Hard To Love You (The Love Series)

by Smith, Megan

  “You should talk.” He chuckles. And the mood changes light again.

  I roll my eyes, “Shut up.”

  “You look beautiful, Kenz.”

  I smile at him; Cooper’s always been the laid back brother. He’s great with the ladies, always has been. I wish him and Jaylinn would get their shit together. Those two are next on my list to figure out.

  “Where’s Jaylinn?”

  “Dancing with your husband.” He answers with a nod of his head.

  The DJ makes an announcement for the father of the bride and the bride to please make our way to the dance floor. Cooper kisses my forehead and heads back to his seat.

  The floor is just about empty when I see my dad. I Loved Her First by Heartland starts playing and the tears burn my eyes.

  “Hey baby girl.” Dad says while he places a hand on my back and holds my right hand.

  “Hey Daddy.” I’m trying to hold the tears back, I really am.

  “You look like a princess today.”

  The dam breaks and the tears fall. I look over my dad’s shoulder, trying to calm myself down. The whole room is watching us. I spot Hunter holding Ryder just off to the side, he waves Ryder’s little hand at me.

  I laugh. “Thanks Dad. You don’t look so bad yourself. You know, for being a grandpa.”

  “Such a smart ass.” He laughs. “Your mom and I are really proud of you MacKenzie. You’ve grown up to be such a great young woman and a wonderful mom to Ryder. You really stepped up.”

  “Oh Dad,” I manage to choke out.

  “Just because I gave you away today, it doesn’t mean you’re not my baby girl anymore. I’m always going to be here, whenever you need me.”

  I take a few moments to compose myself, “I love you Daddy, more than you’ll ever know.”

  The song comes to an end as my dad says, “I love you too baby girl.” He kisses me on the cheek and I hear him sniffle.

  The song ends and the DJ starts playing Cupid Shuffle by Cupid. I’m so happy for the upbeat song; I think I’ve cried enough for one day. Mason is sitting at the table looking miserable. I dance over to him and force him onto the dance floor. He knows better than to say no to me today.

  Mason stands to the side while I dance and he looks on, laughing at me and Aunt Betty. Our Aunt Betty is in her seventies, she’s a trip to hang out with. You would never know she was that old by the moves she has.

  When the song ends, I link my arm with Mason’s and pull him down to the beach with me. I’m all sweaty from dancing and need some fresh air.

  “Wow, look at it out here. I love the way the beach is lit up with these candles.”

  Mason doesn’t reply, he just sighs loudly.

  “You hanging in there?”

  He looks at me like I’ve lost my damn mind. “You let her bring that Cole guy?”

  I knew he was going to ask that. “Mase, what choice did I have? She asked, I couldn’t exactly tell her no.”

  He sighs again, “I know.” He digs his feet in the sand.

  We stand there for a few minutes; the reception carrying on behind us, the ocean crashing in front of us.

  “Don’t make me regret what I’m about to tell you.” I say to Mason.

  He looks over to me and nods.

  “Hailey is taking care of Ryder from Sunday until Tuesday at my house. If you can find the time in your busy ass schedule, stop over there.”

  “Is he going to be there?” Mason questions.

  “Cole?”

  He nods.

  “No. It’s not like that with them, Mase. Hailey isn’t ready to move on, she’s still heartbroken. I’m hoping that this time I’m giving you guys to ‘play house’ will help. I know you had plans to move her in with you.”

  He snaps his head over to me.

  “Remember, no more secrets between Hunter and me.” I wink.

  He laughs, “This ought to be good.”

  I get chills from the mental images flashing around in my head. “No, we don’t talk about that shit. I don’t ever want to know.”

  We both laugh.

  I see a couple standing up down near the ocean, it takes me a minute to figure out who it is. Once the wind picks up and they walk a little closer to one of the candles I can tell its Hailey and Cole. Hailey turns towards the ocean again while Cole keeps walking. I tap Mason with my elbow and nod in her direction. Mason stares at her with a painful expression on his face. Cole passes by us and I give him a little wave.

