Page 157 of In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes

I heard her words again from years ago and flinched. She hadn’t chosen me, and I wasn’t sure if I could ever let that go. It would always loom in the back of my mind.

I folded my arms over my chest and frowned at the hockey highlights, thinking about the way her face lit up when I showed her the treehouse bar. The soft affection on her face as she painted me in the living room that night. The way she fit right into my life, and now that she was gone, I couldn’t forget her.

After a few weeks of her staying in my home, I couldn’t look at a single inch of the place without thinking of her. I dreaded returning home.

“Hey,” Olivia said to someone behind me.

Emmett slid onto the next stool. “How are you, Olivia?”

She shrugged and shot a glance at me. We hadn’t talked about it but I knew she was mad at me for driving Sadie away. I saw it in the sullen way she glanced at me. She didn’t laugh as much as when Sadie was here.

Neither of us did.

“Fine,” she answered him in her usual flat tone. “Beer?”

He nodded. “Yes, please.”

While she poured, he turned to me. “And how are you?”

“Fine.” My gaze stayed on the TV.

Olivia slid his beer across the counter and Emmett tilted his head at the empty space on the wall, where the painting of me crying used to hang.

She jerked her chin in the direction of the backroom.In the back, she mouthed, cutting a glance to me.

Emmett nodded in understanding. “Gotcha.”

She wandered over to a table near the back and Emmett sighed before he drank some of his beer.

“You missed family dinner the other night.”

I made a noise of acknowledgement in my throat, eyes still on the TV. I couldn’t sit there and watch everyone have what I wanted. I didn’t want to be that sulky asshole while they radiated happiness.

“What happened with Sadie?”

I shifted. “We want different things.”

Emmett gave me ago onlook.

“She doesn’t want to get married.” It pinched, saying the words out loud for the first time since she left. My throat worked and I dragged a breath in.

“Right. And you do.”

My gaze cut to his, wary. He gave me a rueful smile.

“Come on, buddy,” he said. “Everyone knows your dark secret. You’re a fucking romantic.”

My chest ached. A lot of good it had done me.

“Why do you want to get married so badly?” He sat back, studying me.

My expression was incredulous as I turned to him. “When people love each other, they get married.” I sounded defensive. “Look at you and Avery. Hannah and Wyatt. Mom and Dad.” I rubbed the bridge of my nose. Some of the anger filtered out of me and I deflated. “I wanted her to want me as much as I wanted her.”

Emmett considered this for a second, rubbing his jaw. “If it wasn’t for that stupid plan I cooked up for my campaign, Avery and I might not have gotten married.”

My eyebrows shot together. “What?”

He shrugged. “I would have won her over, eventually. We’d still be partners but I don’t know if we would have done the whole ceremony and marriage certificate and stuff.”

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