Operation: Married by Christmas

by Debra Clopton

  The salon was packed. Norma Sue was getting a trim, but Lacy paused long enough to whip over and give Haley a hug. Though they’d only just met, Haley felt a kinship with Lacy that she didn’t quite understand. If her instincts were on target, Lacy felt it, too.

  “We are so glad you came in,” Lacy exclaimed and everyone echoed her welcome. There was Esther Mae and Norma Sue, then Adela and Sheri, the nail tech she’d met at the theater meeting.

  “I’ve been hoping to get to know you a little better,” Lacy said. “I feel almost like a kindred spirit with you already.” She laughed as she took her place behind the styling chair and started snipping at Norma Sue’s wiry gray hair. “We sound like we have a lot in common. Have a seat over there.” She pointed the scissors at the empty hair-dryer chair.

  Haley backed up and sat down. “We do?” she asked, curious, but not at all surprised that Lacy had heard stories.

  Chuckles erupted around the room. Lacy paused her scissors in midair and grinned at Haley. “From what I’ve heard from Applegate over the last few days, you have a habit of acting on things before you’ve thought them through all the way.”

  Haley smiled weakly and shrugged. “Guilty as charged. But I’ve gotten better over the years.”

  Lacy turned serious suddenly, dropping the section of curly gray hair, her penetrating blue eyes seeming to peer into Haley’s soul. “Why did you have to get better?”

  Haley was taken aback by the intensity of the question as all eyes turned toward her. “Well, I—” she stumbled over her response. “Crazy spontaneity with a tendency toward screwups isn’t exactly the way to advance a career. Or to get taken seriously,” she added, deciding to be totally honest.

  Lacy chuckled, pointing the hot-pink comb she held. “The way I’ve always looked at it is if I couldn’t be myself, then I wasn’t being honest.”

  Sheri hooted from the corner. “She has to say that or she’d get herself in trouble. Lacy couldn’t be any different even if she tried.”

  “And we wouldn’t want her to be,” Adela said in her soft voice. Always the mediator, calm, cool and collected.

  “And I agree,” Sheri said, bending over Adela’s nails as she added a blush-pink to them. “I was just letting Haley in on what we all know, but she hasn’t had a chance to realize.”

  Haley managed a smile. “Well, I’ve been reading Molly’s newspaper column.”

  “Oh,” Norma Sue said, meeting Haley’s gaze in the reflection of the mirror, since her back was to Haley. “So you’ve been reading all about us. Is that why you dropped that fella and came home? You realized since we have things going on around here that you might actually want to settle down here at last.”

  Haley had to give them credit for laying things out in the open. “I said I was reading the articles. But I didn’t marry Lincoln because it wasn’t right, and I realized it just in the nick of time. He knew it, too—”

  “So, how are the set designs going?” Lacy asked, abruptly changing the subject.

  “Um, good. I’m actually on my way out to Will’s this morning to start. We had our first meeting yesterday.”

  “Oh, really,” Esther Mae cooed, fanning herself with a magazine from the open doorway. “Did y’ all make any progress?”

  Haley got the feeling the question didn’t exactly pertain to the props. She ignored the insinuation. “A little. We’ll do better today.” She hoped.

  Esther Mae grinned at Norma Sue then at Haley. “That’s what we’re hoping for.”

  Haley bit her lip. If they wanted to have these unfortunate ideas, she couldn’t do anything to dissuade them, but she had no illusions. “Well, I need to go. I was just swinging by the diner to tell Applegate good morning. I swear that man rises before the chickens. Y’ all must, too, since you already set all those rods in Esther Mae’s hair.”

  “Well, you know what they say, the early bird gets the perm,” Esther Mae said, grinning. “And we’ve got a lot of costume sewing to do.”

  Haley made a face. “Glad that’s y’ all and not me.”

  Norma Sue chuckled. “We are, too. We remember how bad you were at that. Birdie tried, though.”

  Haley laughed. “Yes, she did. But it just didn’t take.”

