Page 96 of Infinite as They Come
“Holly doesn’t know about this at all? The home?”
“No, I wanted to surprise her, but that meant keeping secrets, and keeping secrets kinda came back to bite me in the ass. Holly just…” My hands rubbed over my face. “I’m so in love with her. I fall more in love with her every day. It’s so easy, too. Every little thing she does makes me love her more. The way her eyes light up when she smiles, how warm her laugh sounds, the way she looks at me when I paint her. All of it. And I wouldn’t change it for anything. Wouldn’t ever wanna do this with anyone but her. It’sher. Holly isitfor me. When I think about the future, it’s her in my head. It’s her I wake up to, her I hold, her I love until the day I die, butChrist, they really need to make an instruction manual for falling in love with a rich girl.”
He chuckled. “I suppose it’s not easy.”
“I wouldn’t change it, though. I wouldn’t ever change a thing, except for me being so damn stupid for so long when we weren’t getting along. If I could go back in time and fix that, I would in a second flat, but everything else? It’s all been worth it, because I get her, and all I want is her,” I said, letting my head roll back against the couch, my eyes finding all that perfectly crafted detailing against the ceiling once more, all rounded, intricate lines. “I love everything about her, and I want that forever. I love that I get to wake up to her, even if all her hair ends up in my mouth every time ‘cause it’s so damn long, ‘cause that just means I got to fall asleep with her the night before. I love that even when we go to bed so far apart from each other, she still somehow ends up back in my arms, like she was meant for me and I was meant for her. I love that I get to paint her, that I get to stare at her and look at every detail, that I get to look at the most beautiful girl in the world every single day and have the chance to make her there on the canvas. And no matter what, no matter how hard and long I stare at her and focus onevery detail, it’s like I can never capture how beautiful she really is. Her on a canvas? A drawing? It doesn’t do her justice. You can’tcopythat. That perfection. You gotta see the real thing, you gotta look at Holly in the flesh to see it, but I’ll keep trying, and I’ll keep doing it for the rest of my life. Maybe one day I’ll be able to pull it off. I’ll be able to paint her eyes and her smile and her hair and everything and capture all of her perfectly so the rest of the world knows that she’s the most beautiful girl in the world.”
It was only then that I realized how much I had been babbling on and on, but babbling on and on about Holly wasn’t exactly a hard task.
“Sorry,” I said, laughing lowly. “Usually I just paint her. That’s easy to do. I’m not much of a poet.”
Lips pressed together, he just stared at me, eyes that tiny bit bright, and all I could think about was how he never used to look at me like that. It used to be everythingbutthat light that was in his eyes. I used to be the stray dog his daughter brought home.
“Don’t apologize,” he said. “I’m glad Holly found someone who cares about her as much as you do. Someone who wants to do nothing but look after her. You know, I’ve spoiled her from the second I got the chance, but that’s only because I want Holly to have a perfect life. But perfect for me and her mean two different things…”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah, I guess.”
“You’re the one she trusts with her whole heart. I’ve accepted that, and you know I never thought she’d end up with someone so…”
“Poor?” I said.
His throat cleared. “… Different to her. But… I can’t and won’t hold that against you. That’s not fair, and you’ve proven over the years that you can be the man who protects her and loves her the way she deserves. And you’ve obviously been dealing with a lot since this trip started. With your mother, with tracking down a home. It must have been difficult doing it all on your own, but I’m proud of you, Sawyer.”
My eyes closed for a second, letting those words sink in. We had come a long fucking way from how things used to be. All that anger, bitterness, resentment. It felt so far away now. “It hasn’t been easy. Loving Holly is theeasy part, but everything else? Yeah, it’s been a lot.”
He stared at me for a long moment. “Is… Is it the money? If you need a loan, you wouldn’t even have to pay me back, and I could—”
My head shook as I cut him off. “No. No, I don’t need a loan from anyone. Don’t need to borrow it. I’ve been saving. From the second she told me she wanted to be mine, I started saving. I’ll pay off that house for the rest of my life if I have to, and that’s okay.”
“That’s… That’s honorable. This couldn’t have been easy. All of it. Trying to find the perfect home for you two all while reuniting with your mother.”
“It was hard, but Holly got me through it. Holly gets me through everything. I didn’t mean to lie to her again and again. She just…” I looked over my shoulder one more time. “She can’t know about the house. She can’t know that I finally found it.”
His eyes widened. “You found it?”
“I did. Today. A few hours ago. That’s why it took me longer to get here.” My eyes rolled. “That and my damn truck breaking down. But it looks almost identical to the one she described to me. The size, the space, the location, the view. Everything.Almost, everything.”
“Almost? What is it, no lemon tree? She loved that thing,” he said, a slow smile stretching across his face. “Loved making me hold her so she could grab those damn lemons, too. She’d grab ten of them even when we only needed one. It’s nice you remembered all those things about her. The things she loves.”
“It’s hard to forget them.”
“Where is it exactly? The home?”
“Moody.”
He hummed. “Not too far from here, right?”
“I wanted to make sure it was close to you guys.”
“I appreciate you picking a place that’s not too hard to get to. It’ll be nice to see you and Holly. Maybe even your mother…”
Christ, I hadn’t even thought about that. That was supposed to happen. That was normal. My parents—one of them, at least—meeting Holly’s. There was something about it that sounded really good.
“Yeah,” I murmured. “I think she’d like that.”
Finally, he gestured to the doorway. “Holly’s in the solarium. You can go on in now. I’ll keep your secret hush hush.”
I nodded, up on my feet in a second flat before I raced out of the door and down the hallway, about to take on the confusing adventure that was navigating Holly’s house. It was hard to get used to the place. Too many rooms and stairs and high ceilings, but I kept moving, far too eager to see her.
