One Night with His Ex

by Katherine Garbera

“Damn, you’re good. We haven’t been able to get anyone near there in years,” Mauricio said. It was a listing that he’d taken since old man Porter and his father were friends. They’d both come up together in school. But the property wasn’t close enough to town to be part of the revitalized district. He’d tried to convince NASA to use it but they didn’t need storage facilities in Cole’s Hill when they had everything they needed in Houston at the Johnson Space Center.

  “I haven’t been able to convince them after the initial meeting. They’re coming back today for lunch and then we’re going to tour the location one more time,” Malcolm said.

  “I’ll meet you after lunch. We can close it together. Just turn on your usual Southern charm and don’t mention the property during the meal, okay?”

  Mal nodded. “Thanks, Mo. I know Helena spoke to you but I’ve got this under control.”

  “I know you do. You always come out on top.”

  Malcom nodded his head a bunch of times. “That’s right, I do.”

  Damn. He’d never have thought that Malcolm would be this insecure, but he realized how falling in love changed people. There wasn’t a man he knew who was better than Mal. He was one of the solid ones.

  He let himself out of the office and Mauricio went to his desk, making a reservation at the Peace Creek Steak House for dinner and then ordering a bouquet of peonies to be sent to Hadley. He didn’t want tonight to feel like they were just marking time until she took the pregnancy test. He wanted it to be...well, maybe the start of rebuilding something.

  He messaged his assistant and asked her to notify him when Malcolm left the offices. In a way it was good that he had his friend to distract him from the fact that he was going on a date with Hadley tonight. It felt like it had been too long since he’d had something like that to look forward to.

  But what if he ended up screwing it up? Doing something stupid like Malcolm had done?

  After she’d left him, he’d been angry and out of control. This felt better. Right, even. Like he was in a place to actually be the man she needed him to be this time. Or rather the man he wanted to be.

  His assistant pinged him when Malcom left and Mo went out to talk to the guys he knew who were in the office fantasy football league. They all posted their teams each week and bet against each other.

  Todd, Alan and Rob were all in the kitchen having their mid-morning coffee break.

  “Hiya, boss man, you want a coffee?” Todd asked.

  “Nah, I’m good for now. I wanted to find out how the football thing is going,” he said.

  “Good. Our office is out ahead of everyone else in the league. Your boy, Malcolm, has been winning the most, but that’s to be expected since he’s been picking Manu’s brain about the strengths of different players.”

  “He’s winning?” Mauricio asked.

  “Yeah. Like a lot. He even got a bonus a few weeks ago,” Todd said. “You want in?”

  “Nah. Not my thing,” Mauricio said.

  He chatted with his men for a few more minutes before he left. Why would Mal lie? And what was he hiding? Mauricio would have liked to let it go but he didn’t want Helena to get hurt. And it wasn’t just because he knew that Hadley would kill him if he let anything happen to her sister.

  Seven

  Hadley ran the wedding errands assigned by her mother and drove back to her shop just in time to meet the deliverymen who had brought the shipment of paintings from El Rod, an up-and-coming Western portrait artist whose work had recently been generating a lot of buzz. The paintings were raw and captured the wildness of the lives of the people who lived in southern New Mexico. He was from Taos and she’d only communicated with him via emails since he preferred not to use a phone.

  She’d never considered herself a high-strung artist, but if she ever started selling her canvases for the amounts he was making, maybe she’d tell everyone not to call her. Too bad the one woman she didn’t want to talk to—her mother—probably wouldn’t be deterred by that type of edict.

  She heard the bell on the door at the front of her shop jingle as she was opening the first crate. She put down the wedge she was using and looked over, surprised to see her sister standing there.

  “What’s up?”

  “Um, shouldn’t that be my question? I mean, I saw you dancing last night with Mauricio, but I thought you were smart enough to not let it go any further than that,” Helena said.

