Everything I Desire (Lupine Valley #3)

19. Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Adelaide

Waking up snuggled deep into the cozy nest that Porter and I created at some point last night is the most surreal feeling.

I find it hard to reconcile the fact that he’s really back, and really mine. The fact that this moment is real and not one of my dreams amazes me.

My phone rings, bringing me out of my daydreaming. When I let it go to voicemail and it rings again immediately, I reach my arm out of the covers to see who is calling.

Willow’s name flashes on my screen. I decline the call and send her a text.

Me : Hold on. Call you in a min.

I extricate myself from the web of limbs under the covers without waking Porter up. I slip on his tee and pad down to his kitchen to start some coffee. While the coffee is brewing I hit Willow’s name and return her call .

I set up the phone on the counter so I can start making some breakfast for Porter and I.

“About time!” She answers.

I look over at the screen to give her a hard time about yelling at me when it’s only seven in the morning, but I see her red rimmed, puffy eyes. “Willow, is everything okay?”

“No! Nothing is okay!” I abandon the ingredients for breakfast and grab my phone, heading to the couch.

“What happened? Was it your manager?” I ask her.

“Kind of. You know the singer, Calvin Taylor?”

“Um, one of the biggest country singers around right now? Yea. I’ve heard of him.” I say sarcastically.

“Jake is our manager, both of us. He’s been promising me I could go on tour with Calvin, be his opener in the Nashville area, but it never happens. I finally pushed Calvin about it when he came to a gig with his fiancee,” she explains.

“Wait - you casually just hang out and chat with one of the biggest country names out there?” I ask slack jawed.

She stares at me, giving me a look that means this is not the point of her phone call. “Sorry. Keep going.”

“Turns out, Calvin’s been on Jake to get me to agree to be the opener of his upcoming tour, and Jake has been telling him that I didn’t want to! All because I won’t. . .” Her tears start again.

“Won’ t what, Will?” I ask, not knowing if I want the answers.

“I won’t sleep with Jake!” She gets out between sobs.

“I’m sorry. I don’t think I heard that right. Your manager, the one in charge of your career at the moment, is basing career opportunities for you on whether or not you will sleep with him?” My hand is shaking with anger.

“Yes, and that’s why . . . I . . .haven’t. . . been. . .getting. . . jobs. . . and the other girls have been.” She wails uncontrollably into the phone. I wish I was there to hug her. It kills me that I’m not there.

“Oh. My. God. Willow! That’s awful! What are you going to do? What can I do?” I fidget with the hem of my tee.

“I don’t know, Ade. Calvin had to fill the spot, so my chance is gone! I lost the biggest opportunity. I don’t even know why I’m still here. I miss home. I miss you guys, and I just want my sisters.” She begins to cry harder.

“So come home.” I offer.

“It isn’t that simple.” It is. I’m already looking up flights.

“There’s a flight today at four. Can you be on it?” She looks at me wide eyed.

“Ade, I don’t -”

“Yes or no Willow. Can you be at the airport?” I ask sternly, raising my eyebrows to let her know I don’t want excuses.

“Yes. I can be there. ”

“Good.” I finish booking the ticket and send it to her email. “In your email. I’ll pick you up at nine tonight. This weekend we have Lacey and Colton’s engagement party so you can be surrounded by everyone who loves you.”

“Addy, this is too-” I hold up my hand to the screen to stop her. She’s annoying me so early in the morning.

“Nope. See you at nine. Love you, babe.” I blow her a kiss and hang up before she can argue more.

When will she learn that in this family, if you need it, we do it. She’s always been so independent. Never wanting our help. She used to be more open with me, but lately she’s clammed up, and I guess I know why now. We all love her so much and every one of us would be there for her if she’d let us.

“Who are we going to see at nine?” Porter’s deep voice makes me jump.

“You scared me!” I cover my chest with my hand.

He leans over the back of the couch and kisses my neck. “I didn’t like waking up to an empty bed, baby.”

“I’m sorry. Willow called. I booked her a flight home, I have to get her at nine from the airport.” I answer him, sitting up on my knees to face him behind the couch.

“You mean we need to get her from the airport.” He walks into the kitchen and sees the pile of food that I left on the counter.

“I’m sorry. I was going to make breakfast while talking to her but then she was crying.” I walk over to the counter and start pulling pans out from the cabinet. Porter places his hand on mine over the handle of the pan.

“I’ll cook. You explain.” He leads me over to the bar stools at his island, and places my coffee in front of me.

