“Will do,” Jack said. The pitying look on his face had Beau fighting not to run from the room.
Out in the hall he leaned against the wall and sucked in several huge breaths. If that encounter showed him nothing else, it proved that he’d made the right decision to leave town. He couldn’t see her and not want her. It was just too hard.
A family down the hall laughing and embracing had him turning to get the hell out of the building.
“Beau.”
He willed his feet to keep moving, but they refused to obey.
Hailey caught up to him. “Wait. I want to talk to you. I was coming to see you after I visited with Luanne.”
The hammering of his wild, hopeful heart clogged his ears. “You were?”
“Yes.” She played with the hem of her sweater. When she raised her eyes to meet his, they glistened with tears. “I’m so sorry that I said those things. I didn’t mean them.”
He searched her dark eyes and saw the truth there. His fingers wrapped around her arm and he pulled her into the stairwell before he could register what he was doing. But he didn’t want to have this conversation in the hallway of the postpartum unit.
“Can you ever forgive me?” The tremble and uncertainty in her voice killed him. “I’m so, so sorry.”
His hand slid down her arm to her hand. “Of course.”
“I also wanted you to know that I’m not using the money I set aside for the foundation.” She pulled a piece of paper from her purse and held it up to him. “I opened a 529 plan today.”
He skimmed the document. “Why did you change your mind?”
Tears shimmered at the edges of her lids. “First of all, I don’t really think I could’ve gone through with it, and second, my dad made the insurance payment, so I was insured after all.”
A hot ball of acid threatened to burn through his stomach. If she was getting insurance money for the damages, then there’d be nothing to stop her from rebuilding and burrowing into that bar. “Wow.”
“Yes, we talked and things are better between us.”
“That’s great, Hay.” He could be absolutely sincere about this. Her rift with her father had been a huge source of pain for her.
“Also…” They were still holding hands, and she rotated her hand and threaded her fingers with his. She peeked up at him through her dark lashes. “I don’t want this to end.”
The mule kick to his chest knocked the air right out of him “Hay—”
“I know it’ll be hard with you on the road, but I’ll be here when you come home. And you’re not scheduled to start the tour for a month, so we’ll have until then.”
“Hailey, I’m leaving for Nashville tomorrow.”
She blinked, then blinked again. “Nashville? For how long?”
“Until we go on tour. I’ve been asked to do some songwriting collaborations before I hit the road. I have recording sessions set up. I have to go.” He smoothed his palms over her hair and tilted her face to his. “Come with me.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
If cleaning was an Olympic sport, then Hailey would be a world-record-holding gold medalist. She made a third pass over the already spotless countertop. This kind of cleaning was usually reserved for when she was really upset. But her life was finally going her way for once.
Derek was moving and taking his spawn of Satan stepdaughter with him, so neither of them could hurt Lottie on a daily basis. She and her dad had made up, plus she had the money to rebuild the bar. She should be out celebrating. Instead she was cleaning like her life was on the line.
Come with me.
Every time she heard Beau’s softly spoken plea in her mind, her heart fractured all over again. She’d wanted to say yes. The word had fought hard to get past her obligations. It’d taken all her resolve to shove it down and say no.
A knock sounded on the back door. She screamed and the sponge flew out of her hand. Charlie was standing on the other side of the glass window pane. Hailey yanked the door open with her rubber-gloved hand and put the other on her hip. “For Pete’s sake, Charlie. You scared me to death.” Hailey stepped back and leaned on the open door. “Come in, but be careful, the floor may still be a little wet.”
With tentative steps Charlie made her way into the room and glanced around. “I was going to ask how you were doing. But if you’ve pulled out the yellow gloves, then you’re in bad shape.”
Hailey pulled the rubber from her hands and dropped the pair of hand protectors in the sink. “What are you talking about? Everything’s fine…better than fine.” If you didn’t count the slight matter of her bleeding out because of the hole in her heart.
