Despite everything, Adam still loved and worried about his mother. He’d already lost his father, and she was the only parent he had left. Hailey understood; no family was perfect. It turned out Mrs. Zucker had actually had cancer eight years ago, and she had it again now. Though plenty of the rest of the “family emergencies” had been lies, that part had been real.
Hailey had visited his childhood home with him and seen the woman on several occasions. The best part was that Adam had made things clear to his mother: He and Hailey were together. If Mrs. Zucker tried to interfere, well, it wouldn't be Hailey that Adam walked away from this time.
That had felt good. And maybe had given her a little too much bravado. Because today, she’d stepped over the line. Mrs. Zucker had been sitting on the couch after coming home from a chemotherapy treatment. She was able to be up and around a bit, but Hailey and Adam had been there taking care of the place.
Still, nothing was ever good enough where Hailey was concerned, and his mother made an offhand comment about the dishes not being done. Her tone managed to imply that it was Hailey's fault though it wasn't her house, or her dishes, or even her mother who needed help.
Hailey had snapped.
“I've had enough of your bullshit, Mrs. Zucker!” And oh my God, the words had felt so good coming out of her mouth. “Don't try to manipulate me. It didn't work when I was a kid and it sure as hell won't work now!”
Adam’s mother snapped back as though she’d been slapped. Clearly, she was not used to having people confront her. “Well, you could try being nice, at least.”
“I have been nice!” Hailey realized that didn’t mean much when she yelled it, but she’d had enough. “I’ve been very nice considering everything you've pulled on me. I have been kind. I have been generous. And I have always told you the truth, which is far more than you've given me. So don't put bullshit on me about doing your dishes when I just made your bed and scrubbed your floors. I’m not your kid. You didn’t pay for my clothes or my food. I don’t owe you a damn thing. You could try saying thank you.”
Hailey had turned and stalked out the door, knowing that if she stayed, she would say far more. Still, finally giving that woman a piece of her mind had felt wonderful.
In the aftermath—when she had stood in the small front yard and watched the empty street—Hailey thought about what she'd done. Her face scrunched up as she considered the consequences of what she’d said. Well, that part hadn't felt as good.
A few moments later, Adam came out the front door behind her. He handed over her purse, which she'd left behind in her immature, stomping exit. Then he opened the car door for her. Was she getting thrown out? It would serve her right.
As she climbed into the passenger seat, she caught his expression. “What did you do?”
She was stunned. In the past when they fought, Adam had sided with his mother. But here he was starting the car and pulling out of the driveway. He just shook his head.
“What did you do?” she whispered again.
“I told her she needed to get her shit together.”
“Did you say the S-word?”
“Oh yeah, to her face. I told her you were here to stay and that she was pushing my limits. She knows who I’ll choose if she makes me.”
Apparently, he’d said it to his mother before. Still, Mrs. Zucker seemed to need to have it reiterated several times. If Adam had to choose, he was choosing Hailey.
Now, as she sat in Kelsey’s backyard with a party going on around her, Hailey folded her hands in her lap and hoped he would accept her apology.
“Hailey,” he said, “that was a long time coming. We're out tonight to celebrate your hit and my job. So let’s not talk about her. I’m not mad at you. You did the right thing, but there are so many better things to talk about tonight. Like—” He paused and took a deep breath, making her wonder what was coming next.
“I’m opening the Nashville branch of my office in a few months.” He said it with a big grin, but she felt too surprised to smile back.
They had talked about it. He’d tossed the idea around from the first day she'd seen him again. She just hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. But, oh, if he were closer… “Are you ready to do that?”
“I've always wanted a branch there and you can't move to Knoxville. Your business isn't there. But mine can be here. So I started looking at office space and I found a place. Will you come look at it with me before I sign the final paperwork?”
Her heart bloomed in her chest and it was hard to catch a breath to make words. He was moving here to be with her! No more three-hour commutes. No more waiting until they had several days to see each other. He would be in town. “Yes! That…sounds amazing.”
But Adam wasn’t done. “Since you've been talking about getting a nicer apartment, in a more upscale section of town, I thought you might help me apartment hunt, since I’m going to be living in Nashville as well. I thought we might find a way to save on rent…” He looked at her over the paper plates and potato salad, as if he was waiting for her to catch on to something.
“You want to move in together?” she asked. Could she even handle it? She loved having him stay over. She'd been in Knoxville at his apartment more nights than she could count. The hours they both spent on the road in between represented a sizable chunk of time.
She tried to stop her freight train of emotions and make a logical decision. But there was no logic here, only her heart. She knew this man and she knew what living with him would be like. Her smile bloomed across her face and through her whole body. “Yes! Yes, let's do that.”
It sounded wonderful. But just then Kelsey came by. “Hailey! I haven’t seen you in a while.”
Popping up from her seat, Hailey offered her new friend a hug. “I tried to find you when I came in, but it’s been a tangle of hellos and congratulations since I came in! I heard you’re on the list, too. You quit your job?”
