“Either tell him or enjoy one more night and then walk away. Those are your options,” Darlene answered.
“I don’t want to do either one,” Holly whined.
“You don’t have a choice. If you need to hide for a week or two, come to New York. We’ll shop and see shows and do all those things that Holly McLean has always enjoyed. I’m not contagious, and I still have some vacation time left,” Darlene suggested.
“Thank you, but I probably just need some good hard work to get my mind off Bubba,” she said.
“Always works for me, but if you change your mind, you know where I am,” Darlene said, and then the screen went dark.
“Isn’t that just like you to have the last word,” Holly fumed until she realized that her phone battery was dead. “Dammit,” she said, and went straight to her computer to send a message to Darlene, but the internet was down.
Chapter Six
Holly dressed in jeans and covered her tank top with a chambray shirt. If she was going to ride a four-wheeler, the clothing she usually wore out into the fields seemed to be more appropriate than a sundress. She hadn’t thought to bring her work boots along, so her sneakers would have to do. After she tied her hair up in a ponytail, she checked her reflection in the mirror.
Tonight was going to be the night. Her heart was so heavy that she had to tell him who she really was, what she did for a living, and who her folks were. Then the pieces could fall where they would, but at least her mind would be at peace. She knew that anyone could be romantic for a week, but could cows and rocks really work together?
She narrowed her eyes and gave herself a silent lecture. Like Darlene told her: There were lots of fishes in the sea. Lula Ann would cease to exist after that night, and that was who Bubba was interested in. He’d feel intimidated for sure around Holly McLean. She was already packed and had already called an Uber to pick her up at midnight. Holly McLean would crawl into the back seat of that vehicle, and she would wake up tomorrow morning in her own apartment and her own bed. Lula Ann would cease to exist in those short hours in between Friday night and Saturday morning.
But it wouldn’t hurt to have just one more night with Bubba. She wanted to get back to work, and Lula Ann would no doubt shed some tears, but Holly was tired of keeping up a persona. She left the world of worry and came back to reality when she heard a knock on the door.
She threw it open, expecting to see Bubba on the porch, but her father stood there with a worried expression on his face. “Daddy, what are you doing here? Come in. Is everything all right? Where’s Mama?”
“I’m sorry to cut your vacation a little short, but it’s your mother. She’s in surgery for what could be a burst appendix, and …” His voice cracked.
“I’m packed and ready. Is she going to be all right?” she asked as she ran back to the bedroom. “Give me just a minute …” She rolled her suitcase to the living room, adjusted the thermostat, and turned off all the lights. “I’m ready now.”
“The doctors think she will come through just fine, but she’ll be in the hospital for a few days. I want to stay with her the whole time, so you’ll need to step up and take care of things for a while,” her father answered.
“Why didn’t you just call?” she asked. “I could have gotten an Uber or taxi to bring me straight to the hospital.”
“There’s nothing I can do at the hospital, and I didn’t want to deliver that kind of news over the phone,” her dad said. “Before they took your mother back, she told me to come get you, not send someone or call. I’m obeying her.”
Holly locked the door and put the key in the mailbox. “Mama did that so you wouldn’t sit in the waiting room and worry.”
Fletcher tossed the suitcase into the back seat of his Cadillac. “I know, and you know I’ve never been able to refuse her anything. It’s a good thing that she’s not one of those diamonds-and-fancy-things women. Holly, I have worried myself crazy allthe way down here to get you, and it won’t stop until she’s completely well. Your mother is the love of my life.”
“I know that, Daddy, and she feels the same about you. Why don’t you let me drive?” she suggested.
“Yes, please,” Fletcher answered, and handed her the keys while he put her suitcase and computer case in the back seat.
She slid into the driver’s seat, buckled her seat belt, and was about to back out onto the road when she remembered that Bubba was probably on his way. She hurriedly texted him and said that she’d had a family emergency and couldn’t make it that evening. Her heart seemed to drop to her knees when she thought of not seeing him again. If she had known that that sizzling kiss on the beach would be their last, she would have made out with him all night.
“Darlene?” Fletcher asked.
“No, just a friend that I met while I was down here,” she answered.
Just like that.She imagined snapping her fingers, and Holly was reborn while Lula Ann was put in the corner, most likely never to be heard from again.
“Have you had a good vacation?” Fletcher asked.
“Yes, I have,” she answered. “A great one, but Darlene got sick, so I was here alone. How are things at the office?”
“We got all the paperwork finished on that site out southeast of El Paso. A crew is headed that way in the next few days,” Fletcher answered. “You don’t have to keep me talking. Nothing will keep my mind off Noreen.”
The drive would normally have taken thirty minutes, but that evening nothing cooperated. Every traffic light was red and seemed to take forever to turn green. Sometimes she was so far back in line that when it did change colors, she didn’t even get through on the first run. Forty-five minutes later, the tinny GPS lady’s voice finally said, “You have reached your destination.”
Fletcher was out of the vehicle and headed toward the hospital entrance so fast that Holly had to run to catch up. “Daddy, you’ve got to slow down, or you’re going to have a heart attack.”