Charlie went to the stove and grabbed the tea kettle. She moved the gloves with two fingers from the sink and filled the pot with water, then returned it to the stove. “Sit and start talking.”
“Charlie, I can’t. I still have to clean the bathroom again before I pick Lottie up from school.”
“Oh, for the love…” Her best friend pointed to the chair. “Sit.”
She sat. “Everything is fine.” Liar. “Yes, the bar burned, but I’m going to rebuild.”
“How?”
“With a hammer and nails.”
“Har-har. How are you going to pay for the renovations? I thought you told me you were uninsured.”
In spite of everything, she couldn’t control the smile that split her face. “Turns out my dad made the insurance payment when he found out I hadn’t gotten the money to Sandra. For once I’m glad for the busybodies of this town. If Sandra hadn’t called to tell on me, then I would’ve been up shit creek.”
“Really?”
“My dad came by last night and apologized for everything.” She filled Charlie in on the conversation and was wiping tears by the time she finished.
“That’s awesome, Hay. I know how sad that’s made you.”
“Oh, and more big news. Derek and Ariel are moving to Atlanta.”
Charlie stop preparing their tea and glanced over her shoulder. “What?”
“Yes, and the chicken shit’s leaving it to me to tell Lottie.”
Carefully, Charlie set the two mugs of tea on the table. “He’s a horrible person.”
Hailey rolled her eyes. “That’s the understatement of the century. I know it’ll be hard on Lottie initially, but I think it’s what’s best in the long run. He’s hurting her, and it kills me that I can’t do anything to stop it. But now I don’t have to worry anymore.” She tried to put on a bright smile, but she could feel it listing at the edges. “So you see, things couldn’t be better.”
Charlie lifted her cup of tea and blew gently. “Then why does your house look like you and Mr. Clean had monkey sex up in here?”
She sipped her tea. “I like a clean house, Charlie. That’s all.”
The look on her friend’s face made it clear that she didn’t believe a word Hailey was saying. “Talk.”
“Beau’s moving to Nashville, so there’s no future for us, Lottie doesn’t know he’s moving yet, also, he asked us to come with him, and I wanted to, but I made a promise to my mother.” The verbal vomit was uncontrollable. Hailey couldn’t stop the words that spilled from her lips. “It’ll never work between us anyway. He’s bound for stardom, and I’m just me. If I hadn’t been having such a great time in Nashville living a life that wasn’t mine, then I would’ve been here and maybe I could’ve stopped the bar from burning down. And I can’t go on the road with him because of Lottie, and the bar. My life is here. Who do I think I am running around trying to be something I’m not?”
Charlie took a drink then set her mug back on the table. “Are you done?”
Hailey slumped back in her chair and began to pick at the pattern of the flowers on the side of her mug. The thing was so old that the paint was beginning to chip. “Yes.”
Charlie pushed her tea aside. “Tell me what happened in Nashville.”
Hailey shook her head. “Nothing bad. It was all great, too great,” she murmured.
“How can it be too great?”
“It just was.” She choked on a sob and took a sip of tea to hide it. “It was like Lottie became a whole new kid in the few short days we were there. She was confident and sassy, but not in a bad way. May was like a kid in a candy store, and I…”
“You what?”
“I had an amazing time.
Charlie reached across the table and took Hailey’s hand. “That’s great, Hay.”
“Yeah, it was.” Her teeth bit into her lower lip. “That’s the problem. I was there having the best time of my life instead of being here taking care of my business.” She glanced up at Charlie and shrugged. “A business that burnt down while I wasn’t tending to it.”
“Sweetie, your great time in Nashville and this fire have nothing to do with one another, and I think it’s pretty arrogant of you to think you could’ve done anything about a fire that started long after the bar closed. What’s really going on?”