  I lean over and kiss my brother on the cheek, “Go talk to her. I’m going to go get Hunter and get out of here.”

  Mason groans, “I didn’t really need to hear that last part, Kenz.”

  I laugh as I start to walk away. “Try to keep her from walking in on us huh?”

  He shakes his head and wanders over to Hailey. As I walk back up on the deck Hunter swoops in and wraps me in his arms.

  “There you are, baby.”

  I wrap my arms around his waist, “You ready to get out of here soon?”

  “Hell yes.” He moans in my ear.

  Hunter and I walk over to the DJ and ask him to play one last song for us since we are heading out when it’s over.

  The Time Of My Life by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes starts playing. Hunter and I start singing it to each other, laughing and carrying on. Damn, I love him with everything that I am. He’s so handsome when he isn’t worrying about the rest of world.

  He pulls me close to him. Our fingers entwined and hands down to our sides, chest to chest, and our noses just about touch. He stares into my eyes and it makes me weak in the knees. “I’ve got one last little gift for you.”

  “Yeah?” I say breathlessly.

  He lets go of my right hand and reaches into his pocket. He pulls out a little blue Tiffany’s box with a white bow.

  “Hunter, I think you’ve given me everything a girl could possibly need. You didn’t need to do anything else.” I say as I reach with shaky hands to take the box.

  “I didn’t buy this recently.” He says as I slip off the bow.

  When I take off the top of the box, nestled inside is a diamond encrusted key. I look up at him, a bit confused.

  Hunter kisses me. “It’s the key for the locket I gave you a two Christmases ago. I told you it had a key and I would give it to you when I was ready.” He kisses my lips again and a tear slips down my cheek. “I’m ready CC.”

  I put the lid back on and slide my arms around his neck, “I love you. I love you so much that sometimes I feel like this is all a dream.”

  Hunter wraps me tightly in his arms and lifts me up off the ground. “Then is a dream that I don’t want to wake up from.”

  I kiss him until we are both breathless.

  After the song ends, Hunter and I walk around and say our goodbyes to our friends and family. We tell a few of my cousins we will get together soon and we promise to stop down to see Bentley and Zeke when we get back. I thank Logan for coming and tell him we’ll stop and see him when we visit Bentley and Zeke. I smile over at Dominic and thank him for coming as well. He barely meets my eyes when he congratulates us again.

  “I can’t believe I let you talk me into letting him come.” Hunter says as we make our way over to Mom, Dad, Hunter’s mom and Ryder.

  I pat him on the stomach, “Hey, if it wasn’t for him screwing up then we may not be together.”

  Hunter stops walking. “I was coming after you one way or another, CC. It just took me a little too long to realize that I couldn’t live without you.”

  I stand up on my tip toes and kiss him, long and hard.

  “I love you so damn much, baby.” He says as he rests his forehead on mine.

  “And I love you too.”

  We say goodbyes to our parents and make plans to meet for breakfast so that we can say our goodbyes to Ryder before we leave for our honeymoon.

  “Let’s go, Mrs. McCormick.” Hunter says when I finally pry myself away from Ryder. “We’ve got a honeymoon suite callin
g our name and I plan on putting that room to good use.” He whispers in my ear while we wait for the elevator.

  “Lead the way, Mr. McCormick.”

  It’s an incredible ending to an incredible day. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

  “Hey pretty girl,” Cole says as he places his hands on my shoulders. “You want to go get some air with me?”

  I look over my shoulder at him and he smiles. I would be so easy to fall in love with Cole. A fresh start, something I think I need. He doesn’t know about my past, doesn’t know what makes me tick, and doesn’t know about my insecurities. It’s really a shame that we both can’t give this a try; honestly I’m not sure it would be fair to either of us at this point in our lives but it sure would be nice if we could.

  I’d just sat down for the first time all night. I’ve been trying to avoid being alone so that Mason doesn’t have the chance to talk to me while we are supposed to be enjoying MacKenzie’s wedding. So far the wedding has gone off without a hitch. All her family is great and they’ve taken the time to talk to me throughout the day. Even her crazy as hell twin cousins, those two are a trip. I’d like to go out with them one night to see how they really act when no one is breathing down their necks to behave.

