Page 33 of A Christmas Auction

“She was hit on the head by a psycho fan of Colin Omstead’s,” I grated, the situation becoming all too clear now that my girl was being tended to.

“Oh dear. May I?” He waved his hand toward Holly.

“Holly, baby, the doctor needs to see your head.” I ran my fingers along the side of her hair, pushing the long golden locks over her shoulder.

She sniffled and then sat up a little straighter while still in my lap. Her head turned and the doctor grimaced.

“Looks like you got clobbered good. I’m just going to shine this light into your eyes, and ask that you follow it for me,” he turned a pen light on and moved it around. “Looks good. I’m going to inspect the injury, okay?”

I liked this doctor’s approach. He asked for permission and told her exactly what he was going to do.

The doc reached out and used his thumbs to manipulate the wound, feeling around it. “Can you get me an icepack from the little fridge over there?” he requested of the attendant who’d followed us in and hadn’t left.

The attendant did as the doctor bade.

“We’re going to have you sit here with the ice on your forehead for a little while, see if we can’t get some of that swelling down. Do you know if you lost consciousness at all? Even for a second?”

Holly shook her head. “I didn’t black out; it just hurts a lot.”

“I’ll bet. Was anyone else with you?” he asked, and as if the devil himself had risen straight from hell, I could hear a man screaming Holly’s name.

Eventually, a slew of people, Colin leading the pack, raced into the room. His tie was half off, his shirt ripped and his hair a bird’s nest on his head. There were lipstick stains all over his face, hands, and neck.

“Holly! My God, are you okay?” He stormed forward and fell to his knees before us, attempting to reach out to touch what was not his.

“You can back up, Mr. Omstead,” I clung to my precious cargo. “Give her some space,” I demanded in a tone that would be followed or consequences would ensue.

“Colin,” Holly whispered dejectedly before her face crumpled into despair and the tears made a second appearance.

“She’s clearly upset after being attacked.” For the second time in just over a week, I wanted to say, but wasn’t about to share Holly’s personal life with this do-gooder loser.

“I can’t believe that happened. The event swore there was security up and down the carpet. If I had known it would be so easy for the fans to break through the barricade, we would have gone through the rear private entrance. I’m so so sorry,” he reached out as if to console her.

I boldly shoved his hand away. “Nofuckingtouching.”

Holly reached for my hand and patted it, before clearing her throat and sliding off my lap and to my side. “Thank you, Bruno.” Her eyes met mine. “Thank you for saving me…again.”

“Again?” Colin asked, confused.

“Shut it!” I barked at him.

“Hey?” Holly cupped my cheek. “Look at me.”

I glared at Colin and then turned my head, her eyes were filled with gratitude and something I didn’t want to name but it looked a lot like trust.

“Thank you for saving me, Bruno. That could have been really bad without you there.”

“It’s my job,” I said on autopilot. “It was my honor,” I corrected, letting down that mental wall between me and my feelings for just a moment. The experience was unusual and made me itch to get up and do something, anything, but instead, I forced myself to take it in, to look into Holly’s warm gaze and accept her thanks. “You’re welcome.”

She nodded and then shifted to face Colin. “Are you okay?”

I gritted my teeth and let her do her thing.

“Fine. I mean, that was scary. It hasn’t been that bad in years, but I’m more worried about you.” His gaze went to her forehead where the ugly bump was getting uglier by the second.

“Ice,” I reminded her.

She placed the icepack back over the injury and winced. “I’ll try to rally, maybe the doctor can give me some pain meds so I could stay…”

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