Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Reality came back way too soon.
By the time they pulled away from Summit Ridge, Hailey was already dreading all the real-world stuff they were going to have to start dealing with. The biggest perk to the last twenty-four hours—other than the orgasms—was how much more she and Max knew about each other. Now she could say with great certainty that she genuinely liked him, and it wasn’t only about the sex. He is a great guy who works hard, loves his family, loves being part of his community, and he has about a million other amazing qualities.
And Hailey kind of loved everything about him, and that scared the hell out of her because it was going to complicate everything.
“You’re being awfully quiet,” Max said as they passed the sign for Sweetbriar Ridge. “Are you okay?”
The sigh was out before she could stop it. “I never thought I was the kind of person who shied away from confrontations or avoided responsibility. But right now, I’d really love to turn my phone off and go back up to Summit Ridge and forget about the rest of the world. Do the whole hit pause on real life thing again.” Turning her head, she gave him a sad smile. “Pretty lame, huh?”
“Not at all. I know we’ve been good about not talking about…stuff, but I totally understand what you’re saying.”
And that was it.
That was all he said.
“Wait…don’t you have anything else to say? Like how we need to be responsible or how hiding away isn’t helping the situation?”
For a moment, Max didn’t respond. Shrugging, he finally said, “The way I see it, it’s actually helping the situation. We’re getting the time to get to know each other—which is important considering we’re going to be having a baby together. Granted, we can’t possibly know everything about each other, but maybe having a few days to ourselves with no interruptions is the best thing to do.” Then he winked. “And if some of that time to ourselves is spent like the last twenty-four hours, who am I to complain?”
Unable to help herself, she laughed softly. “Oh, Max…aren’t you afraid that if we keep jumping into bed that it’s going to complicate things? I mean…co-parenting is going to be weird enough. If we can’t be in the same room without wanting to rip each other’s clothes off, things are going to get…”
“Complicated,” he miserably finished for her.
Neither of them spoke for several minutes, and Hailey was surprised when he passed the turn for Billie’s house. “Um…aren’t we…?”
“No,” he said. “No, we’re not.”
“O-kay…but…”
“Your cousins are all coming over on Sunday, so we technically don’t have to go home until Saturday night—Sunday morning at the latest. We can go back to Summit Ridge, or we can go someplace—anyplace—else and take that time to keep getting to know each other and maybe getting all the sex out of our systems.”
Was he serious? She didn’t think she’d ever be able to get sex with him out of her system.
Clearly the feeling is not mutual.
The logical part of her brain was telling her to say no; they should go home and stop avoiding the situation, and be thankful for the sexy time they had.
Unfortunately, all of her girlie parts were very excited at the thought of more naked time with Max.
Ugh…what to do…what to do…
Glancing over at her, he asked, “What do you say? Are we going home or are we hiding out for a little longer?” Reaching over, he took her hand in his. “The choice is yours, Hailey. Whatever it is you want to do, then that’s what we’ll do.”
There was really only one answer.
“I don’t want to go home yet,” she quietly replied. “Does that make me a bad person?”
Kissing her hand, he shook his head. “Never. You could never be a bad person.” He let out a long breath. “Okay, so…where to? Back to Summit Ridge or someplace new?”
Again, there was really only one answer.
“Summit Ridge. I still want to have dinner in the restaurant.”
“You got it.”
“This is becoming a dangerous habit.”
“Are you kidding? I think it should become a daily thing. It should be normalized and embraced.”
“Max, eating cake in bed should not be normalized!” she laughed. “The crumbs alone would be enough to make me crazy!”
“That’s what washers and dryers are for!” he joked.
“Not if you had to change the sheets every day!”
“You’re talking nonsense. Here. Have another forkful of cake.”
And before she could argue, she had a mouthful of dessert.
Which was positively decadent.
“I would never say this outside of this room, but I think this cake is better than Billie’s,” he said. “She makes some of the most amazing stuff, but this cake is just…I can’t even describe it!”
