Operation: Married by Christmas (3 page)

H
aley bit her lip as she realized she'd just made a scene in front of everyone standing behind her. How could wounds so old feel so raw and fresh? She closed her eyes and struggled for calm. She and Will had planned to marry a week before Christmas ten years ago. Their almost wedding anniversary was coming up and, truth be told, there hadn't been a Christmas season that didn't pass without her thinking about what might have been…if only he'd cared enough.

Reeling in her emotions, Haley clasped her palms together and plastered on a smile as she watched him disappear down the street. She was determined that no one would know just how much she'd been shaken by Will Sutton's condemnation.

Condemnation.

Just who did the man think he was? She frowned, and her temper started escalating again. Sucking in a cleansing breath of cool air, she had to really concentrate to put on her saleswoman's face—the everything's-going-my-way face.

It was hard to do sometimes, but she wasn't making her way up the ladder of success by accident. Nope, she'd faced harder people than Will over the last few years, kept her wits about her and come out on top. She learned early on that many of her fellow real-estate agents would weasel and lie and connive to take her sales at every opportunity. Five-and six-figure commissions tended to bring out the worst in people. It had taken being tricked out of a few commissions and having to eat peanut butter for a month, but she'd finally smartened up and shucked the small-town gullibility…on the inside. On the outside she learned that her open and friendly face was her number-one moneymaker. Once she'd learned to watch her back and not trust anyone but herself, things had started to happen. Haley could smile with the best of them and charm her way right to the bank. The saying Don't Get Mad, Get Even went a long way toward the truth.

Haley spun around, smile in place. “I don't know about all of you, but a good fight in the morning makes me so hungry I could eat a bear. How about it, Sam? It's been far too many years since I had your bacon and eggs.”

To her surprise, everyone was smiling at her even before she'd turned around. It was a bit disconcerting, but instantly her fake smile turned genuine. She had forgotten just how sweet Mule Hollow residents could be.

“One plate of eggs and bacon coming up, Haley Bell,” Sam said, holding the door for her as everyone parted and let her enter the diner first.

“See, what'd I tell y' all,” she heard Applegate say to Norma Sue and Esther Mae as she passed by him. He was grinning, and Haley's heart felt good in that moment. Since her grandma Birdie had died, he just hadn't been the same. And though he didn't say much about it when they talked, Haley knew he missed her something fierce. Again, guilt settled on Haley's shoulders.

Before she could sink with the weight of it, the majority of people started telling her goodbye, streaming back out of the diner on their way to work. The exuberant salon owner, Lacy, whom Haley would easily have recognized from Molly Popp's description in the newspaper columns, threw her arms around her and hugged her. Then she dashed off. It was as if she were standing there one minute and—poof—she was gone with only the swinging door to prove that she had indeed been there. Haley was completely taken by surprise, and she couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her. So that was the woman who'd helped bring about this amazing change in Mule Hollow and its Main Street.

Haley decided then and there that she would make it a point to meet Lacy again.

“She's always like that,” Esther Mae said. “We get a real kick out of that one.”

“She seems really fun,” Haley said and started to follow her grandpa back to his table.

“Oh, no you don't,” Norma Sue said, grasping her by both shoulders and aiming her toward a booth. “Haley Bell, you come sit with us.”

Haley glanced at Applegate and he started to protest, but Norma Sue cut him off. “Now remember, Applegate, you and Stanley have a checker game calling your names. Besides, you and Haley Bell can visit after y' all go home.”

“That's right,” Esther Mae said, pushing Haley into the booth then scooting in beside her so that Haley had to slide in fast or get sat on.

Immediately, Adela and Norma Sue sat down across the table and looked expectantly at her. Haley was surrounded, plain and simple. She couldn't have gotten away from their inquiring eyes if she wanted to.

“I just have to ask,” Esther Mae cooed, leaning in and batting her lashes. “Who's your favorite movie star that you've met out there?”

“Well, I—” Haley started to answer but Esther Mae was so excited she kept right on going.

“I just love that Paul Newman. Cool Hand Luke. You know, that movie he was in,
Cool Hand Luke.
Oh, he just makes my heart pitter-patter thinking about it. Did you get to meet him yet?”

“Esther Mae,” Norma Sue snapped. “Calm down, and let the girl talk. So did you? Did you meet Paul Newman? My favorite movie of his is
Hud.
You know, he was such a good bad boy. Just made you want to reform him yourself.”

Esther Mae harrumphed. “Talk about hogging the conversation. How's she supposed to answer with you going on like that? So did ya?”

Haley met Adela's laughing blue eyes and smiled. “Yes. His main home is in Connecticut, but actually I did meet Mr. Newman and his lovely wife at a charity that I was attending just last month.”

“No you didn't!” exclaimed Esther Mae. “You really did?”

Haley laughed and nodded. “I really did.”

Norma Sue sighed and her eyes got all dreamy for a minute. “Was he as cute up close as he is in the movies?”

Haley assured them that he was.

“How about that Sean Connery?” Esther Mae asked.

Haley then gave the ladies a rundown of whom she'd met, who was nice and who she hoped to never have to see again. She was thankful when Sam ambled over with a pot of coffee and her plate of eggs and bacon. It smelled fabulous. Haley had tried becoming a vegetarian when she first left Mule Hollow, but her Texas roots went too deep. She loved bacon and steak, and though she usually ate chicken or fish, she planned to enjoy Sam's cooking to the fullest while she was here.

“So tell us about this last man you walked out on—”

“Esther Mae,” Adela said in her soft voice. “Let's not pry into Haley's business.”

Haley gave Adela a grateful smile, took a bite of crisp bacon and realized that at some point she would have to explain her actions. It was either get it out now or spend the rest of her visit dodging the subject.

