Chapter 20 Hollis
“Who is going to be here again?” I ask.
Larissa looks at me from the passenger’s seat. She has the mirror pulled down from the visor and a tube of lipstick in her hand.
“Everyone,” she answers.
I hold a hand out and look at her like she’s crazy. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means,” she says, running the tube around her lips, “that everyone I know will be here. Okay. Maybe not everyone.” She smacks her lips together and folds the mirror back up. “But most of them.”
I lean back in my seat and try to rationalize how many people that might be. It might be a few hundred if everyone brings someone and you count the stragglers sneaking in for free beer on campus.
“Give me a quick rundown,” I tell her.
She shoves her lipstick in her purse and settles back in her seat. “Okay. Well, Aunt Siggy and Uncle Rodney. My dad. Siggy and Rodney’s kids—Holt, Oliver, Wade, Coy, and Boone.”
“Holy shit, that’s a lot of kids.”
“It’s just five.”
I balk. “That’s a lot of kids, Riss.”
She smiles at me. “How many kids do you want?”
“Zero.”
“Hollis!”
“What?” I ask, leaning away from her. “They seem like a pain in the ass.”
Kids have never been on my radar. I stay fully-wrapped up during sex and have walked out of situations that seem sketchy. A sketchy chick cannot be hot enough to risk getting pregnant.
I do not want kids.
But I can see Larissa as a mother and that fucks with me a little bit on a level I don’t want to indulge at the moment.
“Well, I want like six,” she says, staring ahead.
She says it very matter-of-factly, but a hint of something in her voice has me reaching across the console and grabbing her thigh. I squeeze gently, applying just enough pressure that has her smacking my hand.
She doesn’t push it away. But she doesn’t look at me either.
“Tell me about your cousins,” I say to keep her interacting with me. “Do I need to watch out for any of them?”
A grin ghosts her lips. “Holt and Oliver run a real estate investment company. Holt is my buddy. He’s the one I go to when I need help convincing my parents of something. Oliver is … Oliver.” She laughs. “He’s more of a jokester but still super smart. He’s a good mix of them all, I think.”
That all sounds doable.
“Wade is serious. He’s an architect. He just works … and that’s it. He has no life. Boone is the wild one. You met him.”
I nod.
“He’s my best friend, besides Bellamy. It used to be me, Bells, Boone, and Coy, but then …
” She holds her hands out. “Whatever. I don’t know.
But I’m close with Boone. Coy is off touring the world most of the time now so we don’t see him as much.
I’m excited he’ll be here tonight, though. He flew in just for the night.”
I furrow my brow. “Is he military or something?”
She bursts out laughing.
“I … Is something funny?” I ask.
“Hollis.” She says my name as a complete sentence. “Coy is Kelvin McCoy.”
I snap my face to her. “The country music guy?”
She nods with a look of amusement on her face.
“Wait. Your cousin is Kelvin McCoy. No shit?”
“No shit.”
What the actual fuck?
I withdraw my hand from her leg and follow my GPS’s instructions to turn right. Up ahead, the road is lined with cars on both sides.
“Mason family hack,” she says, sitting up in her seat. “Pull up to the driveway. It’ll be blocked off, but we’ll tell the guy it’s me, and he’ll let me through.”
“Nice.”
I do as instructed. A man stops us on the road. A rather large man with a suit on leans into the car.
“Hey, Nate!” she says. “Can we get through, please?”
“Hey, Larissa. Sure thing.”
He steps back from the car, and we’re allowed to proceed up a driveway made to look like cobblestones.
“That guy looks like he could throw down.”
She winces. “I bet he can. He owns a bar called The Gold Room. I think being able to hold your own kind of goes with the territory.”
We proceed up the tree-lined drive. The house in front of us is even more impressive than the Landry’s. It appears to be three stories, all brick, with a manicured lawn that’s lit up by little hanging lanterns in the trees.
It looks like a movie set. There are no two ways about it.
“This is pretty, huh?” she asks.
“Pretty fucking incredible. Holy shit, Riss.”
She grins. “This is my favorite place in the world.”
“I thought it was with me,” I say as I park my car behind a Range Rover.
“You’re totally a close second.”
I shake my head, knowing she’s full of shit.
She doesn’t wait for me to open her door, but she’s so excited to get inside that I can’t blame her. She reminds me of how I feel on the first day of football practice. I can’t deny her that kind of joy.
An arch has been erected out of golden-colored lights. Larissa takes my hand as we approach it.
“They don’t spare any expenses, do they?” I crack.
“No. This is my aunt’s claim to fame.”
We walk through the lights to see what appears to be icicles dripping from the top. It’s incredible, and I wish I had this kind of money lying around to put to my claim to fame.
Not that I know what that would even be. But still.
We enter through an oversized wooden door, and it’s party chaos in the most sophisticated way.
There’s music playing through speakers hidden from view.
Balloons in golds and silvers coat the ceiling with little ribbon pieces extending down and floating just a few feet overhead.
The house is crowded with people wearing everything from suits and dresses like Jack’s event to jeans and T-shirts.
“What do you think?” Larissa asks.
“It’s … something.”
“Come on. Let’s find my family.”
I suck in a breath and allow her to lead me through the throngs of people. We’re stopped every few steps, and I’m introduced to someone new. It’s not until I hear someone yell Larissa’s name that I put a face with a name.
