45. Hayden
FORTY-FIVE
Bree
I need you to meet me at Brody’s place ASAP.
It’s an emergency.
I stare at the texts, wondering if I should go or not. More than likely, it’s not an emergency, just a way for Bree to get me to talk to her. But at the same time, what if it is an emergency?
My office phone beeps with an in-house call from my dad, summoning me like his stupid little puppet, and I make the decision to go. If nothing else, I’ll get to see Bree and maybe Brody for a few minutes. It’ll hurt like a bitch when I have to walk out the door again, but fuck, I miss them.
My phone vibrates with a call from my dad, and I send him to voicemail, then send a text to him that I’m dealing with an emergency and I’ll call him later.
He responds with a message demanding me to go see him immediately, but I ignore him and take off to the condo.
When I arrive, my heart pounds in my chest at the thought of seeing them. It’s been a little over a week since I’ve seen either of them in person or heard their voices, and I’m craving them like a damn addict.
Without thinking, I type in my code and use the card I still have to take me up to the top floor, and when the doors open, I find Bree standing there with Brody.
“You came,” she says.
“You said it was an emergency,” I murmur, masking my expression, knowing it will only make things worse if I show any emotion.
“It is,” she says, walking toward me. “I want the truth. Why did you walk away?”
I open my mouth to spew my go-to lie, but before the words come out, she adds, “And don’t you dare lie to me again. You promised me the truth…always. You at least owe me that.”
I close my mouth and consider how to go about this. Telling the truth will defeat the entire purpose of what I’ve done. And then it hits me… She said again. Is it possible she knows I was lying when I left?
“Hayden, please,” she says softly, palming my face gently. “Tell me why you left.”
“It’s not going to change anything,” I murmur, my eyes locking with hers before they go to her plump lips, wishing I could kiss her.
“That’s okay,” she says. “I just… I need the truth.”
The day after the charity gala
Dad
We need to talk.
I ignore his text, just like I did last night, not giving a shit that he needs to talk to me. There’s nothing I need or want to hear from him.
I’m about to put my phone away when a second text comes through that gets my attention.
Dad
It’s regarding your girlfriend’s little bakery.
Me
What about it?
Dad
Call Carly and schedule a meeting.
Such an asshole. Since there’s no way I’m not finding out what’s going on regarding Bree’s bakery, I call Carly and schedule an appointment for this afternoon.
When lunch rolls around, I let Hillary know I have an appointment and won’t be in for the rest of the day and then take off.
My dad runs behind in his previous meeting I’m sure to spite me, and finally, nearly forty minutes after our scheduled time, Carly lets me know he’s ready to see me.
“Son, how nice to see you,” Dad says. “Drink?”
“Get to the point, please. I have shit to do. What is it you need to talk to me about?”
He picks up a stack of papers and drops them in front of me. “Turns out Violet and Roy Heart were all too trusting. Although back then, times were different.” He shrugs. “People would shake hands and consider it an agreement. But things have changed over the years, and now, it’s very difficult for a verbal agreement to stand in court, especially when both parties are deceased.”
I stare at the papers in front of me, but I can’t make heads or tails of what I’m looking at based on the bullshit my dad is spewing.
“Let me,” he says, flipping the pages to the last one. “I have another meeting in fifteen minutes, so we’ll have to speed this up.” He points at the lines at the bottom of the page. “This is the contract between Violet and Roy Heart and Sal Benitez, where they agreed to a ninety-nine-year lease on the property where Heart’s Coffeehouse and Bakery resides. What’s missing?” He taps his finger right over the blank lines… Fuck, they’re blank. How can that be?
I flip through all the pages, looking for somewhere they might’ve signed, an initial, anything that can hold up in court. But there’s nothing. Neither party ever signed the damn paperwork. Which means Bree has no rights as far as her coffeehouse goes.
Fuck, if my dad buys the property, she’s screwed. He’ll kick her out in a heartbeat and without paying her a dime since she has no leg to stand on without a signed contract.
“What do you want?” I ask, knowing that’s why he called me here. He knows what that business means to Bree and what she means to me, and there’s only one reason he would point it out.
“I want to make a deal,” he confirms with a smirk I’d love to punch right off his damn face.
“What do you want?” I repeat.
“For you to stop embarrassing the Shea name. I want you out of that ridiculous relationship and back here working where you belong.”