Swallowing, Hailey nodded. “Your secret is safe with me. She can’t possibly be great at everything, and even if this cake is better than hers, it doesn’t take anything away from what she does. I’m particularly fond of her iced brownies.”
“Same. She’s been bringing me home a box of baked goods from Books Max did too.
The entire Donovan family was coming over for dinner today and while Max typically got along great with all of them, he had to figure they were all going to be looking at him a little differently now. He was certain everyone knew about the pregnancy, but since they had put themselves in the no-reality bubble, they had figured nothing out and had literally zero answers to anything they might ask.
Was she moving here to Sweetbriar Ridge? And if so, when?
No idea.
Co-parenting was the logical choice, but was that what he really wanted?
He had an answer to that one, but he didn’t think it was something Hailey would be open to it.
He wanted to marry her.
Would it be solely for the sake of the baby? No, although that was definitely part of it. From the moment they first met, Max had been drawn to her. It was more than just lust—although there was a lot of that—it was a total connection. They had a lot in common, plenty of interesting conversations, the same moral compass, and on top of it all, he genuinely liked her.
A lot.
Was possibly already in love with her.
For his entire life, Max had never been the type of person who believed in love at first sight or anything particularly whimsical, but what he felt for Hailey was a little bit of both. It didn’t matter that they’d only spent a total of a week together; he already knew his feelings for her were only going to get stronger.
Unfortunately, he already knew how overwhelmed she was with the entire situation and him suggesting they get married or him telling her he was falling for her more than likely wouldn’t help.
He’d call that plan B.
And right now, he knew having her sitting there quietly in her own head probably wasn’t helping anything, either, so…
“Are you looking forward to seeing all your cousins today?” he asked.
For a moment, she looked at him like he was crazy before responding. “Everyone’s going to know.”
“No, they’re not. You’re being paranoid.”
“Billie knew.”
“Billie was fishing for information. And considering she’s pregnant, it was really just a coincidence that she figured it out. No one else is going to be talking about that stuff.”
Hailey looked up at him with an expression that said, “Really?” and that’s when he realized she was right. Pretty much all the Donovan women were pregnant, so there was going to be a lot of pregnancy and baby talk.
“O-kay…so what do we need to do here?” he asked. “Do you need me to keep everyone distracted or…”
That seemed to amuse her. “Max, you can’t keep eight adults and two kids distracted for the entire day. At some point, I’m going to have to talk to them without you being right there changing the subject.”
“True, but you know they’re all going to ask what made you come up for a visit. Do you know what you’re going to say?”
She frowned. “No.”
“Is it possible that everyone knows already? I mean…I obviously don’t know your family the way that you do, but even I know that there are never any secrets.”
“I suppose it’s possible. My mother knows and so does my sister, so there’s a chance that everyone’s already heard.”
She didn’t sound so happy about it, and that left him wondering how he was supposed to feel about it.
Inwardly groaning, he realized he hadn’t thought this much about his feelings in…well…ever.
No time like the present apparently…
Reaching for her hand, he gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Look, we took a little reality break, and I think it’s exactly what we needed. But when we get back to the house and everyone arrives, I want you to know that I’m one hundred percent there for you. I’ll back up whatever you’re going to say, and I’ll shut down anyone who gives us any grief, okay? We’re in this together. You don’t have to take it all on yourself.”
That seemed to relax her. “Thanks, Max. I guess maybe we should have spent a little time talking about things.” Her soft sigh was seemingly filled with regret before she gave him a weak smile. “I’m not even sure where to start or what to say. I mean…let’s be honest, I never expected to be starting a family with you. It wasn’t like we even planned on seeing each other again.”
Yeah, that part still stung because he regretted that more than anything.
“If I could go back and change that, I would,” he admitted. “Long-distance relationships aren’t anyone’s first choice, but I wish we would have given ourselves that option.”
“Me too.” Another sigh. “Unfortunately, my time traveling skills are pretty much non-existent.”
“Same.” Then they both quietly laughed. “And since that’s off the table, the only thing we can do is move forward. Were you serious about moving here?”
