“Oh, Holly,” Mom cried from the bed, tears running down the side of her face.
Memories of all the times her mother had comforted Holly or shared in a celebration pushed against the wall of pain she carried inside. She took the uninjured hand her father had released. He covered both, and the three of them sobbed.
Holly was the first to get control of herself. She reached for a box of tissues and asked, “Why did you keep driving when the storm was so bad?”
“Because your sister was desperate to see you.” Dad wiped his eyes and blew his nose.
And now Ivy was in the ICU. “You still should have waited until it was safe. But that’s beside the point. I had no idea you knew where I lived. What could have brought you here?”
Her parents looked at each other, and her mother’s lips trembled, tears running down her face again.
“We came to tell you we were wrong.” Her father’s voice was so choked with emotion he could barely get the words out. “We want you to come home.”
Holly stared at them, trying to get her brain to make sense of what they were saying. Of course, they had been wrong. After promising Holly his undying love, Brett had gone behind her back and stepped out with her sister. Holly rubbed her temples. Hertwinsister. Somehow, being twins made it worse because of the close connection they had once shared.
“He deceived us all,” her mother said with a sniff.
Duh.A part of Holly wanted to lash out at them. Of course, Brett had deceived all of them. What had stunned her was how her parents justified what he and Ivy had done. They chose deceit and infidelity over honesty. Had they all really believed that, if he cheated on Holly, he wouldn’t eventually do the same to Ivy? Because that must have happened and was why they had come.
Holly prayed for the strength of discretion. There might come a time in the future when she could give voice to the pain she had carried for the last year, but the deep hurt they had inflicted on her didn’t just go away because they saidI’m sorry.
And they wanted her to move back to Denver? Once upon a time, they all lived there happily. Holly had enjoyed residing close to her family. Until a year ago, it had always been her desire to live near her parents, so when she married and had a family of her own, at least half the grandparents would be close. Was there a chance she could reclaim that dream?
Before she could decide what to say, two orderlies appeared at the open door with wheelchairs.
“Hey, Holly,” one of the young men said. “We’re here to take the Richardsons to x-ray.”
“Of course.” Her emotions raw and exposed, she could barely speak. “I’ll come back later.” She turned and left the room.
Zack paced the waiting room.From experience, he knew how long it could take to do any tests. He called his friends to let them know they’d made it safely to the hospital and thanked them again for helping track down the car.
Suddenly, the door from the ER opened and Holly burst through it. He had barely turned toward her when she threw herself in his arms and sobbed. What had happened? As before, Zack just held her until she was ready to speak.
She lifted her face to meet his gaze, her eyes red rimmed and swollen, her cheeks wet. “Am I a horrible person?”
Zack stiffened, fury growing inside him. What had those people said to her? He would give them a piece of his mind. He dropped his arms from around her, but Holly tightened her grip around his waist.
“It’s not them. It’s me. Thank you so much for believing in me and coming to my defense. I can’t tell you how important that is to me after what I’ve experienced at the hands of the people I thought loved me.”
He took her to a chair and sat down, pulling her onto his lap. “Tell me what upset you, then.”
She buried her face in his neck and cried a little more. To keep his anger in check, Zack did some visualization. The police academy had taught several techniques to ease stress and calm down, something he needed at the moment. Holding Holly, he imagined his quiet place, inspired by a parcel of land he had seen some years ago overlooking the Green River. Trees provided shade for a log cabin, but this time he wasn’t there alone.
In Zack’s mind, Holly came out of the door, dressed in comfortable clothes, her long hair pulled back in a looseponytail. When he realized the bundle she held in her arms was a baby, his pulse went wild.
In his arms at the hospital, Holly straightened. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing at all.” He brushed a tear from her cheek. “Are you ready to talk?”
Holly looked calmer now and nodded. She explained about her parents’ request for her to return to Denver. Just what Zack had feared.
“I’ll come with you,” he said without hesitation. “If that’s okay with you.”
A crease formed between her brows. “To visit my family?”
“No, if you move back to Denver.”
“Oh, Zack. You hate big cities. I remember you talked about it all those years ago at camp, and you’ve mentioned it more than once since I moved here.” Holly cupped his cheeks. “You would hate it.”
