Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Dexter
I’d thought Hollie was underestimating how much stuff she had. But she was true to her word when she said she had two suitcases.
“Can you put it in a guest room?” she asked me as I pulled the large suitcase into my hallway. She’d insisted on towing the smaller one.
“You’re not going to put things in the master bedroom?” I asked.
“Yeah, I just don’t want to mess it up in there. You’re always so . . . neat with everything.”
I’d left her a gift in the second bedroom, so I supposed now was as good a time as any to give it to her. “If you say so.”
“You know that girls fart, right?”
She’d been hitting me with all these stupid bits of information since we woke up. “Will you stop trying to sabotage you moving in?” I said as I set her suitcase in the walk-in wardrobe.
“Why do you need all these bedrooms, anyway?” she asked. “Oh,” she said, looking at the rails where I set out her gifts, still wrapped in garment bags. “Do you want me to put my things somewhere else?”
“Yes, I want your things in the master bedroom,” I said. “But you insisted on me bringing the suitcases in here.”
“To unpack and put things I don’t use so much. Am I still okay in here or shall I use another closet?” she asked, nodding at the rail that had been empty.
“You’re okay. And these,” I said, running my hand along the four hangers, “are for you. Well, for you to pick between. Moving-in gift.”
You’d have thought I’d told her it was time to pull her fingernails from her hands, given the expression on her face. “For me? Dexter? You’ve got to stop doing that.”
“No, I really don’t.” I found I quite enjoyed treating her. Although I had hoped the gesture would elicit a smile rather than the grimace I was actually faced with.
She rose from the floor, abandoning her suitcase, and moved toward the rail. “What are they?”
“Dresses. For the final ceremony of the competition. I picked out four so you can choose one. Or if you want to keep all four, that works.” I shoved my hands in my pockets, hoping she wasn’t going to be pissed off.
“You bought me dresses?” she asked, glancing between me and the rail. “Dexter,” she whispered, then stepped toward me and slid her hand around my waist. “You really shouldn’t have. It’s too sweet.”
“You’ve not seen them yet. You might hate them.”
She squeezed me tighter. “Impossible. I know your taste. And anyway, I don’t even care. I just can’t believe you would do that for me.”
“You deserve it.”
The sound of her deep breath filled the space between us. “I don’t think—”
“Let me do this, Hollie. I enjoy it. I like seeing you happy.”
“I don’t need gifts to make me happy,” she said. “You’ve already done so much for me.”
“I keep saying this—it’s a two-way street. You make me happy and I want to do the same for you.”
She reached up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to my neck. “I actually have a little something for you.”
“Hollie, I don’t need—”
“Hey,” she replied. “You don’t get to give me stuff and then complain when I do the same. This is a two-way street, remember?” She grinned at me as if she had me bang to rights.
She dived into her suitcase and pulled out an envelope. “I haven’t had time to wrap it. I had Autumn send it because it was something I was experimenting with back in Oregon.” She produced a woven, brown leather bracelet with a silver clasp.
“Wow, that’s beautiful,” I said, examining the silver.
“It’s meant to be like the trunk of a tree or a log or something. Like I said, it was a bit of an experiment.”
I didn’t wear jewelry. Ever. I always thought there was something very wrong with men who ran out of ways to spend their money so decided that jewelry was the way to show off.
But this I’d make an exception for. It was gorgeous, and there was nothing Hollie could give me that I wouldn’t wear.
I loved that her hands had crafted this, and she wanted me to have it.
She opened it and put it around my wrist. “You don’t have to wear it, of course. But it’s yours anyway. The clasp reminded me of you. You know—solid. Steadfast.”
I caught her by the waist and pulled her against me. “Thank you.”
She shrugged. “Less about you, let’s move on to my gift!” She grinned and pulled out of my arms. “No one’s bought me clothes since I was about twelve.”
I didn’t like to pry into Hollie’s upbringing, but it clearly wasn’t a privileged one. She seemed to have raised herself and her sister. I loved to treat her.
“If you don’t like any of them, we can send them back and start again. I didn’t think you’d picked a dress for the finals yet.”
“This is crazy,” she said, moving the hangers on the rail.
“You know you have to unzip the bags to see what’s inside, right?”
She glanced at me, then started to undo the first bag.
