Page 22 of Holding Holly
“But…my dad…you heard…”
Her bottom lip wobbles, and I reach out to take her hands gently. “I wasn’t trying to listen in. I just saw you and walked closer because I like being near you. But yes, I heard something about your father being in prison.” My fingers thread through hers. “It is one thousand percent okay to say no, but may I ask you two little questions about that?”
Holly’s shoulders sag glumly. “Sure.”
“When your father committed…whatever crime it was… Were you there?”
“No.”
“Thank goodness,” I sigh. “I can’t stand the thought of you seeing anything upsetting. Now, did you see him getting arrested?”
“Yes,” she whispers. “I was eight.”
Slipping around to her side of the booth, I tuck her under my arm. “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry. That must have been terrifying.”
“It was.” Her breath is shaky, so I just wait, stroking her back and giving her a moment.
She tips up her chin to stare at me. “Aren’t you going to ask me what he did?”
I shrug, pushing my shoulder into hers until she grins. “That’s up to you. If you’d like to tell me, sure. If not, that’s great too. I assume you had nothing to do with it, so it really doesn’t matter either way to me.”
She hesitates as our menus arrive, together with an automatic round of coffee. Then Holly’s gaze drops. “Dad was a gambler. Got behind on his bills. Some idiot drinking buddy of his told him about a really remote gas station, and they tried to rob it.”
I remain silent, simply stroking her shoulder.
“They almost got away with it, except an off-duty firefighter stopped them, and he got shot in the arm. Well, grazed. But because he’s a first responder, both Dad and his friend had the book thrown at them.” Holly looks up at me sadly. “Which was completely appropriate, in my opinion. Please don’t think that I have any desire to see my father ever again.”
“Families are complicated.” My arm tightens around her. “You must be curious about how he ended up, though.”
Her head shakes, sending wisps of hair flying around her cheekbones. “Nope. Not even a little. I never want to see him again.”
“Then you’ll never have to.”
She looks at me despairingly. “But if he gets out and comes looking for me, there’s nothing I can do.”
My dark chuckle surprises her. “Oh, baby, things work differently on this mountain. We look after our own.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It means that if you want me to, I will put his name in my system to be notified if he gets out. He’ll be assigned a parole officer, whom I will contact. If your father gets a car, I will have the license plate number. If he gets a job, I will know where it is. I can have the system track him. And if he gets anywhere near here…” My eyebrow lifts. “I send his photo and information out to the local men, and he will be told in no uncertain terms that he is not welcome on Wolfe Mountain.”
Holly’s jaw drops open. “What? Is that… Can you do that?”
“We can, and we have. Many times. It’s just how we do things out here if we think someone vulnerable is being threatened. I could make one call that would start a chain reaction and get twenty huge guys here in under five minutes if necessary.”
Holly backs up an inch. “Wow.”
“We protect our own. We protect this town.”
My fingers walk slowly down to tickle her elbow. “And hopefully, you consider yourself part of this town.”
Her mouth opens and closes twice, then she stares down at the menu as if it holds all the secrets of the universe.
Kissing the top of her head, I move back to my seat across the table. “No big decisions when you’re hungry. It’s a basic rule.”
Her eyebrow lifts and she smiles faintly. “Another one of your mountain rules?”
“Mountain rule…common sense rule…the oldyour boyfriend is always hungryrule. Take your pick.”