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Chapter Three
Sunlight peered through the window,and Holly groaned. She rolled over in bed and pulled the covers up over her eyes in an attempt to block it out. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't fall back asleep again.
With a grunt, she shoved the covers back down and stared up at the ceiling. She never should've let them pack the curtains yesterday, she thought to herself. But they had packed up almost everything she had owned, getting more of it done than she'd actually expected. They probably could've finished it all yesterday, but Holly had sent them off. She had made the arrangements to drive down to the Archer House today and hadn't wanted to spend her last night in a hotel.
Not that staying in her empty house was much better. With so few things remaining, it practically felt like a ghost house. And without Will or the kids to keep her company, it felt downright lonely. Now, as she lay there trying to wake up, she was actually glad she was heading down to the Keys today.
At least that would give her something to do. Right at that moment, anything to occupy her time seemed like a better option than just sitting around twiddling her thumbs.
By the time she finally crawled out of bed and showered, the sun was fully up. The movers still hadn't shown up, though, not that there was much of a reason for them to be there at the crack of dawn. She had already paid them for the full day, and she would have been surprised if it took them an hour to gather up the remaining things and load them into the moving truck.
No sense in them rushing, especially since everything would be sitting in storage until she got back from the Keys.
Since she had the place to herself, she took her time leaving, walking around the mansion one last time. This would be the last time she ever woke up in this place, made herself a coffee in the kitchen, or host a family get-together in the backyard and that thought was enough to bring tears to her eyes. She made sure to stop by each room, savoring those last moments. The kids' bedrooms, their old playroom, the room she had used as a home office, the dining room where they had hosted countless dinners.
There were so many memories in that house. Over twenty years of them, in fact. And Holly wasn't sure what she was going to do without this place. It was strange, knowing even once she finished up in the Keys, she would never be back. By the time she returned, Will would no doubt have moved his things out and put the place up for sale. He had lost almost every penny he had when his schemes had become public knowledge, and there was no way he could afford this place even if he wanted to.
No, by the time she returned, there was a good chance some other family would be living there. A happy couple, maybe raising kids of their own. Holly wished that the future owners had better luck than she'd had. She'd had some good years, certainly, and she wished them the same, with the added hopes their stay in the house wouldn't end the way hers did.
By the time she'd loaded her suitcase into the back of the Jag and gotten on the road, her makeup was ruined. She didn't care, though. Gone were the days when it mattered if her makeup wasn't perfect. No one back in Islamorada would care how she looked. She would be surprised if any of them recognized her. It had been so long since she had lived there, and her visit for her father's funeral was very quick.
Thinking about her time in the Keys immediately made her think of her siblings. As kids, they had been thick as thieves. They'd played together, shared friends, and always had each other's backs. But that had been when they were young. As they'd grown up, they had all started to drift apart.
No, that wasn't exactly right, Holly corrected. They hadn't just slowly moved away from each other. They had started fighting more and more, constantly getting on each other's nerves every time they turned around. By the time Holly had moved away for college, she had hardly recognized them as the kids she'd once called her best friends.
A lump formed in her throat as tears threatened to fall again. She hadn't spoken to any of her siblings since her father's funeral. And, even then, they had barely said more than was necessary to each other. They had kept things polite and cordial, with respect for their father and grieving mother, but it hadn't been the loving and caring relationship they'd once shared with each other.
None of them had any idea about everything that had happened between her and Will over the last year. Not unless one of her kids had kept in contact with their aunts and uncle, which she doubted. Once she had made a name for herself as a Realtor, it was like her siblings hadn't wanted anything to do with her.
Had Roger called any of them? That lump in her throat grew larger at the thought of her siblings being there at the inn. Part of her wanted to see them, wanted to try to rekindle the relationship they'd once had. But the other part of her didn't want to face them. She didn't want them to know what a disgrace she had become.
With any luck, maybe her sisters wouldn't be there. She was pretty sure Randy, her only brother, still lived in town. Last she had checked, he still owned the Bayside Marina, which was about twenty minutes north of the inn. She wouldn't be able to avoid seeing him at the very least.
As if the universe enjoyed toying with her, the Jag jerked and started to swerve slightly. A warning light popped up on her dashboard, a pinging sound echoing through the small car's interior as if she couldn't tell when she had gotten a flat tire. Holly groaned out in frustration as the car started to slow. She pulled it off to the side of the road as it shuddered to a stop. For a moment, she sat there, hands tightly gripping the steering wheel. She tried to fight back the urge to start banging against it.
Could anything else go wrong in her life? Because, the way things were going, it was starting to look like a meteor might come crashing down on top of her at any moment. And honestly, she wouldn't have been surprised if one did at that point. Everything else that could have gone wrong had gone wrong, so why not a cataclysmic event on top of everything else?
Holly closed her eyes and forced herself to take deep breaths. This was starting to become a daily habit for her, she thought with a snort of laughter. If things kept up like this, she was going to end up needing anger management therapy or something.
Maybe going back down to the Keys wasn't such a bad idea. A few days away from all the stress of life might've been what she needed to really reboot herself. That was if she could ever get there.
As far as she knew, there was a spare tire in the trunk somewhere, but God if she knew how to put the danged thing on. She vaguely remembered her father teaching her and her siblings how to do it years and years ago, but those memories were just phantoms in her mind. Tears stung at the corners of her eyes as she once again resisted the urged to pound her fists against the steering wheel.
She was so close to her destination, too. Couldn't the tire have held out long enough for her to at least get to the inn? But no, it had to decide to randomly die in the middle of nowhere on the side of the highway. But wasn't that her luck? Everything that could go wrong this year had gone wrong, so why was she the least bit surprised at this point?
Pulling out her phone, she stared at it for a moment and then let out a soft sigh of relief. At least she wasn't stranded without any signal. That had to count for something, right?
Thankfully, she also had the number for her insurance saved into the phone's contact list. But because that seemed to be the extent of her luck, after waiting fifteen minutes to be connected to an actual person, she was told it would take four to six hours before they could get someone out there.
She ended the call in frustration as she blinked away the tears.I willnothave a breakdown!she told herself sternly. She was stronger than this. No matter how grim or dark things were, she could muscle through it. She always had, hadn't she?
But if the insurance couldn't get someone out there to fix her car or whatever for hours, what could she do? She didn't quite like the idea of sitting on the side of the road for hours on end, praying they'd show up sooner rather than later. With a sigh, she stared at her phone again.
There was only one person she could call to come to get her out of this mess.
Randy.
She'd known she would have to face him at the very least, at some point, but this was not how she had pictured their fated reunion. But what other choice did she have? Uncle Roger was at least in his late sixties. He had no business coming out here to help her change a tire. And Holly wasn't sure what was going on with her mother and didn't want to risk trying to call her for help.
This left her with only Randy as her option. Holly smirked as she pictured the look of annoyance that would no doubt be on his face after she asked him for his help. But Randy was her brother. No matter what history the two of them had together, they would always share blood.
And blood helped blood, no matter what. That was one of the lessons her father had drilled into all of them. They didn't have to like each other, but they had to love each other. And while Holly may not have gotten along with her siblings in the last couple of decades, she still loved all of them, and she had no doubt they loved her too.
So while Randy would be annoyed, he wouldn't leave her stranded out there.
She hoped.
