Winning the Right Brother (15 page)

“I think you broke me this time,” she said, her face turned into the pillow and her voice muffled.

He chuckled. “If that’s true it’s only fair for me to fix you. Let’s see, how could I manage that?”

Without opening her eyes Holly scooted so that she was cuddled against his chest, the top of her head tucked under his chin and her arm around his waist. Alex felt a stirring of something, a feeling that was probably as old as time. It was a voice inside him that said, “This is my woman, and I’ll look after her until the day I die.”

He held her tight, and she nestled closer, and he reached up to pull the covers over them both.

And within minutes they were asleep.

“H
ello! Are you guys here? I’m home!”

Alex’s eyes flew open, but Holly was faster. She sprang out of bed, looking around wildly and grabbing a towel off his floor to cover herself with.

“Oh, my God, it’s Will. Alex, you have to get down there so I can get back to my room and change. Throw some clothes on, anything.”

Alex’s head was still fuzzy with sleep but he heard the urgency in Holly’s voice and he moved as quickly as he could. As he was heading out the door in sweats and a T-shirt Holly grabbed his arm. “I’ll be down in a minute,” she hissed at him. “Don’t say anything about—about this.”

Her words echoed in his head as he went down the stairs to greet Will. Did she mean don’t say anything ever, or that she wanted to be the one to tell him? Now
is not the time to worry about that, he told himself as he arrived at the bottom of the stairs and looked around for Will. He and Holly still had to talk, that was all. But she wouldn’t turn her back on the feeling that was obviously between them. Not after this morning. Would she?

Alex found Will in the kitchen, opening a cooler that contained ice and three smallish trout.

“Look!” Will said enthusiastically, and in spite of the disorientation of having woken up two minutes before and his nagging anxiety about Holly, Alex couldn’t help grinning at the happy teenager. “Will, that’s great. Where are the rest of them?”

“This is it,” Will said, looking down at his catch with pride. “From this morning, anyway. We caught some yesterday, but we ate them.”

“Of course,” Alex said, holding back a smile. “Out of the water and onto your plate. It’s the only way to go.”

“You bet. So—” He turned to Alex with a speculative look. “How was
your
weekend? Did you have any fun?”

It was either his imagination, or Will knew something. Or suspected something. Or—

“Will, did you go away this weekend on purpose?”

He looked guilty, which confirmed it. “What do you mean, on purpose?”

“You know what I mean.” He turned his head as he heard Holly coming down the stairs, and he had time to say, “Don’t say anything to your mom, not one word,” before she came into the kitchen, smiling brightly. She was wearing corduroys and a dark green sweater, and her hair was caught back in a pony tail.

“Hi, honey! You’re back early!”

“I am? I said Sunday afternoon, didn’t I?” he said, looking confused. Alex followed Holly’s eyes to the clock, which read 2:00 p.m.

“Oh. Right.” She took a breath. “Well, good for you. Punctuality is important. Very, very important. So how was…how was your…” Her eyes drifted to the cooler, and her eyebrows rose. “A veritable feast, I see,” she said gravely, sounding more like herself, and Alex breathed a sigh of relief.

“Mr. Washington said I did very well for a beginner. Of course he and Tom caught about twenty apiece, and they offered to give me some of theirs to take home, but I said I just wanted to take the ones I caught myself. So you could see them.”

Holly went over and gave her son a quick hug. “I agree with Mr. Washington. I think you did great. I assume this is going to be our next meal?”

“If that’s okay with you guys,” Will said anxiously.

“Of course it is,” Holly said. “I’ll be happy to cook them, unless you want to. I will
not
clean them, however. That job is all yours.”

“No problem,” Will said proudly. “Tom taught me how.”

“Wonderful. We may as well get started now, unless you’ve already eaten. Alex and I haven’t had lunch yet—” She blushed, although Alex noticed she didn’t look at him “—so we’re starving.”

“Sounds good,” Will said. “I haven’t had anything since breakfast.”

Despite a little awkwardness in the air, their late lunch was fun, not to mention delicious. Alex felt himself relaxing as Will regaled them with his fishing triumphs, and he saw that Holly was unwinding, too.

It was toward the end of the meal that it hit him.

