He'd barely gotten started slicing the watermelons when cars began arriving. He smiled and greeted Olivia's guests, shocked at how many came. And kept coming. They seemed to arrive by the van-load. A lot of people he knew from church but hardly greeted on Sundays. People he'd gone to high school with that now had children in elementary school.
Olivia and Haley were in their element, whirling through the crowd, dispensing ice cream and chatting with everyone. He'd never seen either of them like this before. Haley had always been so shy. Apparently, she'd overcome that. And Olivia...watching Olivia was like seeing Katie alive again. It made his heart thump painfully.
Just a month before, his niece had been a sad little girl, defensive and lonely. Then she met Haley, and everything changed. Haley seemed to be exactly what Olivia needed. His little girl was blooming with Haley around. But how long was she going to stay?
Haley couldn't believe it. When Maddox had promised to be there, she'd envisioned comforting a very disappointed Olivia. Instead, Maddox had driven all night to be at Livy's party.
Her own father would never have done something like that.
She couldn't help it that her gaze kept straying to him during the hot afternoon. She saw plenty of folks greet him, many slapping him on the shoulder while he shook their hand.
She also saw the lines of stress around his mouth. But she didn't know why. Was it the money? Trying to run the farm while he supported Justin and Livy?
She'd barely seen him since their dinner together, but Livy had told her all about how they'd spent extra time together recently. The way Olivia talked about him, it was obvious the girl thought he hung the moon. And Justin had a grudging respect for him, even through his pain and depression.
Haley's high school crush had never completely gone away—and now it was back with a vengeance. She'd buried it under her busyness and college life. And that doomed relationship with Paul. Paul, who'd always made her feel like she wasn't good enough for him.
Watching Maddox now, she could see that he was still the same popular jock, but beneath that hard exterior lurked something darker. And she couldn't help wondering what it was.
By midafternoon, Haley needed a break. She'd been on her feet since this morning. She spotted a chance and plopped down on the bench beside Maddox, bumping his shoulder with hers. "Hey."
"Hey," he responded.
The top of the picnic table was covered with sticky juice from the watermelons and Haley was careful to keep clear of it.
Olivia showed no signs of fading. She spun from one person to the next, bubbly and grinning.
The little girl had been keeping count of the number of samples they'd handed out. They'd come up with the idea of purchasing small disposable condiment bowls and scooping samples into them. Each partygoer got a sampler plate, so they could try several different flavors.
And they'd printed quarter-sheet flyers listing the flavors and ordering instructions, which they'd handed out with each sample.
The response had been wonderful. People had marveled at all Livy had done, at the wonderful ice cream, and at the girl's ingenuity. Haley couldn't have been more pleased.
"She seems happy," Maddox said, voice low. "And I can't believe Justin was out here for awhile. What did you give him earlier?"
"Hmm?" She was so tired, she couldn't think straight.
"Earlier, I watched you hand him something. Looked like a magazine or—"
"College catalog. I've almost convinced him to enroll for the fall."
Maddox shifted to look into her face. "You're kidding."
He didn't seem particularly happy about it. The lines around his mouth had tightened even more.
"Hey, Katie's friend!" The voice came from a little cluster of folks near the back porch, and then a woman walked up to their table, waving off one of the last slices of watermelon that Maddox tried to slide across to her.
Haley froze, then forced a smile to her face. She recognized the woman from high school but couldn't remember her name, either. She shouldn't have been surprised to be called, "Katie's friend," even after all these years. Apparently, Haley would always be the tag-along in this town.
"Can I buy a quart today?" the woman asked.
"We hadn't planned to sell any until next week."
Maddox snorted. "Olivia's been running that machine night and day. I bet I could find a quart for you to take home. How much are you willing to pay for it?"
"You gonna auction off some ice cream, Mad Dog?" a man Haley didn't know asked, wandering closer from the crowd around the porch.
Maddox looked at Haley, something brewing behind his eyes.
He stood up, using the table for leverage, then bellowed, "Livy!"
The girl darted out of the crowd, beaming and wearing the apron Haley had made her.
She approached, and Maddox whispered something to her. She squealed and ran off to the kitchen.
While she was gone, Maddox started clearing off the picnic table. Haley helped, but when she asked what he was up to, he half-grinned and said nothing.
A few minutes later, Livy climbed on top of the picnic table, and Haley realized what Maddox and Livy had planned. They were auctioning off five quarts of the gourmet ice cream. Immediately, a crowd gathered around.
Olivia's eyes were shining, but Maddox looked slightly pained.
Maddox started, "Okay, we've got—" Olivia murmured something to him—"Chocolate covered strawberries, folks. Who'll give me fifteen bucks for this quart?"
It had been one of the most popular flavors of the day, and Haley wasn't surprised to see several hands go up.
Maddox got the bid up to thirty before his voice boomed, "Sold, to the gal in the yellow shirt." Within a few minutes, the rest of the quarts were auctioned and, with some cheesing up to the audience and Olivia chipping in about the ingredients she'd put into each different ice cream, sold for top dollar.
Handing out the prized ice cream, Olivia was bouncing with joy.
