Page 3 of The Inn Dilemma (Give a Bookish Girl a Biker)
Chapter Two
Holt
T he last thing I expected to find when popping into one of my aunt’s cabin rentals was my best friend’s prodigal sister sitting on the couch painting her toenails.
But there Nova Price sits with a chocolate chip cookie hanging out of her mouth and her eyes narrowed in concentration.
I can see a white earbud in her ear, which explains why she’s still so focused on her task and hasn’t seen her door is open.
When Aunt Birdie sent me to the Dream Haven Cabin to do some minor repairs, she failed to mention the little squatter living here.
Chris hasn’t brought Nova up in a while. All I know is that they had a huge falling out and she took off to Paris with some guy named Beau.
A strong wind causes the door to slam behind me, and Nova looks up toward the source of the sound. Toward me.
“Holt?” Nova mumbles around her cookie. She slides the whole thing into her mouth with the back of her hand and chews slowly as if her brain needs to catch up with what she’s looking at.
Her eyes go comically wide as she puts the brush into the polish, pulls out both earbuds, swallows the cookie, and jumps up.
Before I know what’s happening, she is barreling toward me and jumping into my arms.
“Nova.” My arms go around her automatically. I lift her feet off the floor and swing her around. She clings to me for several long seconds, and I can’t help but smile down at the girl—now woman—who forever holds a piece of my heart.
She slides down and takes a few steps back, assessing me from head to toe. I do the same to her. She’s wearing an oversized T-shirt that hangs off one of her shoulders and hits her mid-thigh, where a pair of tight shorts peeks out from below the hem.
“You. Got. Huge.” Nova pokes me in the chest, punctuating each word. Her gaze darts to my glass eye, and her smile falters before her sparkling eyes are back on the rest of my face. I don't see pity like I expect to—like I’ve found with pretty much anyone else. Instead, pride shines on her face.
I can’t figure out exactly why she’d feel that way, so I focus on the question I planned to ask.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s great seeing you, but what are you doing here?
” Aunt Birdie made no mention of anyone staying in the Dream Haven Cabin, let alone Nova Price, when she asked me to check out the leaky faucet.
Thinking back, she did wear a mischievous smile.
I assumed that smile was directed at Maya and Des who had just dropped off an order of Granny’s Jams—a legacy Des continued after his grandma passed away.
Nova opens her arms wide. “Haven’t you heard?
The prodigal daughter has returned.” I want to ask why she’s specifically at one of my aunt’s cabins, but almost as if she can read my mind, she explains, “When I went home, my dad told me he has no daughter and made it clear I am no longer welcome there.” Her smile falters for a second before it's back in place, hiding the pain in her well-practiced way.
It takes me a few seconds to register her words. “Your dad kicked you out?”
She tilts her head to the side. “Technically? I mean, I was never in the house, so kicking me out doesn’t really fit. I’m guessing Mom is in the city. She didn’t answer her cell when I called and hasn’t returned my voicemail yet.”
I grit my jaw and grunt, forcing the brewing anger away.
Mr. Price has always been a strict father, especially with Nova, but this is pushing things too far.
Not that I should be surprised by the audacity of the man after what he recently put Christian through.
And Mrs. Price…well, I’m not sure what to think about her.
“You’re his daughter.” My voice comes out harsher than I mean it to.
She scoffs. “Like that’s ever mattered.” She looks at the floor, tapping her toes against the hardwood. “Mom has always thrown herself into work and anything that kept her away from Dad. It was as if I never mattered to anyone.”
“You know you mattered to Christian.” She tries to hide her slight smile. Stepping forward, I tip her chin up with my finger. “And me. Always me.”
Sure, it hurt when Christian told me she ran off to Paris a few months after my dad’s funeral and didn’t give me or anyone else a heads-up.
Immediately after Dad’s death, Nova was there for me in a way I didn’t expect.
Showing sympathy without making me feel weak.
Understanding me in a way no one else had.
I would have done the same for her if she would have given me the chance.
Instead, she allowed Paris guy to whisk her across the ocean abandoning everyone who cared. Including me.
While serving in the SEALs, I wasn’t the easiest to contact, but there’s always email.
