Kyla laughed. “Right. You need an appointment about a month ahead of time to get in there.”
“Good thing Jess called six weeks ago, then.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you serious? She booked me at Paradise?”
“Well, we figured we kind of owed you for tricking you last year with the promise of a spa week. Plus, we’re your bridesmaids. We’re supposed to take care of you, right?”
Kyla looked around at the remnants of breakfast preparations. “But aren’t the bridesmaids supposed to get the pampering part, too? Not just the manual labor?”
“Well, one’s stuck in Pittsburgh and one’s going to hold down the kitchen here for the morning, so instead, you get some well-deserved peace and quiet. No bridesmaids yammering at you, no guests needing extra towels, no kids screeching in the hallways.”
“Are you sure you can handle things here?”
“She can handle it.” Ma blasted through the swinging doors, hands full of serving dishes. “Now get your bridal butt downtown and get pampered.”
“But—”
Ma tipped her chin down and her eyebrows up, still holding dishes. “Are you or are you not the bride?”
“Ma—”
“Honey, we’ve been running this ranch for a lotta years. We can do it for a couple of hours without you, especially on the day before your own wedding. I’ve got Hayley here to help, and as long as she doesn’t mind taking orders, we’ll get along just fine.”
Hayley shook her head. “I’m good with helping, not as good with the taking orders part.”
“Shush.”
“Yes’m.”
Kyla laughed. “Okay, if you’re sure.”
“See? Even Hayley’s trainable.” Ma clanked the dishes into the big farmhouse sink. “Kyla, you’ve been dying to try out that spa since last year. Your sweet bridesmaids are trying to do something nice for you. Let ’em.”
Kyla looked from one to the other of them, then hugged them both hard. “All right. If you insist. I just need to grab some things upstairs, and I’ll be out of here.” Her steps were light as she headed to the second floor.
“I’ll handle the rest of the dishes, Ma.” Hayley shooed Ma away from the sink. “If you can find Kyla’s laminated list, we can see what’s left to check off.”
“Ha. To find the list, you’ll need to find the binder she got to hold the lists.”
Hayley laughed. “I’m so not surprised.” As she buried her hands in the soapy water, she glanced at the calendar mounted on the cupboard beside the sink. Of course the day everyone at Whisper Creek was focused on was tomorrow, but as she looked at today’s date, her chest stabbed a little.
“So, Ma? Do you mind if I bake a little something? Promise I’ll clean up so well you won’t even know I was here.”
“You know how to use the oven?” Ma’s eyebrows went up again.
“Periodically, yes.”
“All right. Just be done before I need to put the lasagna in the oven for lunch, okay? I’m gonna go take care of the cabins.” Ma bustled out the door with her cleaning bucket and headed down the pathway.
An hour later, Hayley swirled the last of the pink frosting on the final lopsided cupcake and set it on a platter she’d found. She sprinkled glittery sugar crystals over the entire batch, then lit the candle she’d found in a utility drawer.
In a quiet voice, she sang Happy Birthday and blew out the candle.
Then wiped her eyes.
“Whose birthday is it?” Ma stood in the doorway, her eyes quizzical, her voice quieter than Hayley’d ever heard it.
“My little sister’s. She’s twenty-one today.”
“Missing her?”
“Yeah.” Hayley sighed. “That’s one way to put it.” She turned toward Ma. “I haven’t actually seen her since she was seven.”
Ma walked across the room and pulled a tissue from a box on the counter. “Here. Don’t drip on your fresh frosting.” She handed it to Hayley and motioned to the cupcakes. “So you do know how to bake.”
Hayley sniffed and worked her mouth into what she knew must be a pretty watery smile. “At least twice a year. Me and Betty Crocker are like this.” She crossed her fingers.
“Well, you didn’t find any Betty boxes in my kitchen.”
“No. I had to use an actual cookbook. That’s why they look like…this.”
“They’re fine. Made with love, so it doesn’t matter, right?” Ma cocked her head. She was silent for a long moment, and then her warm arm settled on Hayley’s waist, and it took everything Hayley had not to melt onto her shoulder. “What happened?”
