28. 28
Annabelle
Now
S ince Laura’s wrist is still in a hard cast and immobilized, I’m in charge of bringing our coffees to our morning chats now.
I’ve been back at work for several days after taking the week of Christmas and New Year’s off, but it’s Laura’s first day back after her car accident.
And I’m excited to catch up with my best friend. I have so much to tell her.
Christmas at the ranch, trading I love yous, meeting the rest of Outlaw, having sex. Gah, the sex! It’s still just as good as I remember. Honestly, it’s even better now because of the depth of my feelings for Hayes. But before I can get to any of those topics, my cell phone begins to ring.
“Anna, I have great news! I received an above-asking offer on your house this morning,” Marsha gushes as soon as I answer the phone.
“Above-asking? That’s amazing!” Besides the comfort of having a bank account total with more than two zeros in it, it will be nice to relax again.
The girls and I are so over having to keep the house immaculately clean.
It’s an impossible task, and I hate constantly nagging them.
They’re kids. They should be able to get messy and have fun.
“But there’s a catch,” Marsha hedges. Because of course there is . “The buyers require a closing date that’s only twenty-eight days away.”
“Okay, that’s pretty standard, right?” I ask.
“And they want to move in immediately after closing.”
“Immediately?” I stammer. “That’s only four weeks! How am I supposed to find a new place to live in four weeks?”
My mind flips into overdrive. Four weeks?! To pack, move, and find a new home.
“Four weeks really isn’t that tight of a timeframe, and for an offer that’s over asking, I think you should try to accommodate them, Anna.”
Especially since this is the only offer I’ve received since putting the house on the market. I can’t afford to pass this one up.
Maybe the fast turnaround time will actually be beneficial because it will force me to make a quick decision rather than dilly-dallying and overthinking.
I take a breath and push out the words. “You’re right. Yes, let’s accept their offer, Marsha.”
“Perfect. I’ll email the paperwork over for you to sign.”
After hanging up with Marsha, I feel like I’m in shock. An enormous weight has been lifted off my shoulders by getting the house under contract, but—
“Did you just accept an offer on your house, Anna? ”
I look up to meet Laura’s eyes, and I nod. “I did. But… holy hell, Laura, where are we going to live?”
Discarding my undrunk coffee cup on the small side table in Laura’s office, I stand, feeling antsy.
The kids still have four more months of school until summer break.
I had hoped that whoever bought my house would allow me to lease it back through the end of the school year.
Which would make it easier for Grace and Claire to stay at their private school and give me more time to buy a new place.
Obviously, that plan has flown out the window.
“What about renting?” Laura suggests. “It’s not ideal, but better than hurrying to buy a new house and regretting the purchase later.”
Renting could work. It would suck to move twice, but as Laura said, that’s a better alternative than suffering from buyer’s remorse.
“You can always rent Loverboy’s house for a couple of months.”
“Loverboy?”
“Dave.”
“OMG, are you still hung up on the idea that he likes me? I think he’s just… awkwardly nice.”
“Nice? Please, Anna," Laura scoffs. "Matt, in accounting, moved a few months ago, and Dave never offered his house to him. Just saying."
Sixty percent of adults have engaged in a workplace romance, so it’s not uncommon for feelings to develop between co-workers.
“Ugh. You might be right. He’s already stopped by my cubicle twice this week to talk, and each conversation was weird.
I hope he doesn’t have feelings for me. It would make for an uncomfortable situation if I rented his house, and he became my landlord. ”
Laura rolls her eyes, her unspoken form of I told you so.
Slumping back onto the couch, I pause for a sip of coffee. “You don’t think he’s the type to plant hidden cameras in the bathroom or anything, do you?” I wrinkle my nose at the thought .
Laura barks out a laugh. “No, I don’t think he would. He’s a character, but he’s not a perv.”
As soon as I hear the quiet knock on my front door later that evening, I rush to open it, and before Hayes can even step through the doorway, I fling myself into his arms. I put Grace and Claire to bed almost an hour ago, and I’ve been anxiously waiting for Hayes to arrive.
With a laugh, Hayes catches me. “I could get used to this kind of greeting.”
“I could, too,” I admit. “I missed you.”
Christmas at the ranch with the girls and Hayes was a balm to my once-broken, now-healing heart. Witnessing his interactions with Grace and Claire, becoming acquainted with his friends who are quickly becoming my friends, too… it was a magical holiday.
As promised, Hayes bought Christmas presents for the girls. Nothing too extravagant, just thoughtful presents that the girls loved. Pink cowboy boots, Barbie fishing poles, children’s books, art supplies, dress-up clothes.
And a piggy bank for Grace so she has somewhere safe to store her ill-gotten proceeds. That gift made everyone laugh since, by the time Christmas morning rolled around, she’d already pocketed sixty-five dollars from her swear jar fines. Even Bailey had to pay Grace a couple bucks.
He also broke our no gifts agreement and bought me one present.
A new bottle of his body wash. My face went as red as the label when I realized he’d figured out I’d swiped his from Tank’s after our one-night stand.
I don’t know how he knew, but the lopsided smirk on his face when I unwrapped it told me everything. He definitely knew.
When the cabins lost power and Hayes and I had to share a bedroom, I worried about how the girls would react, but they didn’t blink an eye. I suspect Hayes was correct in assuming that Grace already had her suspicions about us.
Wanting to be honest, we sat the girls down after Christmas and told them Hayes and I were dating.
Claire, who was only four when Kyle passed, doesn’t remember much about life with her father and took the news in stride.
She didn’t seem bothered at all, which was a relief.
