Chapter 29 Hailey #2
Hailey glanced at her grandma, saw the alarm on her face, and understood. She wanted to cry out. It took everything she had
to keep from shouting, Grandpa, it’s me!
She swallowed hard and spoke carefully. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Professor Sanderson. Howard has told me so much about
you.” Then she said, “Excuse me,” and walked past her stricken grandma and inside.
Her grandma caught her by the wrist when she was on the third stair. “You can’t tell your mother!” Greta said in a harsh stage
whisper, because Lindy was right upstairs.
Hailey was crying. “Mom doesn’t know?”
Greta looked abashed, sheepish—and so miserable that Hailey’s anger collapsed, overcome by sympathy. She remembered Noah describing
visits with his own grandma, who had since passed away, during which Noah would pretend to be his father so she wouldn’t get
upset. That must’ve been why he’d jumped right into character as Grandpa’s old student—
Grandpa has dementia.
Greta clutched Hailey’s hand. “It’s been progressing very quickly,” she whispered.
“Very quickly.” She looked into Hailey’s eyes, as if asking for forgiveness.
She took a deep breath and visibly swallowed.
Hailey had never realized that you could physically feel someone else’s heart breaking. And your own, too.
Greta continued quietly, speaking in a rush like the words were steam escaping. “Your grandpa and I agreed back in March,
when we got the diagnosis, that we’d wait until after your wedding to tell everyone. We didn’t want to interfere with your
happiness. Or your mother’s! And then it’s just—it’s just been getting so much worse, so quickly.”
“Oh. Grandma.” Hailey’s heart cracked a little more. She had been the reason for the secret? For her mom not knowing about this?
Greta shot a nervous look up the stairs. “Let’s just—I don’t—”
Noah came walking inside then. “A little heads up would’ve been nice,” he said.
Hailey felt herself go blank with the shock of his rudeness, as Greta bristled. “It isn’t her fault. I didn’t tell her. She
didn’t know.”
Noah glanced toward Hailey, his face showing actual concern now.
Hailey’s head pulsed with pain. Every other part of her had gone numb.
“I need to check on Tom,” Greta said stiffly. “I’m afraid you’ve probably upset him.” She headed toward the sliding glass
doors and her husband outside. Hailey saw the fog was closer; that Innisfree would soon be encased in it.
Noah paced, seeming too big for the kitchen. He had moved quickly past the distress over Hailey’s grandpa and onto his own
grievances, and Hailey, who sat on one of the counter stools nearby, had gone from feeling numb to feeling steamrolled.
“Robin saw I was stressed,” he was saying, “and I told her I hadn’t heard from you and your dad was missing, and she made
me take the night off to come up here and see what was going on with you. Now to find out your dad’s fine, and you were down
in Portland? And you didn’t bother to let me know?”
Hailey straightened her shoulders. It was too much, really, this news about her grandpa, on top of everything else. And Noah had only come now because his boss had “made” him? “You haven’t seemed all that interested in what’s been going on with me.”
Noah stopped pacing. “Don’t pick a fight with me right now.”
“I’m not picking a fight!” Hailey rubbed her temple, trying to ease its aching. She barely recognized him anymore. Was this
the same man who’d charmed her by dramatically singing “Baby One More Time” under the lamp post outside her dorm on their
second date, making her laugh so hard that she fell for him that instant? The same man who’d thoughtfully proposed on the
second anniversary of their first date, sitting at the same table at Front & Main in Waterville where they’d had that first
date? When had he become so . . . aggressive? Was it working in the restaurant business that had changed him? Or the drinking?
Or was something else going on? Was he having doubts about their wedding? Were there things she didn’t know about his childhood?