I tell him everything from the first time she found out her manager was giving her less money than he should be until this morning. He is furious. The vein in his neck is thumping with the anger coursing through him. His hand is clenched around the spatula so tight his knuckles are white. I know if he ever has the chance to be around her manager, he might actually end up in jail, just like any of the other guys in our life.

“So we’ll leave at seven?” He asks like I didn’t just spew out a ton of information that no one else knows.

“Um. Yea. What about Kayla?” I don’t want to make her give up her plans.

He puts a plate full of eggs and bacon with an english muffin in front of me. “I’ll text her, let her know she can come or not. If she doesn’t come I’ll just tell Brad she’s here alone, he can do some extra drive bys.”

I eye him suspiciously. “You’re too calm.”

“I’ll do anything you need me to do, baby. Including controlling my anger around Willow and you.” He looks down at his phone, “Kayla is coming. She said ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe I get to meet her, she’s amazing.’ So. there’s that.” We both start laughing. I can hear Kayla freaking out now. Willow is pretty well known and she has gone viral a few times on social media. The kids at school think it’s so cool she’s my sister and ask me about her all the time.

The guilt takes over me that I didn’t push her to tell me more over the last few years. I knew something was wrong with her. She’s been so surface level with our phone calls, refusing to come home to visit, claiming she was too busy. And when I went to visit her she was so fake, maybe not enough that anyone else would notice, but I did. Her happiness was too forced. She spent too much time showing me how wonderful Nashville is and how happy she is. Almost like she was trying to convince herself and not me.

I never pushed her because Willow is the type of person who if you push her, she will double down and withdraw. I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought that giving her the space to come to me was the right thing. It clearly wasn’t.

I shove the guilt away, it won’t help anything now. At least she’ll be here tonight and I can squeeze her tight.

I help Porter clean up from breakfast, and then he comes over to my house with me. I’ve been letting some chores slide since I’ve been spending so much time here with Porter and Kayla.

He offers to help me change the sheets on my bed. He eyes me from across the room as I lean over to pull the corner of the sheet off the mattress .

“Don’t you look at me like that, Porter Jackson. We have chores to do.” I point my finger at him.

He lunges across the bed and pulls me down on top of him. “They can wait.”

I’m in the kitchen making desserts for Lacey’s engagement party when Willow finally wakes up. I place the mini cheesecake bites on their own doily and arrange them on the platter. I’m topping them each with a chocolate truffle.

Willow plucks a truffle out of the bowl before taking a seat at the island across from me.

“Now this is a breakfast.” She licks her fingers and takes a whole cheesecake bite.

I slap her hand away. “This is not breakfast, this is for the party today.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready for that, Ade.” She uses my childhood nickname that I only allow her to use. I hate that name from anyone else, but not from my baby sister.

“Willow. You can’t come home and not see Mom.” I purse my lips.

“I know. I just - I’m not ready for the questions. I’m hurt by Jake. I’m out a lot of money, without any means to sue him and his empire. I have to watch him flaunt all this wealth that he has because of me, and who knows how many other women he’s doing this to.” She drops her head down to her hands. “And, I miss home.”

“I know, babes. I get it. It sucks all around. But why can’t you come home? It sounds like you’re out a manager anyway, there has to be someone who can represent you living here. Plus you’re super famous on social media right now, you can do that from anywhere. Gunnar books local bands to sing at The Bar so you could do that, and you know Mom would love to have you back.” I wink at her. Now that Lacey is living with her fiance Colton, she has empty nest syndrome again.

“I could move home. I just need to clear my head and sort stuff out in Nashville. And find a way to take that asshole down so he can’t do this to anyone else.” She steals another cheesecake bite, looking me right in the eye while she does it. Like those sad puppy dog eyes are going to work on me.

“You know I’m a teacher, right? Those sad eyes don’t work on me.” I raise my brows, staring at her. “Clear your head and figure your shit out. You know we’re here to help any way we can. And stop stealing my damn cheesecake!”

She needs tough love sometimes as the baby of the family. She got used to us solving her problems for her, which she then flipped to thinking that we are over bearing and moved on to hyper independence.

“Ugh. Fine. I’m going for a hike. A little mountain top therapy can’t hurt.” She says getting up to go change.

She comes back into the kitchen squeezing me tight before leaving again .

“Be safe. Love you.” I yell out to her back as she walks out the front door.

