Chapter Twenty-Three
I heard he left.”
Holly looked up from her phone as she stepped to the front of the bus. She was the last person to exit after the ride over from the parking lot, and Jesse Beckman now sat watching her from the driver’s seat. He wore a baseball cap, along with the official “Firefly Festival Committee” T-shirt that Trina had made up for everyone. Holly had forgotten to wear her T-shirt.
It was the middle of Saturday afternoon, and Holly was just now arriving at the festival. She wouldn’t have shown up at all if she hadn’t promised to help man the rubber duck race. But as a Marshall, it was hard to get out of that particular task.
“Who left?” she asked. She shifted out of the way, stepping into the front row to allow those wishing to head back to their cars to board. She wasn’t in the mood for chitchat, but she also wouldn’t be rude—not even when the last thing she wanted to do was be civil. Her mama had taught her better.
“Winston,” Jesse said. His eyes held hers, and she caught herself fixating on how long his eyelashes were. Most women would die for eyelashes like that.
Most women would also appreciate not being reminded that the man they were supposed to be there with was gone.
She found her fake smile. “Yep. Headed back yesterday.”
“Heard he didn’t take his mama.”
“He was in a hurry. My understanding is he’s sending a car for her tomorrow. She wanted to stay and see the fireflies.”
Sympathy shone in Jesse’s eyes. Small towns were wonderful until something happened and everyone knew your business. And chances were the story going around was ten times worse than the reality.
She’d gone home with Zack Thursday night and he’d raced out of town as fast as possible the next morning. Those were the facts.
Clearly, that had to have been her fault.
Probably the whole town believed she must be some kind of crazy funky in bed or something. That certainly boded well for ever getting another date in her life.
But then, maybe crazy funky would bring her more dates than she’d ever want.
Only, not any man she would want.
But then, she didn’t want just any man.
“I’m sorry.” Jesse’s words were solemn. “I’d gotten the impression you two were—”
“I’m fine, Jesse.” She didn’t want to know what impression he’d gotten. “Zack was nothing.” Her voice cracked on the last syllable and she quickly looked down at her phone. Thankfully, she’d just gotten a return text from Brian. She’d asked where she was supposed to be just before the bus had stopped. She held up her phone. “I need to run. Good seeing you again.”
Before she could take the steps down to put her out in the sunshine and away from the conversation, Jesse added one thing more.
“I’d still like to take you out,” he said.
Her throat closed. How was she supposed to go out with another man?
She turned back, and the look coming her way was patient and kind. It said he was a good guy, just wanting to get to know her better. And she wasn’t an idiot. She knew she didn’t need to push away the good guys. There were too few of those to choose from. Someday she just might want to go out with one.
Damn Zack anyway.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Jesse added.
Tears threatened, but she pushed them back down. She would not stand in the middle of the entire population of Sugar Springs—plus several thousand tourists—and cry over a man who’d run away from her at the first opportunity.
Plus, Jesse did seem like a sweetheart. She didn’t say anything—couldn’t say anything—but she gave him a nod. Someday, yes, she just might go out with him.
She turned away from the bus and took in the field before her, mentally pumping herself up to handle the day. She’d already missed the parade, but there were still hours of fun before everyone got bussed to the hillside where the fireflies made their annual showing.
Synchronous fireflies showed up in June, and people came from all over the country to see them. Being a part of that was a tradition. Not only for her family, but for the whole town. Everything would be shut down and deserted come dark.
Yet this year she’d considered missing it because of a man.
How silly.
She breathed in the smells of fried everything and moved toward the crowds. There would be funnel cakes, fried Twinkies and Oreos, even fried ice cream. And if they were lucky, there would be a booth serving a half-pound cheeseburger with a scoop of fried ice cream plopped right on top. It was a specialty.
The whole place was a heart attack waiting to happen.
The sight of a booth she’d never seen before made her slow her steps, and then she began to laugh. It was the booth for Sam’s Foodmart. Miley Rogers had apparently not lost her fondness for loud colors, as the once white and slightly rusted traveling concession stand now had bold purple, yellow, and pink cartoon-like fireflies painted all over it. Behind the fireflies was a vibrant-blue night sky. And of course, all the tails glowed bright. With real lights.
