“We don’t have anything going on here that won’t be better with your two angels around, so off you go. Come back after you get done in town, and I’ll give ’em back to you then.” She raised her eyebrows. “Admit it. This is better than the alternative. If they’re here, they’re not with your mother-in-law, right?”
“Good point.”
“Not for me to judge, but I guess if I was as fired up as she says she is about these grandbabies, I might find more time to be with them while I was visiting, instead of shopping.” She waved him into his truck. “Now, you go. Don’t worry about a thing here.”
On his way into town, Daniel kept shaking his head and smiling, remembering the scene in the lodge. Since Katie’s death, the girls had had a tough time attaching to adults other than him, and yet they’d apparently glommed right onto Hayley like they’d known her forever. Watching her with the girls, he had to admit she had a way with kids.
He wondered whether she wanted her own someday.
Then wondered why he was wondering.
—
Later that afternoon, Hayley and the girls were in the meadow working on the wedding decorations when Gracie tugged on Hayley’s shirt. “Hayley, can we see your funny dress?”
“My funny dress?” Hayley finished tying a big bow on the last white rental chair in the row. Ma had sent the three of them out with acres of ribbon, a big pair of scissors, and instructions not to return until all of the chairs on the ends of the rows were bedecked.
“For the wedding. Daddy said you had to wear a funny-looking dress.”
Oh, re-eally. News traveled fast around here if even the Whisper Creek guests and their kids knew about her upcoming wardrobe issues.
“Well, Kyla’s having a special kind of wedding because we’re here in the mountains and everything. So she picked a special…mountain kind of dress for her bridesmaids.”
“Can you show us?”
“I would, but it’s all packed in a bag in my cabin so it doesn’t get dirty. I’m not allowed to unzip the bag until tomorrow morning.”
“Who not allowed you?” Bryn’s eyes were wide, like she couldn’t believe an adult had been given such a directive.
“Kyla did, but it’s really okay. I have kind of a bad habit of losing things, so she was trying to help.”
“Do you have to wear a special hat?”
“Thank goodness, no. But maybe I should do my hair in braids on top of my head! What do you think?” Hayley twisted her hair and pulled it up on top of her head, posing like a model.
“Exquisite,” came a deep voice directly behind her. She spun quickly, almost losing her balance as she let her curls flop back around her shoulders.
“Daniel! Hi!” She felt her cheeks blaze. Oh, jeez. “I didn’t see you.”
“Figured that. Thought they’d fired you from crafts?” He grinned, then leaned over to look at Bryn and Gracie. “Hi, girls. You keeping Hayley busy?”
Hayley turned back toward the girls and pointed. “This is Gracie, and this is Bryn. We’re the official chair bow-tiers for the wedding. And yes, I was finally fired from crafts, the fact that I’m carrying scissors notwithstanding.”
“Silly Hayley.” Gracie grinned. “You don’t have to introduce us! This is Daddy!”
Hayley watched as they leaped for him, all of the colors of the meadow spinning into a strange kaleidoscope as their voices went hollow.
Then her voice came out all scratchy and soft.
“Daddy?”
Chapter 11
“How could you not tell me he has…children?” Hayley ground out the word as she paced the living area of her cabin an hour later.
Kyla sat on the edge of the couch, her eyes wide and troubled. “I thought you knew!”
“How would I know? Who would have told me?”
“I figured he had! You guys spent the entire night together, and you played with the girls most of the day! I’m sorry, Hayls. I really thought you already knew.”
“And you didn’t wonder why I wasn’t running as fast as a rabbit the other way?”
Kyla shrugged. “I guess…I thought maybe you were intrigued enough that the kid part of the equation was maybe not a deal-breaker this time.”
“Umm, wrong. Kids are always a deal-breaker. Always have been, always will be.” Hayley paced. “It’s bad enough to fall for a guy who will eventually say good-bye. No way am I going to risk falling for his children, too.”
