“Is… Is this whereyoulive?” My voice was so soft that I wasn’t sure if Holden heard me. I’d seen this scenario in far toomany horror movies and it made me squirmy when it was make-believe. Now that it was a possibility, I nearly crapped my pants.
The gorgeous man turned to me and sighed. “Will you please come inside? We need to talk.” I hadn’t heard of a serial killer who saidplease.
I wasn’t a religious man, but I prayed I wasn’t taking my life into my own hands. “Okay.”
We exited the truck, and I followed Holden through the garage and into his house. I took off my shoes after he removed his and left them in the mud room.
I followed him into his kitchen, hoping and praying there was a way to convince him to believe me. I glanced around to see Happy sitting on the counter by the fridge. She winked at me but didn’t offer any advice.
Holden reached into a cabinet and retrieved two glasses. He went to the freezer to pull a bottle of vodka before walking to the table.
“Start over.” He put the glasses on the table and poured a bit of vodka into each, sliding one to me.
“Try to make sense this time, will you?”Happy buffed her nails on the flowered skirt she was wearing and then blew on them.
I rolled my eyes as she crossed her legs, having changed her shoes to bright red patent leather boots. It never occurred to me that spirits would have a full wardrobe with them. She extended her laced glove hand toward her brother and nodded.
“Okay. Let’s start like this. I believe your family would benefit by reaching out to Holly’s recipients. Maybe your parents have doubts that they did the right thing by allowing your sister’s organs to be donated to folks in need, and if they are, maybe speaking to the recipients would help them see that it wasn’t a mistake.”
“There’s my smart guy. Great job.”She winked.
Thanks for nothing, Happy.
I slugged down the clear liquor in my glass, shivering as it slid down my gullet. The taste was insignificant, but the vodka burn took my breath.
Holden’s gaze never left mine. “Are you a…what? A medium? A clairvoyant? A snake oil salesman? Are you here to suddenly save my family for the small price of—what?”
“No!” I protested his brash assessment, though what the hell did I expect him to think? I barged into his world and presumed to tell him how he should heal from his sister’s death? His whole family? Who the hell did I think I was?
“Okay, uh, I see your point, but as a casual observer, I still think it’s a good idea. I don’t mean to sound like a know-it-all, but I think if you give it some thought, you’ll see I have a valid point. Tell me about Holly.”
“How do you know her name was Holly? Why did you call her Happy?” He poured each of us another drink. At this rate, we were going to be shitfaced in no time.
I took a deep breath and glanced at Happy across the room. She stared at me and smiled.
“Holden seems so kind that you can only imagine his little sister would be happy.”She giggled after she said it.
I wanted to balk at her suggestion, but she wasn’t wrong. I could totally see the beauty that ran through their family, though I didn’t know them.
“When you knocked on the window of Brooke’s car after the accident, I could see how kind you were. You stopped for someone you didn’t know and had never met, and you rescued me. I can only imagine that same kindness runs through your whole family. It’s nice to witness.” Maybe it sounded like bullshit, but I meant what I said.
Holden smiled as he stared at me. “Did you…no, you’re too young to have met Holly. How do you knowofher?”
I sighed. “I just had a feeling that you were missing someone. You said her name that night when you stopped to help me after the truck incident.”Another lie.
“I did? I don’t remember that.” His brow wrinkled as he tried to remember, so I crossed my fingers in my lap that he’d let it go. I didn’t like to be untruthful with anyone, especially Holden Rose.
“You said my wreck was too close to how you lost Holly. I didn’t press you on it then because I was too shaken up.” Telling more lies wasn’t good, but I wanted to do right by Happy…by both of them.
“Wow. That’s uh… I guess I was shaken up, too. That’s exactly what it was. It was how we lost Happy. A semi going too fast on an icy road. She even had the same kind of car you were driving.
“I went to see it, and I tossed my lunch right there in the salvage yard. It was smashed like a pancake. It’s a wonder she was still alive when they cut her out of the damn thing. She’d checked the box on her driver’s license to be an organ donor, so the doctors told my parents they needed to decide before the organs started shutting down because she was brain dead.
“I talked them into doing it. I talked my parents into unplugging Holly and letting the doctors harvest her organs. If Holly had gone to all the trouble of checking the box on her driver’s license, I figured that was what she wanted to happen in the worst-case scenario.
“I’m glad Mom doesn’t explicitly remind me that I was the one to talk them into it, but their little holiday gatherings remind me of it every year. That’s why I can’t do it anymore. I need to forgive myself for telling them to pull the plug, but I can’t do it with them continuing to grieve as though her accident just happened.”
Holden poured each of us another drink, but I didn’t pick up my glass. He shot his back and stared into space.
