Page 27 of Sweet Summertide (Christmas Cove #4)

To her left, one of the staff slid open the panels of glass, collapsing the windows into a pocket inside the wall and causing the space to become an indoor-outdoor room.

The sticky breeze took no time to overtake the cool air conditioning.

Holly dabbed the back of her hand against her cheeks and forehead to set her makeup and make sure her face wasn’t in danger of melting off.

It wasn’t terribly hot, but it was the most humid day she had felt in a while.

Summer was in full swing as the days rolled through to the end of June, that was for sure.

Holly’s dad downed his drink and placed it on an unoccupied cocktail table on his way to meet up with her mother.

The several dozen guests began to make their way out onto the veranda and down the stairs to the dirt track surrounding the pasture.

This was the main event, the review. The next two hours would either make or break the farm’s success for the next year.

Of course, her parents could make ends meet, but the better the horses showed this year, the better the next year would be, and so on.

Holly waited until many of the guests had found their ideal viewing location before taking her spot.

Some people lined up right against the fence railing while others took up elevated positions from bistro tables set up on the veranda.

Holly headed to her favorite corner where the white fence and the gate came together.

From the vantage point off to one end, she could keep tabs on all the goings on, overhear conversations, and know where her mother was, just in case Holly needed to spill some overheard tea or, conversely, to stay away if need be.

This was her role, a glorified eavesdropping spy.

It never ceased to amaze her how freely some people will speak about private matters when they think no one of consequence is listening.

For her sake, she blended in amongst the other club members, and since half of the people at the event were new around there, no one would recognize her as a Hollis.

Once someone found out who she was related to, the sucking up would start.

Holly stepped up onto the bottom fence rail and rested her arms on the top one.

From her position she scanned the faces, some obscured behind hats, for anyone she knew.

She was always looking for faces she recognized.

She would probably need to dig into the psychology behind that particular tic, but she supposed it was the same as when a person checks out the exits in a theater or when someone takes the stairs instead of the elevator.

It was a precaution to know the way out of a situation.

And in Holly’s case, she never knew when she would need someone to make a run with.

Without Millie romping around with her, she had no one with whom to escape.

For now, she intended to enjoy watching the horses show off their beauty and speed.

The first horse, a dapple-grey called Marshmallow, with a pedigree tracing back to Giacomo, took to the near pasture.

The trainer walked beside the two-year-old colt and directed him to parade by the spectators.

Marshmallow was her favorite horse in the stables, and if she had the funds, she might have wanted to own this one herself if for no other reason than to let him run free, but it was to be someone else’s turn for now.

“He’s a gorgeous one,” a low voice came from behind her. For a split second she thought it might be Teddy, but the tone was raspier than Teddy’s smooth baritone she was used to hearing.

Coming up behind her before she could turn, two hands covered hers where she was holding onto the top rail of the fence.

He pulled himself up to the same rail, blanketing her body with his from behind.

His inky scent was unmistakable. “Hello, Rinaldi.” She ducked under one of his arms and scooted down the railing a bit, evading his attempt to hem her in.

“Surprise, baby. Your mother told me you might be here,” he whispered into her neck.

“She did, did she?” Holly backed off and spotted her mother speaking to someone down the line. It was obvious that her mother’s plan all along had been to get Holly to the farm for such a moment as this. “I have no idea why my being here would have any effect on you whatsoever.”

“Oh, don’t be like that, baby. You know how sorry I am?—”

“For cheating on me while we were on holiday in Split last year?”

“It wasn’t what you thought. I swear it, baby. You got to give me a chance to make it up to you.” Rinaldi batted his beautiful ebony eyes at her, and she nearly fell back into the abyss.

Nearly. His skin was the color of Mediterranean clay, and his eyes matched his silky hair, kept slicked back from his face.

Whoever molded this man did a good job, there was no use in denying how nice he was to look at, but he was rotten to the core.

She was only glad that she had seen it before being trapped inside an unhappy relationship.

Rinaldi was the son of a billionaire investor who had used his family’s wealth to buy some success in owning horses. The way Rinaldi saw it, the more horses, the better chance he had of winning a Crown. It was quantity over quality with him and horses, and apparently with him and women also.

“I’m not interested in bringing up the past, and frankly, I’m not sure what you hoped to gain by ambushing me here. Are you in the market for a new horse, or a new filly?” she asked and watched the trainer take Marshmallow to the far pasture.

“I was hoping for both,” he said in a sultry tone, that she knew too well.

She was a sucker for a man who knew what he wanted.

She turned and looked at him. He looked at her right eye, then at her mouth and back up to her left.

The intimate way he saw into her was more than she wished to feel for the person who had broken her heart and destroyed her trust in men.