There were lots of Oh wows, This is gorgeous-es and Jiminy Crickets as she unpacked and examined all four dresses.
“Which is your favorite?” she asked. They all seemed nice to me, and Hollie would make anything look gorgeous.
“I like them all. You could video call your sister and ask her opinion.”
She held the navy-blue sequined dress against her body and swung her hips. “I don’t think so.”
“She doesn’t have good taste?” She and her sister shared everything. I would have thought that trying on clothes would be a classic sister bonding activity.
“I don’t want to make her feel bad.”
“Feel bad? Why would she feel bad because you have something nice?”
She hung the dress back on the hanger and took down the black halter-neck Tom Ford.
“She’d be completely happy for me. But the Sunshine Trailer Park is a long way away from your Knightsbridge apartment.
And I would hate it if she felt a little sorry for herself when we got off the phone.
This is . . . a lot.” She swept her hand around, so I wasn’t sure if she meant the gift was a lot or my apartment or London . . . or our relationship.
“Too much?”
She shook her head and slid her hands around my waist. “Of course not. You’re amazing.
I’m bursting at the seams to show her these dresses and your apartment, where I’m actually staying.
My life is like some kind of fairytale at the moment.
But hers isn’t, and she doesn’t need to be reminded of that. ”
Hollie was such a beautiful human being that she was prepared to put a lid on her own happiness just in case it created a shadow over her sister. “You’re a good sister.”
“It’s my job,” she said.
I wish David had felt that way. I’d found him with just a Google search, still working back office at a bank. I didn’t know if he was married or if he had children. Maybe if he had, he’d regret what he’d done to me. Maybe he understood the value of family now.
“But you know I’ve made plenty of wrong decisions in my time,” she said. “When I first got the trailer and moved out of my parents’ place, I left Autumn with Mom and Dad.” She shook her head and a curtain of shame fell across her face.
“You were fifteen and your sister was eleven. You were a kid, even if you were old enough to forge your parents’ signature on a lease, from what you’ve told me. There’s nothing to feel bad about.”
“I know. I try to make up for it. And Autumn didn’t hold it against me, which I’m grateful for.”
“Have you ever fallen out?” I asked. Their situation wasn’t enviable, but their relationship certainly was.
“Yeah. We argue a lot when we’re living together.
” She took the red Valentino dress off the rack—it had a big, floaty skirt and she twirled around, the fabric lifting as she turned.
“I mean, there’s not much space and she’s so messy she drives me crazy.
But our differences have only almost broken us once.
” She turned away from me and put the dress back on the rail.
“I told her I wasn’t going to pay tuition for her if she went to some community college in Idaho.
” Her shoulders lifted and her head bowed.
“She hated me. But I knew she’d picked the place because her boyfriend was going there.
And she had an offer from Oregon State, which is a really good school.
And she could still live at home and commute, which would save so much money. ”
I nodded, trying to be encouraging. She was clearly just trying to do the best for her sister. “I’m sure she gets it now.”
“I hope. She still brings it up every now and then.” Her voice rose an octave as she said, “It was hard because my parents took her side. I wanted to cave in so many times but I knew that guy would end up dumping her and she’d end up dropping out and she’d have lost her place at Oregon State .
. . but I couldn’t say that to her.” She pulled the next dress from the rail.
“That red one was really pretty,” she said, sounding like her dog had just been run over.
I didn’t know how to make her feel better. I knew a pretty dress wasn’t going to cut it. “What can I do? I hate to see you sad.”
She sucked in a breath and unhooked the final dress from the rail. “It’s fine. I was looking out for her, trying to do the best I could by her. So, I have to live with that. And this is really pretty,” she said, holding up a long black one.
I chuckled. “It is pretty. But I think I like the Tom Ford one best.”
“Tom freaking Ford? Are you serious? That’s ridiculous, Dexter. I don’t belong in a Tom Ford dress.”
I’d never bought a woman a dress before, but if I had, I couldn’t think that any one of them would belong in these dresses more than Hollie did. “Then take the Valentino,” I said, grinning at her.
She turned to me. “Valent—You need to take this back. I’m fine with Zara.”
“I think you should keep all four.”
“You’re just saying that because I’m upset about Autumn. But nothing’s going to stop the hurt of her thinking I wasn’t trying to do my best for her. I hope she knows by now I’d do anything to make her happy.”