32. Holly
THIRTY-TWO
HOLLY
“Can Mr. Graham come listen to my bedtime story tonight?” Jonah was in his pajamas, teeth brushed, and ready for bed.
I’d spent every moment after dinner trying not to hold too tightly to the words Graham said. It wasn’t an official declaration of love, but it was close enough, and we both knew it. I wouldn’t dismiss it, but I had to figure out what to do with it.
Graham still loved me. I wasn’t even sure how that was possible after all these years. It’d only been a week since he appeared in front of me, and everything was changing so quickly.
“I’d love that,” Graham said, and of course he would. He loved everything these days.
“What story?”
“My favorite one,” Jonah declared, and my cheeks immediately burned with embarrassment. They were doing that a lot these days. And all of them were because of Graham. “Oh, well…how about we tell a different one?”
“No! I want him to hear it.” He turned to Graham. “Mama’s an excellent storyteller. She reads books super fun, too, makes all the people have different voices, but her own stories are the bestest.”
“Well, I think I need to hear this bestest story then.”
“You don’t. You really don’t.”
“Please, Mama?” Jonah slapped his hands together like he was praying. “Pretty please. I like yours the best.” He turned to Graham again. “It’s awesome. It’s a girl who lives all alone. She has no mom and no dad, and she’s so sad because everyone left her…”
“Really?” Graham asked, and his brows rose on his head while he looked at me out of the corner of his eyes.
I wanted to hide my face and dig a hole and bury myself. When Jonah got started, he didn’t stop.
“Yup. And then a prince shows up, and Mama says he’s super handsome. And he was strong and had all these friends, and all of a sudden the sad girl isn’t alone anymore.”
“Really?” Graham’s voice rose an octave.
“Ugh…” I muttered. “Maybe you should tell the story yourself.”
“No! Come on.” He tugged my hand and yanked me off the couch.
Graham stood behind me, whispering in my ear, “A prince, huh?”
Oh, that arrogant smirk was back. I was never going to hear the end of this one. It’d come to me one night out of the blue. The story had rattled off my tongue, not fully true because it was a prince in a castle with all the regular fairy tale trappings, but yeah, it was a rendition of sorts of Graham and me.
And I was sufficiently mortified he was hearing this, chuckling behind me.
“What else happens?” he asked Jonah.
“They got through all these battles, and they both get hurt, and in the end, the broken girl saves herself. She learns she has the powers she needed all along, and once she learns that, she gets a whole new life. She and the prince get married and live happily ever after, too, but I don’t really like that girly part.”
“I don’t know,” Graham said, and I could see his ego swelling even though he was behind me. “Sounds pretty great to me.”
He had to be joking. I gaped back at him as we reached the landing. He shrugged, like it was nothing.
“What? I like happily ever afters, and I don’t think they’re girly.”
“See,” I said to Jonah. “Happy endings aren’t boring.”
Behind me, Graham laughed and then coughed into his closed fist.
Oh God. I couldn’t believe I’d just said that. I glared at him as we entered Jonah’s room. “Don’t…” I warned.
“You said it,” he whispered, with a glimmer in his eye.
“Where should I sit?” He scanned Jonah’s room, which had a full-size bed and a beanbag chair. Jonah plopped down right in the center and patted his hands on both sides of him. “Here and here.”
I paused, frozen, as I realized what Jonah was doing.
I’d never brought a man around him and had only had a couple dates in six years. And now…now he was welcoming Graham into his bedroom, no hesitation, like we were one big happy family, like he’d known Graham a lot longer than a week.
“Trust me?” Graham whispered, and it took me a second to realize it was more of a question.
I peered up at him, the way he was looking at me, like if I wasn’t ready for this, he’d deal with it and wait downstairs or sit on the floor.
But that was exactly why I trusted him. Why he’d always been the prince in my story. He always respected my pace, my decisions.
“Come on, guys! What are you waiting for?”
Graham looked at me, like he was asking the question with his eyes. What are you waiting for ?
I nodded at him. I got it. What was I waiting for?
What could be more perfect than this?
I turned to Jonah and climbed into the bed, sitting between him and the wall so Graham could have more room on the other side.
“All right, Jonah.” I adjusted so he was resting against my outstretched arm and ran my hand through his hair. It was so silky, and I took every opportunity I could, knowing someday he wouldn’t allow it. Wouldn’t want anything to do with this bedtime story.
“One day, a very long time ago, there was once a sad girl who was all alone. She only had one friend, and her mom and dad were both gone, leaving her to take care of herself. One night, she and her friend went out to a party and ran into a big scary monster who wanted to eat the sad little girl, but out of nowhere, a handsome and strong boy stepped in front of her…”
I tried not to watch Graham’s reaction as Jonah settled into my story, but it was useless. He was tense as a board as he listened, oftentimes sucking a breath. I told the story of how he demanded this girl be her friend and how he showed her what true friendship was like. I told the story of how he made the lonely girl laugh and taught her to have dreams of her own, and then I ended it with the story of how another monster showed up, and both the boy and girl had to battle to survive. In the story, the boy teaches the girl how to fight, and in the end, the prince doesn’t save her. They both end up saving themselves, and when they do that, they learn they should always be together, because they’re stronger when they’re together than when they’re alone.