Haley watched from the edge of the yard, swelling with pride for Livy. All the work they'd put into this event had been worth it. And when Maddox's eyes met hers, that pride was replaced with something entirely different.
The party was winding down when Haley brought Maddox a bottle of water. He'd been sitting at the same table, though finally, he'd been left alone for a little while. He grabbed the water, twisted off the cap, and downed it. "Thanks."
"You looked thirsty."
He was wiping his mouth with his sleeve when Rob Shepherd, one of the loan officers from the bank, moseyed by.
"Got a neat little operation here," the man said. "I hope it pays off for you."
"It's all Livy," Haley said, sliding onto the bench beside him. Thank God she hadn't caught the man's undertones.
"Place is looking good, Michaels," he said. "I heard the medical bills might keep you from putting in that irrigation system you were talking about last winter."
Maddox could only imagine who he'd heard that from. Small-town gossip.
"Not this year," Maddox said, gritting a smile out.
The other man lifted one foot onto the bench opposite theirs and shot the breeze for another few minutes before moseying off.
"What was that about?" Haley asked.
He shrugged. "Folks around here have a long memory."
She nodded. He guessed she probably understood that, the way everyone still remembered her as Katie's friend.
She narrowed her eyes. "So...?"
"So some of them have been waiting for me to fail, just like my old man."
"Really?" She sounded surprised. "Back then, it seemed like they were all pulling for you."
"Not all of them."
She tilted her head to the side. "Are you sure you're not projecting?"
"What's that mean?" He shook his head. "Forget it." It was about time to find a trash bag. When he stood, she followed him.
"It means, are you sure you aren't the one worried about failing?"
Sh
e always did have a way of cutting to the heart of the matter.
He gritted his back teeth. He didn't want to talk about his pop with her. Didn't really want to think about the man—it was a waste of time.
She stopped him in the shade of the house with a soft hand on his sleeve. "No matter what anyone else says or thinks, you've got Livy—you've done a good thing."
The way she was looking at him, like she believed in him.... Suddenly, possibilities rose like a shimmering mirage.
He just didn't know if he had the strength to hope in possibilities any more.
Chapter 4
Several days after Olivia's birthday, Haley awoke feeling somehow...off, but she couldn't pinpoint why.
It wasn't until she was driving home after picking up some prescriptions for Aunt Matilda that she realized what day it was. The anniversary of the car accident that had killed Katie.
She was coasting past the small town cemetery when she saw a lone, small figure, huddled into herself. Livy.
Grief and hot disappointment surged through her.
Haley parked around the side, not wanting to interrupt the girl.
How could she have almost forgotten such an important day? And where were Livy's uncles?
She had her phone in her hand and dialed before she could talk herself out of it. It really wasn't her business. But she cared about Livy, too.
Maddox picked up on the first ring. "Haley?"
She should've held her tongue, but the words burst out before she could even think.
"How could you leave her alone today? Even if you couldn't bring her—"
"Olivia—?"
"Did she ride her bike to town again? I would've picked her up—"
"Haley—"
"She's at the cemetery, Maddox. By herself. Where are you?"
Her voice broke as she remembered standing alone at her mother's grave in a St. Louis cemetery, saying goodbye the day before Haley's father moved them across the country.
There was a long pause, as if he were waiting to see if she was really done railing at him.
Then, a quiet. "I'm here."
She scanned the area and saw his truck parked on the opposite side of the fence.
He lifted his hand from the steering wheel in a brief wave.
"She said she wanted to go alone."
The enormity of what she'd done crashed down on Haley. Not only had she ranted at him when he was most likely grieving too, but she'd accused him of neglecting Olivia again, this time when he didn't deserve it.
She squeezed her eyes closed, the hand that wasn't holding her phone squeezing on the steering wheel.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
When Haley pulled around and parked beside his truck, Maddox wasn't surprised.
She was something of a pit bull beneath that friendly, smiling exterior.
He was starting to like it.
It made his voice gruff when she popped his door open.
She just looked at him for a long moment, silent and assessing.
"You okay?" Her soft-spoken question hit harder than he wanted to let on.
He looked out over the wrist he'd rested on the dash, squinting a little.
Then she shocked him by taking his other hand. Picked it right up off of his thigh, mashing it between both of her smaller, cool hands. Touching him again. Comforting him.
"I'm fine," he said.
But he wasn't. Not really. He'd spent all morning tiptoeing around Justin, who'd been more of a grump than usual.
His brother hadn't talked about the giant elephant in the room, their shared loss. So Maddox hadn't either.
Maddox's chest expanded, and he breathed out harshly.
But he didn't have time for more than that, because she was pulling him out of the truck. "What—?"
"Even if Livy told you she wanted to be alone, that's not what she needs."
He dug in his heels, unease bucking like an unbroken bronco.
She shook her head. "We've got to get you educated on woman-speak before Livy turns into a teenager."
She tugged him forward, and this time he went, mostly to save his wrist from being pulled out of socket.
He didn't know how to handle Olivia's grief. He didn't even know what to do with the hot ball lodged in his own gut.
He wasn't equipped to deal with this. Maybe he never would be.
