Page 25 of Three Days of Holiday

Some people liked to drink a box of wine, but we’d go through at least two boxes of coffee during the night shift.

“Did you lie to our Holly?” Anessa asked, ignoring my comments about the coffee.

Is that what this was about? I ground my teeth together, not sure what Holly told the two women.

Vonnie returned from the kitchen as Holly jumped up from her seat and walked between me and the counter, placing her body between Anessa and me.

She held her hands out on either side of her like she was waiting for one of us to charge the other. “Wait, Anessa, you didn’t hear it all.”

So shedidshare our personal business at the town bakery.

“Is or is not his name William Causebay?” Anessa asked.

Holly’s cheeks turned a slight shade of pink and she whipped her head in my direction with her eyes wide. “Well… yes.”

A dinner roll the size of my fist flew over Holly’s shoulder and smacked me in the face. It hit my cheek and bounced off to the floor, but my eyes widened and watered at the pain stabbing through my entire head from my already bruised nose.

Why were people in this town so violent?

“What the fuck? Did you just throw a roll at me?”

The dinner roll came to a stop at the edge of the doorway and I stared at it, aware it was a rather large ball of bread but unwilling to connect to the fact that it just hit me in the face.

“Guys!” Holly said, staring back at her friends, but it was too late.

Vonnie leaned around and chucked a muffin directly at me. Thankfully, she had horrible aim. I ducked, and the muffin bounced off my head, landing on the floor close to the bread roll.

My eyes widened in shock when Holly turned back, looking at me with a similar expression. She bit her lips and obviously tried hard not to laugh but failed.

I backed up toward the door but not quickly enough as they flung another muffin and a bagel in my direction, hitting me in the stomach and the top of the thigh. The two women rounded the counter, standing directly by Holly as she cupped her hands out trying to hold them back.

She looked at me and her expression said everything I needed to know, but still she yelled, “Run, Will,” before I made it out the door.

Anessa stormed past Holly, holding a large wicker basket of various muffins, bagels, and more of those huge rolls. Her fingers dug into the bread as she raised it and aimed in my direction.

I didn’t need coffee that badly. Without even a single head jerk of a goodbye, I turned, ripped open the bakery door, and took two running steps outside.

A beautiful brunette whose laughter reminded me of bells followed me down the street.

I slowed long enough to turn as a muffin rolled alongthe sidewalk past my feet. Anessa stood at the stoop of the front of the bakery, leveling me with an angry glare as I twisted back around to walk beside Holly, giving the crazy woman my back.

“Those friends of yours?” I asked her once the laughter reduced to a slight chuckle, and she no longer sounded like she had trouble getting enough air.

Holly shrugged but wore a smile. “Everyone is a friend at the bakery.”

Obviously, that wasn’t the truth since they pelted me with baked goods. Maybe she meant locals.

We walked in silence for half a block headed in the completely wrong direction of my vehicle, but getting to spend time with her meant I’d walk all the way back to Clearwater if I had to. As long as she was beside me.

“I’m sorry you didn’t get your coffee,” she said as a powerful gust of wind blew in from the ocean.

I tucked my hands in my pockets to stop them from reaching out to hold hers. To do so in the middle of the day and in Pelican Bay might mean certain death. “It’s okay. I’ll just get some in Clearwater.”

The only reason I came to the bakery in the first place was because I wanted to support the local establishment in Holly’s town and, if I was being honest, the possibility of seeing her. I just hadn’t planned on a full-out muffin attack.

“Did you tell them about us kissing?” I asked, wanting to hear the answer to the question but also just her voice.

Holly took two steps before she answered. “I forgot.”

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