Chapter 4
Gia
“Rainbow?”
His voice sends a shiver down my spine. When the fire chief said Basil was coming out to get me in a gray truck, I expected an older guy with a tow truck. Not the man I haven’t stopped thinking about for the past seven months.
Of course he’d be the one to rescue me. Small towns are not a mystery to me.
Growing up in one makes me very familiar with how they work.
Everyone knows everyone and secrets are hard to keep, but I’d hoped that there were enough people in Pine Creek Falls that I could avoid running into the man I snuck out on.
I still cringe every time I think about it.
I’m no stranger to a one-night stand, but sneaking out like a coward was not my finest moment.
“Hey, Holt.” I wish I could see his features. Is he pissed that I ran out on him? Does he care? Obviously, he remembers who I am, but I can’t tell if that’s good or bad.
“I see you got yourself stuck.” There’s a teasing tone in his voice that has me relaxing a fraction.
“Who knew black ice could sneak up on ya like that?”
“Uh…pretty much everyone.”
“Right.” I click my tongue to keep from rambling through an explanation. We don’t get a whole lot of snow in my hometown. The occasional storm will blow through, but nothing like what Pine Creek Falls gets up in the mountains.
“How about we get you into town?”
I let out a breath of relief. “That would be good.”
Holt opens my car door while I turn it off. “You got a suitcase in the trunk?”
“Yeah, but it’s pretty heavy.” Standing next to Holt while the snow falls feels a little too Hallmark-movie for me. He’s wearing a Carhartt and a cowboy hat, for Christ’s sake. I drop my gaze from his piercing blue eyes and move to the trunk.
Holt reaches in before I can and pulls my huge suitcase out as if it weighs nothing. It took all of my strength to get that thing in the back of my car. I was fucking proud of myself for doing it on my own, and this asshole just made me look like a wimp.
I follow behind him to the big truck on the side of the road. He opens the passenger door for me before storing my suitcase in the truck bed. There’s a big black cover over it, so at least I don’t have to worry about my stuff being exposed to the elements.
Getting in the warm cab is heaven. I shove my hands near the vents and vow that my first agenda item will be buying a nice pair of gloves.
When I accepted Mayor Dillion’s request to help rebrand Pine Creek Falls, I hadn’t planned on being here in person.
Normally, I can do my job from home without any issues.
This job was no exception, but for the past year or so, I’ve been feeling restless.
My best friends have all paired up with their forever people while I’m sitting on the sidelines, watching them live out their happily ever afters.
I’ve been cheering them on from the very beginning. I’m ecstatic that they’re all happy, but seeing what they have is a tough reminder that I won’t ever have that.
I will never be the little wifey who stays home and takes care of her husband.
I have way too many sharp edges to live that kind of life.
Nor am I the kind of girl who dreams of having kids of my own.
I love my little niece, but it’s always a big relief to give her back to her parents at the end of the day.
“Oh. My. God. Are you Virginia Miller?”
I spin around at the small squeal. “What the fuck?” Two young girls sit in the backseat, staring at me with wide blue eyes.
Before I can ask any questions, Holt gets in the truck. He looks at me in question and then back at the girls.
“Dad! That’s Virginia Miller!”
He frowns at me. “Who?”
“She’s a country singer”—I supply, then look back at the girls—“and my twin sister.”
“Whoaaaaa,” the girls say simultaneously.
“I’m Gia. Georgia, technically, but I like Gia better.”
“I’m Lauren or Lo Lo,” the girl on the right says. She’s got a cute little pink stocking cap over her head, and her blue eyes look identical to Holt’s. “And that’s my sister Leah. We call her Lee Lee most of the time. We’re not twins, but everyone says we could be. And that’s our dad, Holt.”
Leah is behind my seat, her toothy grin on full display. She’s got a purple stocking cap on that almost covers her eyes.
I meet the gaze of the man in question. “You’re a dad.” I glance at the girls and then back at Holt. “How old are you?”
Holt laughs. “Forty. You?”
“Thirty.”
“I’m six!” Leah pipes up from the back.
“And I’m seven,” Lauren adds.
It makes Holt and me laugh as we look at the grinning girls. They’re adorable, and I can see Holt in both of them. Why does knowing he’s a dad make him even hotter? Shouldn’t it be the opposite?
I guess I’ve never had an issue with other people’s kids—unless they’re assholes. I just cringe at the idea of growing one in my body. It’s never appealed to me. But I can’t deny that when guys are in Dad-mode and they’re good at it? Definitely makes them hotter.
A thought hits me like a lightning bolt. “Are you married?”
Emotions pass across Holt’s face that make my stomach knot.
“Our Mommy died,” Lauren says quietly.
“Oh.” The word comes out of me like a breath.
He gives me a sad smile. “Three years ago now.”
I swallow hard. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
“We’re finding a new normal, aren’t we, girls?”
“Yep. And Mommy is always with us.” Leah’s sweet voice has tears clogging my throat.
