“I make her stay until small group is over,” Kim whispered. “I keep hoping she’ll start to like it, but not yet.” Kim’s concern morphed into a big, happy smile when Sierra came close. “Hey, honey. You did so good today.” She hugged Sierra, but the young girl didn’t return the embrace, nor did she smile. “This is my friend . . .” Kim stopped and seemed embarrassed that she hadn’t asked Laila her name.
“Laila.” She crouched down so that she was eye level with the girl. “You must be Sierra. It’s very nice to meet you.”
That same curiosity that Laila had seen in Kim now colored her granddaughter’s expression. Sierra tilted her head and reached for the braid over Laila’s shoulder. The touch was hesitant and only lasted a fraction of a second, but it was enough to make Kim’s breath catch.
The noise seemed to startle Sierra, and soon that glazed, disconnected look returned to her eyes. Laila stood, and Kim ushered her granddaughter to a chair to wait for her.
She walked back to Laila and spoke only loud enough for the two of them to hear. “That’s the first time she’s initiated contact since coming.” The hope in her eyes was so familiar and so heartbreaking. Kim glanced back at her granddaughter, who stared absently at her hands. “The counselors say she will come out of her shell when she’s ready. I’m just trying to be patient.”
“Sometimes that’s all you can be.”
Kim suddenly pulled Laila in for a hug, squeezed her tight, then released her just as quickly. “I’m sorry. I just needed to do that.” A beat later, she retrieved her purse, took Sierra’s hand, and led her out before the final song was over.
Laila watched them disappear, still thrown by how quickly they’d invited her into their pain and by how much she now wanted to help in any way she could.
“So, what did you think?” Ben’s voice came from behind and startled her enough that she let out a small squeak.
“Sorry.” He squeezed her shoulder and kept his hand there.
“It was really wonderful. I can see why you are all so dedicated to doing this.”
Ben let his hand fall and tucked it into his pocket. “It means a lot to me that you came today. For a while, I worried . . .” He trailed off, then shook his head as if reprimanding himself. She found herself wanting to know what he was about to say but, after their earlier conversation, figured it was better to let it go unsaid.
“So, Caden wanted you to know that he thinks you are very pretty and very cool, since you both have the same hair color.”
She chuckled. “He’s as charming as his father.”
“Charming enough that you’ll be back next week?”
Laila remembered Sierra’s ghost of a touch. “Yeah. I’ll definitely be back.”
CHAPTER 5
The warehouse was hot and stuffy, making Chad feel as if a fog of dust had settled and clung to every pore on his face. He’d been warned of the springtime shipment of mulch and topsoil and yards of flagstone. Then again, he couldn’t complain. Last week he’d logged ten hours of overtime, and this week he might log even more.
He was almost there. Just a few thousand dollars shy of his goal and only three months left to earn it.
Then he’d go home.
The thought of her spurred him on, gave him that extra strength he needed to lift the fifteen-pound bag of soil and walk it over to the display.
“Nice job, Richardson. You keep this up, and you’ll get the employee award every month.” His manager chuckled and grabbed his own bag. Chad liked that about him. Scott didn’t have to do the manual labor stuff, but he had no problem getting his hands dirty.
“As long as it leads to extra hours, I’ll do whatever you want.” Chad dropped the load and stretched his back. He was getting stronger than he’d ever been, even before the drugs. His shoulders had broadened, and his arms were now cut with a definition that made his sleeves tighter than he wanted.
He imagined Laila’s hands running over them, the softness of her fingertips as they explored the new body he’d formed. He shook his head, trying to force the images out, but the closer he got to returning home, the stronger they became.
Following two of his coworkers back to the pile, Chad flexed his aching fingers and prepared to lift another bag.
“Hey, Chad, I’ve got a question for you.” The voice belonged to the new guy whose name he kept forgetting.
“Yeah. What is it?” Chad squatted to protect his back and picked up a bag.
