by Boyd, Eliza
“You mean what happens now that you’ve seen my brother half naked again?” her friend remarked in a sassy voice.
“No!” she whisper-shouted. “I mean why is he even here?”
Rachel’s face went in and out of view as she moved around on her end. The ocean in all of its glory covered the screen for a moment instead, and then Rachel sat and filled Hailey’s monitor once more, huffing out a breath. “You know, he said he was going to visit soon the last time I talked to him, but you know how he is: all work. I didn’t think he’d really do it.” She shrugged. “It’s been so long since he’s actually come by, but he must have meant it this time.”
Hailey let her head fall back to the headboard. “He must have.”
“Seems kind of good though,” Rachel reasoned. “With your shoulder and all.”
Leaning forward, Hailey glared at her friend. “This wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t randomly showed up!”
But Rachel didn’t seem so convinced. “Otis is a huge dog. That could have happened on a walk with him.”
Hailey’s eyes flared wide. “Then why did you ask me to watch him?”
“Because I know how much you’ve missed him, and we both know he wouldn’t have done that to you on purpose,” Rachel reasoned in a soothing tone.
She was right. Hailey didn’t think Otis had meant to hurt her—or that he would have really done that on a walk. But it didn’t change the reality: that she and Jared were now stuck in this house for at least the next four days.
“And hey, maybe this is what the two of you need right now. Things ended so negatively,” Rachel said. “This could be a positive highlight to your relationship after all these years.”
“That’s what my aunt said,” Hailey mumbled.
“And we both can’t be wrong.” Rachel grinned.
Hailey sucked in a breath to tell her how wrong they both could be, but a knock on the door made her close her mouth. She whipped her head in that direction and then held a finger up at Rachel. “Yeah?” she called out.
“Hey,” Jared said. “Can I open the door?”
“Sure.” Hailey hit the mute button on her laptop and lowered the screen a bit.
When Jared cracked the door open, he said, “I picked up your medications. And I wasn’t sure if you wanted dinner, but I ordered a pizza. It should be here in a few minutes, so if you want any, just come on down.”
Food. She hadn’t thought about real food all day. She’d been in cupcake-creation mode, and all the sweets had been filling—until now. Her stomach rumbled at the thought of an actual meal.
“That’d be great,” she said. Then she pointed to her laptop. “After this. Work stuff.” She shrugged her good shoulder.
A small smile tilted Jared’s lips, and he nodded. “Great.” Then he closed the door.
Hailey exhaled. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath, but she had. This whole situation with Jared was so strange. He’d taken her to the ER, picked up way more maple syrup than she really needed for a week, and now had dinner on the way. Sure, he’d made a few work calls, but he’d done more for her in the last twenty-four hours than he had in the last twenty-four months of their marriage. The last thing Hailey needed to do was like it. But she couldn’t deny that pang in her chest, the squeeze of her heart. She’d missed that Jared, even after seven years apart.
When she lifted the lid of her laptop, Rachel was waving her hand and saying something Hailey couldn’t hear. Hailey unmuted her. “Sorry,” she said. “What were you saying?”
“I’m work stuff?” Rachel asked, finding that amusing.
Hailey narrowed her eyes. “You heard that?”
Rachel’s head tilted to the side. “You muted me, not you guys.”
Whoops. Hailey’s stomach clenched as she thought the conversation over. They hadn’t said anything Rachel shouldn’t have heard, and Hailey was glad for that.
“You could have told him you were talking to me,” Rachel said.
“But then he’d find out we were talking about him.”
Rachel raised one eyebrow. “Of course we’re talking about him! He showed up out of nowhere like your knight in shining armor and—”
“We’ve been over this,” Hailey cut in. “I’m hurt because of him.”
“All the more reason to let him take care of you and buy you dinner,” Rachel said, waggling her brow.
Hailey deflated, her good arm flying into the air and then flopping onto the bed. “Don’t encourage this!”
“My two favorite people? Getting back together? What’s not to encourage?”
Shaking her head, Hailey said, “It’s not like that, Rachel. Don’t get your hopes up.” She recalled Jared’s own words about how it would never work. She didn’t want to tell Rachel that because saying it out loud would sting and her friend would know exactly how she felt about that.
But Rachel simply shrugged. “Whatever you say. Go enjoy your dinner date.” Then she winked. “I bet he got it just the way you like it: all the veggies, extra sauce, and no cheese.”
Hailey couldn’t roll her eyes any harder. “I guarantee you he didn’t. He never liked pizza that way.”
“Ooookay,” her friend said, letting the word hang in the air. “You be sure to tell me what he put on that pizza later.”
Unable to resist, Hailey poked her tongue out at her friend. There was nothing like a conversation about a boy liking a girl that reduced her to a five-year-old.
Rachel waved and ended the Skype call. With that over, Hailey shut her laptop and let out a deep exhale. Both her aunt and her friend thought this week with Jared was a good idea. She’d been resistant to the whole thing, but if the most important women in her life were on board, maybe Hailey would warm up to it. She could give him a chance, get to know him, and maybe they could be friends again. Long-distance friends who might bounce work ideas off each other.
