Chapter 24 Hailey
HAILEY
Hailey ran across the snowy field the next day and grabbed a red plastic ball to throw.
Travis cheered for her and Mae jumped up and down as the dogs streaked across the meadow to sit at her feet.
For an instant, she felt a familiar shiver of her old fear trying to get its claws around her. The dogs were enormous, their fur dark against the blinding white snow as they flew toward her at a blistering speed.
Then Ransom grabbed her hand.
She looked up at him and saw the question in his eye and she knew that if she wanted he would tell them all to go back to the barn.
She felt a pang of sympathy for Raven and Constance and the others to have their playtime cut short.
And as soon as she thought of them as individuals, her fear melted away.
“I’m good,” she said softly, just as Henrietta came to a stop at her feet, smiling up at her in that knowing way, like she was reminding Hailey that they had a friendship forged in snowstorms and puppy deliveries.
“Good dogs,” Hailey told them. “Wait.”
She threw the ball with all her might, which admittedly only took it halfway across the field.
The dozen shepherds shivered with excitement but held their seated position.
“Okay,” she cried, releasing them.
They all shot off through the snow, leaping joyfully for the ball, and rolling all over each other when Constance snatched it up in her clever jaws.
“You’ve come a long way,” Ransom said, sounding impressed.
“She’s not scared of dogs anymore,” Travis said, coming over to hold her other hand. “Now that she knows them.”
“She’s very brave,” Mae said. “Can she have her surprise?”
“What surprise?” Hailey asked.
“Why don’t you three head back to the house,” Ransom said. “I’ll be right there.”
He called to the dogs and most of them bounded back toward the barn with him.
“Anna, Elsa, Olaf,” Travis cried, his voice bright and clear in the cold morning air.
The three pets sailed toward the house and Hailey followed with the kids.
“You went to a party last night,” Mae said accusingly.
“Only for a little while,” Hailey told her. “And it would have been loads more fun if you and Travis had been there. I’m sorry it was mostly after bedtime.”
“If you were my mommy, you would let me stay up late sometimes,” Mae whispered.
Hailey swallowed over the lump that was suddenly in her throat.
“And you would read to us every night,” Travis added, nodding.
“Is that what your mommy did when you lived with her?” Hailey asked them.
They were silent for a moment.
“She used to play the radio and dance with us,” Mae offered.
“Oh yeah,” Travis said. “And we got ice cream at the grocery store every time, not just sometimes.”
“She sounds like she knows how to have fun,” Hailey said approvingly.
“She doesn’t come here,” Mae said softly. “She doesn’t miss us.”
“I’m sure she misses you a lot,” Hailey told her. “That might be why it’s hard for her to visit.”
“It makes Dad sad,” Travis said softly. “He said so to Grandma on the phone one time. He’s sad that she doesn’t call us.”
The idea made her chest ache.
“Who does have fun with you?” Hailey asked them, knowing that sometimes it was better to remember to be grateful for what you did have.
“Dad lets us play with the dogs,” Travis said right away. “And he has movie nights with us with popcorn.”
“And Grandma will come to visit as soon as she can,” Mae added. “She bakes lasagna with us.”
“And Aunt Willow told us last night that she’s going to be here all the time now,” Travis said excitedly. “She and Jensen like playing with us, so they’re going to ask Dad if we can have a board game night every single week.”
“That sounds amazing,” Hailey said, meaning it.
“And you read to us,” Mae said shyly. “And you do all the best funny voices.”
“Thank you,” Hailey said, feeling touched. “I’m so glad I can read to you. It’s so much fun.”
By the time they reached the house and peeled off their coats and boots, the kids had listed off dozens of people who they loved spending time with, from family to friends to teachers at school.
Hailey headed to the kitchen to start some hot chocolate.
“Who’s ready for a fun surprise?” Ransom’s voice boomed from the front door.
The kids cheered, and Hailey wiped her hands on her jeans and came out.
“Come and sit,” Ransom told her, leading her over to the dining room table, and putting her at the head of it. “This is your place of honor.”
