Page 34 of In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes

No, Holden would probably follow me inside and hold my hair back again.

Holden was still staring down at me with careful curiosity. My stomach tightened. He was looking at me like he could hear my thoughts. I cleared my throat. “I’m going on Monday to buy bathroom tiles.”

He gave me a side-long look, like he knew what I was doing, before he took a sip of his drink and nodded. “You want help? They can be heavy, especially for six bathrooms.”

“Some help would be nice,” I admitted, “if you can get away. Or we can go in the evening. I’m not working at the bar that night.”

He shook his head. “The store in Port Alberni closes at six. Let’s go after lunch. And then I’m there in case there’s a problem with the card.”

After we had struck up our agreement, Holden had suggested he front the money for the renovations and we’d account for it when adjusting the shares. He handed me a credit card linked to a separate account reserved for the renovations. That way, it would be easier to keep track of costs.

“Thanks again for fronting the renovation money,” I said with a quick smile. We were tip-toeing near theSadie is brokediscussion I did not want to have.

He jerked a nod. “You’re working for free. Only fair.”

Captain Rina announced the boat was leaving the harbor and would return to the marina and we watched the shore over the railing as we drifted further away. I remembered the reason we were here and tilted my head at the party around us. “Go talk to more women.”

He took a sip of his drink. “I’m fine here.”

“Holden.”

“You might barf again.”

I snorted. “I said never to talk about that again.”

That mouth twitch of his was back and I grinned at him.

Beautiful. Huh.

There was more to Holden Rhodes than I realized.

15

Holden

“Look who’s in his lair,”Emmett said at the door to my office. He glanced at his watch. “It’s quitting time, don’t you think?”

“Just finishing up,” I lied.

“Liar.” Emmett dropped into the chair. He was in running clothes. “I was out for a run and saw your office light on.”

This shit again. “There are a lot of things going on right now. New projects, wrapping up old projects, hiring more people.”

He studied me for a moment with a thoughtful expression. “So pass off some of the work onto the leads. That’s why we created those roles.”

“I like doing it.”

“You like staying until nine every night?” He arched an eyebrow.

I sighed. I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. What was I going to say? I didn’t trust anyone else to do it. Emmett trusted me to run the company while he was mayor. Once his term finished, he’d come back and he could take some of the workload back.

“Shouldn’t you be home with your wife?” I asked.

“She’s at the restaurant tonight. It’s boring at home without her.”

I held back a groan. I didn’t want to hear more about how much the guy loved his wife. I knew. We all knew. Him and Wyatt talked about it nonstop. Sometimes, it was a bit much. It was like someone talking about how much money they had. People got it. He didn’t need to rub it in.

Emmett shifted in the chair, balancing his elbow on the arm. “Something I want to talk to you about.”

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