Yeah. That could work.
She tried to convince herself of that, but the reality was that they were only supposed to be friends in school too. Acquaintances, really. Clearly, it hadn’t worked out that way.
When Jared and Rachel’s family had moved to town, she’d met Rachel first. They’d become instant best friends, and Hailey had gone to their house a lot. But when Jared’s relationship with his parents took a turn for the worse, Rachel didn’t want Hailey over anymore. Instead, they met up at the park, and Jared was there with his friends quite a bit. With only two years between the siblings, they got along fairly well and shared a group of friends once they both got to high school. So, naturally, Hailey and Jared started spending more time together.
Then they started spending time alone together.
Hailey remembered that first time they both showed up at the park when no one else was there. They hadn’t planned it, but later on, they were both thankful it’d happened. Otherwise, they might not have realized how much fun they had together. How open he could be with her when they were alone. How much she appreciated who Jared was when no one else was around.
A friendship turned into a date. A date turned into a romantic relationship. Then they were off to college, engaged, and married.
Luckily for Hailey, Rachel had been thrilled. With the rift between Jared and their parents, Rachel loved having Hailey as family. She’d been equally as devastated, though, when the marriage had ended. Now, she seemed way too excited to see Hailey and Jared spending time together. That worried Hailey, but she couldn’t choose Rachel’s feelings for her. She could only hope that it all worked out for the best.
Still, the pizza thing had her curious.
Clutching the frozen bag of peas to her shoulder, she made her way down the stairs. When she was halfway down, the doorbell rang and Jared answered the door. Whatever was on the pizza almost didn’t matter. It smelled so good and she was starving.
When Jared turned around, he spotted her on the stairs. “Ah. Just in time,” he said to her with a grin, taking the pizza into the kitchen.
She met him in there, taking a deep inhale of the Italian-scented food. Then her stomach rumbled—loudly.
Jared chuckled. “I suppose you don’t want to eat these peas with dinner,” he said, reaching for the bag on her shoulder. Then he put them in the freezer for her and spun to get plates from the cabinet.
In a daze, she watched as he got everything ready for dinner. Glasses of water, napkins, and a cupcake for each of them for dessert. Even two of the dog cupcakes for Otis so he could join them.
When he was all done, he gripped the back of a kitchen chair and looked at Hailey. “I think we’re ready.” Then he pulled the chair out for her and gestured with a hand for her to sit.
Hailey had to blink a few times to remind herself that this was reality. As she walked to the table, she worked hard to push Rachel’s encouragement down. Anyone could be whoever they needed to be for a full day. But that concept hinged upon the idea that Jared was actively trying to be someone she’d want him to be. She couldn’t imagine him wanting her back after the way she’d left him, so it wasn’t like it mattered anyway.
Still, she sat in the chair across from him, the pizza box between them likely holding the solution to the “could he?” question she might not truly want answered.
To lighten her chaotic mood, she adjusted her napkin on the table and said, “Pizza and cupcakes. The dinner of champions.”
The smile on Jared’s face helped her answer the “could she” question she hadn’t even wanted to consider. “The cupcakes are all you. But the pizza was the only thing I knew I couldn’t screw up.”
Hailey gulped as he reached to open the box. And when the lid rose to reveal what he’d ordered, her heart slammed against her ribs. She couldn’t keep her gasp down and it flew out of her mouth.
“I got it right, didn’t I?” he asked, sounding earnest.
There, in front of her, was a pizza with all the veggies, extra sauce, and no cheese—just the way she’d always eaten it.
All she could do was nod.
And think about how she absolutely was not telling Rachel about this.
10
Despite having spent too many hours researching other food delivery companies the night before, Jared set everything up for Hailey to bake the next morning. The moment he heard her door close upstairs, he went to the staircase to wait for her. He felt bad that he’d run off after dinner, and by the time he’d wrapped his research up, she’d already closed her door for the night. He wasn’t sure if she’d been asleep, but he hadn’t wanted to bother her. So he’d settled in for the night as well.
Now, he felt a strange sensation in his stomach. It curled up toward his heart as he waited for Hailey to appear at the top of the stairs. He tried to chalk it up to old memories, but that didn’t sit right with him. This was a new feeling. The one Thomas had planted in his head?
No. This was all him.
It was no secret that he hadn’t wanted his marriage to end. He’d loved Hailey back then—so much. He’d been terrible at showing her though. And who could blame him? With no good example of what love was at home, he hadn’t truly known how. Once he’d gotten the girl, he’d switched his focus back to showing his parents what he was really made of—not what they’d expected from him. And it’d cost him everything.
Well, not everything. He still had work. It wasn’t the same business, but every choice he’d made, including those that had cost him his marriage, had led him there.
Back to her.
It couldn’t be coincidence, no matter what he’d said to Thomas before.
As soon as she arrived at the top of the staircase, her hair a sleep-mussed mess and her pajamas on crooked, he knew deep down he’d been wrong. Coincidence didn’t exist when it came to love. He wasn’t sure he loved this new version of Hailey yet, but he’d never stopped loving his wife, no matter their differences and what they’d disagreed on. He wanted to find out how true that really was.
