Holding Holly (Love and Football Series) by Julie Brannagh

Author:Julie Brannagh [Brannagh, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Sports, sports romance
ISBN: 9780062363862
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2014-12-02T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

TWO DAYS LATER, Holly was alone in Caffeine Addiction at eight AM. Business had picked up since the passes reopened, but she wondered why things weren’t jumping as usual. Maybe everyone in Noel had decided they could live without caffeine.

“Yeah, right,” she muttered to herself.

She wiped the counter down for the third time in an hour and tried not to stare at the clock. She enjoyed her job, but being busy meant the hours would pass faster. She, Grandma, and Derrick had joined forces to find Michael, and had struck out with every option they had tried. The elementary school principal thought he might be in junior high, but with no siblings’ names to go on, they couldn’t possibly identify his family. The junior high principal cited confidentiality concerns, but told them there were seven Michaels at his school. All seven had siblings.

Santa Claus told Holly’s grandma he’d do his best to ask around town and see what he could come up with. With the Noel Merchants’ Association’s help, they’d plastered the town with flyers advertising next week’s party. If Michael and his family were in town, they couldn’t miss it.

Derrick had hired one of the pizza guys to drive Derrick home from Noel in his Escalade when the pass finally opened up the night before last. He’d also paid for a helicopter pilot to fly the pizza guy back to Noel with a bagful of autographed Sharks swag for his trouble.

He’d called Holly when he got home, he’d called her last night, and he said he’d call her when practice was over for the day. It was a good thing she had unlimited minutes on her phone right now. Besides status reports on next week’s Santa party, they were asking each other the questions they should have asked on their first date. They talked for hours.

Derrick was quite a storyteller. He made her laugh while he told her anecdotes about growing up with his little brother, Trevon, in a small town in Alabama. Their family wasn’t rich, either, and his grandma and parents worked hard to make sure Derrick and his brother had a roof over their heads, food to eat, and clothes on their backs. He told her how much it meant to him that he could make sure the people he loved were taken care of now.

During those hours of conversation, Holly forgot her shyness while she talked and laughed with him. Derrick coaxed her life story out of her, too, as well as asking her what she hoped for in the future. It was hard to believe she felt such a bond with a man after just a week. She fought the nagging fear that real life might never measure up to their sweetly blossoming relationship.

He was the life of the party; she’d rather hide in a corner. She was careful with expressing her feelings. He wore his heart on his sleeve. She scrimped and saved. He’d never have to worry about money again. His encouragement and his interest in her proved to be contagious, though.

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