“Not all men are like your stepdad, Hayls. They don’t all leave.” Kyla was quiet for a few seconds. Then she got up and stepped in front of Hayley, stopping her progress across the living room. “And you’re not your mother, Hayley. Letting a man into your life, really letting him in, doesn’t mean you’ll turn out like her.”
“I know that.” Hayley sat down hard in the recliner.
She did, right?
“I know. But Kyla, my mother didn’t start out that way. She was a perfectly functional, normal human being. She just believed a little too hard in love, and look where that got her.”
“Doesn’t mean it’d be the same for you.”
“But it very well could be, and that scares the bejeezus out of me.”
“So have you decided not to believe in it at all? Ever?”
“It’s a strategy.”
Kyla’s eyes watered. “What about me and Decker? You’re standing up as my bridesmaid in less than twenty-four hours. Do you believe in us?”
“Absolutely.” Merda. “Of course I do, Kyla. You two are an anomaly. Anybody who knows either of you knows this was meant to be.” Hayley forced a smile. No way was she going to reveal just how terrified she was for her best friend. Kyla had the biggest heart of anyone she knew. What if Decker trampled it?
Hayley sighed. “It’s different. You’re different. I’m just not—not wired that way.”
“I don’t believe that’s true.” Kyla’s voice was quiet. “I think you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for. You wouldn’t turn into what your mom turned into.”
Hayley pictured herself falling apart in Ma’s kitchen only hours ago. “Not so strong, unfortunately.”
“Falling in love doesn’t mean you have to—I don’t know—sign a part of yourself over, you know. You’d still be Hayley Scampini, freakishly strong poodle-pet vet.”
“Because truly, there’s nothing more awesome than that, right?” Hayley rolled her eyes and shook her head.
Kyla looked at her in that assessing way that made Hayley feel like her brain was under a dissection microscope. “Falling in love doesn’t mean you lose yourself, Hayls. Sometimes it means you find yourself.”
“I love that you feel that way. I especially love that you feel that way on the day before your wedding, but what about a year down the road? Two years? Five? Ten? That’s when I worry.”
“That’s because you choose to worry. I made a choice to stop worrying before it ate me alive. You might remember the basket case I was when you and Jess dragged me out here last year, right?”
Hayley smiled. “Might have helped if your two best friends didn’t pick a dude ranch vacation for a girl desperately afraid of horses.”
“True enough.”
“Aha! That’s why you’re putting us in dirndls! It’s revenge, isn’t it?”
Kyla tipped her head. “I hadn’t actually considered the revenge angle, but there’s still time.” She crossed over to Kyla and sat on the arm of the chair, squeezing her shoulder. “All I did for two years was worry. I worried about money, about guilt, about how I was going to even get through the next day. And all it got me was more worry. Being afraid is awful, Hayls. Fear sucks the life out of you.”
“Is this where you tell me if I continue on my current path, someday I’m going to be sitting alone at the nursing home, a dried-up prune with no visitors?”
“Would that help?”
Both of them jumped as Decker rapped on the cabin door. “Kyla? You in there, honey? Are you plotting a getaway?”
“Go, go. Of course. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine! Go have fun. Get those rings!”
Kyla leaned down and gave Hayley a quick hug. “I’m really sorry. I thought you knew about Gracie and Bryn. Please believe me. I would never have held back on that for this long.”
“Well, the fact that it’s Celia’s birthday probably doesn’t help. I’m not that enamored with men-who-might-disappear-with-children on days like today.”
“Daniel’s not Roger, Hayls. He’s not going anywhere.”
“And he’s the sweetest guy you know besides Decker. I know, I know.” Hayley winked and got up from the chair, steering Kyla toward the door as she took a deep breath to gather herself.
“Go, silly. Your groom awaits. I’ll see you at the rehearsal.”
“Are you okay? Really okay?”
“I’m fine. I allow myself two days a year to get stupidly emotional. Your wedding just happened to fall right next to one of them. I’ll be fine, I promise. Won’t drip tears on my dirndl tomorrow or anything.” Hayley glanced at the clock on the wall. “Jess should finally be here in an hour or so, so we’ll be in the meadow with bells on. Or dresses. Probably dresses.”
