Page 165 of In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes

The door whipped open behind me and I would have fallen over if Holden hadn’t been holding me against him.

“Surprise!” everyone yelled from the foyer of the inn.

Holden’s hand tightened around my waist and he sighed. “I already regret this.”

I laughed at him and poked the corner of his mouth. It popped up and my heart somersaulted. “You’ll have fun. I promise.”

Emmett pulled us inside the inn and everyone surrounded us with a chorus of congratulations and hugs. We had booked the entire inn out for the party, and the place was packed. Someone turned the music up and the bartender mixed drinks in the corner of the sitting room while servers circled with hors d’oeurvres. Everyone we knew and loved was here, chatting and laughing and all dressed up. Don circled with his camera, snapping photos of people in the middle of laughter or stories or hugs. Wyatt pulled Hannah to the makeshift dance floor in the sitting room while Elizabeth and Sam cooed over their adorable baby granddaughter, Cora Nielsen Rhodes. Emmett, Avery, and Finn explored the secret library while Willa and Olivia chatted on the window seat. Willa had visited for a few weeks last summer and the two had become friends.

Shortly after I returned to Queen’s Cove last January, Holden and I finished the renovations before we had hired a manager who would live on the premises in Katherine’s room and run the inn. Amelia was a recently divorced woman in her mid-thirties and had moved here from Nelson, another small town in British Columbia. The second she had stepped into the inn for her interview, her eyes lit up and I knew in my heart she was the right person for the job. With her extensive experience in hospitality, we trusted her to hold down the fort.

Last May, Grant was arrested while trying to cross the border into California. He had spent about half of what he stole from me, and a couple months ago, I had received the remainder in my bank account.

I should have sent that guy a thank you note for what he did for me. If it wasn’t for Grant, I never would have gotten to know Holden.

After the inn renovation was complete, Holden and I started our own company, Waters-Rhodes Design. He had promoted Aiden to partner and hired another person to run the business side. He and Emmett sat on the board but weren’t involved in the day to day. Besides, he was busy with a home renovation nearby. They had seen our secret library and wanted one of their own.

Outside of our company, I had been working on a collection of pieces for an exhibit at the Queen’s Cove art gallery in April. The painting Holden refused to sell to the gallery? It now hung next to its other half, donated last January. He had said he didn’t need it anymore.

At the inn, Holden’s hand slipped into mine and he held a plate up with a samosa on it. “You should eat, honey.” I nodded and took a bite. Someone tried to approach and he shook his head at them with a frown. “She’s eating,” he told them.

I laughed and rolled my eyes at him. “So grouchy.”

He cut me a glance, the corner of his mouth twitching like I loved. “I want you all to myself for a minute.”

“You’ll have me all to yourself until we die peacefully in our sleep at the age of a hundred and thirty.”

He smiled and his arm came back around my waist. He dropped a kiss on my cheek.

Around us, all the people we loved were having the best time. Life and laughter filled Katherine’s inn to the brim. The fairy lights cast a soft glow on everyone but the warm energy wasn’t from the lights, it was from the people and the inn itself. Love saturated the inn. Katherine had put her life into it and Holden and I had fallen in love under this roof.

Something struck my heart and I placed my hand over my chest.

“What’s wrong?” Holden asked.

“I feel her here.” A soft, wistful smile grew on my face. “I know it’s woo-woo and I can’t explain it but…” I shrugged, smiling to myself. My chest squeezed, buzzing with pressure. “It’s the strangest thing.”

Holden nodded. “I feel it too.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “It’s like she knew.”

He watched me for a long moment before he nodded. “I think she did.”

Katherine knew something we didn’t. She knew we’d be perfect for each other, complete opposites and thus the perfect fit.

“Sadie.” Elizabeth found me and hugged me until I couldn’t breathe, whispering in my ear about how proud she was of me, how happy she was that Holden and I had found each other, and how I was perfect as I was. She covered my cheeks with enthusiastic kisses like I was a child and my heart flip-flopped in my chest.

“Mom, are you drunk?” Finn asked.

She swatted his arm. “I’mhappy.”

He smirked and took a sip of his beer before he nodded to the two of us. “Congratulations, you two.” His tattoos were visible, poking out from the sleeve of his shirt.

“Thank you for being here,” I told him. “I know it’s a long way from Whistler.”

He had decided to spend another ski season there. When Olivia had found out Finn would be here, it took serious convincing on my part to get her to the wedding. She didn’t want anything to do with the guy and wouldn’t step a foot in the same building as him. I had to agree to working at the bar one night a week for the next year to get her to say yes.

As if that was a fair deal. I loved chatting with everyone there, talking and laughing, and I loved the way Holden’s eyes followed me around.

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