Chapter 1 #2
It has nothing to do with Ransom, or that kiss…
When she got the script that killed off BeeBee Evans and changed her life as she knew it, Hailey was on her computer that same day, looking up property for sale in Trinity Falls, hoping that there was a nice farmhouse she could renovate and put a garden around.
When she saw the Wrights’ place was up for sale at a price she could miraculously afford, she got in touch with her old friend Sloane right away.
“They’re not the ones selling it,” Sloane had told her. “And it was subdivided the last time it changed hands, so it’s not as big as you’re remembering it.”
“Really?” Hailey had asked.
“They cut off a small slice on the east side, starting with a stand of pine trees,” Sloane said. “It includes the A-frame guesthouse. The rest would all be yours.”
Hailey knew that slice well. It was where the Wright cousins would stay when they visited. The A-frame was super cool, but she could definitely do everything she wanted to do without it.
The farmhouse was perfect, and there was already a beautiful garden, and plenty of space for horses.
And now it’s mine…
She tapped the button for the radio and chuckled happily when she heard Elvis Presley crooning “Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me.” She had completely forgotten that WCCR, the local radio station, played all Christmas music all day long at this time of year.
By the time she turned north on Providence Road, Smokey Robinson was breaking into “Jingle Bells” and Hailey was starting to get excited.
She glanced up at where the bare tree branches met overhead, remembering how they always formed a lush canopy in the summertime that made it seem like you were driving through a tunnel into a storybook woodland.
Now that tunnel would be taking her home.
She took a right on the long drive that went back to the Wrights’ old farm and braced herself for the bumps and ruts in the dirt road.
But when there was just a slight crunch instead, she remembered that Sloane had told her about how the man who bought the farm from the Wrights had leveled the driveway and laid down gravel.
“There’s one thing I don’t have to do,” she told herself.
Apparently, while she’d been away, some billionaire named Radcliffe had bought up a lot of properties in the area around Trinity Falls. He’d fixed them up some, and then put them back on the market at reasonable prices.
It seemed like a pretty bad way to do business to Hailey, but she had a feeling there was more to the story.
And besides, she felt really lucky to be able to take advantage of his generosity.
She’d thought she would have to do the soap opera for quite a bit longer to be able to buy the kind of property she wanted.
Instead, the timing had worked out perfectly.
As she continued down the driveway, the first thing to appear was the big red barn.
Happily, it still looked amazing. Radcliffe had obviously put a coat of paint on it.
The roofline was softened with snow, and in the faint bit of moonlight that peeked through the clouds, it looked like a Christmas card.
The driveway curved and went uphill a bit, and then the big farmhouse appeared at the crest, flanked by massive evergreens.
Hailey swallowed back the tears that threatened as memories crowded her mind.
The windows of the house were dark now, but she remembered them glowing with warmth, and smoke swirling from the chimney.
Ransom’s mom had raised him and Willow on her own, and Hailey knew she’d probably struggled.
But you never would have known it from the childhood she gave to her kids, and their friends too.
The house was always bustling with activity.
Hailey was far from the only extra kid who sat around their kitchen table playing cards or checkers on winter afternoons.
And she’d helped out with chores and roamed the farm with the others in the summer too.
The house looked almost lonesome now. Hopefully, Hailey could fill it up soon, even if it was with strangers.
She kept going, past the big house to the little stone and stucco cottage where Ransom’s grandmother used to live.
While the farmhouse was undergoing renovations, Hailey planned to live in the cottage just as it was. All the furnishings had been included, so she could move in with her few possessions and get right to work.
She pulled up beside the house, glancing up at the stand of snowy pines that now formed the eastern border of the property. If she trooped through the trees, she would be able to see the A-frame cottage across the meadow.
“At least I’ve got one neighbor,” she told herself quietly as she got out of the station wagon.
The snow flurries had stopped, and she paused for a second to take in her surroundings.
After living in a crowded apartment building, the deep quiet of the countryside was actually a little spooky.
Even when she lived in Trinity Falls, she and her parents had been in a little house right in town.
Her visits out this way happened mostly during the day, and always when there was plenty of company.