“Don’t forget that silly ribbon bouquet thing from my shower.”
Hayley made a locking sound and twisted an imaginary key on her forehead. “Wouldn’t dream of it. If the bride has no ribbon bouquet, the wedding simply can’t go on!”
“Hayley?”
“I know. Be quiet.”
Kyla gave her another quick hug. “I’ve gotta go. I’ll see you at the rehearsal.” Then she did a tiny squeal. “Rehearsal! Me! Decker! Can you believe this?”
Hayley walked her to the porch, where Decker sat waiting on the swing.
“You two done squeaking and squawking in there?”
“We were doing neither.” Kyla adopted a prim pose, only to have him grab her playfully around the waist and pull her down into the swing with him, making her squeak once again. “Decker!”
“Sorry. I haven’t even seen you all day. Couldn’t resist.” He kissed her on the nose, then set her back upright. “You ready to go into town?”
“Ready!”
“Hayley, can we trust you to hold down the fort here?” Decker paused, grimacing carefully. “Did I just say that?”
“With witnesses, even.”
As Hayley watched them walk hand-in-hand up the pathway toward the main lodge, Hayley thought back to her afternoon with Gracie and Bryn, and the way-too-late realization that the man making her suddenly sleepless at night was—gulp—their father.
Kyla was right. Daniel wasn’t Roger. He was probably a perfectly nice guy, a great father, and an amazing vet. He probably gave to charity, played games with his kids, and knew how to kiss a woman silly. He was probably ninety-nine percent unlikely to promise someone a future and then yank it—and his children—out from under her.
But that one percent was a bigger risk than Hayley was willing to take.
—
“Come here, Gracie. Let me fix that hair of yours.” Daniel looked out the bathroom door an hour later to see Evelyn motioning to Gracie, who was spinning around in her new dress.
“But Daddy just did it.” She spun again. “Did you see my new dress, Nana?”
“I did, princess. Does it have a sweater to go with it?”
Daniel paused his braiding of Bryn’s hair, wishing he could signal Evelyn to end that line of questioning before she got started. He and the girls had spent the better part of two hours in the children’s clothing store downtown last weekend, trying to find dresses for tonight.
Of course, it was August, so the fall and winter clothing was on display, and both girls had fallen in love with dresses that would have turned them into roast turkeys within an hour tonight. In the end, he’d had to promise both chicken fingers and ice cream in order to get them to agree on the two light, lacy dresses they were currently wearing. Without matching sweaters.
Gracie pouted. “Daddy wouldn’t let us pick out the dresses with sweaters. He said they’d be too hot.”
“Well.” Evelyn raised her eyebrows, the weight of that one four-letter word landing squarely on his shoulders—as usual. “It might be hot now, but it’s going to be cooler later. You’re going to need a sweater.”
He leaned out the bathroom door. “I’ll grab them something warmer for later, Evelyn.”
“Do they have something that suits the occasion?”
Probably not. “Absolutely.”
Bryn looked up, making him drop a section of her hair. “Will Hayley be at the rehearsal?”
He swallowed hard at the mention of her name, remembering how stricken her face had looked when she’d heard the girls utter the word daddy earlier. She’d covered it well, but he hadn’t been able to miss the expression that had flooded her eyes. He also hadn’t been able to interpret it, except to know that obviously Hayley had been playing with the girls all afternoon, not knowing they were his.
“Daddy? Will she be there?”
“Yes. Sure.” He folded another lock of hair over and under, trying to remember what that damn website had said to do next. “Of course. She’ll be there.”
“With her funny dress?”
He smiled and squeezed her cheek softly. “I think she’s saving the funny dress for tomorrow.”
“Rats. I want to see it.”
“Rats? Where did you learn that expression?”
“From Hayley. She says it.”
