Holding Holly (Love and Football Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

what you want.”
    Fifteen minutes later, he’d helped Holly into her winter coat, scarf, and stocking hat, and they stepped outside.
    “Would you like to walk to the pizza place?” he asked Holly. “Your grandma talked me out of the Mexican food.”
    She let out a laugh. “She likes the pizza place better, so I’m not surprised by that. A walk might be nice.”
    The snow was falling faster, and a brisk wind blew the flakes into their faces. He held out his arm for her to slide her hand through as they walked.
    “It wasn’t snowing when I got home earlier,” she said. “I hope this doesn’t mean we’re getting another big storm.”
    “Maybe it’ll slow down while we’re having dinner,” he said.
    The clouds thickening overhead, though, weren’t comforting. He saw a car sliding a bit on the ice and freshly fallen snow as the driver made his way down Noel’s main street, and he reached out to make sure Holly walked on the interior of the sidewalk next to him. She grinned up at him.
    “You’re going to stop the car if it skids onto the sidewalk?” she teased.
    “I’ll block it back into the other lane for you,” he said.
    They turned onto the street leading to the pizza place, and he reached out for her hand. Despite the thick mittens she wore, her hand was warm and small inside his. He curled his fingers protectively around it. A few more steps, and they’d be inside again. He saw more cars sliding on the street a few hundred feet ahead of them. Maybe they were just really bad drivers.
    Holly glanced up at him again. Maybe it was his imagination, but she clutched his hand a little more tightly. He felt ten feet tall as a result.
    “We’ll be okay,” he reassured her. He increased his stride. “They’re nowhere near us.”
    The restaurant was deserted. The guy behind the counter called out, “Hey, Holly. You didn’t call ahead this time.”
    “We’re dining in,” she said. She reached up to pull off her hat and her scarf. A few strands of hair clung to her cold-reddened cheeks. Derrick wondered if she’d be shocked if he kissed her. Right now.
    The guy behind the counter stared at Derrick.
    Holly said, “We’re seating ourselves tonight, aren’t we?” She sat down at a table for two, and Derrick pulled a twenty out of his money clip and slid it on the counter.
    “There’s twenty bucks in it for you if you don’t call or text all your friends and tell them I’m here right now,” he said to the kid.
    “I would have settled for an autograph,” the kid told him.
    “Well, then. I’ll make sure you get one of those too.” Derrick reached out to fist-bump with the kid. “Will you bring us whatever it is Holly likes to drink, and bring me a Coke, please?”
    Derrick jammed the twenty into the tip jar in front of the cash register and returned to the table.
    The counter guy brought a large Coke for Derrick, a glass of white wine for Holly, and a couple of laminated menus.
    “Does your grandma still like the chop-chop salad? I’ll make sure there’s one for her when you’re ready to leave,” the server said. “You probably heard the pass is closed in both directions.”
    Oh, shit, Derrick thought. The passes were the only way back over the mountains, and he’d taken the pass that was typically the easiest to navigate during winter weather.
    He also needed to be at the practice facility by eight AM tomorrow morning.
    “What? No. Really?” Holly said. “When?”
    “It was just on the radio. Several jackknifed semis and an avalanche, plus another huge storm is on its way. Nobody’s getting out of town until tomorrow morning at the earliest.” He pulled an order pad out of his pocket. “What would you like?”
    Derrick’s coach was going to kill him if he wasn’t at practice tomorrow. The Sharks were playing Denver on Sunday afternoon. Hopefully he’d be out of Noel by then. The tire guys hadn’t said a word about this possibility, either.
    “You’re not going to be able to