by Amy Vastine
“Hadley and I have work to do today. Thanks but no thanks,” Tyler said.
Girls’ day out? Work? No way was he making that call for her. Hadley searched for her robe.
“It’s Saturday. Doesn’t the woman get a day off?” the other voice said. “Or does marrying the boss mean she has to work seven days a week?”
“Aren’t you banned from Blackwell land? I’m pretty sure Big E put that in the divorce papers. No ex-stepgrandmas allowed on the property after the divorce is final.”
Zoe. Zoe and Rachel were here to rescue her and she was not going to be left behind with Mr. Grumpy Pants. Hadley pulled open the door and stepped out into the sitting room.
“Good morning, ladies.”
Zoe looked more like she had just come home from the salon rather than heading that way. Rachel was a bit more down-to-earth. Hadley liked Rachel as much as she liked Lydia and Grace. All the Blackwell and soon-to-be Blackwell women were exceptional. Being a true member of their clan would have been nice. Hadley would have to settle for enjoying her temporary membership while it lasted.
“We’re going into town and getting our hair and nails done before a girls-only lunch and we would really like you to come with us,” Rachel explained.
“But your stick-in-the-mud fiancé is trying to tell us you would rather work,” Zoe said, glowering in Tyler’s direction.
“I’d love to go to town with you guys.”
Tyler was about to say something, but Zoe stopped him. “I’m pretty sure you don’t want to sleep on the couch a second night. Do you?”
Tyler snatched up his pillow and blanket. “No, I’m sleeping on the bed tonight, for sure.” He carried all his things into the bedroom, glaring at Hadley as he passed her.
Guess her shift on the couch began tonight.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“WHERE ARE MY favorite mini-Blackwells?” Emma, one of the owners of the Jem Salon, was busy towel-drying Lydia’s hair before her cut and style. Hadley could see the whole salon reflected in the mirror in front of the station where she had been led.
Rachel and Zoe were seated in the luxurious massage chairs in the back corner, soaking their feet before their pedicures. Grace was at the manicure station with June, the other owner of the Jem. Lydia was to Hadley’s right.
“Oh, Gen and Abby would have come, but Jon offered them a daddy-daughter day complete with a trip into town for ice cream and I think I heard something about a slip-and-slide. They couldn’t say no to that.”
“So sweet.” Emma placed a hand over her heart.
“I bet Poppy can’t wait to be big enough to run around with her big cousins,” June said.
Rachel looked up from her magazine. “She adores those girls. As soon as she figures out how to walk on those chubby little feet of hers, she’ll be following them everywhere.”
“I’m not sure if I should hope for this little Blackwell to be a boy or a girl. It might be nice to get a little boy in the mix, but another girl would be fun, too,” Grace chimed in.
Grace’s sister, Sarah Ashley, looked up from her phone. She sat on the coffee-colored leather couch in the waiting area, next in line for a manicure. “I want it to be a girl. The Gardners know how to spoil girls. Boys are dirty and smelly.”
Lydia laughed. “You have met Gen and Abby, right? Dirty and smelly are their middle names.”
Hadley stayed quiet, listening to the ladies talk about their family. The family they all thought she was soon to be a part of since they all believed she was engaged to Tyler. Except for Grace, who knew the truth.
Grace gave her pregnant belly a rub with her free hand. “I want a healthy baby. I don’t care if it’s a boy or a girl. Their personality doesn’t depend on their gender.”
“What about you, Hadley?” Her stylist looked expectantly at her through the mirror as she combed through her damp hair. “Are you and Tyler thinking about having kids soon?”
“Nicole! Let the poor girl get married first,” June scolded.
“If she gets married,” Zoe said from the back corner.
Hadley’s whole body tensed. Her gaze connected with Grace in the mirror, but it was clear she had nothing to do with Zoe knowing anything. Rachel elbowed Zoe hard.
“Ow! What? He slept on the couch last night. I was fishing for some dirt.”
