As crazy and fast as it sounded, I wanted to build a life with her.
She understood me, because she had lived through her own kind of neglected childhood. Her parents had dragged her around, only thinking of themselves, and never giving her the things she needed more than anything. Things she deserved.
A home.
To be safe and loved.
To belong.
She had helped me. Cared for me so lovingly—a complete stranger. She had not only opened her house to me; without realizing it, she had shown me her heart. She had shared her pain and let me share mine with her. She made me feel. The short time I spent with her had changed me now…for the better. And I didn't want to go back to being shut off anymore.
While Andrew and Tara were booking my flight, I talked to Carol. She made me understand why Holly didn't ask me to stay. It wasn't because she didn't feel the same way.
No. She felt something. I could see it in her eyes and feel the way she cared for me; I knew that.
Holly didn't think herself worthy of asking. She was sending me away to get on with my life, because she thought I had a good one. But she was wrong; something was missing. She was worried she didn't know how to settle in one place or be a partner to someone, because she'd never experienced that in her entire life. But she was wrong about that also. She needed someone to love her and to let her see how it felt to have someone put her needs and desires over their own. To show her she was worth that.
I knew what was missing for both of us.
Each other.
Now I had to convince her.
I pulled up outside her house. Her large, ugly truck was parked in the driveway. I could see the glow of a light in the window, and I sighed in relief, knowing she was in there. I sat in silence, gathering up my courage; I had no idea how she would react to seeing me.
There was only one way to find out.
Holly
I sat on the sofa, my legs curled under me, with Chester asleep beside me. A glass of wine sat on the table, untouched. I hadn’t eaten dinner since my appetite was nonexistent.
It had been since Evan had cooked dinner for us. I had barely picked at the turkey dinner Leslie made for us on Christmas Day, and in the days that followed, I snacked on leftovers she’d sent, nibbling on a sandwich or some crackers and cheese. Nothing tempted me.
All I could think about was Evan. As soon as I received his text when he went home, I read his pain in the one line he sent me. His family had rejected him.
And he had left, not stopping to see me.
It had taken everything in me not to ask him why. I knew why.
I had been correct when I’d told him the time we had was only a moment in his life. He deserved someone who could be a partner to him. Who knew how to be part of a lasting relationship. I wasn’t that person, and he knew it.
Still, I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
His loving nature.
His kind personality.
His passion.
How desperately I missed him. I didn’t understand it, but I did. I felt empty without him.
Chester stretched, lifting his head, and I tickled him under the chin. “Evan’s little twin,” I murmured, a smile pulling at my lips in memory. He did look like the feline version of Evan.
Evan was tall and lanky, but his shoulders were broad. His hair, long enough to touch his collar, was a midnight black with a white patch in the middle that gave him a rakish air. His green eyes were set under heavy brows, and when he slid on his glasses to read something, his sexiness level, which was already high, flew into the stratosphere. But he was unconscious of his appeal, which only made him more attractive. I was shocked when he first told me of his shyness and absence of a girlfriend. I was convinced the town he lived in must be lacking in women with good eyesight. How he hadn’t been snatched up was insane.
The sound of a car, then hurried footsteps, made me frown. The sound of furious pounding on my door startled me. Connie wasn’t due home for at least a month and I wasn’t expecting anyone. Chester jumped from the sofa, running to the door. I followed, worried something had happened to Leslie and Tom needed my help. I flicked on the light and yanked open the heavy door.
To say I was shocked to find Evan standing in my doorway would be an understatement.