Grace wasn’t upset either, but she did have questions.
Some of them were a little uncomfortable to answer, since they focused mostly on the future.
Will Hayes be like a dad to them?
Will Hayes and I get married?
Will we have kids together?
Even as I sweated, Hayes answered each and every question thoughtfully and truthfully.
The gist of which boiled down to that he can’t predict the future, but he wants nothing more than to love all three of us and to build a life together.
His patient answers seemed to pacify any doubts or fears Grace held.
After coming back to Brentwood and getting back into the swing of our normal routines of work and school, I miss those peaceful days at the ranch with Hayes and my daughters.
It felt a lot like what I had always dreamed a family would feel like.
Watching Hayes interact with the girls warmed my heart.
He’s so good with them, and they just eat up every morsel of attention he bestows upon them.
As my arms slacken around Hayes’ body, I realize he feels hard. Wooden. Not relaxed like he usually is. I step back and eye him with concern. “What’s wrong? ”
“It’s not so much that something is wrong, but...” He sighs, running a hand down his face. He seems agitated. “Let’s go sit down. We need to talk about something.”
Dread unfurls in my stomach. Nothing good has ever followed the words we need to talk .
Silently, I follow him into the living room and take a seat on the couch.
“You remember us talking about the music video? The one for Room 112 ?”
A furrow forms between my eyes. “Umm, yeah.” How could I forget that embarrassing conversation?
“Today, we had the meeting with the music video director, and we auditioned actresses to play the love interest. My love interest,” he amends.
“The director’s vision for the video is to reenact the lyrics, which, of course, mirror what happened the night we met.
” Hayes pauses, flexing his fingers and avoiding my eyes.
“Basically, the story of a drunken one-night stand.”
“Okay, so… what’s the problem, Hayes? Spit it out.”
“Christ, Annabelle. The problem is that I hate it!” He stands, agitated. Then he kneels in front of me, grabbing my hands. “I could hardly sit through the auditions. It made me so uncomfortable to even think about kissing and touching someone else. Shit, it felt so wrong, Yankee.”
I lean back, the knot of fear slowly unraveling inside me.
“Hayes, it’s okay.” I reach out, gently stroking his cheek.
He catches my hand and presses a kiss to my palm.
“Honestly, I love that it makes you uncomfortable. That probably sounds twisted, but your discomfort reassures me. It shows how much you care. It tells me that this isn’t casual for you. It tells me I matter. ”
“Baby, you matter to me more than anything, and there is nothing casual about you and me. I love you.”
“I know. And I love you too, Ruston Hayes.” Placing a sweet kiss on his lips, I murmur, “So, where do we go from here?”
“To bed?”
I chuckle at the hope in Hayes’ voice. “I meant, what can we do to make the video shoot easier for you?”
“Would you consider coming with me to the shoot? I don’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable, and I don’t want to hide anything from you.”
I comb my fingers through his shaggy curls and agree. “Yeah, I can do that.”
Coming to his feet, Hayes takes his seat on the couch next to me again. “I was hoping you’d agree, so I asked Bailey if she’d watch the girls overnight because it’s an all-night shoot.”
And it’s the little things like this that make me fall even more in love with Hayes.
Long before Kyle passed away, I’d carried the mental load of our family.
Kyle made the money and paid the bills, and I did everything else.
Knowing that Hayes realized that if I was to accompany him to the video shoot, then I’d need to find childcare blows me away.
It’s a small gesture, but he identified a problem and offered me a solution.
It makes me feel less alone. It makes me feel like we’re a team.
And for that, I am so grateful.
“Hey, I got good news today. I accepted an above-asking offer on my house.”
Hayes sweeps his thumb across my bottom lip as he smiles at me. “Congratulations. That must be a relief.”
“It is, and it isn’t.” I grimace. “I’m a little stressed out about finding our next place. But I talked to Laura about it this morning, and we came up with a Plan B in case I can’t find my dream house within the next few weeks.”
“Which is?”
“Dave, one of our co-workers, offered to rent his house to me on a month-to-month basis, which would be convenient. Without being locked into a year-long lease, I’d have the freedom to move whenever I find the right house.”
Hayes nods, leaning back against the cushions of the couch, spreading his legs until his knee hits mine. Draping his arm around my back, he scrapes his fingers across my shoulder. Relaxing, I curl up, burrowing into his side. “That could work.”
“Could?”
“You could always just move in with me.”
I jolt, sitting up straight. “Hayes! We’ve only just gotten together. We can’t… we can’t do that.”
He holds up his hands, all innocent-like, but I see through his ploy. Hayes is playing me. He knows that by planting the seed, eventually I’ll probably come around to liking his idea.
The problem isn’t that I don’t like his idea.
It’s that I like it too much.
But how do I explain my need for independence?
During my marriage to Kyle, I was so reliant on him.
I gave up everything—I quit college, moved across the country, gave up a chance at a career—to get married and raise his family.
And then Kyle cheated and blew up my world, nearly losing it all.
I need to stand on my own two feet. It's too scary to think about depending on someone else again.
“I can tell I've freaked you out, Yankee.
I'm not asking for it to be permanent solution, even though I'd love for it to be. I know you might not be ready to really move in together, so if it makes you more comfortable, I could move out to the ranch. You and the girls could stay in the condo without me. That way, it wouldn’t be too much, too soon.”
Just when I think I've erected my emotional walls high enough, Hayes scales them.
I tilt my head. “You’d do that for me?”
Sliding his hand into my hair, he angles my face toward him, brushing his lips against mine. “Yankee, I’d do anything for you.”