“Okay,” she said, feeling mystified.
Travis sat down on one side of her and Mae on the other.
But Ransom disappeared in the kitchen and came back out with a tray.
On the tray were a half-gallon of apple cider and four glasses. He set it carefully on the table and turned to Hailey.
“Last night, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the fun things we missed being together for,” he told her. “I’m glad we got to dance in honor of the prom we missed. And the kids and I thought maybe we could catch up on a few more things.”
“Okay,” she said, looking between them.
“Okay,” he echoed with a smile. “Travis, will you do the honors?”
Travis hopped up, looking delighted, and began carefully pouring glasses of apple cider, spilling very little of it on the tray.
“When you first headed to New York,” Ransom said.
“I thought you’d be paying your dues for a long time, going on auditions, and pounding the pavement.
It’s a huge deal that you landed a role on a really popular show right away.
We’re really proud of you, Hailey. You accomplished something most actors only dream of. ”
“Cheers,” Travis said proudly, lifting up a cup of the cider he had carefully poured.
Ransom handed a glass to Mae and one to Hailey and then took one for himself.
“Cheers,” he said, lifting his glass too.
They all clinked their glasses, the kids clinking a little more enthusiastically than they probably should have, and then drank their fill.
“Thank you,” Hailey said.
“How did you feel in that big moment?” Ransom asked.
It was a funny thing to celebrate something that had happened so long ago. But honestly she hadn’t had any close friends in the city at that time and she’d spent the evening after finding out she’d gotten the role alone in her apartment, doubting herself.
“It didn’t feel real,” she remembered. “I wondered if I even deserved it. Plenty of women have been out there auditioning a lot longer than me.”
“They wouldn’t have cast you if you didn’t bring something really special to the role,” Ransom told her. “I think people are really going to love Beebee Evans.”
“Plus your outfits are very pretty,” Mae said, patting the bedazzled belt that she had even worn to bed last night.
“And you get to be Jessica Sugar Bomb,” Travis added. “And you get to be in that commercial for bubble gum.”
“That’s right,” Hailey remembered. The gum was supposed to freshen your breath, making it your ultimate best friend, just like BeeBee Evans played the ultimate best friend on the show.
“Okay, I feel another big event coming up,” Ransom said.
The kids gathered the glasses and put them back on the tray and Ransom disappeared again.
“This is amazing,” Hailey said.
“We planned it all out,” Mae told her.
“Baby Travis is born,” Ransom announced from the kitchen.
When he came out a moment later, he was carrying a plate full of cupcakes with blue frosting, each one had a candle on top.
The kids started singing Happy Birthday to Travis, and Ransom brought the plate over so Travis could blow out the candles.
“I’ll bet he was the cutest baby ever,” Hailey decided.
“Until I was born,” Mae said, nodding.
“Travis was born in the middle of the night,” Ransom said, as the birthday boy shoved half a cupcake in his mouth. “And we like to say he’s a party guy because he didn’t like to sleep.”
“I cried a lot,” Travis said through his big bite of cupcake.
“But he was so perfect just the way he was, that he had to have a sibling,” Ransom said, disappearing into the kitchen again.
Hailey took a bite of her cupcake. It was delicious.
Ransom came out again, singing the birthday song once more, this time with a plate of pink cupcakes.
“More cupcakes,” Mae crowed, letting her head fall to the table.
Hailey strongly suspected she was already a little bit sugar-drunk from cider and frosting, but the little girl was so happy, and she knew Ransom didn’t let them eat like this every day.
“Mae was a sweet, quiet little baby,” Ransom said, holding out the cupcakes so she could blow out the candles. “She was saving up all her noise for when she could talk.”
He winked at Mae and she let out a big laugh before grabbing another cupcake.
“I’m a good talker,” Mae told Hailey before taking a big bite.
“You sure are,” Hailey said.
“More good news,” Ransom announced, heading back to the kitchen. “I’ve come home from the military.”
“How many cupcakes can we eat?” Hailey wondered out loud.
