Alberta

Chapter Fifteen: Flesh *

The dinner had been perfect, the kids had enjoyed the entertainment and we had all returned to our own rooms by ten.

I looked to Harper sleeping soundly in the bed beside ours and I quietly crept across the room to get a light jacket from the wardrobe. Ben sat down on the end of our bed "where are you going" he whispered.

I turned and placed the jacket over my shoulders as I did "I'm going to Willa's... we haven't caught up yet" I reply quietly.

"Are you going to come back" he asked concerned.

"I don't know" I replied honestly.

I didn't want to climb into that bed with Ben, it was as if everything inside of me repelled the thought, and it would be painful to make myself do it. I knew he still had desires and putting myself in a place to have him touch me again, it wasn't something I could do or wanted to do. It gave him mixed signals, and my signals weren't mixed, they were a firm no.

I walked to the door, put on my shoes and slipped out into the hallway, a relief washed over me to have left the room. I stood with my back to the door for a second before sucking up the energy to move. I walked a few doors down and rapped lightly against Willa's door.

Footsteps, a pause, and the door unlocked "Hi" she greeted opening the door in a matching Cami top and shorts, a silky material that was begging to be touched.

I reached out and let my fingers run along the hem "these are beautiful" I acknowledge removing my eyes from the material to the brown eyes waiting.

"A necessity" Willa replied, wincing as she pulled the Cami down and I observed her bright red shoulders and back.

"Oh Willa..." I gasped "what are you... ten" I added sarcastically "you didn't think to put sun lotion on" I ask, admiring her angry flesh upon her shoulders and the back of her neck.

"I thought I had put it on" she says defending herself "turns out it was a moisturiser in the same coloured bottle"

"You are an idiot" I accuse almost wincing myself at the look of it. "You didn't look red at dinner" I think back.

She nods. "I know. I think it just came out as the evening progressed. Oh Allie it really hurts" she begins to pout as she touches the tops of her arms.

"Shall I go get Morgan to come and put some aloe on it" I ask looking concerned. "Do you have any" I add.

Willa turns and walks to the fridge beside the desk in her room and she pulls out a tube of aloe Vera. "I never forget it" she replies, holding it up for me to inspect "not since that summer when we were seventeen and we got cremated at the beach. God do you remember that" she asks me with a smile.

I let out a laugh. "Who could forget... what with my red hair. I looked like an alien from mars"

Willa laughs, an infectious laugh that made her belly hurt, and me smile uncontrollably "well I'm glad the visual amuses you" I say with a grin "but let's not forget whose stood here now looking like a lobster" and she stops her laughing and holds her arms out to inspect once more.

"It really... really hurts" she admits.

"Here" she says handing me the tube.

I stick my hand out to stop her "isn't that what your girlfriend is for" I interject.

She thrusts it into my hand. "She's down at the bar with Brigham watching a baseball game and bonding" she replies.

I want to squeal childishly "please don't make me" as if she is something I would hate to touch, something slimy, and of course it was the opposite. I feared if I touched Willa it would be the end of my mental stability. Willa...topless... no no no... my heart raced at the thought. She reached for the hem of her Cami and she dragged it up over her head slowly, to avoid the skin that pained her, but instead the slow removal of her clothing made my body feel things I wasn't sure I had ever felt before.