In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes (The Queen’s Cove Series Book 3)

WE WERE DOING last call at the bar when my phone buzzed in my pocket.

I stared at the number and frowned. I didn’t recognize the caller but it was almost midnight.

“Hello?” I asked, stepping into the hallway to the backroom.

There was noise on the other end. People talking, music playing.

“Sadie.”

My stomach plummeted. Grant. Or, Jason. It was his voice. My mouth opened and closed but no words came out. I stood there, frozen and blinking and wondering if this was real.

“Sadie?”

“Um,” I said stupidly. My heart pounded in my chest. I couldn’t think. “Why are you calling me?”

We were over. Everything that happened was in the past, and I was moving on. Why was he calling and disrupting that?

“I’ve been thinking about you, Sadie.”

My lip curled as a disgusted expression pulled over my features.

“Wanted to make sure you’re okay,” he slurred. Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ FɪndNøvel.ɴᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Are you drunk?” I hissed.

“The whole thing got all out of control,” he continued as if I hadn’t said anything. “I’m not supposed to call you but I wanted to say how sorry I am, baby.”

On instinct, my teeth bared. “Do not call me that.” My jaw clenched and I closed my eyes. “If you were sorry, you’d give the money back.”

He made a high pitched noise of disbelief. “Can’t. Oops, sorry,” he said to someone on the other end. “I loved you, Sadie.”

My stomach lurched like I was back on that boat with Holden. I was going to be sick. I shook my head. “No, you didn’t.”

“I did, baby, I did.” His words ran together. “I loved you so much and I had to give it all up.”

My heart rattled my chest, beating hard. I absorbed his words, turning them over in my head.

“Why did you ask me to marry you if you were going to leave?” I whispered.

He made a noise of regret. “I shouldn’t have done that. I wanted to stay. I really loved you.”

Confusion and frustration wrenched my stomach. One arm crossed my stomach, hugging myself, while the hand holding the phone shook.

I couldn’t talk to him anymore.

I wanted to go back to my nice, calm life here in Queen’s Cove.

“I’m hanging up now,” I told him in a shaky voice. “Don’t ever call me again.”

I ended the call.

I stood in the hall for a few minutes, replaying the conversation in my head and letting my pulse return to normal. Tomorrow, I’d contact the detectives and let them know about the call.

Ugh. I rubbed my forehead, closing my eyes as I heard his words again and again.

How could he hurt me like that if he loved me?

An unwelcome realization pierced my brain and my stomach tensed again. I had told myself Holden would never hurt me because he loved me.

Now, I didn’t know what to think.

“Hey,” Olivia said, stepping into the hall. She shot me a wary look. “What’s going on? You look weird.”

“Um.” I shook myself, dragging a sobering breath in. “Nothing. I’m fine.”

I slid my phone into my back pocket and tried to shove the conversation out of my head.

An hour later, once we were home and curled up in bed with the light off, the unwelcome realization crept back into my thoughts.

“What are you thinking about?” Holden murmured as his arm tightened around me. “I can feel your eyelashes moving against my chest.”

“Sorry,” I whispered.

“It’s fine. What’s wrong?”

I shook my head. “Nothing.”

I had convinced myself Holden was Grant’s total opposite, and he’d never hurt me like Grant did.

Now I wasn’t so sure.