But somehow... Having Haley at his side made the trek past all those other graves less daunting.
Olivia looked up at their approach, and the pain in her eyes nearly sent him to his knees. But she was dry-eyed, thank God.
Haley let go of his hand, and he felt the loss intensely, but she wrapped both arms around Olivia's shoulders.
The sight of them together, like mother and daughter, made his heart thump once, hard.
"I'm so sorry, baby," she said to Olivia. He could hear the pain in her words.
Olivia must've, too, because she burrowed her head into Haley's shoulder.
Then Haley looked up at him, eyes baring her heart. She motioned him closer, but he hesitated. Could he weather Olivia's emotional storm?
Haley didn't give him a choice. She reached out and grabbed his shirtsleeve and gave him such a hard tug that he stumbled toward both girls. Being close, his only alternative was to put his arms around them.
Olivia turned her face toward him and pressed her cheek into his chest. He tightened his arm around her shoulders. Haley shifted, like she might be trying to back out of the embrace, but he tightened his arm around her, too.
She'd gotten him into this. She was staying.
It felt right, having her in this circle with him.
She looked up at him from entirely too close, and her cheeks were wet. "I miss her, too," Haley whispered.
And darn if he didn't find himself saying, voice rough, "Me, too."
And Olivia burst into tears. She clutched the back of his shirt in one hand.
He looked frantically at Haley, who gave a wet chuckle. She rested her hand on the crown of Olivia's head.
They stayed like that for several minutes, in a tight huddle. Until Olivia's sobs quieted to hiccups and he was sweating through his T-shirt from being so close to two other bodies in the hundred-plus degree Oklahoma sun.
Finally, Olivia pushed away, and he let them both go.
Olivia wiped her face with her fingers, and then Haley pressed a Kleenex she'd pulled from somewhere into his niece's hand.
"Thanks," Olivia said quietly. She didn't look up.
Haley looked at the top of Olivia's head. "I haven't been back here since the funeral."
Olivia's head came up. "You knew my mom?"
Haley glanced at Maddox, then back to the girl. "Yeah. I did. I moved to Redbud Trails halfway through my senior year of high school. We were friends until she died."
Olivia's face lit up. Haley gestured to the dry, sun-baked grass. "You wanna sit for a little bit?"
Maddox made a noise, mostly to discourage her because of her dressy suit pants, but she dragged Olivia down with her and didn't seem worried about her slacks getting grass stains.
He sat with them, folding his too-long legs beneath him to complete their triangle.
"You're a lot like her," Haley said.
"Really?" Olivia's voice cracked, a sound between hope and uncertainty.
His heart ached with some of that uncertainty. Katie had been an inferno, bright and sometimes painful, burning out too quickly. How much was Olivia like her mother?
"Your eyes, your hair, your nose," Haley said. "The first day I saw you, I thought you looked just like her."
He nodded, listening. But not as raptly as Olivia was, with her face turned toward Haley, her eyes glued to her.
"Everyone liked Katie," Haley went on. "Wherever she went, people greeted her by name."
That was true, too.
"On my first day of school, I didn't know a soul. Before my first class was over, Katie had grabbed me and toted me with her down the hall and to ou
r next class. She was so nice... and she didn't take no for an answer."
Maddox smiled. "She never did."
Olivia's head swiveled to him, her eyes serious, hopeful...
And he couldn't deny her.
Especially when Haley kicked the toe of his boot.
"She was a prankster. She would put bugs and lizards—one time even a snake—in our boots in the mudroom. Justin and I learned to check them every time."
Olivia giggled. He and his brother had never learned to laugh at her jokes. They'd always complained loudly to their mom.
He leaned back, letting his wrist take his weight. Some of the painful pressure in his chest was deflating, like a slow helium leak from a balloon.
"She was great at math and science, like you, Olivia," Haley remembered. She leaned back on her arm as well, her fingers overlapping Maddox's on the ground. Had she done that on purpose?
"And she was a planner, too," Haley continued. "She worked for weeks on what we were going to wear to prom, where we would eat supper, who we were going with..." She trailed off, a beautiful pink flush spreading across her face.
She must've realized exactly who she was talking to.
Maddox found himself grinning. She was finally getting a taste of her own medicine—the discomfort he'd felt ever since she'd burst into his life in vibrant color.
"She was a good friend." Haley sniffed, and he realized she was blinking back tears.
Olivia sniffled as well.
"And she loved you, kiddo," he said, through a sandpaper throat. "In the hospital with you, those first few days... she barely let anyone else hold you. She didn't want to let you go, even for a minute."
Olivia was crying again, silent tears streaming down her face, looking at him like...like she almost didn't believe him. "Why did she have to die?" she whispered.
He gathered her up, more natural about it this time. He shook his head, held her tightly. "I don't know, kiddo, I don't know."
Haley was wiping her eyes as unobtrusively as she could, but she was staying, sticking by his side, even though she probably needed to get back to her aunt.
But she was still here. When it hurt.
She placed a hand on Olivia's back, offering comfort.
Kissed by a Cowboy 1 & 2: Sweet Cowboy Romance (Redbud Trails) Page 5