Looking back, I guess I can see why she left without warning.
For most of her life, she was cooped up in her father’s gilded cage, unable to unleash her free spirit.
Once she had the opportunity for freedom, she must have grasped it with both hands and literally ran with it.
She takes her time responding. “I don’t deserve your loyalty.” Her eyes fill with moisture, but in true Nova fashion, she wipes her eyes and blinks it away. She shakes her head as if ridding herself of the depressing conversation.
Before I can ask if her brother knows she’s home, Nova grabs my hand and drags me over to the couch, forcing me to sit down, then shoves a cookie in my mouth. I look around as I chew the freshly baked chocolate chip cookie and smile at seeing the little touches of her all around the small cabin.
“How long have you been back?” I ask.
“At the Storybook Inn or in Rocosa?”
“Both,” I answer.
She looks sheepish when she says, “The Storybook Inn, two days. In Rocosa, just over two weeks. Reese let me stay with her for a bit when I first got back.”
“Des’s sister? Weren’t you two pretty close when you were in high school? ”
“Yeah. She’s been a good friend even after I left.”
I nod. “Des and Reese are loyal to the very end.” Then I remember what she said about how long she’s been back. “Two weeks? Does your brother know you’re back?” I ask.
Her cheeks turn pink. “No. I can only handle one rejection at a time.”
“What do you mean?”
She gives me a look of disbelief. “Before I left, Chris and I had some pretty heated words. I said a lot that I regret, and I think he did too. But everything he said proved to be true. I don’t expect him to forgive me either.”
Her expression is heartbreaking, and I find myself making a statement I have no way of backing up. “Chris misses you, and he’ll be thrilled to know you’re home.”
She shrugs. “Maybe he will be. Maybe he won’t. Another day or week won’t make any difference either way. Now, where have you been hiding?”
I want to challenge her more, but it’s clear she needs this change of subject. “Out camping at the edge of the property, scouting the area for anything I can legally shoot with my bow.” That’s only part of why I was out there. I was also working on rebuilding a cabin that will one day be my home.
The time in nature also brought me closer to the Creator, who continued to put a new mission on my heart. But I don’t need to lay all of that out there right now. She has enough going on at the moment.
“Did you get anything?”
I shake my head. “Nope.”
Nova leans back on the couch, propping her feet on the table, careful of the wet paint on her toes as she crosses her ankles.
“What else have you been up to since—” She looks at my glass eye, her gaze sweeping up and down the scar. She swallows. “Since coming home?”
I’m silent for a long moment. The difficult memories threaten to return at her question.
But I manage to push them out of my head.
That explosion could have been so much worse, and I thank God no lives were lost. Just my eye.
My therapist warned me that what happened is now a part of me.
I pray every day that I don’t let it become my identity.
Nova squeezes my arm. “Holt? You still with me?” The gentleness in her brown eyes and the softness of her hand on my arm does something funny to my chest.
“Yeah, just…” I trail off, swallowing the lump in my throat.
She shakes her head and pulls her hand away. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking when I asked.”
“No, no. It’s fine.” And it’s as fine as it can be for the circumstances.
My therapist has helped, and of course spending time with God does too, but trying to move past the mission is something I will never fully get over.
But I don’t say any of that. “I just work here with Aunt Birdie and help out around town when someone needs a handyman.”
Nova is silent for a minute, appearing to study my expression as if she’s trying to decide if that’s the whole story. It’s been years since I’ve seen her, yet she still seems to know my tells and shifts the mood and topic away from what she knows is painful for me.
She wiggles her eyebrows. “Oh, so you’re Rocosa’s Mr. Fix-It. ”
I shrug. “I guess you could say that.”
“Is there finally a special lady in your life?”
“There was.” My jaw clenches.
“Oh no. Not another open mouth, insert foot moment. If you don’t mind me asking, what happened? Anyone I know?” The question hangs in the air between us. When I don’t answer she breaks it up by punching her right fist into her left palm. “Need me to step in?”
At her attempt at being menacing, the hurt that still lingers from reminders of the breakup is replaced with humor. “Do you remember Claire, who graduated with me and Chris?”
A deep V forms between her brows. “Vaguely.”