Operation: Married by Christmas

by Debra Clopton

She was working on decorating Main Street on Tuesday when Will showed up to install the tracks he’d constructed to make sliding the large backgrounds into place on the stage easier. Haley watched as he and Clint carried the tracks inside. She was busy outside wrapping a porch post in lights and greenery and was glad she hadn’t been inside working when he showed up. She couldn’t deny that her heart did a rumba knowing he was near. Not trusting her foolish feelings, she intentionally remained outside.

  She was standing on a ladder hanging a lantern and paused as her attention was drawn down the street. Applegate and Stanley were supervising the building of a manger scene at the edge of the field where everyone would be parking on the nights of the play. Haley felt sorry for the two bewildered cowboys who were trying to be patient with the checkers players. Single women from miles around loved any excuse they could get to make a trip to the cowboy-laden town, and it was expected that the turnout for this year’s Christmas production would be at an all-time high. Haley couldn’t help thinking that the two cowboys were enduring a lot to help the cause.

  “I feel sorry for Luke and Justin.”

  At the sound of Will’s voice, Haley almost fell off her ladder.

  “Steady there,” he said, placing his hand on her back. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  Haley tried to look unaffected, standing straight on the rung and gripping the roof with her free hand. “Oh, hi. Did y’ all get the tracks set?” she asked, hanging the lantern she’d almost dropped. She lost her fight to appear casual and unaffected by his appearance when her boot slipped on the rung as she reached out toward the hook.

  Coming to her aid, Will steadied her again with his hand on her back. “Yes, we did. I came to seek your approval.” To his credit he didn’t say anything about her clumsiness.

  “My approval?” she asked, distracted by the feel of his hand casually resting in the center of her back.

  “You did do most of the work. I thought it only appropriate that you give the okay.” He held his hand out to her, his eyes twinkling up at her.

  He looked so handsome. “I—I’m sure it looks fine,” she stammered at the touch of his hand, not wanting to get off the ladder. Not wanting to put her sweaty hand in his.

  He frowned. “Haley, let go of the ladder and come look at what we’ve done. I’m not going to bite, you know.”

  Challenged, Haley plopped her hand in his just to show him that she wasn’t afraid of him. Hoping he would think the heat was making her sweat like a man. She hopped off the ladder and pretended nonchalance. The last thing she wanted was for him to know that he messed with her equilibrium. Pulling her hand free, she strode across the street toward the convention center. “How’s your family?” she asked. Oh, yes, that was a good one. Talking about family was a sure sign that she was hunting for solid ground.

  “They’re good,” he said from just behind her. “Mom said to tell you hello, and she said to invite you down for Christmas. Applegate, too.”

  Haley came to a screeching halt and stared at him. “No. I mean, tell her thank you, but that…well, that would be a little awkward.”

  Will shrugged. “I told her you would say that. But she said I was to extend the invitation anyway. So that’s what I’m doing.”

  Haley gave him a tight smile. What had she expected—that he would want her to be there?

  Inside, she took one look at the track that would help guide the plywood scenes into place and couldn’t help smiling openly at him. “That is so cool.” It really was. “I thought you guys were going to have to hide behind the curtains and hold the backgrounds in place.” Instead, the tracks would hold them up and, like little train-track rail changes, the flick of a lever allowed the backgrounds to interchange with ease. The bridge, which was in three different scenes and quite bulky, would have its own set over to the side and be darkened out when not in use.

  “I’m glad you like it.”

  “I do. This is really going to work well, isn’t it?” Hands on hips, she studied the whole setup.

  “Believe it or not, yes.”

  Haley shot Will a sideways glance. “You sound like you had your doubts.”

  He nodded. “It isn’t all about the tracks working, but everything coming together. When the ladies approached me to help I thought it was a big undertaking. I have so many deadlines to keep straight—my deadline, the Christmas program—it’s all running together. I didn’t have one hundred percent to give to the production, so if you hadn’t been on board there’s no way these props would look so fantastic. You saw Nate’s Popsicle trees before you enhanced them,” he grinned. “That’s what we’d be looking at right now if you hadn’t used your talents to save the day. Thank you. I think Nate’s artwork would have been a distraction from the importance of the story. Not that his help wasn’t appreciated.”