“It's okay,” she said, wiping her lips with her napkin.

“See,” Esther Mae said, beaming. “I knew she'd tell us. We're practically family. Besides, all it takes is a good look at her to know she needs somebody to talk to.
And
that she's been working herself to the bone. Really, honey, you're so thin. You haven't had any of that liposuction, have you?”

Haley chuckled. She couldn't help it; the out-spoken Esther Mae cracked her up. “No lipo for me,” she said, stirring a packet of sugar into her coffee. Thin was fashionable where she lived. To fit in she had to stay “spit-shined and polished,” as Applegate would have called it. “I work out regularly at the gym—I'm too chicken for anything else. Okay, here's the lowdown. His name is Lincoln Billings, and I shouldn't have agreed to marry him—”

“Not that I'm judging or anything,” Sam said, coming over to top off her coffee and refill everyone else's. “But just 'cause a man asks ya to marry him don't mean ya gotta say yes.”

“Sam,” Norma Sue said, frowning and waving him off. “This here is woman talk, if you don't mind.”

Sam bristled. “All I'm saying is Haley needs to learn to say no. Seems it'd save her on wedding dresses—”

“Sam, dear, it's okay.” Adela placed her hand on his. “You have a very valid point. But we don't want to overwhelm Haley when she's only just come home. Especially after going through what she went through.”

Sam looked down at his wife and melted before Haley's eyes. The man absolutely adored Adela.

“You're right.” Beaming, he patted her hand then strutted toward the kitchen. For a tiny man, he suddenly looked nine feet tall.

“He is such a dear,” Adela sighed, watching him go before meeting Haley's gaze. “You know, Haley, one day there's going to be a man who can truly win your heart and you won't want to run away anymore. I'll pray for you on that one.”

Haley sobered, thinking that one already had won her heart. He'd also broken it. And though she'd tried to force her heart back together, she was starting to think it couldn't be done. She wondered if her hardened heart would ever truly let a man in again. She couldn't help thinking that it might be too late for her. Maybe that was why she'd said yes to Linc when she'd known better. He'd caught her on a low night, during a beautiful candlelit dinner, and for a little while she'd let herself be…different. She'd pretended that her heart wasn't jaded and cold.

But in the end it just hadn't been enough.

 

Three hours later, back at her grandpa's house, Haley put a call in to her office. It wasn't pretty.

“Haley, what is the matter with you?”

“Sugar, I'm tired. I told you that.” Haley had just finished talking to Linc. It was just as she'd suspected—he was okay and already moving forward.

Unlike some people she knew, like her assistant, Sugar. There was silence over the telephone line, and she braced for more questions. Sugar didn't give up easily. That was one reason she made such a great assistant.

“Look, Haley, you are delusional if you think I'm buying that bit of nonsense. Something is up, and I know it. Look, I know you didn't love Lincoln, but, girl, I have never seen you pass up a good deal. And Lincoln Billings was a great deal. I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but I think you must be sick. I mean really sick. This isn't like you.”

“Sugar, we've already been through this. It was exactly like me. I walked out on two other men before Linc. It's a pattern.”

“True, but they weren't Lincoln Billings. With Linc you had it made.”

“Sugar, stop it, you're not selling me a house. The only reason Linc wanted to marry me was because I was a challenge and he was bored. Once the challenge wore off he'd have grown bored again and I'd have joined the ranks of all his other exes.”

“Well, hon, you're probably right about that…but, Haley, you would've had it made for a little while. I'm telling you, I'd have grabbed him up so fast—”

“Stop it, Sugar.” Haley couldn't help smiling. Sugar was Sugar, her assistant by day but an aspiring actress on the side. If Haley thought
she
was in a cutthroat business, Sugar could really tell some horror stories. She'd bought into the whole Hollywood scene and was constantly auditioning for parts looking for her big break, knowing that every day that passed was another day taking her further away from her dream. But she was sweet and endearing, and Haley worried about her. Still, right now Haley just needed her to be her assistant and take instruction without all this chatter. “Sugar, I don't want to talk about Linc anymore. I talked to him before calling you and all is well. He's fine, I'm fine, so drop it.”

“Oh, all right,” she huffed into the line. “So if that's not what's got you so tied in knots, what is it? You just don't sound like yourself, Haley.”

She didn't feel like herself, but she didn't tell her friend that. “Look, Sugar, I'm fine. Just keep your eyes and ears open, and if any spectacular opportunities arise that I need to know about call me. Cell phones are worthless here, but leave a message on the machine and I'll get back to you.”

They said their goodbyes and, as soon as the line went dead, Haley felt isolated. Sugar was her connection to the world she'd come to know. The world she'd worked hard to belong to. So if that was true, then why was she back here in Mule Hollow? Why was she feeling so unsettled?

Haley covered her face with her hands then raked them through her hair as she stared out Applegate's kitchen window toward the barn. In a simpler time, she'd loved it here. Being homeschooled and living in a travel trailer was normal for many kids whose fathers worked the pipeline and whose mothers chose to travel with them. However, her parents chose to let her live with her grandparents because she'd loved it there so much when she was younger. But as a teen she'd grown restless and dreamed of more. Looking back, she realized that those dreams had overshadowed her love of the small-town life. Still she'd needed to leave. She knew that now. She'd had to prove herself by following her dreams. No matter what it had cost her.

Which was all the more reason for the turmoil she was feeling.

She might not be certain about why she'd come home, or why she'd felt the urgent need to come directly here after calling off her wedding, but she knew that she didn't regret having left Mule Hollow. She regretted only having hurt Will Sutton. And, she had to admit, the way he'd hurt her.