Chapter Twenty
This wasn’t right.
Colin hated leaving Holly alone. He wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her. He wanted to promise her that everything was going to be all right. But he couldn’t do that. Because he didn’t know how any of this was going to work out.
He walked with no destination in mind. He was too worked up to go home. How could those people go into Holly’s shop and threaten her?
Anger and frustration balled up in his gut.
He had to think this through because he didn’t want to do anything to make things worse for Holly.
But those legal papers had him thinking.
He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and reached for his phone.
He pulled up the number for her grandmother’s attorney.
Mr. Price didn’t answer his cell phone. Colin didn’t blame the man, since he was on vacation, but that didn’t stop Colin from telling the attorney about the latest visit from Roger and Billie Jean.
He also might have mentioned how distraught Holly was and if there was something he could do to stop those two that he would greatly appreciate it.
He even offered to pick up the tab for the man’s services.
“Colin, is everything okay?”
He ended the call and turned around. Justin stood there with a concerned look on his face. Colin let out a sigh. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard there was a commotion at the soap company, and I thought I’d stop by to make sure everything was all right. As I was driving down the street, I saw you standing here, talking on the phone. You looked pretty animated, so I decided to see if you were okay.”
“I’m fine. It’s Holly that I’m concerned about. You have no idea what happened with her today.”
As they stood on the sidewalk, snowflakes swirled around them.
At first, he resisted saying anything. But he knew that he had to calm down if he was going to think clearly and come up with some way to help Holly.
And so, he told his brother about Holly’s parents and how miserable they were making her.
“I can’t even imagine having parents like hers,” Justin said. “It makes ours look like the best parents in the world.”
“Little brother, we do have the best parents in the world.”
Justin grinned at him and nodded. “Yeah. I guess you’re right.”
“Thanks for listening. I need to get going.” Colin back-tracked to the clinic where his pickup was parked.
He was almost home when he realized what he could do for Holly. He turned around and headed to Purr ’n Woof Supplies. But when he pulled up the lights were off.
With a resigned sigh, he turned around. But instead of heading home, he drove to the Kringles’ house. It didn’t take long to get anywhere in Kringle Falls. It was a benefit of living in a small town.
He parked in front of the Kringles’ house. He rushed up to the front door and hoped he wasn’t too late. After he pressed the doorbell, he paced back and forth.
When the door opened, Merry Kringle stood there with her brows scrunched together. “Colin, what are you doing here?”
“Can we talk?”
“Oh. Yes. Come on in.” She stepped back, pulling the door wide open.
“Thanks.” He stepped past her. “This won’t take long.”
After she closed the door against the cold breeze, she said, “You look like you have something serious on your mind.”
He nodded. “I do. It’s about Tater Tot. Have you given the puppy to the other family yet?”
“I haven’t. Not yet.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s just that Holly and Tater Tot have bonded. She wants the puppy back.”
Merry arched a brow. “She does?” When he nodded, she asked, “Why didn’t Holly speak up?”
He understood Merry’s hesitancy. “Holly had a lot dumped on her today because of her parents. When you arrived, Parker had just stopped Roger and Billie Jean from harassing her. He had to escort them out of the shop. By the time you showed up, she was feeling overwhelmed.”
Merry hesitated. “I’ll delay placing the puppy in the new home for a couple of days, but if Holly truly wants the pup, she’s going to have to come for him. She’s going to have to admit to herself and me that she truly wants him.”
He released a pent-up breath. “Thank you. She’ll be here. She just needs a little bit of time to recover from the damage from those people.”
“I’m sorry to hear about what she’s going through. I just don’t understand how people can be that way, much less to their own flesh and blood.”
Colin didn’t know what to say to that, so he said nothing at all. But at least he had a chance of getting Holly and Tater Tot back together again. But he couldn’t push Holly today. The wounds were too fresh. But tomorrow was another day.
Was it good news? Or bad news?
The following morning, Holly had been asking herself that question since she’d gotten the call from her grandmother’s attorney. Mr. Price was very brief but asked that she meet him at his office in an hour.
