Standing By: A Knight's Tale #2

by Burgoa, Claudia Y.

  “Something doesn’t add up, Mitch.” He points at me and doesn’t make any promises about keeping it between us, fuck. “Come clean now or I’m going to be pissed at you. Is she pregnant? Is that why you’re doing this? Please, this isn’t the golden ages or the fifties. We’ll support the child. You don’t have to marry her.”

  “You’re delirious if you think I’d marry because I’m pregnant.” Hayley takes a step forward and pokes him on the chest. “I’d never have sex lightly; I wouldn’t have a child with just anyone and obviously wouldn’t take a huge step like marriage for the sake of said child. Why do you think I’ve been saving myself for the guy I fall in love with?”

  A virgin. Fuck, now I remember. Her mom squealed that information yesterday when we encountered her. Saving herself at twenty-two? What the hell is wrong with her? No one falls in love anymore and with that philosophy, I’m not going to get laid—ever.

  “She needs to change her attitude,” Jake mumbles. “I don’t like her much when she’s poking me.” He points back at her. “You’re serious about this, aren’t you, Mitch? I can’t believe I missed the signs. I’ve been so preoccupied with Em and my work, that… Liam’s right, I’m neglecting my family and now I’m leaving for four months. Shit, where are the two of you going for the honeymoon? We can meet someplace for a week or so.” Then he envelops us both with a big hug.

  “Welcome to the family, Sis. I’m sure everyone is going to like you, as long as you don’t poke them. My recommendation, keep baking those things my girl loves. So… honeymoon?”

  “I don’t have time or people for that,” Hayley says.

  “And you’re leaving,” I prompt. “I can’t take off while you’re out, Jake.”

  “Liam can take care of everything, including her bakery.”

  Hayley stiffens and glares at him.

  Jake points at her and looks at me with a scared face that makes me want to laugh, “I think she hates me. Great, my only sister-in-law and she hates me.”

  “I’ll teach her to love you if you leave,” he needs to leave before Hayley spills the truth.

  “Yeah, it’s plain to see that you need some alone time.” He glances at my crotch and shakes his head. “Put some clothes on. Are we still on for tomorrow’s flight?”

  “Yes Jacob, leave.”

  “Mitch,” he stops mid-way through the door. “I don’t bite, something is fishy and I’m going to find out what it is.”

  “What does that mean?” Hayley’s eyes widen three sizes, and her face is pale after he closes the door. “He knows?”

  “No, the ring is throwing him off,” I hug her waist. “I wouldn’t give our grandma’s ring to just anyone. You helped by not taking his shit, a lot of people do. And he kind of likes you; it was good that you didn’t try hard to get his approval.”

  “I don’t care about his approval,” she glares at me. “This isn’t going to work,” the bubbly, feisty person I usually face at the bakery shop is having a bad day. “What’s next?”

  “My brother’s wedding.”

  Chapter 14

  Hayley

  The phone continues ringing, and according to the thorough plan Mitchel delineated, we won’t answer. A newlywed couple wouldn’t care less about the outside world. Yeah, as if watching re-runs of 24, playing cards and ordering room service is what newlyweds strive to do during their wedding night—wedding weekend. Whatever.

  “It’s been a day and a half; can I at least check the messages?” I ask him because apparently I’m pretty bad at the pretending game. I told him five times already, I don’t lie. It’s not in my nature—stupid drunken night. I do avoid telling the truth—to some extent. But saying something that’s not true is not my style; my tongue and brain trip and end up spilling the truth. “You know what; you’re not my father or anyone to tell me what to do.”

  Parker: Tell me this is an Aprils’ Fool Day joke, even when we’re already in the month of May.

  Dad: Hayley call me!

  Mom: You did good, child. I knew you were my daughter. We’re Knights now, don’t sign a prenuptial agreement.

  Ladies and gentlemen, my mother, the most ambivalent person in the world.

  “Now she’s happy for me. She’s kidding, right; please tell me this is a bad joke?” Mitch takes my phone and then shakes his head. “What does that mean, Mitch? Are you like really rich or something? Please say no, pretty please?”

