Hold Me Like This (A second chance, small town romance) (Love Me Like This Book 3)

by Lola StVil

  “I’m sure you’re all eager to get started, but before we do, I’d just like to say a personal thank you to Miss Quick and Easy herself, Grey Thomas, who has kindly provided today’s pies.”

  I feel myself blush at the rather unfortunate name. Couldn’t my grandparents have called the place Thomas’s Diner or something? I give an awkward wave to the snickering crowd and scurry to the edge of the stage, hoping to stay out of the way.

  Fay moves to the end of the row of tables.

  “Are you all ready?” she asks the contestants.

  All of them give her a thumbs-up. She turns back to the crowd.

  “And are you all ready?” she asks.

  Whoops and cheers confirm they most definitely are ready.

  “Three. Two. One. Eat,” Fay screams.

  The contestants dig in, and the crowd cheers them on. I find myself looking for Holden. I catch myself and stop. I’m not in the least bit disappointed that I can’t see him anywhere.

  The eating contest lasts for half an hour. The winner is the person who gets through the most pies in that time. I spend the time running back and forth collecting more pies and taking away the used plates. It’s a sweaty half an hour for the contestants and me, and more than once, I think the buckets subtly placed by each chair will be used, but they aren’t.

  Finally, the contest is over, and Fay announces the winner Mel, to a cheering crowd. I gather up the last of the plates and get down clumsily off the stage and head to my cart. I look down at the ground, making sure to avoid the odd splatter of pie filling here and there. The last thing I want to do is go down on my ass in front of half the town.

  I collide with someone and look up to apologize. The words die on my lips when I find myself looking into Holden’s eyes for the second time in two days. I’m saved from having to decide whether to greet him or whether to shove my way past him when Julie speaks up. I didn’t even notice her next to Holden. Once I looked up, and he caught my eye, I wouldn’t have noticed if the damn building was on fire.

  “How are you, Grey?” Julie asks.

  She pulls me into an embrace which I awkwardly return as I juggle the plates. She seems not to notice I’m on the verge of dropping them, and Holden takes them from me. I return Julie’s hug a bit more enthusiastically now my arms are empty.

  “I’m good.” I smile. “How are you? I haven’t seen you in forever.”

  “I’m okay, thanks. It’s been far too long since Steven and I visited the diner,” she says. “We started this healthy eating kick, and I don’t trust Steven to make good choices when he is presented with your fried chicken.”

  I laugh and wave away her apology.

  “How is Dr. Riley?” I ask.

  “Oh, he’s good,” Julie says. “Although he isn’t too keen on the diet I’ve got him on.”

  I laugh again. I can imagine Dr. Riley being none too pleased with anything that involves salad rather than steak.

  “Now,” Julie says, “will you excuse me a moment?”

  She walks away with no clear purpose to her steps, and I’m forced to once more face Holden. I’m expecting the rush of emotions and desire this time, and it doesn’t throw me quite so much as last time.

  “Being subtle was never her strong point, was it?” Holden smiles.

  I shake my head and hold my hand out for the plates. Holden keeps them in his grip, ignoring my outstretched hands.

  “Grey, can we talk?” he asks.

  “There’s nothing to say,” I reply, hoping for a casual tone. “We were kids, Holden. You left. I got over it.”

  “We didn’t just date, Grey. We were best friends our whole lives,” he says. He has that sparkle in his eye as he grins at me. “And if you’re over it, then what’s the harm in two old friends meeting for a cup of coffee to catch up?”

  I’m momentarily distracted from Holden as I spot Julie and Cannon having a whispered conversation. Julie is nodding eagerly, and Cannon’s hands are flying fast as he talks. I nod toward them.

  “I don’t like the look of that,” I say.

  Holden follows my gaze and shakes his head and smiles.

  “She’s just trying to stay out of the way. And you know Cannon, he’s never met a conversation he didn’t like.”

