Chapter Eighteen – Holly
With the last of the plates stacked in the dishwasher, Holly closed the door and pressed the start button.
The familiar hum filled the kitchen, blending with the children’s sleepy chatter behind her.
She wiped her hands on a dishtowel, feeling a contentment so deep it seemed to have settled in her bones.
“Did you see when Dad opened the coupons and his eyes got all crinkly?” Teddy asked, his words punctuated by a yawn that nearly swallowed his face.
“I did.” Holly turned around, her attention drawn to Daniel as he gathered the last of the serving dishes. He looked tired. But happy, and that made her heart soar.
As if he could feel her gaze on him, he looked up, caught her watching, and smiled. She smiled back, with a shy, vulnerable smile. Because that’s how she felt right now.
Vulnerable. She was falling in love with this man, with this family, and she knew she was exposing herself to potential heartbreak, but there was nothing she could do to stop herself from falling deeper.
Holly turned away. Scared he might see the depth of her longing.
“This has been the best day ever,” Maisie announced as she entered the kitchen with her favorite unicorn plushy tucked under her arm.
“The best,” Teddy agreed.
“It has. But now I think it’s bedtime for certain small people,” Daniel announced, ruffling Teddy’s already disheveled hair.
“I’m not small,” Teddy protested through another enormous yawn.
“Of course not,” Daniel agreed solemnly. “You’re a growing dinosaur who needs his rest before he can stomp through another day.”
Holly smiled as she started washing the serving dishes. “I’ll finish up down here if you want to get them started upstairs.”
The words flowed naturally, without discussion or negotiation.
Daniel nodded, herding the children toward the stairs while Holly scrubbed the dishes clean.
She could hear their footsteps overhead, the familiar creak of floorboards, Teddy’s giggles as Daniel presumably tickled him into compliance with the bedtime routine.
This felt right. So right, it scared her.
She’d left her old life behind in the blink of an eye. But this life…it would break her heart to leave them, to never see them again.
Yet Daniel had said nothing about the future. Their future.
For her own emotional sanity, she had to know if they had a future together.
And she had to know tonight.
Holly finished the dishes, listening to the low murmur of Daniel’s voice as he told Maisie and Teddy a bedtime story. She didn’t need to hear the words to take comfort from them. From him.
It was as if he exuded a sense of security that made her feel safe enough to let down her guard.
After all the years of holding herself together, of maintaining the facade of the perfect daughter, the perfect girlfriend, the almost-perfect bride, here in this house with these people, she felt safe to just be Holly.
She wiped her hands on a dishtowel and moved to the living room, where evidence of their evening remained.
The blanket nest was mostly still intact, paper chains draped across furniture, and the handmade coupon book lay open on the coffee table.
Holly picked it up, flipping through the pages.
Each coupon represented something the children valued enough to give away: their time, their hugs, their help with chores. Simple treasures that meant everything.
A floorboard creaked overhead, and Holly looked up, picturing Daniel tucking the children in, smoothing hair from foreheads, pressing goodnight kisses to sleepy faces. Her heart squeezed with a longing so intense it took her breath away.
She set the coupon book down and moved to straighten the pillows on the sofa, needing something to occupy her hands while her mind raced ahead.
What would she say to him? How could she possibly bring up the subject?
What if she was completely misreading things, and he just saw her as someone who needed help?
What if he was only being kind because that’s who he was?
Holly sank onto the edge of the sofa, twisting her hands in her lap.
The truth was, she didn’t know how to do this.
In her previous relationship, everything had been carefully orchestrated, each step following a predetermined path that had ultimately led her to a church she couldn’t enter.
But this—this messy, beautiful, unexpected connection—had no roadmap.
Her thoughts scattered as a chorus of voices called her name. “Holly!”
Holly stood up and headed for the stairs. “Coming.”
She went upstairs to say goodnight. Hoping that this wasn’t the last time she would perform this ritual.
“Can you tuck me in?” Maisie called out.
“Sure.” Holly went into Maisie’s room and tucked the comforter around her small body. “Is that good?”
Maisie nodded, her eyes already heavy-lidded. “Perfect. Holly?”
“Yes, sweetie?”
“I’m glad you’re here.”
The simple statement pierced her heart, making it hard to breathe for a moment. “I’m glad I’m here too,” she whispered, meaning it more than she could possibly express.
She bent to kiss Maisie’s forehead, breathing in the scent of children’s shampoo and the faint sweetness of snickerdoodles. When she straightened, she found Daniel watching from the doorway, something unreadable flickering across his features.
They switched places without a word, Daniel moving to say goodnight to his daughter while Holly crossed to Teddy’s room. The little boy was already half-asleep, clutching a stuffed triceratops to his chest.