Sam was behind the small crowd that had formed at the open windows, pacing back and forth. He would take ten steps, turn and look at the booth, then reverse and go back the other way. The man’s face seemed to be a shade too red, but then, he also had two lines thirty deep waiting for his food. He couldn’t be that upset.
It was the brightest booth in the area, and that seemed to be doing the job. The man would make a killing today. If he didn’t die of a heart attack, he might even have to thank Mrs. Rogers and her daughter for their sneakiness.
Trina rushed by, a sheaf of papers in one hand, before pulling up short about fifteen feet away from Holly. She whirled around.
“Where is your T-shirt?”
Holly looked down at the yellow blouse she had on as if surprised to see her official festival T-shirt missing. “I guess I forgot,” she finally answered.
She was beginning to regret not coming out earlier. At least she would have had fun watching Trina run around hyperactively all day.
“I brought extras.” Trina held one hand up as if stopping traffic. “Come with me.”
Oh good. Just what she wanted. But Holly followed along behind the other woman, stepping into a small, stuffy trailer that smelled like mothballs and old newspapers. It was better than standing alone in the middle of the crowd, she supposed.
Until now, she hadn’t come out of her cabin since Zack had left. Instead she had spent yesterday and this morning alternately moping over the sad state of her love life and working on her new career. Not just finalizing a couple of unfinished pieces, but outlining a business plan for her own store.
She had an appointment set up to see the empty storefront on the square tomorrow.
Screw everyone who thought she was a joke. Who laughed at her or looked down their noses at her. She didn’t need them or their pity.
This was what she wanted, and she intended to do it.
She would bring her family out to the cabin tomorrow morning, and she would let them know that her time as bookkeeper-slash-cook-slash-check-in girl was over. She had her own career to get off the ground.
Nerves were eating her up at the very thought of it, but Brian assured her everything would be okay. He’d kept her secret. However, he also had faith that the rest of the family would be as supportive as he. Until she saw it for herself, she would continue to worry.
“Ta-da!” Trina stood from the plastic tub she’d been rummaging through and held a blue-and-white T-shirt up to Holly’s chest. “Perfect,” she declared.
“Perfect,” Holly agreed. Since she couldn’t get out of the day, it was easiest to go along.
When she stepped from the trailer in her new, only mildly stiff and stinky, T-shirt, she once again headed into the throng of people. She needed to be at the river soon. The races would be starting.
As she weaved through the booths and games, she saw Gina off in the distance flirting with a tourist, and Sandy and Bubba Brown, both looking like they were up to no good. And then there was Keith. He lifted his head and met her gaze, and he, too, sent her a sad look. It was identical to the one Jesse had given her.
Yeah, yeah. The whole town knew she’d fallen for the wrong guy. She got it. Move on.
She should have stayed home. At least there she could have gotten back to the other thing that had taken up hours of her time.
Missing Zack.
Wanting Zack.
Wishing she were more than “nothing whatsoever” to Zack.
Her subconscious kept nagging at her, suggesting that she might have read things wrong. He had been talking to his boss, after all. If the case was important enough, he wouldn’t want to explain that he couldn’t come back yet because he wanted to get laid a couple more times first.
And yes, he had looked down his nose at her. But again, could that have been more about the case than about her? He’d been in a hurry. Possibly his feelings for her hadn’t really factored into his actions at all.
She had no idea. Because she hadn’t bothered to let him tell her about the call.
Which, in hindsight, she regretted.
That might have answered a few questions.
And now that she thought about it, he had looked rather shocked when she’d flippantly thanked him for the evening. In fact, he’d looked outright furious. If he’d been about to brush her off himself, would her doing it first have really made him so angry?
She just didn’t know.
Maybe—possibly.
But also, it was possible he hadn’t been about to depart from her life and never look back. Which would still have left them with issues. What else could come of their time together? A few more rolls in the hay? A handful of laughs?