“And you’ll what—cancel the sale?” I volley as my mind runs with possible ways to save Bree’s coffeehouse. If I can convince him that we’re over and that I’m back at Shea just long enough for Brody to?—
“The sale’s already done,” he says, stabbing my ideas with a fucking knife. “You think I’d risk you walking away as soon as I cancel it, so Fields can swoop in and scoop it up?” He barks out a humorless laugh. “Hell no. I bought it. The deal is done. And as long as you work for me and stay away from them, she can keep her little bakery.”
His words wrap around my heart, squeezing, piercing, bleeding me out. Without thought, I bring my hand up and rub my chest, seeking reprieve but knowing I won’t get it. Dad doesn’t say anything, letting me stew in my thoughts. He’s covered all his bases, leaving no room for any loopholes. Except…
“How are you going to put a spa there?”
“I already found another property for the spa. This purchase was strictly done to ensure you’d come back to where you belong. It will make a great luxury condominium complex. Surprisingly, that bakery has a decent clientele. With a few necessary upgrades, it’ll fit in just fine… as long as you hold up your end of the bargain, that is.”
“I need time to think,” I tell him, standing. It’s hard to breathe, and if I don’t leave soon, he’s going to witness me losing my shit.
“You have one week to return to where you belong. If you’re not here on Monday morning, she’s gone.”
“Even if I do return, you have to know I’ll never want to be here. I’ll resent you for forcing me into this, for destroying the little bit of happiness I found.”
“You’ll get over it. You’re meant to be the CEO of Shea, not working as a lackey at Fields. You’ll thank me one day.” He presses the button for the intercom. “Carly, let my next appointment know I’m ready.” And just like that, I’ve been dismissed.
Taking the contract with me, I spend the next several hours combing through it, hoping to find a loophole. When I don’t find one, I take it to an attorney friend and ask him to look over it. When he tells me that without any signatures, the contract isn’t worth the paper it was typed on, I know what I have to do.
Present Day
“You should’ve told me,” Bree says. “You should’ve given me the choice.”
“I know what you would’ve chosen,” I argue, “and I wasn’t going to put you in that position. My family did this to you, and it was up to me to fix it. I know how much Heart’s means to you. It’s all you have left from your grandparents. It’s more than just coffee and cupcakes. It’s your past, your present, your future. It’s your livelihood. I wasn’t going to let you have it ripped out from under you.”
Bree steps toward me and cradles my face in her gentle hands. “I’ve lost enough people in my life to know that Heart’s is just a dwelling. The heart of it is inside me, where nobody, not even your dad, can reach. My grandma took me in when my parents weren’t capable of loving me the right way. She showed me what love looks like, and it’s not four walls at the bottom of a building. It’s you, me, Brody, and my children.”
She smiles softly up at me. “I know without a doubt my grandparents would not only understand but would want me to choose you… choose love over a location.”
“Bree…” I swallow thickly, hearing her words but not wanting to accept them. She shouldn’t have to choose. “I can’t let you?—”
“I already did.”
Her admission has me stumbling back. “What? What did you do?”
“I had a letter of termination of my lease drawn up, and I gave it to your dad. It wasn’t really necessary since the contract wasn’t even signed, but I did it, so legally, it’s been handled. I have ninety days to move my stuff out of there before he locks me out.”
She presses her lips to mine. “I love you, Hayden, and I appreciate what you did. I don’t like that you didn’t speak to me, but I know what you did was out of love, so I’m going to forgive you, but in the future, we handle things together.” She takes Brody’s hand in hers and tugs him toward us. “The three of us.”
I don’t know how the hell I got this lucky to have someone like Bree love me, but I vow to spend the rest of our lives making it up to her.
“Hey, man, can we talk?”
Brody closes the fridge and slowly turns around, glaring my way.
“Oh, now you want to talk?” he says, popping the top off his beer. “I think that ship sailed the moment you chose to walk away instead of talking to me.”
It’s late, and even though it’s a weekday, Bree and the kids spent the night. We had a conversation with the kids about what happened, and I apologized to Miles and Evie for making their mom cry.
She explained to them about the coffeehouse, how she has to find a new one, and that I was upsetting her because I was trying to fix it. I’m not sure if they completely understand what happened, but Miles seemed to forgive me by the end of the night.
Brody, on the other hand, hasn’t said a single word to me all night.
