by Rachel Hauck
Thank you, Daddy. Haley walked the center aisle, her pulse hot in her veins.
“We have a wedding chapel now. Wouldn’t it be great for tourists, for those seeking a destination wedding, to get their wedding attire in the same place they plan to marry? Miss Cora pioneered women in business at a time when most women worked solely in the home. She survived the Great Depression, became a leader during World War II. She was a philanthropist.” Haley turned to the older woman in the chairs. “She helped women be all they could be on the finest day of their lives.”
“What does this have to do with reopening a wedding shop on a prime piece of real estate?” Linus’s question was driven and pointed. “Do you know how many businesses failed in that spot after Cora closed the wedding shop in 1979?”
“Of course.” She moved toward the dais. “Because this shop wasn’t designed for books or computers. It was designed for wedding gowns and going-away dresses, for veils and lingerie, for brides.” Haley paused, searching to give words to her intuition. “I dare say that space was never intended to be a parking lot.”
Brant was on his feet. “This is ridiculous.”
Haley ignored him. “The shop is about escorting a woman toward love and marriage. Into the greatest time of her life.”
“Of which half will find themselves in divorce.” Brant just couldn’t keep to himself.
“All the more reason we need to support them with a personal touch. With community and relationships.” Her response fueled a fire in her bones. Haley moved closer to the dais and Brant Jackson. “The wedding shop has probably touched every family in the county. Mr. Jackson says he’s about growth and business. Well, so am I.” She put the room behind her as she stepped up on the dais. “Give me the shop. Let me turn it into the place it used to be. Let’s stand for Heart’s Bend commerce and tradition by supporting local businesses. By supporting a great Heart’s Bend citizen, Miss Cora.”
The room erupted with applause, a few shouts, and one whistle. When Haley turned, Dad was cheering her on.
“It’s an eyesore,” Linus protested with a glance at his fellow council members.
“Won’t be when I’m done.” She displayed a lot of confidence for not knowing what she was doing.
“Do you have the money for renovation?” The question came from the councilwoman behind the name placard Jenny Jones.
“I’ll get the money.”
“She’s wasting your time, gentlemen and gentlewomen.” Brant squeezed in next to her. “How many times have good-hearted people made the plea to keep that shop and nothing, I say nothing, came of it? It’s time to let it go.” He hammered his hand on the table.
“I like the idea of the shop in the new mall.” This from the councilman named Art Hunter.
“Haley, why not? You can carry on Miss Cora’s traditions there,” Linus said.
“Exactly.” Brant puffed out his chest. “We’ll give you first choice on location, do the buildout for you any way you want. All on us.”
“No, no, no, we already have a wedding shop. On the corner of Blossom and First.” She shivered, weakening, fearing defeat. Linus and Brant made a persuasive point. She saw it on the council’s faces. “Give me a chance.”
“We’re not here to fund your aspirations, Miss Morgan.” Linus had all kinds of thoughts, didn’t he?
“Really, seems you don’t mind funding Brant Jackson and Akron’s aspirations.” Laughter and cheers peppered the room. “Don’t let Akron bully you, us, into letting a piece of our history go to the almighty dollar. Give me the shop. I won’t let you down.”
The room exploded with shouts and opinions. Haley caught her breath, surprised by the fire building in her gut.
Linus banged his gavel, calling order. “Simmer down, simmer down. Drummond, you’re standing. Do you have something to say?”
Haley faced the room, exchanging a curious glance with Cole, seeing Dad and Keith, along with Drummond, on their feet.
“I say let her have it. Give her a chance. Why not? She makes a point. Maybe the mistake was everyone trying to make something of the property other than a wedding shop.”
More voices and opinions. Linus called for silence, sending Haley and Brant back to their seats.
Shaking, she moved to sit down, nodding at Dad and Drummond, slapping Keith a high five as Linus gathered his council for an impromptu discussion. Their bowed heads bobbed as Linus talked, hammering the gavel against his palm.
