Jack's Surrender (Holiday Cove 5)

“You’re saying you wouldn’t bitch if all of a sudden Gemma started texting you pictures of throw pillows and chandeliers instead of bikini shots?”

Aaron winced and mocked a shudder. “The horror.”

I smiled. “Exactly.”

“Sounds like you guys need a weekend away. You know, go to some fancy day spa or something. Let her get pampered all day and then you can fuck her all night. Remind her how it used to be.”

“I wish it was that simple.”

Aaron shoved into me. “Come on, Boomer. You’re no damned quitter.”

I chuckled but it faded quickly. “It’s not me I’m worried about.”

Aaron sobered. “You really think she’s gonna leave?”

I shrugged. My heart twisted inside my chest at the very thought. “She had a job interview a few days ago. She called me afterward all lit up. Like…like the Holly I used to know. She was talking about the office and this guy. Noah something or other—” I paused at the expression on Aaron’s face. “What? You know who he is?”

“Noah Scoville? Fuck yeah. He bought out all of O’Keefe’s properties. Here and in Stallion Bay. He’s a multi-billionaire with a certain reputation.”

“For what?”

Aaron rolled his eyes. “Have you seen the guy?”

I shook my head.

“Oh.” Aaron sipped his coffee. “Well, he does all right with the ladies. Let’s just leave it at that. Even Gemma got all giggly when we ran into him down at the grocery store a few weeks back. He’s a real GQ kind.”

“Fuck.”

Aaron slapped me on the shoulder. “Come on. He’s got nothing on you.”

“I can’t exactly compete with private islands, helicopter rides, and pricey jewelry.”

Aaron frowned. “Who says that’s what Holly wants?”

“I don’t know what she wants anymore,” I said under my breath. “That’s the whole damn problem.”

Aaron leaned back and braced his weight against his arms as they rooted to the floor behind him. “She was over at the house the other day. She and Gemma were catching up.”

“What did she say?”

Aaron laughed. “All those two ever talk about is wedding stuff.”

“Great. Another department I’m failing in.” I shook my head. “She’s pissed ’cause I won’t set a date.”

“So set a fuckin’ date! Lock that girl down. You know, back in the day, you were the brains and I was the good-looking sidekick. What happened to you, Boomer?”

I shoved him off balance but all he did was laugh. He pushed up from the floor and brushed his hands together before he retrieved his coffee cup and took a long drink, still giving me a self-satisfied smirk from behind the cardboard cup. “Come on, I’m kicking your ass out.” He reached down. “Go home to that fiancée of yours.”

I let him pull me up from the floor.

For a split second, I considered telling him another reason I’d been busting my ass was because I had a job interview lined up for the following week and didn’t want to leave him in the lurch in case I got hired on. But he flashed me a smile and my resolve melted away. Aaron was more than my best friend. He was my brother. I couldn’t bear to let him down too. Not on top of everything else.

We walked out together and said goodbye in the parking lot. I booked it down the hill and stopped at the market. The florist next door was already closed for the night so I settled on a bunch of roses from the floral case beside the deli counter. They were a coral pink color and I knew Holly would love them. Aaron was right. I just needed to get home and remind Holly why she was in love with me. We’d find our way back to each other.

We had to.

6

Holly

Three days had passed and I still hadn’t heard back from Noah. I was starting to wonder if he’d agreed to interview me on the assumption that I was single. I remembered back in my college days, and right out of college, when I’d first entered the workforce, there were certain types of men who were far more likely to hire someone they thought they had a chance of hooking up with. Noah hadn’t struck me as that kind of man, but in the deafening silence following the interview, I started to wonder.

The image that kept replaying in my mind was the look on his face when I mentioned Jack. He’d taken one look at my engagement ring. In my recollection of the rest of the interview, I decided that was the breaking point. Had he finished the interview and done the tour as a professional courtesy, all the while knowing I was no longer a candidate? But then why did he go to the trouble of showing me the office?

I sighed heavily. None of it made sense. My life didn’t make sense anymore. I was sitting at the dining room table, drinking a bottle of cab for dinner, twisting my engagement ring around my finger. It was a gorgeous round solitaire diamond in a white gold band. Jack and I hadn’t officially picked out the wedding band. Still, I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like and could easily conjure up the image in my mind as I looked at my hand. The only problem was that I no longer knew if we would make it that far. Would I ever stand at the altar, in front of a minister and a crowd of our friends and family, and pour out beautiful vows to Jack, all the while staring up into his adoring eyes? Or would we dissolve and fall apart sometime before that day came? That was certainly what it felt like.