Bennett that he seems to have found someone. But I can’t keep shaking this feeling that Willow is hiding something from us, and possibly even from Bennett.
It took a few days of convincing, but Axel finally took me to visit Phoenix. Besides Jack, Phoenix is the one who is most connected to the outside world. Hopefully, he’ll also know how to help me find what I’m looking for, even though I’m not 100% sure exactly what it is I’m searching for.
What I’m hoping to find is something to calm me down and prove she’s not here with bad intentions and that she’s not going to hurt Bennett.
‘It’s not too late to back out of this, little one. We can just go home,’ Axel says as we start to pull into Phoenix and Jenna’s driveway.
‘I’m the one that pushed him to start dating online and I can’t shake this feeling that she’s not telling the whole story or leaving something out. If Bennett were to get hurt, it would be all my fault.’
‘Little one, you know it would not be your fault. If Willow is hiding something and Bennett gets hurt in any way, then it’s her fault. It will be on Willow and not anything to do with you. You’re such a good person and such a good soul that I know you’re blaming yourself, but this is not on you. All you were doing is trying to help out our friend. Right now, he is happy and that might have to be enough,’ Axel says.
While I know it’s the code up here that each man stays out of the other one’s business, but I just can’t let this go. But I don’t even have to say it out loud. When I look over at my husband, he knows.
‘Fine. Let’s at least make this quick so you can go lie down and rest. You’ve been stressing yourself out way too much about this.’
‘I can agree to that.’
When we get out of the truck, Jenna greets us at the door with a huge smile on her face.
‘Phoenix told me why you are here, and I want to help. So, I reached out to an old friend and gave him the information that we had on Willow, and he sent me back an e-mail. I haven’t read it yet, because I wanted to wait until you were here,’ Jenna says.
Sometimes I forget that Jenna used to have a ton of connections. When she lived in Denver, her parents would network in all the right circles and they were always on all the society pages. But she walked away from that life and from the arranged marriage that her parents tried to set up for her and ended up here in Whiskey River, where she met Phoenix.
So Jenna knows to talk to all the right people. I don’t know why I didn’t think to ask if she had any connections before, but I’m grateful that she does.
Her laptop is set up at their dining room table, so we gather around. Then she pulls up the e-mail which verifies Willow’s name, birthday, the fact that her dad did recently just die, and then there’s a link to the only social media profile that the contact was able to find on her.
I feel a lot better knowing that all the basics are true, and that she didn’t lie about who she is. Jenna pulls up the link that is in the e-mail and we both gasp at the same time. It’s not a social media account like we thought it. Instead, it’s kind of set up like a dating profile, only it’s a mail order bride website. The picture displayed is clearly her.
‘Why would she marry Bennett if she was trying to set up a mail-order bride scenario?’ I ask out loud.
‘That’s something you’re going to have to ask her, little one,’ Axel says, but his voice is soft as he knows this is not the news that we were hoping to find.
‘It should be you that talks to her as you two seem to connect more,’ Jenna says.
I know she’s right because I thought we had a really strong connection.
We say our goodbyes and go home. All this information has given me a lot to think about, and I want to make sure that I approach this the right way. Even though I know my husband is not going to be happy about it, he knows me well and knows I’m not going to stop.
‘You’re not going to drop this, are you, little one?’ He asks once we get home.
‘No, I’m not. But I promise to wait a few days and really think about how I want to go about this. Deal?’
‘That’s fair enough,’ Axel says, pulling me into his arms.
‘Now my giant, take me to the river.’
As promised, I waited a few days. But now we’re going to talk to Willow and Bennett. I’ve been going over and over in my head what I want to say and her possible reactions or reasons, but everything I come up with leads to things not being good. When I considered letting it go, since Bennett is so happy, I couldn’t do it. If he’s going to be hurt, I’d rather it be now rather than several years down the road when it’s just going to hurt a hell of a lot more.
Since they aren’t expecting us, Axel walks up and knocks on the door knowing that he’ll probably I have a shotgun in her face when the door opens. It’s just how the guys are around here. And I’m right because there stands Bennett with a shotgun. Though he drops it as soon as he sees us.
‘Hey, man everything okay?’ Bennett asks as he steps aside for us to come in.
‘We’re about to find out,’ Axel says and then nods to me.
With shaky hands, I pull out the folded piece of paper with her mail-order bride profile on it.
‘Does Bennett know about this?’ I ask holding the paper open for both of them to see. Though really, I’m watching her more than I watch Bennett. Only it’s not the shocked or disgusted look that I was thinking I’d get. Bennett moves to Willow’s side and wraps an arm around her waist.
‘Yes, I know. It’s how we met.’
At his words, I look over at Willow and her eyes are wide and she looks scared.
‘Why didn’t you just tell us that?’ I sigh and sit down on the couch. Axel sits down as close as he possibly can and wraps an arm around me. Though I’m sure if this wasn’t a serious conversation, he would have pulled me into his lap instead.
‘I wasn’t exactly proud of it,’ Willow says.
‘I kept getting this feeling that you were hiding something and even more so on your wedding day. I wish you had just told us, we wouldn’t have cared. You two are obviously happy together and that’s what matters. Not how you met.’
‘I checked out that online dating site that you told me about a while back, but it just wasn’t for me. Then I started looking around and came across her profile and reached out. But when I first saw her picture there was this connection I couldn’t ignore,’ Bennett says.
‘Kind of like when I first saw you, little one,’ Axel says squeezing my hip.
‘Why hasn’t this profile been taken down? You two are married and you’ve been for a couple weeks now,’ I ask.
‘We emailed them a copy of the marriage certificate, basically proving that we fulfilled the contract. It’s on them to take it down it. I’m sure it will be down soon. Unfortunately, I don’t have any control over the profile itself,’ Willow says.
‘Well, we need to have lunch with the girls so that you can fill them in too. We’re all going to want to know why you did it and about your life before you moved out here,’ I tell her.
‘I didn’t lie about anything,” Willow says with a glint of defiance in her eyes. “I came out here because my dad died, and I had no one, and nothing. That part is all true. I just went about it a little differently.’ She shrugs like it’s no big deal.
”But really, it’s kind of is. It’s not the traditional route someone uses to find someone,” I say.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Bennett and Axel were exchanging a few silent looks. So there might be more to the story they’re not sharing.
‘Then I have one question for you. Have you been up front and told Bennett everything? I don’t care if you tell me or tell the rest of the girls, but I want to make sure that he knows everything.’ I say to her and watch closely for a reaction.
For the fraction of a second, I swear I see guilt in her eyes but replaced so quickly with a smile as she turns to Bennett.
‘He knows all the important things, but we’re still learning about each other too,’ she says, smiling up at him.
It’s a cop-out answer, but I guess I’ll let it go for now.
We make plans for lunch and then leave.
Once back in the truck heading home, I’m thinking over everything she said.
‘What was Bennett trying to tell you?’ I ask. Axel has no emotion on his face when he says,’ It was a look that said he didn’t want to talk about it right now.’
‘So, she is still hiding something. I hope for his sake that she has at least told Bennett what it is.’
And I hope for her sake that she’ll open up about it so that we can help her.
