Chapter 10
Catherine
I wasn’t a morning person by nature, but I had been wide-awake ever since I heard Hayes moving around on his side of the east wing around four in the morning.
I tried to chalk up the inability to fall back asleep to being in a new place, in a new bed, with new sounds and shadows, but I knew that wasn’t the case.
I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
About the way he kissed me like he was trying to steal my breath. The way his hands roamed my body. The way we fit each other like a lock and key.
It had just been first-night jitters. It would get better.
I’d be able to fall asleep without thinking of him on his side of the wall.
Unbuttoning his shirt…Taking off his slacks…
Is he a boxers or briefs kind of man? I’d be able to fall asleep without fantasizing about whatever it was he did to blow off steam.
We would find our new normal. It was like moving in with a new roommate. Things were always awkward in the beginning.
I tiptoed down the stairs, desperate for a hit of caffeine before I went into town with Hallie. The moment my foot hit the bottom step, Hayes slipped out of the study. I froze like I had been caught sneaking out.
“Morning,” he said as he closed the study doors behind him. It was just after nine, but he had been up working for hours.
“Hi,” I squeaked as I debated whether to go back up to my room or not. Hayes had been nothing but welcoming. He was familiar and safe.
Still, we could both admit this was fucking weird and it annoyed me that he looked completely nonplussed, while I was spiraling inside.
He turned his back to me, grabbed the coffeepot, and topped off his mug.
Hot damn…I had never been into the corporate type, but Hayes wore slacks the way cowboys rocked a tight pair of faded blue jeans. His dress shirt was pressed and fitted, but not overly tight. It showed off every inch of his delightfully broad shoulders, then tapered down to narrow hips.
“You okay?”
I blinked and found Hayes standing in front of me. He took a slow sip from the mug that sported Honey Hollow High’s mascot, the Fighting Bee.
I cleared my throat. “Uh-huh.”
He didn’t buy it. Hayes glanced left and right, making sure we were alone. “Having second thoughts?”
Waking up in one of the opulent rooms of the sprawling estate house, then looking at my phone to find emails reminding me that I had to make payments on the loans I had taken out was a reality check.
Even if I started a new job today, it wouldn’t give me the same financial stability as Hayes’s offer to marry him.
I was desperate, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew a good offer when I saw one, but I knew there were always strings.
Always consequences. Always risks. And I had a feeling the biggest risk was the invisible string that seemed to tether us together after all these years.
I tried to swallow my nerves away, and he clocked it.
“Cath…”
Gravel crunched outside as a car rolled down the lane and came to a stop, but Hayes never looked away. The front door groaned as someone pulled it open.
“It’s probably Hallie,” I said. “We’re going into town in a little bit.”
“Hallie doesn’t use the front door.” His eyes stayed locked on me. “I need you to be honest. Are you having second thoughts?”
His cologne crept around me in pulsing waves. It made it hard to think. “Are you?”
The front door slammed. I jumped. Hayes didn’t.
“Why is that damn door so heavy?” Lewis shouted as he stomped through the entryway.
“I just—”
Hayes grabbed my hand and yanked me into the pantry.
“Where is everyone?” Lewis shouted as he crossed through the kitchen just as Hayes silently closed the door behind us.
“It’s just a lot to get used to,” I whispered as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. “I’ll be fine.”
Hayes slid his mug onto the countertop that was meticulously organized with labeled canisters and kitchen appliances.
“Saying you’re fine isn’t the same as saying you’re not having second thoughts.
” His words were so quiet that they were almost inaudible with the slam of the refrigerator doors and cabinets as Lewis pilfered the kitchen for something to eat.
“I’m fine. I just didn’t sleep well last night. New house and all that. But I’m not having second thoughts.”
I couldn’t make out his expression in the darkness, but I knew Hayes enough to know that he was dissecting each minuscule inflection of my voice like a human polygraph test.
“I know I put a lot of pressure on you when I asked you to marry—”
The door whipped open. Light slapped us in a blinding flash.
I grabbed the front of Hayes’s pristine dress shirt and yanked him into me. Our mouths crashed in a kiss that took us both by surprise.
There was no way I was blowing our cover on day two.
Hayes’s momentary shock quickly morphed into blistering heat. His hands were in my hair as he slanted his mouth, deepening the kiss.
Lewis’s huff of annoyance could have been heard from space. “Must you fornicate by the cereal? Now my appetite is gone.” He gagged as he slammed the pantry door, bathing us in darkness once again.
