In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes: Chapter 17

ON THURSDAY MORNING, Sadie opened the front door of the inn with murderous rage in her eyes.

“I’m sorry.” I held up a paper bag with grease stains.

She crossed her arms over her chest. Her eyes flashed with fury. “I saw you ignore my call.”

Fuck. My chest strained with regret.

“I’m an asshole,” I told her, feeling like garbage.

No wonder Sadie said that about me, all those years ago.

She blinked at me, and I saw hurt behind her eyes. “Why did you do that?”

I rubbed my jaw, hesitating.

The truth was, I planned the hell out of that date. First, we’d walk through the current exhibit at the art gallery and discuss all our favorite paintings. Then I’d take her to Avery’s restaurant, The Arbutus, for dinner. If the weather was still nice, we’d go for a walk along the harbor.

I had looked forward to seeing her all day. The date didn’t feel like it was for practice.

It felt real, and worse, I wanted it to be real.

She was leaving. She wasn’t dating. She hated me. She never, ever wanted to get married.

“I got nervous.”

I had panicked. I hunkered down in my office and dove into work, and when she called, I hated myself for ignoring it.

It was for the best, though. For both of us. A practice date was dancing dangerously close to the real thing.

Sadie would break my fucking heart if I wasn’t careful.

I handed her the bag, and she glanced inside before giving me a begrudging look. “Apology breakfast sandwiches?”

I nodded.

“It’s okay,” she told me with a little smile on her face. “I got you back.”

“How?” I frowned.

A wicked smile lifted on her features and she wiggled her eyebrows. “One second.” She opened the door and I stepped inside the foyer, watching as she ran up the stairs. She reappeared a moment later on the landing with a canvas and a huge grin. At the bottom of the stairs, she flipped it around to show me.

A laugh burst out of my chest.

She had painted me walking on the beach, staring at the sunset, tears running down my face.

She bit her lip, holding back her laughter. “Do you love it?”

I laughed again. Bright warmth burst in my chest as I studied this ridiculous painting. Her lines were sharp, the colors were bright and bold, and she nailed my features. She captured my messed-up hair, my arms across my chest, and my frown.

“You’re talented,” I told her.

She rolled her eyes. “Oh my god. Holden. This is a joke.”

“Still.” I took the painting from her, studying the trees she had painted along the beach. “You’re good, Sadie.”

She snorted, rolled her eyes, and tried to take the painting from me, but I held on tight.

“Can I keep this?” I asked.

“Absolutely not. These are going in the trash.”

“Wait.” I shot her a funny look. “These? There are more?”

A minute later, I stood in her bedroom, staring at the collection of paintings of me crying. Beside me, she took a huge bite of the breakfast sandwich I had brought.

She rolled her lips to hide a grin. “I was really mad.”

“I can see that.”

Another pang of guilt hit me in the gut. Sadie was helping me, and I stood her up.

“I guess you have to get to work, huh?”

“I have some time before my first meeting.” The idea of tiling a bathroom alongside Sadie sent a thrill through my chest. When was the last time I had tiled a shower? I couldn’t even remember.

Besides, a couple hours here wouldn’t kill my schedule. I could catch up later.

“The bathroom tiles arrived at the store,” I told her. “I picked them up yesterday.”

Her face lit up. “You did? How do they look?”

“Come see for yourself.”

“YES, HOLDEN, YES!”

Sadie clasped her hands together in front of the bathroom’s emerald green shower tiles and I tried not to picture her saying those words in a dirty way.

I was only supposed to stay an hour but then we started tiling the bathroom and we were making quick work of it together, so I asked Zara to sit in on the meeting and take minutes for me.

Outside, the sun began to set over the water. I frowned and checked the time.

It was almost six o’clock.

I had spent the entire day working alongside Sadie without realizing it.

She pointed at the tiles. “This color, Holden? It’s bedazzling my soul.”

“What does that even mean?” I straightened up behind her and dusted my hands off.

“It means I have the yes feeling and I think it’s pretty.” She stroked one of the tiles with love. “You are so beautiful.” She pointed to another one. “And you.”

“And fucking expensive.”

“Shhh,” she said to the tile. “Don’t listen to the rude asshole. He has no taste.”

I snorted. She was right about the deep green shower tiles working in this space. When she brought the tile outside the hardwood store to show it to me in the sunlight last week, it was the same dark, deep green as her eyes.

“You good to keep working?” I asked her. “We could tile another bathroom.”

She turned with a curious expression. “It’s okay if you need to leave. I can do it myself.”

“It’s fine.” I had a hundred emails to read, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave. “You need supervision.”

She laughed. “Uh-huh. Oh, by the way, how’d your date with Liya go?”

My stomach dropped. I had crashed and burned on my date. I probably could have used that practice date with Sadie.