Nodding, she smiled. “Yes. That was something I’d been toying around with for a long time, but couldn’t seem to make myself do it. Now I have a reason to.”
“How do you think your family is going to take it?”
This time, her laugh was mirthless. “Um…probably not well. The only thing helping me is the fact that Uncle Ronan and my cousins are here. When I told my mom that I was pregnant, she immediately started saying how she and my dad were going to be there for me and how I didn’t have to worry about anything.”
“Oh.” He paused before carefully asking, “And did you tell her I was the father?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“And…she said you could move to Florida if you wanted to see me and the baby.”
For a moment, Max had no idea how to respond to that.
“But I told her it wasn’t her decision and that it was between me and you,” she quickly clarified. “I don’t expect her or my dad to just be…you know…cool with all of this. You’re going to get a lot of side-eye and I’m going to get a lot of how they’re disappointed. I’m already prepared for it.”
“That doesn’t seem fair,” he murmured.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…I get that this isn’t exactly traditional, and you said that your mother told you she’d be there for you, so why would they be disappointed?”
“It’s just…” Letting out a long breath, Hailey twisted slightly in her seat to look at him. “I have three older brothers, then there’s me, and Sloane is the baby. My mom has always talked about how she couldn’t wait for me to get married so she can have a big wedding and do all the girlie things. Let’s be honest, that can all still happen, but she’s always dramatic and will act like it’s no longer possible. There will be a lot of talk of how I can’t wear a white dress…trust me, it’s going to be a thing.”
Here was his opening.
“So then we’ll get married.”
“What?!” she said in a near screech.
“I’m serious, Hailey. Marry me. Marry me and we’ll raise this baby and…”
“Are you insane? We can’t get married! It’s too soon! We barely know each other!”
“That’s what the last few days have been about! And—if you think about it—that was a lot of genuine, quality time! No interruptions, just being with each other twenty-four hours a day for three days! I’d bet good money that we know more about each other than couples who have been dating for months!”
“But that’s not…we just…” Groaning, her head fell back against the headrest. “Oh, Max…how did everything get so crazy?”
“I don’t know, but we’re going to get through this together. I told you; I’m not going anywhere. Whether we’re co-parenting, living together, or married, I’m all in no matter what.”
“It’s all so much to think about. The only thing saving my sanity today is that my cousins aren’t going to be all pushy and demand answers from us.” Then she seemed to relax. “I love seeing all of them and it’s really kind of cool that we’re all having babies. It will be a great support network once I move here.”
“That’s very true.” They turned onto Marcus and Billie’s block. “So let’s just take things as they come today. If anyone asks us anything that we haven’t figured out yet…”
“That would be everything,” she joked with a small laugh.
Laughing, he had to agree. “If they ask us anything that we haven’t figured out yet, that’s what we’ll tell them. This is all new and we’re just starting to work it all out. For all we know, they’ll have some great suggestions to help us.”
“Maybe.”
They drove the rest of the way in silence until they pulled into the driveway.
“Wow, people are here already?” Hailey asked as she straightened. “I thought they weren’t supposed to be here until later this afternoon.”
Max parked and nodded. “That’s what I thought. It was supposed to be sometime around three. But…I don’t recognize the car, so maybe it’s a friend or someone work related.”
“That makes sense.” Glancing around, she asked, “Should we bring everything in now?”
“Probably. One less thing to do later after everyone leaves.”
Together, they collected their bags and as they walked toward the house, Max took Hailey’s free hand in his. “Remember, we’ve got this.”
Smiling, she agreed. “Yes, we do.”
Pulling open the side door that led to the kitchen, he stepped back and let her go in first. “I wonder what…” His words died in his throat as he nearly plowed right into her. “Hailey? What’s…?”
She froze in front of him and gasped. “Oh my God…Mom? Dad? What are you doing here?”
“Hailey Shae Donovan! Do you have any idea how worried we’ve been?” someone called out.
Hailey Shae?
Max didn’t have time to give her full name much thought because Kevin and Bridget Donovan were storming toward them.
Okay. Here we go…