She’d never been happier to get out of her clothes before. More than anything, she wanted to wash off this whole day. Tomorrow would be better, wouldn’t it? It had to. Holly couldn’t remember a worse day than this.
Even though the tub wasn’t full, she stepped in. Her upper half was exposed, but she didn’t mind. The water she could feel was soothing and warm. Slowly, it moved up her body. With every inch, she felt more and more relaxed.
As she let out a deep sigh, she realized the day hadn’t been all bad. The drive was rough, the accident was rougher, but meeting Johnny, Keller, and Garret was nice. Eating lunch with them was fun, even if it was a little awkward.
“They aren’t bad guys,” she murmured to herself.
They’re strange and intense, but they aren’t bad. Holly wished someone would tell her the whole truth, though. That was the part that was driving her crazy. At this rate, there was no way she’d get out of here tomorrow. She didn’t even know if her car had made it to the shop. Even if it had, there was no way she could leave without understanding what was really going on in Silver Spruce.
The steam caressed her skin and made waifish shapes in the air. Holly lifted her hand, manipulating the steam with her fingertips. She loved doing that as a kid. She used to pretend she was a witch with magical powers.
As the weight of the day settled on her shoulders, exhaustion crept in. It was getting harder and harder to keep her eyes open. The water was high enough to cover her shoulders, so she shut off the water and leaned back. Tension drained from her muscles as the warm water worked its magic. Her eyes lazily fluttered open and closed.
In the mist, she swore she saw Johnny’s face, then Keller’s, and finally Garret’s. They really were handsome men. It was unfair. She wondered what they were doing downstairs. Did they eat dinner together? Did they watch movies or sports in the evenings? Did they have a routine that she was disrupting? The house technically belonged to her now, but it wasn’t truly hers. It was theirs.
Maybe one of them would want to buy it. That would solve a bunch of problems in one easy sweep. Holly felt guilty for not thinking of it before. To be fair, she didn’t realize her grandmother lived with three hunky woodsmen.
The amount of information Pearl hadn’t told her was staggering. Just thinking about it gave her a headache.
With a long, deep breath, she forced herself to let go of all her stressful thoughts for now. Those were for tomorrow.
CHAPTER FIVE - Holly
Holly awoke the following morning in her grandmother’s bed. It had been one of the best sleeps of her life. Normally, Holly hated sleeping in strange places, especially a huge place with tons of very breakable windows. As weird as things had been, Holly felt safer knowing three men—that no one would be quick to challenge to a fight—were in the house with her.
As promised, she didn’t hear a peep out of them all evening, even when she laid in silence, listening for any sound of life. Morning was a different story. Holly was amazed that the constant clanging of pots and pans hadn’t woken her up. Something was cooking. She could smell it from her bed, but she wasn’t sure what it was. From the sound of it, the men were here and feeding the entire town.
She climbed out of bed and picked up yesterday’s jeans off the floor. She’d slept in her favorite T-shirt last night, a David Bowie shirt she’d found in one of her mother’s old boxes. It might be vintage. It might be off Etsy. She didn’t know for sure, so she called it vintage and always felt particularly interesting when she wore it. Deciding to save her last clean shirt for when she left the house, she kept the Bowie shirt on.
A quick glance in the mirror told her that sleep didn’t do a damn thing for her hair or the dark circles under her eyes. Despite a good night’s sleep, yesterday was still all over her face. She hadn’t brought any makeup. She didn’t think she’d need it. If she’d known she’d be waking up to a house full of handsome men, she might’ve packed a little differently.
Holly sighed, irritated with herself. Why did she care what she looked like? It’s not like she wanted to impress them or anything. Still...she ought to brush her hair. Her dark locks were a mess.
As she ran a brush through her natural waves, she remembered something Grandmother Pearl had once said about her hair. It reminded her of tempered chocolate. Holly still wasn’t sure what that meant, but it was nice to have that tiny memory to hold onto.
She leaned closer to the mirror and swept sleep and bits of old mascara away from her hazel eyes. It didn’t do much to help the dark circles. Maybe a nap, later, would take care of those.
She surveyed herself in the mirror. She looked fine, but she wasn’t anywhere close to her best. She rolled her eyes at her reflection, annoyed that she cared. She wasn’t here to impress anyone.
Though, the idea of her housemates finding her attractive was appealing.
“No!” Holly snapped. She wasn’t going to go down that road. This situation was weird enough as it was without her being attracted to all three of them. Scratch that, she was attracted to all three of them, but there was a big difference between being attracted and doing something about that attraction. She would be careful to mind that line. She wouldn’t even toe it. She would stand three miles clear of that line.
When she walked into the kitchen, it smelled
