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If only she was the casual fling type, maybe she could have a brief affair with Matt, but he meant too much to her. She would never feel casually about him. Her body heated up and tingled at the thought of having sex with Matt. She twisted the cord of the phone around her finger nervously. She had to stop thinking of him. It would only lead to more heartache.
“I want to be loved, Faith. I don’t want casual sex. I can get that anywhere.” Holly sighed, feeling self-pity. She hated that feeling. She had spent most of her childhood feeling that way.
“I know I have never been a big fan of Matt Smith, but maybe he does care for you, Holly. Maybe you should give him another chance. Sometimes, you appreciate something more when you lose it,” Faith said quietly. “As much as you try to hide it, I know you haven’t gotten over him. I see how sad you look. I wanted to have words with Smith, but Adam strongly suggested I stay out of it.”
Holly never got the chance to answer. She heard the doorknob at her back door rattle. She was in the hallway by the kitchen, so she heard it clearly. It was locked, but Liam had told her the lock was weak and she needed to replace it. It was on her list of things to do. Red Hook was basically a safe town, so she had never been in a hurry to fix it.
“Oh, shit,” she whispered, hiding by the wall but peeking into the kitchen from the corner. A dark shadow fell across the sheer lace curtain. Matt had already been by an hour ago. He would knock on her door if he was checking her backyard again. She had basically kicked him off her property with a rude attitude. Why would he come back?
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Faith asked in a whisper, as if Holly’s intruder could hear her.
“I think someone is at my back door,” Holly whispered back. “I can’t get to the kitchen knives, either, or he will see me. He is rattling the doorknob. What if he breaks a window?”
She heard her sister talking to Adam. “Adam is calling Noah.”
“What should I do, Faith?” Holly heard her voice tremble. Could it be Gerald trying to scare her? She could fight him off, she assured herself. She remembered the baseball bat Liam had left here when they’d joined the softball team together a few weeks ago. She walked to the closet in the hallway, away from the kitchen. She opened it and grabbed the bat. It was heavy and sturdy. She turned off the hallway light so he wouldn’t see her if he was peeking in the window.
“Adam said help is on the way,” Faith told her. That made her feel slightly better. “Do you see him?”
Holly walked back by the kitchen, wishing she had not left the light on. She peeked around the corner. “No. It’s quiet, but what if he is on the front porch? I keep my doors locked, but he could break a window.”
“Stay on the phone with me. Adam said to hide in the closet.” Holly could hear the upset in her sister’s voice.
She heard sirens in the distance, and let out the breath she had been holding. “I hear sirens, Faith. I am going to hang up so I can answer the door.”
“Okay, wait for them to get there,” Faith warned her. Holly hung up the phone. She could see the red and blue lights from her living room window, and she felt some of the tension leave her body. She was safe. The lights would scare her intruder away. She set the bat down by the front door and waited for someone to knock on her door. A few seconds later, she heard Drake’s voice. “Holly, it’s me.”
She opened the door and he immediately hugged her. “You okay?”
She let go of him and stepped back. She refused to cry, although she wanted to. “I’m fine. He was at the back door, trying to get in. All I saw was a dark figure.”
Drake looked grim and was in total police mode. His eyes were cold and hard. “Matt is checking out the backyard.”
Drake walked to the kitchen and opened the door. Matt stood on her back porch. “All your pots of plants have been knocked to the ground, and I see footprints in the dirt by your window.”
Holly looked at the huge window that she normally had her coffee by. She loved looking out at her backyard filled with colorful flowers. Now it would be tainted by the memory that someone had been out there, watching her.
“You think he could have been watching
me while I was talking to Faith?” Holly felt cold and she rubbed her arms.
“Yes,” Matt confirmed. “Maybe he thought your back door was unlocked.”
“I always keep it locked, and the front door, too,” she said in a low voice. Even though Red Hook was basically a safe town, a woman living alone still had to be careful. “I have central air, so I rarely open the windows.”
“Good,” Drake said. Matt walked in and closed the door. He made sure to lock it, then rattled the doorknob. “This lock sucks, Holly.”
“I know. I was going to replace it,” she admitted. She was going to have to do it soon.
They went toward the front and out to her front porch. It was small, with enough room for one chair. It was all clear out there.
“The porch light scared him off,” Matt observed. “Your neighbors could see if someone was messing around out here.”
“Do you think it is Gerald?” She hated the thought that Pete had brought this mess into her life.
Drake nodded. “We looked for him earlier, and we couldn’t find him. He was probably lurking around your house, waiting for an opportunity to scare you. Jasmine said he left very angry.”
“Well, he did scare me, and that makes me furious,” she grumbled. “What a mess. I was the victim of Pete’s attack, so now I have his crazy family after me.”
