by Terri Osburn
“What’s happening?” Cooper asked through the phone, but Haleigh was too busy dealing with her mother’s diabolically poor timing.
“Mother, what did you do?”
“What you should have done months ago,” the older woman replied. “Now get off that phone.”
“Cooper, I need to go,” she said, eager to end the call before the wrong person was overheard. “I’ll call you later.”
The second she broke the connection, Marcus said, “Hey there, beautiful.”
“What are you doing here?” she asked, too shocked to be civil.
“For you,” he said, as if the answer was obvious. “I told you. I miss you.”
“Isn’t it sweet of him to come all the way from Los Angeles to see you?” her mother asked.
“Sweet is not the word that comes to mind,” Haleigh said. Asinine was more like it. Unnecessary. Unwanted. “I’m sorry that you came all this way, Marcus, but we have nothing to say to each other.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” her mother cut in, the pleasant cordiality of a moment ago gone. “Marcus came all this way and the least you can do is spend some time with him. Now you two go eat. Talk. Have a nice evening.”
Waving toward his rented Mercedes, he said, “Come on, babe. Give me a chance.”
Standing smack-dab in the middle of the town square—which was actually a circle—Haleigh felt blindsided and on the verge of panic. Assessing the situation, she weighed her options. Option one, telling her mother that she didn’t want Marcus because she had Cooper, held little appeal considering the scene that would follow. A scene that would no doubt play out in front of the entire town. On the other hand, she had two hours until she needed to meet Cooper at Abby’s. Surely she could get rid of her ex-fiancé in two hours.
Haleigh climbed into the rental car, and as her mother waved them off from the sidewalk, she said, “I agree to one quick meal and then you’re gone. Where are we going?”
“I found this great Italian place,” Marcus said, resting his hand on her thigh.
Haleigh put the hand back on the gear shift. “You mean Main Street Pizzeria?” She wouldn’t call the little pizza joint great Italian, but there wasn’t anything else in Ardent Springs that might fit the description.
“Of course not,” he said, pointing the Mercedes toward the interstate. “We’re going down to Nashville.”
Haleigh didn’t show up at Abby’s at five. She didn’t show up at five thirty either. At five forty-five, she finally answered one of his multiple texts to say she was fine and would explain everything when she saw him. At seven he received a text from Abby saying Haleigh wasn’t at work. Buford Stallings had just called the Ruby Restoration meeting to order when the message came through.
“I need to go,” Cooper whispered to Spencer.
“What?” his friend answered. “The meeting just started. You need to give an update on the rally and make sure the volunteers know where to be in the morning.”
Cooper shook his head. “I don’t care about the rally right now. Haleigh Rae is missing.”
“She’s what?” Lorelei cut in, drawing attention from the rest of the room.
Before Cooper could respond, his business cell rang. “Let me see what this is,” he said, leaving his chair to step out of the room. The call was from a rental car company regarding one of their vehicles broken down just off the interstate not far from his garage. Thanks to Frankie being at a show down in Nashville, there was no one else to run the truck.
Cooper fired off two quick texts. The first to Spencer saying he wouldn’t be returning to the meeting, and the second to Abby telling her to contact Haleigh’s mom to see if she might know where to find her.
That he’d heard from her little more than an hour before was the only reason he was taking the tow call. With luck, she’d call him before he finished the job so he could stop worrying. Otherwise, he planned to drive his tow truck straight to the Mitchner front door.
Whatever happened to dependable German engineering?
“Are you sure you didn’t run out of gas?” she asked for the third time as they stood helpless on the side of the road staring at the nonfunctioning luxury car.
“The gauge read more than half a tank,” Marcus defended. “I don’t know what’s wrong with the damn thing.” Kicking a tire, he added, “I should have taken the BMW instead.”
Haleigh wanted to kick something herself, but it wasn’t the car. “What did the rental company say?”
He shrugged. “They’re sending someone. I assume from Nashville, so we could be out here for a while.”
