I sigh heavily and decide to let it drop. If Holly’s really not ready for another outing, then maybe I shouldn’t be pushing her. After all, I wasn’t the one in that room seeing what happened to Mindy.
“Hey, Holly. I have a question.” She looks at me curiously because she knows that anytime I start by telling her I have a question, it’s probably not good. I may or may not have earned a reputation over the last few months as being a slight pain in the ass, but I’m Sterling Grady’s daughter—what else can anyone expect from me?
“Hey, Cheyenne. What’s up?”
“What do you think of Jeremy?”
“He’s cute, he’s earning his cut, but I think he’s trouble,” she says.
This is something I respect about Holly. She never really bullshits me, and she’s never really mean about it either. I’d say that, all in all, Dad found a good one. Not that I don’t like Elle, because actually I had been hoping for a really long time that he and Elle would get together. It just didn’t happen, and there was probably half a second where I was upset about it. Elle’s been coming around here for years, and she’s really awesome and all, but with her job, she’s gone a lot. I used to think there was no way Dad would find anybody better suited for him than her. And then I met Holly. Holly is strong and tough and super sassy. She is basically everything my mother could’ve been if she weren’t so fucking screwed up.
“Are you saying he’s trouble because he’s prospecting, or are you saying he’s trouble because you think every boy I’m interested in is trouble?”
“Well, the day you’re interested in a boy who isn’t trouble, you’ll have to let me know.” Holly’s smile nearly overtakes her face. Now I really don’t want to tell her about Daniel. If she thinks Jeremy is trouble, then she’d definitely think the Jerk-Off King is major trouble. Holly’s really funny when she wants to be, even these days, but I doubt her sense of humor will extend that far.
It usually just takes a little bit more time to pull Holly’s funny side out now. Dad says we just have to be patient with her and hope her demons don’t get the best of her. He doesn’t mention Mom, but I know he must be thinking about her. Mom let her demons get the best of her and look where she is—somewhere up north whoring herself out for her drug of choice. Not that I think Holly would ever go down that path, and I know Dad doesn’t. He would never have brought her home to me if he had even the smallest inkling. Still, in the back of my mind I worry this is something she’s never going to be able to get over. She stronger than I am, though, so maybe I’m not giving her enough credit.
Just as I’m rolling my eyes at her, heavy boots sound against the hardwood floor in the entryway, and I know instinctively what that means. Dad’s home. Everybody else announces themselves, but not Dad.
As he rounds the corner into the living room, he sees us sitting on the sofa. He gives me a smiling head nod, but soon enough his attention drifts toward Holly. I might’ve missed it if I didn’t know him so well, but I’ve spent the last seventeen years looking into this man’s face. And I know what it means when his eyebrows draw together, just slightly, before he carefully corrects them and resumes that mask of indifference. He’s worried. He has every right to be, though I know he doesn’t want to show it. Holly keeps saying she’s fine and she’s working through it. Even right after it happened, she told Dad she was okay because she did what she had to do. It had something to do with her protecting him, and I have to admit that my soon-to-be stepmom is badass enough to think she has to protect my dad, who is one of the scariest and most intimidating men anybody could ever hope to meet, makes my heart swoon. Her strength is exactly why I have to help Dad and the club figure out what happened with Holly and Mindy. I need Holly to be strong, not just for Dad but for me as well. I’ve never had a mom before, and I like it, so I need her to be okay. She has to be.
This is just who Holly is. She doesn’t care how many muscles he has or how tough he acts in front of everybody else. She knows him in a different way than I do, but she knows that beneath all the angry rants and grumpy stares he’s actually a lovable guy. But I won’t let him catch me telling anybody that.
“What are you two up to?” he asks.
“Nothing, baby,” Holly says. She smiles softly and reaches her arm out toward him. It’s the only invitation he needs. His face covers hers, and he places a big sloppy kiss right on her lips. When Holly starts to giggle, Dad smiles wide. I’m smiling, too, before I decide I’m officially grossed out and turn away. I can still hear the swapping of spit, which is just plain disgusting but at the same time kind of not.