Chapter 22 Holt
HOLT
The house had finally quieted down.
It was the first thing Holt really noticed once the conversation at the table had ended and people had drifted away in little clusters, some tired, some uneasy, all of them carrying too much with them.
The dining room no longer held the charged energy of accusation and confession.
The living room had fallen still. Somewhere deeper in the house, water hissed through old pipes, and Holt knew from the sound that Margo was in the shower.
Harvey’s phone rang.
The sound cut through the silence sharply enough to make Holt lift his head.
He’d been sitting for far too long on the dining room chair, trying to decide how best to deal with his mother now that the rest of the secrets had finally been dragged into the open.
In truth, he was glad the phone had gone off.
It gave the room a pause, and it gave him another few seconds to gather himself before turning his attention to his meddling mother.
“Oh, I’ve got to leave,” Harvey said, glancing at the screen. Then he looked at Mina. “I can stay if you need me.”
“No, Harvey, that’s sweet, but I’ll be fine,” Mina assured him.
Harvey still looked uncertain, but he nodded. He turned to Holt and June. “I won’t let them air the promo for Hidden Truths. Not until you both say so. And I’ll wait for your go-ahead before I agree to film anything else with the crew.”
“Good,” Holt said. “Thank you.”
Harvey gave them all one last look and headed out. The front door opened and closed, and the silence that settled after him felt almost unnaturally complete.
Now that the others had gone, the room seemed to breathe differently.
Holt turned to his mother.
“Now it’s your turn, Mother,” he said.
June turned toward Mina and leaned her elbows on the oak table.
“Yes,” she said. “I think it is, and you have some explaining to do, and we want the whole truth this time.”
His mother lifted her brows with all the innocence of a woman who had never in her life been entirely innocent and knew perfectly well that no one in the room believed she was. She passed one of those looks toward June that instantly made Holt suspicious, then she gave him that very same look.
“Are you both sure you want everything exposed?” Mina asked, cautiously.
“Mother, no more games.” Holt’s impatience sharpened his voice. “June and I would very much like to know how long you’ve been planning to push us back together.”
“Because it seems as though you’ve been planning this for over twelve years,” June pointed out. “Since you got my daughter and her family to move here.”
“I spoke to you about that first, June,” Mina reminded her.
“Remember that day we had tea together in that lovely little park right there on the beachfront in Miami?” She frowned.
“It’s closed down now, you know. Isn’t that sad?
I hate it when good things change so suddenly, and you know it’s really not the best solution for anyone, really. ”
Holt rolled his eyes and didn't miss the implication beneath that remark.
“Mother,” he warned, “stop wandering around the point and get to it.”
“Oh, all right,” Mina said with a sigh. “Yes, I wanted the two of you to reconcile. I never hid my feelings when you divorced, and I certainly didn’t hide them in the years after that.
I thought you were both making a mistake.
” She glanced from him to June and back again.
“Well, I didn’t hide the fact that I thought you ought to call each other once you were both single. ”
“Mina,” June groaned.
“I waited a good two years after Trevor passed before I tried to nudge Holt into contacting you,” Mina confessed. “But the stubborn fool didn’t.”
“Mom.” Holt dragged a hand over his face. “June and I had both moved on.”
“Yes,” Mina said. “But you left a great deal behind and unsaid.”
Guilt surged through Holt so hard and so suddenly that he had to look away.
That one line hit too close, and he didn’t want her to see it shining in his eyes.
“Didn’t the two of you keep going over the last two days about how secrets were what got people hurt?” Mina threw their words back at them.
His mother was right to call them out on that, and Holt was carrying one of the biggest unsaid things between him and June.
The weight of it felt like a stone in his chest, pretending it could remain there forever if he just never named it.
He kept his eyes averted from June, knowing if he looked at her now, he was not entirely certain what she would see.
“Look,” he said, his tone clipped by the effort of pulling himself back into the moment. “Just tell us what you’ve done here. And please, for once, don’t let me find out you are involved in anything that’s happened in this town lately.”
“What?” Mina spluttered. “I may think the two of you should give each other another chance, and if you can’t see what still exists between you, then forgive me for trying to open both your eyes, but that is as far as it goes.
” She shook her head. “I didn't orchestrate the incidents, the fires, or any of the danger. I only gave things a little push with help from those four people who were only too willing to help.” Her mouth curved into a smug little smile.
“As it turns out, your son, Holt, and your daughter, June, both want the two of you to be happy and thought it was high time you stopped drifting around alone and found someone to share the rest of your lives with again.”
June looked startled at that. “Willa said that?” she asked.
Mina nodded. “Very plainly, yes.” Then she glanced at Holt. “And Rad said much the same. Your son thinks more like you than you realize, only he has the advantage of being less emotionally constipated about it.”
Holt gave his mother a long look that would have silenced almost anyone else.
It didn't silence her.
