His eyebrows raise and the smirk deepens. “I’m going to ignore almost everything in that sentence and just concentrate on the word ‘future.’ Because I like that you’re thinking of a future with me. Actually I fucking love it, Larry.”
“Ugh!” I give him a shove, but I’m laughing—until I feel something lick my ankle. Then the laughter turns into a shriek of horror.
Holden pushes me against the side of the truck and stands in front of me ready to fight whatever vicious wildlife assault me. His head dips down and he chuckles, standing up with a black and tan Dachshund in his arms wearing a plaid bow tie. I recognize him instantly, because she keeps pictures of them behind the checkout counter. And then her familiar voice fills the air.
“Garth!” comes the frustrated voice. “I said HEEL!”
I rock up on my toes and peek over Holden’s shoulder to see Cat charging toward us through the darkened woods from the road, another Dachshund, this one brown is running along behind her, trying to keep up. She’s holding a flashlight, the beam bobbing around wildly as she runs. It lands on Holden and freezes, because she does.
“Hey, Cat,” Holden says casually, like we haven’t just been caught with our pants down…well, almost anyway. Wayne, the other little dog, wearing a bow tie that matches his brother’s, trots ahead of Cat and stops at Holden’s feet. He bends to pet him, and reunite him with his brother, and leaves me exposed. Cat’s flashlight is now on me. I move my hands, crossing my arms over my bare midriff. Not like it matters. I’m very clearly in nothing but a bra and leggings. Cat went to Yale. She’s a smart cookie.
“Please say you’re fucking kidding me, Winnie. Him?”
“Yes. Him,” I confirm and drop my hands and stand taller because I’m not ashamed.
Cat walks over to Holden and scoops Wayne and Garth in her arms and without another word marches out of the forest. Holden sighs and turns to me. “I hope she doesn’t hold me against you.”
He walks back over to me and opens the passenger door so I can climb in. I look up at him and give him a small smile. “If she does, that’s on her. I’ll be okay with it. I know you’ve changed because I’ve let you show me.” I pause and my smile turns sheepish. “And I’m sorry I followed you to the rink like a stalker.”
“I should have just told you what I was doing in the afternoons.” Holden returns my sheepish smile. “I was annoyed and sick of explaining myself.”
“Well, that’s true. And I mean, of course that was totally your fault,” I say, my sheepish grin turning devious. “I wasn’t acting like an annoying brat at all.”
He laughs. “Get your ass in the car before I go for round two.”
His grin is much more loving than lustful. He’s falling for me as much as I’m falling for him and knowing that fills me with joy. The emotion is startling because it’s been so damn long since I felt pure happiness. I pull my shirt on as he starts the truck and my first instinct in my blissful haze is to call my dad and tell him about this. That I’m happy. That things are starting to not just go well but be great. And I can’t. He’ll never know.
And just like that, my mood plummets.
16
Holden
Winnie got really quiet on the way back to her place. And it isn’t a contented, post-orgasm quiet. It’s also not a Shit, my friend just caught me sleeping with the enemy quiet either. It’s something deeper. Sadder. I want to talk to her about it, but I still have work to do on the kitchen tonight if I am going to meet the deadlines I promised Jude. And honestly, she doesn’t look like she wants to talk about it.
“I’m going to take a shower,” she says as we climb the stairs to the porch.
“Call me if you need someone to scrub your back,” I say and wink. She smiles, but her eyes remain filled with sadness.
She’s all I can think about as I head into the kitchen and start placing the cabinets against the now dry, freshly painted walls. I have to wait until Mike and Dave are back tomorrow to drill the top ones to the wall, but I get all the bottom ones in. As I’m adhering the last one, she wanders into the kitchen, hair wet, wearing pajama bottoms and a T-shirt. She’s breathtaking.
She glances at my work. “I love the Shaker style.”
I smile. “I thought it would match the character of the house.”
“It does.” She nods and walks toward the fridge. “Thank God you didn’t let Jude pick them. We’d have some weird modern cabinets made out of recycled hockey pucks or something and they’d end up melting in the Maine humidity.”
I laugh, but she doesn’t. Something is very up. But what? I watch her as she peers inside the fridge. “Well, these are made out of salvaged wood. Your brother is very environmentally conscious.”
“Yeah, he always cared more about saving the world than saving himself,” she mutters the profound statement almost absently. “Thank God Zoey came back into his life and made him want to improve more than just the world around him.”
She pulls a half-empty bottle of white from the fridge and turns toward where the cupboards should be. “Right, the glasses are in the dining room now.”
She starts to walk past me, but I step into her path. “The fact that your brother married Zoey Quinlin is amazing. He had such a crush on her when we were kids it was painful to watch. He must feel like he won the lottery.”
Winnie nods. “He did. She’s way out of his league.”
I’m blown away. “He threatened to murder me once when I flirted with her.”