“Rude,” Rachel scolded.
“I’m sorry you guys had a fight last night.” Lydia was so sweet and sympathetic.
Hadley was so relieved that Zoe was still in the dark, she had to hold back a smile. If one more person found out the truth, Hadley would have no choice but to get on the first plane back to Portland and plead her case to Kellen for her promotion.
“You know Tyler.” Wait, Lydia didn’t know him at all. “I mean, you know the Blackwell men. They’re all a little stubborn, right?”
Everyone in the room agreed with her at the same time, making them all laugh.
Rachel handed her tech the bottle of nail polish she had chosen for her toes. “The other day, Ben told me stubbornness was a sign of perseverance and I should be grateful that he doesn’t give up easily.”
Grace swore she could top that. “Ethan has been hounding me to take it easy now that I’m almost in my third trimester. I promised I wouldn’t push it, but that wasn’t good enough for him. Yesterday, he admitted to screwing all the lids on the jars in the refrigerator as tight as he could so I would have to ask him to open them for me.”
“Why did he rat himself out?” Sarah Ashley asked. “Did he get tired of having to open the pickle jar for you?”
“Actually, I never had to ask him once, but he could not get into the mayo when he was making himself a late-night snack and had to confess.”
The whole spa erupted in laughter again.
“Jon would rather be miserable than admit when he’s made a mistake. One time, he offered to help me make salsa. Only he grabbed the serrano peppers I’d bought instead of the jalapeño ones. It was so spicy I refused to eat it and I sure wasn’t going to let the girls dig in. He swore it was fine and said he’d eat the whole thing himself to prove it. Five scoops in, his face was fire-truck red and he was sweating so much that even the girls told him he had to stop.”
Hadley could completely relate. Tyler was exactly like his brothers. She could see him doing all of those things, but her biggest problem with Tyler was that he wanted her to talk about her feelings, but he wouldn’t talk about his own. He wanted her to do all the risk-taking, and with all the lies she was juggling, she didn’t have it in her to risk anything else.
“So what did Tyler do to get him sent to the couch last night?” Zoe wasn’t giving up on getting that dirt.
“You don’t have to answer that,” Grace said, knowing it might be difficult for her to answer. She appreciated the help.
“Everyone else shared,” Zoe whined.
“You didn’t,” Rachel pointed out.
“Do I need to tell you that Elias is more stubborn than all of them combined? I don’t think I do.”
Hadley had to give them something. “Tyler wanted to work all night and I told him I was off the clock. I went to bed and he was mad. We’re still struggling with how to separate our business from our personal lives.”
It was as close to the truth as she could get. She was having difficulty keeping those two things separate. He wasn’t wrong when he accused her of kissing him and then shutting him out. She was full of mixed messages yesterday. Only, she wouldn’t have shut him out if she hadn’t agreed to help Ethan and Grace.
“Knowing Tyler, he probably doesn’t like it when he can’t be the boss all the time,” Rachel guessed.
Maybe what Hadley had to accept was Tyler was the boss, period. She thought she understood that, but something had changed over the last couple of days. One, she had kissed him. Two, she was double-crossing him.<
br />
She wished she could tell these ladies what really was going on so they could help her sort out her own emotions. She was having feelings for him. If she didn’t care about him, this would be so much easier.
“All engaged men should have to take a class where they are taught that the key to a successful marriage is to admit that your wife is always right,” Emma said, releasing a lock of Lydia’s hair from the clip she was using to hold it up.
“Tyler will come around,” Grace said. “I can tell how much he respects Hadley’s thoughts and feelings. He struggles with giving himself a break more than anything. No one is harder on themselves than that man.”
Grace was right. Tyler’s perception of himself was so different from what it really was. For some reason, he thought no one cared.
Nicole made sure she had trimmed the same amount from both sides of Hadley’s head. “Sounds like he has the potential to turn things around. Don’t worry too much. All couples fight.”