  “Sure.” I stand and say to my mom, “I’ll be back in a few and then we can call it a night. You got all checked into the room, right?”

  I booked two rooms at the hotel for tonight, one for mom and a double for Cole and I, because I wasn’t sure how the night was going to go, plus it’s pretty late and I didn’t want Cole, Mom and I driving home this late, especially with having a few drinks.

  “Yeah, Cole and I checked in before the ceremony.”

  “Great. I’ll come grab you when we come back in and then we’ll say goodnight to Hunter and MacKenzie.” I tell her.

  Cole holds out his hand for me, I place mine in his and he leads the way down to the ocean. It’s a perfect night. The wind is blowing just a bit; it’s chilly but feels nice against my sweaty skin.

  “How you holding up?” Cole asks as he slips off his suit jacket, places it down on the sand and then sits on it, leaving just enough room for me to join him.

  I slip my heels off and take a seat. “It’s hard, you know? Being this close to him but being a million miles away too.”

  “He loves you.” Cole states like he’s known Mason all his life.

  “But not enough to talk to me about what I saw that night, Cole.” I quip back.

  Cole shrugs. “Maybe you need to hear him out, Hailey. Whatever happened might not have been right but there is always a reason for everything.” Cole turns his head and stares at the crashing waves in front of us.

  “Sounds like you’re talking from experience.”

  “Maybe I am.” He answers, still staring straight ahead.

  Cole and I sit like this for a while, both lost in our own thoughts. I get the chills as the wind picks up and brings a spray of ocean water with it. Cole reaches over and wraps his arm around my shoulders.

  “You ready to go say goodnight?” Cole asks.

  I stand up and he follows. “Give me a few more minutes?” I ask. Cole grabs his jacket and shakes the sand from it. I’m sure he’s probably itching to get to his room to change and relax. “Go grab my mom and I’ll meet you inside.”

  Cole pulls me into his strong arms and places a little kiss on the side of my head. “Talk to him, pretty girl. Trust me, it’s not every day you see the kind of love that Mason has for you.”

  His hands slowly start to fall down my arms, he grabs my hands in his and squeezes just a little before he lets go and a single tear drops from my eye.

  Cole starts to walk away, leaving me standing here looking out of the ocean, when he calls my name, “Hailey,” I turn. His face is lit up by one of the candles that are spread out all over the sand. “Trust me okay? I know what I’m talking about.” He just gave me a little piece of his past. I know that must have been hard for him to do.

  “Alright, Flower boy, I’m trusting you.” I say.

  Cole turns around and makes his way back up to the reception. As I watch him walk away I see MacKenzie, and I think it’s Mason with her, but it could be Cooper too; they’re standing just off the deck. I turn back around and take a seat next to where I left my shoes.

  It’s so peaceful sitting here. I wish I could bottle up this feeling and take it with me everywhere. Everyone always thinks of me as the party girl who knows how to have a good time. While I must admit I live up to that reputation most of the time, I don’t always want to. Acting that way is my coping mechanism.

  A big wave crashes and the water rushes up and almost meets my toes before it rushes back. This makes me think back on the first time Mason and I got really close.

  This was the first time I had seen my dad in months. He knocked on the door saying he needed to talk to Mom. I told him she was at work and he’d have to come back after seven when she was home but he didn’t want to hear it. He pushed the door open, causing me to stumble back. He walked into the kitchen grabbed a beer that was left in there from before he moved out and made himself at home in the living room. I walked into the room to grab my cell phone so I could get the hell out of here, I should have known better.

  “You happy that your mom and I split?” he slurs.

  I tried I ignore him as I picked up the phone and turned around to leave but he kicked his foot up on the coffee table blocking my path. “I’m talking to you.” He yelled.

  I flinched. I gripped the phone tighter in my hand. “No.” I know that if I had said yes things would have been worse for me.

  “It’s all your fault you little bitch. Our life was perfect until you came into it.” Dad said as the alcohol on his breath hit me.

