I was sure a good number of cellphones had come out to record that encounter, and odds were, it would be on the internet in no time, but I couldn’t find it in me to give a shit.
As I rushed out of the bar, the image of Holly’s face played in my mind on a continuous loop. The pain in her eyes, the hurt and betrayal, it was like a knife to the gut, stabbing overand over. I jumped behind the wheel of my Range Rover and threw it into gear, whipping out of the parking lot at a carelessly fast speed. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to have an accident before I could find my girl, explain everything, then beg for her forgiveness.
I hit the button on my steering wheel to call Holly, but all it did was ring and ring, the shrill sound blasting through my speakers and stabbing onto my ears.
“Holly, baby, it’s me,” I spoke into the dark cab of the car as soon as I got her voicemail. “Please. Please call me back. What you saw, it isn’t what it looked like. I swear. I can explain everything. Please just call me back.”
I disconnected and tried again. That time, the phone didn’t even ring before cutting over to voicemail. “Shit,” I hissed, slamming my palm against the steering wheel. My stomach twisted violently as I raced through the streets toward her apartment.
I jerked the wheel hard, turning into the back alley so fast my tires squealed. The first thing I noticed was that her car wasn’t in its usual spot, but that didn’t stop me from slamming on the brakes and throwing the gearshift into park. I jumped out, not bothering to kill the ignition or shut the door, before racing toward the building. I keyed in the code, nearly ripping the door off the hinges as soon as it unlocked.
“Holly,” I shouted as I raced up the stairs. “Holly, are you in there?” I called as I beat my knuckles against the wooden door. Nothing. I pressed my ear to the door, straining to hear anything on the other side, but all was quiet.
Pulling the phone from my back pocket, I hit her contact and held it down by my leg, listening to see if I could hear it ringing from the other side. There was no sound. There wasn’t even any light coming from the crack near the floor.
Panic raced through my veins, making my blood burn as I took a stumbling step back and raked a hand through my hair violently. I didn’t know what the hell to do. I couldn’t remember a time when I’d felt so helpless. I was terrified I wouldn’t find her. Or that, if I did, she wouldn’t care to hear what I had to say. I didn’t know what the hell to do or where to look for her. All I knew was that I couldn’t lose her. The woman owned my heart, and if I lost her, if she ended us, I would never get it back.
Then an idea popped into my head. Lifting the phone back up, I scrolled through my contacts until I got to Raylan’s name, and hit call. It rang twice before he answered.
“Already talked to Lennix, so if you’re callin’ to explain, you don’t need to. It’s all good.”
“No, it’s not,” I croaked. “I can’t find Holly. She’s not at her apartment, and I don’t know where the hell else to look.” Squeezing my eyes closed, I let the pain wash over me. “Please tell me you have some idea where she might be.”
Silence carried over the line for one beat, then two. By the third, I felt like I was going to come out of my skin. Then Raylan spoke. “There might be one place. I don’t know if she still goes there, but it used to be where she went when she was hurting and needed space to put herself back together.”
Desperation and hope warred against each other inside of me. “Tell me.”
I pulledup to the curb the GPS led me to, cutting off the engine and looking out the passenger window at the big, red brick house. According to Raylan, this was where their oldest sister,Gypsy, and her husband, Marco, lived. It was the house where Holly had spent most of her childhood and teenage years before moving out on her own.
All the windows were dark, and Raylan said the couple was out of town on a short vacation to the Outer Banks, but it was where I hoped to find the woman who held my heart in the palm of her hand.
Climbing out of the car, I headed up the driveway, going past the main house. I let out a sigh of relief when I spotted Holly’s SUV in the driveway. Just like Raylan said, a gate led to the backyard. I punched in the code he’d given me to unlock it, and pushed it open. Past the backyard, a smaller structure butted up against the woods at the property line. It looked like a miniature version of the main house, and the windows were lit up with the warm glow of lights coming from the inside.
She was here, and she was safe. And I could only hope she would talk to me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Holiday
Curling my knees tighter to my body, I pulled the throw blanket higher, tucking it under my chin and snuggling deeper into the squashy couch cushions, hoping this place would offer me the same calm and comfort that it always had in the past.
Before I bought One More Chapter and turned it into what it was now, this house had been where I went for comfort. For solace. It wasn’t so much the actual house as the memories that came from my time spent here that always made me feel better.
This tiny house was where I went whenever someone picked on me at school, or when I caught my date at the Homecoming dance making out with Kelly Martin beneath the school bleachers. This was where I went for every major milestone in my life after the age of six, when I needed to just be. To soak in all the good or push out all the bad.
That was why I was here now. I hoped it would work its usual magic on my battered and bruised heart. The problem was, it had never hurt the way it was hurting now.
I wriggled deeper into the back cushions, hoping to find the essence of the woman who lived here before.
With Gypsy and Marco gone and the main house empty, the silence was thicker than usual. I felt it pressing down on me, like it was trying to push my head under water.
It didn’t help that I’d turned my cellphone off and left it in my car, but the damn thing wouldn’t stop going off. Lennix and Tanner had been blowing it up, then my brother Raylan had joined in, and I couldn’t stand the noise. I was starting to rethink my decision when a knock sounded on the carriage house’s front door.
My head came off the arm of the couch, and I stared at the door with a frown, wondering who the hell it could be. I hadn’t told anyone where I was going, so no one should be knocking on the door.
I started to think my mind was playing tricks on me, and maybe I didn’t hear what I thought I heard, when another knock came. Only, that time, a familiar deep voice followed right after.
“I know you’re in there, Sunshine. Please open the door.” My mouth dropped open, but the words got stuck in my throat. “Baby, I know you’re in there. Please. Just five minutes, and if you don’t like what I have to say, I’ll leave. I give you my word.” Another beat of silence followed, and while I tried to decide what the hell I was going to do, the next words out of his mouth sealed my decision. “That’s fine. If you won’t answer, I’ll just sleep out here on the front porch. I’ve slept in worse places. This’ll be nothing.”
