She was one of the morning news anchors for a local Houston affiliate. She did a double take as he drove by. He didn’t want to stop at the hotel, which would just raise more questions from her, so he drove past it, down toward the apartment towers where he had his penthouse, waited ten minutes and then went back to the Grand Hotel, staying vigilant along the way for his mom.
He pulled around back in the guest parking lot and then texted Hadley his location. He was sweating and felt like he was sixteen years old instead of thirty. But he didn’t want his mom to know anything. She had been upset when he’d broken things off with Hadley the first time; he knew that tonight wasn’t about them getting back together, and he didn’t want to have to explain that to his mom.
As much as he hoped that everything would sort of go back to the way it used to be, he knew those days were over. Hadley wasn’t going to start trusting him again. Not this quickly. He knew he was going to have to show he’d changed.
That scared him. He had never wanted to need her more than she needed him.
When he saw Hadley come out of the hotel and walk to the car, he hopped out to open the door for her.
“That took longer than I thought it would,” she said. “You okay to drive?”
“Yes... I passed my mom when I was coming back to pick you up and so I had to pretend to be driving to my place in case—”
“You don’t have to explain. The less our moms know about this the better,” Hadley said.
“Agreed,” he said, then drove her home to her loft on the outskirts of Cole’s Hill. He parked near the entrance to her shop, which was housed underneath her loft. She made no move to get out of the car and he turned toward her.
“I don’t have any regrets,” he said. “Well, maybe the condom breaking but otherwise I’m good.”
Hadley nodded. “Me neither.”
She leaned over and kissed his cheek, and then let herself out of the car. “I’ll text you when I have the test and we can get together when I take it.”
“I’ll take you to dinner afterward,” he said.
“You don’t have to,” she said, and he felt her pulling away even then.
“I know. But either way I bet we’ll want to talk about it,” he said.
She nodded and then turned away. He watched until she entered the building and then waited until he saw the lights come on in her loft. He hated leaving, felt like he should have tried harder to stay with her, but he knew that he wasn’t in the right headspace to figure out anything right now.
Six
The coffee shop on Main Street was busy with the bloggers, would-be writers and freelancers who didn’t have an office to take meetings. Mauricio hardly spared them a glance as he got in line behind someone he didn’t recognize. As much as he professed to dislike small town living, there was something about knowing everyone in town that he liked. Then he heard the door open behind him and he immediately smelled gardenias.
Hadley’s scent.
He glanced over his shoulder, removing his sunglasses, and their eyes met. She looked tired this morning. Of course, he had to acknowledge she also looked good. But he wondered if she’d slept as poorly as he had. Haunted by dreams of a “maybe baby” and how that would link their lives together.
“Morning, Hadley,” he said.
“Mo,” she replied, stepping up behind him, and his body reacted. His blood flowing heavier in his veins, he stood a little taller and tightened his muscles before he realized what he was doing.
Preening in front of Hadley had never been enough to make amends for his screw-ups. And as far as last night went, he had a hard time in the cold light of day thinking it had been anything other than that. What had he been thinking?
He’d just started to get over her—yeah, right, his subconscious jeered. But he’d been trying.
“Stop staring at me like that,” she said under her breath. “The biddies are about to come in and have their book club discussion. I don’t want to give them more reason to talk about us.”
“Darling, they don’t need me looking at you to do that,” he said.
The bell jingled again and Loretta, Alec’s assistant, walked in. “You two! Makes me happy to see you together again.”
“Uh, what?”
“It’s all anyone is talking about this morning. Last night at the Bull Pit you were all over each other.”
“It wasn’t what it looked like,” Hadley said. Her expression had completely shut down.
“Really? Even Alec didn’t deny it this morning. He actually smiled before he realized I had forgotten to get the coffee,” Loretta said.
“Alec is mistaken,” Mauricio said, realizing that Hadley didn’t want anyone to know about last night. He would follow her lead no matter how much he didn’t want to hide anything about the two of them. “It was just two friends hanging out. Nothing more.”
Nothing more. The words stuck in the back of his throat and he wondered when he’d become so adept at lying. But then Loretta tipped her head to the side and shook it.
“Whatever y’all say.”
“I think they’re ready for your order, Mo,” Hadley said, giving him a small smile. “I’ll have a skinny latte and grab us a table at the back.”
Us?
He didn’t question it, just placed their orders and then waited for them, aware of the eyes of Cole’s Hill on Hadley and him. Even the guy he hadn’t recognized earlier seemed unable to tear his gaze away from her, though to be fair it could have been because of Hadley’s good looks and not the gossip.
She wore a pair of pale pink trousers that tapered to show off her slim ankles and a sleeveless white top with black polka dots. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail that emphasized her high cheekbones and heart-shaped face. He couldn’t tear his eyes away.
Yeah, he’d really been almost over her.
