Page 36 of Unsteady in Love

“It’s beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. The water is so pretty, and everything is so green. We’ve ventured to a few waterfalls. The best word to describe it is paradise. Mason and I spend half the day at the beach and the other half exploring.”

“Is Luke sad that he’s missing out on a lot of it?”

“A little bit, but he understands that the beach can’t entertain Mason for the entire time he’s here. I would be perfectly fine spending all my time there though.” She laughed. “I wish you could come to the wedding, but I understand why you can’t.”

“I hate that I’ll probably have to miss it now that I’ve gotten over my fear of flying, but…”

“Don’t worry about it. If you need me to come home, I can. I feel bad that I’m here in paradise, and you’re going through hell.”

“Do you think Holden will change his mind?” I asked, afraid to hear her answer, but also hoping she would put my fears at ease.

“I truly think he will. He just needs time. What would you do if you lost a limb? He’s looking out for you. He knows how much you loved your dad and how hard it was to take care of him. He doesn’t want to do the same thing to you.”

“I have loved Holden since I was fifteen years old. For years, I thought I’d never see him again, and then he shows up out of the blue. I tried so hard to not let him in, afraid that he’d hurt me, and what happened?” I closed my eyes as a single tear slipped down my cheek.

“Honey, he was already in, you were just denying it to yourself. You never stood a chance.”

“But what if he’s serious and never wants anything to do with me again?”

“From what you’ve told me, I don’t think that’s the case. He loves you, and I’m sure he always has,” she tried to reassure me.

“It would be so much easier if he had a phone or a computer so I could talk to him. I just wish I could talk to him, just once.”

“I know, sweetie. Get him a phone or computer when he gets back. That way you can communicate with him. It might make it easier for him to talk to you if he knows that you can’t see him.”

“Thank you, Alex. I feel like my brain is mush from all the crying I’ve done this week.”

She made a sad noise on the other end of the line. “If you ever need to talk, call me day or night. I’m here for you.”

“I know you are. I don’t know what I’d do without you. You’re a Godsend.”

“I’m happy I could help. Do you feel any better?”

“Sort of, but not really.” I laughed. “I’m going to call Josh so I can pick up Atticus. I miss him and hopefully, his cuteness will make me forget about Holden for a few minutes.”

“You’ll be lucky if Josh gives him back. The couple of times I’ve talked to him, he talked all baby talk to Atticus. I think he loves the mutt.”

“Atticus is easy to love. He’s so damn cute and cuddly, but I’m not letting Josh have him.” I laughed and grabbed up my keys. Josh wasn’t keeping him for another minute.

“I have to agree from the pictures you’ve sent and posted online. Plus, what Josh has sent.” She giggled madly. “I’m just kidding. He hasn’t sent any pictures, but he did seriously talk all gaga at him.”

“Go enjoy paradise, and I’ll talk to you later. Thank you again for everything.”

“It doesn’t feel like enough, but I’m happy I could help even if it’s just a little bit. Keep me updated.”

“Will do. Bye, Alex.”

“Bye, Prue.” She disconnected.

On a mission, I headed out to get my dog and the technology that would hopefully make Holden talk to me and eventually come back to me again.

24

PRUE

For the past two days,I’d been holed up in a rental house in San Diego waiting for Holden to finally get stateside. Now that he was finally here, I was nervous about whether or not he’d refuse to see me.

“Mrs. Montgomery, I’ll take the computer and phone, but I can’t promise you anything else. Sergeant Montgomery has expressed explicitly he wants no visitors. It will be up to him if he chooses to contact you.”

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