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She would have gone along without being held on to. But Lukas didn’t let go of her hand, and Holly was exquisitely conscious of the hard strength of his fingers, though he grasped her lightly enough.
Only when they reached the boat itself did he loose her fingers, letting his own drop to his side as he just stared at it. Holly, watching him, couldn’t begin to read the shuttered expression on his face.
As she watched, Lukas walked around the sailboat in silence, his expression hooded and unreadable. The boat’s name, Promise, was still faintly legible on the bow. Matt had traced it with his finger and grinned. “That’s perfect for the kids,” he’d said. “A promise they can keep.”
Unlike the one Lukas had made to you, Holly had thought at the time. She would have bet he didn’t even remember it. But now, watching Lukas circling the boat slowly before pausing and hunkering down to examine the work Matt had done on the hull, she thought she’d been wrong. She saw sadness in his gaze. She saw a flicker of pain. Lukas ran his hand over Matt’s patching effort.
Holly waited for him to acknowledge it, but he didn’t speak. So she did. “Matt did a lot.”
Lukas nodded. “Yes. He never said.”
“Maybe he didn’t want to make you feel like a slacker.” It wasn’t a kind thing to say. “I’m sorry,” Holly said quickly.
“No.” Lukas lifted his shoulders. “You’re probably right. Will they work on it here at the boatyard?”
“I think so. Elias said they could. Tom, the guy you met, will be in charge.”
“When will they start?”
“As soon as we give them the deed. Ready to go?”
“Not quite.” Lukas nodded and hoisted himself up into the boat, then disappeared from view.
Holly glanced at her watch and shifted from one foot to the other. It was already after five.
Finally, Lukas reappeared. “Lotta work.” He put one hand on the not-very-bright brightwork and jumped lightly back down onto the ground.
Holly nodded. “But it will keep them off street corners and out of trouble.” She gave him a bright smile. “So, it’s okay? Now you’ll sign?” She was pulling the envelope with a copy of the deed of gift out of her tote bag even as she spoke.
A corner of Lukas’s mouth lifted. “You’re in a big hurry to get rid of me.”
“Is there anything else you want to see? If not, I’d like to get back.” She held the paper out, then pulled a pen from her bag.
“It’s almost time for dinner. I’ll sign it at dinner. Where should we go?”
Holly shook her head. “Sorry. I can’t.”
“Can’t?” Lukas’s brows drew down. “Or won’t?”
“Can’t.”
Lukas looked skeptical. “You don’t eat meals?”
“I’m going out.”
“Out?” he said, as if he didn’t understand the word. “You’re going out?”
“I have a date.”
* * *
A date. Holly had a date.
All day long he’d been treating her with kid gloves, tiptoeing around her very understandable grief for Matt—and all the while she’d been waiting to go out on a date!
Furiously, Lukas slapped paint on one of the gallery walls. Damn her! He tried telling himself that it didn’t matter, that he’d lived without Holly Montgomery Halloran for his whole life, that it didn’t matter what she did.
But his gut reaction to discovering that she was going out tonight—with a guy who wasn’t him—put the lie to that.
“Who is he? What’s his name? What does he do?” he’d demanded.
Holly had blinked at his intensity before she’d responded. “His name is Paul. He’s a psychologist. A friend of Matt’s,” she had told him as he’d driven her back to her condo. “He’s a good guy. You’d like him.”
Lukas doubted that. Now he strangled the brush in his hand, aware he was wishing it was Paul the psychologist’s scrawny neck. Rationally, he told himself that Holly was entitled to date anyone she chose.
But it didn’t stop the way he felt. Every bit of his possessiveness toward Holly that he had relinquished to Matt’s greater claim years ago had come winging right back the moment Holly had said she was going out.
It didn’t even matter that she’d told him it wasn’t serious.
“We’re just friends,” she had said almost apologetically as she’d got out of his truck, refusing to let him to do more than pull up at the curb outside her place.