  “What makes you think that it did?” Hadley wasn’t sure she was ready to talk to her sister about last night. Today she’d been trying so hard to focus on anything but that broken condom and the possible consequences.

  All she’d been trying to do last night was get some closure with Mauricio. If she were a superstitious person, she’d probably assign some sort of greater meaning to what had happened.

  “I was doing the books today at the Grand Hotel,” Helena said. “The night manager saw me on his way out and told me how happy he was y’all had made up.”

  “Ugh. This is crazy. This morning half the people in the coffee shop thought the same thing,” Hadley said.

  Helena put her arm around Hadley and hugged her close. “Are you happy about whatever happened last night? Is this a good thing?”

  “Oh, crapola,” Hadley said. “It’s complicated.”

  “That’s what I thought. So, I brought lunch and figured we could talk,” Helena said. “It’s the least I could do after sticking you with Mom and the wedding.”

  Her sister squeezed her shoulder and showed her the insulated lunch bag from Famous Manu’s BBQ. “Out here or in your office?”

  Hadley started clearing one of the tables she used for her Wednesday night art classes and then drew over chairs for her and Helena.

  “I really don’t mind the wedding stuff. It’s so much fun and different from the projects I normally work on,” she said as she went to the little fridge under the counter and got out two sparkling waters.

  Helena opened the bag of food and Hadley almost groaned. She had a weakness for the brisket from that place.

  They sat across from each other eating in silence for a few minutes. When Hadley finally spoke, she dropped a bombshell.

  “I might have gotten pregnant last night.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  “No. Mo’s condom broke,” Hadley said. “I’m going to get a pregnancy test but you know I can’t buy one here or everyone will really lose their shit, especially Mom when it gets back to her.”

  “So, what are you going to do? You can’t go to Dr. Phillips either,” Helena said. She’d put her fork down and was staring at Hadley. “God, girl, when you do something, you don’t do it by half measures, do you?”

  “I don’t. I mean, I never intend for stuff like this to happen, but it does. I really don’t even know how.”

  “We’ll figure this out,” Helena said. “What does Mo think?”

  “I don’t know. We’re having dinner tonight. He’s apologized a ton but it’s not like it’s just his fault, you know?”

  “I do know.”

  Hadley wiped her fingers on her napkin and put it down. “I’m going to Houston a week from Wednesday and I’ll pick up a test there. I mean, until then it’s not like knowing or not knowing is going to change anything.”

  Helena shook her head. “Not the outcome. But the truth is, just thinking you might be pregnant is probably doing something to your thoughts about Mo. And his about you. Leaving him was hard for you. Are you sure you don’t want to consider other options?”

  “Other options? No. That’s not for me. It’s not bothering me,” Hadley said. “Why do you think it would?”

  “Because having a man’s baby is a big deal. Especially when that man is one that you can’t seem to get over, even though you know there’s no future with him,” Helena said, sounding very much like a know-it-all older si
ster.

  Hadley admitted Helena was saying the very thing she didn’t want to acknowledge. “Whatever happens with that test, the truth is Mo and I have to figure out how to at least be friends again if we are going to both keep living here. I mean, if today is any example, then the town isn’t ready for us to not be a couple either.”

  “I don’t think the town cares who y’all are with as long as you’re happy. But you’re always going to be in the spotlight, so get used to it. There isn’t a person in this town who isn’t connected to Mother and Mrs. Velasquez in some way or another.”

  She remembered her mom using her old cotillion date as leverage at the bakery and knew that Helena was right. She and Mo had to figure out how to coexist and tonight would be a good first step toward figuring out how to be friends.

  Just friends.

  No matter how excited those crazy butterflies in her stomach were for her to see him again.

  * * *

  Mauricio helped Malcolm close the deal with the plastics people and they returned to the office. It was a little before five o’clock and quiet. A lot of his residential agents were out on appointments with clients who could only see the listings when they got off work.