“Marcus, I’m already late for work. I told them I’d be there by now.”
“What do you want me to do?” he asked, throwing his hands up. “I didn’t get us stranded out here on purpose.”
“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be out here at all!” she yelled, angry at herself for getting sucked into this mess. Frustrated that she couldn’t let Cooper know where she was because her stupid phone was dead. Not like she could ask Marcus to let her call her boyfriend since her ex would run straight to her mother with the news. Bad enough she hadn’t mustered up the guts to tell her yet. Hearing the fact from someone else would send her mother into even more of a tizzy.
Propping his linen-clad butt on the fender of the car, Marcus said, “I don’t remember you being this bitchy.”
They’d determined over dinner, during which Haleigh had repeatedly demanded to be taken home, that they were no longer a match. Meredith had apparently convinced Marcus that the aging country music elite would clamor for his services if he were to set up practice in Music City. Then he and Haleigh could live in Ardent Springs with a simple commute to the big city and everyone would live happily ever after.
By the time their entrées had arrived, the futility in that plan was apparent even to Marcus. Simply put, Haleigh no longer tolerated his crap. His condescension, his arrogance, and his false endearments made her want to drown him in his Italian wedding soup, a sentiment she loudly and quite colorfully shared.
“Funny,” she replied with an empty smile. “I remember you being exactly this annoying.”
As Marcus silently pouted, a set of headlights cut the darkness from Haleigh’s left. When the tow truck slowed and pulled off the highway in front of the Mercedes and then backed up toward them, her stomach dropped to her knees. This clearly was not her night. Silently reciting prayers she hadn’t rattled off in several years, Haleigh held her breath hoping to see Frankie’s cranky bearlike figure step out of the cab.
And as had been the case when she was a child, Haleigh’s prayers went unanswered as Cooper walked toward them.
Chapter 28
Cooper had never been so relieved in his life as when he laid eyes on Haleigh Rae standing on the side of that highway. The guy blocking his path nearly found himself planted in the trees until Haleigh made a slashing motion across her throat and mouthed the words don’t say anything. What the hell? And who was this prissy asshole?
“Are you here from the rental company?” he asked. Which seemed like a stupid question from Cooper’s point of view.
“I’m the one they called to come and get you, yeah,” he said, humoring the guy. “Haleigh Rae, what’s going on?”
“You know this guy?” Fancy Pants asked her.
“Uh . . . yes. Of course. Cooper is my best friend’s twin brother.” She rolled on her heels. “We go way back.”
“I’m your best friend’s twin brother?” Cooper said, more than a little confused that this was the connection she’d go with. “I’m also—”
“The best mechanic in town,” she finished for him, shooting a pleading look over the pretty boy’s shoulder. “This is Marcus,” she said in way of an incomplete introduction, though the name rang a bell.
After half a second, he said, “The plastic surgeon?”
The guy said, “You told him about me?”
“She said you were a—”
“Long wa
y away,” Haleigh finished for him once again, which wasn’t remotely what he’d been about to say. “Marcus came in for a short visit, and the sooner we get off the side of this road, the sooner he can head home. So, can we move this along?”
Stepping to the side, Marcus pulled Haleigh with him onto the grass saying, “Be careful when you load her up. I don’t plan to pay for any scratches that I didn’t put on it.”
Haleigh cringed but held silent. Suppressing the urge to plant his fist in Pretty Boy’s face, Cooper spoke through gritted teeth. “I’ll do my best.”
Cooper lifted the Mercedes onto the flatbed and secured the chains that would keep it there. Pulling off his gloves, he said, “Y’all can climb in now,” as he opened the passenger door on the tow truck.
Hustling over, Haleigh climbed up and shifted into the middle of the seat, but Pretty Boy hesitated. “When was the last time this truck was cleaned?”
“Shut up and get in, Marcus,” Haleigh ordered, saving Cooper from having to respond.
