Chapter 39
ELLORA
A few weeks after our success at the board meeting, the sound of laughter and bad pop music echoed through Second Story. I was officially back in my store.
Yesterday, Holden and I had moved all my stock back in, and today, we were finishing up the walls.
New floors had been installed, making the whole place feel fresh and new.
New light fixtures hung from the ceiling and the walls.
It was like new life had been breathed into the space and it was gorgeous.
A fresh coat of paint on the walls had been exactly what the doctor had ordered to complete the store’s glow-up, but instead of having Holden’s team do it, I’d wanted to do it ourselves.
The teams had plenty to keep them busy and I didn’t want to risk them painting over the one sunshine yellow wall my mom had painted herself.
That wall would remain exactly as it was for as long as I could swing it.
Besides, I’d thought it would be fun for Holden and me to do the painting, but I hadn’t realized that he somehow didn’t seem to have painted anything himself since kindergarten. I had paint in my hair, paint on my shirt, and even paint on my elbows.
I had no idea how that had happened, but I also really didn’t care. All around me, my dream was coming to life and a few smatterings of paint wouldn’t change how completely thrilled I was that I would be getting to reopen soon.
Holden stood on a ladder beside me, smirking as he looked down into my eyes. “My paint lines are totally straighter than yours. What are you even doing, questioning whether I can remember how to paint? Obviously, I do. I’m great at this.”
I laughed. “I love you, but you literally painted over the tape.”
“It’s called creative freedom,” he said with a grin that was way too smug for a man with a blue streak across his cheek. “Look it up. It’s in the dictionary right next to most awesome boyfriend who has ever lived.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, dipping my brush into the tray and flicking a little paint in his direction.
A perfect blue dot landed right on the collar of his very not-paint-appropriate white T-shirt. He stared at it, then at me, those blue eyes filling with amused indignation. “You just assaulted a billionaire.”
“Please. You’re barely a billionaire after paying off all those demolition crews.”
He laughed and climbed down from the ladder, coming up behind me. “Do you think that scares me?”
“Yes,” I said, my voice coming out a little breathless when his arms slid around my waist, strong and warm. My pulse skyrocketed. “Now you’ll have to actually start working hard again to recoup your losses.”
He chuckled, the muscles in his arms flexing as he pulled me closer. “I have been working. I even work two jobs, I’ll have you know.”
I smiled, resting my head against his shoulder. “Poor baby. I hope you didn’t lose too much or you might have to take up a third job and then I’ll never see you.”
He chuckled and buried his nose in my hair. “Nah. If I’m being honest, I didn’t even feel the hit.”
“Rich people problems,” I teased. “I suppose you already have a third job though, being an advisor for Second Story.”
“Hey, I love that job,” he murmured against my temple. “You know, you could’ve stayed in my class. I could’ve given you terrible grades just to keep you motivated.”
I turned my head to look at him, feeling a smile spread on my face. “Yeah, but now I get private lessons. For free. Straight from the source.”
He smirked. “You’re saying you dropped out because you’re dating the teacher?”
“Pretty much.”
He kissed the tip of my nose. “I approve of your reasoning.”
We went back to painting, falling into a comfortable rhythm. My mind wandered as we worked, drifting with the lazy strokes of my brush. As Holden and I had been rebuilding—literally and metaphorically—we’d been growing so much closer.
It had been a busy, but quiet few weeks, with us finally having the opportunity to just enjoy meals together, talking, laughing, and sometimes crying as well. There was still one thing I didn’t know, though. A question I’d been dying to ask but hadn’t had the courage to.
I glanced over at him now, watching him move the roller up and down like he was falling into a trance, his strong body flexing and releasing with the motions. A slow grin spread on his lips even though he hadn’t even looked at me. “What is it? I can practically hear you staring at me.”
“Well, I mean, you are pretty hot. I happen to like staring at you.” I chuckled, hesitating for just another moment before I finally just came out with it.
“I was, uh, it’s just that there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask and you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but what happened with your ex-wife? Why did you end up getting a divorce?”
Holden froze mid-stroke, the roller hovering in front of the wall. For a moment, I thought he wasn’t going to tell me after all, but then he let out a long breath and set the roller down on the tray.
“She didn’t want the same things I did,” he said finally, turning to face me as he raked his fingers through his hair.
His gaze was a little unfocused, but at least it didn’t look like it was hurting him to talk about this.
“When we first got married, we talked about kids and she said she wanted them. I believed her, but after a few years, it turned out she liked the idea of being married more than actually being married.”
I stayed quiet, letting him talk. He refocused on me, wincing before he continued.
“This might make you think less of me, but the kind of lifestyle we had during the early years of our marriage was super indulgent. We traveled and stayed in the best hotel suites, we chartered yachts and partied on them, and the parties? They were on a whole different level.”
