And he didn’t want anything to happen. Not with Haley. He would rather walk barefoot over broken glass than do anything else to hurt her.
Chapter Nine
“Guys don’t make cookies.”
Haley looked up as Roy stirred chocolate chips into the second batch of thick dough. They were in her small, cozy kitchen working on the old oak table. The six chairs were against the wall where inspirational sayings were hung beside her mother’s copper pots and decorative plates. With walls painted a soft yellow, the white cotton curtains at the window pulled everything together as they overlooked the front yard.
Thank goodness she’d been able to hang on to this place after her mother died. Not only for Austin and Angie’s sake, but for her own, as well. She still felt her mother’s presence and wondered what her response would have been if Austin griped about baking like Roy just did.
“Is there a rule somewhere that says guys can’t make cookies?” she asked.
He looked up from his job. “It’s chick work.”
“Has anyone ever mentioned to you that whining is marginally tolerable in a two-year-old, but incredibly unattractive not to mention annoying in a teenager?”
“Just saying.” Roy grinned. “If any of my friends saw me with a wooden spoon and a bowl of dough, I’d never live it down.”
“Do your friends live close by? Is there a chance they could see what you’re doing?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice that?”
“I wasn’t subtle?” she asked innocently.
“Not even a little bit.” He grinned again. “Nice try.”
“Okay then. Back to cookies. You might be surprised how many men know their way around a kitchen. Some of the top chefs in the world are men.”
She studied him, his blue eyes unreadable, light brown hair shaggy around his lean face. Definitely a hottie as the teen girls had mentioned more than once. Yesterday he’d said longingly how good home-baked cookies tasted and she realized how long it had been since she’d baked them. This was a rare day off, giving her time to do just that. Angie and Austin had left for work at the resort a while ago and she’d nudged Roy into helping her. A dollop of guilt had been judiciously applied in the nudging process. Apparently he needed another dose.
The muscles in his biceps bunched as he wielded the wooden spoon, grunting from the effort. “I hate baking.”
“Me, too.” She met his surprised gaze. “What? Just because I’m a girl I have to like it?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“It’s written all over your face.” She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “There’s my shocking secret. I hate cooking.”
He stood the spoon up straight in the thick mixture. “Then why are you doing it?”
“You said the kids like homemade better than store-bought cookies.”
“So? They can survive without ’em. Everyone has to live with disappointment.”
She happened to be looking at him when he made the comment. Was he quoting someone who’d said it to him? Was he running from some form of disappointment? Sooner or later this had to be sorted out because the situation couldn’t go on much longer. The call to his mother had been a while ago and all the poor woman knew was that he’d been alive then.
If she and Marlon couldn’t get Roy to open up pretty soon, they’d have to involve the authorities. It wasn’t her first choice because she wanted the kids to feel they could trust her with anything. But talking through problems was the first step in facing them. Roy was simply hiding.
“Yeah,” she finally said. “Everyone does have to live with disappointment. But not when it comes to chocolate chip cookies. They’ve been known to make stronger men than you sing like a canary.”
“Not me.” He glanced at a grouping of pictures on the wall behind her.
There was one about parenthood and a saying that children learned what they lived. Another of a cow because her mother had liked cows. And a cross-stitch of a breadbasket. Her favorite was the embroidery that her mom had made. Just words on a linen square. “There are but two lasting bequests we can give our children—roots and wings.”
Haley glanced at it, then said, “My mother made that. She said it means that kids should always know where they come from, where home is. Where they’re loved. But a parent should also infuse their children with the courage to strike out and find their own destiny. Never be afraid to follow a dream knowing you can go home again. It’s where the name of the mentoring program came from.”
“ROOTS,” he said.
She nodded. “It’s my dream. To help kids, like the people here in Thunder Canyon helped me when my mom died.”
“I get it,” he said.
“Good.” Hoping he would say more about where he came from, she waited, but he just looked thoughtful. It wasn’t quite time to push yet. Sighing, she indicated a pan full of cooled cookies beside the stove. “Why don’t you put those in that plastic container.”
“Okay.” He lifted a spatula from a crockery jar on the counter and went to work. “So, speaking of ROOTS—”
Something in his voice made her look up. A hint of vulnerability that maybe he’d tell her more about himself. “Yes?”
“What’s up with you and Marlon?”
Hearing the name of the man she kept trying to put out of her mind was unexpected and she missed the cookie sheet when she scraped dough off her spoon. It plopped on the distressed wood floor. No way this floor could be as distressed as her, she thought. Talking about the man who’d kissed her wasn’t her idea of a good time. Odd, now that she thought about it. There was a time she’d dreamed about kissing Marlon and it finally happened, in front of ROOTS, the dream that she’d made happen. She was one for one on the dream front. One was going well, the other? Not so much.
“There’s nothing up with me and Marlon.” Turning her back, she grabbed a paper towel, then stooped to clean up the mess. It was a good way to hide the reaction she couldn’t conceal. Kids didn’t miss much.
But Roy was persistent. “Then why didn’t you say hello to him yesterday?”