  “Yes, you’re a weirdo,” Mitch says giving me the phone back, then he bends and kisses my nose. “One of my ex’s left me for an ass who had more money.” He draws air quotation with his fingers. “That’s what she said. She didn’t know shit about me or she wouldn’t have looked for greener grass.”

  “The crazy bitch that broke your heart after tormenting you with her daily drama?”

  “Both tortured me with their daily drama.”

  Apparently, I wasn’t as drunk when he told me about them.

  “Did she ever found out?”

  “First, neither one broke my heart, Hayley.” He spikes his hair. “Yes, she did find out and tried to win me back several times. Both on different occasions tried to rekindle our relationship. The first one while dating her high school sweetheart.” His eyes look between sleepy and upset and a yawn follows his wink. “Chloe taught me that there are plenty of women who like to use men, Muffin girl. Jordan solidified those teachings. Navigating the dating world to find the right girl isn’t part of my plan in life, I’d rather have a good time.”

  I scrub my hands over my face; great I got stuck with the Grinch of Marriage.

  “I wish Mel was around,” I throw my head back on the couch. “She’d know what to do.”

  “Who is this Mel again?” Mitch asks.

  “She was Dad’s first wife and died a couple of years ago.”

  “I’m going to have a hard time keeping track of it if I don’t pay attention to you,” he turns off the television, places his forearms on top of his thighs and then looks at me. “Fire away with your family history. Let me tell you what I remember so far.”

  We go through the motions of my father having five children, the first two from his first marriage to Mel—Benjamin and Brent. Then two more from his marriage to Bridget—Parker and Paige, and finally me. The other woman’s daughter. How my family expected more from me, and he remembered that I want to make my dream of the bakery succeed. Which is why I fraternized with him, darn it.

  “What’s the plan, Mitch?” I stand up from the couch I laid on for the past six hours and head to the room service menu. “I think it’ll be easier to come clean. I’m a rule follower, can’t lie and this will stress me to the point of blurting out the truth and not only getting the same lectures but a few more because of this.”

  “We’ll head home,” he cranes his neck so he can look at me. “For the next week we’ll stay at your place. It sounds better than having to share a place with my parents for a week. We’ll play this as things come up, give me a few months. Now order something to eat, I’m starving.”

  “I trust you,” I unhook the receiver but before I dial I tell him. “However, I want to add a rule, no sex.”

  *

  Sunday night I call Kendall, the one person who won’t judge me and tell her everything. From beginning to end, including the video where in front of an Elvis impersonator I slur the words I do. We fast-forwarded most of it, only stopping during a few scenes. Like when Mitch, the idiot, said; “Now we can fuck.” Thank goodness, I own a shredder thick enough to destroy the evidence. I personally put the disk through the burgundy office appliance.

  “I’m the one who does stupid things,” Kendall says on the other side of the line. “Not you. Are you really going to meet the parents tomorrow?”

  “I think I met them already,” I remind her. “The mom visits the shop often along with the dad. However, when you include the brothers, that’s too many people to lie to. They’ll ask questions, and Mitch wants me to go to the brother’s wedding—”
r />   “Stop,” she orders. “I’m having an anxiety attack just from listening to you, Hayley.” Really? Because my heart is, the one palpitating like a cheetah chasing dinner. “Easy, you solve the issue by telling him that you have cramps, fake a headache or say you have diarrhea, no one will question any of those reasons. No one wants to know more about that subject.”

  Kendall is an expert storyteller.

  “Remember when I told you to decline Paige’s shitty maid of honor request?”

  I mumble an affirmative.

  “Next time I tell you to do something, follow my lead. On occasion, I can have smart thoughts.”

  “Talk about thinking,” I try to change the subject. “Have you thought about the job down in Texas?”

  “Hay,” she sighs. “I’m not moving to Texas. The job doesn’t pay relocation and at least here I know the babysitters that take care of Iker.”

  “Do you need help, Kenz?” She sighs, and I know the answer. She’s too proud to ask for anything. “Kenz?”