  I try to tell myself he’s right, but I don’t like it. It looks like they’re plotting something, and if there’s one person in the town who wants Holden and I back together more than Cannon does, I’d be willing to bet its Julie. She always did like me. She used to say I was a good influence on Holden, that I reined him in a little.

  “Hmm,” I say, not agreeing or disagreeing with Holden. “So, can I have my plates back?”

  “That depends.” He smiles. “Can I take you for a coffee?”

  “Fine,” I hear myself say.

  What else can I say when presented with Holden’s logic? We were best friends all of our lives, and if I wasn’t still so hurt that he left me, then I would most definitely want to catch up with him. He knew it when he said it, and I have to give him points for still knowing exactly how to press my buttons, even after all of this time. Bastard.

  “One coffee. Give me like fifteen minutes to clean this up, then I’m all yours.”

  Bad choice of words. I cringe a little as I say it, but it’s too late to take it back. Holden gives me a sad smile, a smile that says maybe he wishes that was true.

  “I’ll meet you out front when you’re ready,” he says.

  He finally hands over my plates. As he turns and walks back to his mom, it takes all my willpower to force my eyes away from him and get back to sorting out this mess. I have a feeling that agreeing to even just a coffee with Holden was a big mistake.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  HOLDEN

  I wait for Grey outside the town hall. I pace and shift, unable to stand still as I wonder how this will go. Will she keep up the cool indifference toward me, which I’m starting to think is an act? I don’t think Cannon would be pushing her this way if there wasn’t a chance she still has feelings for me.

  Will she forgive me?

  Does she hate me?

  I don’t know. All I know is the girl I never stopped loving agreed to get a coffee with me, and I have to get this right. I have to make her remember how good we were together. And I’m going to be able to do that sitting in the diner with a coffee. I smile to myself as a plan forms.

  Almost half an hour has gone by when Grey appears at my side. She looks flustered, her cheeks are flushed, and a strand of her hair has fallen loose out of her ponytail, hanging down the side of her face. I want so badly to reach out and tuck that strand of hair behind her ear but I resist.

  “Sorry,” she says. “I underestimated how many trips I would need to get all those plates loaded in my car.”

  “No problem,” I say.

  “So, the diner or the ice cream shop?” she asks, tucking her hands in the pockets of her jacket.

  “Neither.” I grin.

  I start to walk, and she falls into step beside me, frowning in confusion.

  “Neither?” she confirms.

  “It’s way too nice out here to be stuck inside,” I say.

  She doesn’t ask anything else and I don’t elaborate. We head up the street toward the town square, and I walk over to the coffee truck. I order two Americanos, mine as it comes, hers with cream and two sugars. I hand her a cup and she takes a sip and smiles.

  “You remembered,” she says.

  I remember everything about you.

  “Sure. We got coffee often enough it’s easy enough to remember.” I shrug like it’s nothing.

  If she wants to play it cool, then two can play that game. I can see by the surprised look on her face that she’s finally getting it.

  She was expecting me to beg her to hear me out, for me to get all deep and serious. And she probably knew exactly what she was going to say to shut me down. That’s what she’s counting on. But what she hasn’t banked on is a casual catch-up between two old f
riends and a trip down memory lane. Which is exactly what I promised her.

  I lead the way and Grey walks beside me, not questioning where we’re going. I don’t speak. Grey could never stand silence—she said it was the loudest thing in the room. I know she won’t be able to resist filling this one.

  “So, how was military life?” she asks.

  I bite the inside of my mouth to keep from grinning. She hasn’t changed a bit.

  “Good,” I say. “Not at first. I hated it at first. There were so many rules, so much routine, it was stifling. But I came to appreciate that and even crave it. It changed me. It turned me from a boy with a rebellious streak to a man with a purpose. And then once I started the surgical training, I loved it.”

  “That’s not a story you hear everyday.” she says impressed.

  I laugh.

  “Yeah. Ironic huh?”

  I always resisted following in my father’s footsteps. He was a doctor, and all my life, he talked as though that automatically meant I’d go into the field, and all my life, I insisted it wasn’t for me and I wanted to do something else. I never did pin down what, I just knew I didn’t want my life planned out for me by my father.