“Well, my girlfriend and I are heading out to Club Metro tonight, and she has a friend who, well, I’ll be blunt, likes the way you look in your jeans. The girl’s pretty friendly, if you know what I mean.”
Chad knew exactly what he meant, and the thought sickened him. “I’m married.” He wiggled the fingers of his left hand, letting the gold band catch the light. No stack of papers was going to change that either. “And I don’t drink.”
“Okay. Your loss.”
Chad quickened his steps as he carried the bag away, not wanting to be anywhere near that idiot. But the new guy’s invitation brought on a wave of memories Chad now had no hope of suppressing.
The club is packed tonight, despite it being a holiday weekend. We’ve just finally scored some seats at the bar, and both Katie and Laila are on the dance floor, grooving to whatever the heck this music is.
Katie shimmies over to her new boyfriend. “Baby, come dance with me, I’m lonely,” she begs like an ignored southern belle. She’s pretending, and Cooper knows it. There’s not a weak or desperate thing about her.
“In a minute, Firecracker. We just sat down.”
She dances as she walks backward, shaking her head. “Your loss. I’ll just find someone else who will.”
The “someone else” is my wife, who looks hot enough to make me want to leave this place and make our own sweet music in our own sweet bed. But she’s laughing and swaying those hips, so I’m content to watch, for now.
Cooper shifts over so we can talk above the music. This is only the second time we’ve gone out as a group, and I only agreed because Katie threw a hissy fit. Laila doesn’t like Cooper much—she says he brings out the worst side of Katie—and I don’t like to see my girl uncomfortable.
“So you’ve all known each other since you were kids?” He’s watching Katie dance with a goofy grin on his face. The poor sap is in love, and I don’t have the heart to break it to him that she’s just not wired that way.
“Yeah, since kindergarten. Laila put out a lemonade stand, and I went to get a drink. One look at her, and I knew I was going to marry her one day.” She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. An angel, right there in front of me with two pigtails and pink ribbons. “Katie challenged me to an arm-wrestling match right in front of her, so I couldn’t say no.”
“She win?”
The question makes me like Cooper a little more. “Yeah. She won, sort of. Laila came over and sat with me after, so in the end, I kind of did.”
My gorgeous wife throws her head back on the dance floor, and it’s all the invitation I need. I set down my drink and join her, our bodies swaying to the music with promises of more. My lips graze hers, and my heart flutters.
Call me a sap, a sucker, whatever you like.
I’ll love this girl forever.
“Richardson!”
Chad pulled himself out of his head just in time to see the forklift coming down the aisle. He hurried to the side and ignored the scowl on his boss’s face. Three long months, and he’d hold his wife again.
“I’m at two hundred forty-five days with no injuries in this warehouse. You pull that again, and you can forget the overtime.”
“Sorry. My mind wandered, but I’m good now.” Only he wasn’t. His mind was stuck seven years back in time. Right before everything went to hell.
CHAPTER 6
Joe’s was slammed, even for a Saturday. The sports crowd had mingled with the weekend crowd, and despite the extra help from their busboy, Eric, Laila was still barely keeping u
p with the orders.
She filled two more draft glasses, offering the guy across the counter a smile she didn’t feel. The roar of the crowded room had become a throb in her ears. Her feet ached, and all she wanted was a hot bath and a good night’s sleep. Unfortunately, she still had five more hours before either would be possible.
“I told you adding those two sixty-inch flat screens would pay off,” Joe said as he passed her with a fresh rack of clean glasses.
“Yeah, you also promised you’d hire on more waitresses. Danielle barely takes shifts anymore, and Eric can’t work the bar solo.” Laila reached around him and grabbed a tequila bottle along with two shot glasses.
“I did hire more.”
She practically groaned. “Charity doesn’t count. I meant good waitresses.”
Joe simply laughed. “I can think of a time when I thought the same about you.”
