In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes: Chapter 10

I WAS WORKING on more renderings of the inn renovation the next morning when Willa called.

“Heyyyy,” I answered with a big grin, setting my brush down.

“Hey, gorgeous. How’s the trip home going?”

Oops. I forgot to tell her my plans had changed. “Well,” I started, chuckling. “Katherine left me the inn.”

There was silence on the other end.

“So I guess you’re not interested in having a little party next weekend?”

When the whole Grant thing happened, I couldn’t pay rent on my expensive apartment, so I spent a month sleeping in Willa’s living room. I didn’t even have to ask her, she just moved me into her place. We had met in a painting class back in university, and lived together for four years before I moved in with my boyfriend at the time, Luke, the painter.

I never should have moved out. Living with Willa was a blast. We’d make dinner together while dancing in the kitchen to music or listening to a TV show in the background. We’d host themed dinner parties with all our friends. No matter how tired or hungover we were, we’s always drag our butts out the door for Sunday brunch.

Being roommates with Willa was one of the best periods of my life. After Grant, Willa was right by my side.

Best friends are special, I thought with a little knot in my throat.

As I filled her in on the inheritance, the inn renovations, and the weird deal Holden and I had struck, I glanced around the sitting room. The light was incredible in here in the morning, and the view of the ocean was spectacular. I could picture people lounging in here, drinking their coffee and chatting about their plans for the day while they visited the small town.

Once I had finished, she let out a loud laugh. “You did tell the universe you wanted a distraction.”

“What? When?”

“When we were listening to Rihanna and drinking prosecco on my couch two weekends ago.”

I snorted. “Right. I didn’t mean like this, though.”

“The renovation sounds fun.”

I bit my lip, glancing at my rendering of the sitting room with the entrance to the secret library. “It’s going to be incredible.” My mouth twisted.

“I’m going to miss our Sunday brunches, though.”

My heart gave a little tug. “Me, too. I miss you already.” I wrinkled my nose. “I miss Toronto. It’s so quiet here.” I glanced at a photo of Katherine, sitting on the side table, and my chest tensed with guilt. “I should have visited more, though.”

“But you said that Holden guy was such an asshole.”

My nose wrinkled. He was. His look of disdain fifteen years ago, as he told me I couldn’t join on the hike, flashed into my head and my stomach tightened. “Hmm. Yeah.”

I should have talked to Katherine about it. I swallowed past a thick throat.

“You’re there now, and it sounds like you’re making the best of it.”

I nodded. “Yeah. The renovation is for her. We both agreed on that.” I shook myself. “Anyway, enough about me. What’s new with you? Oh, shit.” I gasped as I realized something. “I’ll miss your exhibit.”

Willa taught painting at a community college in Toronto, but her dream was to be a painter full-time. She did at least one exhibit a year with a local gallery. All our friends would get all dressed up and go to support her. She had been working on her upcoming collection for six months.

“Ah, it’s all good. You’ve got your hands full over there.”

Guilt stabbed me in the gut. Willa was there for me when I needed her. I’d have to find another way to make it up to her.

As Willa filled me in on her painting progress, the latest gossip with our friend group, and which of her students were flirting with each other, I missed Toronto more and more. I missed my friend and my old neighborhood with the coffee shop where the barista always gave me a free cookie. I missed the energy of the city, buzzing and bustling.

Willa and I said our goodbyes and hung up, and I sat in the sitting room for a few minutes, staring out the window, missing home.

My time in Queen’s Cove was temporary. A six month blip where I could sort my life out before I returned to Toronto, debt-free and on the right track.