Holding Holly (Love and Football Series)

by Julie Brannagh

  He smiled at his mother. “Yes, that’s her. She has to wear a costume every day to work there.”

  His mom reached out for his hand. Her brows knit, and she swallowed hard. “I’m a little worried about the weather, honey. Please be careful driving.”

  “Always, Mama,” he said. He reached over to kiss her cheek. “The guys at the tire place told me it’ll be just fine. I’ll be back before you know it.”

  DERRICK SWUNG DOWN from the driver’s seat of his SUV a few hours later in front of Holly’s grandma’s house and thanked God again that he’d had the presence of mind to order the GPS package and antiskid brake control when he’d bought his Escalade. The trip to Holly’s was much longer and more treacherous than those assholes at the tire shop had led him to believe it would be. He could now say, though, he’d driven in ice and snow and lived to tell the tale.

  It was snowing again. The flakes landed on his hair and his clothing. They were so soft. It was weird that something that seemed so harmless could be so dangerous.

  He reached back inside the vehicle to grab the two bouquets of flowers he’d bought before leaving Bellevue and strolled up the walk to the front door. He knocked at the door and heard a woman’s voice call out, “Come on in.”

  He stepped through the door and said, “Hello. Is Holly here?”

  “Oh, yes.” An older woman in brightly colored flannel pajamas, a thick terrycloth robe, and slippers got up from the couch. Her smile was warm and welcoming.

  “I’m Ruth, Holly’s grandma. She’ll be out in a minute.”

  “I’m Derrick Collins,” he said. He looked at the braces and bandages on Holly’s grandmother’s hands. “I hope you don’t think I’m rude if I don’t offer to shake your hand.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m not shaking hands much at the moment.” Ruth frowned a little as she took a good look at his earrings, but gave him a nod. “Would you like to sit down?” She indicated an overstuffed rocking chair next to the couch, and sat down once more.

  Derrick extended one of the bouquets to her. “These are for you,” he said.

  “They’re beautiful.” Ruth’s eyes lit up as she sniffed the bouquet. “Thank you, Derrick. It’s very kind of you to bring them. I’ll put them in some water, but first, let’s have a little chat.”

  “I’d enjoy that,” he said.

  “Holly’s living with me for the next couple of months while I recover from surgery.” She held up her hands, and he nodded. “Her parents live in Arizona. I know they’d want me to impress on you how important their daughter is to them, and that they would expect you to act like a gentleman during your date.”

  “Of course, ma’am,” he said.

  “I’ve seen your on-field antics, Mr. Collins, and I’ve read a few things on the sports page that leave me a bit concerned.”

  She was probably referring to his sack dance, which had been called “the baby-making dance” by more than one sports commentator. She might have also read a few things about his previous relationships, but he wasn’t bringing those up. No need to borrow trouble.

  “I’m not like that when I’m not playing—”

  She interrupted him before he could finish his sentence. “You also realize that Holly has to be at work at five AM tomorrow morning.”

  “Then I will bring her home by nine o’clock,” Derrick said.

  He was a little shocked at Holly’s grandma’s comments, but he did his best not to show it. Maybe Holly had a change of heart in the past twenty-four hours and really didn’t want to go out with him after all. Did she put her grandma up to this? Maybe she didn’t like men who wore earrings. Two-carat diamond studs in each earlobe might be a bit over the top.

  He heard light footsteps behind him, and Holly walked into the room. She looked amazing in a pair of jeans and a light-blue fluffy sweater that brought out her blue eyes. A few tendrils of dark hair curled around her face. He got to his feet.

  “I’m sorry it took me a few minutes,” she said. “I . . . I had to take care of something.” He saw a flush spread over her cheekbones. In other words, she’d probably changed her clothes a few times. She reached out to give him a hug. “It’s nice to see you.”

  Her warm greeting put him at ease. She wanted to spend some time with him too. She probably hadn’t been counting the minutes like he had, but he’d take what he could get from this girl.

  “It’s great to see you too.”

