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Gearing up for what might be an unpleasant confrontation, he climbed out, nodded in her direction and slid his card into the reader.
She was just finishing with her own pump, snapping the handle back into place. He debated staying quiet and pretending to be deeply fascinated by the octane options, but his parents had not raised him to be that big a coward.
“My sister tells me you just got married this fall,” he said. “Congratulations. Who’s the lucky guy?”
Holly gave him a look that clearly communicated she would prefer to be talking to literally anyone else. Then she sighed, shoulders relaxing a fraction. “His name is Ryan Caldwell. He’s a naval helicopter pilot, currently stationed in San Diego.”
“Are you planning to move there?” he asked.
The idea hit him with an unexpected pang. Hannah would hate being away from Holly. It had nearly broken both of the twins when they’d gone to different universities after high school—Holly to Boise, Hannah to a music therapy program in Utah. He knew they had spent that first year texting constantly and driving home as often as possible, just to breathe the same air.
“I have a business here, and my daughter is doing really well in school,” Holly said. “For now we’re trying the long-distance thing until he finishes his obligation to the military.”
“That must be tough,” he said. “Being separated when you’re newlyweds.”
“It is,” she agreed. “But we’re grown-ups. We understand the difference between a temporary situation and the rest of our lives.”
The words were mild. The dig behind them was not.
He felt a muscle twitch in his jaw. Wes had walked away from Hannah when everything in his life had gone dark and heavy and full of rage. At the time, it had felt like the only way forward he could see was to cut her loose so she didn’t get dragged into his anger and grief. To protect her from the worst of what he was becoming.
In the process, he’d blown up more than just a romance. He’d destroyed friendships with her brothers, with Holly. The easy, open conversations they’d once had were long gone.
“I hear you’re working on your grandfather’s house,” she said. While her tone wasn’t exactly warm, at least it had lost the tight edge of annoyance.
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s getting there. We’re not doing a ton to the place. No sense investing a lot of money in a house you’re planning to sell.”
“That’s true,” she said. “It’s so expensive to fix up a house. I was lucky Amanda did all the work on Rose Cottage before I bought it from her last year.”
He blinked. “You’re living at Rose Cottage now?”
The charming house with the climbing roses that had once belonged to Birdie Lovell had been his mother’s favorite on her walks.
“I’ve seen Birdie at the Shelter Inn a few times,” he added. “She seems to be doing well.”
“She is.” Holly’s expression softened. “She didn’t want to leave Rose Cottage, but her eyesight kept getting worse. She and her family decided it would be safer for her to be somewhere with people checking on her.”
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “My grandfather moved for the same reason.”
“Do you have a lot more work to do on Stanley’s place?” Holly asked.
“Not much,” he said. “Right now I’m changing the drafty old woodstove to a gas fireplace that’s more efficient and easier to operate. I’ve got to run down to Salt Lake tomorrow to pick it up.”
She stared at him. “You’re going to Salt Lake tomorrow? Seriously?”
“Yes.” He drawled the word slowly, watching her expression. “Why?”
“Hannah decided at the last minute to take the kids down to see their mom at the cancer treatment center,” Holly said. “She’s leaving in the morning and coming back Sunday night.”
One corner of her mouth quirked up. “Maybe the two of you should carpool.”
Her tone held a light note but he had the distinct impression she wasn’t completely kidding.
“I doubt your sister would want to do that,” he said.
Holly studied him, the winter sun glinting off the snow piled along the edges of the lot. “Sometimes Hannah doesn’t always think through her decisions all the way,” she said finally. “She follows her heart. It’s one of the things I love most about her and also the thing that drives me the craziest. There’s weather in the forecast tomorrow and Sunday. I know my parents would feel better if she wasn’t on the road alone with two little kids.”
He swallowed. He doubted Paula and David Goodwin wanted their daughter anywhere near him, let alone trapped in a vehicle with him for seven hours each way.
