Chapter 17
seventeen
Hailey looked like she wanted to be anywhere else. Cordy refused to let that upset her. She was done being pushed around by this family.
Cordy stood up and pinned Hailey with her gaze. “We need to talk. Remember you said that?”
The other woman didn’t say anything. The Donut Palace had probably never been so silent. Cordy felt as if the entire town might be watching. Again.
Finally, Hailey turned on her heel and marched out.
Cordy went as fast as she could after her.
Hailey was waiting for Cordy on the sidewalk. The expression on her face was carefully neutral. So Cordy approached slowly, neither smiling nor frowning. At least they didn’t have an audience this time.
“Ruby wanted me to apologize to you.” Hailey didn’t sound like she was about to say sorry. “I… I want you to know my mom is having a tough time. Which my dad doesn’t know how to handle at all.”
“It’s been hard for me too.” Cordy wasn’t inclined to make excuses for any of the Saxons anymore. Maybe because she was so close to delivering. A hard deadline was coming up, and if they didn’t step up by then, Cordy was done. “They need to be there for me because Reed can’t.” She pressed her lips together. “But let’s be honest—your mom was never going to like me.”
“No one would have been good enough for Reed,” Hailey said bitterly. “But, yeah, you were always going to have a hard time with Mom.”
“And you?”
“You don’t text me .” Hailey tapped her chest. “You text my mom. And you don’t ask for help; you talk about fruit sizes. It’s kind of your own fault.”
Cordy’s blood pressure shot to the sky. “What? How is it my fault?”
Hailey gestured like it was obvious. “You’re so self-contained! You don’t hang out with anyone, you never seem to need anything—you put an ad for a birth coach up in the Donut Palace! That’s the kind of ballsy move that intimidates people.”
Cordy’s mouth fell open. It hadn’t felt ballsy. It had been terrifying.
“And then when you need a place to stay”—Hailey wasn’t slowing down—“you move in with the most confirmed bachelor in town. You didn’t even ask about Reed’s house.”
“Wait.” Cordy held up a finger. “What about that?”
“Reed died without a will. That means everything goes to his next of kin.” Hailey looked pointedly at Cordy’s belly. “Which would be your baby. She or he is going to inherit the house. You could make a case that you should use it now. I’m surprised you didn’t.”
Cordy felt like she’d been smacked. How had she… how had she not even thought of that? They’d always met up at her place, so she’d never seen Reed’s house. She’d thought maybe he rented or something. Honestly, she hadn’t really thought about it at all.
Of course the baby was entitled to whatever Reed had left behind. How could Cordy have been so stupid?
Because you never had a home. You’ve never owned one, your parents never owned one, home isn’t even something you understand.
“I didn’t know,” was all she could say. “I…”
When Glenn had kicked her out, she wasn’t entirely homeless—she could have used Reed’s house all along. She suspected the Saxons had deliberately not mentioned it to her.
She didn’t have to stay with Chance. She could have a house all to herself. The Saxons might kick up a fuss, but from what Hailey was saying, they might not.
Cordy preferred living alone. She’d done so since she turned seventeen, and her dad left her in Borneo because she was “old enough to take care of yourself in most cultures.”
So she’d taken care of herself all by herself.
Cordy could do that again. It would be for the best—Chance had made it clear this wasn’t anything like permanent. He wasn’t built for that, anyway.
You’ve got the nursery all set up, though. You’ll have to leave that behind.
Chance had even helped her put up curtains when he’d built the crib. Yellow ones patterned with teddy bears. They made her smile each time she saw them.
Chance had said she could stay until the baby was born. After, she could rethink things. Go back to the way she used to be: independent, unattached.
“I need to talk to a lawyer,” she said.
Hailey winced. “You don’t need to do that.”
“I do.” Cordy put her hand to her belly. “I’m going to make sure my baby gets what’s hers. I don’t know anything about this, and a lawyer will.”
“The probate lawyer should have contacted you,” Hailey said.
“They didn’t.”
“I’ll sort it out.” Hailey suddenly sounded very tired. “My mom found Reed’s christening gown. She wanted to give it to you. It’s what she was trying to tell you before…” Hailey lifted one shoulder. “Well, before she broke down.”
Hailey sounded half-broken herself. Like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders but could never shrug it off, only shift it for a bit.
My mom is having a hard time. My dad can’t handle it.
Hailey had lost her brother, but it sounded like she was losing her parents, too. She might be the only thing keeping the Saxon family together.
“You know,” Cordy said softly, “you don’t have to do it all yourself. You can ask for help.”
It felt strange to say it when Cordy was still learning that lesson herself, but she felt that Hailey really needed it right now.
Hailey smiled crookedly at the irony. “I’ll keep that in mind. Mom likes the updates you send. She shows me each one. She doesn’t reply because she isn’t sure what to say.”
“I’ll keep sending them then,” Cordy promised. Even if Janet never replied. “And I’d love to have Reed’s christening gown. It’s just… I don’t know anything about christenings. Maybe you could help me figure that out once the baby is here? I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do.”
“Of course.” Hailey wasn’t enthusiastic, but Cordy would take it. “Are you sure there’s not anything else you need?”
Cordy pondered that. “You should sign up for the meal train. Ruby’s organizing it.”
“We will. Anything else?”
“I could use some crib sheets. The nursery is yellow with teddy bears if you want a theme.”
Hailey looked at her. “Finally. Was that so hard?”
Well, now, that was pushing it a bit. Cordy suspected her relationship with Hailey would never be easy, no matter how much they tried to meet in the middle.
But then again, here they were. Actually talking.
“No, it wasn’t so bad,” Cordy said. “You should try it sometime.”