Claiming Holly (Holiday Cove 1)

But now, in light of everything going on, both inside my head and across the splashy news pages on my TV and computer, I couldn’t hold them back any longer. If I could have, I would’ve gone to the roof and yelled them out for the entire neighborhood to hear.

In the end, there was only one person who needed to hear, and even if I’d climbed the building and shouted my declaration, he would’ve never heard it. Although, I was fairly certain he’d laugh over the visual if I’d shared the story with him later.

So, I wrote it all down, a stream of consciousness flowing from my mind and heart through my fingers as they tapped out a beat against the keys. When the message had been sent, I laid back against the stack of pillows I’d arranged at the head of my bed and let out a long sigh.

My eyes rolled to the ceiling, and I whispered, “I love you, Jack. You have to come home.”

31

Holly

I woke up the following day with Hunter curled up beside me in the bed. “Hey there, boy.” He opened his sleepy eyes at my whispered greeting and reached for me with one of his over-sized paws. We stayed in bed, snuggled together until the scent of coffee filtered through the open bedroom door. Hunter’s ears perked and he lifted his head from the bed, looking toward the door, and then back at me. “Smells good, huh boy? Although, I think we’ve already discussed that you plus coffee would be a disaster.”

I giggled at his puzzled expression and pushed to the edge of the bed. As I stood, I caught sight of Jack’s shirt and the smile slowly faded from my lips. Hunter jumped off the bed and led the way out into the hallway, stopping when he reached the kitchen and spotted Rachel standing at the sink, scrubbing the dishes that had been left from the day before.

“You don’t have to do that,” I told her, stepping into the kitchen.

“I don’t mind.” She smiled over at me and shrugged. “How did you sleep?”

“I don’t want you to be late to work,” I replied. Monday morning had arrived, and although I’d woken up at the same time I usually woke up to get ready for work, going to the office was the absolute last thing on my mind. I was thankful that I’d caught up Saturday before my entire world had been flipped upside down. Otherwise, there would have been no way to get back on top of everything.

While a day spent out of the office would inevitably lead to a backup in my work load, and had the potential to annoy my clients, at the end of the day, I had the flexibility of taking a day off as needed. However, Rachel worked as a dental hygienist and if she missed a day, she’d be eating up her limited vacation and sick days. I appreciated that she wanted to stay and help me get through the day, but I didn’t want her to suffer professionally on my account.

Rachel wrung out the sponge in her hand and set it back in the silver holder near the edge of the sink. “I took the rest of the week off, actually.”

“Rach!” A surge of guilt shot through me.

“It’s fine, Holly. I had some sick time. What’s more important is making sure that you’re going to be okay.” She crossed to the coffee pot, the source of the smell that had stirred Hunter and I from bed and poured a piping hot stream of cocoa brown liquid into one of the two waiting mugs. She topped the mug off with a splash of cream, swirled the contents around, and handed it to me. “Did you hear anything last night?”

I took the mug from her and sipped. “Nothing more than yesterday.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. She shook her head slowly and I could see the wheels turning. “It’s so frustrating that the news won’t give any more information. I mean, sadly, this kind of thing happens all the time these days. How do they expect military families to cope when they have to wait for days to find out if their loved one was involved?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. When Kenny enlisted in the Marines, I remember talking with some of the other wives before his first deployment, but none of them really had much to offer in the way of advice, other than to practice the art of patience.” I shook my head as I recalled the hollow advice. “In the short amount of time I did live on base, there weren’t any major incidents, at least not involving any of the people that I knew.”

“Sometimes I forget that you’ve already gone through this,” Rachel said thoughtfully.

“Yeah, glutton for punishment I guess.”