“What? Where?” She threw the gooey paper in the trash, then picked up the two teaspoons and resumed dropping dough on the cookie sheet.
“You came in to ROOTS after work and said hi to me but not to Marlon. You always say hello to everyone. What’s up with that?”
“Really? I didn’t realize.” She brushed a knuckle on her cheek and remembered what Marlon had said about lying. Was her nose growing? “I’m sure it wasn’t a big deal.”
“Was, too. He bailed right after that. It was tense. And don’t tell me it’s just my imagination. Or I don’t know what tension is, because I do. He was tense and so were you.”
“It’s nothing you need to worry about. The fact is, his community service will be over soon. He’ll be leaving town.”
Her attempt to sound upbeat was a dismal failure. Even she heard the sadness in her voice. Something about saying those words out loud made her chest squeeze so tight it was a challenge to draw in a breath of air. So much for the unspoken lie that his kiss didn’t change anything.
“I think you really like him,” Roy stated firmly.
Keep it light, she thought. Uncomplicated. And as truthful as possible. “Of course I like him. I like everyone. You shouldn’t read anything into it.”
“I wish you’d stop treating me like a kid.”
“Why would you think I am?” she asked.
“I’ve got eyes. I’ve been around. I know stuff. I’m almost eighteen. A man.”
Haley rested her spoons on the lip of the big bowl as she looked at him. “Reaching a milestone age doesn’t automatically mean you’re a man, or a woman either, for that matter. It’s what you do day in and day out that makes you an adult.”
He put the lid on the big plastic container. “You mean like what you did? Stepping up for Angie and Austin after your mom died?”
“That’s right.”
“What about your dad
?” he asked. “Was he dead, too?”
To her he was. His leaving had broken Nell Anderson’s heart. Haley remembered being a little girl and asking her mom about him. The soul-deep sadness in her eyes when Nell had answered that he just didn’t love them enough to stay. He’d already been gone a long time, but her mother was still sad and lonely. The child Haley had been wished she and her brother and sister were enough for their mom, but the sadness never went away.
And Haley never resented the man who’d fathered her more than when he wasn’t there for his kids after losing their mother. It had been six years, but anger still made her voice shake and her hands tremble when she talked about him. The feelings were real and raw and maybe Roy should know he wasn’t the only person on the face of the planet with problems. He needed to see, so she turned off her own emotional sensors and let her feelings show.
“My father was never a man,” she said angrily. “Real men don’t walk out on a wife and three children who need him.”
The hostile tone got Roy’s attention. “Do you remember him?”
“No.” It was on the tip of her tongue to say she was glad, but that was childish. Running away. “It makes me sad and angry. I try to tell myself that he’s the one who missed out, but the truth is Angie, Austin and I all lost out on something because we didn’t know our father. He disappeared and avoided his responsibilities.”
Thoughtfully, Roy leaned back against the Formica countertop. “So you do think I’m a kid.”
“It doesn’t matter what I think. Only you can decide whether or not you’re running away from something.”
“Marlon isn’t running,” he said out of the blue.
It was official. Marlon Cates was a favorite of everyone. Women wanted to be with him and guys wanted to be his friend. She was the only one who fell into some gray area of pretending he didn’t do a thing for her.
“I’m not sure what you mean,” she said.
“Community service. He’s here and doing what he has to do. He’s not running out on his punishment. He’s sticking around. That makes him a man.”
Wow, was he a man, she thought as memories of their kiss popped into her head. Roy blinked at her and, for just a second, she was afraid she’d said the words out loud. Then his expression turned pensive, making him look like the confused teenager she was trying to help.
“He’s taking the consequences for his actions. Like a man. I can’t argue with that.”
Roy suddenly grinned. “And I still say you like him.”
She couldn’t argue with that either, much as she wished she could. She’d like to believe that Roy was just a kid who didn’t really understand grown-up relationships. It was a fact that Marlon was doing the responsible thing and making a difference. The teens looked up to him. That was all good.
It was her liking him that was bad.
Unlike how her father had walked out, Marlon’s leaving wasn’t going to be a surprise. She had fair warning. There was time to prepare. And yet she didn’t know how to stop the runaway, out-of-control freight train her feelings had become. Every indication was that they couldn’t be stopped. She’d tried, but even this teenager had seen through her.
Since she couldn’t seem to get a handle on what was simmering between them, maybe Marlon could stop it. Who could blame him after the way she’d acted. Even Roy had noticed. From now on she expected Marlon to be just as cool toward her, maybe put the brakes on her feelings.
She had to keep trying. There was a time limit on how long Marlon was sticking around, but heartbreak had no shelf life. It could last forever.
She could be THE ONE.
Ever since yesterday, when his twin had said that about Haley, the words had been capitalized in Marlon’s mind and wouldn’t leave him alone. He’d come for breakfast at The Hitching Post and so far was just having coffee, wishing it wasn’t too early for something stronger. He was still brooding about Matt comparing him to their older brother Marshall, who’d sworn that he wasn’t the marrying kind.