“Amen,” June said as she finished filing Grace’s nails. “No relationship is perfect. What matters is that you care enough to make up after the fight.”
“I bet a gorgeous makeover will help encourage him to make up real fast,” Lydia said.
Hadley smiled even though she feared it wouldn’t be so easy to find a way for the two of them to make amends.
* * *
TYLER JUMPED AT the sound of someone knocking on his door. He had been so focused on preparing for the meeting with Ben’s buyer, the disruption was startling.
He opened the door to find Jon and the twins. “Uncle Tyler!” Abby shouted, hugging him around the leg.
Gen latched onto the other one. “Hi, Uncle Ty.”
“Hello! To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” He kept his voice light but glared at Jon.
“We’re crashing the ladies’ lunch. We decided you should come with us.”
Tyler didn’t have time to take a lunch break. Didn’t anyone understand that about him? “Thanks for the invite, but the ladies wanted to have a lunch with no boys.”
“We’re not boys,” Gen said, letting him go.
Abby still hung on for dear life. Tyler struggled to keep his balance. “You are not boys. That’s why your dad should definitely take you guys to lunch with the ladies, but why I should stay here.”
Jon shook his head. “You’re coming.”
“You should have texted or called. I could have saved you the wasted trip over here.”
“You never answer your phone or your texts. At least when it’s one of your brothers calling. I figured a personal invitation was harder to refuse, as well.” Jon smiled down at Abby, who was possibly never letting go of his leg.
Gen held his hand. “Come on, Uncle Tyler. You can sit by me at the restaurant if you don’t want to be by the ladies.”
She was too cute. Jon was the worst for using these angels as weapons against him. “I need to put on some real clothes. Can I have my leg back, Abby?”
The little girl flashed him the biggest smile. “Okay, but don’t take too long. I’m starving!”
He begrudgingly changed out of his basketball shorts and T-shirt. Hadley wasn’t going to be happy to see him. She couldn’t wait to escape spending the day with him, accepting Rachel and Zoe’s invitation without a second thought.
“What’s your favorite food?” Gen asked when they got in the car.
What was it with favorites? Was this really the only conversation people started these days?
“I don’t really have a favorite food.”
“Mine is chicken nuggets,” Abby informed him.
“Mine is Lydia’s pancakes,” Gen said. “What’s yours, Daddy?”
“I like Lydia’s pancakes, too. And her mashed potatoes. And her chicken noodle soup.”
Tyler rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses. “Sounds like your favorite thing is anything Lydia cooks.”
The girls giggled. “You can only pick one favorite,” Abby said.
“Not true. You both are my favorite daughter. I can’t pick just one of you.”
The girls high-fived each other. “We’re the best.”
“Yes, you are.”
Tyler glanced out the window as they made their way into town. It was like he had never left. The buildings all seemed the same. Familiar-looking people strolled along the sidewalks. He remembered sneaking into the movie theater with Chance and Clint Bateman to see the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre when they were fifteen and how good the saltwater taffy had been from the candy shop that sadly was now an insurance agent’s office.
“You two would have loved the candy store that used to be on this corner,” he said, pointing to the building. “They used to sell three-foot-long licorice ropes. Remember that, Jon?”
“I remember you and Chance thinking you were Indiana Jones with those things and whipping each other.”
Tyler let out a chuckle. That was a memory he would never forget. The Blackwell twins, either set of them, had a way of turning anything into a weapon.
“What’s Indiana Jones?” Gen asked.
“It’s by Wisconsin,” Abby answered.
“It’s a movie,” Jon said. “One you can watch when you are much older.”
“Can we have licorice ropes?” Gen asked, more interested in the candy than the movie.
“I want chocolate,” Abby chimed in.
Jon glanced sideways at Tyler. “Thanks a lot for mentioning candy before lunch.”
