Chapter 49
Chapter Forty-Nine
Cara
I’m not going to survive this long weekend. Being caught between two people who really don’t like each other isn’t fun, and I have a new appreciation for people who struggle with in-laws when they actually intend to stay married for the rest of their lives.
For us it’s temporary, I remind myself as I stand in the kitchen and listen to my mother rant while we wash the breakfast dishes. A breakfast Hayden didn’t appear for because his mother called and I just left him to his conversation.
For the fourth morning in a row, I woke up wrapped in his arms. When I finally fell asleep, we were on opposite edges of the bed, with Penny and a pillow between us.
But once again, when I opened my eyes this morning, he was holding me.
Penny was happily wedged between us, and the extra pillow was on the floor.
It's been a rough day already and we just barely finished breakfast.
“The toilet seat is always up now, Cara.”
“Always? He just got here Friday night. How many times could either of you possibly have needed to pee?”
“Every single time I go into the bathroom, the seat is up. I almost fell in.”
Keeping a straight face while imagining the splash and Gin’s outrage isn’t easy. “I’ll mention it to him. He’s a guy who’s been living alone for years, so he probably doesn’t think about it.”
“I don’t think he’s even using the toilet that often. He’s just going in there and putting the seat up to annoy me.”
“Do you hear yourself right now?” I have to force the laugh, though, because I honestly wouldn’t put it past Hayden. “Why would he do that?”
“Because he’s a Reilly.”
Her tone tells me there’s no thought behind the words coming out of her mouth. She’s running on pure emotion. “I’ll talk to him. In the meantime, remember we have hot water now thanks to him. Just kill him with kindness.”
“It would be faster and easier just to kill him.”
“Mom!” I’m pretty sure she’s just venting, but with Gin, I never really know.
“I’m just saying.”
I’m washing the scrambled egg pan before the eggs can fuse to the tattered nonstick coating—our dishwasher died eight years ago—when Hayden enters the kitchen.
I don’t need to turn and see him to know it.
I can hear Penny’s nails on the floor, and also my mother’s body tenses, her shoulders rising toward her ears.
“You missed breakfast,” she snaps. “I’m not cooking again.”
“Good morning, Gin,” he says, and his hand on my waist is the only warning I get before he nuzzles my hair out of the way and kisses my neck. “Good morning, wife.”
I shiver, but I don’t stop scrubbing the pan. I don’t need to turn around to know Gin has stormed out of the room. Even in her house slippers, her stomping away is unmistakable.
“Gin planning to murder me wasn’t part of the deal,” he murmurs close to my ear.
Since she’s not watching, he really could step out of my personal space. “You heard that?”
“She’s not a quiet woman,” he points out, making me laugh.
“I’m mostly sure she was just venting.” I shrug. “And you know how she feels about your family. When you came into town trying to buy her house and ended up marrying her daughter, you had to know her taking you out was on the table.”
“You two coming up with a secondary scheme to get me to the altar and then off me would void the agreement,” he teases.
“Would it, though? I read all those documents you made me sign very thoroughly, and I didn’t see that anywhere.”
His laugh fills the house, and even though I love the sound of it, I know it will just annoy Gin even more. I rinse the pan and put it in the rack to dry while pulling the plug with my other hand. After rinsing away the last of the suds, I dry my hands and turn to face my husband.
“So, I guess Colleen’s speaking to you again?”
“About that.” He leans against the counter and shoves his hands in his pockets. Uh-oh. “Fair warning. This might make you mad.”
“So, all the women in your life will be mad at you? Maybe you’re the problem, Hayden.”
He actually grins. “Oh, I’m definitely the problem. And I don’t think Hope’s mad at me…yet. She’s mostly trying to ignore us all, which isn’t easy because Mom works for her.”
“Oh, that’s fun. But why am I going to be mad?”
“Well, my mother decided if I’m going to be going back and forth between here and Boston, that every other time I’m here, we should stay with her.”
I was afraid of that. But if Hayden can put up with Gin, I can put up with Colleen. He deals with conflict better than I do, but I can handle it. “That’s fair, I guess.”
“I appreciate that. But, I think me being in this house is…helping.”
I can’t deny he’s annoying the hell out of Gin. Enough to sell the house to him? That remains to be seen. “Obviously you can’t explain why to Colleen.”
“No, so now we’re too the part that might make you mad.”
“Oh, none of that was it?”
“Funny.” He snorts. “Hold on to that sense of humor for the next part. Which is me telling my mom that we’re trying to mend old relationships.
And because Colleen Reilly is a wonderful woman who will be warm and gracious to you no matter who your mother is, it’s more important for me to be here and try to bring your irrational, unkind mother around. ”
I know I should be offended on my mother’s behalf—and yes, mad—but I have to laugh. “And she bought that?”
“She did. And you don’t seem mad.”
I shrug. “I probably should be, except it’s all so ridiculous. It’s really hard not to laugh.”
“Good.” He’s quiet for a moment, watching me. “I’ve been thinking.”
“Please stop doing that. My mother wouldn’t sell you this house, so you thought about it, and now we’re married and sleeping in the same bed with the world’s worst chaperone between us.”
He tries to look chagrined and utterly fails. “That’s what I’ve been thinking about. Well, not the bed part. Actually…no. Never mind that.”
It’s not often I see Hayden flustered. It’s adorable.
“Anyway,” he says firmly. “I was planning to leave for Boston early tomorrow morning. But it would have to be really early to make my first meeting of the day. You have appointments in the morning. And the stress level has been high for all of us. I was thinking of heading back today. I can get Penny settled back in. Maybe we can all get a decent night’s sleep to kick off the week. ”
As much as a part of me doesn’t want him to go, he’s not wrong about any of it. “That actually sounds like a good idea.”
“And I’ll be back Thursday night.”
I hadn’t even gotten my entire sigh of relief out yet. “Of course you will.”
“Any chance you can see me off with a tearful goodbye on the curb? Maybe wave a handkerchief as I drive away?”
“Nope. Any chance Penny can stay with me?”
“Nope.”
I had to try.