Chapter 183: Hey

HOLLY’S POV

It was a little boy.

No more than three years old.

He stood in the doorway, his chubby fingers clutching a green stuffed dinosaur with one eye missing. His hair was a tousled mess of caramel curls, cheeks flushed with sleep, and his eyes...oh my God, those eyes...wide and suspicious as he stared at me.

“Who are you?” he asked, blinking slowly. “How did you get into my house? Where’s my mommy?”

I screamed again, a shrill, bewildered banshee scream...because what the actual hell? Where did this tiny stranger come from?! Did he crawl out of the walls?!

Before I could finish my scream...or throw a towel at him in defense...Kayla came sprinting in, looking like she’d dropped everything at the sound of my death-siren.

“Oh my God, Holly, why did you scream like that?!” she yelled, grabbing the little boy by the shoulder protectively.

“I...can you see him?!” I gasped, pointing like I’d seen a ghost. “There’s a toddler here! A literal toddler! In your house!”

Kayla burst into a fit of laughter so violent, she had to lean against the wall.

“Who? Caden?” she wheezed.

“HUH?!” I blinked like she’d just told me the walls were made of cheese. “You know him?! Like… is he yours? Or, are you his nanny?!”

Her smile softened. “Yeah. I think it’s time we really catch up. Just…throw some clothes on while I tuck Caden back to sleep. Cool?”

I nodded dumbly, still trying to reboot my internal system.

As she disappeared with the boy, her boy, I stumbled back into the room like I’d just had an out-of-body experience. Then groaned dramatically as I dug through my duffel bag.

I hadn’t exactly packed child-friendly attires. I mean, I thought I’d be wrapped in David’s stupidly muscular arms by now, whispering "baby" in his ear until he begged me to stop...so forgive me for bringing only… provocative nighties and some “stay at home” sets that barely qualified as clothing.

After tossing a lace bodysuit across the room and rejecting a silk robe that screamed mistress, I finally found a pair of decent shorts and the oversized hoodie I’d wrapped around my waist while boarding the plane. I tied my hair into a quick ponytail and marched out of the room like a woman who was mostly decent and still emotionally spiraling.

Kayla was already in the living room, curled up on the couch. Two steaming mugs of cocoa waited on the table like a peace treaty.

“Hey,” I said as I settled beside her, tucking my legs up.

“Hey,” she whispered back.

But then I looked at her.

Really looked.

The bags under her eyes. The stray curls sticking out from her messy bun. The way her shoulders drooped like the world had been sitting on them for too long.

I reached for her hands and held them. “Really, hey.”

Her smile wobbled. “Hey,” she whispered again.

That was our thing. Hey was never just “hey.” It meant I see you. It meant talk to me. Back when I was the sick teenager and she was the one who refused to let me drown, it was our way of saying don’t lie to me right now. Tell me where it hurts.

Now… I just wanted to wrap her up and shield her from whatever storm had been tearing through her life.

She smiled softly, trying to shake it off. “Remember that Christmas we went back to the Millers’? And Ava made us take all those ‘Women in Power’ bootcamp classes like we were joining the CIA?”

“Oh my God,” I groaned. “The self-defense course where I accidentally punched that coach in the groin?”

She laughed, a real one this time. “He cried, Hols. Like legit tears. You almost got us banned.”

We cracked up again, sipping cocoa, slipping into those old memories like well-worn pajamas.

But the laughter… it shifted.

Softened.

Then cracked.

Kayla started crying.

Not ugly sobs. Just soft, exhausted tears that fell quietly as she stared at the mug in her hand.

I reached over and pulled her in. “I’m here now, Kay. You don’t have to carry all of it alone. Give me some. I’m not sick anymore.”

She laughed through the tears, clinging to me. “That year… the year I lost my dad… It was the worst.”

Her voice was barely audible. “I didn’t take Ava’s offer to pay for school because… because I found out I was pregnant.”

My heart stopped.

Tears welled in my eyes now. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you come to my sister?”

She looked down, ashamed. “Ava would’ve taken me in. I know. But I couldn’t live with myself. I felt like I’d ruined everything. I needed a fresh start… away from everyone. And I wanted to… to abort him. Caden. But I couldn’t. After I lost my dad, I felt like… maybe he was heaven’s way of giving me someone back.”

I covered my mouth, sobbing quietly.

“I suffered, Hols. God, I suffered. I ran the bakery pregnant, alone, with no help. But every morning, he looked at me with those eyes… and I lived. I lived for him.”

“You shut everyone out,” I whispered. “You shut me out. I thought we were soul sisters.”

“I know,” she cried. “I was just so ashamed.”

I sniffed, wiping at my nose. “Ashamed? Kay, does that word exist between us?”

She shook her head, tears slipping down from her eyes.

You remember that night in sophomore year when I tried weed for the first time?”

Kayla blinked, then her eyes widened. “Oh my God, don’t tell me you’re about to bring up the poop couch.”

I groaned. “I was high, okay?! I thought we were at your apartment.”

“You broke into the Ramirez’s living room, Hols. Sat there like you owned the place. And then—God help me—you dropped your pants, squatted, and took a full-on dump on their velvet couch.”

“I WAS STRESSED.”

“You were STONED.”

We both burst into laughter, tears welling up in our eyes.

“I still can’t believe you made me go clean it up before they got home.”

“I bought you that Chanel knockoff bag after!”

“You’re lucky it was convincing!”

We dissolved into laughter again, the kind that shook our ribs and made our sides ache.

Then the laughter faded. The warmth settled.

I leaned closer, cheeks flushed, heart thumping.

“And Kayla?” I whispered, eyes flicking down then back to her face. “That’s not even the worst of it.”

Her brows raised. “Oh no.”

I nodded solemnly, biting my lip. “There’s something else… Something only you should know. Something that no one—no one—can ever know.”

She leaned in. “You’re scaring me, Hols. What is it?”

I grinned.

Like a cheshire cat.