Guilt surged through Holt so hard and so suddenly that he had to look away.
That one line hit too close, and he didn’t want her to see it shining in his eyes.
“Didn’t the two of you keep going over the last two days about how secrets were what got people hurt?” Mina threw their words back at them.
His mother was right to call them out on that, and Holt was carrying one of the biggest unsaid things between him and June. The weight of it felt like a stone in his chest, pretending it could remain there forever if he just never named it. He kept his eyes averted from June, knowing if he looked at her now, he was not entirely certain what she would see.
“Look,” he said, his tone clipped by the effort of pulling himself back into the moment. “Just tell us what you’ve done here. And please, for once, don’t let me find out you are involved in anything that’s happened in this town lately.”
“What?” Mina spluttered. “I may think the two of you should give each other another chance, and if you can’t see what still exists between you, then forgive me for trying to open both your eyes, but that is as far as it goes.” She shook her head. “I didn't orchestrate the incidents, the fires, or any of the danger. I only gave things a little push with help from those four people who were only too willing to help.” Her mouth curved into a smug little smile. “As it turns out, your son, Holt, and your daughter, June, both want the two of you to be happy and thought it was high time you stopped drifting around alone and found someone to share the rest of your lives with again.”
June looked startled at that. “Willa said that?” she asked.
Mina nodded. “Very plainly, yes.” Then she glanced at Holt. “And Rad said much the same. Your son thinks more likeyou than you realize, only he has the advantage of being less emotionally constipated about it.”
Holt gave his mother a long look that would have silenced almost anyone else.
It didn't silence her.
“And because I know how good the two of you were together,” Mina continued, undeterred, “I believed you were meant to find each other again.”
“So you decided to give fate a push,” Holt said flatly.
“Oh, no.” Mina waved that off at once. “Fate did that all on its own. I can’t say I liked how it happened, mind you.” Her expression softened, and for once the emotion there looked entirely genuine. “You with the car accident, June, and you, Holt, getting shot. That frightened me half to death.”
“So you nudged Willa and Rad into enticing Holt and me to come ‘heal’ in Sandpiper Shores for the summer.” June folded her arms again, but less defensively this time.
“I did,” Mina said. “And the fact that you both came so willingly says more than either of you would like to admit. It shows that somewhere inside you both already know where home still is.”
Holt couldn't argue with that, and it annoyed him that she knew it.
“Okay, Mother. Fine. You’ve confessed to your meddling. Please stop.” He exhaled.
“I will,” Mina said, though she sounded suspiciously willing for that promise to be entirely sincere. “But then the two of you have to do one thing for me.”
June gave her a look.
“And what would that be, Mina?” she asked suspiciously.
“Go on a date,” Mina said promptly. “A proper date. One where you aren’t discussing the case, not interrogating anyone, not dredging up old evidence, but actually talking to each other.”
Holt opened his mouth.
Mina spoke right over him. “I’ll even pay for dinner at the top restaurant at the yacht club.” She tried to bribe them with a reservation at one of the best restaurants in town. “It’s so beautiful there down at the docks with the yachts bobbing on and swaying to the gentle push of the ocean.”
“I’d much rather go to the Sandpiper Shores Hotel,” June said before Holt could form a response. She leaned back and eyed Mina challengingly. “Especially if you’re paying for it, Mina.”
He looked at her.
His heart gave a strange, sharp lurch at the simple fact that she had said it so easily.
“We run too great a risk of running into Victoria or one of her children at the yacht club.” June glanced back at him, then at Mina.
“True,” Mina admitted. “I hadn’t thought of that.” She cocked her head slightly, not giving an inch to June's challenge. “And I don’t mind where you pick as long as you go on a dinner date, maybe a walk after, and you don’t dare talk about work!”
Then both women turned and looked at him.
“What about you, Holt?” June asked, and the smile she gave him hit somewhere in him that had not felt this young in years.“Would you like to go on a date with me to the Sandpiper Shores Hotel restaurant?”