Being out here alone at night was a whole different vibe from what she was used to.
But she comforted herself with the knowledge that there was no safer place in the world than Trinity Falls as she headed to the front door and pulled her keys from her pocket.
From what she’d read online, the biggest police response in town had happened while she’d been away, and involved a deer crashing through the window of the local jewelry shop.
A burst of warm air greeted her as she stepped inside, and she thanked her lucky stars all over again for Sloane Greenfield, who had obviously turned up the heat when she stopped by earlier.
Hailey flicked on the lights to reveal the small living room. It was just as charming as she’d expected, with a beamed ceiling, a fireplace, and a big sofa. It was too dark outside to see much, but the windows would look out on the fields and the pine trees.
She wandered back to the small kitchen and turned on the lights. The wooden table and chairs were just as she remembered them. The cupboards were painted pale blue and Ransom’s grandma always had pretty yellow tea towels.
She smiled to herself as she continued the tour.
Behind the kitchen were the bedroom and bath.
The bedroom had a big bed with a cozy-looking quilt, a good-sized closet, and a door to the stairs to the small unfinished attic.
The bathroom was old-fashioned but it seemed functional, and Hailey loved the clawfoot tub.
“Good,” she said to herself. “Good, good, good.”
But her happy thoughts were cut short as there was a sort of mechanical thunk and the whole house went dark.
She let out a little shriek without meaning to, and the sound of it scared her even more.
“It’s okay,” she told herself as she fumbled for her phone, managing to drop it on the floor before she could unlock it.
The wind rattled the windows as she crawled around the floor, feeling for her phone. When her hand finally locked around it, she turned on the flashlight and stood, willing herself not to shake.
The thin beam of light in the otherwise dark house looked like something out of one of the horror movies she’d never been able to watch. She hurried back through the house and out the front door.
The darkness outside was so much less profound than the darkness inside. At least out here there was a glow of moonlight on the snow.
Her feet carried her through the line of pine trees toward her nearest neighbor before she consciously made the decision to visit them.
She tromped through the snow in her suede boots, figuring that if she could get a view of the other house, she would know if the whole area had lost power, or if it was just her.
As she expected, on the other side of the pines was the meadow, and just beyond that was the old A-frame house. Light glowed from the glassy front onto the snow and it called to her like a beacon.
She picked up her pace, relief in her heart at the sight of that warm light.
She was almost across the meadow when she heard the first bark.
It wasn’t a yip, like one of the little city dogs either. It was a deep, throaty warning.
Terror shot through her and she froze in place, her blood running colder than the snow beneath her feet.
Another dog began to bark, this one just as intimidating as the first one.
No, please, no, she prayed.
Hailey had always had a deep-seated fear of dogs. It didn’t come from any particular bad experience, but it probably didn’t help that her mom had taken her by the hand and crossed the street every time they saw one in town.
“Why do people have those things?” her mom would mutter worriedly as they hurried away.
A third dog’s barking joined the first two, and there was movement from the house.
To her complete horror, a collection of inky black shadows leapt off the porch and streaked across the meadow toward her.
Stay calm, she told herself inwardly. Slowly back away.
But she was locked up as still as a statue and couldn’t seem to do anything but await her doom.
“What in the world?” a familiar deep voice boomed across the dark meadow.
“What is it, Daddy?” a little girl’s voice piped up from the house.
“Stay there, Mae,” he called back. “Travis, keep your sister in the house, please.”
The dogs were almost on her now, Hailey swore she could feel the ground shaking as they thundered toward her. As they got close, she could tell by the black and tan fur and the pointed ears that they were German shepherds.
“Aus,” the man called out.
Instantly, all three beasts skidded to a stop, their ears pricking up as if eager for more commands.
Air rushed back into Hailey’s lungs and she was finally able to look up from the dogs to the man who was now standing right behind them.
He was tall and handsome with dark eyes, a close-cropped beard, and dark hair that flopped over his forehead.
“Hailey?” he said, looking astonished.
She opened her mouth and closed it again, unable to let out a single syllable, even as his name screamed in her mind.
Ransom.