The barista called his name and he grabbed the ceramic mugs with the Main Street Coffee shop logo. He moved through the tables, dodging toddlers who were playing a game of tag while their tired moms sipped coffee and chatted.
He finally got to the back and took a seat across from Hadley.
“So, that was...”
“Predictable,” she finished. “I’m in town to talk to Kinley over at the bridal studio but ducked in here to avoid my mom. I saw her going into the bank, but this is almost as bad. What are we going to do?”
“Fake date,” he said. “We should at least seem like a couple until we find out...what’s going on.” He knew it wasn’t an ideal situation but the way she’d reacted to Loretta asking if they were together again had made him realize how hard it would be to win her back. And they were in a situation thanks to last night.
“Fake date?” she asked and then gave him a look that told him he was an idiot.
“Well, I’d love to really date you, Had, but you’ve been pretty clear every time but last night when you were full of tequila that you’re over me,” he said. Then realized he was being an ass. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No, you’re right. That is what I said,” she admitted. “But maybe the tequila made me realize that I’m not over you.”
“Don’t,” he said.
She quirked one eyebrow at him.
“I know I’m the insensitive, macho jackass but the truth is, getting over you was harder for me than I thought it would be.”
She reached over and put her hand over the fist he hadn’t realized he’d clenched. She rubbed her finger over his knuckles and a shiver went straight to his groin, making him shift his legs under the table.
“You’re not a jackass all the time.”
Their eyes met and for the first time since she’d walked out of his bedroom eighteen long months ago, with the possible exception of last night, he saw something other than anger in her eyes.
“Let’s take this
slow,” he said. “Dinner tonight?”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“Well, this is something I wouldn’t have believed if I hadn’t seen it for myself,” Candace Everton said as she stopped next to their table.
“Mother,” Hadley said, drawing her hand back from his and sitting up straighter. He saw her lace her fingers together and knew from the past that she was fighting the urge to tuck that one tendril of hair that never stayed in place back behind her ear.
“Ma’am,” Mauricio said, standing. “I have to get back to work. But I’ll see you for dinner tonight, Hadley.”
She just nodded. “Peace Creek Steak House at eight. See you then.”
Of course, she’d pick the most expensive place in town. But he didn’t mind. He nodded at her and her mom and walked out of the coffee shop. If they were going to fake date, why not live it up?
* * *
Hadley wished she could just as easily escape her mother, but Candace sat down in Mauricio’s vacated seat, waving over one of the coffee shop staff to clear away his mug and order herself a skinny mocha.
“Ma’am, I think you have to order it yourself at the counter,” the teenage boy said.
“Son,” Candace said with the sweetest smile she had, and Hadley hid her own smirk behind her hand. “I will more than make it worth your while to get my mocha and bring it to me. Don’t I know your mama?”
“Yes, ma’am, Mrs. Everton,” he said. “I’m Tommy Dunwoody.”
“I thought I recognized that handsome face,” she said. “I knew I could count on a Dunwoody man to do the right thing.”
Tommy blushed and then nodded and turned away.
“Mother, you are something else,” Hadley said as she took a sip of her now cold skinny latte. There were times when she missed the taste of real cane sugar in her coffee, but she didn’t like to exercise so it was worth the sacrifice to keep her weight under control.
“I am, aren’t I?” she said with a kind laugh. “Now we’re going to talk about Helena’s wedding, but first I have to ask... Do you know what you’re doing with that Velasquez boy?”
No. She had no clue. She was dating or fake dating him until she found out if she was pregnant and she had the feeling that it wasn’t going to be as easy to walk away from Mo this time as it had been before.
“Of course, Mother. I have him exactly where I want him,” she said. Lying to her mom about her personal life was an old habit, one she wasn’t about to break right now in the middle of the coffee shop by divulging she might have gotten pregnant last night.
“Where you want him? That’s not how relationships work,” Candace said.
“Mom, please. It’s Mo. You know how complicated it is. We have history and chemistry and I’m just trying not to make another mistake.”
“Okay, Had. I won’t pry, but I’m here if you need to talk,” Candace said, taking a twenty-dollar bill from her wallet as Tommy walked back over with her mocha.
“Thank you, Tommy,” she said, handing it to him.
“I’ll get your change,” he said.
“No need, son. Tell your mama I said hello and she’s doing a good job raising her boys.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” He nodded and moved away.
“Now about Helena’s cake. I saw the sketches you did. Hon, you really do have a lot of talent,” Candace said. “I loved them. But we have to make sure we get Tilly at the bakery to work on this. Her assistants are competent, but they won’t be able to do justice to your design.”
“I’m sure whomever they give us will be fine,” Hadley said. “Besides, isn’t that up to Kinley to take care of?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Mother, don’t do that. You know what I said—” she began.
Her mom shook her head. “I’m pretty sure I heard you suggest that I leave the details of my eldest daughter’s wedding to someone else.”
“It’s not like Kinley doesn’t know what she’s doing,” Hadley said. “She’s planned plenty of weddings for A-listers.”