Hailey rested her elbows on the table and dropped her head in her hands. “It’s all my fault. I wished the whole time I was in Nashville that I lived there.” The words eked out past the shame that clogged her throat. She raised wet eyes to Charlie. “I didn’t want to come home. Every part of me wanted to sign on with Beau’s tour, load May and Lottie up, hit the road, and never look back. I wanted more than anything to just walk away from Zachsville and the bar.” The last sentence was wrapped in a sob.
“Oh, honey.” Charlie got up and wrapped her arms around Hailey. “There’s nothing wrong with feeling that way, except that I would miss you, but you know that you and I will always find a way to see each other.” She kissed the top of Hailey’s head. “What does this have to do with you and Beau?”
She pulled out of Charlie’s embrace and scrubbed her face. “Weren’t you listening?”
Her friend returned to her seat. “Yes. I heard why you feel guilty about what happened with the bar, but not why you and Beau can’t be together.”
Hailey flung her hands into the air. “He’s the reason, Charlie. He’s the reason I want things that I should never want. He’s put stupid ideas in my head that I can have things that I don’t…”
A blonde brow shot up Charlie’s forehead. “Deserve?”
“Yes.” Did she really feel that way? A little voice deep, deep inside her, shouted, yes. Her head rested in her hand again. “Oh, my God.” She turned her eyes to her friend. “I really feel that way.”
Charlie shrugged. “We all do to some extent. I did. But I believe it was you who pointed out that I was the problem in mine and Hank’s relationship, and that I had the power to fix it. And so do you.”
“He’s moving to Nashville tomorrow, Charlie. There’s nothing I can do. I’m supposed to start meeting with contractors in the morning. To do just what he doesn’t want me to do.”
“What do you mean?”
“He told me the bar was a cage and that I shouldn’t rebuild it.”
Charlie laced her fingers together on the table. “Is he wrong?”
Hailey jerked her head around so fast that it took a moment for her eyes to catch up. “Yes. How can you ask me such a thing? You know how much that bar meant to my mom and how much my mom meant to me. It’s all I have left of her. What kind of disloyal daughter would I be to just give it up? Especially after I swore to her I’d keep it running. I’ve told you how great she was to me.”
A warm hand covered hers again. “Honey, I’m going to say something, and you’re not going to like it, but you need to hear it.”
Anxiety kicked up like a West Texas dust storm in Hailey’s belly.
“Your mom… Hailey, she wasn’t as great a mother as you’ve made her out to be. She was never around for you. You complained all the time that you never got to see her because she was asleep when you got up and gone to work by the time you got home from school.”
“Yeah, because she was running the bar.” She tried to speak slowly because clearly Charlie was missing the point.
“You run the bar, but you make time for Lottie, even if that means you miss out on sleep or have to pay someone to work for you, just so you can be at her activities and spend quality time with her.”
“It’s different—”
“Is it?” Charlie cocked her head. “Do you remember why you backed out of the talent show we were supposed to be in together?”
Finally, a question she could answer with confidence. “Yes, because I didn’t like singing in front of people.”
Charlie was shaking her head before Hailey finished. “No, that’s not what happened. We were backstage and so excited because we knew we were going to be awesome. We were probably super obnoxious to the other kids because we were so overly confident. Then you peeked out from behind the curtain and saw your dad sitting in the audience with an empty chair beside him. It crushed you. You didn’t perform because your mom didn’t show up.”
Like a movie that was slowly coming into focus, Hailey watched it all play out. Her telling her mom about the talent show. Her mom promising to be there. Her mom’s excuses for why she didn’t show.
“And that’s just one of many times. In fact, I think the piano recital where your mom came with the broken arm was the only thing she came to our whole childhood. I don’t know why, and she probably had her reasons, but none of them make up for not being there for you.”
“You don’t understand. You weren’t here when I got pregnant and the whole town turned against me. She defended me to those people, and was the only one who supported me.”
