In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes: Chapter 2

FUCK.

She was gorgeous. She wasn’t supposed to be gorgeous.

For fifteen years, Sadie Waters had lingered in the back of my mind, and after all this time, she got even prettier.

Same long, shiny brown hair, tied up in a ponytail. A plush mouth that made an O when she saw me sitting here in the conference room. Those dark green eyes as they raked over my shoulders with interest.

I couldn’t breathe. I knew she’d be here and it still blindsided me, seeing her standing there at the door.

She rattled me. Around her, I couldn’t think of anything to say. I wanted to listen to her talk, wanted to wrap that shiny hair around my fist and tilt her head back so I could look into her eyes, and I wanted her to smile at me.

She’s engaged, I told myself. Even if she could stand to be around me, even if she didn’t think I was an asshole, it wasn’t going to happen.

Frustration rolled through my shoulders as I shifted in my chair. God, I was pathetic.

Thank fuck she was leaving tomorrow.

The lawyer finished reading the will and I stared at her.

I must have heard wrong.

“I’m sorry.” Sadie leaned forward. “What?” She lifted a delicate hand and gestured between us. “Us. Together. Sadie Waters and Holden Rhodes. Fifty-fifty.”

My chest flipped when she said my name, and I swallowed. Focus, I told myself.

“That’s correct.” The lawyer handed Sadie a set of keys. “Elizabeth, do you have the other set?”

The inn was supposed to go to Sadie’s parents or my mom, since she was the executor of Katherine’s will.

Not Sadie, who didn’t live here and hadn’t bothered to visit in fifteen years, and not me. Sure, I helped Katherine over the years if she needed things fixed around the place, but I wasn’t family.

Sure, I worked there growing up and I was close with Katherine. She taught me how to fix a sink, how to build a bookcase, how to manage staff. Katherine sparked my interest in building things, and was the reason I started in construction.

I visited her often, dropping by to fix things around the inn or saying hello when she was at my parents’ place. She knew I loved hiking the trails around the inn.

My pulse picked up. Holy fuck. Katherine had given us the inn.

Panic filtered into my mind. With the long hours I put in at my company, I didn’t have time to run Katherine’s inn.

My mom patted my shoulder and dropped a set of keys into my hand. “There you go.”

Sadie stared at the keys in her hand, blinking.

“We’ll be in touch regarding documents throughout the probate period,” the lawyer was saying. She gave us a big smile. “Congratulations. Please reach out if you have questions.” She closed her folder and stood.

“That’s it?” Sadie croaked in disbelief. I fought the urge to take her hand. It wasn’t like that with us.

The lawyer paused with a confused expression.

Sadie glanced around the room at each of us with disbelief. “You’re just giving us the inn? Is there a handbook?”

The lawyer smiled. “You’re going to be fine.”

We stared at her.

“This is not going to be fine,” Sadie told her before she let out a delirious laugh. “I don’t know how to run an inn. I’m an interior designer. This is going to be a disaster.”

Her words from that summer replayed in my head and my shoulders tightened. Being stuck with me was her nightmare. I scowled harder.

Now we owned an inn together.

Fuck.

I stood, eager to get out of here so I could think. “I have to go to work.”

The lawyer gave me a pleasant nod. “I’ll be in touch.”

I stalked out of the office and onto Main Street and raked my hand through my hair, trying to get it together, but a flurry of noise and excitement at the end of the street caught my attention. The door opened behind me.

“Oh my god,” Sadie murmured, standing beside me on the sidewalk.

The drum beat started and the high school marching band moved in formation down the street. They were off beat, out of tune, and kept veering off course as they played. Behind them, a line of people followed, carrying a sign across them.

Congratulations!

Beneath the word, our names had been scribbled.

Sadie looked up at me with those mossy green eyes and my heart clutched.

She was so pretty, and I was so, so fucked.

I remembered the promise I made Katherine before she passed. My eyebrows pulled together in a frown.

Sadie watched as the parade passed us, and burst out laughing. “This town is fucking weird.”