  “It sure was entertaining, though,” Esther Mae said.

  Haley paused at the door, said her goodbyes and left the salon. She realized as she walked down the sidewalk that she’d enjoyed the visit.

  She was enjoying the majority of her stay in Mule Hollow. For a place she’d been glad to leave behind, she was beginning to think the tiny community might have possibilities she’d missed. Yet there was all that small-town meddling…. Caring would be more a way the ladies would look at the hopes they seemed to harbor for her and Will.

  Though their caring was touching, it was also worrisome. Still, she couldn’t help thinking that Mule Hollow’s charm was beginning to draw her in like a magnet.

  Down at the diner, Applegate, Stanley and Sam were deep in conversation as they peered through the front window watching Haley leave Heavenly Inspirations.

  “She looks happy ta me, App,” Stanley said, popping a couple of sunflower seeds into his mouth.

  “Yup,” Sam agreed. “Looky how content her face is right now. I think you might be right about this, Applegate. This ‘Operation: Married by Christmas’ plan of yorn might just have a chance.”

  Applegate watched his granddaughter climb into her car and said yet another prayer that the good Lord would give him his Christmas wish…for Haley’s sake. “I ain’t one to ask fer much, but I figure the Lord already has plans fer my Haley girl and Will. If I’m right, then alls it’s gonna take is us puttin’ them in the same vicinity and nature will take its course.”

  Stanley scratched his nose and studied Applegate. “I hope yer right, App. But even though they was supposed to get married ten years ago a week before Christmas don’t mean they got any sentimental value to the date all these years later. I know yor hoping that’ll play inta this, but it might not happen.”

  Applegate sat up straight from the checkerboard and glared at his friend. “So what’re ya saying? I should jest give up?”

  Sam raised his hands. “Calm down, you old fool. No need to get riled. Stanley and me just don’t want you to get yer hopes up too high. No, now don’t look at me that way. We thank those two could have a chance if they could figure out what’s blocking thar way. But we jest don’t want you ta have a conniption if it don’t work out.”

  Applegate watched Haley’s car disappear down Main Street before leveling determined eyes on his longtime buddies. “This is gonna work. Mark my words. With all of us doin’ our parts, we’re havin’ a wedding come Christmas. I got a good feelin’ about this.”

  Stanley frowned at him. “Yep, but you had a good feelin’ about beatin’ me in that last game of checkers, too. And that didn’t happen.”

  Applegate grinned. “But it’s fixin’ to. Set that board up, and let’s see who wins this next game. I’m feelin’ lucky.”

  Haley and Will, by mutual silent agreement, put their differences aside and set out to get the props designed. There were several scenes that needed to be drawn out before any painting could be done. For the next three days Haley showed up, and she and Will sketched. It bothered her being around him, but she concentrated on the work and ignored the strange unwanted feelings that ran like an underground river beneath the surface of her skin.

  On Sunday Haley went to church with Applegate. He basically showed her off, acting so proud to have her there that once again Haley felt glaringly embarrassed by her absence from his life.

  She was also embarrassed that she hadn’t set foot inside a church since attending her grandmother’s funeral. She sat on the back row beside Applegate and felt as if God was tapping her on the shoulder through the entire service. Though she could have been uncomfortable, she wasn’t. Since leaving Mule Hollow, she’d felt as if she were running on fast forward, determined to get somewhere quickl
y. But when she’d left Linc at the altar and turned her car toward her hometown, she’d started a journey. Maybe, sitting here in this pew, letting her heart hear a gentle knock of the Lord, was where she’d been heading the whole time.

  Monday morning Haley woke up thinking about the service and one of the key verses Pastor Allen had preached on: Be still and know that I am God. It had been a long time since she’d actually thought about giving God her time. In the quiet of the morning, Haley found herself pulling her grandmother’s Bible off the bookshelf in the living room. After padding barefoot back to her bed, snuggled in the folds of her grandmother’s quilt, she began to read.