Will was laughing so hard at something Holly said that he got the hiccups, and Holly found that so funny she couldn’t stop laughing, either. She’d start to say something, but then Will would hiccup, and that would start her laughing again. Will was drinking water in an effort to stop when
Holly
started hiccupping, and Will found that so hilarious he sprayed a mouthful of water all over the table.

That was when it hit him. Some of the water hit him, too, which both mother and son found extremely amusing. But the important thing, the big thing, was the realization.

He loved them.

He thought it exactly like that.
I love them.
Not just
I love her,
but
I love them.
Because what he wanted was the whole package. Holly and Will, part of his life forever.

Forever.

The knowledge felt huge, as if he wasn’t big enough to hold it. He couldn’t stay still. He rose to his feet.

Holly and Will looked up at him. Will was still hiccupping, but Holly had stopped. “Are you okay? You have the strangest look on your face.”

“I—”

He couldn’t say it. Not yet, anyway. He’d never said it to anyone before. What was the procedure? Did you just blurt it right out, or what? Should he tell Holly alone, or both of them together?

He needed some time to think. To get his thoughts in order.

Air, he thought. He needed some air.

“I’ll be right back,” he said, crossing the kitchen and going out the back door.

“Is Alex okay? I didn’t mean to spit on him,” Will said after he finally controlled his hiccups.

Holly grinned. “I’m pretty sure he knows that.” The phone rang, and Holly went to go answer it. “Clear the table, would you?” she called over her shoulder as she went into the living room.

“Hello?”

“Oh…hello. Is Alex there?”

A female voice, breathy and hopeful. Holly rolled her eyes. “He’s just stepped outside. Can I take a message, or do you want me to call him?”

“Um…I guess you can take a message. Tell him Krystal called. Krystal with a K,” she added helpfully.

Of course, Holly thought as she wrote down the name. It was important to be specific with Alex, because he’d probably dated a girl named Crystal with a C, too.

“Does he have your number?”

“It’s changed, actually. Can I give you the new one?”

“You bet.” Holly made a face at the phone as she wrote the number down beside the name.

She was still staring down at the piece of paper when Alex came into the living room.

“Message for you,” she said, handing it to him. He put it in his pocket without looking at it.

“Holly, I—”

“Don’t you want to know who called?”

He still looked funny. “Not particularly. Look, Holly, can we talk somewhere in private? Maybe over dinner or a drink or—”

“It was Krystal.”

He blinked. “Crystal?”

“The woman who called. Her name was Krystal.”

“The woman who called.”

“Uh-huh. Krystal with a K.”

He frowned at her. “Holly, is something wrong?”

“No, nothing at all. So tell me about Krystal. Did she come before or after Amber?”

Just listen to her. She was talking like a jealous girlfriend.

He was looking down at her with one eyebrow raised. “Did you think I was lying when I told you I’m not seeing anybody? When I told you I have no plans to see anybody? Except for you,” he added, and the look in his blue eyes made her stomach flip.

She folded her arms across her chest. “Look, it’s none of my business,” she said.

“Actually, it is. As the woman I’d like to…date, I think it is your business. I think you have a right to know there isn’t anyone else. That there won’t be anyone else.”

God, those eyes. It was hard to think straight when he was looking at her like that, as if she was the only woman in the world.

He wanted to date her? As in…exclusively?

She wanted to believe it. She was surprised at how much she wanted to believe it. Maybe
he
even believed it, for now. But Alex was not a long-haul guy. And how would Will deal with the fallout when they broke up?

How would
she
deal with it?

“Let’s go out for a drink,” he was saying now. “How about the Swan?”

The Swan was a pub downtown, known for its intimate atmosphere and dark, tryst-inducing booths.

“No,” she said quickly. “Look, Alex…I know we still haven’t talked about…about what happened be
tween us. But Will just got back, and I…I need a little time with him. And a little time to myself, too. Is it okay if we talk tomorrow?”

He looked as if he wanted to press the point, but after a moment he sighed.

“We can talk tomorrow,” he said. His eyes were still on her, with the focused intensity that made her pulse go all skittery. “But you can’t hide forever, Holly Stanton.”

Didn’t she know it.

