Chapter 12 Holly

Chapter 12

Holly

W hen she'd envisioned this time at Carrigan's, Holly had thought about the opportunity to hang out more with Miriam's extended group of interesting loved ones, whom she'd seen featured on the Blum Again Vintage how had he even found those?) and fleece-lined boat shoes. "Huh."

"You appear and disappear at will. You have mysterious, seemingly unending sources of income. You quite literally, if you wanted to, could see anyone when they were sleeping or awake—and you know who's been bad or good. Also, your name is Nicholas."

He grinned. "You're right . This is the greatest thing ever. I AM SANTA! I have to tell Sawyer he's going to be Mrs. Claus!"

She watched him run off, presumably to find his boyfriend. She wondered how Sawyer felt about Cole's apparent easy assumption that they were permanent. He seemed to have skipped over any of the "dating" parts of dating.

Tara came up behind Holly and put her arms around her neck. Holly leaned back against her, wondering if Tara realized how closely she was mirroring how Cole had held her the other day. No one that Holly had seen in Tara's life, except Cole, showed her any physical affection, and Holly suspected the two of them had taught each other how to love people.

Not that Tara loved her. They barely knew each other; they were acquaintances who were attracted to each other. Like, very, very attracted. They were going to bang it out, and then Holly would have done everything she wanted to do in Charleston and would be ready to move on to her next adventure. Tara was only cuddling her for show, to sell their fake relationship.

And maybe a little as prelude to tonight, Holly hoped, as Tara breathed into her ear, "Sorry I left you alone with these hooligans again."

"I don't think Cole should, legally, be allowed to drive any vehicle," Holly told her. Tara's laugh vibrated behind her. Mmmm.

"He's very good with a sailboat, strangely," Tara said. "We used to race them when we were kids."

Holly would give a hell of a lot to see Tara Sloane Chadwick, ice queen, racing a sailboat, wind whipping her hair, eyes alight with competition.

"Why'd you stop?" she asked. She knew they still sailed together sometimes.

Tara gave her a pained smile. "I gave up reckless endangerment after I almost killed us both. It seemed the least I could do."

That was clearly not the whole story. Did she still want to race? Did Cole still go, or had he stopped when he lost his partner? Did he miss it? Was it really that dangerous, if Cole was at the helm? Why did Tara bear all the responsibility for the fire they had ostensibly both set?

She didn't have the right to ask any of those questions, but she wanted to. Their pact might expire when they got back to Charleston, which was best for everyone, but that didn't stop Holly from wishing there might be a little more time to find out more of the tiny, fascinating secrets Tara kept squirreled away.

A tall, thin Black man with a short Afro, wearing a large argyle scarf and holding the hands of two squirming kindergartners, walked up to them.

"You're Tara, right?" he asked. "I'm Elijah Green. We met the night we all went caroling? But I think you were distracted."

Moving one of her arms from around Holly's shoulders, Tara held out a hand to him. "It's nice to meet you under better circumstances. This is my girlfriend, Holly."

Holly held out her own hand to greet Elijah. Then, sinking on her heels, she held out her hand to shake those of the children.

"I'm Jayla," said one of the coat-swaddled children. "This is my brother. He's not important. I like your hair."

" Dad ," whined the brother, whose name, she remembered, was Jeremiah, "when do we get to build snowmen?"

Elijah raised an eyebrow at his son. "When your papa gets here. But you won't get to build one at all if you're rude."

The child extended his hand to shake Holly's, and Jayla told him, "Come on, let's go find Grandma Vaunda!"

They ran off, chasing each other. She wasn't sure how they could run in those snowsuits.

Elijah turned back to Tara. "I've heard you're one hell of a lawyer, and friend."

A blush rose up Tara's cheeks, and Holly immediately liked Elijah. Tara might not believe her friends when they told her how amazing she was, but maybe she would believe a colleague.

"I hear the same about you. Cole says you're working on his trust fund," Tara returned. "You know once he has access to it, he's going to give most of it to community aid organizations."

Elijah nodded. "He told me, after I get paid, the list starts."

Now Holly really liked Elijah. She was going to become friends with him.

Holly cocked her head. "Isn't Cole… a criminal?"

"He's a very ethical criminal." Tara laughed. "I'm glad you know you're doing all this work for him to basically turn around and give it away."