They would have been good rolls, and good laughs.
But still. Love?
She didn’t see that happening. Not for Zack. Not with his past.
Plus, at the first phone call, he’d returned to big-city, lawyer Zack in a heartbeat. That’s who he was. He would never be content to fit into her life.
And in her life, love led to marriage. Marriage to forever. Together. As in . . . Atlanta?
Which she couldn’t see happening either.
She sighed.
She did miss him, though. Terribly. And it had only been one full day. She couldn’t imagine how much worse it was going to get.
Good thing she hadn’t told him she was in love with him. How embarrassing would that have been?
A coral-colored rose appeared in front of her nose as she stood staring blindly at the contestants already lining up for the firefly “duck” race. Her breath stuck in the back of her throat.
He’d come back.
He regretted leaving. Not calling.
He needed her as much as she needed him.
Slowly, holding back the desire to let a smile find its way to her lips, she turned and followed the arm holding out the flower. Her heart pounded with both relief and joy.
And then she saw that the arm was attached to Hounddog Thompson.
The breath rushed out of her and tears sprang to her eyes. Damn.
She brought her hand to her mouth.
Hounddog stood in front of her with sunglasses on and his hair mussed. He also looked like he was up to no good. And he looked amazing.
Only, he wasn’t who she wanted to see.
“You okay?” Bobby asked gently. He removed his sunglasses.
She nodded and swiped a tear from her cheek.
He flipped the flower back up so its petals tickled her nose. “You looked like you could use this.”
His tone said he got it. She was broken. He wasn’t there for anything more than to be a friend. And she was more grateful for that than anything in a long time.
She took the flower and mumbled, “Thank you, Bobby,” and his arms went around her and pulled her to his chest. She dropped her head to his shoulder. It was a lovely gesture. All of it. The flower. The friend.
The hug.
The knowing she was standing there miserable.
“I won it for you.” He motioned to a carnival game with vases of roses sitting behind the table as prizes. “I picked this one out because it matched your shoes.”
Her heart shattered.
Any other day, and she would have loved that someone picked her out a flower because it matched her shoes. And if she went by her own rules, that meant that Bobby was an okay guy. He’d noticed her shoes.
But she already knew he was an okay guy. He always had been. He’d just been a bit of a hound dog.
“Want to talk about it?” he asked.
She shook her head. She was still in his arms, and when she noticed Janet Winston watching the two of them, she turned her head in the other direction. Janet was standing at Joanie’s cupcake van with the rest of the Dalton clan. Holly would have been over there with them if Zack were here.
“I’m good,” she told Bobby. Because she was. Or she would be. She pushed out of his arms and surreptitiously wiped at her cheeks. “It was just . . . one night . . .” she added. And didn’t that make her sound impressive? She gave him a resigned shrug. “A fling. It was nothing.”
She wished her heart believed that.
Instead her heart kept making her look around, thinking every tall, dark-haired man looked like Zack.
She peeked at Janet once more, and the expression on the woman’s face said it all. Zack wasn’t coming. This wasn’t where he wanted to be.
“Thought you might want company today,” Bobby suggested.
She looked at her companion then. Really looked at him. He was still the same Hounddog. Sexy, droopy eyes that could reel in a girl in two seconds flat. Pouty mouth that would make said girl forget her own mama’s name. And a body that did not want to stop.
He was a very good-looking man.
But she also saw more. It was behind those soulful blue eyes.
She didn’t know why he’d come home now, but something had changed him. Possibly enough that he could be a different person.
If she could let herself fall in love with a man who had nothing whatsoever to give her in return, she supposed she could also believe that Bobby Thompson might have grown up while he’d been away. Weirder things had happened.
And for certain, hanging out with him today would only help her reputation at this point. After all, she was the girl who’d run a guy out of town after only one night.
If she would soon be thrust back out on the dating scene, why not build up her courage with Bobby? So yeah, she wanted some company today. And she wanted to go over to the hill and see the fireflies and have a really excellent time. She couldn’t believe she’d contemplated not going just because Zack had broken her heart.
