Free Willow in Bloom by Victoria Pade

this time she wasn’t doing the asking. He was.
    And she was entirely too happy about it.
    She tried to keep her enthusiasm out of her voice. “That would be nice,” she said simply. “But I can’t promise my brothers won’t be there.”
    Tyler only smiled a confident smile and leaned slightly forward to confide, “I’m okay with brothers. Even three or four of them.”
    That made Willow smile, too. Probably more widely than she should have.
    â€œAll right.”
    â€œI’ll pick you up around eight—how’s that?”
    â€œFine.”
    Was she beaming? She felt as if she were. And nothing she did could keep that big grin off her face.
    Except that suddenly something in the air between them changed, turning more intimate somehow. And Willow’s grin relaxed as she began to think about kissing again.
    Only unlike the previous evening, she was not thinking about what it had been like to have him kiss her in Tulsa that night in June.
    She was thinking about Tyler kissing her now.
    She was wanting Tyler to kiss her now.
    She was thinking that maybe he was thinking and wanting the same thing…
    On its own, her chin tilted slightly. On their own her eyes went to his. Warm, emerald-green eyes that seemed to wrap her in their gaze. That seemed to come a little closer. A little closer still.
    And Willow waited.
    She held her breath.
    She felt as if her blood had stopped flowing in her veins.
    She thought time might actually be standing still.
    And she was so sure he was going to kiss her….
    But he didn’t.
    He pulled back, stood straight again and said, “Thanks for your help with the furniture.”
    It took Willow a moment to come to her senses before she could grasp what he was saying, that he was saying anything at all and not kissing her.
    But when she did she put a valiant effort into appearing as if she hadn’t been anticipating more than that.
    â€œI was happy to do it,” she said, sounding overly bright, overly solicitous. Then she added, “Thanks for dinner.”
    â€œMy pleasure,” he responded, as if it really had been.
    Again his eyes locked on to hers.
    And again thoughts of him kissing her flashed through Willow’s mind.
    But only fleetingly, before Tyler glanced away and opened the door.
    â€œTomorrow night. Eight o’clock,” he repeated.
    â€œI’ll be here.”
    â€œI’ll be looking forward to it.”
    Then he said good-night and so did she, and he left.
    And Willow felt considerably deflated as that disappointment that had begun when he’d started to leave grew to even greater proportions.
    But it was for the best that he hadn’t kissed her, she told herself.
    She’d jumped into bed with him in Tulsa without a second thought, and jumping into anything else with him now was not what she wanted to do.
    She wanted him to get to know the real Willow Colton, and the real Willow Colton would not have been falling into the arms of a man she’d just met, a man she’d asked out in the first place. A man she’d just gone shopping with, the way any two friends might.
    â€œSo it was for the best that he didn’t kiss you,” she said aloud, as if thinking it hadn’t been enough to convince her, and maybe hearing it would be.
    But it wasn’t.
    Because as she padded off to her bedroom, she still didn’t feel convinced.
    She just felt unkissed.

Chapter Four
    T yler’s new furniture was delivered first thing the following morning, and by eleven he was sitting at his desk in the den trying to figure out how much feed to order from Willow.
    But he was having trouble concentrating.
    No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t seem to keep his mind on Willow’s feed. Instead, it was Willow herself he kept thinking about.
    He’d had a great time with her the night before. And for him, having a great time shopping was nothing less than a miracle.
    But