She could argue with him, but honestly, he was right. At eighteen, she could barely walk across the room without spilling something. Now, she could serve multiple customers without breaking a sweat or messing up an order. The problem was, she hated herself for doing so. Hated how many people left needing cab rides or sturdy friends to lean on. It made her feel like a hypocrite. For years, she’d begged Chad to stop doing the very thing she made a living enabling others to do.
With quick fingers, she slid a twenty into the register, took out the five-dollar bill the customer had said to keep, then stuffed it into the tip jar.
More people crowded in front of her.
“What can I get you, Frank?” she asked the balding man who’d somehow shoved between two giggling girls.
“Three house beers, and Cooper said you’d know what to make him.”
Laila’s gaze swept across the mass of bodies. Somehow, she’d missed Cooper’s arrival, and he was now making his rounds across the floor, shaking hands with coworkers from the factory.
Cooper had been one of Chad’s closer friends and Katie’s boyfriend for two years. And even though Laila had never really approved of his explosive relationship with her friend, they had bonded after Chad split town, mostly because Cooper was the only one who missed him as much as she did.
Laila took Frank’s credit card and promised to bring the drinks to his table in a minute. Once again, she was doing Charity’s job, but that had become so routine, she’d stopped expecting otherwise.
“I need to run to table four,” she told Joe after loading the drinks on a tray.
“Okay, I’ve got the bar,” he murmured from his crouched position in front of the leaking ice machine. “Try not to kill her on your way there.”
“Don’t hold your breath.” A joke, but in some ways, not so much. People rarely got under her skin, but Charity was exactly like Laila’s mother. She floated from guy to guy, falling in and out of love at least twice a week. They’d use her until either she found someone better or they tired of her. The pattern was as sickening now as it had been when Laila was young.
The crowd kindly split as she pressed through with her full tray balanced carefully in her right hand. A few steps later, she reached Frank’s table, and he stood to help her with the load.
“Thanks, Laila. I tried to wait for Charity, but you know how she is.”
“It’s no problem. I started a tab for you, so just wave at me when you’re ready for refills.”
“See, this is why the whole town loves you.” Cooper came over and draped a heavy arm around her shoulder. She pushed it off, immediately smelling evidence that he’d been indulging long before showing up at the bar.
Great. Now she’d have to babysit him too.
Frank shifted away, obviously sensing the tension between them. Cooper wasn’t especially tall, but he was big and burly, and the air of intimidation that clung to him wasn’t fabricated. When he drank, he got angry, and when he got angry, he looked for people to take it out on. She’d seen him fight, and every time, it was vicious and dirty, like a darker side took over the second that first punch was thrown.
“It’s crazy in here.” Cooper scanned the room like he was looking for someone. It used to be Katie, then Chad. Now, he just seemed to do it out of habit.
Her irritation softened a little. “Yeah, it is, but the game’s almost over, so it will clear out soon.” She handed over his drink and noted to make it weaker next time around. “So, where’s Piper tonight?” Laila didn’t exactly like Cooper’s on-again-off-again girlfriend, but since Katie’s return, their new normal was awkward small talk. The last several months had been tough on their friendship. Cooper still resented Laila for forgiving Katie, and Laila was still angry that Cooper had lied about Chad’s overdose.
“Don’t know. Don’t care. I ditched her ages ago.” Cooper turned to shake another hand while Laila subtly eyed the men across the table. Frank mouthed “Katie” and shook his head.
Yep. Cooper was definitely chasing away some demons tonight.
When his attention returned to her, she laid an empathetic hand on his arm. Despite their recent distance, Cooper had been her shoulder to cry on more than once. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Nope.” He lifted his drink, swallowing half of it in two big gulps. She eyed his white knuckles as he concentrated on the opposite end of the bar. He’d come a long way, but Cooper still hadn’t fully accepted that the Katie he’d loved and waited for was truly gone and married to someone else.
It was the curse of Fairfield: desperately clinging to the past, no matter how ugly and broken.
