easily and to keep their hands off me or I’ll be pressing charges.”
“What are you talking about? I don’t have any goons and I certainly wouldn’t try to scare you into selling. But everything has a price.” A heavy sigh. “Tell me what it would take to get you to sell. Name your price.”
Through gritted teeth, she said, “It’s not for sale.”
With controlled movements, almost as though moving in slow motion, she hung up the phone and replaced it on the base.
Then she put her head in her hands and did her best to muffle her frustrated scream.
The door burst in. “Are you okay?”
Jessica.
Holly hadn’t been as discreet with the scream as she’d tried to be.
She looked up. “Sorry. I think I just have a little too much stress in my life right now.”
“What’s going on?” Concern etched her friend’s face.
Before she had a chance to answer her friend, Eli spoke from behind Jessica as he slipped past her and into the office. “Who was that guy, Holly? The one outside the police station?”
Jessica’s eyes shot wide as they bounced between Holly and him. Agitation oozed from him.
Holly just stared at the tight-lipped man in front of her. His eyes blazed. He must have seen the man outside the sheriff’s office. Bent on escaping, she hadn’t noticed Eli watching. Irritated that he felt that he had the right to butt into her business—never mind the fact that she’d turned to him for help last night—she clipped, “What?”
“The guy who grabbed you. What did he say?”
At a loss for words, Holly stared at the man in front of her for a full ten seconds before saying, “Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t anything I can’t handle.” She hoped.
His eyes narrowed. “You don’t want my help?”
“Not this time. No. I had to learn to deal with stuff all on my own when you left me six years ago. I’ve gotten pretty good at it.”
Jessica slipped out the connecting door into the front of the store. Holly wanted to tell her to stay.
Then Eli said, “So why did you call me last night?”
“The lesser of two evils,” she shot back.
He took a deep breath and she was willing to bet he bit his tongue in the process. Then he said, “Something’s going on with you and I think you’re in more danger than you’re aware of.”
FOUR
She didn’t want to hear it. Not from him anyway. A momentary lapse in judgment had had her asking him for help. It wouldn’t happen again.
Holly moved to the back shelf and grabbed an inventory form.
“How’s your mother?” His question came from left field.
“Hanging in there.” She kept her eyes on the form, concentrated on filling in the blanks as she counted items.
“Look, Holly, can we talk for a minute?”
“About what?”
He reached out and took her hand, stilling the pen’s movement across the paper.
She pulled away.
Fair enough. “I’ve missed you.”
Now she went rigid. “Eli…”
“No, let me finish.”
She snapped her lips together. Lips that used to smile and turn his heart to mush. Lips he used to kiss and trace with his finger. Lips that used to tell him how wonderful he was and how much she loved him.
Oh, boy, had he ever messed up. God, help me make this right.
He swallowed. Hard. “I wanted to say I’m sorry, Holly.”
She wilted like sails on a windless day. The pen clinked on the floor. “Excuse me?”
“I’m…I said I was sorry.”
“For?” Her incredulous, sometimes gray, sometimes blue eyes stared at him.
He cleared his throat. “For treating you the way I did when we were in high school and then after I got home from the academy six years ago.”
Lost for words, she just stared at him, inventory sheet forgotten. “Are you dying or something?”
He choked.
This time it was his turn to stare at her. “No, I’m not dying. Why would you ask that?”
“Because this is just so…” She waved a hand as though she thought she could snatch the words she needed from the air around her.
“So…?”
“So not like you, I guess. I don’t ever remember you apologizing for anything…ever.”
The slap of her words jerked him back. Had he truly been so arrogant and prideful? So full of himself that he never considered her feelings?
Shame filled him. Yes, he had.
This time, it was he who had a hard time meeting her eyes. “I’m truly sorry for that, Holly. I’m a different person today than I was all those years ago.”
Skepticism greeted those words and while it grated, he also understood the