It meant she wouldn’t be able to open the shop that morning.
But this meeting was of the utmost importance.
It might tell her if she was going to keep her home and business.
The thought of losing all she’d ever known was quite daunting.
She never thought about moving away from Kringle Falls, but this just might be enough to make her pack up and relocate.
She pushed away all of the negative thoughts. This meeting would go well. She hoped. At last, she’d have some answers. Mr. Price would know if they had a case, right? After all, he was an attorney, and he was the one who drew up the will.
She’d changed clothes three times until she realized this wasn’t court.
It didn’t matter what she wore. She turned around to say something silly to Tater Tot about her being so nervous, but he wasn’t there.
The spot on the right side of the bed was empty.
Pain stabbed at her broken heart. She told herself he was happy with a little boy to play with and a family to spoil him, but it didn’t ease the pain of loss.
She settled on a pair of black pants. The color seemed rather fitting.
Not wanting to be too maudlin, she chose a white blouse.
Then she couldn’t decide if she should wear her hair up or down.
Eventually, she settled on her usual ponytail.
She didn’t know why she was making such a big deal out of this meeting.
After all, the only person at this meeting was going to be Mr. Price.
And she already knew him. He’d helped her through the process of settling her grandmother’s estate.
On her way out the door, she grabbed the papers her parents had threatened her with. She’d looked over them. They were filled with a lot of legalese, and it sounded bad—very bad.
She checked the time. When Mr. Price had called, she’d had all sorts of time to get ready. When she walked out the door, she had to hurry. Luckily, his office wasn’t far from her place.
When she arrived, the desk where his receptionist was normally seated was vacant. The office was filled with dark woodwork and lots of brass. Landscape paintings hung on the wall.
There was a huge brick fireplace in the reception area. Above the large wood mantle was an equally large wreath. That was all there was for holiday decorations in the office. Still, everything was tastefully done.
Mr. Price must have heard Holly enter because he appeared at his office doorway. “Holly, come on back.”
She shrugged off her coat and hung it out in the alcove by the door. Then she headed to his office. She fished the legal documents out of her purse and held them out to him.
His brow scrunched up as he looked at the folded papers. “What’s this?”
“These are the papers they were throwing around in my shop. I didn’t think they had a case until I looked at them. Now I don’t know.”
He took the papers. “Have a seat and let me look over them.”
She sat down in a wooden chair and didn’t know what to do with herself while he read the papers.
She got out her phone to scroll through the cute animal videos, but she never got that far because she noticed that she had a bunch of text messages.
There were more than forty of them. What in the world?
She never got that many messages. Surely they weren’t all from Colin.
She realized she hadn’t handled things between them very well.
She regretted sending him away, but it didn’t change things.
She just couldn’t take a chance on starting a relationship with him and have it fall apart.
Her scarred heart couldn’t take anymore.
Still, that didn’t stop her from opening the app. She found messages from Belle, Candi, Felicity, Sheriff Bishop… Wait. What? Why was the sheriff messaging her?
Sheriff Bishop: Just checking to make sure they left you alone. Call me if you have any more problems.
She was touched that Colin’s brother would reach out to her. She replied to him.
Holly: Thank you. Everything is fine now.
When she flipped back to the summary of conversations, she noticed that Colin had messaged her. A lot.
She opened the conversation string but didn’t have time to read them because she heard a noise from the front of the office. She turned to see if someone was joining them.
When she saw Billie Jean’s face, she gasped.
“I’m sorry. They’re early,” Mr. Price said in a disgruntled voice.
Mr. Price got to his feet as Roger and Billie Jean joined them. Holly looked at him for an explanation as to what was happening. She didn’t understand. How were they supposed to discuss a defense strategy with them in the office?
“Did you tell her that she has no case?” Roger asked.
“Please, sit down.” He gestured to the two other chairs.
Roger and Billie Jean hesitated.
“Sit down,” Mr. Price said in a more assertive tone.
They did as instructed. Roger took the chair next to Holly. Neither of them looked at her. It was like they were angry with her for not just giving into their demands.