Page 126 of In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes

“I think Elizabeth still thinks Finn and I are going to…” She trailed off but I nodded with understanding. She swallowed again.

“Oh.” I tried to summon Holden’s calm, steady nature. “And that’s not happening.”

She studied the keg at our feet but I had the sense her mind was very far away. “Nope.”

“Okay.” I straightened up. “What do you need from me? You want me to go out there and slap her?”

Olivia snorted and I grinned back at her.

“I’ll do it. Doesn’t matter if she’s Holden’s mom.”

Olivia laughed. “No slapping people in my bar.”

I put my hands up. “Fair. You’re the boss. If you change your mind, let me know.”

“Can you handle her orders tonight?”

“Of course.”

“Thanks.”

Our eyes met and I felt the sweet twist of female friendship rise up in my throat. This tiny slice of vulnerability from Olivia deepened our friendship a notch.

“You should stay,” she said, suddenly.

My eyebrows shot up. “Huh?”

She nodded, watching me, before she shrugged. “I mean, if you want to. You should stay here. I know you don’t want to work at the bar forever and you’re an interior designer, but you could figure something out.”

I stuttered. Could she read my mind? “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

How could I explain that my life here was too good to be true? That it couldn’t last forever and something was bound to go wrong, and I had surely missed all the signs? If I stayed, I’d be giving up so much without any guarantee. It was too risky.

“I have a whole life waiting for me in Toronto,” I told her.

“Right.” She watched me. “Well, I’ll miss you when you’re gone.”

Emotion pinched me above my lungs and for the second time tonight, I blinked hard. I pointed at the keg at our feet.

“You’re just going to miss me helping you with the kegs.”

She snorted. “Yeah. That too.”

I pictured Olivia and me hanging out at the bar, ten years from now, and my heart panged. It felt so real and seamless.

“I’ll miss you, too,” I told her.

46

Sadie

“Your home smells like you,”I told Holden as we stepped through his front door that night, and he smiled while he kicked his boots off.

The blanket fort was still in the living room. I took a step toward it.

“Well,” I told him with a wave, like the fort was my bedroom. “Goodnight.”

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