“Oh, God. It’s such a long story.”
“I got nothin’ but time. Lasagna’s made, ready for the oven, and nobody needs me ’til lunch.” She pulled out a chair. “Sit. I’ll make us some tea. If it makes you feel better, I need an excuse to sit down anyway.”
Hayley watched as she bustled efficiently around the kitchen, marveling at how different Ma was from her own mother. Where Ma commanded a room in her flannel shirts, jeans, and slippers, Hayley’s mother had always simpered at the edges in a dress that tried to show off more than she had, desperate to be noticed and desired.
Where Ma doled out hugs and honeys because she had a never-ending supply, Hayley’s mother had always held back, especially after the girls were gone. It was like she was afraid that if she showed how much she loved people, they too would disappear in a virtual puff of smoke.
Ma sat down and pushed a mug toward Hayley. “Cinnamon, right?”
“My favorite.” Hayley smiled. “Thank you. How’d you remember?”
Ma shrugged. “Just did. So…you have a sister.”
“Two. Half sisters, really. Celia’s twenty-one today, and Isabella will be nineteen in November.”
“But you haven’t seen them since…when?” Ma’s eyebrows crammed themselves together on her forehead.
“Since they were nine and seven. I was fourteen.” Hayley sat back in her chair, using a long sip of the soothing tea as a delay tactic. “Roger, my mom’s dream guy, came along when I was five, and bam, Mom was pregnant within a month. He got scared and left town before Celia was even born, then stumbled back in one night two years later, drunk as a skunk. Out he went the next morning, and bam. Two months later, she was sitting on the toilet cursing the little purple stick in her hand.”
Ma shook her head slowly, but stayed silent.
Hayley took another long sip of tea, thinking back. “And then one day when Izzy was two, Roger drove in the driveway like he was just coming home from work, brought a suitcase in the house, kissed my mother, and moved in. She was over the moon, you know? He was back! For good this time!
“But he wasn’t. I mean, he stayed for a long time, actually. Almost five years. But one night something happened, and the next day, Roger left. I still don’t know what sent him flying for good, but from what we found out later, I guess there were a lot of possibilities.”
“And he took the girls?”
Hayley nodded. “Crack of dawn one morning—scooped them out of bed in their pajamas and put them in the backseat of his car.”
“Oh, no.” Ma put her hand to her mouth.
“Turned out Roger Smith was really Rico Dominguez, Pierre LeFleur, and Sven van der Plant, though I never figured out how he sold that last one to anyone, what with his olive skin and black hair. When Mom found all that out—from an immigration officer, no less—she lost it. She was sure he’d taken the girls across some border and we’d never see them again.”
Hayley took a deep breath. “Granny and I finally had to take her to the hospital, and she stayed there for a long time. I couldn’t visit her for months, and by the time she got out, it was like living with a shell of the woman she’d been, you know? She sort of just went through the motions every day, dying a little bit more each time the sun went down and she still didn’t know where her babies were. And then one night…one night she got desperate and downed a bottle of sleeping pills a
nd most of a fifth of Jack Daniels. And…that was that.”
“Oh, Hayley.”
“Just a warning, Ma. I’m strong like an ox, but if you oh, Hayley me again, I’m going to lose it.”
“Losing it’s a perfectly natural thing to do sometimes, you know.”
“Not for me, it isn’t. I allow two losing-it days per year, and that’s it.”
“Well, we’re smack in the middle of one of them, aren’t we?”
Hayley sighed, blinking hard. “Yeah. Unfortunately Celia’s birthday fell squarely on Kyla’s wedding weekend this time around.”
She bit her bottom lip as she swirled her mug. “It’s okay. I’m okay. I’m pretty good at keeping it all at bay most of the time. Just sneaks out a little on days like their birthdays, that’s all.” She took a deep breath and forced a smile onto her face. “So I make cupcakes!”
