Page 82 of Huge Dynamite
“All right, Seth. What the hell are you doing?” Nick’s voice is stern.
“Okay, okay.” Jumping to my feet, I turn around and face Nick. “Guess no one gets a break around here.”
“I’m not talking about your damned break. I’m talking about what you’re doing with your woman, Dr. Holly.”
“Shit, you, too? Did you all plan to attack me about this today?”
“Oh, cool it. No one is attacking you. We’re all worried about you. And about her. I didn’t know what you and Colt were talking about, but I’m just you’re getting some bonding time. While we’re at it, I’m glad Colt tried to talk some sense into you. So, I’ll repeat my question—what are you going to do about your woman?”
“I’m not doing anything about her because she’s not mine.”
“Bullshit. I saw the way you just looked at your brother with his girl. I know that when you didn’t kill that Dog, it went against every one of your dynamite urges, but you did it. And you did it because you knew if you killed Damian, you and Holly could never be together.” Nick takes a deep breath and links his hands in through the straps of his workman’s coveralls. “You have control, Seth. If that’s what you’re worried about. You proved it that night at the Dogs’ clubhouse.”
Looking into Nick’s eyes, I ask the question that’s been gnawing at my gut all this time. “What if I hurt her?”
“Physically?”
“Of course not. I would never. I mean the way I hurt Colt. Thanks to my damned outburst, I couldn’t protect him and stay with him when we were kids, and now we’re little more than lukewarm to one another.”
“You can’t let one action define your life.” Nick sighs as he speaks.
“But it wasn’t one action. How many times did he need something from me and I just pushed him aside in one of my uncontrolled rages? I wasn’t there for him.”
“Maybe you weren’t there for him then, but you are now. All we have is today, Seth.”
“I don’t want to do that to her.” Looking into Nick’s sparkling eyes, I take a deep breath and exhale sharply. “I don’t want to make the same mistake twice.”
“Then don’t.” Nick walks up closer to me and puts his hand on my shoulder. “You may be a lot of things, Seth, but I never pegged you as a quitter. It’s all so much easier than you think. If you want to be with her, then be a man worthy of being with her.”
Nodding, excitement brews deep in my belly for the first time since Holly walked out of the Dogs’ clubhouse that night. “You’re right, Nick. And I think I know exactly how to start.”
***
“Wow.” Smiling at Colt and Erica, I nod to the landscaping outside of Holly’s building. “It looks amazing.”
Erica raises an eyebrow and plants her shovel into the ground, leaning against the top of it. “Thanks.” She’s nice enough, but I get a definite chill off of her. Her white tank top is smeared with dirt, and her long blonde hair is pinned up on top of her head. She really is adorable, and a damned hard worker at that. I can see why Colt is into her.
Smiling at Colt, she turns her body toward him while she speaks to both of us. Pointing to the door, she explains, “I am so over all that cactus landscaping they have here in Arizona, so those—” She points to two evergreen bushes lining the newly-refurbished front stairs and their guardrail. “—are Cape honeysuckles. And those orange-red bushes that are framing the new red door? They’re called red bird of paradise. When I saw that stained-glass with the single bird, I thought these would be a perfect complement.”
The fact that Erica picked up on the idea of the bird in the glass and ran with it hits me hard. I swallow a lump in my throat.
“And this—” Squatting down, she runs her hand over a newly-laid lawn. “—is sod. Also known as grass.” She laughs. “Isn’t it nice to see some green around here?”
“Yeah, it really is.” Stepping forward, I hold out my hand. “Thank you, Erica.”
She takes my hand and we shake, but she eyes me in a way that’s completely unnerving. What is up with this girl, and why doesn’t she like me?
Dropping my hand, she turns to Colt, and she’s all happy and smiles again. “Come on, Colt. How about an iced tea? I saw a cute store a couple of doors down.”
Wrapping his arm around her, Colt turns back to me and waves, and then walks off with Erica.
Putting the weirdness of Erica’s reaction to me out of my mind, I climb the stairs and walk into the clinic.
“I’ve got to hand it to you.” Nick smiles at me when he sees me walk in. He looks around the newly constructed bottom floor of Holly’s clinic. “That first day we came riding up to this building, I never thought it could look like this. Hell, I never thought you’d get us in here. We were lucky that it’s on the market and the real estate agent—”
“Clea.”
“Yes, Clea.” The way he says it… does Nick like her?