  “I’m sorry.” I cried. What did he want me to do? Kill myself? Run away?

  “Yeah, I’m sure you are.” He didn’t move his feet so I tried to climb over but he raised his leg and caused me to trip. I wasn’t expecting him to do that so I wasn’t prepared to have my hands out to break my fall. When I fell I hit the end of the coffee table on my forehead.

  My dad quickly moved his feet. “Oops, sorry about that.”

  He didn’t make a move to help me up or anything. I laid there for a second with my eyes squeezed shut. The pain was horrible. The pulsing on my forehead brought on an immediate headache. I blinked a few times before trying to get my bearings. I grabbed for my cell again but when I did a drop of blood hit the carpet. I reached up to where I’d hit my head, and when I pulled my hand away it was covered with blood. I took off, running for the bathroom.

  I ran past Tara in the hallway and pushed her out of my way. “Watch where you’re going.”

  I slammed the bathroom door shut and looked in the mirror. There was a gash on my forehead that was probably going to need stitches but there was no way I was going to the hospital.

  I grabbed my phone and called the only person I knew who could help me. MacKenzie was down at the shore with her family but I knew Jackson didn’t go down until late Friday night since he had to work.

  “MacKenzie,” I cried into the phone.

  “Hailey? What’s the matter? Are you ok?” MacKenzie asked with concern in her voice.

  “Can you please have Jackson pick me up and take me to the shore with you?” I managed to croak out.

  “Um, what time is it?” I heard her shuffling some things around. “He should just be getting done at work. I’ll give him a call and tell him to swing by and pick you up.”

  “Thank you.”

  I looked at myself in the mirror before reaching for the Band-Aids. I cleaned the gash up the best I could but it just kept bleeding. I finally gave up trying to get it to stop. I grabbed some gauze, medical tape and the roll of paper towels that Mom always kept in the bathroom and ran across the hall to my room. I threw it all in my overnight bag along with some clothes. I didn’t even know if anything matched and I really didn’t care, right then I just wanted to
get the hell out of there. I heard Jackson beep his horn. I grabbed my bags and darted out of the house as quickly as possible.

  Jackson reached over and opened the door for me, “Damn Hails, you ok?”

  “Just drive.” I took my first deep breath since Dad forced his way into the house.

  When we arrived at the Cahill’s shore house a few hours later I was emotionally and physically exhausted. Jackson grabbed my bags as I still held the gauze to my head. The bleeding had just about stopped but still leaked a little.

  Elle, MacKenzie and Mason were sitting at the kitchen table when we walked in. Great! I was hoping to sneak in and only have to deal with MacKenzie.

  Mason stood up so fast his chair fell back, “What the hell happened to you?” he said.

  I lowered the gauze, MacKenzie and Elle gasped. When I looked back up Mason had his eyes squeezed tightly shut.

  “I’ll be fine.” I would be. I’d probably just have a scar.

  “What happened?” Mason asked again.

  “My dad,” I got out before I started crying. “I tried to step over his feet but he lifted them and tripped me. I didn’t put my hands out and hit the corner of the table.”

  Elle walked over to me, grabbed my hand and walked me to the bathroom. She helped me get the gash all cleaned up and told me I should get stitches; I told her I wouldn’t go. She found some butterfly stitches and closed the gash as best she could. I looked down at my shirt and noticed all the blood. I guess walking into the house the way that I did made it look a lot worse than it really was. This is just what I wanted for my sixteenth birthday. I’d just have to have MacKenzie help me cover it with make-up before the party that she was throwing for me.

  Mason walked into the bathroom holding out one of his old baseball t-shirts and a pair of MacKenzie’s shorts.

  “I’m guessing you didn’t pack any to sleep in. I have a bunch of t-shirts here.” Mason said as I grabbed the clothes from him.

  “Take a shower, sweetie, then try and get some sleep.” Elle said. She threw all the trash away, washed her hands then kissed my forehead and walked out. Mason stood there for a second longer; he looked like he wanted to hold me, but then turned and shut the door behind him.