Ma stared at her for a long moment, and Hayley was terrified she’d do something like put her soft, strong arms around Hayley’s shoulders—and that would be the end of her.
Instead, though, Ma seemed to sense how badly Hayley didn’t want that to happen. “All right, then. I’m not gonna hug you or make you get all weepy here. But you know I got good shoulders, and you’re welcome to them anytime, okay?”
“Okay.”
“I mean that, child. You’re all grown up now and you probably bristle at that word, but you’ve got no momma around, and I don’t have nearly enough kids. Kyla’s like my own now, and tomorrow she will be, in a way. She loves you like a sister, and I want you to know you can think of us as your family, too.” She frowned. “I mean, if you’ll have us. We’re kind of a motley bunch.”
Ma nodded, then reached over to give Hayley’s hand a squeeze. “You’re going to find those girls someday, hon. I can feel it. And if you want us to help you, you just say the word. You’ll do what’s right, when it’s time. You love those girls, and I guarantee they remember you and they love you right back. God willing, you’ll find each other again.”
“Oh, I hope so, Ma. I really, really do.”
“All right, then.” Ma got up and looked at the clock. “I think we’ve got folks to feed. Busy hands are happier hands, right?” She handed Hayley a stack of plates and pointed her toward the dining room. “We’ll just keep you busy today, and we’ll figure out the rest as we can, right?”
Hayley couldn’t help but smile at Ma’s free use of the word we, like she actually thought of Hayley as part of this…motley crew. As she pushed through the swinging doors into the pine-paneled, two-story great room, she paused.
How did a place she’d lived in for only three weeks of her entire thirty years feel more like home than her own homes ever had?
Chapter 10
A couple of hours later, Hayley had just finished clearing the big farmhouse table from lunch when two little girls blasted in from outside. They were all blond braids, blue eyes, and smiles, and if Hayley wasn’t mistaken, they were twins. Her throat felt tight as she realized they were just about the same age as Izzy’d been the last morning she’d seen her.
The girls stopped short when they saw her, tripping into each other and giggling. The one on the left elbowed her sister. “You ask her.”
The one on the right elbowed back. “No. You ask her.”
Hayley took a deep breath, then smiled and crouched down to their level.
Who were these little imps?
“Do you two have an important question?”
Both of them nodded, and Hayley was struck by how clearly they mirrored each other. She was also struck by the fact that each of them had no less than five stuffed animals crammed into their arms.
“Okay, I’m all ears. What’s your question?”
The twin on the left plucked a fluffy white stuffed kitten out of her arms and said, “Are you a vet?”
“I am, actually. Do you have a sick kitty?”
“Yes.” Her eyes were very solemn. “She has a tummy ache.”
“Uh-oh. Would you like me to check her out?”
She nodded quickly and handed the cat to Hayley. “Her name’s Snowball.”
Hayley gently pretended to examine the stuffed animal. “That is a perfect name for a white kitty. What’s your name?”
“Gracie.”
“Well, hi, Gracie. I’m Hayley.”
“We know.” Gracie smiled and pulled her sister forward. “This is Bryn. Her stuffies are sick, too.”
Hayley looked at the armload of fluff Bryn carried. “All of them?”
Another solemn nod.
“Oh, boy. Sounds like a case of the stuffie plague. This might call for an animal hospital.”
The girls looked at each other, eyes happy and wide.
Hayley felt a stab in her chest, remembering how she and Celia and Izzy had spent hours bandaging up their stuffed animals long ago. “Do you two have a little free time? Should we set one up?”
Both girls nodded gleefully, then followed Hayley to the kitchen, where they gathered dish towels and tissues and tape. “Hi, Ma!” they chorused as they scooted through her legs.
From the sink, Ma raised her eyebrows at Hayley. “You okay with them?”
“Sure, as long as it’s okay that they’re in here. Are they supposed to be anywhere else?”
Ma was silent for a second, then smiled. “Looks like they’re in just the right place.” She nodded her head toward the fridge. “Girls, there’s some ginger ale on the bottom shelf if you think it will help. Just taste it first to make sure it’s okay to give the animals.”