“Don’t worry,” Travis told her. “This one is different.”
She heard the ding of the microwave in the kitchen and a moment later Ransom came back in with a plate of homemade English muffin pizzas.
“Pizza party,” he announced.
“That’s what we had with Grandma when Daddy came home,” Mae said.
The homemade mini pizzas were delicious and the company was even better.
“Oh no,” Ransom said suddenly when his mini pizza was gone. “We have bad news now.”
“Bad news?” Hailey echoed.
But he was already gone.
He came back a moment later with a pint of ice cream and a giant spoon.
“Your character was killed off on Ridley Hospital,” he said sadly. “And there’s nothing to do but eat ice cream right out of the container while we feel sad about it.”
He handed her the ice cream while the kids laughed, and she took a big bite. It really would have been great to eat ice cream with Ransom and the kids while trying to process her bad news.
The ice cream melted on her tongue and she smiled at the wistful sweetness as everyone else took a bite too.
“I’m sorry about your show, Hailey,” Travis said, patting her hand.
Mae reached over to pat her hand too.
“It was sad,” she agreed. “But I’m so glad it happened so I could come home to Trinity Falls.”
“Me too,” Mae said.
“A housewarming,” Ransom announced, running back to the kitchen and coming back out with the tray of cider again.
He poured out their glasses himself this time.
“It’s always special to buy a home of your own,” he said. “But it’s even more special when your home will also help you make your new dreams come true. And it’s special for us too, because it keeps the family farm in friendly hands, and it makes you our neighbor.”
The kids cheered and they all clinked glasses again and drank down their delicious cider.
“Now we only have one more thing to celebrate,” Ransom said, suddenly looking a little nervous.
“This is the best one,” Mae whispered to Hailey.
She looked to Ransom, but instead of running back to the kitchen, he was kneeling before her, holding up something small and shimmering.
“This is the day when I propose to you,” he told her, his voice so deep with emotion.
“And the three of us ask you if you’ll share your life with us forever.
In some ways this might seem sudden. But to me it feels long, long overdue.
What do you say, Hailey? Will you celebrate and commiserate all the rest of our biggest days with us? ”
She was afraid that if she answered out loud she might start crying and she didn’t want to scare the kids, so she just nodded and smiled with her lips pressed together hard so she wouldn’t sob, and watched him passionately press his lips to her hand before sliding the ring onto her finger.
The next thing she knew, the kids were both hugging her and Ransom was wrapping his big arms around them all.
“Time for the kiss,” Travis whispered to Mae as the two of them scampered off to the kitchen, leaving Hailey and Ransom alone together.
“Are you sure this is okay?” Ransom asked, looking down at the dainty ring on her finger. “I know it’s not as big as the one Dr. Silverman could buy you.”
She could have pointed out that Dr. Silverman was a fictional character. And that the actor who played him was madly in love with his own girlfriend. She could have reminded him that she had never worn flashy jewelry, or even wanted it.
But she knew what he meant. He meant that even after everything, he still wasn’t sure a simple country life was enough for her. And she could only think of one way to make him understand.
“Time for the kiss,” she whispered to him, as a happy tear escaped her eye and slid down her cheek.
His dark eyes flashed to hers and suddenly he was pulling her possessively into his arms, his mouth claiming hers in a way that told her there could never be anything uncertain about his feelings for her.
And she kissed him back with everything she had, hoping he would know that she didn’t have one bit of uncertainty about him either. She never had.
Giggling from the direction of the kitchen had her pulling back, a smile on her face when she saw the kids peeking out at them.
“This is how it’s going to be,” Ransom said with the crooked half-smile she had always loved.
“This is exactly how I want it,” she said, opening her arms so the kids could join them for another hug.
As she filled her arms with her three favorite people in the world, Hailey felt peace and joy flood her heart.
Whatever might have gone right or wrong in the past, and whatever ups and down the future might bring, so long as they held onto each other, the four of them were going to have a wonderful time.
***
Thanks for reading Soldier’s Second Chance!