I waited until Lewis’s footsteps faded, but still kept my voice to a whisper. “Think he bought it?”
“Yeah.” Hayes rested his forehead on mine and swallowed. “Good call.”
Neither of us pulled away. We stood in the pantry, breathing heavily as I clung to his shirt and his fingers curled in my hair.
“Sorry to spring that on you,” I said.
Slowly, one hand slid down the back of my neck and came up to cup my chin. His thumb pressed against my lips. “Don’t be.”
I tipped my chin up. The world went hazy as his nose grazed mine and our lips brushed again.
The door flew open again and Hallie appeared.
I shrieked as we jumped apart.
Hallie looked just as flustered and startled as I felt. “Don’t mind me. Carry on,” she said before closing the door on us.
Hayes grabbed his mug, darted out of the pantry, and beelined back to his desk without another word.
Through the glass doors of the study, I didn’t miss the way he discreetly adjusted the front of his slacks.
Hallie stood at the kitchen island, looking rather amused and self-satisfied.
“You ready to go?” I asked as if she hadn’t just caught me about to make out with my future fake husband.
“Yep. I’ve been itching to go into town,” Hallie said as she grabbed her purse from the kitchen island and shouldered it on the way out the door.
I let a sharp breath slip as I followed suit and pulled the door shut behind me. “You and me both.”
Hallie grinned at me. “Anything you wanna fess up to, peaches?”
I slid into Hallie’s minivan. “Nope.”
Hallie arched an eyebrow as she hopped behind the wheel and pulled away from the estate. “Oh really? Because yesterday, you and the boss looked like you had scurried off to the pond and gotten frisky with each other.”
My cheeks turned beet red as we rolled down the lane that led to the front gates.
“You’re not denying it,” Hallie said as she eased through the gates that were covered in climbing roses.
“We…walked down to the pond to figure out some details,” I said evasively.
She paused before pulling onto the two-lane road that would take us into Honey Hollow and lifted an eyebrow. “Cut the bullshit, beauty queen.”
“We kissed,” I blurted out.
Hallie grinned. “Well then. I just won twenty bucks off Mason, so coffee’s on me today.”
I let out a barking laugh. “I’m sorry. You were betting on when we would kiss?”
“Mason thought you’d hold out until closer to the wedding. But I saw the way you two were looking at each other at the funeral. I told Mason it would happen within a week of you moving onto the estate.”
“Well, considering the wedding is in two weeks, Mason wasn’t that far off.”
Hayes had announced the wedding date at dinner with Mason, Levi, and Hallie and her son last night. It would have been more entertaining to have had Lewis there, but his absence allowed us all to game-plan without censoring ourselves.
The estate grounds were always pristine, but Mason had insisted they needed to be cleaned up.
While Hallie and I headed into town to tackle a few wedding details, he put in an order for a load of mulch and was overseeing the delivery of new pebbles for the paths.
He scheduled a few hired hands to come out to the estate to pressure wash the white fencing that sectioned off the roads, racetrack, hunter-jumper ring, and the rodeo ring.
It would be all hands on deck for two weeks, but I was confident we could pull together something respectable and fitting of the Wilder name.
“And what about you and the boss canoodling in the pantry?” she teased.
“Lewis showed up.”
“Uh-huh. And that required you to have your tongues down each other’s throats?”
“We had to be convincing.” I stared out the window to hide my giddy smile and let myself enjoy the picturesque drive to Honey Hollow.
Rolling hills in emerald green were accented with red barns. We passed herds of cattle from neighboring farms and ranches. The Blue Ridge Mountains were exceptionally blue today, stacked in a gradient as they cut across the sky like a serrated blade.
While we didn’t have all the city comforts of department stores and more than one grocer, we did have the Moo Brew, a coffee shop that was run out of a converted cattle trailer.
And that made all the other small-town inconveniences worth it.
Today, the Moo Brew was parked next to our first destination, making the trip a twofer.
Hallie pulled into the lot next to Ranch Dressing, my favorite western-wear boutique, and hopped out. We stood in line in front of the black-and-white-spotted trailer, shuffling forward as customers grabbed drinks and treats from the service window.
“Morning, Miss Hallie,” Jeremiah said with a smile as he hustled to fill orders. “What can I get for you?”
“Apple muffin and an iced coffee for me, and whatever she wants,” Hallie said as she cocked her head to me.
Jeremiah poked his head out the trailer window to take my order and gasped. “Mike! She’s here!”