Pining for You: Deep in the Pines

WILLA:

I didn’t plan on coming back here.

But when the man I thought I loved turned out to be another controlling bastard in a tailored coat, I threw my life in the back of a rental car and drove straight into the mountains.

I told myself it was temporary. Just until the storm passed. Just until I could breathe again.

But I didn’t expect Cole Walker to still be here.

Didn’t expect the man who once held my heart like it was something sacred… to still see me the same way.

Still rough around the edges. Still quiet. Still steady.

Still the only place I’ve ever really felt safe.

I just don’t know if I deserve it.

Not after the way I left.

COLE:

Willa Jennings is the girl I never stopped wanting.

She left this town without looking back, chasing big dreams and bigger cities, and I let her go.

Now she’s on my porch in the middle of a snowstorm, asking for nothing but a place to stay.

She doesn’t know I’ve been building this life with her shadow in my ribs the whole damn time.

I’ve got a daughter now. A quiet life in the pines. No room for chaos.

But Willa’s not chaos.

She’s everything.

And if she thinks she’s leaving again without knowing what it feels like to be kept, she’s wrong.