He finished off his drink and placed the empty glass on her tray along with his credit card. “Keep these coming all night.”
“Coop—”
He lifted a finger. “All night.”
Frustrated, she slipped his card into her apron pocket and spun around. This wouldn’t help him any more than it ever did Chad. In the morning, Katie would still be married to Asher, and Cooper would still be alone.
Edging through the crowd, she forced herself to calm down. Why things were getting to her tonight, she didn’t know. She could usually push them aside, get lost in busyness, and forget that she was playing a part she no longer wanted.
A hand encircled her arm, and she tugged it away right as she jerked her head to see who had dared to grab her.
A blink. Two blinks. Then the haunting realization that her two worlds had just irreversibly collided.
She glanced at him head to toe twice before she could utter a word. “Ben?”
He stood out like a beacon in darkness. Not only was he dressed for a big city business convention, but everything about him was clean cut and scholarly, from his wire-rimmed glasses to the tight trim of his hair. Even his slacks had perfectly ironed creases down the front.
When someone bumped her from behind, she was pushed closer. “What are you doing here?”
“I know you said not to come, but I wanted to see you.” He had to yell over the crowd, and she prayed no one around them was listening. Even worse, he took her hand and brought it up to his lips. “I’ll just stay for a few minutes, I promise.”
Laila fought the urge to stiffen, all while feeling a treacherous heat flood up her neck and across her cheeks. Subtly, she angled her head to check how many people were paying attention. But only one pair of eyes met hers. Cooper’s. He’d been watching them. Watching her with a guy who wasn’t Chad.
This was exactly why she hadn’t wanted Ben here. Why she’d worked so hard to keep him a secret.
Doing her best to hide her panic, she pulled him toward the far end of the bar and away from the worst of the crowd. The alcove by the restrooms created a blind spot to the TVs, so only two or three people lingered near the wall.
As soon as they stopped moving, it took all of Laila’s self-control not to start yelling. “I don’t understand,” she finally said.
He ran a hand over his short hair, his eyebrows furrowing behind the glasses. “I know. And I’m sorry. I had no idea this is how busy it got.” His gaze swept the crowded room
. “I just needed to see you tonight. Courtney and I got into another fight about Caden.”
She fought the rising guilt. “No, it’s okay. It just surprised me is all.”
“Laila.” Joe pounded the bar like a bongo drum, sending a bolt of panic through her. She hadn’t seen him approach. “I need some backup here.”
“Coming.” She called over her shoulder, all while trying to figure out how to politely ask Ben to leave.
He didn’t give her the opportunity. “You must be Joe,” Ben said, holding his hand out to her boss. “Sorry to show up like this. I know she’s busy.”
“Yeah, no problem.” Joe carefully returned Ben’s handshake, but his eyebrows rose in a not so hidden question. “And you’re . . .”
“Ben.”
“Ben,” Joe repeated as if testing the word in his mouth. “How do you know Laila?”
Now it was Ben’s turn to bristle. He glanced from her to her employer. “We’re dating.”
Laila cringed, while Joe practically fell over the bar. “You’re dating?”
She could hear his thoughts. He’s nothing like Chad. And he wasn’t. Ben didn’t command a room when he entered or lift a crooked smile that promised danger and seduction. But he also didn’t stumble into the bathroom after closing and puke his guts out every night either.
Someone shouted Joe’s name across the bar.
“Just a minute,” he hollered back, his eyes still fixed on hers. They were angry and disappointed and a gamut of other emotions she’d never seen directed her way. “Is he why you suddenly want to move to Burchwood?”
Not daring to look at Ben, she pleaded, “Can we talk about this later?”
Joe grumbled something under his breath that she was fairly certain she didn’t want to hear and pushed away from the counter.
Ben remained a step away, utterly silent. And unsmiling. She put a hand on his arm, needing to touch him just to make sure he was still there.
“You were right. I shouldn’t have come,” he said in heartbreaking stillness.
My Unexpected Hope Page 4