  “I’m fine, Hay, we made it this far.” She did. A single mom who got through college with the little help she accepted from Dad and me. “Tell you what; if I ever become desperate you’ll be the first person I ask for help. Maybe as a favor, you should stop sending Ike all those clothes and toys, that’ll be helpful. What kind of mother won’t provide the essentials for her child?”

  “You always tell me that,” I protest. “You’re a great mother and don’t forget that he’s my godson; I enjoy doing this for him.”

  “Hayley,” Mitch calls me. It’s not likely that I can keep hiding in the bathroom. “It’s almost eleven, time for bed.”

  “You’re sleeping with the man?” Kendall’s childish tone makes me want to slam the phone against my head until it causes amnesia… if only that was possible. “That’s refreshing. Are you thinking about losing that virginity to a real man or are you still using the sex toys?”

  “Shut up,” I say clasping my mouth. “Got to go, after the tedious flight with the thousand questions from Mitch’s brothers, I deserve a twelve hour sleep and instead I’m getting only five if I’m lucky.”

  “Call me and let me know how this ends,” she says before I hang up. “Nevertheless, Hay, don’t forget that not all men are assholes, babe. Some might be worth getting to know and love. Just because everyone you know has ended up with one, it doesn’t mean you will too.”

  “Ted, Kevin, should I continue?”

  “No, because then you’ll mention mine, your mom’s, and end with your father.”

  “Love you, Kenz.” I sigh, feeling bad for bringing up some memories she didn’t want to think about. We’re both a depressive mess. “Give a kiss to Ike for me.”

  I leave the bathroom after hanging up and brush my teeth. I find Mitch leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed—shirtless. We should add a rule; no one goes shirtless in the house.

  “Who is Kenz?”

  I tap my phone and show him a picture of her and Iker.

  “Her name is Kendall,” I tell him. “She’s Kenz and I’m Hay or Hayl. We went to the same school all the way up until college.”

  “The kid?”

  “Iker, my godson,” I take the phone back and find a better picture of him. “They live in DC and she works two jobs in order support them while searching for her dream job as a journalist.”

  “You worry about them?” He smoothes my wrinkled forehead.

  I nod and close my eyes because there’s just so much I can do for them. “Can I help?”

  “If she ever asks, I’ll let you help, Mitch.”

  I head to the closet for extra blankets and pillows, and put them on the couch for him to use.

  “I’m too tall for that,” he complains.

  “Goodnight, Mitchel.” I ignore his pout, then head to my bed where I hole up inside the blankets and wish for the images of his naked chest to disappear from my head. There’s no way I’ll reach for my toys to take the edge off.

  “Goodnight, Wife.”

  Chapter 15

  Hayley

  “I refuse to continue doing this—waking up in the middle of the night,” Mitch says as he watches me frost the cake. “We need to hire people to help you. As I explained earlier, I want to sell your muffins and cupcakes in my restaurants.”

  “We agreed the expansion would be a slow process.” I place another tulip on the top layer.

  “If we hire another baker and another decorator, you can do more of these cakes. At a thousand dollar a pop, you can cover all your operational costs.”

  I sigh, trying to fake resignation because I hate that he is making sense. I do want to stop worrying so much about the daily production and progress more into the direction of creating cakes.

  “Now about the production of cupcakes for Knight’s Restaurants,” he presses the issue but before he continues talking, he throws the piece of fondant he’s been playing with to the ceiling, catching it with his mouth. Man-child. “We must do it. Don’t you think it be strange if I’m not carrying my wife’s cupcakes and muffins?”

  “I’m not your w—”

  “Are you here, dear?” Mom. I hear her voice through the doors that divide the kitchen from the front of the bakery. “I need to know all about your wedding night. Finally, you’re a woman now.”

  I glare at Mitch. After three hours of listening to the chime of my doorbell each time it opened, he wrenched it off. Thus, I didn’t hear Mom arrive.

  For the first time my frame glasses, frumpy t-shirt and frayed out jeans won’t bother her. No, she has a new subject to concentrate on. My marriage to hot-rich boy—and apparently my virginity but she’s always been fixated on that one.