“G’night, Holly,” he mumbled as she tucked the blanket more securely around his shoulders.
“Goodnight, Teddy. Sweet dreams.” She dropped a soft kiss on his forehead.
“You too,” he mumbled as sleep claimed him.
For a moment, she stood beside his bed watching him sleep. Then she tiptoed out of his room and pulled the door closed just so, then she headed downstairs.
Daniel joined her a moment later. “That surprise took a lot out of them.”
“Out of all of us,” Holly agreed, settling onto the sofa. “But it was worth it to see your face.”
Daniel moved to the cabinet beside the fireplace and returned with two glasses and a bottle of bourbon. “Nightcap?” he offered, already pouring amber liquid into the first glass.
“Perfect,” she replied, accepting the glass he extended. Their fingers brushed, the brief contact sending a now-familiar spark up her arm. Did he feel it too? Or was it one-sided? She needed to know.
Daniel lowered himself onto the sofa beside her, close enough that she could feel the warmth radiating from him.
The firelight played across his features, softening the lines of fatigue around his eyes, highlighting the strong angle of his jaw.
He looked utterly drained, but there was something else there too… a vulnerability, a question.
Perhaps he needed answers too.
He took a small sip of bourbon, then set his glass on the coffee table. When he turned to face her, his expression was serious, intent.
“Holly,” he began, his voice low and slightly rough. “There’s something I need to tell you. Something I need to show you.”
The air between them seemed to sharpen, charged with expectation.
Holly’s pulse quickened, her body tensing in anticipation.
This was it—the conversation they’d been dancing around for days.
The one that would determine whether this beautiful, accidental life they’d stumbled into could actually become real.
Her future—their future—hanging in the balance.
But before Daniel could continue, a small voice floated down from upstairs.
“Hooooolly? I can’t find Mr. Tops!” Teddy’s plaintive call broke the moment. Holly set her glass down immediately, rising to her feet. She placed a gentle hand on Daniel’s arm, feeling the solid warmth of him beneath her palm.
“I’ve got him,” she said. “Don’t move.”
Daniel nodded, the corners of his mouth lifting in a tired smile. “Thanks.”
Holly climbed the stairs, her mind still buzzing with anticipation of what Daniel had been about to say. She found Teddy sitting up in bed, his hair already sticking up at odd angles.
“He was here a minute ago,” Teddy said, looking around.
“Here he is.” Holly leaned down and retrieved the triceratops from the floor. “He must have been off on an adventure.”
Teddy nodded, his small face relaxing. “I like adventures. Do you?”
“I do,” Holly murmured, smoothing his hair back from his forehead. “I think meeting you in the snowstorm was one of the best adventures of my life.”
“You did look like a princess,” Teddy murmured. “But now you look like a mom.”
His words struck her like a physical blow. “A mom?” she repeated, her throat suddenly tight.
Teddy nodded, his eyelids already drooping again. “You make the best lunches. And you know where lost things are. And you smell nice. Like cookies.”
Holly swallowed past the lump in her throat. “That’s very sweet, Teddy. Now close your eyes and go to sleep.”
“’Kay,” he mumbled, already drifting off, his breathing deepening almost instantly.
Holly stood watching him for a moment, her heart beating painfully against her ribs. A mom. Much better than a princess or a bride.
Tears pricked her eyes, and she took a moment to compose herself before she crept back downstairs, her mind returning to Daniel and whatever important revelation he’d been about to share. Had he been about to ask her to stay? To tell her how he felt? The possibility made her heart ache.
But when she reached the living room, the words she’d rehearsed in her head died on her lips. The bourbon glasses sat untouched on the coffee table, and Daniel had slumped sideways into the nest of blankets, utterly and completely asleep.
She longed to wake him. To ask him what he’d wanted to tell her, to show her. But his expression was so peaceful, the lines of stress smoothed away. One arm was flung outward as if reaching for something—or someone—while his chest rose and fell in the deep, even rhythm of exhaustion.
She tiptoed to the blanket nest, carefully adjusting his position so he wouldn’t wake with a crick in his neck. Then she reached for the quilt draped over the back of the sofa and gently covered him, tucking it around his broad shoulders.
On impulse, she smoothed his hair back from his forehead, the strands soft beneath her fingertips. And before she could talk herself out of it, she bent and pressed a soft kiss to his temple.
“Goodnight, Daniel,” she whispered, the words barely audible even to her own ears.
As she straightened, watching the peaceful rise and fall of his chest in the warm glow of the dying fire, she had a moment of startling clarity. Whatever Daniel had been about to tell her, whatever he wanted to show her—she was ready to hear it. Ready to see it.
More than that, she was ready to fight for this—for him, for the children, for this accidental family that already felt more like home than anywhere she’d ever been.
If that was what he wanted.
If she was what he wanted.