After a moment, the council squared up to the long glossy table. “You’re prepared to restore the shop and bring it up to code?”
Ho, boy. “I am.”
“Linus, you can’t seriously give that money corner to a girl with no means of completing the project.” Brant paced like a mad bull.
“Linus,” Drummond said. “The city has money for restoration projects. Give her some of that to get her started. Need I remind the council the shop is a Hugh Cathcart Thompson design?”
The council bent together again. Drummond glanced back at her with a knowing nod.
Someone shouted, “Let her have the shop, y’all.”
Linus gaveled the meeting into silence. “The council will hand down our decision by the end of the week. Haley, leave us your number. We’ll give you a call.”
Dad, Drummond, Keith, and a few others gathered around Haley, clapping her on the shoulder, singing her praises.
“You were brilliant.” Keith, with his capped-tooth grin. “If they don’t give it to you, we’ll know how deep they are in Akron’s pocket.”
“I say this is cause for celebration.” Dad drew Haley close in a side hug. “Pie at Ella’s? On me. Drummond? Keith?”
“I could eat pie, sure.” Haley angled around to see Cole but he was gone. “I’ll meet you there.”
When she stepped outside to her bike, she checked for Cole again but no sign of him. Did this shop business dredge up memories of Tammy he was trying to forget? Did he truly want the shop turned into a parking lot?
Haley rode the three blocks to Ella’s against the winter wind, going over the meeting in her mind, a quiver of anticipation in her bones.
She hated being at odds with Cole over this—he was her connection to Tammy—but more than ever she knew reopening the wedding shop was something she was born to do.
Chapter Nine
COLE
He sat on the end stool at Ella’s counter waiting for his burger, knocking the green tinsel still swinging from the bottom of the counter with his knees.
“So how’d the meeting go?” Mom, owner-operator-chief-bottle-washer-and-hostess, dumped a couple of dirty plates in the bin under the counter, scraping a tip into her pocket—which she didn’t keep, instead dividing it among the crew.
“Gives them a little bit more to carry home.”
“Depends. For Akron, it went okay. For Haley, it went great. She had her stuff together.”
Her passion had surprised him. Was that the right word? Surprise? Maybe convicted him. Was he supposed to be for this shop as much as she was? For the town, for their history, for the uniqueness of having a wedding shop founded in 1890? For Tammy?
The cook pushed through the kitchen door, setting Cole’s plate in front of him, giving him a slap on the back. “Good to see you.”
“You too, Sean.”
“So have you decided, then? Go to work for Akron or stay on your own?” Mom leaned against the counter, snatching one of Cole’s fries. “Man, Sean knows how to make a mean fry.”
“Help yourself.” Cole shoved the plate her way. He and Chris spent their teen years sitting in this very spot, doing homework, eating diner food, crawling into one of the booths to play on the Game Boys when the dinner crowd thinned out.
When Cole got his driver’s license, Mom finally let them go home after school. But she called every hour. The moment she got home, she checked their homework, trolling through their backpacks to make sure they didn’t “forget” to show her their papers or teacher notes.
“I don’t know.” He sipped his Coke and wrestled with the feeling bubbling in his gut since the meeting. “The Akron money is good, Mom.”
“Remember, the love of money is what messed up your dad.”
Cole grimaced. “Stealing and forgery are not the same thing as being offered a good job.”
“Never said that, but you have to follow your heart too. Don’t let the lure of money steer you from what you love.”
Reaching for the ketchup, he shot a few squirts over his fries and on his burger. He felt like a traitor. But he didn’t owe Haley anything. Or the town. Didn’t owe Tammy anything. She’d moved on to a much better place and, dollars to donuts, she wasn’t thinking about him, Heart’s Bend, or the restoration of an antique town business.
“Well, speaking of,” Mom said, “look who just walked in.”