  “Why is my sexual status so important to everyone?”

  “Not to me.” He smirks and kisses my cheek. “I’ll go out there with you. That should stop her from asking more questions than you wish to hear.”

  He intertwines our fingers, and we cross the swinging doors to the shop. My mother stands wearing a short dress and her usual high heels. The spicy aroma of her perfume as usual threatens to kill my sense of smell.

  “Hayley, dear you’re glowing,” Mom flashes a bright grin. “I’m ecstatic that you’re happy.”

  Her tender words remind me of those days when she likes me and I start to feel like this is a step forward to having a decent mother-daughter relationship.

  “Son,” she says in a sing-a-song tone. “Welcome to the family. You can call me Mom, or Caro.”

  However, before Mitch can respond to her “Call me Mom” request, as on cue, my father’s loud, threatening voice makes me jump.

  “You.” He slams the door against the wall and points at Mitch, with a red face and wide eyes straining against his sockets. “You don’t go behind my back and marry my daughter. If you’re a real man, then have the balls to ask for her hand. Ask for permission to take her away from me, not just steal her to Vegas and marry her like she is not worth the time for a real ceremony.”

  “You sound like an idiot, Augustine,” Mom says, contradicting what she yelled a couple of weeks ago. That I deserved a wedding bigger than the one Kate Middleton had. She turns to Mitch. “I apologize; he’s in his seventies already and too old to have a daughter Hayley’s age. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I… had her. Too young if you ask me.”

  “Mom, stop,” I don’t know if she’s flirting or what but this isn’t what I had in mind when I thought about the confrontation with them, actually I lie – I didn’t even give the moment a fleeting consideration.

  “Nevertheless, Caroline, Hayley’s not one of those types of women he dates. She’s my child,” Dad says. How does Dad know about Mitch’s type of women? “Tell me young man, did you even take the time to ask what she wanted? I’ll tell you: a beach wedding, in the Caribbean with white sand and the sunset. If you had asked, we would’ve arranged it within days and made her happy. Not Vegas. That’s not her.”

  A voice cuts through our family
dialogue, “You married?” I look up to see Susan Darling wearing a crisp pantsuit, enter. I need my bell back. “Well, congratulations. I hope the man doesn’t mind your parents’ little outburst. Mr. Welsh. Congratulations.” Then she looks at Mitch. “I remember you from last week, you did great, Hayley. He in turn hit the jackpot. Now, tell me you have time to deliver a cake on Saturday.”

  I move my gaze toward the door, a lady wearing a sleeveless white silk blouse, a pair of khaki pants and a long blond bob waves at me. I can’t remember her name, but she’s a customer and blueberry muffins with orange glaze are her favorites.

  “Good morning.” She waves and smiles at all of us.

  “Hayley, sweetheart, welcome to the family.” She continues her way to where I stand and crosses the green line, ignoring the Employees Only sign. Mom and Dad suck in air and watch as the woman pulls me into a hug. My entire body tenses. “What did I do?”

  “No, Mom.” Mitch tries to stop her.

  “You crossed the green line,” I whisper.

  “Mom, behind the counter.” Mitch hugs me. “I told you, later. She’s working and overwhelmed by her family already.” He turns to my father. “Sir, I apologize for not asking permission for your hand, I mean her hand. I should’ve done it, and I shouldn’t have pushed so hard but believe me when I say we took our time making the right decision for both of us and we’re happy about it. Now, unless you’re here for anything that doesn’t involve purchasing products or ordering cakes, I’d advise you to leave.”

  “So much for being welcomed to the family.” Mom leaves slamming the door.

  Mitch’s Mom orders cupcakes, Dad too and Susan places the cake order. One that Mitch promises he’ll have delivered on Saturday.

  “Sorry for bursting into your workplace, Hayley,” Mitch’s Mom says. “Hope you’ll still join us for dinner.”

  “I’d love to,” I say without thinking. She apologized, and that makes me feel… respected. “I’ll try to bake something for you.”