program more quickly this time. After all, you always convince me eventually anyway, right?”
I nod again. “Always.” And especially this time. I’m pretty sure I would have stopped at nothing to show her how right we are together.
“Plus,” she adds like it’s an afterthought. “I love you, so…” She shrugs and then giggles, and my chest swells to three times its normal size. Holy shit. Hearing those words from her—given freely and without hesitation—is, without a doubt, one of the best moments of my life. I reach forward and lift her into my arms, hug her to my chest, and spin her around.
She laughs at my over-the-top gesture, understanding it for what it is—reciprocation. Still, with something this important, there’s not even a slight chance in hell I’m going to leave even a sliver of doubt.
I set her on her feet, pull her back with my hands at her hips and look right into her jade-green eyes.
“I love you too, you know.”
She nods, her lips twisting with emotion as she works to fight back tears. She knows. Looking back at everything that’s happened between us, I have to imagine it’d be hard not to. Truth be told, there’s no way either one of us could doubt it if we’re honest with ourselves.
Even with the other women coming and going, it’s always been about Holley. And for her, no matter the lines she wasn’t supposed to cross, it’s always been about me. Two people as right for each other as we are, always find a way through the chaos to one another.
When the fog of our moment evaporates, courtesy of a cleared throat from her father, we look up to find everyone in the room staring at us.
Eyes blink, cameras flash, and a whispered roar rolls through the crowd as people start discussing the events of our reunion among themselves. It’s quite the intense experience. I grab Holley’s hand, expecting her to shrink a little under the scrutiny, and her dad and Chloe close ranks. Intended or not, it seems we’ve formed our own little fortress—an impenetrable family unit. Its strength is unmistakable, and if Holley shrinks at all, it’s only because she’s leaned farther into me.
“I guess I can strike a vibrator off the Christmas list then, huh?” her dad remarks, startling us all with his overzealous candor.
“Dad!” Holley snaps, embarrassment hitting her like a whip. Me, though—I’m bemused beyond belief.
I glance to Holley’s father with a huge smile on my face, and I awkwardly whisper into the room while everyone looks on. “You must be Holley’s father. It’s nice to meet you, sir.”
“Pleasantries later, son,” he says without blinking. “Time now to deal with the angry mob.”
Gloria is the first to break the invisible barrier force field we have going, stomping over to Chloe and me with quick feet. She lowers her voice to a whisper, but I’m not sure it does any good. The room has gone so silent again, you could hear a pin drop.
“What the hell is going on, Holley?”
Holley clears her throat, but instead of answering her editor directly, she apologizes with an, “I’m sorry, Gloria,” and steps forward, pulling me with her thanks to the clamp of my hand, to address the room. I would have expected her to take some sort of a baby step—explain to her editor first—but I guess when you have this kind of interaction in the middle of a crowd, you have to expect a time of reckoning will eventually come home to roost.
Voice loud enough for everyone to hear, Holley does her best to make amends for the confusion. “I…I want to, first, apologize for bringing everyone here under…well, as it turns out, false pretenses. It wasn’t on purpose, and it wasn’t planned, but…Bachelor Anonymous won’t be choosing a bachelorette tonight. In fact, he won’t be choosing a bachelorette at all. I’m so sorry—”
Surprisingly, it’s Rachel, my four-wheeling, clean-eating date, who speaks up first, cutting into Holley’s speech to disagree. “It looks like he picked one to me.”
All four other women chime in in agreement, and the rest of the room goes silent once again.
“Me too.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Same.”
“Looks obvious.”
“I’m…” Holley swallows hard, walking toward the women to address them directly. I think, out of everyone here, she feels the most remorse toward the five of them. “I’m so sorry for doing this to you guys. You have to know I had absolutely no intention of… I would never dream of purposely dragging you along through a pointless contest. I…I didn’t