Haley with her dad, Keith Niven, and Drummond Branson. Looking like a winner too. She greeted a couple of women at a booth, Taylor and Emma, Drummond’s daughters.
Then they decided to move to a larger table and packed in together.
Cole focused on his dinner, feeling like an outsider. A sensation he’d wrestled with since Dad was arrested fifteen years ago.
But he couldn’t hold his gaze to his plate. When he glanced up again, Haley was looking at him. She tipped her head for him to join her outside.
Cole covered his plate with his napkin and followed her, but not before asking one of the servers to bring out two cups of hot chocolate—a peace offering, if you will. He grabbed his coat from the rack by the door.
“Hey.” Haley met him at the bench out front, her thick hair falling over her shoulders, her nose tipped red from the cold. “Are we at war?”
“War? No. Haley, come on.”
“I had to ask.”
“Because I sat with Akron?” He joined her on the bench, the dancing red, blue, and green of the Christmas lights blinking colors over their faces.
“Keith said they offered you a job.” She dug her hands into her pockets and shouldered against the biting wind.
“They did. For a lot of money.”
“Bookoo money?”
“What?”
“Never mind.”
“The offer was great. More than I’ve seen in my career so far. I could go back to sleeping at night.”
“Then you should take it.” She shivered when the wind cut sharp around the side of the diner. “You have to think of your future.”
“My future. Is that you talking or your parents?”
“Me.”
When she looked at him he remembered how much he’d always liked Haley. Might have even dated her if Tammy hadn’t been between them. Haley was real and fun with an intense edge. Yet so easygoing. She was a beautiful mystery.
“You gave a pretty impassioned speech tonight.”
Her smile glittered with the lights. “I surprised myself a little.”
The server came out with the hot chocolate, but Haley waved him off. “I don’t drink coffee.”
“It’s hot chocolate.” Cole reached for both cups, thanked him, and handed her one.
“Oh, wow, really? Thanks.” Haley hugged the cup in her hands. “Everyone is always trying to hand me coffee. I spent six years in the air force saying ‘I don’t drink coffee’ to some of the same people over and over.”
“I remembered.”
She angled toward him, bumping her shoulder to his. “Thank you.” Peeling off the top, she took a gentle first sip, and a silence pulled between them.
“What if they give you the shop?” he said.
“What if they don’t?”
“But what if they do?”
“Then I’ll make it a gem.”
“With your ten grand?”
She laughed. “It’s a start.” Haley gazed into the shadows. “You know when you’re out on your bike and you’re driving through town, going the speed limit, stopping for red lights and stop signs?”
“But you want to be on the open road?” Cole sipped his hot chocolate, tending the vibe in her voice.
“Exactly. Opening up and going full throttle, leaning so far into the curves your knee almost touches the ground.”
“Is the wedding shop your open road, Haley?”
“Maybe.” She took a thoughtful sip of her hot chocolate. “But I feel like I’ve been driving through small towns with only a few fast-break moments. What I want, I think, is to hit the open road at cruising speed and settle in for a while. College was four years. The air force six, with as many moves. After my first two transfers, I got rid of almost all of my stuff. When I did arrive somewhere, I barely unpacked.”
“They’ll give you the shop.”
She turned to him, the movement releasing a wild but tentative fragrance. “How do you know?”
“Because if they felt anything close to what I felt when you were speaking, they won’t be able to say no.”
She held her cup with both hands, taking another sip. “I have no idea how to run a wedding shop, but I want to do this. I can feel it in my bones.”
“Bones, huh? They rarely lie.”
A new Mustang pulled into the parking space in front of the bench with music pressing against the windows. The driver cut the engine and stepped out, walking around to open the door for his date.
“We were that young?” Haley said.
“Hey, come on, we’re not that old. Please. We’re just about to hit cruising speed.” But sitting here now, he felt old. Like some part of life had passed him by. The part where he could’ve been carefree, but instead he carried the burden of being the man in the family. “Don’t you want to date? Get married?”