“I would love company today, Bobby. Thank you.”
He gave her his award-winning smile, and she shook her head at the power of it.
“You need to bottle that stuff,” she muttered.
He laughed out loud and held out his elbow, and she slipped her arm through his. For the first time since she’d woken up yesterday morning, she had a real smile on her face. She wasn’t happy, but she would be. Eventually.
Until then, she would just fake it.
Zack paced the length of his mother’s kitchen yet again. It was two in the afternoon, and he’d already been there for three hours. She should have been home by now.
He’d gotten a message from her late last night, letting him know that he didn’t need to send a car. The “boys” would be bringing her home today.
The boys.
His brothers were now her boys?
What the hell had happened in the last forty-eight hours since he’d been gone?
And why couldn’t she have just stuck with the original plan? If he’d sent a car, he would know that she was back safe and sound already.
Hell, she would have even gotten back in time to have lunch with him.
Not that he’d expected her to rush home and cook. He’d planned to take her out. He’d worked around the clock since he’d been back, just so he could be here for her when she got home.
It was Sunday. That’s what they did.
Yet she was nowhere to be found. Probably off having fun with her two favorite “boys.”
He was being an immature, jealous child, and he knew that. But he couldn’t help it. It seemed like everything he wanted was being taken from him.
Holly had shoved him out of her life. His mother had chosen his brothers over him.
And likely, his brothers were choosing his mother over him too.
Issues, much?
He knew he had them. He wasn’t a moron. But that didn’t stop the anger from festering.
A door slammed outside, and then another. They were here. He went to the front door and yanked it open.
“Zackie,” his mom called as Nick helped her from the backseat of Cody’s SUV. She waved. She was smiling and happy, and she had on green from head to toe. She reminded him of Holly.
Zack bit his tongue to keep from yelling at her to quit calling him such a childish name.
“Hey.” Nick lifted his chin as he pulled her luggage from the trunk. “Your mother’s a hoot. She had us laughing the whole drive down.”
The anger continued to bubble.
He knew his mother was a hoot. She was also his mother.
“Why are you so late?”
Cody had Janet by the elbow, escorting her to her own front door as if she were a queen. The action caused Zack to shoot his brother a vicious look. Cody ignored him. His mother preened.
“We had breakfast with Holly and Bobby before we left,” she explained.
His heart pumped fire. “Who the hell is Bobby?”
“That nice-looking boy she was talking to at the diner the day we all had lunch,” his mom told him. She gave him an innocent look, as if unaware what her words were doing to him. “You remember? Big guy, great smile. And his eyes—”
“Got it.” He cut her off. Bobby was the man whose nickname was Hounddog.
“Then the boys were kind enough to stop at yard sales on the way down,” she continued. “Such sweethearts. Holly told me how she likes to look for buttons and such at yard sales, so I picked up some things I thought she might like. I’ll take them to her when we go up for the wedding.”
Nick held several plastic bags up in front of him, as if to show Zack the proof. The bags looked to be bulging with junk. Nick also had her three pieces of luggage in one arm.
While Zack stood there doing nothing to help.
“She was having breakfast with Bobby?” He ignored the bags of junk and stepped to the side to let all three of them pass. What in the hell was Holly doing having breakfast with Bobby?
Cody and Nick eyed him as they entered the house. There was sympathy in the looks.
“She was working at first, but then Bobby showed up and she came out and ate with him. They joined us.”
“What did they eat?”
His mother shot him a questioning look as she directed Nick to her bedroom down the hall. She patted Cody on the cheek and thanked him for helping her into the house. “What does it matter what they ate?”
“Just tell me.”
They’d better not have been having—
“Happy pancakes,” his mother said. Her smile was back. “She made me some too. I just love those sprinkles on top.”
Nick returned from the bedroom sans luggage, and patted Zack on the shoulder as he passed. “Sorry, man,” he uttered.
“They were also at the festival together,” his mom informed him. “Cute couple.”
