“I have to go. Sorry we never got to chat.” He was looking at her strangely.
Hailey shrugged, oversmiled. “We chat all the time. Not every day you get a Grace Kelly look-alike hanging out at the salad shop keeping you company.”
“We live in California, Hailey. There are many Grace Kelly look-alikes.”
She swallowed. Right. Might as well ask. “So, what did she want?”
A little V appeared between his brows. “She asked if I’d accompany her to an event. A party.”
“Oh.” She blew out a breath. Wes hated parties. He hated big crowds of people and pretending he was having a good time.
“It’s on Saturday so I’ll … I guess I’ll grab groceries earlier in the day but you probably have to be here.”
Her gaze widened. “You’re going?” She hadn’t meant it to sound so accusatory.
Wes ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up. “She put me on the spot. Some of the clients she’d like me to meet will be there.”
She could feel Leo’s gaze as he helped the woman so she forced herself to loosen her shoulders.
“That’s great. Saturdays were meant for dates, not groceries. That’s awesome.” Dial it back a bit, Hailey.
“It’s not a date.” Wes’s voice was tight. Quiet.
A sardonic laugh left her lips without warning. “That woman looks at you the way I stare at a chocolate brownie. It’s a date. Which is fantastic. You could use one you didn’t find on an app.”
Wes’s frown deepened, his gaze darkening. She’d hurt his feelings. Shit. What was wrong with her? She came around the counter, pulled his arm so they were away from anyone else.
“I’m sorry. I just don’t want you to have blinders on. She likes you.”
Again, he tunneled his fingers through his hair. “I’m not looking to date Ana. For a number of reasons, the biggest of which is I work with her.”
Had the biggest been because he wasn’t attracted to Ana, maybe she would have done something different. But that wasn’t what held him back. Hailey needed to push this because if she didn’t, it said something about her own feelings.
It said that she’d been reading them all wrong again. She couldn’t do that. She couldn’t have another one-sided relationship where she fell hard, then fell away. Wes had made it clear he didn’t see her like that. There was one night a few weeks ago that he said she reminded him of his sister.
“You look good together. Even if it’s not an actual date, going out with her, socializing and meeting people will be good for you.”
He was watching her far too closely, his jaw tight. “I think I socialize more than enough.” His voice lacked emotion. It was the tone he used when he was uncertain about something. A default tone.
“Your brothers don’t count.” She tried so hard to drown out the little voice in her head but it snuck through: neither do I. The thought physically hurt, like a needle poking into her skin.
“I’m going because it’ll be a networking opportunity. Can we shop on Sunday?”
Hailey’s throat went tight. He wasn’t blowing her off. She did matter. She was just making too much of things.
A small “Wes” smile appeared. The one he used to convince her to play one more game. “Of course. I need to start Christmas shopping.” With the excitement of being busy, Ana popping in, her out-of-the-blue whisper of jealousy, Hailey felt like she’d powered through a snowstorm without proper equipment. Tears threatened but she wasn’t entirely sure why. Just a tad overwhelmed. Everything is good.
He nodded, looking at her like he wanted to say something. He reached out and squeezed her shoulder, the weight of his hand steadying her from the inside out. “That’s perfect. You can help me pick something out for Ari and my mom. I need to get them in the mail.”
Yup. She could do that. That’s what good buddies who reminded a guy of his sister did. What is up with you today?
She pulled in a painful breath. “Good luck with your meeting.”
“Thanks. I’ll text you later.”
She nodded, watching him leave.
“Made you something,” Leo said, handing her a fruit cup with copious amounts of whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
She laughed. “If I could afford it, I’d give you a raise.”
He smiled, soft and sweet. “Remember that when you can. It’ll happen.”
It would. She couldn’t be sure about a lot of things because they changed in an instant. People fell in and out of love every minute. Tastes changed, friendships shifted. But Hailey could count on her shop, on things continuing to go well because that’s where her focus—her heart—belonged.
22
“I think you need to go on your own date. Stop worrying about him being on one.” Piper pulled a tray of cookies from the oven.
Hailey snuck a cooled one from the rack, breaking it in half and shoving the other half in her mouth just as her cousin turned around.
“Hey! Now you have one less to decorate.”
She shrugged, popped the rest in her mouth. When she finished, she took a drink of the soda Piper passed from the fridge. “I’m not worrying about him being on a date. I just thought it was weird that she showed up at the store.” She could have called in her order.
“Who showed up at the store?” Nick, Piper’s husband, came into the kitchen wearing a Lakers hoodie and a pair of checkered pajama bottom pants. He gave Hailey a kiss on the cheek. “How’s it going? Who came into the store? Someone famous?”
“Do you know someone famous, Auntie Hailey?” Cassie, one of Piper’s eight-year-old twins, asked. She’d followed on her dad’s heels. Her bright-red hair was up in two ponytails and she wore an apron.
“Not anymore. I used to,” Hailey said, tapping Cassie on the nose, then sneaking another cookie to share with her.
“No more, or we won’t have any to decorate,” Piper said, her stern mama voice wavering.
“I don’t want to decorate cookies,” Alyssa, the other twin, said, coming in from the other side of the kitchen. She wore an outfit nearly identical to Nick’s. Her red hair had been cropped to her shoulders. It was equally adorable.
Jason, their six-year-old son, who actually had Nick’s dark brown hair, followed behind. “I do. I want to make mine look like Iron Man.”
Nick scooped him up. “You want to make gingerbread look like Iron Man?”
Jason squeezed his father’s cheeks together, nodding seriously.
Nick smiled at Piper in a way that made Hailey’s heart muscles stretch too tight. “We’ve done everything right.”
Piper laughed. “Alyssa, if you don’t want to decorate, you don’t have to.”
“I’ll decorate yours,” Cassie said.
Alyssa shrugged, happy to let her twin do the work. “Can I play Animal Crossing?”
“Nope,” both of her parents said in tandem.
Hailey hid her smile. She loved being around their family whether it was low-key and sweet like this or high-energy and chaotic like one of the kids’ school events.
“Who came into the store?” Nick asked again, setting Jason on his feet.
“No one. Just a woman who wanted to order some lunches for her company.” Hailey hoped that would be the end of it.
She’d mentioned Wes’s date tonight in passing, but of course Piper wanted to dig deeper, pull out her feelings on the issue. She didn’t have any. Lies. You have too many. It was fine. What did she care? It had felt weird at the time but everything was normal. As it had been before Ana showed up. Except that he was on a date with her tonight instead of reminding Hailey what she needed for groceries.
Nick looked back and forth between Hailey and his wife. “Guys, go wash up in the bathroom if you want to decorate. Alyssa, you too. Even if you aren’t doing cookies.”
The kids groaned but took off down the hall. Nick put an arm around Piper, kissing her neck. Hailey’s heart spasmed again. Sharply. Just because she missed that particular feeling didn’t mean she was upset about Wes being on a date.
“Did you ask her?”
Hailey groaned. “No. She did not. What?”
Piper frowned. “Hey. Why did you say it like that? It’s a good thing. There’s someone Nick wants you to meet.”
“Let me think about it,” Hailey said, tapping her index finger on her chin. “I think I’ll pass.”
Nick laughed. “That’s not how I would have phrased it but, told you.”
“You can’t just pass.” Piper put her hands on her hips.
“I think I just did.” Hailey grabbed some food coloring, mixed it into one of the little bowls Piper had set out for icing. “I don’t want a date.”