  Haley got the distinct impression that poor Nate would be poked fun at for years for his efforts in the arena of art. “At least he tried,” she said.

  Will dipped his head to the side. “At least,” he echoed and grimaced. His brown eyes danced as they met hers.

  “You are going to tease him unmercifully, aren’t you?”

  He nodded. “Oh, yeah, but not too terribly. It’s been a major step to get him involved at all.” He paused, his smile gone. “Since his wife died, Nate hasn’t done much of anything except work. This has been a step forward for him.”

  Haley suddenly understood the quiet cowboy more. “I didn’t know.”

  Will shrugged a shoulder. “He’s not one to talk about it.” He paused, cleared his throat as his gaze touched her gently before he looked away. “He’s a good man. This has been good for him. Even if he doesn’t believe so.”

  Haley nodded, moved by the care she heard in Will’s voice. She could feel her defenses crumbling.

  “Have you eaten?” he asked, catching her off guard.

  Haley shook her head before she realized she was setting herself up.

  “Then let me buy you lunch?”

  Haley bit her lip, told herself she was a grown adult woman and, that being the case, she had nothing to fear from eating lunch with Will.

  “That would be nice,” she said and immediately saw the folly in her assumption the second he smiled.

  Will walked ahead and held the door of Sam’s Diner open for Haley, then braced himself for the looks of speculation he knew were coming. He was grateful that Applegate and Stanley were still down the street harassing Luke and Justin. Truth was when Will and Clint had been installing the tracks, Clint pushed him, asking him again what was holding him back from asking Haley out.

  There was plenty holding him back. But Will figured lunch was a step forward. Like Nate, this had also been good for Will. Still, it was the only step he was comfortable with and he wasn’t too comfortable with that. Although he’d been surprised that Haley said yes to the invitation it was obvious he wasn’t the only one uncomfortable.

  Will had to give Sam credit when he didn’t make a big hoopla of the two of them sitting down across from each other in a vacant booth. Instead, the wiry little man just asked them for their order and went about serving everyone else. Which wasn’t many since it was midday and most everyone was out working cattle—except for the two poor cowpokes who’d gotten snared by App and Stanley.

  He toyed with the salt shaker as she looked everywhere but at him. “I heard you’ve been looking at some real estate,” Will said, curiosity getting the best of him. Haley looked surprised that he knew.

  “I guess I hadn’t realized anyone knew I’d been poking around a few places.”

  He grinned. “Nate saw your car in front of the old Novis place the other day and mentioned it. It’s adjacent to his ranch. And Mark Carson saw you over at the Lawsons’ abandoned place.”

  Haley sighed, tilting her head slightly. “I forget, news travels fast out here. Yes, I was just looking. I look wherever I am. I try to gauge the markets.”

  “Ah, the ladies won’t like that. In their
minds, they’ve probably got you halfway moved back.”

  “They and my grandpa, but it’s impossible. I’ve got too much going on back home. My assistant is driving me crazy. This dead zone and not being able to reach me on my cell has simply done her in. Applegate’s answering machine is going to explode if she keeps calling.”

  “Didn’t you have time scheduled for a honeymoon?” He suddenly felt churlish. “Sorry. Tell me to mind my own business if you want.”

  “I—I had only planned a week. But I…” She paused and studied her hands for a second. “But I really needed a break. I’ve been running on fumes for months. I didn’t know how true that was till I got here. So—” she took a long breath, looking as if it had taken her some time to make the decision “—I’m taking the holidays. If I lose some listings, I just lose them. I need time off.”

  Will digested that information. “Are you happy, Haley?” He knew he was stepping out where he might not really want to go, but he suddenly wanted to know. He wanted to know if walking away from him had given her everything she’d dreamed of. He wanted to know if walking away from him had been worth it.