“By what? Giving you a job at her bar? How else did she support you, Hailey? Did she encourage you to go back to school? Did she try to get you to find a more appropriate job for a new mom, where you could be home with your family?” Charlie shook her head. “No, she gave you a place to hide and then took advantage of you by working you to death. Then she made you swear to keep the bar open, whether you wanted to or not.”
Not a word would form on Hailey’s tongue. It was too much revelation at once.
“If you love running the bar, then rebuild it. If you don’t and still feel compelled to rebuild, then you have to examine the reasons why.” Charlie got up and took her cup to the sink. When she came back to the table she didn’t sit, but put her hand on Hailey’s shoulder. “Just don’t sacrifice your happiness because you’re not seeing the past clearly or because you think that bar is all you deserve.”
The door closed, and Hailey still hadn’t moved. Her mind was trying to sort through her memories and emotions to find the truth.
The horn honking scared the ever-lovin’ crap out of Hailey. She took her foot off the brake and rolled forward a couple of inches in the carpool line. Her finger went to the automatic window button. The smell of Lottie’s wet tennis shoes that she’d left in the car and her own pure, unadulterated misery clogged her sinuses.
Her conversation with Charlie played over and over in her mind. There was so much to unpack from that interaction that she didn’t know if she’d ever get to the bottom of the pile of information. She was so distracted that she didn’t see Marla Yates pull up beside her in the fire lane.
“Hailey!” Marla’s French-tipped nails flashed as she gave a little wave.
She plastered on the fake smile she wore around the PTO types, but somehow it just didn’t fit on her face anymore. “Oh, hey, Marla.”
“I’m running a little late, and Henry gets very cranky if I’m not one of the first ten cars, so I’m just going to scoot in front of you. ’Kay?” Apparently Marla didn’t have the same issue with her fake smile, because it lit up her whole face. “You’re a doll.”
“No.”
Marla had started to pull forward but stopped. “What?”
“I said no. Get here early or go to the back of the line.” Hailey inched up so she was a little ahead of Marla. “Also, you’re not supposed to be in that lane. It’s for emergencies.”
The cars in front of Hailey slid forward another foot and Marla went
to slide in in front of her again. “Not today, bitch.” Hailey moved up until she was practically sitting in the back seat of the car in front of her. “I said no. This is my spot. You can’t have it. Deal with it.”
The woman in the other car lowered her sunglasses and looked Hailey up and down. “I guess it’s true what they say about you…white trash troublemaker.”
They stayed neck and neck, both hunched over their steering wheels like they were street racing, but in reality, they were going less than five miles an hour.
The bell rang, which seemed to send Marla to a whole new level of crazy. “Let me in!”
“Kiss my white trash ass, Marla.”
Mr. Warren, the assistant principal, came scurrying down the drive waving his hands and blowing a whistle. He went straight to Marla’s car. “I’m sorry, Ms. Yates, but you can’t be in this lane. It’s for emergencies. I’ll have to ask you to pull through and get in the back of the line.”
Marla made a frustrated scream in the back of her throat.
Hailey gave her a finger wave before the woman pulled away to take her place in the back of the line.
Mr. Warren motioned Hailey forward, and she didn’t miss the smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Pull forward, Ms. Odom.”
“You have a good day, Mr. Warren.”
She spotted Lottie as soon as she exited the building. She was with two other little girls and they were all laughing. A pit opened up in Hailey’s stomach. Now she was going to have to tell her that her dad was moving halfway across the country.
Damn you, Derek.
One of the third-grade teachers opened the car door and Lottie climbed into her booster seat in the back. “Do you need help buckling up, Lottie?” the teacher asked.
“No ma’am, I can do it.”
“Okay, you two have a good day.”
Lottie latched the seatbelt. “Hey, Mom.”
“How was your day, darlin’?”
“Good.”
“How about some ice cream?” Bad news always went down better with something sweet.
“Really?”
Running After a Heartbreaker (Brides on the Run #4) Page 28