  Chapter Eleven

  “No, I don’t think that looks right,” Haley said, leaning her head to the side and gazing critically at the picture she’d just drawn.

  Will was standing across from her. He hadn’t realized what a perfectionist she’d become until they’d started this project. The scene looked great to him, but he’d learned pretty quickly that Haley wasn’t looking to please anyone but herself. Until she was satisfied with the drawing she was making, it wasn’t going to do any good for him to try and convince her that she was being too hard on herself.

  “Are you this tough to please all the time?”

  She bit the pencil she’d been tapping against her chin while she studied the work. “Yes. And I know what you’re going to say—I used to be a pushover. I was, but I realized if I wanted to be a success I had to change. So I did.”

  He’d been standing back getting the full view of the sketch and now he dropped to one knee beside her. “Is that so?”

  She flashed him a sassy grin that reminded him of the girl he’d known, and for a moment he almost forgot that they didn’t really like each other anymore.

  Will grinned back at her. She was different, and it just didn’t fit. But what did he know? Over the last few days, she’d been quiet, but so had he. Today, something was different. She’d walked into the workshop earlier and started talking. Though they hadn’t, until this moment, talked about anything remotely personal. She’d asked all about Mule Hollow and his work. She seemed genuinely interested.

  However, he noticed that she was careful not to ask him why he’d left Mule Hollow in the first place. After all, before she’d walked away from him, he’d planned to live in Mule Hollow. It was the main reason she’d left. But her leaving him had changed his plans. Unable to face all the memories and being pitied by everyone, he’d taken a job with a Dallas architecture firm owned by a couple of his college buddies. Haley Bell Thornton had no idea how badly she’d torn his world apart. Relentlessly, her memories held and followed him everywhere he’d moved.

  Hunkered down beside her on the cold concrete, he got lost staring at her profile as she scrutinized the large sketch. Aware he was in a danger zone, he forced his gaze to the drawing. “It looks…” his eyes were drawn back to her “…good. But then I didn’t see anything wrong with it in the first place.” He itched to touch her, suddenly wanting to trace his finger along her jaw. Instead he curled his fingers into a fist and pressed it into the floor.

  Unaware of the effect she was having on him, she shook her head, took her pencil and made a new line then erased the first one again.

  “Maybe now. Better, don’t you think?” She slid a glance at him, her eyes dancing, drawing him like magnets to lean closer.

  “Better,” he croaked, humoring her while he sprang to his feet and moved away from her as fast as he could. What was the matter with him? Just because she’d come in today with less of a chip on her shoulder and the desire to talk didn’t mean anything had changed. He was a fool for letting his emotions conquer his resolve.

  “Will,” she said softly, her tone causing his step to falter. “Will, what happened to us?”

  Her question took him by surprise. So much so that he almost blurted out that he didn’t have a clue, except that her vision of fortune had lured her away.

  “I mean,” she chuckled suddenly. “It’s like now I’m you and you’re me. I used to be the haphazard, abstract one and you were the toe-the-line, everything-had-to-be-just-so guy.”

  Will almost laughed at the irony. He’d thought she was talking about them as a couple and she’d meant as people in general. With space between them, he considered her thoughtfully for a moment, then lifted a shoulder. What could he say? “Like you said, people change.”

  “I’ve always been fascinated by the why of it though. What makes a person make the change?”

  Will had started walking to his welding machine, but her words stopped him in his tracks. It was such a familiar thought for him. He’d had the exact same thought only moments before. People changed when forced. He spun on his heel and studied her…then changed the subject.

  “Do you want to see the finished bridge?” Way to go, Sutton. Real clever thing to say when she’s just blown your socks off with a revelation about herself that hits home with you.

  “Actually, I would love to see the bridge.”

  “Then follow me. It’s out back.”

  He led the way outside his workshop to a covered-but-open area where he kept his steel rods and scrap metal and wood. He’d set the small bridge in the center of the work space.

  “It looks pretty rugged right now.”

  Haley walked around the five-foot-long bridge, studying it intently. When they finished, it would sit in front of a painting that made it look as if it crossed a rushing river.