He twisted one more section of her hair, then bobby-pinned it to her head. Huh. YouTube had become his single-dad go-to resource for all things girl, and once again, it hadn’t let him down. Her hair actually looked good, if he said so himself.
Take that, Evelyn.
He kissed Bryn’s cheek. “You’re gorgeous. Now go get your shoes on and we’ll get going.”
After the girls had tromped up the stairs to get their new white shoes, Evelyn uncrossed her legs and sat forward. “I know this probably isn’t the time, but I’m just wondering. Is there a chance we’re going to be able to find some time to speak freely this weekend?”
“About?”
“About Southwick, for one thing. And some other ideas we have.”
Daniel’s gut simmered as he leaned down to grab a handful of toys, stalling for time. He tossed them into the huge toy box he’d built under the window, running words through his head. One of these days he was going to get the girls to start being more responsible for picking up after themselves. He kept meaning to start a chore chart, but hadn’t found the time yet to make it happen.
He kept meaning to do a lot of things—but time seemed to evaporate these days.
He took a deep breath. “Evelyn, I do appreciate what you’re trying to do. Don’t think I don’t. But I’m not sending my girls back to Denver. Not to live in a dormitory, and not to live with you.”
“You’re welcome to come back as well, you know. I’m honestly having a hard time believing you’d throw away the chance at a Southwick education for them, just to stay up here in—Montana.” She spoke the state name like it had thorns.
She looked around in disdain. “We both know Katie wanted them to be raised in Denver, not in this—this wilderness.”
“That may have been true at the time, because that’s where our life was. But it isn’t anymore. She would want them to be raised wherever I thought was best, and right now, that’s here in Montana.”
Evelyn shivered. “She would be appalled.”
“I don’t think so.” He shook his head as he packed crayons into a plastic bin and made a pile of doll shoes on the coffee table. “Katie didn’t do appalled.”
Evelyn let out a practiced sigh, waving her hand vaguely at the messy room. “You must be able to see that this isn’t working. You need help.”
He stopped cleaning and turn
ed toward her, hands on his hips. “I resent your tone, Evelyn, and your accusations. The girls are doing well, I have work that I love, and though it’s busy right now, I’m looking to bring in a partner to help shoulder the load. My family and friends are here. It’s the right place for us right now.”
“You have family and friends in Denver, too, Daniel.”
“Not my friends. Not my family. Not really. Denver was Katie’s world. I lived there because I loved her and that’s where she wanted to be. It wouldn’t have been my choice.”
“But it was hers.” Her voice was quiet but firm.
“Yes, but I need to figure out what’s best for us now, and right now, here is best.”
“Even though you’re robbing your children of opportunities they should have?”
“I prefer to think I’m enriching their lives with a different kind of opportunity.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I see. Well.”
He took a calming breath. They were due at Whisper Creek in ten minutes. This was not the time or place. “We have a rehearsal to get to.”
“I have a feeling you’re going to find an excuse every time we try to have this discussion.”
“I’m not finding an excuse. We’re due at a wedding rehearsal. It’s not okay to be late. We can discuss this—and whatever else it is you’ve been hinting at—later.”
“We just want more time with the girls, Daniel. That’s all. Maybe—maybe we need to take bigger steps to get that. I don’t know. I hadn’t wanted to take that route.”
The same fear that had gripped his stomach when he was talking to Cole took hold again. “What are you talking about?”
“I just want access to my only grandchildren. My attorneys believe a court would be sympathetic.”
The fear twisted sharply. Attorneys? Court?
“You do have access. You have as much access as you want!”
“You can’t really believe that. Look how far we have to travel to see them now.”
He tried to keep his voice steady. “I’ve never prevented you from seeing the girls. But let me tell you something.” His voice was low, furious. “If you go through with some sort of legal wrangling—”
“You make it sound so base. We’re just trying to find a way to give our granddaughters the opportunities they deserve. The ones they’re entitled to as our grandchildren. As our daughter’s children. We’re just trying to carry out her wishes.”
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