Page 14 of Huge Dynamite
Glancing at Holly, I catch her mouthing the word “babe.”
“Well.” Holly clears her throat. “I’m glad everything seems to be in working order.”
She eyeballs me, and I know she’s not referring to my shoulder.
“I’m going to head back to Phoenix.” Grabbing the driver’s door handle, she opens her car door. “So you two can get back to your night.”
“Nice meeting you!” Tracy offers. Still hanging on me, she gives Holly the same cutesy wave she gave me before.
“Hold on.” Breaking free of Tracy, I turn to face her. “Can you go get a beer? I need to speak to Dr. Boling alone. It’ll only take a moment.”
“I get it. Doctor-patient confidence, huh?” Tracy asks, looking Holly up and down once more.
Cringing at her misused word, I glance at Holly, who doesn’t so much as flinch. She is a class act.
“Um, something like that, yes,” I mumble.
Shoving her hands back into her front pockets again, Tracy nods to Holly. “Well, uh, bye, Holls. It was nice meeting you.”
Holly smiles. “It was nice meeting you as well, Tracy.”
Holding my breath, I watch Tracy walk back to the clubhouse. She stops at the door and gives a wave before disappearing inside. Turning back to Holly, I’m desperate to explain.
“Holly—”
Cutting me off, Holly stands by her still-open door while she speaks. “Your girlfriend seems nice.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” I clarify. “Just met her tonight—a couple of minutes before you came into the bar.”
“Well, your friend, then.”
“She’s not my friend.”
Holly looks up at me. “The way she was holding onto you and calling you ‘babe’, I don’t think she knows that.”
“She doesn’t seem to know a lot,” I add. “Doctor-patient confidence?”
I’m hoping for a chuckle out of Holly. Instead, she narrows her eyes.
“So? She misspoke. At least she tried. I don’t think she went to medical school. You can’t go around judging people, Seth. Who knows what opportunities she’s had for education versus what I had—private schools all the way to an Ivy League college and one of the top medical schools in the country. I’m sure that if I looked at your motorcycle and tried to rebuild the engine, I’d sound just as uninformed.” Her breath is racing and her chest heaving. “I…”
Her eyes dance across mine. Leaning her arm on the inside armrest of her opened door and dropping her head, she shakes it. “I’m sorry, Seth. You didn’t deserve that.” Raising her head, she looks me in the eye again. “I-I was raised by—and am surrounded by—incredibly arrogant and elitist people. I just wanted to believe you were different. It’s not fair of me to expect you to be one way or another. For god’s sake, you let the woman kiss you. You must have seen something in her. Unless…” Tilting her head, her beautiful brow furrows again. “Were you just using her for the night?”
Was I? No. “I wasn’t doing anything with her. I didn’t want to be there. She kissed me, you’re right. But it was a surprise, and that’s as far as it ever would have gone.” In my heart, I know that’s the truth. “And I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have judged her like that. Truth is…” Taking a deep breath, I let it go in a sigh. “The truth is I’m incredibly glad to see you, and…” I take a step closer to Holly. “I really don’t want you to go.”
Looking up at me, her eyes bounce back and forth, reading me.
Walking around so we’re on the same side of the opened door, I look at her. “Holly? Please don’t go. Do you want to come in for a drink?”
“I don’t think that would be fair to Tracy. What do you think?”
“How about we go somewhere else?”
Standing up tall, she whips around to face me and raises an eyebrow.
“There’s another bar not too far from here.” I make sure I’m perfectly clear.
Shaking her head, she stares at the ground and then looks me in the eye. “I did come here for a reason tonight, and it was to see you.”