For the record, Marlon’s situation was completely different. He didn’t live in Thunder Canyon. He had a life in Los Angeles and Haley hadn’t bothered to hide her opinion of the place. Plus she’d made no secret of the fact that she didn’t respect him much. Even Roy had noticed the cold shoulder.
How could she be “the one”? In order to tame the restless Cates twin, she needed to show some interest. If she was interested, she had a funny way of showing it.
“You’re in my seat.”
The deep voice and hostile tone made Marlon look up. Ben Walters was looming over him, a walking, talking crabby sign that this day could actually get worse. The two of them had never gotten along and Marlon wasn’t in the mood to play nice now.
“I don’t see your name on it,” Marlon said.
“If you were around more, you’d know they call this Ben’s booth.” The other man pointed to the erotic picture of Lily Divine over the bar. “Old guy like me knows the best seat in the house when he sees it.”
Marlon studied the portrait of the scantily clad woman. It had nothing to do with why he’d sat here, but now that the benefits had been brought to his attention, he grinned. “Old has nothing to do with it.”
The man’s mouth twitched, as if he were fighting a smile. “Still, this is my usual place.”
“Maybe we could share it.” The fact that this geezer was a close friend of Haley’s wasn’t his primary motivation, but it wasn’t exactly a deal breaker either.
Ben looked thoughtful for several moments, then nodded. “On one condition.”
“Name it.”
“You sit on the other side of the booth.”
“Done.” Marlon slid his coffee mug across the table, then got up and sat with his back to Lily Divine.
Ben had just settled on the seat when Hitching Post manager Linda Powell brought over two menus and a steaming mug of black coffee. The pretty brunette put it down in front of the older man and smiled.
“This is a first.” She glanced at the two of them and one of her dark eyebrows lifted questioningly. “Has there been a shift in the universe and no one told me?”
“Some things Marlon and me see eye to eye on.” Ben slid a look at the portrait and a corner of his mouth lifted.
“Are you ready to order or do you need a minute?” She was talking to Marlon. “It seems like you should know that menu by heart. You’re going to give Ben some competition as our best customer.”
“The food is good.” Marlon shrugged and without any waitress prompting said, “I’ll have the special. Eggs over medium. Hash browns. Sausage. And a side of pancakes with maple syrup.”
“Make it two.”
“I thought you were watching your cholesterol.” Linda stared at the other man over the half glasses sitting on the end of her nose.
“Here’s the thing.” Ben handed her the menu. “I quit smoking. Gave up beer for a glass of red wine now and then. And never touch a salt shaker. Every once in a while a man’s gotta get wild.”
“With sausage and eggs?” Marlon’s mouth curved up. “Are you sure the excitement won’t be too much for you?”
“Smart aleck.” Ben pointed a finger at him, but a twinkle lurked in his light blue eyes. “You should learn to respect your elders, son.”
Marlon met his gaze—man to man. “I have a great deal of respect for you.”
“I’ll have these orders up in a jiffy.” The brunette flashed another flirty smile at Ben before taking both menus and moving away.
Marlon watched the older man stare appreciatively at the sway of her hips as she walked and wondered if the widower was involved with the waitress. If so, he was happy for them.
He couldn’t resist saying, “She’s sweet on you.”
“Yeah.”
“There’s no accounting for taste,” Marlon teased.
“Can’t argue with that.”
A shrewdness slid into those wise eyes and Marlon had a feeling they were no longer talking abou
t Ben and Linda. But if he meant Haley was sweet on Marlon, he was wrong. Her taste didn’t run to businessmen from Los Angeles. That thought made him wonder… How did her taste in men run?
Maybe she was dating someone and thought Ben knew about it. Because in a small town, people always knew that kind of stuff.
He took a sip of cold coffee and said as casually as possible. “You and Haley are pretty close.”
“That we are.” Ben nodded once. “She’s like the daughter I never had.”
“Then you’d probably know if she’s seeing someone.”
“Sees lots of people. Goes with the territory when you work in a place like this.”
“That’s not what I meant. Is she—”
“I know what you meant. Wasn’t born yesterday, which we’ve already established.”
Marlon sighed. “You’re not making this easy.”
“Good.” The older man nodded with satisfaction.
“Is there a guy?” Marlon held up his hand before a witty comeback came in his direction. “I mean is there someone she goes out with on a regular basis?”
The idea of her with another guy tied his gut in knots and made his chest feel like an elephant plopped his backside down right smack in the center of it. Haley dating someone else felt wrong on every level.
Ben thought about the question for several moments then simply said, “Nope.”
Linda picked that moment to come back carrying a tray loaded with food. She set plates of steaming potatoes, eggs and pancakes in front of them. Marlon had been starving when he sat down, but had lost his appetite in the last couple of minutes.
“Nope, what?” Linda asked.
“Marlon wanted to know if Haley has a boyfriend.”
As the two stared at him, Marlon was now fidgeting like a teenager meeting his girlfriend’s parents for the first time. He could change the subject, but now that he’d popped open this can of worms, his squirmy curiosity refused to slither back inside.
Taming the Montana Millionaire Page 11