  Grey laughs beside me.

  “It’s the last thing I expected to hear,” she admits.

  “It’s the last thing I expected to say,” I agree. “But I get it now. I get why my father loves his work so much. You have no idea what real fear or real focus is until you’ve stood in the middle of an open field, bullets whizzing around you while you’re trying to sew someone’s gaping wound to stop them from bleeding to death. It’s heartbreaking, humbling, and when it comes together and you save a life, it’s the best feeling in the world.”

  She’s smiling up at me, and I want to grab her face and kiss her, but of course, I resist the urge.

  “It sounds like you really found your calling,” she says.

  I nod.

  “Yeah. I guess I did. I start work in a few weeks at the hospital in the city,” I say. “Anyway, enough about me. Tell me about you. What have I missed?”

  “Nothing much,” she says. “Flipping burgers doesn’t really have the same appeal as saving lives.”

  “You’re twenty-four and you’re running a successful business. Don’t be so quick to dismiss yourself,” I say.

  She blushes slightly and takes a long drink of her coffee. I know it must be burning her tongue, but I guess she needs a minute to compose her expression to remain suitably nonchalant.

  We reach our destination. The park. I lead her in, and we automatically head to the swings, where we each take one. This was our spot on the rare occasions we didn’t end up at the playhouse, and I can’t take her there. Not yet. It would be too much. Grey and I lost our virginity in that playhouse and it holds far too many memories to spring it on her right now. I think she’d flee in the face of that.

  “Do you remember that time our school planned a field trip when we were about ten?” Grey says. “We were so excited. They promised us a nature walk, and like a thousand other things. We thought we were going somewhere spectacular, and they brought us here. Talk about over selling a trip.”

  I laugh at the memory,

  “How could I forget? We were so disappointed, waiting for a big bus to come for us, and instead, Mr Gould led us here.” I laugh.

  She nods.

  “It turned out to be kind of fun though, didn’t it?”

  “Only because Rick fell in the pond,” I say.

  We both laugh at the memory of a sopping wet Rick climbing out of the pond, covered with green strings of algae.

  “He was so pissed,” Grey says. “He went home to change and just didn’t bother coming back.”

  “Yeah, and Mr Gould didn’t dare punish him the next day in case his parents sued the school or something.”

  “Do you ever miss those days?” Grey asks me, suddenly serious.

  Every damn day,

  Because those were the days before I hurt her, before she hated me. I nod, not daring to speak because I know she will hear the emotion in my voice.

  “Me too,” she says. “We were so young, we had our whole lives ahead of us. We had dreams. We could be anything we wanted.”

  “We’re hardly too old to have dreams now, Grey,” I say. “You’re talking like we’re a hundred or something.”

  “It was just different then though, wasn’t it? There was no pressure. No responsibilities.”

  She smiles and the moment passes.

  “And I might not be old, but I’m sure wanting to be a fairy counts as a missed dream once you’re over about twelve.”

  “It does? Shit, I better get a new dream then,” I say in mock horror.

  Grey bursts out laughing, and I feel a growing warmth in my stomach. I love to make her laugh. I stand up suddenly, and Grey looks up at me.

  “Yeah, we should get going,” she says quickly, standing up beside me.

  Is that a flicker of disappointment on her face?

  “We can’t go yet,” I say. “I want to go and see if the old pavilion is still standing.”

  “It is,” she says, but she makes no move to leave.

  Instead, she starts walking toward the pavilion.

  “Spoiler alert,” I mutter, and she laughs again.

  We walk to the pavilion, pausing to put our finished coffee cups in the trash can.

  “It’s kind of underwhelming,” I say as we reach the pavilion.

  It was always kind of tatty, but now it’s even worse. The paint has mostly peeled off it and it’s covered with graffiti.

  “Wasn’t it always?” Grey says.

  I shake my head.

  “No. Now it’s a tatty old pavilion. Then it was a spaceship, or a cruiser, or a cottage in a land far away. It was a fort, a den, a catwalk.”

