Solitude & Sea Glass by McKinney T.D. & Wylis Terry

Author:McKinney T.D. & Wylis Terry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-01-29T23:55:14+00:00

CHAPTER 7

I can do this. I can do this. Maybe if he repeated enough times in his head his eyes would actually open. Holland clung to Ruby’s hand, reminding himself that Ruby didn’t care what he looked like, Thea didn’t care, Abel didn’t care. He smiled at the soft whimper coming from the doorway, probably from the scent of fear no doubt pouring from him. Rex didn’t care, either. “I’m all right, boy. I…I can do this.”

“Yes, you can. You’re not going to make anything worse by looking, Hol. I promise.” Ruby’s grasp tightened. “You really can do this.” Soft lips brushed Hol’s cheek. “For me, if you can’t do it for yourself.”

“For you.” It wouldn’t matter, wouldn’t change anything. He knew Ruby couldn’t understand, bless him. The other man’s life, 110

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livelihood, and self-worth had never rested solely on the beauty of his face. Holland forced his eyes to open and focus on the mirror over Ruby’s dresser, bracing for the horror he remembered.

Beauty stared back. Unmarred. No evidence of the months of pain, the surgeries, the horror of feeling so vulnerable, all sense of security gone, and then so…ruined. Unwanted and worthless. The glory the studios required reflected from the mirror.

Hol gripped the edge of the dresser, unable to breathe, his heart pounding as strong as it had when he lay in Ruby’s arms.

“See?” Ruby’s soft voice reached him from the far end of a long tunnel. “Oh, Hol, I wish that doctor hadn’t told you only the negative. I can’t even imagine what you’ve been through. But you are whole, and you are beautiful. And I love you.”

Well, of course he did. The whole world had loved that face.

That beautiful, scar-free face had graced hundreds of magazine covers, had hung on thousands of teenagers’ walls. Hol didn’t even have the least idea how many photos of that face he’d signed for the studio to send out to his fans. Hours worth of them each week.

Hol managed a shaky breath. Naturally, Ruby loved that face.

Hol suddenly wished wreckage and ruin stared back at him.

“Hol? Hey, are you okay?” Ruby’s touch caressed his back.

“What is it?”

Still, he couldn’t hold it against Ruby. “I’m… I just didn’t expect this. The last time I saw myself…” He swallowed. “Thank you, Ruby. I truly had no idea that I’d…healed.”

“The world doesn’t have to be such a lonely place anymore.”

Tender fingers slipped up onto his cheeks. “God, Hol, it breaks my heart to think of you here alone all these years. You deserve so much more.” Ruby pressed a kiss to Hol’s lips. “Come on. We better get cleaned up before Thea comes looking for the lunch 111

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dishes. Maybe we can take a walk later? Go find that meadow again and just soak up the summer while it lasts?”

While it lasts. The wonder Hol felt in Ruby’s touch was gone, a cold deeper than a Nor’easter sweeping over his soul at the loss.

Still…the soft concern on Ruby’s face and the gentle emotion in his touch remained.

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