Page 28 of Sweet Summertide (Christmas Cove #4)

Theodor checked the time on his Peugeot one more time.

It was official, it didn’t look like Holly was coming.

So much for turning the page on their budding romance.

If friends can become enemies, and go back to being friends again, then what was to stop Holly and him from becoming enemies for a second time?

He felt stupid for trusting her. She really seemed to be into him, but now he was just a loser being stood up by the prom queen.

It was too early for him to go to sleep, though he looked at his bed on the other side of the room like it could solve all his issues to have a whole night’s rest. Since deciding to open his chocolaterie, he hadn’t slept an entire eight-hour stretch.

At first his mind was plagued with all the planning and to-do lists, then he lost sleep over his across-the-street rival, now he would be replaying every interaction he had shared with Holly, wondering where it all went wrong.

He flipped his phone around in his hand.

There was no way she was as bad as he thought her to be.

During the firefly parade, she had shown a different side of herself to him.

She was vulnerable and carefree. No way was that woman who was so gleeful about catching a lightning bug, the same woman who would stand him up now.

Opening his messages, he texted her to see if she was alright.

After staring at the screen, the text stayed on ‘delivered’.

If she read it and then ghosted him, at least he could deal with it.

Perhaps something had happened, or she was somewhere where she couldn’t write back.

She had her event at the farm earlier, but he looked at his timepiece again, it should have ended hours ago.

Perhaps Alfonso would know where Holly was, or he could get in touch with Holly’s right-hand, Millie.

There was nothing to do but march up to Harbour House and find Alfonso.

Taking his linen shirt off the hook by the front door, he opened the door only to find Holly standing on the other side of the threshold.

Black mascara painted her cheeks with streaks, and her eyes were red.

What he assumed had been a pretty yellow dress at one point, was limp against her body and her hair sat in a messy pile at the crown of her head.

Once the shock came and went, he pushed the door completely open.

“Sorry, I think I’m late,” she said, and he felt convicted by his shame at having thought she could be capable of standing him up in the first place. “Can I come in?”

He couldn’t say a thing. Her appearance begged a dozen questions, but it wasn’t until she stepped under the glow of the ceiling light that he saw the extent of her pain. “Holly, your shoulders are really burned. What happened?”

She plopped down on the end of his bed. Her eyes stared blankly ahead into the room.

Without being asked, Theodor went into protector mode.

Every nerve in his body was firing, telling him to take care of this helpless creature.

He took a clean washcloth and doused it in cold water.

Sitting on the edge of the mattress and beside her, he placed the cool rag on her sunburn, being careful not to rub it.

“It looks like you walked through the desert today. This is bad.”

“I don’t feel a thing,” Holly said in a monotone and breathy voice.

“You will later. I thought you were at the farm today?” Theodor said and moved the wet cloth to the other shoulder.

Her strapless dress had done nothing to shield her from a blazing sun.

He unzipped the top inch of the back of her dress and saw the demarcation between her fair skin where it had been protected and the angry, torched skin that hadn’t been. “Did someone hurt you?”

“I was so upset. And my car’s in a ditch.”

He moved the rag again. “Holly, you’re not making sense. I need some more information.” Her eyes caught his. Tears pooled in her waterline, and he used the back of his finger to wipe them away. Using the damp cloth, he cleaned the mascara from her cheeks and soothed her skin. “That’s better.”

“I never want to see my mother again.” Holly straightened her spine and the skin on her back took an almost purple hue.

“Let me rinse this out,” Theodor said and walked back across the room to the small kitchenette where the sink was. “I might have some aloe too. Keep telling your story.” He dug around in the bathroom while she continued.

“She surprised me with more than just horses. She and my ex ambushed me with basically a proposal. He said he would give me everything I want, and then he tried to drown me with a ring.”

Theodor was rightly confused, but one thing he was certain about, she had come to him with her woes.

And that made him feel good about where they were with their relationship.

“I feel like there’s more,” he said and returned to her side with the green aloe gel.

“May I?” he asked with his finger resting on her zipper.

She nodded. Theodor unzipped the dress down past her waist, exposing her bare back and the hardly visible tan line from her bikini strings.