Ignoring the temptation to rub the frilly doc’s face in the gravel, Cooper walked around to his own side, assuming Mr. Clean could get in and shut the door on his own. On the way around the truck, he reined in his temper by convincing himself that Haleigh must have a good reason for playing off their relationship. Though short of Fancy Pants being insane and homicidal to a new rival, Cooper couldn’t come up with a plausible explanation.
The short ride to the garage passed in awkward silence as Marcus tried not to touch anything, and Haleigh gnawed at a fingernail, ignoring Cooper’s sideways glances. Her nerves were so potent they put Cooper even more on edge. By the time they arrived at their destination, his jaw hurt from forcibly keeping it clamped shut. Thankfully, Jerk Boy leapt from the truck as soon as Cooper pulled to a stop and stepped several feet away with his phone to his ear.
As he lifted Haleigh out the driver’s side, Cooper said, “Where have you been and why are you acting like we aren’t together?”
“I don’t have time to tell the whole story right now,” she said, checking to see if Marcus could hear them. “Marcus dragged me down to Nashville for dinner, and since I didn’t know we were going that far until I was already in the car, I didn’t take a charger. Needless to say,” she added, holding up her phone, “my cell is dead.”
Cooper didn’t give two shits about her phone. “Why did you get in the car with him in the first place?”
Crossing her arms, she said, “My mother insisted I at least eat with him. She set this up. I went to make her happy, believing I could get rid of him before I had to be at Abby’s. Did you tell Jessi?”
“No,” he answered. “If your mom knows that we’re together, why would she bring your ex-fiancé all the way here?”
“About that . . .” she started the same time Marcus rejoined them.
“The rental company will send a truck up for the car tomorrow.” Assessing his surroundings with a critical eye, he added, “This obviously isn’t the kind of place equipped to deal with a Mercedes.”
The only thing that kept the asshole from getting his head knocked off was Haleigh’s hand on Cooper’s chest.
Flashing a pleading look for patience, she said, “Marcus, do us both a favor and stop talking. Seriously.”
“What?” he asked, clueless to his own sanctimonious attitude. “Your mother should be here to pick us up any minute.”
“I’ll take Haleigh home,” Cooper said. To hell if he was going to let her out of his sight again tonight.
“You don’t have to do that,” she said, taking him by surprise.
“Yeah,” he answered. “I do.”
Meredith Mitchner pulled in beside the tow truck, cutting off the conversation when she rolled down the passenger side window and said, “Are you two all right?”
“We’re fine, Mother.” Haleigh stepped away from Cooper to open the passenger door. As Marcus climbed into the back, she said, “I’ll call you later.”
Just like that, she was gone.
Watching their taillights disappear into the night, one thing was abundantly clear. Meredith Mitchner had no idea that her daughter was in a relationship with Cooper Ridgeway. And Haleigh seemed determined to keep her in the dark. His heart demanded an explanation, but his brain knew the answer. He wasn’t good enough for the woman’s daughter. If Haleigh didn’t agree with her mother, wasn’t ashamed to be dating a lowly mechanic, then why go through so much trouble to keep him a secret?
Nothing opened a man’s eyes faster than being proven a fool. No matter what Haleigh claimed, her actions told Cooper everything he needed to know. There would be no happy ending for them. She’d told him once that her motivation had always been to reach for the brass ring in order to please her mother. There wasn’t anything about Cooper that would impress her mother, and there never would be.
Shaking his head, he ignored the pain ripping through his chest as he said, “I should have known it was too good to be true.”
As soon as Haleigh’s mother had dropped her at her car parked off the town square, she’d raced to work, arriving nearly three hours late, which meant working until nine in the morning instead of six. She’d tried to call Cooper several times before midnight with no answer. Her texts after that weren’t returned either.