When she gets home, all my cheesecake is safely packed away on the counter waiting for Mom to come get it. I tried to get Mom here right when Willow left, but she was busy prepping her own food for the party.

So unfortunately, Willow is already home when she gets here.

“I’m sorry, but Mom just pulled in the driveway.” I give her my best I’m sorry, I tried look.

“Ughh, just get her to keep the questions to a minimum. Please.” Willow pleads.

I assure her that I’ve got this and go open the front door.

“Hey, Mom. I’ve got everything in the kitchen.” I lean in to hug her, “And I have one more surprise for you.”

I lead her into the kitchen where Willow is hiding by the fridge.

Mom rounds the corner and catches sight of Willow’s signature red hair.

She runs to her, pulling her in for a tight hug. Mom has been the most affected by Willow moving to Nashville. She moved right after Dad passed away, leaving Mom an empty nester and a widow all in the same month.

“Can’t breathe.” Willow whispers. She pulls back but still holds on to her arms.

“How in the world?” She looks at both of us .

“I went to the airport last night to pick her up, she wanted to surprise everyone for the party.” I cover for Willow, who mouths a thank you over Mom’s shoulder.

Mom pulls us both in for one more hug. Then she begins ordering us around to get everything in her car or my car for the party.

We’re hosting the engagement party at The Bar, and Gunnar is nice enough to let us come in before they open to decorate.

Mom, Willow, and I are met by Scarlett when we get there. She takes one look at us and her jaw drops.

“Oh my God!” She jumps up and down, clapping her hands. “Willow! When did you get here?” She practically screams, and Gunnar comes out from the kitchen to see if everything is okay.

“I just came home to surprise everyone.” Willow tells Scarlett with a fake excitement in her voice to fool everyone. Only I know the truth.

“Well it freaking worked!” Scarlett finally runs over to hug Willow. Maybe enough hugs will get her to see that she can be happier here with us than alone in Nashville fighting some asshole who can afford to win and bleed her dry financially while he’s at it.

Mom and Willow bring the food back for the refrigerator to Gunnar. Scarlett corners me out by my car when I go out to get more decorations to bring in .

“Spill it. I know that she didn’t come home to surprise everyone.” She crosses her arms across her chest and leans her hip on the side of my car. “That was the fakest smile I’ve ever seen on her face.”

“She’s just - having a tough time.” I stop myself from telling her all of Willow’s story.

“Why? Did she tell you? What can we do?” Scarlett automatically goes into her hero mode. She thinks she can do something to save everyone. But sometimes they have to save themselves.

“Listen, it’s not my story to tell. But you know it’s lonely down there, and she’s just going through some stuff.” I roll my eyes and hand Scarlett a box.

“That’s bullshit. We always tell each other everything, now you’re both hiding something from us.” She says defensively.

“I know that, Scarlett. But Willow needs to be the one to share this. Please just trust me this time. She isn’t ready to talk about it with everyone yet. I only know the bare minimum. Just let her think you believe her story. You know Willow. She’ll come to us when she’s ready.” I pass by her to walk back inside with my arms full.

“I do not like this, Adelaide,” she yells after me.

“Neither do I, Scarlett,” I yell back. Sometimes it sucks being in the middle of my sister and the rest of the family. As the two youngest we always banded together and knew each other’s secrets.

I place the box I’m carrying on the bar and hear giggling from the kitchen, followed by a deep voice. I peek around the corner and see Gunnar and Willow talking as they load the refrigerator with food. He’s regaling her with a story of a drunk fight last night between a guy and a cardboard cut out.

I walk back into the event room to start decorating and decide to leave them alone. It’s nice to hear my sister laugh.

We finish decorating and setting out some appetizers with Gunnar. He has moved on to setting up the karaoke machine for everyone since we always do karaoke when we come. He asks me to come test out the system because he was having trouble with it. I push Willow up, she’s obviously the better choice for this.

She holds the mic up and starts a rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Waters , an old song made popular again by many artists. I pull out my phone to record her.

Her voice is breathy but beautiful. When she sings, everyone in the audience becomes entranced by her.

Gunnar looks at me and raises a brow, I shrug in response. It seems he has no idea our baby sister is a singing internet sensation.

When she finishes the song, everyone in the room claps for her. I didn’t even notice that guests arrived during her impromptu performance. I send the clip off to her in a text and tuck my phone away for the afternoon.

I’m ready to just enjoy an afternoon with all my sisters at home. It’s been so long since the last time all four of us were physically together in the same space without an argument.