  “Everyone keeps asking me that. Who’s ever happy all the time?” Two lines of concentration stood up between her eyebrows and her lips flattened. “Really, I’m not ecstatically happy. But I’m busy. I like the industry. It’s really fast-paced, and the money’s ridiculous. Especially compared to this market. The price of homes in California is mind-blowing as a whole. I mean, you have areas out here in Texas, like Austin and some of your other metropolitan areas that are seeing a market boost, but in general, it’s crazy on the coast. What?” she asked, pausing.

  Will rubbed his jaw. “Nothing,” he said. “Listening to you I just realized I’ve never actually heard you talk about your work. I guess I never thought about you, well—”

  She looked straight at him. “You never actually thought about me in a business sense.” Her words were flat, her eyes steady.

  Will felt their sting of truth. “Yeah,” he admitted.

  Sam brought their burgers and fries, and told them to enjoy and take their time. He winked at Will before leaving…. So much for Sam not thinking much about Will and Haley sitting together.

  “I know it’s hard for you to believe, but I’m really good at what I do.”

  “Haley, I know that.”

  She lifted her chin slightly. “Really?”

  “Yeah, I do. You’d have to be to make it to the level you have. So, what are your plans for the future now that you’re not getting married?” The question surprised him. That he wanted to know didn’t.

  She paused, midbite. “Aren’t you full of questions today?”

  Will scowled. Why was he pushing this? They were just having lunch. He hadn’t planned on giving her the fifth degree. But then he hadn’t come to town planning on having lunch with her, either. That had been a spur-of-the-moment decision prompted once more by Clint before he’d gone back to work. Will was going to have a long talk with his friend about minding his own business. At least he and Haley were talking without getting mad at each other. They’d made some progress since she’d first come to town. But, still—

  “What about you?” she asked. “Honestly, I don’t understand what you did.” Her brows crinkled, her expression hardening as she set her food on the plate. “Why would you change all our plans, tell me you’d decided we should live in Mule Hollow, but the minute I left, you left, too.”

  There was pain in her eyes as she stared him down. He’d started this, but he didn’t want to answer her question. He very well couldn’t tell her he’d wanted to live in Mule Hollow with her. He couldn’t tell her that when she’d left he couldn’t take it. Everywhere he’d looked he’d seen her and it had hurt too much. Cut too deep. What was the use? He’d come back after all these years because he’d felt compelled to. It didn’t mean that he hadn’t thought of her often.

  “You left, so what does it matter? You made a choice.” He couldn’t totally hide the bitterness in his words.

  She met his gaze straight on. “Obviously, we both did.”

  Right after leaving Will at the diner, Haley had gone home and saddled Puddin. Chancing a run-in with another hog suited her mood just fine. She rode the big horse down to the river as her mind replayed their conversation. Will had no idea what she’d done since she’d left him at the altar. He had no idea how lonely her life had been when she’d first run away. She’d gotten a job as a waitress and started going to real-estate school in the evenings…. All the while her heart had been broken. Sure, she’d left three men at the altar. Will kept bringing that up, but he was responsible for her inability to commit. Poor Darin. He’d come into her life when she’d needed a friend. He’d been kind and ambitious and fun, and she’d needed fun and also someone who shared her ambition and respected her for wanting to become something. But she’d never loved him. It had been a whirlwind of a romance in which she’d let her broken heart guide her by trying to forget how Will had hurt her. Darin had fulfilled the gulf that Will hadn’t. He’d believed in her ability. They’d planned a quick, cheap wedding…. At least for that one there had only been the two witnesses and the judge to see her run away. She’d come to her senses in time and would have given anything not to have hurt Darin. But she could honestly say that her broken heart had been to blame for what she’d done to him. A person just didn’t think rationally when their heart had been betrayed. And that had been Will’s fault. Hadn’t it?

  Staring out across the churning water, Haley fumed. The man truly acted as if he had no idea that he’d done anything wrong. It was baffling. Could he really not get it?

