Winning the Right Brother(56)

He held her tight, and she nestled closer, and he reached up to pull the covers over them both.

And within minutes they were asleep.





Chapter Ten




“Hello! Are you guys here? I’m home!”

Alex’s eyes flew open, but Holly was faster. She sprang out of bed, looking around wildly and grabbing a towel off his floor to cover herself with.

“Oh, my God, it’s Will. Alex, you have to get down there so I can get back to my room and change. Throw some clothes on, anything.”

Alex’s head was still fuzzy with sleep but he heard the urgency in Holly’s voice and he moved as quickly as he could. As he was heading out the door in sweats and a T-shirt Holly grabbed his arm. “I’ll be down in a minute,” she hissed at him. “Don’t say anything about—about this.”

Her words echoed in his head as he went down the stairs to greet Will. Did she mean don’t say anything ever, or that she wanted to be the one to tell him? Now is not the time to worry about that, he told himself as he arrived at the bottom of the stairs and looked around for Will. He and Holly still had to talk, that was all. But she wouldn’t turn her back on the feeling that was obviously between them. Not after this morning. Would she?

Alex found Will in the kitchen, opening a cooler that contained ice and three smallish trout.

“Look!” Will said enthusiastically, and in spite of the disorientation of having woken up two minutes before and his nagging anxiety about Holly, Alex couldn’t help grinning at the happy teenager. “Will, that’s great. Where are the rest of them?”

“This is it,” Will said, looking down at his catch with pride. “From this morning, anyway. We caught some yesterday, but we ate them.”

“Of course,” Alex said, holding back a smile. “Out of the water and onto your plate. It’s the only way to go.”

“You bet. So—” He turned to Alex with a speculative look. “How was your weekend? Did you have any fun?”

It was either his imagination, or Will knew something. Or suspected something. Or—

“Will, did you go away this weekend on purpose?”

He looked guilty, which confirmed it. “What do you mean, on purpose?”

“You know what I mean.” He turned his head as he heard Holly coming down the stairs, and he had time to say, “Don’t say anything to your mom, not one word,” before she came into the kitchen, smiling brightly. She was wearing corduroys and a dark green sweater, and her hair was caught back in a pony tail.

“Hi, honey! You’re back early!”

“I am? I said Sunday afternoon, didn’t I?” he said, looking confused. Alex followed Holly’s eyes to the clock, which read 2:00 p.m.

“Oh. Right.” She took a breath. “Well, good for you. Punctuality is important. Very, very important. So how was…how was your…” Her eyes drifted to the cooler, and her eyebrows rose. “A veritable feast, I see,” she said gravely, sounding more like herself, and Alex breathed a sigh of relief.

“Mr. Washington said I did very well for a beginner. Of course he and Tom caught about twenty apiece, and they offered to give me some of theirs to take home, but I said I just wanted to take the ones I caught myself. So you could see them.”

Holly went over and gave her son a quick hug. “I agree with Mr. Washington. I think you did great. I assume this is going to be our next meal?”

“If that’s okay with you guys,” Will said anxiously.

“Of course it is,” Holly said. “I’ll be happy to cook them, unless you want to. I will not clean them, however. That job is all yours.”

“No problem,” Will said proudly. “Tom taught me how.”

“Wonderful. We may as well get started now, unless you’ve already eaten. Alex and I haven’t had lunch yet—” She blushed, although Alex noticed she didn’t look at him “—so we’re starving.”

“Sounds good,” Will said. “I haven’t had anything since breakfast.”

Despite a little awkwardness in the air, their late lunch was fun, not to mention delicious. Alex felt himself relaxing as Will regaled them with his fishing triumphs, and he saw that Holly was unwinding, too.

It was toward the end of the meal that it hit him.

Will was laughing so hard at something Holly said that he got the hiccups, and Holly found that so funny she couldn’t stop laughing, either. She’d start to say something, but then Will would hiccup, and that would start her laughing again. Will was drinking water in an effort to stop when Holly started hiccupping, and Will found that so hilarious he sprayed a mouthful of water all over the table.