This was not good. Haleigh had royally screwed up, but was certain that if he’d simply let her explain, Cooper would understand the situation and see that things had gotten out of her control. If she’d even hinted to Marcus that she was seeing Cooper, he’d have told her mother. And if her mother found out, the small bit of progress they’d made in the last week would all be for nothing. The judgment and disapproval would reach new heights, and who knew what horrible things she’d say to Cooper?
Better to protect them both for a while longer. Once the shelter project was in full swing, her mother was completely immersed, and they’d securely reached new ground in their relationship, Haleigh could ease into the revelation. Until then, they needed to be patient. There was no reason they couldn’t continue as they were. They were happy in private, and that’s really all that mattered right now.
With the mission of convincing Cooper of the same, she scanned the crowd at the car rally looking for him. The packed Ruby parking lot made finding anyone difficult. She’d spotted Lorelei and tried to squeeze through a group of people to reach her, but by the time Haleigh stepped into open air, the blonde had disappeared. Passing a row of food trucks near the back wall of the theater, she ran into the last person she expected to see at the event.
“Mother? What are you doing here?”
“This is a community event, Haleigh Rae,” Meredith responded. “Last time I checked, I’m still part of this community.”
“Of course,” Haleigh said. “But you never mentioned that you were coming to this.”
“Neither did you,” her mother pointed out. “After working all night, I’d expect you to be home sleeping right now.”
Over her mother’s right shoulder, Haleigh spotted Cooper standing next to the old pickup he’d showed her. “I have something I need to do,” she said in way of explanation. “If you’ll excuse me.”
Grabbing her arm, her mother said, “What did you do to Marcus?”
Frustrated by the delay and the subject, Haleigh said, “I didn’t do anything to Marcus except be honest with him. He should never have come here.”
“Heaven forbid a man care enough about you to fly more than halfway across the country to see you.”
“Mother, you don’t know Marcus. He doesn’t care about anyone as much as he cares about himself.”
Looking stricken, Meredith put a hand to her chest. “I don’t know how you can say that about such a sweet man.”
“Marcus puts on a good act, but trust me, he isn’t sweet.” She couldn’t tell her mother about Cooper, but Haleigh was determined to make her see the real Marcus. “He’s selfish and shallow and if we’d have married he would have insisted I stop giving you money. Does that
sound sweet to you?”
Stubborn beyond belief, her mother said, “That isn’t at all the impression I get.”
“Trust me,” Haleigh said. “Your impression is what he wants you to see. Not the real person.”
Unable to openly admit she might be wrong, the older woman said, “I suppose it doesn’t matter since he flew back to Los Angeles today.”
“Good,” Haleigh said, relieved that at least one problem had been solved. Turning toward the row of vehicles for sale, she saw that Cooper no longer lingered beside his truck. “Now I really do have something to take care of.” Her mother called her name as she walked away, but Haleigh picked up the pace, pretending not to hear her.
The calls had stopped before midnight, and the texts sometime around four in the morning. Cooper knew the moment the last message arrived because he’d been wide awake, pondering his own stupidity. The itch to continue the farce proved him weak and foolish. Haleigh had admitted up front that she wasn’t a good person, but he’d been too lovestruck to listen. Too blinded by a boyhood crush to recognize the truth in her words.
At least he had the comfort of knowing he’d been right about one thing—a doctor and a grease monkey did not mix.
Through the ache in his chest and the heavy weight of exhaustion, Cooper struggled to enjoy his success. All registered cars had been in place before the gates opened, the food trucks were up and running with nonstop lines, and the crowd had grown thick enough to make navigating the parking lot difficult. Though no one seemed to mind the crush.
His personal life may have crashed and burned, but the fundraiser was well on the way to surpassing expectations. Rubbing the victory in Winkle’s face would be a lackluster consolation, but Cooper would take what he could get after the shit storm of the last twenty-four hours.
“There you are,” said a familiar voice behind him. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”
Steeling himself, Cooper turned around. “I’m busy.” Haleigh reached for his hand, so he stuck them in his pockets. “What do you want?”