But he was so damn irresistible. She had learned her lesson the hard way, but now she knew what she didn’t want in a relationship.

“I can forgive you for what you did. I have in fact, even though you don’t deserve so much as an ounce of anything from me. Don’t think for one second that you can swoop back into my life and convince me you aren’t the snake I know you are.”

“I might be a snake, baby, but you’re no picnic either. I just know we had something good. You know?” he said, and she looked past his face to the next horse, an auburn colt with a black mane.

“How about that one? You and he could be twins,” she said, wanting him to remove his gaze from her for a moment long enough for her to take a deep breath.

He didn’t bite and stayed locked onto her. “You know we’re good together. And our families are practically royalty. We would be the power couple to beat all power couples. Don’t you want that?”

He left her with the clearest choice. She could have the life her mother wanted for her, or she could have a life as a small business owner struggling to carve out a piece of the American dream for herself.

He offered an enticing proposal to the na?ve girl she was a year ago, but she wasn’t that girl anymore.

“A few weeks ago, I might have entertained the idea, but if I’m honest, I’m not the woman you fell in love with, and I want something more for myself. ”

“I can give you everything you want. You want to go back to school, done. You want to have that ice cream place you always talked about? I can make that happen and you wouldn’t even have to work. You want a ring that would drown you in the ocean? You can have two. I just want you back, baby.”

Holly hopped down from the fence railing and her heel sunk down into a soft spot in the dirt. “No,” she said and removed the strap from her ankle. With her shoes in her hand, she turned and walked away from Rinaldi.

“No? What do you mean, no?” he said and took chase. “Baby?—”

“For starters, I hate that you call me baby.” She stomped forward, passing her dad who witnessed the commotion over his shoulder for a second.

“I can’t stand the way you ogle every set of big tits you see when you think I’m not paying attention, and don’t even get me started on you thinking money will fix everything.

” She stopped and faced him. By now, an audience had taken interest in their quarrel.

“You need to find yourself a girl who will appreciate all those things about you, and I’m just not that person. Not today. Not ever.”

He reached out for her hand and dropped to one knee.

She snatched her hand away just as fast. “Why don’t you go pick yourself a new horse.

At least you can leave with one thing you came for today.

” It felt good to speak her mind. Holly curtsied in mockery at his royalty comment.

“Sir,” she said and walked away, ignoring the staring eyeballs, and made a line straight to her mother.

“How could you?” Holly said as she passed by her.

“Blake, I … Come back here. I am not chasing you,” she whisper-yelled from somewhere in Holly’s wake.

Holly marched up the veranda stairs and stopped at the bar inside where she took a mimosa and downed it in one gulp. Her mother met up with her by the time she finished swallowing the fizzy orange drink. She had no intention of hearing whatever sorry explanation her mother was about to offer.

“I don’t know who you think you are,” her mother said as she met Holly beside the bar. “This is a good merger. You should consider his offer?”

It was even worse than Holly had imagined. “A merger? Do you even hear yourself? You mean a marriage, right? I can’t believe you concocted all of this. It wasn’t just a surprise; it was an ambush. And you said you weren’t sure I was going to be here today … Dad told you I was coming. Didn’t he?”

“Blake. I just want you to be happy?—”

“No, Mother, you want me to be you,” Holly said.

“When are you going to see that no matter how much you want me to be something else, I never will. I love you, but you need to start believing in the person I am and not the person you wish I was.” She felt liberty in blowing a hole in the perfect facade her mother had built around herself, but there was a sadness too at the realization that this is all their relationship would likely ever be: one disappointment after another.

“I’m sorry you feel that way,” her mother said with a fake grin.

“You’re just sorry that I made a scene at your stupid party.

It’s your fault though. Did you think I would feel pressure from you cutting me off and having all these people around so that I would just say yes to him, and we could all have a celebratory drink or two afterwards.

You, as the proud mother-of-the-bride-to-be, and me as the glowing woman who was given the keys to the world?

” Holly took two more mimosas and handed one to her mother.

“Well, congratulations. You just ruined any chance of me trusting you again.”

Holly skipped the toasting and drank the whole thing.

She slammed the glass on the counter and the stem broke in half, causing it to crash against the wooden surface.

She turned and walked out the front door, not sure when she would return to one of her favorite places on earth, now tainted by her mother’s scheming.

This is how Teddy must have felt when she worked to undermine him, she thought.

The sun beat down on her with the same heat she felt boiling up in her heart.

A mixture of heavy sadness, like the humidity clogging her lungs, and the freedom she felt, like a breeze kissing her skin, reassured her that the easiest road probably is the wrong one.

She was looking forward to her date with Teddy more than ever now and wanted nothing more than for him to hold her in his arms.