If Only (The Willowbrook Series Book 1) Read Free Page A

it you and Lucas are currently off?” Asa plowed past the don’t-you-dare-go-there expression on Eve’s face. Oh yes, she’d go there. Payback for all the times Eve had mentioned Rhys’s name the past couple of months.
    “Despite his temper, Lucas is a good guy,” Asa said. “You just need to be patient with him. He’s had a rough past.”
    “His past has nothing to do with our issues. He’s a jealous son of a bitch, and I can’t stand that.”
    The sadness hidden beneath the resentment in Eve’s tone had Asa doing something she didn’t normally do. She gave her friend a hug.
    “Be safe and stay out of trouble,” Eve said, squeezing back. “I might be bossy, and sometimes downright pushy, but you’re my best friend. I just want you to be happy.”
    Letting go, Asa smiled and said, “Thank you. I want the same for you too.” After a shared look, they erupted into rip-roaring laughter at the too sweet and cheesy moment. “Seriously, though, you’ll be gone for three days. How much trouble can I get into? Plus, Sandy’s here to steer me clear of messes.”
    Sandy had moved to Willowbrook two years ago, and the three of them quickly became friends. Occasionally, Asa watched Sandy’s two-year-old son, Chance, when she and the hubby wanted a date night. Between them, they were able to cover the six-to-four shift at the café.
    “I’m putting my trust in her.” Eve waved. “Okay, keep an eye on the weather. If it looks iffy, close early.”
    Asa nodded, and crisscrossing her arms over her chest to rub at her shoulders, she watched Eve drive off. She was about to head back inside the café, but a pickup truck parked across the street snagged her attention. Jo’s. So Rhys was drowning his grief at the local bar. It shouldn’t be her business what he did anymore, but it still hurt her to know he grieved alone.
    Noticing that cold air seeped into the warmth she loved, Asa hurried inside the café, shut the door behind her, and let her gaze sweep over the cozy space.
    The walls were painted in her favorite shade—buttercup. Alongside the cash register on her right was a glass case for pastries. A lonely éclair sat waiting for a buyer. The early crowd must’ve come by. Well, if no one came in soon to claim the dessert, she would stick a dollar and some change in the register and sink her teeth into the piece of heaven herself. She rubbed her hands in anticipation.
    Behind the front counter was the espresso machine. That’s where she spent the majority of her time brewing drinks, hot and cold. Next to the espresso machine were two pots of drip coffee kept warm in their thermos. The old folks liked their drinks unflavored and bitter.
    In the space in front of the counter, wooden chairs surrounded three sets of tables in a cherry finish. The arrangement made it easy for Asa to chat it up with the regulars.
    Mornings were busier while the afternoons gave her a chance to catch her breath and enjoy her favorite part of the café—the books housed on shelves in the back, a mish-mash of items donated by the folks of Willowbrook.
    The clock on the wall chimed. One already. Time to grab a book and hunker down for a slow afternoon. In the back, she ran her finger over the spines of various books, and decided on Emmuska Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel . As she read, she was distracted by what she saw past the wall of windows in the café. The pickup truck was still parked in front of the bar, and gray clouds rolled in.
    Darn it, it wouldn’t snow. Since she’d lived in Willowbrook for, oh, six years now, she’d only witnessed snow twice. The three other times news forecasters predicted snow, they had been wrong. Rain had fallen instead. She remembered hearing or reading somewhere that the sky had to be a blanket of white and the temperature to drop below freezing before it would snow.
    After setting the book down, she hurried out the door and scrutinized the sky as though it held secrets. Gray, not cotton ball