“That’s right.” Holt nods. “Now, where can we take you, Miss Gia?”
“I was going to see if I could get a room at Buckleberry Inn again. It was sort of a spontaneous decision to come here.”
Holt winces. “You don’t have a reservation already?”
“No. Should I have?”
“The Ice Festival is this week. Every hotel in the surrounding area is booked. It’s kind of a big deal around here.”
“Well, fu—udge.”
Holt snorts. “You can stay with us until we find you a room. We’ve got a guest bedroom that no one ever uses.”
“Yeah! Have a sleepover with us!” Lauren says from the back. Leah echoes her excitement.
“Holt, you don’t have to do that. I’m sure I can find somewhere to stay.”
“Not at this time of night on a Sunday.”
“Only if you’re sure.”
“We’re sure,” Lauren says.
Holt doesn’t respond, just grins and puts the truck in drive.
This is not how I expected my first day in Pine Creek Falls to go.
When I got the harebrained idea to make the trek out here, I imagined I’d find a room and then hole up in the coffee shop in town to work.
After multiple delays at the airport and then having to drive slowly in the snow, getting stranded on the side of the road was just the cherry on top of the shit sundae I’d been given.
Now I’m in a truck with my one-night stand and his two little girls, and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do.
What if tomorrow comes and I still can’t find a room? This is awkward enough as it is. If I have to stay with Holt longer than one night, I might end up doing something stupid.
Like kissing the hell out of the hot single dad.
My jaw drops as we park in Holt’s driveway. His house is gorgeous. It’s modern yet full of natural elements. Stone columns hold up the wraparound porch, and wooden plank siding surrounds the house. Christmas lights are strung around the roof edge, shining brightly through the snow.
“Holt, your house is beautiful.”
“Thanks. I built it myself.”
My eyebrows wing up my forehead. “Seriously?”
He smirks. “I’m much more than meets the eye.”
“Tell me about it,” I murmur as I get out of the truck.
Holt pulls my suitcase from the bed while I help Leah out of the back seat. We walk through the garage as a group, the girls running ahead to open the door.
The inside of the house is just as charming as the outside. Through the mud room, the space opens to the kitchen on the left, the living room toward the back, and the dining room on the right. The stairs to the second floor are on the far left side, opposite the living room.
There are small touches of the girls all over the place: children’s art hangs on the wall, Barbies lie on the floor in the living room, and tiny backpacks hang on the back of the barstools.
“Come on in. Are you hungry? We just finished dinner when we came to get you.”
“I could eat.”
“Dad makes the best pasta in the whole entire world. Like, it’s so good,” Lauren says as she leads me toward the kitchen.
“Can we have ice cream while G eats?” Leah asks.
G. That’s what my sister and best friends call me too.
“Let me get her a plate first, then we can do dessert.”
“Yes!” the girls exclaim.
Holt makes me a plate of alfredo and then hands the girls small ice cream sandwiches.
My first bite makes me moan. “Damn, that’s good.”
Holt’s eyes heat. I didn’t mean to make that sound sexual, but this is the best food I’ve had in a while.
“Told you Daddy makes the best food.” Lauren smirks as she carefully eats her sandwich.
Next to her, Leah is licking the ice cream between the cookies.
They’re so similar to Ginny and me. My kindhearted twin is the gentle people-pleaser of the two of us.
I’ve always been bold and brash, while Ginny is quiet and passive.
When she decided to go to Nashville to pursue a singing career after we graduated high school, I was shocked.
Not because I didn’t think she could do it, but because she’s not the outgoing type.
It took her a couple of years, but the minute she signed a record deal, her name shot to the top of the charts.
As proud of her as I am, it’s hard to be her identical twin sometimes. When people realize I’m not the one they hoped for, their disappointment is palpable. I’ve gotten used to it over the years, but it still doesn’t feel great.
I was shocked that the girls weren’t upset that I wasn’t who they thought. That rarely happens.
When the three of us are finished eating, Holt directs the girls to get ready for bed. They race upstairs, giggling with each other as they go.
In the ensuing silence, I find myself babbling. “Thanks again for letting me stay. I promise I’ll be out of your hair tomorrow.”
Holt shrugs. “It’s not a big deal. You can stay as long as you need to.”
“I highly doubt you want your one-night stand hanging around you and your girls.”
“I was wondering if you’d bring that up.”
I grimace. “I’m sorry I snuck out. I don’t do goodbyes very well.”
“It is what it is. I’m only sorry I couldn’t buy you breakfast. But I suppose that’s what you were trying to avoid.” His piercing stare is intense enough to make me feel like he’s seeing straight through me.
I drop the eye contact. It’s too much for me to bear. “Yeah, I probably wouldn’t have accepted the offer.”
“It’s done and over now. I should go supervise the monkeys.” Holt walks away, his broad shoulders straight and his head held high.
Why do I feel like I missed out on something wonderful?