Winning the Right Brother(57)
That was when it hit him. Some of the water hit him, too, which both mother and son found extremely amusing. But the important thing, the big thing, was the realization.
He loved them.
He thought it exactly like that. I love them. Not just I love her, but I love them. Because what he wanted was the whole package. Holly and Will, part of his life forever.
Forever.
The knowledge felt huge, as if he wasn’t big enough to hold it. He couldn’t stay still. He rose to his feet.
Holly and Will looked up at him. Will was still hiccupping, but Holly had stopped. “Are you okay? You have the strangest look on your face.”
“I—”
He couldn’t say it. Not yet, anyway. He’d never said it to anyone before. What was the procedure? Did you just blurt it right out, or what? Should he tell Holly alone, or both of them together?
He needed some time to think. To get his thoughts in order.
Air, he thought. He needed some air.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, crossing the kitchen and going out the back door.
“Is Alex okay? I didn’t mean to spit on him,” Will said after he finally controlled his hiccups.
Holly grinned. “I’m pretty sure he knows that.” The phone rang, and Holly went to go answer it. “Clear the table, would you?” she called over her shoulder as she went into the living room.
“Hello?”
“Oh…hello. Is Alex there?”
A female voice, breathy and hopeful. Holly rolled her eyes. “He’s just stepped outside. Can I take a message, or do you want me to call him?”
“Um…I guess you can take a message. Tell him Krystal called. Krystal with a K,” she added helpfully.
Of course, Holly thought as she wrote down the name. It was important to be specific with Alex, because he’d probably dated a girl named Crystal with a C, too.
“Does he have your number?”
“It’s changed, actually. Can I give you the new one?”
“You bet.” Holly made a face at the phone as she wrote the number down beside the name.
She was still staring down at the piece of paper when Alex came into the living room.
“Message for you,” she said, handing it to him. He put it in his pocket without looking at it.
“Holly, I—”
“Don’t you want to know who called?”
He still looked funny. “Not particularly. Look, Holly, can we talk somewhere in private? Maybe over dinner or a drink or—”
“It was Krystal.”
He blinked. “Crystal?”
“The woman who called. Her name was Krystal.”
“The woman who called.”
“Uh-huh. Krystal with a K.”
He frowned at her. “Holly, is something wrong?”
“No, nothing at all. So tell me about Krystal. Did she come before or after Amber?”
Just listen to her. She was talking like a jealous girlfriend.
He was looking down at her with one eyebrow raised. “Did you think I was lying when I told you I’m not seeing anybody? When I told you I have no plans to see anybody? Except for you,” he added, and the look in his blue eyes made her stomach flip.
She folded her arms across her chest. “Look, it’s none of my business,” she said.
“Actually, it is. As the woman I’d like to…date, I think it is your business. I think you have a right to know there isn’t anyone else. That there won’t be anyone else.”
God, those eyes. It was hard to think straight when he was looking at her like that, as if she was the only woman in the world.
He wanted to date her? As in…exclusively?
She wanted to believe it. She was surprised at how much she wanted to believe it. Maybe he even believed it, for now. But Alex was not a long-haul guy. And how would Will deal with the fallout when they broke up?
How would she deal with it?
“Let’s go out for a drink,” he was saying now. “How about the Swan?”
The Swan was a pub downtown, known for its intimate atmosphere and dark, tryst-inducing booths.
“No,” she said quickly. “Look, Alex…I know we still haven’t talked about…about what happened between us. But Will just got back, and I…I need a little time with him. And a little time to myself, too. Is it okay if we talk tomorrow?”
He looked as if he wanted to press the point, but after a moment he sighed.
“We can talk tomorrow,” he said. His eyes were still on her, with the focused intensity that made her pulse go all skittery. “But you can’t hide forever, Holly Stanton.”
Didn’t she know it.
She didn’t want to be this person. She’d structured her life so she wouldn’t be this person. This person who could be thrown into a jealous fit after one phone call, this person whose heartstrings and nerve endings now seemed to be tuned to Alex—his voice, his smile, his eyes.