“She’s good, I’ll give her that. But we know what we want. Maybe I’ll go over to the bakery and chat with Tilly. Her daddy and I went to cotillion together,” Candace said.
Her mother had notes about the flower arrangements that Hadley had designed and some suggestions for the bridal bouquet and the bridesmaids’, as well. She gave her very detailed notes to pass on to Kinley. When she was done, she kissed Hadley on the cheek and left the coffee shop, stopping along the way to greet someone at almost every table. Hadley finished her drink a few minutes later and followed.
When she got to the door, she ran into Bianca Velasquez-Caruthers, Mo’s sister and Derek Caruthers’s wife, a preeminent heart surgeon in Cole’s Hill. She’d been in Helena’s class at the Five Families elementary school but had left Cole’s Hill during high school to go to New York and become a model.
They’d reconnected in New York at Sera Samson’s book launch. Sera was a lifestyle guru who had launched her tell-all book about life in the fast lane with her fiancé, Lorenzo Romano, a three time Formula One World Champion. It had been nice to see a friendly face from her hometown at the crowded cocktail party. Bianca knew Sera’s fiancé from her days as the wife of the late Formula One Driver Jose Ruiz.
“Hi, Hadley,” she said, holding the door for her to exit. “I bet your ears are buzzing this morning.”
She shook her head. “You have no idea.”
“You’ve got my sympathy, girl. You and Mo were all any of the moms at drop-off wanted to talk to me about.”
She wrinkled her nose. “School moms? Really? I thought the gossip was confined to the old biddy book club meeting here this morning.”
“Sadly, no,” Bianca said.
Hadley sighed, stepping out of the way of customers trying to get into the coffee shop.
Bianca followed her away from the entrance. “Where are you heading?”
“To see Kinley,” she said.
“Nothing like planning someone else’s wedding when your own love life is all anyone in town can talk about, right?”
“Exactly, but I’ve got this. It’s not like I didn’t know what I was getting into when I started dancing with your brother last night,” she said, finally admitting out loud what she’d been thinking all day.
“Why did you?”
“Sometimes even I can’t resist him,” she admitted. “Don’t tell him that though.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. He already thinks he’s God’s gift...though to be fair that’s probably my mother’s fault. She did tell those boys they were the best thing in town every day when we were growing up.”
Of course she had.
Hadley said goodbye to Bianca and tried to focus on Helena so she wouldn’t obsess about her upcoming date with Mo for the rest of the day.
* * *
Malcolm was already at work when Mauricio walked into the office. He nodded to his friend, who looked the worse for wear. He remembered what Helena had said last night and, though he had a strict rule not to mess around in other couples’ business, he felt like Malcolm was dealing with something and wanted to see if he could help.
“Mal, you got a minute?” he asked.
“Sure, what’s up?” he said, leaving his desk in the open plan area and coming over to Mo.
“Um, let’s talk in my office,” Mauricio said, leading the way toward his corner office. As a partner in the business, Malcolm had his own office but he liked being on the floor with the new guys. He said it kept him hungry to keep achieving.
But last month’s numbers were in and Mal wasn’t up to his usual standards. Mauricio needed to find out what was going on.
They entered his office and Malcolm walked over to the plate glass windows that offered a view of the square where the town held all of its major celebrations. His friend put his hand on
the glass and leaned forward before cursing and turning away.
“What’s going on with you?” Mo asked.
“Huh?”
“Listen, I’m not one to meddle but your numbers are down from last month, Helena is worried about you and, to be honest, you look like shit this morning,” Mo said.
Malcolm cursed and shoved his hand through his hair, which explained why he looked so unkempt. “Hell. I don’t know. It started with one deal that was sort of wonky.”
“Wonky how?”
“Just the financing looked a bit odd to me and when I dug deeper I still couldn’t find anything solid, but there was something that didn’t feel right,” Malcolm said.
“Bullshit.”
“What?”
“I know you. You’re solid when it comes to financing. So what’s really going on?” Mauricio asked, leaning one hip against the side of his desk. He had worked hard to open his real estate business and to make it into the profitable company it was today. They were the best that this part of Texas had to offer and no one who worked here was taking any wonky financing deals.
“Fine. I bet too much on my fantasy football league. My team isn’t doing that great and so last week I took a blind and lost,” Malcolm said.
“Do you need me to cover you?” Mauricio offered.
“No, I got it,” he said. “I’ve been trying to earn back what I lost but the harder I push here the more the clients feel it. It’s like they know I’m desperate instead of just hungry for their business, you know?”
“I do know. How about this? I’ll go with you to your next meeting and we’ll close the deal together,” Mo said. “You’ll get back on top.”
“Great,” he said.
“Who are we waiting on?”
“The Tressor Group. They’re the plastics manufacturers from Plano. They really want to be closer to Galveston and the port and I have them interested in the old Porter Warehouses.”
One Night with His Ex Page 6
