Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection (Eight Fun, Romantic Novels by Eight Bestselling Authors)

by Violet Duke

  Haley loved the hot air balloon season. When she was a kid, she’d go for a ride in a hot air balloon every year. She hadn’t been since returning from college four years ago, but she made up her mind in that moment that this year she was going to change that.

  After several rounds of ‘I love you’ with Seth and disconnecting the call, Amber asked, “So, Hales, did you do anything fun this weekend?”

  Sure, she’d had an unbelievable, revealing conversation with Eddie where she’d found out that he was definitely attracted to her and also that she had no chance with him. Oh, and she’d also declared her love for him.

  Then she’d spent the entire day at Bella yesterday wishing she would have said something different, done something different, basically…handled the entire thing differently. Not the part where she’d said, “I love you.” She wouldn’t change that for the world. She was glad that fact was out in the open. But the rest—the pushing him to talk, the weak-ass kiss, the leaving when she was sure he might have had more to say? None of those things were sitting so great with her.

  So she’d guessed it was more of a mixed bag.

  Instead of going into it, because there was no point, Haley went with, “Yep. I went and saw Em in Annie. She was amazing!”

  “Oh that’s right. I’m so bummed I missed it.”

  Amber turned the car onto Riverwalk East, and even though Haley was determined not to get her hopes up, she did feel a little excitement bubbling up inside of her. They had only seen one other space actually on the Riverwalk. It had been on Riverwalk West. The space had been way too small. There would not have been room for dressing rooms, but Haley had been tempted to snatch it up in spite of that for its location alone. Luckily, she had an amazing business partner who had assured her that they would find the perfect space.

  “How did things go in Texas?” Haley asked. Amber and Seth had spent the weekend visiting Amber’s mom in Austin.

  Amber’s brother had been killed in combat almost a decade ago, and in trying to deal with the loss, Susan, Amber’s mom, had become an addict. She had been in and out of recovery facilities over the last several years. Amber had told Haley before, that emotionally, she couldn’t allow herself to be too optimistic, but, she would never give up hope that she would one day have the mother who had raised her and her brother back.

  “Good. My mom’s in a sober-living house. It’s the first time she’s opted for anything like that after treatment, so that’s encouraging.”

  Haley wondered if her ‘opting’ had had anything to do with the fact that last year her mom’s then boyfriend broke into Bella, Amber’s car, and Amber’s house and then attacked Amber in a parking lot. All to try and get his hands on some big nest egg her mom had bragged about. Haley thought to herself that if putting your daughter through all that wasn’t rock bottom, she wasn’t sure what was.

  They pulled into one of the four open spaces in front of one of the many brick buildings that lined Riverwalk East. Haley noticed the large glass window to their left with a for-lease sign sitting in it. Amber reached down and grabbed her purse.

  “But we’ll see. She’s just taking it day-by-day and that’s all we can do too.”

  As they stepped out of the car, their realtor Heather met them on the curb. “Good morning, ladies. Thanks so much for meeting me so quickly. I wanted you to see this and I’m not sure how long it will last.”

  She turned the key in the glass door and pushed it open. Both Heather and Amber entered the space as Heather talked about the square footage and other details.

  Haley didn’t move. She needed to take a moment before walking inside. Call it intuition, a sixth sense, or something else. She wasn’t sure what to name the phenomenon she was experiencing, but she just knew that this would be it. The one.

  Turning her head, she surveyed the street and saw beautiful green trees that were sprouting up along the sidewalk. On one side of the space they were looking at, there was a yoga studio that must have been fairly new because Haley had never seen or heard of it before. To the left of the space, there was definitely something going on inside, but it didn’t look like it was open yet. Beside the yoga place was an art studio.

  The east side of the Riverwalk was being gentrified. The opposite side had new buildings which had been built around a staple in Harper’s Crossing and also one of Haley’s favorite places to eat, The Grill. Even though it had that going for it, Haley liked this side so much more. It was more her style. She would have been happy with either, but in her heart, this was the side she felt Tempting by Bella belonged on.

  “You coming, Hales?” Amber’s voice called out from inside.

  Taking a deep breath, Haley walked through the door and her mouth dropped open as chills ran up her arm. It was exactly what she’d always envisioned when she’d dreamed of having her own shop. The space included high ceilings with exposed support beams and vents. The back wall had huge picture windows overlooking the river rushing by. There was a loft to the right side corner that would be perfect for displaying a line of body care she wanted to carry, with plenty of room underneath to install dressing rooms with a seating area.

  Spinning around, Haley took it all in. It was big enough without being too big. It had personality without being so overpowering that she couldn’t make the space hers. There was adequate parking and the foot traffic was going to keep increasing as more and more businesses opened in the newly renovated buildings.

  Heather looked between Amber and Haley. “What do you ladies think?”

  Without miss

  *

  EDDIE TURNED THE wheel, his headlights shining on the chain-link fence as he pulled into the gravel lot. Parking his truck, he grabbed his to-go cup of coffee out of the cup holder and picked up his hard hat. He yawned as he made his way up the steel steps to the trailer.