Gracie giggled. “Stuffies can’t drink ginger ale!”
“Well, then, I guess you’d better drink it yourself. Maybe with a pink cupcake?”
Bryn peered up over the countertop at Hayley’s sparkling cupcakes, then pulled down the biggest ones she could find on the tray. “Gracie! Look! Fairy cupcakes!”
As they bit into the birthday cupcakes, getting pink frosting on their noses, Hayley laughed. Thankful for another diversion to help the day pass, she motioned them back toward the great room. “Come on, you two. Let’s fix up these animals.”
—
Daniel crossed the wide front porch of the main lodge, stopping to peer in the screened window when he heard happy voices inside. Two of them belonged to Gracie and Bryn, but the third was decidedly a woman. One with red hair and gorgeous blue-green eyes, if he wasn’t mistaken.
Not that he’d been hoping to run into her this morning or anything. And not that he’d managed to find an excuse to stop by Whisper Creek when he didn’t really need to. You just never knew with colic, and as a responsible veterinarian, he’d needed to check once more on Apollo to make sure he was truly fine today.
Sure, Cole and Decker were capable of doing the same thing, but they were busy with the wedding and all. Yes, that’s why he was here, right?
It had nothing to do with Hayley.
And there she was, sitting on the floor of the great room, a collection of stuffed animals spread out around her on dish-towels. It looked like an epidemic of broken limbs had overtaken the girls’ toys, given the reams of tissue and tape wound around most of their legs—and a couple of heads.
He smiled as he remembered picking up the backpack from the door handle this morning, finding it chock-full of stuffed animals instead of snacks. “We just feel like bringing them today,” Gracie had claimed.
“Mm-hm,” Bryn had agreed. “Maybe in case we see Hayley.”
He’d startled at the mention of her name. “Hayley?”
How did they know about her?
Gracie had scowled. “She’s Kyla’s best friend, silly. She’s in the wedding, too. Kyla told us all about her. She said she’s a kitty vet.”
“And dogs,” Bryn had added. “But just small ones. So we brought some.”
“Because they’re sick.” Gracie had nodded.
“All right,” he’d sighed, not at all sure whether Hayley was ready to be bombarded by two animal-crazy seven-year-olds. He didn’t ev
en know whether she liked kids, though Kyla must have told her about his girls. “You can bring them, but if Hayley’s busy, we’re going to leave her alone, okay?”
They’d nodded in happy agreement, but when he’d stopped the truck in the Whisper Creek yard, they’d both jumped out and fled up to the main lodge to find her before he could stop them.
And now they were giggling up a storm, having apparently talked Hayley into a role-playing game where she was a pink puppy. A minute later, a stuffed animal race had them all scrambling, with the girls hopping on one leg while Hayley frog-jumped. But then the three of them leaped forward at the same time, and chaos ensued. First Bryn tripped, then Gracie toppled forward, and as Daniel cringed, his two girls got completely tangled with Hayley and all three of them went crashing to the floor.
Before he could wrangle the door open to be sure they were all right, a fit of giggles erupted from the pig pile. Only this time it wasn’t Gracie or Bryn doing the giggling. If he wasn’t mistaken, it was Hayley.
“So that happened,” her muffled voice came from somewhere under the girls. “And now we’re gonna need some more of those casts.”
As he reached for the door handle to go in and help untangle them, he felt a warm hand on his arm. “I wouldn’t just yet,” Ma smiled. “She’s doing just fine with them.”
“You sure? Sounds like she might need medical care.”
Ma hooked his arm and led him back down the porch stairs toward his truck. “I think Hayley’s getting a big ol’ dose of just the right medicine with those two. She’s fine. You go do what you need to do, and if I think she needs a break, I’ll have the girls help me in the kitchen.”
“But—” Daniel looked back toward the lodge.
“Don’t you have a tux to go pick up in town?”
“I do, but I was planning to take them with me. You have enough going on around here today.”
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