  He presented Holly with the second bouquet, and she beamed. He’d bring her flowers every day if he could see that radiant smile. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say he’d been kicked in the ass by love or some pretty intense infatuation. She was just so cute standing there, and he couldn’t stop staring at her. He noted she was also wearing a pair of snow boots; at least those guys at the tire shop hadn’t steered him wrong on that one.

  If he moved his ass, he’d get to spend a couple of hours chatting with her.

  “You brought my grandma flowers? Oh, that is so sweet. Grandma, let me put these into water before I go.” She reached out for her grandma’s bouquet and turned to vanish into what he imagined was the kitchen.

  He fidgeted. Most of the women he’d dated lived with roommates who either ignored his arrival for a date or tried to get a date with him themselves. Holly’s grandma’s scrutiny left him a little freaked out.

  “Have you been to the Mexican restaurant here?” he asked Ruth.

  “Yes, I have,” she said. “It’s pretty good, but we go to the pizza place more often. It’s two blocks away. It’s also a little quieter and better for conversation.” He could have sworn Ruth winked at him. “How do you feel about pizza?”

  “I’m a fan. You’ve sold me,” he said. He thought for a moment. “Would you like us to bring you something to eat on our way home?”

  Holly’s grandma’s formerly stern expression melted into a smile. “I don’t want to inconvenience you.”

  “I wouldn’t offer if it was a problem. We’ll call you before we head back home and pick up what you want.”

  Fifteen minutes later, he’d helped Holly into her winter coat, scarf, and stocking hat, and they stepped outside.

  “Would you like to walk to the pizza place?” he asked Holly. “Your grandma talked me out of the Mexican food.”

  She let out a laugh. “She likes the pizza place better, so I’m not surprised by that. A walk might be nice.”

  The snow was falling faster, and a brisk wind blew the flakes into their faces. He held out his arm for her to slide her hand through as they walked.

  “It wasn’t snowing when I got home earlier,” she said. “I hope this doesn’t mean we’re getting another big storm.”

  “Maybe it’ll slow down while we’re having dinner,” he said.

  The clouds thickening overhead, though, weren’t comforting. He saw a car sliding a bit on the ice and freshly fallen snow as the driver made his way down Noel’s main street, and he reached out to make sure Holly walked on the interior of the sidewalk next to him. She grinned up at him.

  “You’re going to stop the car if it skids onto the sidewalk?” she teased.

  “I’ll block it back into the other lane for you,” he said.

  They turned onto the street leading to the pizza place, and he reached out for her hand. Despite the thick mittens she wore, her hand was warm and small inside his. He curled his fingers protectively around it. A few more steps, and they’d be inside again. He saw more cars sliding on the street a few hundred feet ahead of them. Maybe they were just really bad drivers.

  Holly glanced up at him again. Maybe it was his imagination, but she clutched his hand a little more tightly. He felt ten feet tall as a result.

  “We’ll be okay,” he reassured her. He increased his stride. “They’re nowhere near us.”

  The restaurant was deserted. The guy behind the counter called out, “Hey, Holly. You didn’t call ahead this time.”

  “We’re dining in,” she said. She reached up to pull
off her hat and her scarf. A few strands of hair clung to her cold-reddened cheeks. Derrick wondered if she’d be shocked if he kissed her. Right now.

  The guy behind the counter stared at Derrick.

  Holly said, “We’re seating ourselves tonight, aren’t we?” She sat down at a table for two, and Derrick pulled a twenty out of his money clip and slid it on the counter.

  “There’s twenty bucks in it for you if you don’t call or text all your friends and tell them I’m here right now,” he said to the kid.

  “I would have settled for an autograph,” the kid told him.

  “Well, then. I’ll make sure you get one of those too.” Derrick reached out to fist-bump with the kid. “Will you bring us whatever it is Holly likes to drink, and bring me a Coke, please?”

  Derrick jammed the twenty into the tip jar in front of the cash register and returned to the table.

  The counter guy brought a large Coke for Derrick, a glass of white wine for Holly, and a couple of laminated menus.

