she stared at the photo for a solid minute before she realized what she was looking at.
“Willow?” she heard Gammy ask.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered.
“Willow? Are you all right?”
“Oh, my God,” she said a little louder and with a small laugh. “Gammy, I have to go! I’ll call you tomorrow! I promise! I love you!”
“Love you too!”
Tossing the phone down on the sofa, Willow jumped up and ran to take a shower.
It was time to go and see Levi.
Staring down at the receipt in his hand, Levi had to wonder if it would have been cheaper to go and see a shrink.
How was that for irony?
Still, he had to hope this was going to work. If it didn’t, he was out of options.
He’d tried every romantic gesture in the book and never got a response. Maybe he should’ve just taken the hint, but…he wasn’t ready to give up.
At least, he hadn’t been.
Right now? He wasn’t so sure.
“You sure about this, boss?”
Levi turned his head and gave Anthony a small smile. “Yeah. I’m sure.”
“For what it’s worth, I think it’s great. Way better than all those cliched things you’ve been doing.”
Eyes wide and jaw on the ground, he said, “What? Why?”
“Dude, anyone can send flowers and candy. The cupcakes were a nice touch, but…” He shrugged. “They’re kind of empty gestures. Easy. But this? This is going to speak volumes.”
“I don’t know. She hasn’t responded yet.”
“Maybe she’s busy and hasn’t seen the text,” Anthony countered. “Not everyone sits around with their phone in their hands all day.”
“I don’t…”
“You have, and you do, and you need to stop. If it wasn’t the newest iPhone, I would totally smack it out of your hand right now.” Then he laughed. “But I like my job and can’t afford to replace it, so…”
“Good to know that’s the only reason you’re not doing it,” he murmured before walking away.
He walked around the pub, straightening chairs, making sure every table had what it needed. The lunch crowd was thinning out and Saturdays were a little slower, so he was a little at odds with himself on finding something to do to keep him from obsessing about Willow. As soon as he had sent the picture, he was certain she would respond. Everything in him screamed that he had finally gotten it right. But it had been an hour and…nothing.
Raking hands through his hair, Levi called out he’d be in his office if anyone needed him.
And then immediately prayed that someone would need him.
Specifically, Willow.
Closing the door behind him, he walked around and sat behind his desk and immediately started up his computer. There were bills he could pay, new products he could look at, or…play solitaire or Words with Friends. Gammy had gotten him into it while they were down in Florida, and he had to admit, it was kind of fun.
Looking at his phone and seeing no response from Willow yet, he opted to open the Words With Friends app and abandoned the idea of getting any work done. He had a game request from someone named IreGemGal and figured he might as well accept and play.
Their first word was moron.
Shrugging, he looked at his tiles and made the word muse. He was about to put his phone down and give them a few minutes, but it immediately dinged with another word.
Nitwit.
“Hmm…someone is obviously mad about something if this was the way their minds worked.”
Levi followed up with the word win.
Yeah, because I’m such a wordsmith…
Turd.
Okay, it was hard not to start taking offense to some of these now, even though it was ridiculous. There was no way this person even knew who he was, so it was all just a coincidence, but still…they all felt like cheap shots at him.
He played the word down, and they immediately played the word idiot.
“That’s it,” he huffed, turning the phone off. “I’m done!” Leaning back in his chair, there was nothing left to do but work. After fifteen minutes of staring at the same page, however, Levi knew that wasn’t going to happen either.
There was a knock on the office door, and it made him jump.
“Hey, Levi,” Maxi said, peeking her head into the room. “We have a bit of a situation out here.”
He stood. “What’s up?”
“Irate customer. Claims we overcharged her for her lunch, but…we just served her what she ordered and charged her accordingly.”
“Well, if it’s that cut and dry…”
“Anthony’s getting a little heated and I think you need to come out and smooth things over. Please?”
It was the last thing he wanted to be doing but reluctantly agreed. They certainly weren’t supposed to argue with the customers, so Levi did his best to relax, put a smile on, and followed Maxi out to the bar. He looked around and didn’t see Anthony or…anyone, really. “Uh…Max?”
“Over in the corner,” she said, pointing to the front corner of the pub and…Willow.
His knees almost gave out with relief at just seeing her there at her usual table. Fighting a smile and afraid to be hopeful, he made his way over to her. “Hi,” he said softly.
She was perched on one of the chairs at the bistro set, looking prim and serious, and so damn beautiful that he wanted to reach out and touch her.
But he didn’t.
He couldn’t.
Yet.
“Hey,” she said with a small smile. “So, um…” Holding up her phone with the picture he’d sent, she continued, “I got this earlier and wanted to come and see things for myself.”
Then she looked up.
And around.
And then at him.
Her smile grew. “You’ve made some changes.”
Shrugging, he said, “Yeah, well…someone mentioned to me how it might be time to fix the place up a bit. Lighting seemed to be a huge issue, so I thought I’d start there.”
And he had. In the