  He hadn’t slept much the past couple nights. After Haley had left on Saturday, he’d spent the entire night tossing and turning. A cold shower had not done the trick. Not even close. Every time he’d closed his eyes, he’d felt her lips pressed against his, smelled her sweet breath, and tasted the caramel from her banana split.

  Even when his eyes had been wide open, he’d been having a difficult time concentrating on anything else. Flashes of Haley kept popping into his mind. Haley in the white towel. Haley’s toned, tan legs as she crossed them while they were seated in the auditorium. Haley snuggled up on his couch in her sweats and a tank top while they watched the performance. His mind was all Haley, all the time.

  Luckily, Emily had opted for a ‘chill’ day, as she called it, on Sunday. Eddie figured she must have been tired from all the excitement of the play. So they’d watched movies, including an encore of the taped Annie performance, and ordered pizza.

  Which was great. Except the entire time he had been wondering what Haley was doing. Thinking about how much fun it had been the night before when the three of them had gone to Tasty Treats and had ice cream and then all changed into “comfy clothes,” as Haley called it, and watched the show on the big screen.

  But more than anything else, what had been keeping him up, what his brain had been obsessing about, were those three little words she’d spoken. “I love you.” He still couldn’t quite believe it. Sure, he’d had other women tell him that they loved him. But he’d never felt that love before. With Haley, he realized that, as shocked as he was at her admission, he’d felt her love long before she’d uttered the words.

  It was seriously messing with his head.

  Opening the heavy door, he was stopped short when he saw Jason already seated at his desk. He looked to be poring over paperwork. Eddie got an uneasy feeling. It was unusual for Eddie not to be the first one in. Jason hadn’t shown up this early to a jobsite since he’d taken ov
er the reins at Sloan Construction.

  The door shut loudly behind Eddie and Jason lifted his head. When he saw Eddie, he nodded his head. “Hey.”

  “Morning.” Eddie pulled out the folding chair that sat behind his desk. “You’re here early.”

  “Yeah, I got your e-mail last night and wanted to take a look for myself before I headed out to the Tanner site.”

  Eddie didn’t take offense to the fact that Jason wanted to come see things in black and white for himself. That made perfect sense. If it were Eddie’s company, he would do the same. Eddie had emailed Jason last night to let him know that they would be finishing up three days early and about ten thousand under budget on this project. That was pretty unheard of in their field.

  This was the fourth project this year that Eddie had overseen with similar results. He didn’t cut corners either. In fact, he went so far as to follow guidelines that were just recommendations and not requirements, just to be on the safe side. In the three years since he’d become a project foreman, he’d had the lowest injury rate in the company and had not had one incident report filed on any of his jobs for the last fourteen months. Eddie knew that most of the guys he worked with just considered this a job, but he took pride in his work.

  “Man”—Jason sat shaking his head—“this is unbelievable. I still don’t get how your productivity can be so high, your incident reports so low, and you’re actually under budget.”

  Eddie appreciated Jason acknowledging his hard work, and it wasn’t as if those were just empty words. In the ten-plus years he’d worked for Sloan Construction, he’d always received bonuses that reflected his labor and dedication to the job, first from Bob, Jason’s dad, and then from Jason once he’d taken over.

  “Listen, I wanted to ask you…” Eddie figured this was as good a time as any to see if he could stay a little closer to home over the summer. “After this job wraps, do we have anything lined up in Harper’s? Emily gets out for summer break this Friday and I would love it if I could be around a little more. At least for the next month or two.”

  Jason nodded. “Actually, we just put in a bid to work on the brick buildings on Riverwalk East. New owner wants to handle all remodels himself as well as renovations. It’s ABC stuff, really basic. I was going to put a small crew on it, but if you want it, it’s yours.”

  “That sounds great.” Eddie could use some basic right about now. Between the stuff going on with Haley and him, and Emily’s mission to grow up faster than she should, basic sounded perfect.

  “Actually, I was going to wait to do this, but now seems like a good time, ” Jason closed the files on the desk and looked back up at Eddie. “What would you think about stepping up to vice president?”

  Eddie could not have been more shocked if Jason had said he had decided to have a sex change and was going to become a woman. Shaking his head, he said, “No. What about Bobby?”

  The youngest Sloan brother Bobby, was the only other of the five Sloan brothers who worked at Sloan Construction. It was a family business. Bobby had taken Jason’s spot as V.P. when Bob had stepped down. He was a hard worker who deserved the position.

  “Bobby told me last week that he didn’t mind staying on for as long as it took me to find someone to replace him but that he wanted to get back out on sites. The paperwork, the budgeting, the project management—he hates all of it. When we sat and talked about his replacement, the list was short. It had one name on it. Yours.”

  Eddie couldn’t believe what he was hearing. As V.P., he would primarily work out of the Sloan Construction offices, which were located about five minutes from his house. He’d have more flexibility with his hours, even the possibility of working from home some days. Sure, maybe one or two times a week he’d have to head out to sites, but it wouldn’t be five to six days and he wouldn’t be there from dawn ‘til dusk.

