Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Holly was very, very angry, and she was having a hard time even looking at her family while Connor ushered her asshole ex down the hallway, with Amy trotting after them. Most of her anger was directed toward Missy.

“Holly, I’m—”

“How could you do this?” Holly interrupted. The wind shrieked around the house, and she knew some of the blossoms would be blown off the trees in the orchards. She needed to get her temper in check, but she felt betrayed.

“Holly,” Aunt Rose warned.

“I know,” Holly said through gritted teeth. She took three deep breaths and forced herself to reel in some of the power she’d unleashed. It felt good to release some buildup from her depthless well of contained power, but she’d been doing it too much lately and it wasn’t safe.

Winter’s arms were crossed over her chest as she glared at Missy.

Missy lifted her hands and let them drop. “I don’t have an excuse. I didn’t realize you and Jeremy were on such bad terms. He told me you’d been texting him and that you were still good friends. I mean, I knew he was a dick last night, but Jeremy’s always been kind of a dick, so it didn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary.” She swallowed hard. “I’m sorry, Holly. Even with all that, I still knew you wouldn’t like to be on TV. I shouldn’t have done it.”

Holly continued to take several steadying breaths while she absorbed Missy’s apology. Had Jeremy always been a jerk? Had her family known it the entire time they were together? Why hadn’t Holly seen it?

“Listen,” Holly said, “the reality show isn’t a terrible idea. I know I said you all outvoted me, and it’s true that the media attention around the apple farm really worries me, but it doesn’t mean it’s the wrong thing to do. Just leave me out of it.”

“No.” Missy shook her head, and a red curl tumbled from her clip. “We’ll find another way. Honestly, I didn’t love the idea of working with Amy and Jeremy anyway.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Holly glanced at her aunts. “Sorry. Amy’s definitely going to sue us again.”

Aunt Rose sniffed. “Let her try.”

Despite the residual icky feeling in her gut, Holly was smiling when she left the living room and almost ran into Connor, who was returning from bouncer duty. “Are they gone?”

“Yup. Left a cloud of dust behind them.”

“Thanks for showing them the way out. I was about to lose it.”

“And yet you so very calmly invited them to sue you,” he said as he fell in step beside her.

She led him through the dining room into the kitchen, where she turned on the tap and filled the teakettle with water. Another migraine was on the way, and mint tea was at least comforting, if not helpful. She tried to be sparing with how much of Aunt Rose’s elixir she used; there was always a price, and she wasn’t the one who had to pay it. “That’s because I wanted to strangle him with my bare hands, and I was afraid if I loosened the reins even a tiny bit, I might actually do it. Tea?”

“Sure.”

While Holly rummaged in the tea box, he took two mugs from the cabinet overhead and set them on the counter. “Everything all right with your family?”

“We cleared things up.” She was angrier with Jeremy than with Missy. That bastard had had a lot of nerve to lie to Missy and then call Holly a slut when he didn’t get his way.

Connor leaned against the counter as she set the kettle on the stove and started the burner. “What happened between you and Jeremy anyway?”

“He wasn’t my type.”

“So you’ve said.”

Holly absently swung the teabags from their strings. “Okay, there may have been a few reasons for our breakup beyond him being a jerk.”

Connor was leaning against the counter, his tanned arms crossed, his eyes ever patient and always seeing too much. It made it hard for her to concentrate on what she was saying because all she could think about was how it had felt when he’d curled his hand around the side of her neck and stroked his tongue across her bottom lip.

No—bad Holly! She must not forget she was taking control of her narrative. No more picking the wrong guy.

“Things like bad sex and too many emotions?”

Holly huffed. “Yeah, pretty much. By the end of our relationship, I’d learned he was boring, controlling—and not in the fun way—and selfish in bed. Like, so selfish he was terrible.”

Amusement flickered in his eyes. “How terrible?”

“You’re loving this, aren’t you?”

“I totally am.”

She couldn’t help smiling. “So terrible that he always finished and never thought about, um, my finish.”

The amusement on his face disappeared. “What the hell?”

“Looking back, I’m not sure he thought a woman’s pleasure was important.”

Connor scowled as the water in the kettle began to roil. “That’s someone who doesn’t deserve to have sex.”

“Yes, well.” Steam poured from the spout of the teapot, and she dropped the mint bags into the mugs. “We had many exhaustive talks about it, and I tried to show him what I liked, but it just didn’t seem to stick. Sometimes, by the time I was finished instructing him, I was too tired to enjoy it.”

Connor lifted the kettle and poured water into the mugs. “You showed him what you liked?” He handed her a steaming mug, fragrant with mint, and his burning gaze met hers.

“I did.”

“You know,” he murmured, “I’ve been told I’m a quick study.”

Holly’s cheeks flushed, and she wrapped both hands around the mug, finding steadiness in its warmth. Was he … was he implying that he’d be interested in learning what made her feel good?

Aunt Rose saved her from having to fish a response from the whirlpool of emotions that was currently her brain when she pushed through the kitchen door and patted Connor all over the arm to thank him for escorting Jeremy from the house. Not long afterward, Holly told Connor she needed to lie down before the migraine got worse.

“I’m finishing with the attic tomorrow morning, if you want to join me,” Connor told her when he walked her to the bottom of the stairs. “Could be fun.”

“If I’m feeling better I’ll come up for a bit.”

“Need help getting upstairs?”

“No,” she said a little too quickly. She wasn’t sure she could handle any more mortifying stuck-jeans incidents, or even just having Connor in her room. She might’ve been willing to entertain her aggravating feelings of attraction to him under normal circumstances, but these weren’t normal circumstances, and he wasn’t a normal man. If Connor Grimm ever figured out what her family was hiding, he’d broadcast it to the world, and Holly couldn’t be romantically entangled with a man who was two steps shy of ruining her family.

She’d keep on top of Connor’s discoveries, but she absolutely would not, could not , find herself in his arms again. As long as he kept his investigation focused on the ghost and the supposed murder of the councilman, they’d be dandy. He’d shoot his episode and he’d leave, and Holly would be able to breathe once more.

“I’m fine,” she said, lifting her chin with resolve. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He’d been watching her thoughts flit across her face, and he hesitated as if he wanted to say more, but he only nodded and said, “See you then.”