Page 8 of In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes

Fuck. My stomach burned with shame. I was so clueless.

Before Grant, it was Dylan, an investment banker who seemed like the perfect guy until I figured out he expected me to stay home with our future children. Great for some people, but not for me. I loved interior design, and I wasn’t giving it up.

Before Dylan, it was Luke, a painter I had met while doing a fine arts degree. Luke also seemed perfect in that tortured artist way until I overheard him making fun of my paintings.

I blew out a long breath and I closed my eyes. When would I learn? I couldn’t trust myself to pick the right guy, and it was getting worse each time.

While I locked up at the inn, I pushed all the feelings aside.

It didn’t matter. I was done with dating for the foreseeable future. I had enough on my plate.

Twenty minutes later, I strolled back down the main street on the hunt for some lunch when my gaze landed a shop window.

It was a real estate agency, with listings posted in the window for people to browse.

An idea struck me and a smile stretched across my face. The inn was worth a ton of money, and I had a ton of debt.

We could sell the inn. Of course. It was so simple.

Guilt poked me in the ribcage. The inn was Katherine’s life’s work. She put her whole life into that place. Her passion and purpose was hosting people, showing them the beauty of Queen’s Cove, growing friendships with travelers from around the world, and helping people make incredible memories during their vacation.

My forehead pinched and I chewed my lip with uncertainty.

On the other hand, I had zero plans to own and operate the inn, and I doubted Holden did either. The guy had a company to run. What the hell would he want with an inn? Katherine knew my life was in Toronto. There was no way she had expected me to move to Queen’s Cove and run the inn, and if she did, she wouldn’t have left it to Holden. She would have left it solely to me.

From what Katherine had told me, his company was successful. He didn’t need the money. Why was he in the will?

I knew one thing. Katherine did this because she loved me. She left it to me because she didn’t have any kids, and we were close. This was her way of giving me a leg up in life.

A surprised, elated laugh burst out of me, and I sent a millionthank you’s up to Katherine, wherever she was in the universe. My golden solution had landed straight at my feet, and I could see my problems evaporating.

Good things happened to good people.

I’d stay at the inn one last night, and tomorrow, I’d go find Holden.

5

Holden

“Hey, buddy.”Emmett clapped me on the shoulder as I took a seat beside him at our parents’ house.

I nodded hello to everyone. The whole family was here except Finn, who was off fighting forest fires around British Columbia until late-September, after which he was moving to Whistler for the ski season. Emmett and his wife Avery sat beside me. Across from us, Wyatt had his arm around his wife, Hannah. My parents, Elizabeth and Sam, at the end of the table.

My dad jerked his chin in my direction. “Holden, I heard the big news. Congratulations.”

Emmett whistled. “How’s Sadie doing with the news?”

A rock landed in my stomach and I glanced around, uneasy. My brothers knew Sadie from the weekly dinners she attended during her summer here. She had that same sparkly friendliness Katherine had, and got along with everyone.

Except me.

“Fuck if I know,” I bit out.

Everyone turned to me and I held back a groan. I should have skipped this dinner. I had a thousand emails to catch up on and I knew they were going to grill me.

My mom gave me a strange look before turning back to the table. “She’s grown up into such a lovely young lady. So beautiful.”

Emmett wiggled his eyebrows at me. “Hey, buddy? Do you think she’sso beautiful?”

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