“Fine,” I lied.

Last night, I had taken Liya out on the date I had planned for Sadie. Every time I had been around Liya in the past, she had been upbeat and talkative, like Sadie. I had thought that would make things easier, but we had nothing to talk about. The date was a lot of awkward silences.

At one point, Liya made a comment about how different I was from my brothers, and I knew it wouldn’t work.

Liya knew Wyatt because he was always at the store, visiting Hannah. She said yes to going out with me, expecting me to be like him—laid back, friendly, easygoing.

Why was I surprised? Did I actually think the date would go well?

Sadie watched me with curiosity. “Are you two going out again?”

“No. Where are the rest of the tile spacers?”

“Downstairs in a box by the door. I’ll get them.”

“No, I’ll get them. You should take progress photos.” I strode out of the bathroom and downstairs.

At the front door, I searched for the box with the spacers. Plastic sheeting protected the floor, and construction materials sat in neat stacks and piles. No box.

I opened the door to a box sitting on the porch, addressed to Sadie.

“We should clear the entryway out for when we knock the wall down,” I called up the stairs, using my keys to slice the box open.

Sadie appeared at the top of the stairs. “I can figure it out on my own.”

“I’ll help.” Demo was the fun part. I flipped the box open.

A choked noise scraped out of my throat.

“What?” Sadie asked off my expression.

I reached into the box and pulled out a giant green dildo the size of my forearm. A weird pressure built in my chest and the corner of my mouth twitched.

Sadie’s eyes were wide with shock.

The laugh burst out of my chest. “Is this yours?”

“No!” she shrieked, running down the stairs.

“This thing is huge.” I held it up to her. “We can use it to knock walls down.”

A red flush grew over her face. “Oh my god.” She pulled the box from me and snatched the invoice out, scanning it. “Ugh. They sent the wrong thing.”

I nudged her side with the dildo and she swatted me away. “The wrong color?”

“Very, very funny.” She leveled me with a look and I held back a grin.

“You’re blushing.”

“I am not.”

“So you didn’t order this?”

“No, Holden.” She was definitely blushing. “I didn’t order a dildo that would split me in half.”

I choked. Wow.

“I ordered—” She cut herself off. “Something else.”

My eyebrow arched. “What did you order?”

She wouldn’t meet my eye but straightened up with indignance. “A vibrator.”

It wasn’t just the prissy way she said it that made my cock twitch. It was the image of her using it. Eyes closed, pretty lips parted, gasping as she worked the toy between her legs.

Fuck. That was hot. I tried to wipe it from my mind but there she was again, lying in her bed and moaning my name.

My name? No. I studied her bright red face.

Nice to think about, though.

“I’m not embarrassed I ordered a vibrator,” she told me, gaze snapping to mine before she looked away.

I put the king-sized dildo back in the box without a word.

“A lot of guys don’t know what they’re doing so women need to rely on toys.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“What, you’ve never had a girl use a toy in bed?”

“Never needed it.”

Her gaze snapped to mine again with surprise and something else. Something hot and curious.

Fucking hell.

I lifted a shoulder, a smug grin twisting on my mouth. “There’s no problem with toys, though. As long as everyone gets what they want.”

She made a noise of acknowledgement in her throat, still watching me with wide-eyes. My mind flashed with images of her using a toy again.

The fantasy changed to her using it in front of me, getting herself off while I watched.

Wow. Fuck. I sucked in a breath and she broke eye contact.

“Um. Dinner.” She cleared her throat. “What do you want?”

The weird tension between us evaporated.

I shook my head. “I’ll eat later.” Takeout over the sink or dinner at the bar.

“If we’re going to do another bathroom, it’ll take a few hours,” she said, pulling her phone out. “It’s not good to eat too late. Hi,” she said into the phone. “I’d like to place an order for takeout.”

With the phone propped up against her ear, she stooped down and pulled a small box out from behind the faucets on the floor.

“Spacers,” she murmured, handing it to me. “Okay, ready? We’ll have the pad si ew, the spicy beef salad, two orders of jasmine rice, and the red curry with extra veg.”

My heart gave a sharp tug, listening to her order dinner for us. She had insisted I eat dinner, like she was taking care of me.

I turned around and rolled my eyes at myself. She wasn’t taking care of me. She was back to hating me after what I did the other night.

“Thanks,” I said when she hung up.

She shrugged and waved a hand. “Don’t mention it. I don’t need you getting grumpy halfway through the next round.”

There. See? It didn’t mean anything. She picked up the enormous dildo and yanked the front door open.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m throwing this thing out.” She waved it in the air and another laugh burst out of me. I picked up the invoice from the box and read it.

A grin hitched on my mouth. “Alien dildo?” I called out the front door.

“Shut up,” she called back.