  “Does your grandma still like the chop-chop salad? I’ll make sure there’s one for her when you’re ready to leave,” the server said. “You probably heard the pass is closed in both directions.”

  Oh, shit, Derrick thought. The passes were the only way back over the mountains, and he’d taken the pass that was typically the easiest to navigate during winter weather.

  He also needed to be at the practice facility by eight AM tomorrow morning.

  “What? No. Really?” Holly said. “When?”

  “It was just on the radio. Several jackknifed semis and an avalanche, plus another huge storm is on its way. Nobody’s getting out of town until tomorrow morning at the earliest.” He pulled an order pad out of his pocket. “What would you like?”

  Derrick’s coach was going to kill him if he wasn’t at practice tomorrow. The Sharks were playing Denver on Sunday afternoon. Hopefully he’d be out of Noel by then. The tire guys hadn’t said a word about this possibility, either.

  “You’re not going to be able to get out of here tonight,” Holly said to him. “This isn’t good.”

  “Let’s worry about that later,” Derrick said.

  Chapter Four

  HOLLY HAD BEEN shy all of her life. She was just fine when she was at work or school; she could manage to overcome her bashfulness long enough to talk with customers or ask her fellow students questions. Talking with members of the opposite sex she was interested in, though, was a whole other story. She was tongue-tied. She blushed herself into a coma. Most of the time she all but ran away; she envied other women who could talk and flirt easily with someone they were interested in. She wished she could be like them.

  Dating was a special kind of torture. She was bad at small talk. Plus, it was important to be a fun person on a date, or the person you were out with might decide he didn’t want a second date.

  Holly had lost her heart to Derrick—and his impish grin—two years ago in the Sharks’ cafeteria’s breakfast line. He teased her and talked with her whenever he saw her, but she told herself that he joked around with everyone. She wasn’t special.

  She still couldn’t believe he’d asked her out. She was going to have to make an extra effort tonight.

  “How’s the pizza?” he asked her.

  “It’s . . . it’s good,” she said.

  “Would you like something else to eat instead? You’ve only had a couple of bites.”

  She felt her face getting hot. “I’m not very hungry,” she said. It was hard to eat when her stomach was full of butterflies.

  He leaned across the table toward her and reached out to take her hand in his. Her heart felt like it would beat its way out of her chest. She was sure her palms were sweaty. He didn’t seem to mind. He looked into her eyes.

  “It’s just me, Holly,” he said. His dark eyes softened like chocolate in summertime. “I want to get to know you. Talk to me.” The huge diamond studs in his ears sparkled in the dimly lit restaurant.

  She nodded and swallowed hard. He stroked her hand with his thumb—a slow, deliberate movement across her skin.

  “You feel shy around me,” he said.

  Her voice sounded like the creak of a rusty hinge. “Yes.”

  His smile was dazzling. He was still stroking her hand, and she felt him grip it a little more tightly in his. “Here’s an idea, then. Close your eyes.”

  “Excuse me?”

  His laugh bounced around the quiet restaurant. “Let’s see if it works. Try it. I’ll make sure you’re safe. Take a deep breath too.”

  His suggestion sounded a little weird to her, but it was worth a try. She closed her eyes. She felt him lean closer to her. He smelled like clean skin and a whiff of what she imagined must have been very expensive men’s cologne. “So, Holly. Have you lived in Noel for a while?”

  “I don’t really live here,” she said. “I’m staying with my grandma until she’s feeling better. I have an apartment with two of Zach Anderson’s sisters. I’ll be back there before school starts again.”

  “What’s your major?”

  “Nursing.”

  “Ahhh,” he said. “That’s good. You’ll be able to fix me right up after a game, then.”

  Little did he know, she’d be thrilled to. She pulled in another breath. Surprisingly enough, closing her eyes while they talked seemed to help with her nervousness.

  “Don’t the trainers do that stuff?” she said.

  “They’re not as pretty as you are.”

  She could feel her face getting warm again, and she opened her eyes a little.

