Chapter Eight
Adam was just walking toward the house when they pulled in.
“Hey, how’d it go?” Adam asked. His smile dropped when Drew shook and jerked his head. He nodded toward the house. “Let’s get inside.”
Hailey went directly to the coffee maker and started making some as she chatted on.
“We got to the corner store, where I did find a flash drive. It’s not great, but it will work.
But they didn’t have anything close to the software I need, so I’ll have to order that online.
We really do need to get some more stores around here.
I don’t want to have to drive an hour to get basic things.
We left before we could get groceries ..
. but no worries. We’ve got everything we need for a few more meals. ..”
“Hailey, enough. Come here,” Adam demanded and held out a hand. He pulled her into his lap and hugged her to his chest. “Everything’s going to be okay, love.”
Hailey sat stiffly in his lap and looked down at her hands in her lap.
“What happened?” Adam asked.
Drew looked at Hailey and waited to see if she would explain. He sighed when she sat mute.
“We were in the grocery store...”
“I’ll tell him, Drew,” Hailey interrupted, then cleared her throat and looked up at Adam.
“You know Joey, the banker’s son?” She waited until he nodded.
“He ... he always wants to talk to me if I’m in town.
He knows I’m married, but he’s ... I don’t know, a little slow or something?
Anyway, today he had me cornered against some shelves when Drew found us.
I was telling him to back off, and he wasn’t listening to me this time. ..”
“This time? He’s had you pinned against something before?” Adam asked.
Hailey shivered and swallowed at the deadly tone of Adam’s voice. She’d never heard that depth of anger from him before.
“Um, yeah. But he’s harmless...”
“Why haven’t you told me this before now?”
Hailey cringed and glanced at Drew, saw his angry expression mirrored Adam’s, and looked back down. “You do all your banking with his father...”
“So?” Adam bit out.
“You’re always so busy, and I knew it would be a pain in the ass to deal with something I was dealing with.”
“How exactly were you dealing with it today?”
“I was about ready to knee him in the balls when Drew came.” She turned and scowled at Drew. “Instead, I had to prevent him from killing the guy. He had him off the ground by his neck.”
“Good. I would have done the same thing,” Adam admitted.
“He almost killed the guy,” Hailey burst out. “His face was blue, for God’s sake.”
“I don’t give a fuck. He put his hands on you.” The words tore out of Adam’s mouth.
Hailey grew quiet. She knew she was making things worse.
Adam sighed and looked across the table at his brother. “I need to go have a talk with Marshall.”
“This is what I was worried ab...”
“Hush,” Adam growled. “Did you really think I wouldn’t take care of this?”
“I don’t see why you can’t let me handle it?”
“So, he’s the banker, right?” Drew asked.
Adam tore his gaze from his wife and cleared his throat.
“Yeah, Marshall Van Meter. Do you remember him? He was a few years older than me?”
Drew shrugged. “Barely. I vaguely remember the name.”
“He’s a good guy. He just spoiled his only son rotten. Now the kid thinks he can have whatever he wants.”
“Should you wait until tomorrow when you’ve calmed down a bit?” Drew suggested.
Adam ran an agitated hand over the back of his neck. “Probably. I have to figure out what to do with this one.”
A sudden pain spiked in her chest at the tone of his voice. Hailey tried to rise off his lap.
“You don’t have to do anything with me.”
“You really think this is going to go unpunished?” Adam asked, shocked.
Hailey crossed her arms. “Probably not. I can’t seem to breathe without getting in trouble nowadays,” she murmured softly, and swallowed back the storm of emotion that clawed up her throat.
Both men looked at her in shock. “Is that what you think, love?” Adam said as he ran a hand up and down her back.
Hailey shrugged. She couldn’t seem to do the right thing.
She tried. It was always in the back of her mind, a deep-seated insecurity, that Adam was going to stop loving her.
Her mother hadn’t loved her, so she left.
Her father certainly didn’t love her. He enjoyed making them as miserable as possible.
And her sister didn’t want to have anything to do with her.
Adam had been the first, the only person in her life who seemed to care.
“Am I too much of a pain in the ass for you? Because I get it. I don’t always follow your rules, but I usually have a reason why.
Most of the time, I just don’t want to see you upset.
” She could feel a swell of emotions trying to take her over and needed to run and hide for a bit until she could get her emotions under control again.
“You’re not a pain in the ass, love...”
Hailey jumped from his lap before he could grab her.
“Listen, I’d like to take a bath. I don’t think talking right now is a good idea.
” She raised her hands with palms out, when Adam stood and took a step toward her.
“Please!” she spat. “Just give me a little space.” She didn’t wait for an answer and rushed past Adam and ran up the stairs.
In the bathroom, she started the water and dumped a handful of bath salts in before tearing her clothes off.
Hailey clipped her hair up and knelt by the tub to feel the water.
She didn’t wait until it was full to get in.
She just needed to be surrounded by heat, and if it couldn’t be her husband, water would have to do.
It wasn’t long before the tears she could no longer ignore slid silently down her cheeks.
A sob caught in her throat, and she tried to bite it back, but it only grew more prominent.
She hugged her legs to her chest, tucked her head against her knees, and let the tears fall.
She knew when she felt like this, she needed to release it, or the ball of sorrow would grow exponentially and make her an emotional mess.
Hailey reached out to turn off the water when she felt it skim over her shoulder and tucked her head back down. She cried until her throat ached and her eyes burned.