But here at her art studio, she was finding her true calling. She still had a few clients in New York that she was working with until she could make this studio start to pay. Her sister, who was a CPA, had designed a long-term investment strategy for Hadley and so far it was going pretty well.
She had designed some lithographs of the surrounding Cole’s Hill area and had a commission to do the Abernathy ranch.
The bell on the door to her shop rang and she glanced over her shoulder to see Helena coming toward her with two thermal coffee mugs and a pastry box from the Bluebonnet Bakery. “I brought breakfast.”
Hadley leaned her hip against the back counter, eyeing her sister. “What do you want?”
“What makes you think I want something?”
“It’s not even nine and you’re in my shop with a bribe.”
“Maybe I just love my little sister,” Helena said, putting the box on the counter in front of Hadley and handing her the thermal mug that was emblazoned with #BRIDETRIBE. She took the mug and inhaled the aroma. A skinny vanilla latte. Her sister definitely wanted something.
“You could, but I haven’t known you to get out of bed this early unless you needed something,” she said. Helena was famous in their family as a late sleeper and ridiculously hard to wake up under normal circumstances.
“Well, I might need your help to run interference with Mother.”
Hadley took a sip of her latte and reached out to open the box. There were two cheese Danishes and a chocolate cake doughnut inside. Of course, Helena had brought her favorites so this must be serious.
“With what?” she asked.
“I had to ask Mom and Dad to put the deposit down on the flowers and now she’s trying to take over. I mentioned that you were the artsy one and had already designed the flowers for the church and the reception...”
“That doesn’t sound bad. I’m not sure you needed to bring the latte and the pastries to ask me to do your design. I was already planning to do it,” Hadley said.
“Great. Glad to hear it. Mom is going to be over later to give you some notes on how she’d like the church to look. You will need to make some time to go and visit with the pastor, as well as with Kinley. Now that Mom is on board, we’re going to have Kinley plan it.”
Kinley Caruthers was a local girl who’d moved to Vegas and landed a primo job with Jaqs Veerland. The Jaqs Veerland, who planned weddings for A-listers and European royalty. Kinley had come back to Cole’s Hill to plan former NFL bad boy Hunter Caruthers’s wedding. Kinley had a complicated history with Hunter’s brother Nate and after they got engaged Jaqs opened a satellite office here in town so Kinley could work in Cole’s Hill.
“What?” Now the pastries were making a bit more sense.
“Sorry, sis,” she said.
“There aren’t enough cheese Danishes at the Bluebonnet to make this okay. Mom is going to be a complete tyrant about this,” Hadley said.
“I know. I’m sorry, but I had no choice.”
“Why not? I thought you’d budgeted to make sure you didn’t have to ask them for any money,” she said.
“I did, but something came up unexpectedly and we didn’t have enough for the deposit, so I had to ask Daddy.”
“That doesn’t sound like you.”
She shrugged. “You know how it is with brides.”
“Actually, I don’t. But I do know you and you have a backup for everything,” she said. She put her coffee mug on the counter and walked around to her sister. “What’s going on?”
Helena chewed her lower lip and turned away from Hadley, which made her even more concerned.
“Hel, whatever it is, you can tell me,” she said.
She put her arms at her sides and shrugged. “That’s just it. I don’t know what the problem is. Malcolm withdrew the money and I can’t ask him about it without it seeming like I’m checking up on him.”
“Uh, yes you can. It’s your wedding fund,” she said.
“I know, but I took out a large amount to buy him a wedding present and I asked him to trust me and he did...so now I have to give him the same trust,” she said.
“Did he say he bought you something with it?” she asked.
“No, he just said he’d have the money back in our account soon.”
“Soon? That doesn’t sound like Malcolm. When did he say that?”
“Six weeks ago,” Helena said.
“Uh...that doesn’t sound right.”
“I know. I asked Mauricio to see if he can find out what’s going on,” Helena said. “He was really sweet after you and Jackson left the party.”
Of course he was. She’d rather he was a jerk so she could go back to hating him and forget about how sexy he was, which she hadn’t been able to do since she’d left the party.
“Anyway, thanks for working with mom on this. How’s things with Jackson? He’s really cute. You two make a good couple.”
She shook her head. “I broke up with him.”
“What? Why?”
“For a reason I’m not sharing with you,” she said.
“No spark?”
“Yeah,” she said. She wasn’t planning to elaborate or let her sister know that Mauricio was still turning her on with a barely-there touch.
“So about the money...” Hadley said.
“I’m going to see if anything else comes of it from Mauricio. Otherwise, I just don’t know. Am I wrong to trust him?”
Hadley hugged her sister close. “I don’t know. My track record with trusting guys isn’t great. You know him the best.”
“I do,” Helena said, hugging her back. “You’re right. He’s fine. We’re fine. And you’re handling Mother so everything is good.”
