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The words died in her throat when she saw him standing in front of her, dressed in a button-down black shirt and blue jeans.
In his right hand, he held a beautiful white and pink lily—a perfect replica of the one she’d worn in her hair on Halloween night, all those years ago.
He studied her with solemn eyes, and her heart gave a funny leap at the sight of him standing there, holding the beautiful flower.
“I hope you still like lilies,” he said, his voice low.
Tears pricked the corner of her eyes, and she blinked rapidly before glancing back down at the flower. “You really do remember everything,” she murmured.
Eli gently tucked the lily into her hair. “It looks just as pretty as it did that night.”
Holly swallowed, and he bowed his head before meeting her gaze once again. “I’m so fucking sorry, Wilkes. For everything.”
What he’d done tonight was the most thoughtful, creative thing any man had ever done for her. It was the sweetest apology she’d ever received.
“I know you are.” Glancing down at his feet, she couldn’t help but laugh. He’d knocked all ten bunnies over onto their sides. “You clotheslined them!”
“I did,” he said, giving her a hesitant smile. “I told you I would if you wanted me to.” His expression turned serious. “I’m here to tell you what you wanted to know. Why I... why I did what I did.”
Holly held the door open for him. “Come in.”
Eli walked to the center of the room and glanced around. “This is nice. It’s exactly like mine.”
Holly raised her eyebrows. “You have a room here?”
“One down from you. It’s how I got out of the hallway so fast.”
“Did you arrange all this with West?”
“Well, he and the guys helped me execute this plan tonight, but I paid for the room next door myself.” He shrugged and took a seat on the bed. “I did have to ask West what room you were staying in, though. I just lucked out to find one so close.”
Holly sat down next to him and muted the television, then turned to face him.
“I meant what I said, Holly. About facing the past and not looking back. Maybe we should start with that,” he said, looking at her.
“Okay.” She took a deep breath. “Yeah.”
“When I met you, it wasn’t very long after I’d gotten drafted. Though before that, I was still pretty popular at school. I’d had a lot of fun, went out and partied with my friends, and slept with a lot of different girls.” He rubbed his forehead. “An awful lot of them. It’s cliché to say, but my life was pretty damned good at the time. I was on top of the world. And then when I got drafted, it was the cherry on top of everything.”
He looked over at her. “But things changed after that. People started treating me differently. It wasn’t anything super obvious, but I could still tell. People wanted to be my friend who I’d never even seen before. So, I pulled back a little. I stuck close to my teammates and the friends I knew before the draft. I even pulled back from hanging out with girls.” He hesitated, then smiled. “Well, I didn’t pull back huge on that, but it was still a change.
“And then I met you at the coffee shop, and you weren’t impressed with me in the slightest.”
Holly laughed. “Yeah, I guess that’s probably true.”
“Later on, while we were getting to know each other, I liked that you would joke around with me or just give me shit. And I liked that you told me the truth. That you weren’t afraid to hurt my feelings. You were just so real. I needed that in my life.” He shrugged. “Then my stepdad announced he was divorcing my mom.”
Eli swallowed and ran a hand through his hair. “It was a complete shock. I’ve known my stepfather since I was about four years old, and we’ve never really gotten along. But it was the reason that he was leaving my mom that made me hate his guts.”
“Did he cheat on her?” Holly asked.
“No,” Eli said, shaking his head. “My parents... they were older parents. By the time I came along, they were around 45 at the time. They were in their sixties when I got to college.”
He took a deep breath. “My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease a few months before you and I met, and when my stepfather found out, that’s when he filed for divorce.”
Holly put a hand over her mouth. “Oh, Eli.”
“You have no idea how much I wanted to beat that man into a pulp when I found out he was leaving her, Holly. Who the fuck does something like that?” He ran a hand down over his face. “He was always a selfish bastard, but I never realized just how much until then. And there I was, in college, wondering who the hell was going to be there to help my mom while I was away at school. I wasn’t in the League yet, so it’s not like I had money falling out of my ass. I didn’t want her to be alone. It was still early days, right after she’d found out, but I didn’t know what to expect.”