Well. Obviously. She’d met his parents only twice, once at graduation and once when he’d taken her to Virginia for a long
weekend to stay at their beautiful brick colonial in Alexandria. Mr. Grayson had continually refilled his glass of Scotch
and said he wished his son would become a lawyer like Hailey was planning to. Mrs. Grayson had talked plaintively about Noah’s
three sisters, who were scattered about the world, a yoga teacher, a travel blogger, an artist. “I suppose it’s my fault that
our kids are all so creative,” she sighed, casting a sad look at a giant abstract canvas on the wall—a six-foot swath of shades and swirls of red was
hatch marked with black lines—and admitting she was the one who’d painted it, “back in my idealistic phase.” During dinner
at the country club, everyone fawned over how fit and handsome Noah was now and seemed barely to notice Hailey. He had never
invited Hailey home for Christmas, saying only that when his sisters were there, home was “a pinball machine.” He considered
his two older sisters “tyrants,” his younger sister “spoiled rotten.” Hailey was not required to make them bridesmaids in
the wedding, and, as it turned out, the oldest had sent her regrets months ago.
With this, Hailey was reminded of the hundred and seventeen people who had RSVPed yes, selected the lobster or the chicken, bought things off the registries at Williams Sonoma and Crate & Barrel, made travel plans and hotel reservations.
They would all be arriving in the area in just over a week, anticipating a perfect Maine weekend, Hailey in her gown, a lobster bake, a late night dancing underneath a big white tent drinking champagne.
What if everything were different, Hales?
“What is your problem?” Noah snapped. “You know I’m working my ass off for us, and you don’t even appreciate my time and effort
for coming up here to check on you. You say I’m not interested—”
“My dad was missing!”
“And I told you it was nothing to worry about. Turns out I was right, huh?”
“You had no way of knowing. Everyone else stepped in to help look for him.”
Noah’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, everyone else?”
She didn’t want to let on about Jack, which seemed stupid, but there it was. “My—my aunt and uncle, cousins, friends, neighbors . . .”
“So, you didn’t need me.”
“You’re supposed to be my partner.”
Noah moved closer, towering over her. The look in his eyes was mean. “I told you, babe,” he said. He reached as if to put
his arms around her but instead rested his hands on the counter behind her on either side, enclosing her. Instinct made her
shrink from him, even as her mind tried to tell her she shouldn’t be afraid of her fiancé. “It is not the time to pick a fight with me.”
Greta’s voice broke in from the front of the cottage as she entered through the sliding glass door. “Young man. You do not
threaten my granddaughter in my house!”
Noah gave a little uncomfortable laugh, but he didn’t move away from Hailey.
“Grandma, it’s okay,” Hailey said, because she hated to see Greta looking so unhinged. Again, Hailey convinced herself she
had nothing to fear. “He’s not threatening me. Is Grandpa okay?”
Greta ignored her, homing in on Noah. “Young man, you move away from her right now.”
“Ma’am, she’s my fiancée,” Noah said patiently, as if he thought Greta could be suffering from dementia, too. “All I’m doing
is standing close to her.”
“Move away from her,” Greta repeated, but Noah didn’t move. Hailey didn’t know if her grandma was losing her mind or if Noah
was.
“Why don’t you just do what she says?” Hailey told him quietly. She couldn’t move back from him because she was sitting on
the stool, and with his arms surrounding her she couldn’t get down. But all he would have to do was step back and Grandma
would probably be fine. Hailey had never seen her act anything like this.
But Noah, too, ignored Hailey, speaking to Greta instead. “Ma’am, all due respect, you can’t tell me how to be around my own
fiancée. We’re just talking.”
Greta scowled, then abruptly headed for the stairs and marched up them.
Hailey let out a breath. Now Noah put his hands on her shoulders. He was acting casual, but the contact made her feel even
more trapped. “Your whole family is fucking crazy,” he said mildly.
“Maybe you should go.”
“You think that’s a good idea? To send me off before you’ve fixed this?”
“I haven’t done anything wrong!”
“Neither have I. But it seems like we’re having a problem, babe.”
There was the sound of footsteps descending the stairs. Hailey looked to see her grandma, who rounded the corner to come toward
them again.
“I told you, young man,” Greta said. “Get away from her.” She raised her arm. In her hand was an old-looking gun. She held
it in both hands and pointed it at Noah.
“Grandma!” Hailey shrieked.