But I love you, and I’m not going to stop and I’m—”
“I love you too,” Holden broke in, a smile splitting his face in two. “I love you so much. And I don’t want you to go anywhere.”
A dawn-like glow spread inside my chest, honey-sweet and golden, warming me from the inside.
“You mean it?”
“I mean it.” His laugh was raw and pure. “God, I mean it more than I’ve meant anything else in my life. I love you, Ari, and I’m terrified of losing you. Not just to psychos with guns, but even just losing you back to your family.”
“Then why did you try to make me leave?” I asked, still trying to make sense of all of it. Holden loves me. Holden loves me. It was like a dream.
“Because I thought it was the right thing to do. Because I was sure that once you’d left, you’d realize that anything you might have felt for me was just an after-effect of trauma. That those feelings would pass, once you’d been with your family for a while. But Ari, I don’t want you to go.”
“I don’t want to go either,” I said, laughing and wiping the tears from my cheeks. “I don’t ever want to go.”
I was about to pull him in for a kiss when a loud ‘ahem’ sounded from the door to the library. We both turned to see Daisy walk in, her hands on her hips. She swept the room with a single glance, taking in Eddie under the bookcase, me and Holden in the middle of the room, and the gun on the coffee table. She made a beeline for the gun.
“When you didn’t come right back outside,” she said, picking up the gun with gloved hands, “I thought I might come in and find you two curled up kissing. Or worse.” She held the weapon delicately and removed the ammunition.
“But I didn’t expect the ‘or worse’ to include a firearm and someone who seems to have lost a game of Jenga with a bookcase.” She nodded towards Eddie, whose face was starting to look rather pale and pained. “Does someone want to explain what’s going on?”
I laughed weakly. “It’s kind of complicated. But I can try. And if it makes you feel any better, I promise I’m not going to fight you anymore about going to the police.”
“Going to the police?” Daisy scoffed. “Oh, honey. That ship sailed the minute you ran out of the car. The police are coming here. I called them.” She tucked the ammunition away in her pocket and set the gun back down on the table. “Buckle up, kiddos. I expect it’s going to be a long night.”
“Long night? Why? Are we having a party or something?”
All of us swung around to see Hadley waft into the room, swathed in something very purple and very frilly. A rumpled looking man in a cardigan and chinos came in after her. He was in the process of pulling what looked like a notebook and recorder out of his bag, but he stopped dead when he took in the chaos of the room.
“Did I miss some excitement?” Hadley continued, looking around brightly. She blinked when she looked at Eddie, still trapped under the bookcase, and her eyes widened even more when she saw the gun on the table.
“I found Mr. James at the door, by the way,” she said. “He looked lost, and it was almost time for the interview anyway, so I just brought him in to find you, Holden. I hope that’s okay.”
Mr. James, who looked like he’d just scored the interview of the century, glanced up briefly before going back to writing furiously on his pad. Holden sighed and squeezed the bridge of his nose.
Daisy was right. It was going to be a long night.
The first thing that had to be dealt with was Uncle Eddie.
Luckily, Daisy’s peremptory 911 call had neglected to specify exactly what services were needed at Edgecliffe Manor, so a firetruck, an ambulance, and two police cars showed up a few minutes later, and the EMTs were able to go straight to work getting him up off the floor and onto a stretcher.
He’d broken some ribs and possibly a leg, but nothing life-threatening, or so they thought. I supposed, in the long run, that was a good thing. I didn’t really want to be responsible for someone’s death, even if only indirectly, and even if they had tried to shoot my boyfriend moments before.