I cried the first year I started telling this story, but it’d been years since I did so. Tonight, with Graham’s occasional sniffs, I found myself crying along with the story all over again. Most of it was fake, but there was enough truth weaved in to make it obvious whose story I was telling.
Not like he hadn’t already figured it out.
“He’s sleeping,” Graham whispered with a raspy voice.
“He always falls asleep before I finish.” I smiled at him in the small room, the hallway light illuminating his face.
“But you finish it anyway.”
I could have brushed it off, made it seem like nothing. I trusted him. It was time I started proving it. “I like knowing they end up together in the end.”
“Funny.” Graham’s smile went wide, and all I saw was a mouth full of teeth. “That’s my favorite part, too.”
* * *
“I feel like I should take back what I said earlier, but I won’t.”
We were on my front porch, my front door open. Behind me, Graham was looking down at me, cupping the side of my throat beneath my jaw. His thumb did a gentle sweep across my cheek.
“Especially not after hearing that story,” he continued, like he wasn’t turning my knees to jelly and my bones to mush.
After we left Jonah’s room, he gave me a kiss that could only be described as scorching. He then brought me downstairs and didn’t mention the story.
I’d been waiting for him to bring it up, and when he did, I dropped my forehead against his chest. “You were never supposed to know about that.”
“Ah, but now I do.” His thumb pressed to the soft flesh beneath my chin, and he tilted it up until I met his stormy, dark gaze. “I like knowing I was on your mind all these years.”
I fought the urge to hide, even though he was staring so intently at me, and decided I couldn’t.
I didn’t need to hide from him or protect myself.
“You were never far from it,” I admitted and licked my dry lips. My throat turned parched at the admission, and all my senses flared with that familiar flight-or-fight response being vulnerable brought me.
Instead of fleeing, I pressed my toes harder into the cement porch and rooted myself, waiting for his judgment.
“I know opening up is hard for you,” he whispered, bringing his head down close to mine. “So thank you for that.”
Graham closed the last whisper of space between us and kissed me. I sank in immediately and reached out, fisting his shirt in my hands. All too soon, and not nearly soon enough, he stepped closer, pressing his body against me and walking us backward until my back hit the door.
I chuckled against him and allowed myself to feel every part of this beautiful moment. The quickening of his breath, the deep, quiet groan that rose from his throat, the way his hands were gentle but firm and confident as the pads of his fingers pressed into my cheek and lower back.
I gasped when he pulled back, our lower halves pressed together. His desire for me was evident, and my own arousal was rushing through me.
“What…” I tried pulling him back with my grip on his shirt.
“Soon,” he promised and kissed my forehead. “We have all the time in the world to take.”
We had all the time. A grin tugged at my lips. “Okay.”
“Call me if your doctor calls, okay?” He asked it with another brush of his thumb over my cheek, like he couldn’t not be touching me. Like he needed it, even if it was in the smallest ways.
But his words brought back the present. Reality. When Graham was around, I didn’t think, and I didn’t worry, but now it was front and center.
“Promise me, Holly. When your doctor calls, I want to be there with you.”
“Why?”
Graham smirked at me like he found me adorable. “You know why.” He kissed me again, quickly, and pried my fingers off his shirt, the sides now wrinkled from my hands. “Get inside and lock the door. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Reaching around me, he opened the door. When I didn’t move, his hands went to my hips, and he moved me back through the doorway.
“Good night, Holly.”
I reached for the doorframe to steady myself. “Good night, Graham.”
I closed the door and locked it, but I kept an eye through the narrow window next to the door and watched Graham jog out to his truck. Before he climbed in, he gave one last look back at my home. I didn’t know if he saw me watching him through the sheer curtain, but I saw his smile before he got into his truck and shut the door.
He wanted to be with me when I went to the doctor. Caroline had volunteered, but that meant she needed other people down at the restaurant. Could I have taken her up on it? Sure.
But Graham wasn’t giving me an option, and I knew it was solely because he wanted to be there for me. He wanted to support me and help me through whatever was about to come.
Which meant I wasn’t alone.
And if I kept trusting him, I doubted I’d ever be alone again.
It was as terrifying as it was peaceful.
With a heavy sigh, I flipped off the lights downstairs and headed upstairs to bed. It was after eleven, and I had a long day, but sleep didn’t come easy.
My bed suddenly felt too large, too cold, and too empty.
Soon . Graham had said.
My body warmed at the thought. Soon, maybe I wouldn’t be spending every night alone either.