Tyler laughed again as the girls begged for all their favorite candies from the back seat. Jon had his hands full, that was for sure.
Jon parallel parked in front of The Hungry Hog Deli. The sign hanging above the door was a hand-painted pink hog with a napkin tied around its neck getting ready to take a bite out of a sandwich. This place was new since Tyler had been in Falcon Creek last. It might have boasted sandwiches big enough to satisfy giant pigs, but it didn’t look large enough to accommodate all of the Blackwells.
“They have a back room with more tables,” Jon said as if he’d read his brother’s mind. “Let’s see who else is here.”
The sound of laughter coming from the back room hinted they all were. Tyler’s palms started to sweat. He rubbed them on his khaki shorts. There was no reason to be anxious. This was his family. What could go wrong?
“Surprise!” the twins shouted as they ran in.
The back room was a square space with exposed brick walls. Pictures of all kinds of pigs hung from them. They had three rows of picnic tables covered in red-and-white-checked tablecloths. Ben and Ethan had beat them there and were already seated. Ben had brought Poppy, who was in a high chair at the far end of the middle table.
The six ladies were spread out across all three tables. Ethan, Grace and Sarah Ashley were seated at the first table and accepted hugs from Gen and Abby first. Ben, Rachel, Poppy and Zoe were in the middle. Tyler had no idea how Ben managed to stomach Rachel’s friendship with Zoe. He was a better man than Tyler.
Lydia and Hadley were seated at the third table. When Tyler finally turned his attention their way, his breath was stolen. Hadley had cut her hair. It used to hang several inches past her shoulders, but now it just brushed the top of them. It had been curled into big, bouncy curls and her makeup had been done in a way that somehow made her blue eyes bluer. Her lips were the same color pink as her fingernails.
She was absolutely the most stunning woman in the room. The twins each claimed a spot on either side of Lydia.
“Your hair looks so pretty!” Gen said, touching Lydia’s curls.
Abby grabbed Lydia’s hand for a closer look at her manicure. “Can you make my nails this long?”
“I can make your nails this color,” Lydia offered in compromise.
“Well, Emma is a miracle worker,” Jon said, bending down to kiss his bride-to-be
before taking the spot across Abby and next to Hadley. “She somehow managed to make you even more beautiful than you were when you left this morning. I didn’t think that was possible.”
He was smooth. Tyler would give him that much.
“You look pretty, too, Aunt Hadley,” Abby said.
“Thank you.”
“So pretty,” Gen added.
Tyler sat down on the other side of Hadley, unsure of how to proceed. Did he greet her the same way Jon greeted Lydia? Or was he off the hook because everyone believed they had had a fight and he slept on the couch last night? Since Zoe thought that was the story, he was sure all the women knew that much.
As frustrated with her as he had been last night and this morning, seeing her sitting among his family and looking so beautiful made him consider a kiss on the cheek. Yet, something told him kissing her was a risk he shouldn’t take after all that had happened.
“So pretty was what I was going to say. You stole my adjective, Gen,” he said instead.
“That’s the best you can do, Ty?” Zoe asked.
Tyler shot daggers at her with his eyes. She looked exactly the same as she did when she woke him up this morning. “Who invited you again?”
“Not me,” Ben mumbled. Rachel shot him a look and he quickly apologized for the slip.
Hadley tucked her hair behind her ears. “It’s shorter than I thought she’d cut it. But maybe it will be longer when I straighten it.” She ran her fingers through the curls like she was trying to undo them.
To keep up appearances, he put his arm around her. “I like it. Do you like it?”
She seemed surprised to hear him say that. “You like it? It’s not too short?”
“No, it’s perfect. Did you lighten it?” He reached up and touched it. It was like holding strands of silk. “It looks so blond.”
“Nope. I didn’t mess with the color.”
He smiled and regretted not giving her that kiss. She was a natural beauty who didn’t need much to knock it out of the park. “You look gorgeous,” he said with complete sincerity.