"I have the physical need to say humana-humana."
"You're ridiculous," I mutter.
"Tell me he's single," she pleads under her breath, both hands gripping my arm.
"He is," I confirm. "But fair warning, he's totally not doing the dating thing."
She frowns. "Why not? Divorce damaged?" Her eyes grow wide. "Oh, God. Is he a widower?" she practically hisses the words given we're less than a dozen feet from the men now.
"He's not a widower," I tell her. "But I can confirm that he's damaged." To what extent, I have yet to discover.
We come to a stop in front of both men. They're huddled around all three kids, the two boys telling an animated tale about their run-in with a possum last night. One I was unfortunately present for and would retell with a great deal less enthusiasm considering the thing hissed at me as I used a broom to remove it from my kitchen.
Yeah.
Back door was left open and unattended for way too fucking long. Lucky for me, Harriet was hanging around the kitchen at the time of the possum's arrival, and she went all feral cat on his ass, keeping him from trespassing further into the house.
Holly pastes on a wide smile. "Hey, Jovi." Her teasing lilt sounds almost flirtatious and I have to fight the urge to stomp on her foot. Not that she can't flirt with Jovi. He's single. She's single. It would be totally fine, and I wouldn't care at all. Though I do find that tension melts from my chest like ice hitting a hot stove when his brow furrows at her tone in confusion, and his response sounds dry, not interested.
"Holly, nice of you to join us," he says, and that's undeniable sarcasm in there. "I so missed hearing your constant, and wildly inaccurate, insights on our day-to-day lives."
A laugh almost bubbles out of me, remembering how he referred to her as an annoying narrator after her last visit.
Holly, to her credit, chooses to ignore the jab, batting her lashes at him as she says, "Just wait until you hear my thoughts after I've been away all these months. I bet I've made observations upon my return you'd be thrilled to hear."
My head snaps toward her, jaw instantly tight. Before I can ask her what exactly she's trying to imply, she goes on, "Meanwhile, I see you're all still struggling with basic social skills." She extends a hand toward Cas. "I'm Holly. I do some modeling for Liz, but most importantly, I'm her best friend."
Cas looks startled for a second, but he recovers fast enough to clasp the hand she's offering. "Casper Hayes. Pleasure to meet you, ma'am."
I catch her little nose twitch and say, "Ma'am is charming in cowboy. He's not calling you old."
Cas's amber eyes get round and the slightest blush tints his cheeks through the light stubble covering half his face. "No, ma'am. Absolutely not."
Jovi chuckles, elbowing him in the side. "Calm down, man. You can talk to Holly the way you talk to any one of us. Hell, you probably use more manners when talking to the horses than she'd know what to do with it."
She glares at him, before making an obvious decision to pretend he has ceased to exist. Bending at the waist, she holds her hand out toward Cas's kid. "How are you, fine sir?"
He giggles, one hand covering his face, even more bashful than his father.
"His name's Wyatt," Gavin answers for him. "He's my friend."
"He'sourfriend," Remmi corrects.
"Well, any friend of Remmi and Gavin's is a friend of mine." She smiles. "My name is Holly, and I'm delighted to meet you, Wyatt."
"You guys out here for a reason?" Jovi asks, rolling his eyes at her display before they catch on my camera. "Looking for a rustic backdrop?"
"And a cowboy," Holly chimes in before I can answer. "Which one of you wants to help out?" She points at Jovi. "Not you."
"She's kidding," I insist, waving a hand up to disengage this conversation before it goes any further. "It's a solo shoot."
"Yeah," Holly says, voice dropping to a low monotone, "because you don't have any other choice while your business is in transition. And solo shoots are still better than nothing."
Cas's brow furrows, but it's Jovi who asks, "What is she talking about?"
"My library of stock images usually consists of couple shots since I cater primarily to romance authors," I explain, trying to sound as matter of fact as I can to dial down the direness of the situation Holly so unhelpfully highlighted.
One which is very real but also very much my problem and not his.