  “Uh-uh. Can’t look at me right now,” he said. “You’re going to remember you’re feeling shy, and you’ll stop talking to me.”

  She closed her eyes. He reached out with his other hand to touch her jawline with his fingertips.

  “That’s better. I could ask you a lot of questions about your family and your interests, and I’m getting to them all, but there’s one question I’d really like to know the answer to.” He was now holding her hand with both of his. He was still stroking her skin with one thumb. Her heart skipped a beat as adrenaline surged through her. “You were crying when I walked into the coffee shop the other day. What’s wrong? Is there anything I can do to help?”

  Only a few members of Noel’s Merchants’ Association knew “Santa’s” true identity. Her grandma had made Holly vow to keep the thirty-year-old secret. If it got out that someone in Noel had been answering the letters all these years, it would crush the hopes of countless local children. On top of that, Holly’s grandmother didn’t want anyone else to find out she’d enlisted Holly’s help this year, either.

  “It’s not that big of a deal,” she said.

  “It is to me,” he said. “Tell me all about it.”

  She swallowed hard. He was going to persist, and she had to tell him something. It wasn’t like she was lying to him if she made up a few of the details. She didn’t want to betray her grandma’s secret. She thought for a few seconds.

  “I was reading one of those stories people post on Facebook. You know, some little boy wrote to Santa Claus and asked Santa to bring toys for his younger brother and sister and a job for his mom, but didn’t ask for anything for himself.”

  “Was he local?” Derrick said.

  “I don’t think so,” she said. “I . . . I was tired, and I got choked up. It’s silly.”

  “No, it’s not,” he said. “You’re tenderhearted.”

  She bowed her head a bit. The fact that she temporarily couldn’t see heightened all of her other senses, and she felt the air move and his body heat as he leaned closer to her. “Too sentimental,” she said.

  “No such thing.” He reached out to stroke her cheek again. “The kid’s community must be getting together to help him and his family out.”

  “I think so,” she said. She was uncomfortable with shading the truth, but it wasn’t her secret to share. Maybe she should change the subject instead. “Is it still snowing outside?”
>
  “Yes, and it looks like it’s coming down faster.”

  She didn’t hear the usual traffic noise outside of Noel Pizza, which was located on the main drag through the small town. The sidewalk outside the little restaurant was typically crowded with tourists and locals. She didn’t hear any of the usual laughter and music from Noel’s main street, either. In other words the storm was bad, and Derrick wasn’t getting out of there anytime soon.

  She was torn between concern that he might be stuck for a while, and happiness that she could spend a little more time with him. “Maybe I should take a look outside at the weather. Grandma’s going to worry.”

  “We’ll be fine,” he soothed. “Do you want to call her?”

  “I should. Plus, she’s probably hungry by now.”

  Holly heard the rumble of Derrick’s laughter. “I’ll make sure she gets some food. What’s her number?”

  She recited the number from memory, and he put his now-ringing phone into her free hand.

  “Hello?”

  “Grandma, it’s me. We’re still at the pizza place. Want me to bring you some salad?”

  “I’d like that, but you need to come home right now. There’s a bigger storm right behind this one. Both of the inns in town are full, too,” Grandma said. “Derrick’s welcome overnight here.”

  “We’ll be home in a few minutes, Grandma. We’ll be careful.” She opened her eyes, hit “end,” and handed the phone back to him. Storm or no, the thought of Derrick’s staying overnight left her a little breathless with excitement. “She said there’s another storm coming, everywhere you could stay is full, and you have an invitation to spend the night at our house.”

  OVERNIGHT, HUH? PERFECT. Derrick was going to have to fork over thousands in fines for missing practice tomorrow—and deal with the ration of shit his teammates were going to subject him to when they found out he’d driven a hundred miles one way in a snowstorm to go on a date—but the prospect of spending more time with her warmed his heart.

  “That’s nice of your grandma to invite me,” he said. “I was wondering for a few minutes there if I needed to ask the pizza guys if they had a back room and a cot.”