“And because I know how good the two of you were together,” Mina continued, undeterred, “I believed you were meant to find each other again.”
“So you decided to give fate a push,” Holt said flatly.
“Oh, no.” Mina waved that off at once. “Fate did that all on its own. I can’t say I liked how it happened, mind you.” Her expression softened, and for once the emotion there looked entirely genuine. “You with the car accident, June, and you, Holt, getting shot. That frightened me half to death.”
“So you nudged Willa and Rad into enticing Holt and me to come ‘heal’ in Sandpiper Shores for the summer.” June folded her arms again, but less defensively this time.
“I did,” Mina said. “And the fact that you both came so willingly says more than either of you would like to admit. It shows that somewhere inside you both already know where home still is.”
Holt couldn't argue with that, and it annoyed him that she knew it.
“Okay, Mother. Fine. You’ve confessed to your meddling. Please stop.” He exhaled.
“I will,” Mina said, though she sounded suspiciously willing for that promise to be entirely sincere. “But then the two of you have to do one thing for me.”
June gave her a look.
“And what would that be, Mina?” she asked suspiciously.
“Go on a date,” Mina said promptly. “A proper date. One where you aren’t discussing the case, not interrogating anyone, not dredging up old evidence, but actually talking to each other.”
Holt opened his mouth.
Mina spoke right over him. “I’ll even pay for dinner at the top restaurant at the yacht club.” She tried to bribe them with a reservation at one of the best restaurants in town. “It’s so beautiful there down at the docks with the yachts bobbing on and swaying to the gentle push of the ocean.”
“I’d much rather go to the Sandpiper Shores Hotel,” June said before Holt could form a response. She leaned back and eyed Mina challengingly. “Especially if you’re paying for it, Mina.”
He looked at her.
His heart gave a strange, sharp lurch at the simple fact that she had said it so easily.
“We run too great a risk of running into Victoria or one of her children at the yacht club.” June glanced back at him, then at Mina.
“True,” Mina admitted. “I hadn’t thought of that.” She cocked her head slightly, not giving an inch to June's challenge. “And I don’t mind where you pick as long as you go on a dinner date, maybe a walk after, and you don’t dare talk about work!”
Then both women turned and looked at him.
“What about you, Holt?” June asked, and the smile she gave him hit somewhere in him that had not felt this young in years. “Would you like to go on a date with me to the Sandpiper Shores Hotel restaurant?”
His pulse picked up in a way he was fairly sure was absurd for a man his age and experience.
But absurd or not, there it was.
“I’d like that,” he said, nodding. “And as it turns out, I’m free tonight.”
Then he looked toward his mother. “I’ll get a deputy to park outside the house. Tyler is at the campout tonight.”
“Willa and my grandkids are there too,” June said. “So tonight is perfect for me.”
“It’s a date then,” Holt said, and couldn't quite keep the smile out of his voice. “How about you come get me at seven? You’ve got the car.”
“Great,” June said, then failed to suppress a yawn. “But if we’re finished for now, I’m going back to Willa’s. I need a shower and a few hours of sleep.”
“I think that’s a very good idea,” Holt agreed, because now that the adrenaline was no longer carrying him, the lack of sleep from the previous night was starting to settle in his bones. “Should we regroup at the station this afternoon?”
“Or,” June said, “we can regroup at Willa’s. Carmen won’t be there. I think even Blaze will be out of the house, so there won’t be anyone at home. We’d be away from eyes and ears to discuss the case without it being overheard.”
“That’s another good idea,” Holt said, unable to suppress a stretch and yawn any longer. “Excuse me.”
He rolled his tired shoulders, ignoring the ache from the still-healing bullet wound and sore ribs. Holt was feeling too elated to give pain a second thought and hoped he wasn’t smiling like an idiot.
“Well, now that is settled,” Mina said, as though she had single-handedly negotiated a peace treaty, “I’ll take you home, Holt. I need to change, and then I’m heading to the club. Mr. Henderson and I have a tennis match.”
Holt and June looked at her together.
“Oh?” they said in perfect unison.
“Yes. He called the other day, we got talking, and the next thing I knew I had agreed to a game.” Mina smiled with infuriating satisfaction that she’d once again managed to shock them with another revelation she’d been holding onto for just the right moment to get the response she wanted.
“Well, enjoy,” June said. “I know how you love a good game of tennis.”
“When you’re healed, June,” Mina said, “we’ll have a game.”
“I look forward to it,” June told her, accepting the future invitation.
June moved toward the door, and Holt followed, helping her lock up behind them.
He checked Margo’s door a second time before stepping back.
They had not made as much progress as he had hoped on the case when he and June had squeezed the “secret five,” as they had privately started calling them, but they had made some.
They had a line of inquiry. They had a plan.
It was not one Holt would have chosen on his own, but it was something.
And tonight, unless the whole town fell apart again before then, he had a date with June.
The thought warmed him far more than he wanted to admit.