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"What's going on, Randy?" Holly asked in a gentle voice. It had been a long time since she had taken up this role for her siblings, but she slipped back into it with ease. "Talk to me."
"I just-- I panicked. When you called and told me about Mom being sick. I freaked out. I didn't know what to do. So I went to the bar to have a drink to help calm my nerves. And one drink turned into two and then three and then..."
He didn't have to continue for Holly to understand. Addiction wasn't something you could just turn on or off. Once he had gotten started, he couldn't stop himself.
"God, I swear I'm always the family fuck-up. It doesn't matter how old I get. I'm constantly messing everything up." Randy still stared out at the water. His entire body was tense and stiff. More than anything, Holly wanted to pull him into her arms and tell him it would all be okay. But while they were making progress in their relationship, they weren't quite to that point yet. "It always seemed like no one other than Dad ever had time for me. And I mean, why would they? You've always had your life together. Even Amy and Rina were always doing better than me."
Holly let out a snort. That caused Randy to look over at her; his eyes narrowed. She smirked and shook her head. "Christ, it only looks like I have my life together. In fact..." Holly took a deep breath and held it. There wasn't going to be any better time than this, but it still wasn't easy. "Will and I got divorced. He got involved in some shady business deals and ruined our entire business. All I've got left is the bit of money I squirreled away."
Randy looked at her like she had two heads and finally said, "That's why you jumped at the chance to come back."
"What other choice did I have? There wasn't anything left for me back in Miami. At least here... here I feel like there's something I can be doing, you know? Like I have some kind of purpose, at least for a little while."
Randy nodded. He looked at his eldest sister for a while, and Holly wondered what he was thinking. Finally, he reached out and put a hand on her knee. "I guess there's a lot I was wrong about. Like how Mom felt about me. Your life. God only knows what else."
"There's still plenty of time to fix all of that," Holly nudged her brother gently. "Why don't you stick around for a while? Your girls are with their mother, and it's not that far of a commute to the marina. You don't have to help out around the inn, but I'm sure Mom would love having you around for a little while."
"Maybe I will..." Randy let out a sigh and gave her the barest smile.
She wasn't going to be able to fix all of his problems at once. Certainly not in a single conversation! But they had made some good progress, and really, that was all she had hoped for from this little jaunt out on the water.
Just like Nelly, Randy was back on the right track. It was going to be a long journey and it wasn't going to be easy, but if he worked at it, he could get his life back together.
And just maybe, so could Holly.
She thought about asking him about Dean and why he was loading boxes onto his boat the other day, then decided against it. Things were good between them right then. And after everything else they both had to deal with, it just didn't seem all that important.
There would be time to deal with that later. And now that Randy was around, he could help take some of the stress off her shoulders. She could focus on making sure the inn didn't fall apart, and he could help make sure their mother didn't slip back into depression.
Maybe together, they could salvage the inn.