They day after he’d left?
Sure as hell didn’t take her long to move on.
Of course, he’d apparently just been her fuck buddy. Memories, and all.
“You should have stayed for it, Zackie.” She shook her head. Her eyes glowed with delight. “I’ve never seen anything like it. The whole hillside was covered with fireflies, and doggone if they didn’t light up in sync. It sure beat the grits festival we used to have back home.”
His mother seemed like she could go on for days.
Cody and Nick just stood in the living room, looking as if unsure what to do next.
Zack wanted to throw things.
What he really wanted was to go yank Holly away from Hounddog.
“Oh.” His mom turned to his brothers now. “I invited the boys to stay for a late lunch. Said I’d pull out a chicken casserole I have in the freezer.”
His brothers shifted their gazes away when he turned to them. “Is that so?” Zack asked.
She opened the freezer and rummaged around inside. “I hope you can stay too. I know you have work to do.”
“Actually—” He stopped talking when she turned her face to his. His brothers couldn’t see her, but she had her scary look going, and he had to admit, he was a little scared.
“Surely you can stay?” Her question didn’t come across so much as a question, though her voice did drip with sweetness. “You’re here now, after all.”
“I was just making sure you got home safely. I need to get back to the office.”
“You need to get that stick out of your ass and sit down and eat like the rest of us.”
He gaped at his mother. She’d never said anything like that to him.
His brothers stood a little straighter, as well. They stared at Zack over his mother’s head.
It would be comical, the three of them looking terrified of the seventy-five-year-old woman all dressed in green, if he wasn’t afraid he was about to get a frozen chicken casserole thrown at his head.
“It was your decision to leave early,” she told him. “Get off your high horse because I had a good time without you. And if you can’t stand the fact that Holly was with another man all weekend, then you shouldn’t be here now.”
“I have no issues with Holly being with another man.” All weekend? “She can date who she wants.”
He tried to hold on to his anger at his mother, but he knew she was right. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Nor had Cody and Nick. And—he supposed—neither had Holly. As she’d pointed out, they hadn’t promised each other anything. The funny thing was, he’d thought all along that he was the one not promising. It had never occurred to him that she had been doing it too.
Still, the woman could have at least waited more than twenty-four hours before hooking up with someone else.
His mom turned to him, bringing a finger up in the air to point straight at his face. “You should be in Sugar Springs, convincing her to give you a chance. I can’t believe you just up and left like that.” Her voice was heated with anger. “I raised you better than to hide behind your feelings. What were you thinking, Zachary? You pushed the woman you love right into another man’s arms.”
He stood there with his mouth hanging open. Finally he managed to pull his jaw up off the floor. “I don’t love her, Mother.”
He couldn’t love her. How stupid would that be?
“You’re too scared to live,” she accused.
“I live just fine. I love my life.”
He loved his job. He loved his penthouse.
He loved that he didn’t have to worry about a woman walking out on him when he least expected it.
But he didn’t love having this conversation in front of his brothers.
To look at them, they didn’t care for it either. They shuffled their feet where they stood, staring at anything but the two of them.
“I need grandbabies,” his mother declared. “I need you to quit hiding behind your job, and give me grandbabies to love before I’m too old.” She stopped the lecture long enough to smile winningly over at Cody. “At least I have Candy and Kendra now. They’re my surrogate grandkids.” Her finger came back up and shook at Zack. “But that does not let you off the hook.”
“She didn’t want me,” he roared suddenly. He was sick to death of this conversation.
His mother went quiet.
“She wanted you,” she said, her voice less sure.
He shook his head. “She didn’t, Mom. We’re just friends. That’s all we’ve ever been.”
Then pity fell in his mother’s soft eyes, and he couldn’t take it anymore. She knew him well enough to know his words for the lie that they were. They were not just friends. Not on his side, anyway.
He glanced at his brothers. “Thanks for seeing that she got home.” Then at his mother. “I’ll see you next Sunday.”
And then he headed back to work.
At least there he could hide his sorrows by billing his client an exorbitant fee.