She didn’t want to be this person. She’d structured her life so she
wouldn’t
be this person. This person who could be thrown into a jealous fit after one phone call, this person whose heartstrings and nerve endings now seemed to be tuned to Alex—his voice, his smile, his eyes.

She’d sworn that her happiness would never again depend on another human being. Now here she was, unreasonably jealous one minute, melting with affection and desire the next. And all because of Alex.

It was after midnight, and everyone else was asleep. Holly was pacing back and forth in her room. No, not her room—Alex’s room. In Alex’s house. After her parents kicked her out, she’d sworn to herself she’d never live even a day in a place that wasn’t her own. A place someone else could kick her out of.

Not that Alex would—but he could. Anytime he wanted to, he could.

She opened her door and moved softly down the hall, pausing a moment outside Alex’s door.

She closed her eyes, memories of their lovemaking making her shiver. Alex had ignited her, body and mind and heart and soul, and the heat between them had
burned away all barriers until she hadn’t known where he ended and she began.

And that might be a nice way to feel in bed with someone, but then you had to get out of bed and on with your life. And that’s when the feeling became terrifying. Holly was used to knowing exactly where she ended and other people began. Feeling this…
connected
to someone just wasn’t something she’d ever signed up for.

She forced herself to start walking again, down the hall and down the stairs. Once on the first floor she turned on a few lights, enough to see her way as she wandered from room to room of the house she’d grown so comfortable in.

She felt connected to Will, of course, but that wasn’t the same thing. She was the mom, so her job was to be in control, to be responsible. With Alex, she felt…carried away. Out of control. Her feelings for Alex were growing faster than she could analyze them, and already they seemed somehow exponentially beyond analysis, as if she were trying to use a microscope to study the sun.

Being that connected to someone meant pain if they left. Feelings of helplessness, loneliness and neediness. Feelings Holly had sworn she’d never go through again.

She’d walked through every room downstairs and now she paused in the front hallway, turning on the light switch, the soft glow from the old-fashioned chandelier reminding her of Friday night and the way Alex had talked to her, challenged her, forced her outside her defenses.

She turned the light off again and went back into the living room.

It was too much. Being with Alex had opened up
wells of feeling within her, and she didn’t want to know what was at the bottom. She tried to imagine what she would feel if—no, make that
when
—Alex left her.

Not because he was a bad guy. Not because he didn’t care about her. But because it wasn’t his nature to tie himself to one woman, and because experience had taught her that it was in few men’s natures to be tied down to a single mother.

And let’s say he gave it the old college try. Let’s say everything seemed to be going along just fine. Experience had taught her something about that, too—when you let yourself be comfortable, let yourself relax, then something would happen to knock you flat.

But none of those fears even came close to the fear of Will getting hurt. He’d already been abandoned by his father… He didn’t need to lose a father figure, too. Not one he liked as much as Alex.

Holly picked up a wooden statue from the top of a bookcase, a carved giraffe that a former player had given Alex. Her fingers caressed it before she set it back down. And then she realized what she’d been doing for the last hour, going from room to room of Alex’s house, touching the things she associated with him.

She was saying goodbye.

The next morning, after Will and Alex had both left for the day, Holly called in to work and took a personal day. Then she went out to her favorite coffee shop and bought a morning paper.

There were a few likely ads in the real-estate section, both apartments and houses for rent, but the problem was Holly didn’t feel like taking the time to look around
and make a careful decision, or waiting for the first of the month to move in.

She glanced at the clock on the wall. Eleven o’clock in the morning. Eight o’clock in Vegas, which was way too early to call a woman on her honeymoon. Holly did some window-shopping in town and had a light lunch, and forced herself to wait until one—ten in the morning Vegas time—before she called Gina’s cell phone.

Her voice, when it came, sounded sleepy but very happy. “Good morning, good morning whoever you are, you’ve reached Mrs. Henry Walthrop!”

In spite of her own worries Holly smiled. “So I take it you didn’t run away.”

Gina gave a contented sigh. “Nope. And it’s a good thing. Married life suits me. Of course being waited on hand and foot in a honeymoon suite may be affecting my judgment.” There was a pause and the sound of a wet kiss. “No, on second thought, I think it’s all Henry.”

“Gina, I’m really happy for you. And I’m sorry to bother you when you’re on your honeymoon, but I have a pretty big favor to ask.”