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He didn’t say how long she had, so she took a quick shower, dried her hair, threw on some makeup, and emerged less than a half hour later to an empty house. By the time she went out to the back patio to retrieve her laptop and phone, though, he’d emerged from his bedroom. The sweatshirt had been replaced by a gray sweater with black trim. Something about it set off his skin tone in a way that made him look more handsome than ever.
Yes, she was very lucky to have this guy as her boss.
“Where are we going, exactly?” she asked, fighting the urge to tell him how nice he looked.
His full attention was on his phone screen. She wasn’t even sure he’d seen her yet.
“Knoxville?” He lifted his head, his gaze landing on her and his expression immediately softening. Did it always do that? “That would give your car a real workout.”
There was a twinkle in his eyes. He smiled, and it tugged at her heart.
“You know what I’m craving?” she asked. “Some of Jackie’s onion rings.”
“Jackie’s Diner.” His eyebrows arched like he was impressed. “I haven’t been there in at least a couple of months.”
Now that surprised her. “You don’t like the diner?”
Maybe she should have suggested somewhere else. A trip to Knoxville would be fine, but she was trying to come up with ways to keep it simple.
“No,” he said. “I mean, yes, I love it, but most nights I’m too busy to wait for J.J. to get ready so we can go out somewhere. It’s just easier to make something here. When we do go out, she always wants—”
“Chips and salsa,” Faith finished for him.
She’d heard those three words more in the past week than she had in her entire life. In fact, she was pretty sure J.J. would be happy eating at the Mexican restaurant every single night. Maybe even for every meal.
She started heading toward the front door. “Let’s go.”
“We’re this way.” Holden gestured toward the garage. “I pulled your car in. Your keys are by the door.”
She was still processing that as she turned and headed in the direction of the door that went to the garage. He’d parked her car there? Where he kept his own?
There was plenty of room. In fact, he could squeeze four cars into it, and he had only one.
Sure enough, her new key fob was hanging on the hook next to his. It all looked very intimate. Like she was part of the family, not just an employee. Not just a woman who watched his daughter and organized his kitchen cabinets. Not someone who was thinking about pulling away from him so she could set herself on a course to find the man she’d marry and have children with.
Opening the garage door only made it worse. Her car was parked next to his. It looked like it belonged there. It looked like she belonged in this house.
“Onion rings,” she said in an effort to ground herself. She’d just stay focused on the thrill of driving her new car to one of her favorite restaurants in the world and try to forget her attraction to this man.
But once they were in the car, it became an even bigger challenge. His presence seemed to fill any room he was in, and it was worse in this confined space. She hadn’t noticed it before because she was so excited to be driving again. She’d lived in the city in London, so public transportation had been a breeze.
When they were out of the garage and on their way down the driveway, Holden spoke. “Nic texted an invitation to Lucky Howard’s New Year’s Eve party tomorrow night. He said it could be a great opportunity to network. Your sister’s going, and Matt will be there too.”
“So, your goal is to network,” she said.
He didn’t answer for a long moment, and she wondered if she’d lost him with her question. Finally, she realized he was once again mulling over his answer.
“Not really,” he said. “I guess I’m going more to make friends. It’s been a long, lonely road, and I’m ready to become part of the Misty Mountain community.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t done that before now,” she said. “I guess you haven’t been here very long, though.”
“It’s tough.” Again, he went silent for a long moment, then spoke again. “When you have a daughter, you can’t really do the social stuff like New Year’s Eve parties. She’s a little older now, but it’s not like I can reliably shuffle her off to her mom’s every other weekend and hang out with friends. I never know when she’s going to ask to spend the night somewhere and I’ll find myself with nothing to do. Well, nothing but bury myself in work to avoid hanging around that big house all alone.”
His honesty was going straight to her heart. He definitely seemed like a guy who had it all together. If he’d stayed to himself, she would have naturally assumed he didn’t want to be part of the community. It wasn’t like super wealthy guys were all that eager to hang out with people who lived paycheck to paycheck. And there were very few people in this town who even came close to his level of success.
But now that he mentioned it, she could see how being a single dad would be challenging, especially since all the people she and her sisters hung out with growing up had either moved away or didn’t have children yet.
“Anyway, it’ll be nice to get to know people,” he said. “Maybe eventually some of them will have kids too.”
