Page 35 of Love Me Boldly

TEN

HOLLY

“You doin’ all right?”

Piles of paper and multiple spreadsheets in front of me almost hid the intruder from my view. I was working on Caroline’s taxes, both The Premier Grille’s and her personal ones.

Caroline was an incredible cook. Excellent at managing people and always had the front restaurant immaculate and was incredible with customers. Organization was her major fault, and I’d been staring at piles of receipts and unorganized spreadsheets. I’d been trying to reorganize her for so long that a dull throb had started behind my right eye.

She was leaning against the doorframe to her office, and I had no doubt she had one eye on me, one eye on everything else out front, even if she couldn’t see it.

“You’re a hot mess, Care. Have I ever told you that?”

“Just about every spring since you started doing this, so yeah.”

I was thirteen the first time she asked me to help her get organized for her accountant. Fifteen when she decided she didn’t need him for everything, and I started handling her personal taxes. Eighteen when I started figuring out the business end. There were plenty of accountants in town, but none she trusted for some reason only Caroline could understand.

“I swear I keep trying to do better. I start off the year well.”

I laughed and held up one neatly piled set of receipts and printed bank statements from January and February of last year. “Two months. You did great. Do you need me out there?”

“The rush is slowing down, but there’s a table that requested you.”

“Me?” That hadn’t happened since high school. “You sure?”

I was already pushing back from her desk and headed her way. “Who?”

“Some boys.” She leaned in and whispered, “Cute ones.”

Cute boys. That could only be one person…or, rather, three.

“Great,” I muttered, and my hands went to my hair, smoothing back flyaways so I didn’tlooklike I’d spent the last few hours wanting to tear my hair out by my roots.

“Is one of them the reason you’ve been different lately?”

“Different?” I glanced back at her over my shoulder.

“Yeah, your face has been different.”

“Wow, Care. That’s sweet of you. Thanks for the compliment.”

She kicked the back of my shoe with hers, making me stumble. “Shut up. You’ve been smiling. It’s weird.”

“You’re weird,” I muttered and pushed through the metal doors.

I didn’t have to look far to find them. Even among the skiers and tubers and mountain hikers, there was something special about Graham. Perhaps it was the easy smile he wore as well as he wore his clothes and backward hat, curly hair concealed beneath the brim.

Maybe it was just him and the reminders of those kisses last night. The kisses we kept giving each other, the kisses I fell asleep thinking about and dreamed of. I woke up with my fingers pressed to my bottom lip like I’d spent the entire night trying to seal the taste of him into the deepest recesses of my memories.

“Which one is yours?” Caroline whispered, and I swear she was giddier than a kindergartener on their first day of school.

Yesterday, I would have said none of them.

But that was before he told me about his friend. Before I opened up about my mom. Before those kisses…

“Graham,” I muttered, taking the minute while he talked with two guys opposite him and hadn’t yet noticed me. “The one sitting by himself.”

“Wowzers. He’scute. Could do worse, but not sure you could do better.”

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