She was glad she had her sister’s wedding to help design instead of focusing on her own non-existent love life. Of course, after Helena left the studio, all she could think about was that she’d said Mauricio had been sweet to her. She hated when he wasn’t a total douche because it made her remember how good things had been between them.
Three
Closing a deal in Houston, picking Alec up at the airport a few days earlier than expected and then driving back to Cole’s Hill hadn’t been what he’d planned for Friday, but Mauricio was hopeful that after the long day he’d fall into an exhausted sleep and for once not be tormented by dreams of Hadley.
But his youngest brother, Inigo, was back in town due to some downtime on the Formula One circuit and their father was in a rare mood, treating them all to dinner at the Peace Creek Steak House. His father loved it when he had all of his sons and his only grandson to himself. To be honest Mo liked these times too. Then they’d dropped the old man and Benito off at home in the Five Families neighborhood and headed out to the Bull Pit for shots of tequila and a grudge-match pool game.
“Twins versus the baby and the favorite,” Alec said, coming back to the high table with a round of Lone Star longnecks.
“Works for me,” Mo said. He and Alec had been a team since the womb, and they were pretty unstoppable once they got playing.
“Or as I like to think of it, the wusses versus the awesomes.”
“Awesomes? That’s not even a word. No wonder you’re a driver. You’re not smart enough for anything else,” Alec said, winking at Inigo.
“I’m plenty smart for you,” Inigo said. “Who gets paid to drive fast and who has to sit in an office in front of a computer? I think we both know who’s the smart one.”
“Touché,” Alec said, lifting his beer toward his little brother as Diego set up the balls and they tossed a coin to see who would go first.
As Mo listened to his brothers josh with each other and tossed the coin in the air, he felt a shiver go down his spine. He looked toward the jukebox and saw a pair of skintight jeans encasing an ass he’d never forget.
Hadle
y.
She had her hair loose, hanging over her shoulders, and was wearing a flimsy blouse and her hand-tooled leather boots. She threw her head back to laugh at something her sister said. Mo felt every part of his body tense and come alive at the same time. He could tell himself that he’d just imagined his reaction to that one touch at the engagement party, but he knew he would have been lying.
The coin fell to the floor and he cursed but didn’t bend down to pick it up.
“Dude...damn. Is it too late to change teams?” Alec teased.
Mauricio gave him the finger and bent to pick up the coin. “It was heads. We go first.”
“You’re going to need every advantage as long as Hadley is here,” Inigo said.
“Doubtful,” Mauricio said. “I was distracted by something else.”
“Really?” Diego asked. “What was it that caught your eye?”
His brothers were going to be asses and not leave this alone, and unless he wanted to turn a friendly Friday night into fight night and get himself kicked out of the Bull Pit again, he needed to shrug it off.
But that was his problem. He’d never been able to just shrug off anything where Hadley was concerned. He knew it and his brothers seemed to, as well. He was screwed. He’d moved on. Or had until that damned photo session. He should never have agreed to be a groomsman. Then he could have stayed away from Hadley until he found another woman. Someone who could push the last of the lingering sexual attraction he felt for her out.
“Dude, stop staring at her,” Alec said.
“Shut it, Alec. I’m not looking at her.”
“Whatever,” Alec said. “It’s your turn. Don’t screw up.”
He made a face at his brother and leaned over the table to line up his shot. The sound of the jukebox playing loud country music on a Friday night made it easier for him to focus on the game. He took a deep breath and broke the balls. Though he knew this was a friendly rivalry amongst his brothers, he didn’t want to lose.
He took his next shot, sinking a ball in the corner pocket, and then moved on to line up his next shot. He had a pretty good run of three balls before it was Diego’s turn. Mauricio went to lean against the high table next to Inigo, who was posting to one of his social media accounts. His youngest brother was a hot up-and-coming driver who had been on the Formula Two circuit for a few years before making it to the big leagues of Formula One.
“Not bad, Mo. I’d hate to see what would happen if you were really concentrating.”
“I am concentrating,” he said.
“Sure you are. Like you didn’t notice Hadley on the dance floor,” Inigo said, drawing his attention to the small wooden floor set to one side of the jukebox.
He cursed under his breath as he saw her dancing with a group of her girlfriends, and was unable to tear his eyes away from her. He tried to remind himself that he was over her, but when she moved to the music, her arms in the air, hips swaying, his body reacted like she was still his.
Maybe one more night together was what he needed to clear her out of his system for good. Of course, Hadley deserved better than that. She deserved an apology, not because he wanted something from her but because he never should have slept with Marnie when he was still...hell, while he still liked Hadley.
If losing her had taught him anything it was that he hadn’t wanted things to end so horribly between them.
He took another long swallow of his beer. That kind of thinking was dangerous, because he knew if he let himself dwell on it too long, he’d start believing that it was a viable option. That sleeping with his ex would be the solution to finally getting over her.
The music changed to a slow song—“Night Changes” by One Direction—one of her favorite songs. Mauricio watched as most of her friends left the dance floor, Hadley following behind them. Without thinking, he put his beer down and walked to the dance floor.