“I know I fucked up…”
“You know you fucked up?” he mocks. “Fuck that! You don’t know shit.” He stalks toward me and gets in my face. “You’re lucky Bree is a fucking angel and willing to forgive you, but I’m not.” He slams his beer on the counter next to me. “An entire lifetime of friendship and instead of talking to me, you shut me out.”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“You always have a choice!” he barks. “You chose to walk away. You chose to say the shit you said. You broke her heart, and I had to try to pick up the shattered fucking pieces. You weren’t there, watching her cry for days. Helpless!” He pounds his chest with his fist. “I thought I was gonna lose her too. Do you know what it feels like to think you’re going to lose the two people who mean the most to you?” I open my mouth to say something—what, I’m not sure—but he speaks first. “And don’t you dare say you know because you made that decision. You did that! And Bree might be forgiving, but I’ll be damned if you ever do that shit to her again.”
He grabs me by the shirt and slams me against the wall. I brace myself, ready for him to hit me, and I wouldn’t blame him, but before he does, Bree runs into the kitchen and pushes him away from me.
“Enough,” she hisses. “Enough.”
“No, fuck that!” Brody barks. “He should be hurting, just like we were.” Tears prick his eyes, and he looks away from me and at her as she takes his face in her hands. “He fucking hurt you, and just like that, you let him back in. I can’t go through that again.” He shakes his head. “I can’t see you crying like that again. He’s either got to be all in or out. You almost canceled the wedding. You were crying for days.”
He glances at me. “While you were accepting your decision, did you know that she refused to? She was running around like a detective, refusing to give up hope. Swearing she was going to get you back. You gave up before even trying, and she never fucking gave up.”
“Brody, please,” Bree says, forcing him to look at her. “None of us are perfect. All we can do is love each other and live for today and hope for tomorrow. I love that you’re protecting me, but all I want is for us to learn from this and put it behind us.”
She reaches over and takes my hand, pulling me toward Brody so we’re standing next to each other. “I just want to love you both and be loved by you. Everything else be damned.”
She reaches up on her tiptoes and kisses Brody, then turns and kisses me. “Now,” she says, a sexy smirk quirking up in the corner of her lips. “It’s been way too long since I’ve felt either of you inside me. So I say we take advantage of the kids sleeping and get reacquainted with each other…on a personal level.”
And because neither of us can—or want to—say no to that offer, we follow her to Brody’s room, where we spend damn near the entire night making up for the lost time.
Bonus scene
Brody
“You’re still awake?”
Hayden’s standing in the doorway, dressed in a pair of sweats, sans shirt. We’ve just spent hours making love to Bree. After everything that went down, she was needier than usual, and we were both willing and happy to give her that extra attention.
But once she fell asleep, I couldn’t stay in that room, in the bed with Hayden, so when I knew she wouldn’t be waking up until morning, I left and came out onto the balcony to get some fresh air.
“It would seem so,” I clip, still pissed at Hayden.
“Can I join you?” he asks, already walking over to have a seat next to me.
We sit in silence for several minutes, and I think it’s going to stay that way until he turns to face me.
“I’m sorry.” His eyes are glassy with emotion. “I know I already said it earlier and Bree forgave me, but I owe you an apology.”
He reaches over and threads our fingers together, and my stomach knots. Hayden has been my best friend for years, and what he did hurt. I love how big Bree’s heart is and that it’s so open to forgiveness, but what Hayden did fucking hurt.
“You’ve had my back every day for the past decade, and I can’t imagine a life without you in it,” he says, his words laced with raw emotion. “I know I hurt you, and for that, I’m sorry. But you have to understand that I didn’t make my decision lightly. I’ve watched you for years struggle with finding yourself in this world and when my dad threatened to take it all away …”
“That’s what you don’t understand,” I tell him, our eyes meeting. “My happiness isn’t only contingent on Bree. It’s on you as well. We’re in this together, the three of us. And you’re just as important to me as she is.”
Hayden nods in understanding. “I love you, and I’m sorry I didn’t come to you. In the future, I will.”
“Good, because we can’t run Fields and Shea Enterprises together if we aren’t on the same page.”
“What?” His eyes go wide. “It’s … It’s not …”
“It will be,” I tell him. “I spoke to my dad, and he’s agreed. I don’t want you to work for me at Fields. I want you to be my partner.”
“Fuck,” Hayden chokes out.
“I love you,” I tell him. “And I wouldn’t want to be in this life with anyone but you.” I stand. “Now, let’s go back to bed. We have a woman who needs us to make up for lost time.”
Hayden grins. “I call her ass.”