“Good morning,” he said, his hands clasped behind his back. With one hand, he gestured toward the kitchen. “If you’ll join me in here, you’ll find everything you need to make another test batch.”
She scrunched her face on her way down the steps, but he could tell there was a smile in there too. “Just itching for some more sugar and carbs? Need your next fix?”
“That’s right.” He grinned, holding out his other hand when she reached the second to the last stair. “You’ve got a lifelong customer here and he’s putting in another order.”
Hailey didn’t take his hand. Not right away. She paused in front of him, a curious expression covering her face. It was like she wasn’t sure what to make of him anymore, but that was okay as long as she gave him a shot to see who he was now. He had an entirely different life than they’d known before, and he wanted to have a chance to show her everything about it.
His sprawling mansion in Miami, where he spent time to visit with some of his vendors. The plane he’d bought for his frequent flights to go there. His penthouse in New York, where he conducted most of his business. That vacation house he’d bought in France because he and Hailey had once flirted with the idea of doing that when he became a millionaire. They’d dreamt of lots of things they could do with that money. Now, he was a billionaire who could do all of those things several times over. But without her, those things weren’t as appealing.
If he had the chance to give those things to her, that’s what he wanted to do.
When Hailey finally took his hand, his heart pulsed harder for a few beats before he willed it back to its normal rhythm. If he jumped the gun, she’d shut the whole thing down. He needed to prove to her that he was worthy of another shot.
He led her to the kitchen, where the island was covered in all the ingredients he could remember her having out the day before. He might have thrown a few things in there just in case, but it was the thought that counted, he hoped. Plus, he’d turned his phone off so he could focus on helping her, so if she needed anything else, he’d go buy it for her. Above all else, he wanted her shoulder to heal so she could get back to cupcake baking on her own.
Then he wanted to be in her life again.
One step at a time.
Her gasp when she entered the kitchen felt like a good first step—even if she did let his hand go.
“You did all of this?” she asked, gazing around the kitchen and noticing everything he’d laid out for her: cupcake tins, liners, bowls, and spatulas. Everything was ready.
“Yeah. I needed a break this morning,” he told her. “I’ll explain it later, but Thomas and I have something we’re trying to figure out at work, and getting all of this together let me stop thinking about it for a minute.”
“Thomas?” she questioned, raising her eyebrows. “The same one?”
Jared chuckled. “The one and only.” But he understood her question. He was sure Hailey couldn’t believe they were still working together after all of the mistakes Jared had made. Why Thomas still believed in him, he wasn’t sure. But when Hailey had stopped, he’d been glad for Thomas’s support. Now, Thomas was just as rich thanks to him, so Jared considered them even. “He’s the COO of my company now.”
Hailey eyed him carefully. “And you are…”
“The CEO,” he answered, walking around the island.
She placed her hands on the edge of the counter, peeking over the ingredients set out between them. Squinting, she asked, “What’s the difference?”
That made Jared laugh. “Some days, I’m not even sure.”
Hailey smiled before bringing her attention to everything on the island. Then she glanced behind her and bit her lip.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said carefully. Then she gazed at him again. “I just… If you…”
He dipped his head. “If I what?”
She worried her lip some more before saying, “If you still need a break, I’d love the help with these. I should probably wear that sling the doctor said I should wear…” She t
railed off, staring at something over his shoulder. Then she waved a hand. “Never mind. I’ll be fine.” Coyly, she said, “I’m sure the CEO has lots to do today.”
“Nope,” he answered immediately. “I have a call tomorrow, but for now, the phone’s upstairs and off. I’m all yours today.” He rubbed his hands together, ready to bake with her. “So, what are we doing first?”
Like a statue, Hailey stood there, stock-still for several moments. She wasn’t even blinking. Just wide-eyed and clearly surprised by his response. Then a shocked, “Really?” flew out of her mouth.
“Really.” Jared came around the island and stood next to her. “I’m supposed to be on vacation, so I should treat it like a vacation.”
Her expression zipped back to normal. “Oh. Right. Yeah.” Then she nodded and stepped away to pick a bowl.
He felt like he’d said the wrong thing for some reason, but he couldn’t place it. Instead, he found her sling in the living room and then brought it into the kitchen. When he held it out, she took it from him and tried to do it herself. She needed help though, and he was right there to do that for her.
That close to her, he could smell the lavender of the shampoo she loved. He wasn’t sure if the scent was real or just in his memories, but it reminded him of so many blissful nights of falling asleep with her in his arms, long hugs when he’d get home from work in the early days, and mornings when he’d kiss the top of her head before he left. Thinking about a day in reverse like that put his whole life into perspective.
“Thanks,” she muttered when her sling was secure around her body. “I hope you’re really ready to help, because I can’t do much with this thing.”
“What can I do?” he asked—and mentally smacked himself on the forehead. He needed to stop asking that question before he got an answer he didn’t want.
Leave me alone.
Go away.