“Do you want to dance?” he asked. “I realize I’m not your first choice but I know you love this song. And I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” she asked.
“How I behaved. We never really talked about it.”
“I don’t want to talk tonight,” she said.
“Then how about a dance?” he said.
She hesitated then put her hand in his. “One dance.”
“That’s all.”
He pulled her into his arms and she put her hands on his waist. He told himself this was just another part of moving on but his body didn’t agree.
* * *
Hadley hadn’t had the best week. Her mom was an exacting perfectionist when it came to any event she was planning but the added element of it being her sister’s wedding had pushed her to extremes. Hadley felt safe saying there wasn’t enough tequila in Texas—maybe even the entire South—to take the edge off her nerves. But dancing with her girlfriends was helping until she saw...him.
Mauricio.
Of course, she’d noticed him when she came in. It was impossible not to when he was with his brothers. They drew the eye of every woman in the bar. Seen together, they made you wonder what kind of deal with the devil Elena Velasquez had made to get four such good-looking boys. They were the kind of eye candy that made this part of Texas famous.
Mauricio smelled good too.
She shook her head. “How’ve you been?”
She wanted this to feel normal. Surely, the thing with Jackson under the willow tree had been a fluke. There was no way that she still wanted Mo. Not after everything he’d done. She wanted something nice and steady like Helena and Malcolm had. But she’d always felt this heat around Mo. He made her restless like heat lightning on a summer’s night. Just ready to go off without any provocation.
“Good. Busy,” he said. “You?”
His voice was a low rumble but easy for her to hear despite the music. She’d always liked the way he sounded. She put her head on his shoulder for a second and closed her eyes, pretended that this wasn’t the bad idea she knew it was, and then made herself stand up straight and step away from him.
“Good, Mo. Really, good,” she lied, but then “fake it till you make it” had been her mom’s mantra for her and her sister growing up so she figured that was okay. The song ended and she started to leave the dance floor. “Thanks for the dance.”
She walked away without looking back and forced herself to put on a smile as she climbed onto the high bar stool at the table where her friends were.
“Girl, what are you thinking?” Josie asked.
“That I did it. I danced with him, played it cool and nothing happened,” she said.
Zuri shook her head. “You’re full of it, but we’re good friends so we’ll let you get away with it. Another round of shots to celebrate you keeping your cool.”
Hadley drank another round with her friends and ordered nachos as they talked about the men in the bar. Manu Barrett, the former NFL defensive end who now coached football at the local high school, came over with a tray of shots for Josie. Her friend was the art teacher at the high school and Manu had been asking Josie out for the last month or so, but he was a player. Josie and Manu hit the dance floor, and Zuri and Hadley just watched their friend for a minute.
“She’s smitten,” Hadley said.
“Who’s smitten? Remind me again why we came to the Bull Pit tonight?” Helena asked as she slid onto a bar stool next to Zuri and reached over to take one of the shots that Manu had brought.
“Josie is smitten and we are here because you set Mom on me. It’s been a long-ass week,” Hadley said.
“And, girl, you’ve been working too hard,” Zuri said to Helena. “You need a night out. Where is your other half?”
“He’s in Houston to close a deal. He won’t be back until tomorrow, which is why I suggested book club,” Helena said.
“This is better than book club because we don’t all have
to discuss something that we’ve only read the back cover of,” Hadley said with a laugh.
“True. But the book I recommended is getting really good buzz over at the Paperback Reader. Teddi expressly recommended it because she thought we’d all love it,” Helena said. “It’s about an undercover prince.”
As a CPA, Hadley’s sister did the accounting for a lot of the bespoke small businesses in Cole’s Hill. Teddi had been the bookworm in Helena’s class in high school, so no one had been surprised when she’d opened a bookstore after college.
“I’m going to read it next week,” Hadley said. She needed something to take her mind off Mauricio and a prince in disguise sounded right up her alley.
“So you and Mo?”
“There is no me and Mo, Hel,” Hadley said.
“It didn’t look that way when you were dancing,” Zuri said.
Hadley shook her head. “You know the worst part about breaking up?”
“No, tell us,” Zuri said wriggling her eyebrows at Hadley. “You’re the expert.”
Her friend had clearly had too much tequila, she thought as she shook her head. “I was just going to say that all the feelings don’t just disappear. I mean anger should burn away all the other stuff...”
“What brought this on?” Helena asked. “Is it because things didn’t work out with Jackson?”
“You let Jackson go?” Zuri asked. “I’m out of town for a few days and I missed everything. When did this happen? You two looked pretty cozy at the engagement party.”
“Ugh. We were but then we decided we’d be better off as friends,” Hadley said. Maybe she’d had too much tequila. She should never have brought this up.
“Friends... He friend-zoned you? Dude better check himself. It’s not like we don’t all remember he used to be a total nerd.”
One Night With His Ex (One Night Book 1; Velasquez Brothers Book 2) Page 3