The previously sun kissed skin looked like nothing compared to the burn area.

He swiped the extra pillows from the mattress surface, and she laid down on her belly.

Her bare feet dangled off the end of the bed, which he didn’t mind because they were so dirty.

“You said no, to the proposal?” Theodor squirted the gel into his hand and warmed it just a little with the heat of his palms. He began at the center of her back and used minimum pressure to smooth the aloe over her skin, careful not to create any friction.

She relaxed under his touch and sucked some air through her teeth.

“Sorry, it’s cold,” he said.

“No, it feels good. Keep going and I’ll keep talking.”

“Sounds good to me,” he said and realized he shouldn’t enjoy touching her skin as much as he was under these conditions, but it felt good to care for her. A few minutes earlier, he had been livid and hurt that she had stood him up, now he was prepared to scorch earth for her.

“So, I get to the farm, and boy, do I wish you had come with me. Or Millie, or heck, even Alfonso. At least I wouldn’t have been alone when Rinaldi propositioned me to get back together.

I don’t know why he ever thought he could just show up and expect me to fall back into his arms like some simpering little girl. ”

“Rinaldi is your ex? Did you deck him?”

“How could I? We were in front of all these potential investors and buyers. Honestly, I was so insulted that he and my mother thought that’s all it would take for me to change the trajectory of my life. I was beside myself. I told my mother we were done, and I got in my car and headed here.”

“Holly, that was hours ago.” Theodor wasn’t sure how far away the farm was from the Cove, but he knew it was nearby.

“Once I got in the car, I got myself all worked up and started crying.”

He hated that she was so upset, even now, he could hear the strain in her throat.

“I don’t know what’s worse, feeling set-up like that, or feeling so alone.”

“You’re not alone,” he whispered. “I’m here.”

She flipped her head over, her blonde hair falling over her face. He moved a strand away from her wet eyes. “I didn’t want you to think I forgot about our date. So, after I ran my car into a ditch, I walked the rest of the way.”

“Why didn’t you call me? Or anyone else. I would have come to get you.”

“I couldn’t find my phone. I don’t know whether I left it at the farm, or it got tossed in the car when I ran off the road. Plus, I thought I was a lot closer to town than I was. It’s not like I’d take a ride from a stranger.”

“Someone offered you a ride?”

“Yeah, some old guy in a blue truck. He seemed a little too happy to pick me up, so I told him no thank you and that I was fine. Maybe if I’d been wearing shoes, I would have been more convincing, but I told him I wanted to walk, and he moved on.”

“I wonder if that was Pa, the old guy that works here. He drives a blue pickup, but he would have sent help.”

“He asked if there was anyone he could call, and I told him I was fine. I kind of was at the time, but I thought I was a lot closer to here than I was.”

Theodor traced his eyes down Holly’s backside and legs to her bare feet. Dust coated her ankles to her toes. He used the washcloth, still damp, and cleaned them off. “You’re a mess.”

She cried at his accusation. “I know I am. I only pretend to have it all together. I skip through life just hoping that everything will work out every day. And most of the time it does.” She flipped over and perched up on her elbows to keep the aloe off the white duvet.

“You’re the only person that really challenges me. You don’t buy into my fake side.”

“Would you really want me to?”

“I used to think that’s all I was to someone; the trophy meant to look and act the part.

But it’s exhausting playing a role. That’s all Rinaldi wanted me for.

He actually tried to convince me to be with him by tempting me with the exact opposite of what I want.

He offered me a big ring, big enough to drown me.

He wanted to pay for my creamery to open, basically with me as a pretty figurehead.

And after all that, he said we would be royalty. ”

“Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. Where can I sign up for the Rinaldi special?” His laugh was infectious, and her sad tears turned to happy ones.

She sat up and held the front of her dress across her chest with one hand while playfully hitting his shoulder with the other. He caught her hand against his beating heart so that she could feel it. Their breathing synced up and a quiet gravity descended on the room.

“Can I have a loose shirt to wear?” she asked, and her cheeks flushed.

“I have a better idea.”