Kelsey stepped back and nodded and Hailey didn’t miss the way her friend’s eyes darted to JD. “I have enough photography business to support me and the kids now.”
Though Kelsey was nodding as she spoke, the happiness of her words didn’t quite meet her eyes. Hailey couldn’t help but look over toward the food where JD was helping the kids with plates. Though Kelsey didn’t see it, his eyes darted toward her full of the same mistake Kelsey’s were showing. Whatever that was.
Hailey barely managed to ask, “What the hell happened between you and JD?” when Ginger appeared at her side.
“Congratulations, Miss Chart Topper!” Her friend’s arms came around her in a big hug and Kelsey pressed her lips together and shook her head, “no.” She wasn’t going to tell, not in front of Ginger.
Conversations swirled around her and Hailey didn’t get to find out if Kelsey and JD had finally acted on those sloe-gin eyes they’d been making at each other for months. Why were they darting wistful glances at each other for the whole party? But Kelsey wasn’t talking, not tonight.
Hailey congratulated Craig and Alex on Wilder’s big win. TJ had flashed that bad-boy smile and posed for a picture with her, one arm slung around her shoulders, beer raised high in celebration in the other. Brenda had hugged her until her feet came off the ground. Adam headed back to the food table for slices of the cake that had just arrived, then he grabbed her hand and pulled her back to the table in the corner.
When they were finally alone again, Hailey leaned across the table toward him and picked up where they left off. “What part of town do you want to live in?”
“We’ll figure that out later.” Adam was looking off into the distance, his hands moving along his pockets as if he’d forgotten something. “One more thing first…”
Hailey felt her eyebrows climb as he slid out of his seat and dropped to one knee on the grass beside her. He’d pulled a ring box out of his pocket and opened it. Holding it out between them, he said, “I don’t want to just move in together. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Hailey Pul
aski.”
She grinned at the use of her real name. Adam knew her. All of her. Hailey Pulaski, high school dreamer. Hailey Watkins, country star on the top 100 charts. He knew her past and present, and he wanted to be her future.
All around her, the party went up in cheers. It sounded as though she was the only one who hadn’t known this was coming. Unable to stop her wide grin, she listened to catcalls and shouts of “Answer the man!”
“He did it!” She heard Kelsey’s voice in the background full of longing, though she couldn’t take her eyes off Adam.
Feeling her chest expand to hold all the love she felt for this man, Hailey said yes.
Thank you for reading!
Here’s what’s next up in the Ticket to True Love series:
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One click AMOROUS IN APPLETON now!
Melissa wants to believe in the legend of the fountain waters, but nothing ever happened to her in True Springs. Spiriting off to Hawaii, she's surrounded by flyboys and the women they see when on the island. Melissa refuses to be one of them. Then pilot Jordan Scott steps into her world. Will she use the vials of water from the spring and take the chance that he is her ticket to true love?
One click HOT NIGHTS IN HONOLULU now!
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Why this story?
I hope you had fun visiting Nashville and the Wilder guys again. If you’re reading this book first, then you can get to know JD and Kelsey and start the Wilder Books. This was the first series I wrote, and it remains a favorite! I always knew I loved Hailey and that she had a happy story of her own. I included Hailey and Adam’s wedding as the place where Shay and Craig first meet in Heartstrings. So it was wonderful to get to revisit this world and finally give Hailey the love song she deserves.
My next Ticket to True Love book will go in a different direction—from Breathless, Georgia to Redemption, Nebraska—tying it to the Breathless series and to the upcoming Wildfire Hearts series. If you haven’t been reading around in the Ticket to True Love books, go for it! They don’t have a particular order and they are a great way to find new authors and revisit True Springs. I hope that Hailey and Adam stole your heart as much as they did mine. And I’ll be back to True Springs myself in a bit!
If you liked this story, I’d be thrilled if you’d would leave a review. Reviews are like gold to authors. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just a single line will do! Thank you in advance, and happy reading.
Click to review That Night in Nashville HERE
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Acknowledgments
No book happens from a vacuum. Even though writers spend so much time in their offices or at their desks alone, there is still so much more that goes on. I have to thank JB Schroeder for conceiving of the Ticket to True Love series in the first place. It has been a wonderful opportunity, providing a world for characters that I know and love who needed their own love songs!
Thank you for reading! I love romances with real love and believable characters, and I hope you found all that in these pages. I want to fall in love right along with the characters, and I do, while I’m writing it.
About Savannah
I started writing when I was eight--I hand wrote an 80-page novella that I believed to be (adult) romantic suspense. I’m proud to say, I’ve gotten a lot better since then. I’ve grown up to be a nerd at heart! I love neuroscience and people watching, and if you look, you’ll find some of that in each Savannah Kade book. Most days you’ll find me in my office, looking out my window at a handful of the neighbor’s cows, or watching my dogs or my cat roam the backyard.
Follow me, find me, ask me questions! I would love to hear from you.
www.SavannahKade.com
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That Night in Nashville (Ticket to True Love) Page 13
