Part of me thinks I’m naïve for thinking Hollis can change, but he did, he’s proven it with more than pretty words. I’ve never even seen his eyes stray to other girls and believe me all the girls are looking at him.
By the time we’ve ordered the drinks and they’ve been brought to the table, The Wild finally appears. They stroll in, sitting at the end of the table.
“Hollis,” my dad begins, and Hollis’s eyes roll over to him, “I couldn’t help but notice you sang your song.” My song. Our song. “Does that mean you’ve decided to record it?”
Hollis’s gaze drifts ever so subtly to me. “I have. Words from the heart should never be hidden.”
“From the heart, huh?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Who’s the lucky girl?” My dad asks.
I choke on my water and my dad looks at me.
“Swallowed wrong,” I croak.
Satisfied with my answer he turns back to Hollis at the end of the table.
“I don’t want to say yet.” Hollis shrugs. “I’m trying out this whole nice guy thing and that means respecting her right to privacy.”
Kira’s lips twitch with the threat of a smile.
The rest of the band is studiously glancing anywhere but at me. Across from me, Willow eyes me shrewdly. I haven’t told her about Hollis, the fewer who know the better, but I can see her putting two and two together.
“Can we order now?” I interrupt. “I’m starving.”
“Yeah, I’m hungry too,” Dean adds.
“Sure thing,” Ezra says, signaling for the waitress.
We order our food and I swear it takes forever for it to be ready and even longer for everyone to eat.
By the time we leave, it’s nearing ten o’ clock.
“You have some explaining to do,” Willow says, crossing her arms over her chest outside after our dads have walked away to wherever they’re parked.
I shrug. “I don’t know what you mean.”
She narrows her eyes. “Don’t lie. There’s something going on with you and the singer. Am I right?” She aims her question at Hollis who lingers with Kira and Rush—Fox and Cannon already headed back to the hotel.
I look at Hollis and he raises a brow at me, his expression telling me the decision is mine on whether or not to share this with her.
“We’re together,” I confess. “But you can’t say anything. My dad doesn’t know yet. He can’t.”
Willow rolls her eyes. “Believe me, I’ll keep my lips sealed. Don’t you remember how my dad freaked out over Dean?”
“He was pissed,” Dean pipes up.
Willow appraises me. “It’s our dads’ job to protect us—sometimes they go too far with it, and then it becomes our job to remind them we can make our own choices.”
I feel Hollis’s reassuring presence step up behind me.
“I know, and I’ll tell him, we’ll tell him, when I’m ready. I…” I pause and reach for Hollis’s hand. “I want to enjoy this for a little bit longer.”
She smiles. “I understand.”
She wraps her arms around me in a tight, bone-crushing hug. “We have to see each other again soon—no more of these long stretches,” she scolds.