Page 108 of Someone to Hold

I hear my sister gasp.

“His moods made me nervous,” I say, and try to slip my hand from my mother’s grasp, but she tightens her hold again. “I got clumsy when I was nervous.”

“You were never clumsy.” Her lips curve up on one side, the barest wisp of a smile, but her gaze reflects decades of sadness as it meets mine. “You tried to save me.”

Shit. The giant ball of emotion lodged in my throat is suffocating. I can’t move or breathe. That has to be why my eyes are stinging with tears.

She releases my hand and pats my cheek, her paper-thin skin soft against mine. “You’re a good boy.”

“I love you, Mom,” I whisper as her praise washes over me.

Her smile turns gentle, then she yawns and sits back in the chair, her eyes closing once again.

When I finally glance at Ada, tears are streaming down her cheeks.

“It’s okay,” I say softly. “It wasn’t exactly like that.”

“Hallway. Now,” she says, jerking her thumb toward the door.

With a sigh, I stand and follow her out of the room.

“Ada, I swear I’m not going to leave you alone.”

“Do you love her?” she demands.

“You just heard me tell her I love her. I know Mom wasn’t perfect, but she did the best she could.”

“I don’t mean Mom, dummy. I’m talking about Molly.”

I force myself not to react, but Ada’s delivered a hit I didn’t see coming. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“It haseverythingto do with why you can’t leave.”

“She wants the McAllister property and thinks I bought it because I didn’t believe she could do it on her own.”

Surprise flashes in my sister’s gray eyes. “You bought it because you take care of people.”

Damn. It feels like that bull is on top of me again. Only this time it’s not the pain from the beast crushing me. The weight of the truth is draining the breath from my lungs.

“Molly wants to take care of herself.”

“Then honor that, but don’t walk away or give up on her. You heard Mom. You shouldn’t need either of us to convince you, but you aren’t like Dad.”

“I...” I want to deny it, but my throat locks around the words.

Ada grips my arm like I need her to ground me in this moment, and maybe I do. “You look like him, and I know you’ve got a temper. But the darkness that’s inside him.” She shakes her head. “It isn’t part of you.”

“How do you know?”

“You tried to save us.” She swipes the hand not holding mine across her cheeks. “Mom isn’t the only one who remembers.”

I wrap my arms around my sister and pull her into me. “I hate him for what he did to us.”

“Me, too,” she whispers and pulls back enough to look into my eyes. “Don’t give that kind of power anymore. You have to take your life back. Fight for Molly. Sell the property or keep it. That doesn’t matter. What matters is being happy. You deserve to be happy.”

I close my eyes as her words take hold deep inside me. I can’t imagine being happy without Molly or those kids or the damn flower farm that smells like sunshine and hope. And I want all of it.

Yeah, I’ve been thrown and ended up bruised and broken. But that didn’t stop me from climbing back on, and it won’t this time either. I’m done letting fear rule the day. Molly is worth every fight, and I’m going to hold tight and not let go.