“The shop is fine,” he promised.
“Even with the talker?”
Holden pushed his hair out of his face and dropped his head against the headrest with a groan. “Merrick is Merrick,” he said simply. “Did you know he has a brother?”
“I didn’t know that because you never told me.”
“He has a brother.”
“In LA?” she asked.
He nodded. “He just got here a couple days ago from St. Jack’s Bay.”
Hannah’s eyebrow lifted slightly.
“His name is Bryce,” Holden went on, and his sister’s smile brightened.
“I bet it is. Tell me more.”
“There’s not much more to say.”
“You like him,” she stated.
“I don’t know him.”
“But what you do know.”
Holden bit the inside of his cheek and glared at his sister. She knew him too well, but that was what he wanted. That was why he’d called her. He needed someone to talk him off the ledge about Bryce and who better to do that than his meddling, therapist sister.
“I like how I feel when he’s around,” Holden admitted.
“So he doesn’t talk as much as Merrick?”
He shook his head, then nodded. “The two of them together are a lot, but when it’s just him…”
Holden trailed off, flashing back to the grateful tears that slicked from the corners of Bryce’s eyes when he had no choice except to shut up. The peaceful quiet between them, punctuated only by the sound of skin against skin and Bryce’s desperate breaths.
“Oh, you love him,” Hannah said, which was enough to snap Holden out of his memories.
“No.”
“I know that look,” she said.
“I don’t know him.”
“You’ve never needed to.” Hannah tilted her head to the side, eyes sparkling. “You’ve always fallen in love with ideas first.”
“It’s never gotten me anywhere good.”
“It’s gotten you here,” she reminded him. “To this point. To these moments.”
“Yeah,” he reluctantly conceded.
“What does Donovan think?”
Holden scoffed. “I’ve barely talked to him since he moved to San Diego. He’s been busy with whatever he has going on down there.”
“Do you not have anyone else you can talk to?”