"Friends!" Miriam shouted over the noise of conversation. "We have been hosting this snowman competition for years, and we're so excited that this year it coincides with so many other celebrations! Today, in addition to being my birthday, is the anniversary of the first time Noelle and I kissed, on this very pond."

"Wow," Tara said, sounding surprised, "they waited a month after we broke up to kiss? That's… kind of sweet, actually?"

Holly found it interesting that although Tara talked to all of the crew regularly, including Miriam, she'd apparently never asked for the details of Miriam and Noelle falling in love. She had instead allowed herself to assume the worst, that they'd hooked up as soon as the ink was dry. Refusing to have difficult conversations seemed to be her MO.

Holly couldn't exactly judge, given that she was currently lying to her family about a girlfriend instead of forcing her mom to listen to her boundaries.

"You are very unbothered about the breakup," Elijah noted.

"Well, I've had a lot of time, they're clearly in love, and we never were. I was frustrated with Miriam because I felt like I deserved honesty from my friend, but it's water under the bridge now."

Except that her pride wouldn't let her come without a fake girlfriend, Holly thought. Tara might talk a big game about being over the whole thing, but her heart had been bruised, and she needed a shield. Holly vowed to be a good one.

Cole bounded back up to them. A gaggle of preteens followed like little ducklings, trying to get selfies with him. He looked slightly panicked. "Will someone? Help?"

"I thought you loved being Instagram famous," Levi remarked, ambling up to the group. "Elijah! You're wearing the scarf I gave you! Children! Do you want a selfie with a guy who has his own TV show? Come with me," he said to the preteens, then led them off.

"Levi is my hero," Cole whispered. "Even I am no match for that much energy."

"Wow," Tara said, "we found Cole's Achilles' heel."

He held a finger up to his lips. "We will never speak of this again. Okay. We are going to build the best snowman in the history of Carrigan's Christma—Oh, Lawrence is here!"

With that observation, he bounded off as suddenly as he'd come.

"Do you ever get used to that?" Holly asked. "The thing where he's never where you expect him to be? He just appears and disappears?"

Tara shook her head. "Never."

"I guess that means it's the two of us? For the snowman building? Unless you want to go skating, or wander back to the inn while everyone is busy?"

Tara raised an eyebrow. "You keep trying to rush us into bed, but I promise, when we get there, it will be worth the wait."

"We have limited time for this affair," Holly said, her mittens on her hips, "and I, for one, would like to have as much sex as possible during that window."

She reached over and tugged on the lapels of Tara's coat. Tara raised an eyebrow but came willingly, bringing their bodies flush. "I hear this pond is great for kissing."

"Oh, you do, do you?" Tara asked, her voice a sexy rasp. She wrapped an arm around Holly's waist and ran her hand lower, until Holly gasped, her whole body lighting up. "I guess we should test that out."

Their lips had just met and begun to sink into each other, Holly's tongue teasing into Tara's mouth, when a snowball hit them.

Tara pulled away from Holly to whip her head around and glare at Cole, already gathering snow for another ball.

Groaning, Holly tried to pull Tara back into the moment.

Instead, Tara held her chin and looked her right in the eye. "I guarantee you that we are going to have the best sex of your life, soon, and you are not going to find any part of it unfulfilling, in quality or quantity. Now," she said, turning away, "I'm going to go kill my best friend, but after that, do you want to build a snowman?"

Holly did not want to build a snowman. She wanted to melt into a naked mess with Tara, although she might melt all on her own. Parts of her were definitely turning to liquid.

"Hold that thought," Tara added, pretending to be oblivious to Holly's pout, except that she had a little smirk. She ran off after Cole.

The two of them rolled around like blond puppies in the snow, laughing and kicking and tumbling as if they cared about nothing but joy. It was the most carefree Holly had ever seen Tara.

Cole had managed to free himself from their childhood training, but Tara was still willingly behaving the way she was expected—except when she was here. God, Holly wished Tara would stay here. Move to Advent, run around getting into trouble with Cole. Give up talking to her family.

And if she were here, maybe Holly would stick around for a little while, too. She had been planning on getting out of Charleston, and Advent was basically on another planet. Maybe they could be friends with benefits for a little longer than a weekend. If Aunt Cricket and the Southern Charm Rejects weren't in the picture.

Not for good, obviously. Holly would eventually need to leave, because she wasn't built for long-term. But for just a little longer.