  “When it’s all put together this is going to look pretty impressive,” she said, running her fingers across the wood. “You are a handy guy. No wonder they wanted you to get involved.” She met his gaze across the bridge, the corner of her lips curling into a half smile. “Imagine if I tried to build this.”

  Will looked away from her as old feelings stirred to life. Disturbed by the force of his emotions, he walked to the edge of the building and stared out at the cows grazing across the fence in his pasture. Working with Haley was proving to be harder for him than he’d ever expected. Having to stand near her was torture. The ever-so-light sweet scent that seemed to cling to her skin and hair whispered for him to lean closer, to inhale deeper…but that was only the surface. It was Haley herself that was getting to him.

  “Have you read any of the script?” he asked, running a hand down his face, grasping at conversation.

  She came to stand beside him, laying a hand against the steel pole extending to the metal roof.

  “Yes, I’ve read it. It’s a bit of a twist, looking at how Mary and Joseph affected the people around them as they stepped up and prepared to live out the life God destined for them. In giving God control, they fulfilled their purpose. I like the way Lacy is using the play to ask the audience if we’re fulfilling our purpose.”

  Will let his gaze drop to the ground but didn’t say anything. He was at a loss for what his purpose was.

  Haley tucked her hands into the pockets of her coat and took a deep breath. “About the time I got engaged to Linc, I started asking the big questions—that one included. So imagine my surprise to come here and get pulled into a production focusing on stepping up to fulfill your destiny.”

  “What was it about this Linc guy that made you start thinking about it?” He wanted to ask what was different about running out on groom number three versus running out on him. But he held back.

  She looked straight at him. “It was simple. I sold my first multimillion-dollar property that day. What a feeling that was. I was already making great money prior to that, but that was a real milestone. I was ecstatic, yet I felt empty inside. Linc had been after me for months to marry him, and that day I said yes. The thoughts started then. Almost immediately. I know this sounds horrible, but I woke up the next morning thinking that I had achieved my career goals. I’d made it. I was someone, plus I’d achieved a wedding proposal from a lovely, rich man who respected who I was, my success, my brains—but I felt empty. And I couldn’t figure out why that was. I was on top of the world, ye
t I was so sad.”

  Will crossed his arms over his chest, anger taking over. “So, is that your reasoning behind walking away from groom number three? I mean, you walked away from me to find fame and fortune, and you walked away from him because it wasn’t enough? What about groom two? I’m sure it was something similar.”

  She narrowed her now fierce eyes at him. “You really are a jerk. You know that, Sutton?”

  “Me?” The woman was a piece of work.

  She crossed her arms and cocked her head to the side. “Yes, you. How could you say I walked away from you to find fame and fortune? You still don’t see that that wasn’t it at all. I can’t believe you would think that. Wait. It all comes down to the same thing—you never heard me. Never cared about what I needed.”

  “I heard you plenty. What was I supposed to think? We planned to get married, then suddenly all you could talk about was how no one respected you and you were going to make it big some day—”

  “Whoa.” She held up a hand and glared at him. “I didn’t talk about it all the time. I was just frustrated to always have everyone think I was nothing but a klutz. How would you like it if everyone all the time told stories about your mishaps? If everyone made fun of you all the time and didn’t take you seriously?”

  “That’s not the way it was.”

  Her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. “That was exactly how it was. You were one of the worst.”

  It was his mouth that dropped open this time as he tightened his crossed arms and shifted his weight to one hip. “That is not so. Not so at all. How could you even think that?”

  She slammed her hands to her hips. “And how exactly do you remember it? I walked up on you numerous times telling stories about me. Like—” she looked out at the cows, thinking, and then back at him “—like the time you were telling all the guys out front of Pete’s about how I was helping you clean out your daddy’s barn and I slipped going up the ladder to the hayloft and my coat snagged on that protruding board. You even compared me to a side of beef hanging in a meat cooler. Flapping my arms like I was trying to fly. Those were your exact words.”