If Ever I Fall (Rhode Island Romance #1) by Sophia Renny Page B

both looking at her, you could’ve been in the room stripped naked and
licking a lollipop and they wouldn’t have noticed you.”
    Audrey gave an
affronted sniff.
    Willa blushed. “I
don’t know what you mean.”
    Collette shot her a
look of disbelief. “Don’t tell me you didn’t see the way they were staring at
you. I was watching the video feed when you all went upstairs. That older
brother, especially. Joe. Talk about burning looks. I heard Veronica telling
the cameraman to zoom in for a close-up.”
    Willa dropped her
head in her hands and groaned. “I signed up for a home remodeling show, not a
dating show!”
    “No wonder Veronica
was so excited when she first saw you,” Collette went on. “She knew how this
story would play out as soon as you opened that door.”
    “She’s assured me
that that’s just the way the brothers are. Tony puts on the charm with all the
homeowners.”
    “Is that what she
called it?” Mercy muttered.
    Willa lifted her
head. “I’m backing out. I’ll go talk with her right now. Tell her this isn’t
what I thought it would be.”
    “And why would you
do that?” Shirley asked. “What’s wrong with letting two handsome guys flirt
with you? You should be flattered.”
    “I’m not used to
it.”
    “I don’t believe
that,” Audrey said. “You’re very pretty, Willa.”
    Willa rose jerkily
to her feet and began pacing the room. “Looks don’t matter. As soon as guys
find out about me, how weird I can be, they act like I have some contagious
disease.”
    “Then they don’t
deserve you,” Collette retorted, ever Willa’s staunch defender.
    “Have you ever been
in love, Willa?” Mercy asked hesitantly.
    The girls had never
broached the subject with her before. They had no reservations talking about
every little detail of their own romantic relationships—some details that Willa
would’ve preferred not to know!—but had been respectful about Willa’s
boundaries in that area.
    For some reason,
Willa now felt the urge to unburden some of the emotions she’d kept concealed
for far too long. A whisper inside her head questioned how much this desire had
to do with the strange feelings that had washed over her the second she’d
opened her front door to Tony and Joe Rossetti.
    “The longest
relationship I had lasted three weeks,” she confessed, words long-buried
suddenly pouring out of her. “I lied to him about my background and my job. I
tried to change everything about myself, the way I dressed and spoke, just so I
could fit into his world. I made myself physically ill trying to keep who I
really was a secret.”
    Audrey jumped up
from the sofa and stood in Willa’s path. She put her hand on Willa’s arm,
gently bringing a halt to the restless pacing. She lightly set her other hand
on Willa’s shoulder and looked Willa straight in the eye. “Listen to me, Willa
Cochrane. Don’t ever change who you are for someone else. There’s a man out
there for you who will understand that love isn’t about changing someone, even
if he thinks it’s for your own good. Real love is about finding someone who’s
already the perfect fit.”
     
    Soaking
in the claw-foot tub that evening, Willa idly rubbed her right arm, from wrist
to elbow and back again. She encircled her wrist, pressed her thumb against her
pulse, felt its accelerated tempo.
    She reflected on
the things she’d shared with the girls today. She could almost laugh about it
now. It’d been impossible for the four women to totally conceal the relief in
their expressions upon learning she’d had sexual relationships. The way she’d
refrained from participating in any of their past conversations around that
subject probably had them wondering if she was a virgin or asexual.
    She would never
share with them that she’d treated losing her virginity like one of her
research projects: methodically and logically, mapping out each step that would
get her from point A to point B. She read books, poured over