  Feeling cold, she rode back through the woods, her mind and heart no more settled than when she’d saddled her horse. It didn’t matter because she knew now that she was going back to Beverly Hills as soon as possible. She would make it through Christmas…for Applegate. And then she’d go back to where she belonged. And with any luck she would finally put Will out of her head and her heart.

  Norma Sue had called an emergency meeting of “the Matchmakers of Mule Hollow.” Things had stalled between Haley and Will, and the consensus was that they needed to do something quick. They’d thought after the two had shared lunch at Sam’s that things would start rolling of their own accord, but instead lunch had killed everything dead in the water. And Applegate, well, he was about to have a conniption. He was trying hard to play it low-key in front of Haley, but the man could just see her slipping from his grasp and leaving him high and dry right after Christmas, if not before. It was all they could do to keep him from marching over to Will Sutton’s and giving the cowboy a “kick in the duff,” as he called it. Poor Applegate had assumed all he would need to do was put Haley and Will in the same vicinity for a few days, and wondrously the years would fade away, Will would charm her socks off and bam, “Operation: Married by Christmas” would be a done deal.

  Not even close.

  “So what do y’ all think?” Norma Sue asked, looking from Adela to Esther Mae. “Do you think we’re going to be able to come through on this for Applegate?”

  They were sitting around Adela’s kitchen table drinking coffee and eating warm gingerbread.

  Esther Mae finished off the big hunk of spicy cake she’d been gobbling down. “That is so delicious. Adela, you have outdone yourself.”

  Though they had pressing issues to discuss, Norma dropped her chin and gave her friend a warning eyeballing. “You do realize that size twelve you’ve been so happy about fitting into is disappearing as fast as you’re shoveling that cake in?”

  Esther Mae dabbed her lips and smiled. “Hush, Norma, I’m allowed a snack. I started on a new diet and exercise program. Hank picked me up one of those miniature trampolines, and I’m jumping on it several times a day now. And having fun, fun, fun!”

  Norma grunted, glancing at the bright green velour warm-up suit that Esther Mae wore and the matching headband that fit snugly about her red head. “Like I s
aid, you keep eating that gingerbread like you’re doing and that trampoline won’t hold up to too much more jumping.”

  Esther Mae chuckled. “I’m going to tell Hank to pick you up one the next time he’s over in Ranger. You could use a little bouncing yourself.” She patted Norma’s stomach.

  “Hey, watch it.” Playfully, Norma swatted Esther’s hand away. “I made peace with my full figure a long time ago. You’re the one always complaining about your weight, so I was just giving you a friendly reminder that tomorrow you’re going to regret your indulgence.”

  Esther Mae plunged her fork into the last piece of gingerbread. “Thank you for caring, but there is no need for you to worry about me. I’m a reformed woman. All I needed to do was add some exercise to my lifestyle. You know, I think I’m going to start walking tomorrow. Now, about Haley Bell, do you think we need to figure out a way to get those two alone together again?”

  Adela gingerly set her china cup down then clasped her fine-boned hands together and laid them on the table in front of her. “I’ve been thinking about that, too. They seem to be getting along fine in the group, but they are avoiding each other. Though their failed lunch date and subsequent avoidance seem to look like a problem, I think that some alone time might be just what is needed.”

  “I agree,” Norma Sue said.

  Esther Mae harrumphed. “Well, we need to do it quick. After all, we don’t know how long Haley will remain here before going back to the West Coast. So we need to pick up the pace. Christmas is two weeks away and if we want a wedding by Christmas or thereabouts, well something major has got to happen. That’s all there is to it.”

  Norma Sue agreed completely. That was why she’d called the meeting. “That’s right. When Applegate asked us to help him bring Haley home, I never dreamed it was going to be so easy to get her back. But I’m getting worried. Real worried. I just figure, like Applegate, that those two were meant for each other. That they just needed to grow up some and things would work out. But I don’t know…”