He shook his head. “Shannon loved that life. She used to say things like, ‘You can’t eat sushi when you’re pregnant,’ or ‘You can’t get hammered when you’ve got a baby.’ It became all about what she’d lose, never what we’d gain.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, the muscles in his jaw tightening. “We just became different people, I guess. I grew up and she didn’t.”
A soft, self-deprecating laugh slipped out of him. “I guess I started wanting something real. Someone to come home to, someone who didn’t care if we ate takeout on the floor instead of getting room service on a yacht. She wanted champagne and flashbulbs. I wanted quiet and privacy.”
My heart ached for him. I could picture it so easily, Holden in some glossy penthouse, surrounded by everything except what he really wanted. “So you let her go.”
“We let each other go.” Those blue eyes skipped to the window.
“The divorce was awful. Really messy. Every time I thought that was it, she’d come back with another demand.
She just kept wanting more, but it was still worth it in the end.
Better than watching her grow to resent me for not being glittery enough and better than me spending the rest of my life miserable, being dragged to places I don’t want to be. ”
I wasn’t quite sure what to say to any of that. It sounded terrible. “Well, for what it’s worth, I hate yachts.”
He laughed, reaching for me and hooking his little finger around mine to pull me to him. I went willingly, smiling against his lips when he kissed me. “I’m not mad about flashbulbs either.”
“I figured.” He lowered his forehead to mine after the kiss slowed to an end, those eyes intent but sparkling with a serene kind of joy that made me feel all warm and tingly inside.
“I love you for exactly who you are, Ella. Shannon is my past and it was a god-awful chapter in my life, and I get why you asked. Why you were curious. But I need you to know that you’re my future. ”
My heart skipped about a million beats. “Do you still want kids?”
Holden held my gaze, his palm lifting to cup the side of my throat and his chest rising and falling evenly against my own.
“I haven’t thought about it for a very long time.
After the divorce, I didn’t think it would ever be in the cards for me again.
I’m thirty-five, and until I met you, I didn’t even think I’d ever want to be in a relationship again, let alone raise children with someone. Do you? Want them, I mean.”
“I do,” I said, deciding to be honest despite the fact that this might still be a sore subject for him.
“I suppose this is a conversation we were going to have to have eventually anyway, so I don’t want you to feel like I’m putting any pressure on you, but I would like to start a family someday.
I’m only twenty-five, so there’s time, but yeah.
In the long run, if this is as serious as it’s starting to feel, then that’s something you’re going to have to consider. ”
“Consider it considered,” he murmured against my lips. His grip on me tightened. “I suddenly can’t wait to start putting babies in you.”
I laughed, but then his mouth sealed over mine again, and this time, the kiss didn’t break a few seconds later.
Before I even knew it, we were being full-on disgusting, wrapped up together on the floor between paint cans and drop cloths, making out and smudging little streaks of blue paint on each other’s faces.
The bell over the door practically exploded.
“I got it!” Bree’s voice infiltrated our bubble just after.
She came bursting into the store, her cheeks flushed, and she waved a piece of paper over her head like Charlie with the golden ticket. I blinked up at her, still on the floor in Holden’s arms. “Got what?”
“My fellowship!” she said, breathless and beaming. “They said yes. The hospital fellowship. I can start working there while I finish my Nurse Practitioner program. Oh my god, I’m in!”
She started jumping in place and I scrambled to my feet, catching her in a hug so tight, she squealed. “Bree! That’s amazing. You did it!”
“I did it!” she echoed, laughing with happy tears in her eyes. “I’ve been dreaming about working in that hospital since the day I decided I wanted to be a nurse.”
Holden grinned and climbed to his feet, paint streaked across his face, forearms, and shirt, and his sandy hair tousled after having my hands in it. God, he’s so freaking hot. Even when he’s looking adorable, all covered in baby blue paint.
Oblivious to my thoughts, he came over and hugged her too. “Congratulations, Bree. That’s incredible.”
I wiped at my eyes because apparently this was what we were doing now, crying over good things for a change. I hadn’t even realized there were tears until I’d felt the moisture rolling down my cheeks. I’d cried so much the last few months, it had become as natural as breathing.
“Okay, that’s it,” I said when I realized that those days were behind me. I would always miss my mom. That would never change, but everything else? That already had changed. The stress, the crying over the store and the neighborhood, that was all over. “We’re celebrating. Dinner is on us.”
“Us?” Holden asked, eyebrows sweeping up.
“Yes, us,” I said, grinning at him. “You’re not getting out of a night of cheap champagne and happy tears.”
“How about if dinner is on me, and we get proper champagne for the happy tears?”
Bree practically danced in place. “Fine, but I’m ordering dessert first.”
“Perfect,” I said. “Actually, I’m doing that too. We deserve it.”
After everything we’d been through, the heartbreak, the losses, and the fights, it felt like life was finally giving us all a win. Bree had her dream, I had my store, and Holden, well, I had him too.
Right now, today, the future didn’t scare me anymore. It looked brighter than ever and dessert for dinner felt like the perfect way to celebrate it.