Kelvin McCoy, the guy I listen to all the time while I’m going over the playbook, stands in front of me with his arms wrapped around my girl. He holds a cup of beer in one hand and grins at me over Larissa’s head.
“Hey,” he says to me. “You must be the famous Hollis Hudson.”
Larissa ducks out from under his arms.
“Hollis, this is my cousin Coy. Coy, this is Hollis.”
Coy shakes my hand and pulls me into a man-hug.
“It’s nice to meet you,” he says. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Boone keeps me pretty up-to-date on the family. And Mom told me that Riss was pretty crazy over some dude—ouch!” he says as Larissa sticks an elbow in his side. “I probably shouldn’t have said that,” he jokes.
“You think?” Larissa threatens to elbow him again. “Behave. Please.”
Coy smirks. “If I behave, can we go get Bells?”
Larissa rolls her eyes. “No. Leave her alone.”
“She isn’t coming?” I ask.
Larissa levels her gaze to me. “When she said she wouldn’t come if Coy was home, she meant it.”
I look at Coy. He’s flashing me a shit-eating grin.
“All right. I gotta go say hi to some more people. Only home for about eighteen hours, so I gotta make the best of it,” Coy says.
“It was nice to meet you,” I say.
“You, too. I’ll catch up with you guys before you leave.” He runs his hand on top of Larissa’s head, much to her dismay. “See ya, Riss.”
I open my mouth to comment on just meeting a rock star when another man comes up to Larissa’s side and plants a kiss on the top of her head.
What the hell? I open my mouth to make some shit clear when the man laughs.
“How are you, baby girl?” he asks.
Larissa laughs at whatever my face does. “Hollis, please meet my father, Howard.”
I make a face like I just made a mistake. Howard laughs right along with me.
“How are you?” he asks, shaking my hand.
“Good, except I think I just made an ass out of myself.”
He smiles widely. “Hell, no. I like it. It shows you know how special this little girl is.”
Larissa beams. I think my cheeks turn red.
“I hear you play football,” he says.
“Yeah,” I say, trying to move past my fuckup. “Tight end.”
“I was a linebacker through my sophomore year at Kent State. Found out I had spinal stenosis, and that ended my football career,” he says. “But, hell—I did just fine in life without football. There could be a worse ending to this story.”
I nod. “That’s true. Absolutely.”
“If I would’ve known you were coming, I would’ve looked you up. I feel a little rude not knowing your stats.”
I laugh. “Trust me—this was a shit year. I’m happy you haven’t seen them.”
“We all have those years.” He takes a drink of his beer. “What brings you to Savannah?”
Larissa steps into our line of sight. She grins at me. She looks … proud.
Of me.
“Hollis won an award for Lincoln Landry’s charity,” she says, standing tall. “Isn’t that amazing?”
Howard looks at me with a raised brow. “Is that right?”
“It’s no big deal,” I tell him, trying to gloss over the whole thing. “I—”
“The hell it isn’t,” Howard says, cutting me off. “I know those Landry boys, and they don’t do anything half-assed. If they say you’re deserving of something, then you are. What’s it for?”
I bite my bottom lip and wish I could just disappear. I don’t want this kind of attention. It feels as though it cheapens it—as though it cheapens me.
“It’s just for some volunteer work. It’s not a big deal. Honest,” I say, reaching for Larissa.
It’s an automatic reaction. Before I can catch myself, she stands next to me and wraps her arm around my waist. Instantly, my nerves calm. I think Howard notices.
He grins. “I’m gonna tell you what—I don’t know where my daughter found you, but she needs to spend more time there, and away from those rats my ex-wife hooks her up with.”
“Daddy!”
Howard blows out a breath. “It’s the truth, Larissa. I love you, and I know your mother is doing what she thinks is best, but she’s out of her damn mind if she thinks you should be with a guy like Sebastian Townsend.”
“Your daughter should definitely listen to her dad,” I tell him, gripping Larissa’s waist.
Howard looks amused. “You’ve met him, I assume?”
“I about knocked his head off yesterday.”
His laugh is loud and boisterous, and now I know where Larissa gets that from. He’s incredibly genuine, which shouldn’t surprise me.
“I mean, I don’t know Sebastian that well,” I say, “but he has no business being around her.” I nod my head to Larissa. “He is not a good guy.”
“He’s a bastard. That’s what he is, and I couldn’t be happier that she’s not with him anymore.” Howard takes a drink. “I like you. You’re the first one I’ve liked in a long time.”
Larissa laughs. “Who else did you like?”
He thinks. “You’re right. Hollis is the first.”
His compliment feels good. He’s complimenting me—not my route or the way I caught a pass or my smile. I can’t wipe the smile off my face.
“I’m going to get another drink,” he says, resting his hand on my shoulder as he walks by. “Nice to meet you, Hollis. Hope to see you around.”
“Likewise, sir,” I say.
As soon as he’s out of earshot, Larissa spins around to face me.
“Oh, my gosh,” she gushes. “You just charmed my dad!”
“So?”
“So? So that’s … impossible.”
I look at him over my shoulder. He stands next to a man who heavily resembles him and I’m guessing that’s her uncle Rodney.
“It wasn’t that hard,” I say, turning back around. “Really.”
Her face is lit up like the icicle lights dripping from everything nailed down.
“Let’s go find my aunt Siggy.” She reaches up and runs her hand through her hair.
I can’t help but notice the bracelet I bought her on her wrist. That feels just as good as Howard’s niceties.
“Let’s go find her,” I say.