  As far as the things Bobby hated about the job went, that’s what Eddie loved. But Eddie had to remember that he had a good eight years or so on the kid. When he was in his mid-twenties, that work would have probably driven him crazy as well.

  “What about your dad? How is he going to feel about this?”

  Bob Sloan had practically saved Eddie’s life when he’d given him a job. No one in town would hire him after his misspent youth and wild teen years. Bob had had a front-row seat to it all too, because Riley and Eddie had always been together when they’d gotten into trouble. But he’d hired Eddie in spite of all that. Eddie would never want to disrespect him or step on his toes.

  “He couldn’t be happier. Dad said he knew that Bobby was miserable. He was just waiting for him to say it. I was going to have the offer all drawn up and presented to you with your salary bump, bonuses, and job description. I can have all of that to you by Friday.” Jason stood. “Then take the weekend. Let me know on Monday.”

  Eddie was speechless as Jason moved across the small trailer. Holding up the file he’d been looking at, he said, “And good job, man. This one had headache written all over it and you smashed it.”

  The door shut and Eddie sat in stunned silence. Vice President. He had never imagined that that was even a possibility. He worked hard but had no college education, and the company he worked for was a family business, of which he was not a member. He couldn’t quite wrap his head around it. It seemed like all of this was happening to someone else, not him. He felt out of his depth, shell-shocked even, and there was only one person he wanted to talk to.

  Haley.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  HALEY’S HAND SHOOK as she signed on the dotted line. Well, technically it was just a line, not a dotted line, but still. This was the most financial responsibility she’d ever undertaken.

  Just one week after first seeing this space, she and Amber were signing a three-year lease on 221 East Riverwalk Drive, the future home of Tempting by Bella. Haley wasn’t sure if she was going to cry, scream, or throw up. At this point, it was anyone’s guess.

  “Here you are, ladies.” Heather handed both Amber and Haley sets of keys.

  Haley reached out and her fingers wrapped around the small gold metal ring that held three separate keys.

  This is really happening, she told herself. It still felt almost too good to be true.

  “All right. Let me know if you need anything. There should be someone here for renovations within the hour. If you have any problems, you can contact myself or Mr. Jones. Actually, that reminds me.” Heather reached into her black leather laptop carrier. “Mr. Jones wanted me to give you his card and tell you that he is always available directly to his tenants. Day or night.”

  Amber shook her head. “This is such a different experience than working with Mr. Cranston. He wouldn’t even put lights in the back parking lot as a safety measure, and he’d never pay for construction.”

  “I know.” Heather nodded her head. “I have never worked with such a generous owner before.”

  A blush rose up Heather’s porcelain cheeks, and Haley was pretty sure it wasn’t his generosity as an owner that had put it on the pretty brunette.

  “Thanks for everything,” Amber smiled as Heather waved on her way out and looked more than a little flustered.

  The second the door shut, Amber turned slowly on her heels back to Haley. “I think someone has a thing for Mr. Jones.”

  “They’d make a cute couple.” Haley had only met her landlord once, but he was a good-looking guy, probably mid-thirties, in amazing shape. He’d been a professional cyclist. Heather had told her that he’d won a ton of races, including the Tour de France. Now he was retired and investing his winnings in real estate. Haley could see the appeal.

  Of course, he had done absolutely nothing for her. There was only one man who made
her blush and the most cycling he ever did was on a ten-speed beside his seven-year-old daughter.

  Haley inwardly sighed as she thought of Eddie. She hadn’t seen much of him over the prior week, only having caught a few glimpses through her bedroom window. He’d been working long hours while finishing up the Martin job, and he and Emily had been leaving before sunrise and coming home well after sunset.

  She had gotten to see Em though. On Friday, Chelle had brought her into Bella to pick out a necklace to celebrate her last day of school. Haley had to admit she felt a small twinge of jealousy at all the time Chelle got to spend with Em.

  Which was ridiculous. Chelle was her aunt, and since she’d cut back her nursing hours to spend more time with Mya, she’d been able to take Emily to and from school. Still, Haley missed Em when she went a few days without hearing about her latest obsession, whether it was One Direction, Pretty Little Liars, or Farmville. When Emily was into something, she was all in and could talk for hours on the subject.

  Amber stepped up to the glass that overlooked the river. “I’m thinking maybe we should move Bella here and launch Tempting downtown.”

  What?! Haley’s heart dropped.

  When she didn’t respond, Amber turned around and lifted her hands in mock surrender as she shook her head back and forth, “Haley, no. I was kidding, Haley. No, sweetie, I would never dream of doing that.”

  Haley let out a breath she hadn’t even known she’d been holding and covered her stomach with her hands. “Oh, you scared me.”

  Amber laughed through her apology. “I’m sorry. It’s not funny at all, but if you could see your face—”

  The door opened and both Amber and Haley turned towards it. Well, one thing was for certain. She knew if her heart had dropped it was now firmly back in place in her chest because it was beating so hard she thought she might crack a rib.