Page 97 of Love Me Boldly

Suddenly, they didn’t matter.

Graham was right.

We had plenty of time to figure out the rest.

THIRTY-ONE

GRAHAM

Man, I’d been nervous the other night before Holly came to the condo, but this was an entirely different set of nerves.

It was Wednesday. I spent the last two nights eating at the restaurant while she worked. Monday, Jonah was there for a bit, and I spent some time with him until Paul came and picked him up. We talked about hockey and school, and we colored in some of his coloring books while Holly stopped by and chatted when she could.

He wasn’t there last night, and I’d barely had any time to see Holly, but she’d called when she got home from work.

We talked for hours. She told me all about Jonah and raising him, she told me about how when she graduated, she’d still wanted a job in finance, but outside of moving away, which she knew she couldn’t do, the only financial firm in town was working with Cory Franklin, who happened to be married to a girl who hated Holly. It’d taken me a minute to remember she was one of the three girls who had been the reason me and my friends ate dinner in Caroline’s office the first night I stopped into the restaurant.

I’d never forget the wordtrashbeing thrown around then, loudly enough we could hear it. Of course we hadn’t told Holly that at the time, but I was glad she didn’t end up going to work for the guy.

At the end of the phone call last night, she did something I was hoping she would.

Something I thought would take her longer.

She invited me for dinner.

So now I was parking in one of the visitor spots in her cute neighborhood. It was a mixture of homes and townhomes, but they were all well-maintained, and the landscaping was kept up well. Holly had a Fourth of July wreath decked out in red, white, and blue, and like most of the other homes I could see, there were two chairs out front, making it a cozy sitting area.

I climbed out of my truck and then grabbed Jonah’s skates and flowers for Holly from my back seat.

Before I reached the door, it flung open, and Jonah stood in the doorway. “He’s here, Mama!”

“Hey, Jonah. What’s up, big man?”

I held out my hand for a low five, and he punched it with his fist. “Hi, Mr. Graham.”

Holly appeared behind him, walking from around a corner at the back of their narrow townhome. “Hi there.” She was wiping her hands on a towel, simply dressed in cutoff jean shorts and a pink V-neck shirt.

She looked relaxed, at home, and in total mom mode.

The tightness in her smile was the only thing that gave away her nerves.

I stepped across the threshold and handed the flowers to Jonah. “Can you give these to your mom for me?”

He shoved his face into the peach roses. “Wow. These smell great!”

I slipped out of my shoes and closed the door behind me. Holly walked toward me, flowers in her hands, and the tight smile was now soft and easy. “Hi there. Thank you for these.”

I glanced at Jonah, who was watching us closely, and to Holly. I’d kiss her every second of every day I saw her if I could, but I wasn’t sure where we stood on this in front of Jonah.

“You’re welcome.” I set my hand at her lower back and went in for a hug.

She had different ideas, better ones, and pushed to her toes and kissed my cheek. “I’ll give you a better one later,” she whispered.

“Perfect.”

“What’s in the bag, Mr. Graham?”

“This is for you, but we have to wait until after dinner.”

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