Page 96 of In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes

I remembered our deal, and guilt twanged through me. I shouldn’t have been laying there in his arms, gazing at him like some lovesick fool. I should have been out there, finding someone for him, forcing him to go on more dates. Hanging out with Holden was so fun though, even when we weren’t doing the sexy stuff.

I pushed the guilt aside and tucked myself further into his chest.

35

Holden

“Twilight?”I asked her with a grimace.

We had set up in her bedroom, because construction supplies cluttered the sitting room downstairs and the couch was in the hallway while we worked on the secret library entrance. The laptop perched a few feet away from us, queued up with the movie. Rain tapped on the roof and against the window and a fire crackled in the fireplace, warming the room. Sadie settled back against the headboard with her pasta we had picked up from Avery’s restaurant.

I settled in beside her and frowned. “Isn’t that movie for teenage girls?”

Sadie nodded. “And now all those thirteen year girls are grown women. This movie is acriticalpiece of cinema to women my age and you need to know all the references.”

A grin hitched on my mouth as she hit play.

Half an hour later, Sadie dissolved into giggles at my horrified expression. This movie was insane, with long, lingering looks between Bella and Edward, over-the-top teen angst, and cringey dialogue.

“This movie is terrible,” I told her.

“I know,” she gasped, laughing harder. “But I still love it.”

On screen, Edward made Bella climb on his back before he raced up the mountain. Sadie glanced at me before she began laughing again.

I shook my head and grinned.

A few minutes later, her head had meandered to my shoulder as we watched the movie. She tilted her head and I glanced down at her.

“I’m so glad we got a do-over.” Her eyes were soft and warm.

My eyebrow lifted. “Do-over?”

She nodded, playing with the duvet cover. “With us. If I never came to Queen’s Cove, we never would have become friends and I wouldn’t have known who you really were.”

Pressure expanded in my chest and I tried not to smile as big as I wanted to. “I’m more myself around you,” I admitted.

“You are?” Her smile lifted, hopeful and sweet. “That’s the best compliment.” Her gaze met mine and her throat worked. “I’m more myself around you, too. The other day, walking in the forest and telling you about my secret bar daydreams, I, just—” She shrugged and glanced back at me, suddenly shy. “I can tell you about those things.”

“I like you telling me about those things.”

I could never admit how much it meant to me when she admitted what happened with her ex. She trusted me. My chest squeezed again.

She sat up with bright eyes. “I made a Pinterest board for my pretend secret bar from my daydreams. You want to see it?”

I nodded and she sat forward, pausing the movie and opened a browser window. She sat back and I settled my arm around her shoulders as she scrolled, explaining the color scheme and showing me images of dark and moody wallpaper. She flipped past pictures of the same little twinkle lights they strung up along the trees on Main Street.

“I love little touches of decor from The Roaring Twenties,” she explained, pointing out the brass light fixtures. “That’s the vibe we’re going for with the secret library, like a speakeasy people can hide their drinks in.”

She pointed at an image with wallpaper. “I designed this wallpaper.”

My eyebrows shot up and I leaned in closer to study the image. The wallpaper was a deep red wine color, with navy stripes. Gold and white birds floated every foot or so.

“That’s incredible, Sadie,” I murmured, picturing it in my own home.

She shrugged with a little smile. “I was thinking about using it for my own apartment at the time. Turns out it’s pretty easy to make your own wallpaper if you have the design finished.” She tilted her head, eyes on the pattern. “I never ended up using it but I think about it all the time.”

She made a sad little hum and closed the window. The next window was an email with pictures of an apartment.

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