  “Or a pirate ship,” Grey adds. “It was a pirate ship for a full summer. We sailed the seven seas without even having to leave the park.”

  Two young children run into view, shrieking and laughing. They run up the pavilion steps and run around it in circles. Their mom follows closely behind looking exhausted.

  “I swear these two will be the death of me,” she says. “But at least they keep me fit. Ethan. Sophie. Come here.”

  Ethan and Sophie make no move to leave the pavilion. Their appearance broke through our memories though, and we’re very much back in the moment. Just two strangers who used to know each other.

  “I really should get back to work,” Grey says.

  I nod and we head back toward the park gate. I wanted to take the chance to explain to her why I left, to apologize, but for a moment back there, I saw the old Grey. The one who loved me, who trusted me, who believed me when I said we were forever. And I don’t want to lose that moment. I don’t want us to end up arguing. Not after that moment. I keep my mouth shut as we walk back through the park.

  A man walks toward us as we walk. He’s a couple years older than us, not much, and he’s wearing a very expensive suit. He looks out of place in the park.

  “Dick.” Grey smiles. “What are you doing here?”

  He holds up a brown paper bag I hadn’t noticed.

  “Having lunch,” he replies.

  Grey laughs. “Are you cheating on my diner?” she teases him.

  “Never,” he replies. “It’s from your place.”

  “Ah, that’s more like it,” she says.

  “It was strange you not being around for the lunchtime rush,” Dick says. “But I see you’re on a date.”

  I can’t decide if the note of jealously in his voice is real or imagined, but either way, I decide then and there that I really don’t like this guy. I don’t like the way he looks at Grey, the way he undresses her with his eyes.

  At least if he thinks she’s on a date, he might back off a bit. It doesn’t work that way. Instead, Grey stabs me through the heart.

  “What?” She laughs. “We’re not on a date. Holden is an old friend who just got back to town. No
w where are my manners?”

  She’s getting flustered again. Did she want it to be a date? Or is she worried about what Dick will think?

  “Holden, this is Dick. Dick, this is Holden.”

  He holds his hand out to me. I want to bat it away, to tell him to keep his greedy little eyes off Grey, but of course I don’t. I shake his hand. He grips mine a bit too tightly. A warning I have every intention of ignoring.

  “Hey,” I say.

  He nods to me.

  “Well, we should get going. Enjoy your lunch,” Grey says.

  Dick walks away and Grey and I keep walking toward the park gates. Being introduced as an old friend hurts. A lot. I want to ask Grey why she introduced me that way, why she downplayed it. We were more than friends. We were soul mates. I don’t ask. I’m afraid to hear the answer. Because the truth is, maybe that’s all I am to her now. An old friend. A memory she dredges out on a warm summer night when she’s feeling nostalgic.

  “Who was that?” I ask. “I don’t recognize his face.”

  “Oh, you wouldn’t,” she says. “He hasn’t been in town long. But he’s a regular at the diner. What can I say? He does love my cooking.”

  “Ah, he has good taste then.” I smile.

  So he’s just a customer. Maybe that’s why Grey didn’t go into details. She won’t want him knowing her business. It’s a thin straw to clutch at, but it’s a straw nonetheless, and I clutch it with both hands.

  “I’ll walk you to your car,” I say as we leave the park and head back downtown.

  “Have you got much planned for the rest of the day?” she asks.

  I take my opening, hoping that’s what it was. Hoping it was her way of hinting for me to ask to see her again tonight.

  “Yes,” I say. “I’m having dinner tonight. With you. That’s if you’re up for it of course.”

  “I’d love to but I can’t,” she says. “Actually, I’m going on a date tonight.”

  I feel as if my whole world has collapsed. She couldn’t have hurt me more if she’d pulled out a knife and stuck it straight into my stomach.

  She’s got a date. I don’t know why it surprises me. I mean, look at her. How would she not have a date? And it’s not like I thought she wouldn’t have lived her life once I left.