“Okay, well, if you change your mind and decide—”
“Just ask the question, Holly.”
She clenches her teeth before blurting out, “What happened with you and your dad?”
I flinch, but joke. “See, that wasn’t so bad.”
“Sorry, was that too rude?”
“No, you’re good. It’s just… complicated. It might take a while.”
“Well, we have nothing but time.”
“True.” I rub my forehead. “Okay, the short version: I was a mess after my mom died. She’d been sick for a while, so we knew it was coming. But I don’t think you can ever be completely prepared for something like that.”
She nods, and I know she—of all people—understands the pain of losing a mom.
“I was in my early twenties. My mom was gone. And… I felt like my dad wasn’t as upset as I was.” I stare down at the paper in my hands. “What I didn’t realize then is that my dad and mom had done a lot of their grieving together. Before she was gone. When I found out he was seeing Joyce after mom was only gone a few months…”
Holly places a hand on my forearm. Her silent show of support gives me the strength to continue.
“We exchanged some words. He told me I needed to grow up. I told him he needed to keep it in his pants.” I tighten my grip on the paper and it crinkles slightly. “It ended with me saying I needed some space. He could do what he wanted with his company. We’ve barely been able to have a civil conversation since.”
She stares at me intently with those brilliant green eyes of hers. My palms grow sweaty, and I have to tighten my grip on the scissors to keep from letting the slip out of my grasp.
“I know this probably isn’t going to be a popular suggestion…” She lifts her shoulders apologetically. “But maybe you should sit down with your dad and have a serious conversation. Let him know how you feel.”
“Well, that’s the problem, isn’t it? We Noble men aren’t the best at talking about mundane things. Like football or baseball. Talking about feelings…” I shake my head and turn back to cutting chunks out of the folded paper in my hand. “We’d be in trouble before we started.”
“Maybe that’s the way it would have been in the past. But you can’t worry about the past. Or the future.”
“Is that some new-Agey ‘be present and mindful’ B.S. you picked up in a yoga class?” I scoff and take a few angry cuts at my snowflake. “Because that might work while you’re trying to get into downward dog, but it doesn’t have the same effect on two stubborn sons of bitches who haven’t seen eye to eye… ever.”
“Well, at least you’re self-aware.”
I glance up at her. “Come again?”
“You admit that you’re a stubborn son of a bitch.” She smiles sweetly. “You’re already halfway to achieving that present mindful bullshit.”
A pit settles in my stomach, along with a heavy dose of guilt and shame. “I’m also an ass.”
“See. I told you. Self-aware.” Holly smirks to herself, and I once again find myself struggling to breathe.
What hold does this woman have on me? Forty-eight hours ago, she was little more than a name to me. A name my dad liked to throw out during our rare conversations as a way to make me feel like shit.
Now, she’s more than a name. She’s Holly, the woman who has somehow found a way to crawl under my skin. The woman who has taken such a hold of me, I can’t think straight.
I clocked her as striking from the start. That hasn’t changed, but she’s even more than that. Sitting with her shapely legs curled underneath her, she’s cutting away at her snowflake with as much enthusiasm as she seems to approach everything. Her tongue is sticking out of the corner of her mouth in focus. I wonder if she even realizes she’s doing it.
I wonder what her lips and tongue taste like. I bet she tastes like the sugar cookies she baked and the rum we stole from Dad’s desk.
Sugar cookies and rum. And Holly.
My cock twitches and I tear my gaze from her in a half-hearted attempt to cool my libido. Short of me hopping into a cold shower or a pile of snow stark naked, there’s not much hope of that.
“How did you get to be so wise in the ways of interfamily serious conversations?” I ask, faking interest in my snowflake. “More triplet stuff?”
She grins. “Let’s just say I’ve had some good advice of my own lately from a friend.”