Haley shivered. “Not really.” She stared at her cup. “I see myself as that sophisticated businesswoman in town everyone respects and goes to for advice. The auntie of Heart’s Bend. I’ll drive a cool car even when I’m old and gray, have a house up on the hill, in the old historic district, and buy a ten-foot Christmas tree every year and load it down with presents for all the foster kids.”
“So how does this great vision require you to be an old maid?”
“Because I said so. Because I think . . .” She inhaled, shaking her head, a small smile on her lips. “You . . . you start digging and tap my deepest thoughts. It’s like you have some kind of superpower.”
Cole chuckled. “Not really. Remember, we used to be able to talk. I could always tell you things I couldn’t tell Tammy. Like when Dad was finally sentenced, six years after his arrest, I called you.” The memory surfaced without his beckoning. “I just finished my sophomore year in college.”
“You called me first?”
He ducked his head, picking at the top on his hot chocolate. “I guess it’s okay I confess that now.” He offered her his hand. “Friends?”
“Of course. Always.” Their clasp held for a moment before Haley slipped her hand away, tilting her head toward the diner. “I need to get inside. They’ll wonder what happened to me.”
“Yeah, I left a great burger on the counter.”
“Thanks for the hot chocolate.”
Cole held the door for her, waved at her party, and returned to his counter stool. His plate was gone but he didn’t care. He was full.
Mom came out of the kitchen. “Oh, there you are. You want your burger? I put it in the oven to keep warm.”
Cole nodded. His mama was the best. Sorta like Haley. “Sure, why not.”
He peered at Haley’s table. She was laughing at something Taylor Gillingham, Drummond’s daughter, was saying, looking like the girl he used to observe from his perch at the counter—after school or on college breaks.
He could admit to himself now that Haley had always been the girl out of reach. Not that he didn’t love Tammy, he did. But he’d never even let himself consider Haley. It even felt a little like cheating to admit this to himself now.
Did Haley know? How things went with Tammy? If so, why would she be so silent? Surely Haley had something to say about how their rela
tionship died long before cancer ended her life.
CORA
Fourth of July
By the first week of July, Cora was ready for some celebration. June had been busy at the shop what with the June brides coming for their final trousseaus.
Rufus had written her weekly through the month, which thrilled her to no end, confirming his love if not his presence, all the while promising a summer visit.
I long to see you. I can’t imagine it’s been nearly a year since we were last together. I think of our kisses and how you tasted of strawberries. My favorite. As are you, Cora.
His letters strengthened her, raised her pride as she walked down First Avenue, going about her business. She was a loved woman and she defied anyone to challenge that fact. Her love could not be robbed.
And the Fourth of July was finally here. Rufus or no Rufus, today was a grand day. Daddy and Mama’s annual Fourth of July celebration was gearing up on the back five acres of their homestead. Half the town would show up. She’d begged Rufus to come, but he feared his job on the Ohio would keep him away.
“Cora?” Mama came into the kitchen, fresh and pretty in her new pink afternoon dress. She had expanded her style to include puff sleeves. “Will you carry the chocolate cake? Last time I walked across the yard with something in my hands, the Saglimbenis’ dog ran right in front of me, and away I went, sprawling. It’s like he knew I was defenseless.”
“So you’d prefer the dog send me sprawling?” Cora also wore a new dress, yellow with puff sleeves and a lace collar.
“Yes, if you must know, that’s my evil plan. To ruin your beautiful dress with the shenanigans of a wild mutt.” She made a wry face. “Of course not. The dog seems to mind you. But me he wants to see facedown on the ground.”
Cora grinned, taking up the cake plate and following Mama out the back door. It was summer in lovely Heart’s Bend. The breeze was gentle, perfumed with sun feed, growing crops, the green hills rolling along the horizon.
The Saglimbeni brothers, along with their crazy dog, set up a pony ride and roped off a section for the children to play games.