  He knew he should let Malcolm start the paperwork for the deal but he wanted some answers. It was one thing for Malcolm to not tell him about his money trouble, that he could understand, but lying about it? That wasn’t like Malcolm at all. And put together with Helena’s fears, it made Mauricio wonder what the hell was going on with his friend.

  “So I had a chat with Todd today and he told me that our office is way ahead in the football league for the city,” Mauricio said. “Now that’s not what you told me, so I’m pretty damned sure one of you is lying to me. I don’t give a crap about our football league standings, but if you felt the need to make something up, that does concern me.”

  Malcolm shook his head and leaned back against his desk, crossing his arms over his chest and his feet at the ankles. “Mo, it’s not something I want to talk about. I’m sorry I lied to you about the league.”

  “Okay, fair enough. But if you hurt Helena because of this thing, I’m coming for you,” he said.

  “She’s not yours to protect,” Malcolm said, standing up.

  “No, she’s yours but you’re clearly distracted,” Mo said. “Get your shit together.”

  He turned and went into his office, closing the door behind him. He had no idea what kind of trouble Malcolm could be in, but for right now he was determined to do all he could to keep his friend safe and his engagement intact.

  His phone pinged with a text message and he glanced down at it, hoping it wasn’t Hadley canceling on him. Not that he’d blame her after the high-handed way he’d invited her to dinner.

  But it was Diego reminding him he had polo practice tonight at six o’clock. He sent back the thumbs-up emoji and then texted his housekeeper, Rosalita, and asked her to bring a change of clothes and his toiletries bag to the polo grounds so he could shower and get dressed there.

  Then he sat down at his desk just as the door to his office opened and his dad walked in. Domingo Velasquez took off his black Stetson as he entered Mauricio’s office and leaned one hip on the corner of his desk.

  Mo had that sinking feeling in his gut that this wasn’t a casual visit because his father was being too casual.

  “Poppy, what are you doing here? Don’t you have a standing round of drinks at the club at this time of day?” Mo asked. Play it cool, he warned himself.

  “You know I do,” he said. “But your mother saw you on Main Street at 4:49 this morning so we need to talk.”

  “Wow, that’s precise,” Mo said.

  “I know. She wants to know what you were doing out at that hour and asked me to remind you that she would rather hear it from you than from the gossips when she goes to the club for dinner tonight,” Domingo said. “So I’m here to get the scoop.”

  He took a deep breath and shook his head. “I went out with the boys last night to play pool at the Bull Pit and Hadley was there.”

  His father went stiff and turned to look more closely at Mauricio’s hands. He seemed to relax when he didn’t see any swelling or bruising on his knuckles. Damn. He wished he’d kept better control of his temper last year. “I wasn’t fighting, Poppy. I ended up dancing with Hadley and one thing led to another. We had a lot to drink, so we walked to the Grand Hotel and then I went back for my car to take her home. That’s when Mom saw me.”

  His dad stood up and walked over to the plate glass windows that looked down on the park. He turned his hat in his hands and didn’t say anything. When Mauricio had been in trouble when he was younger, he’d always kept talking to fill the silence. But honestly, he had nothing more to say to his dad. He wasn’t sure what would happen next with Hadley.

  “Was it a one-time thing?” his father asked, his voice low and gravelly.

  “I don’t know. I don’t want it to be, but I’m not sure what she wants. I’m taking her to dinner tonight,” he said. “Also I’m not sure she will ever be able to forgive me. Or if I can prove to her that I’m worthy of her trust.”

  “Dinner is a good place to start. I know how this town is, but you have to do what’s right for y’all. So if you need time or if that was what you needed to move on, I understand,” his father said.

  “Thank you,” Mauricio said. “I just don’t want her to get hurt again because of me.”

  “No man does,” Domingo said.

  “Does it ever get easier?” he asked his dad.

  “Not really, and just wait until you have kids. If you have a daughter, it gets even worse,” he said.

  After his father left, his words echoed in Mauricio’s mind. What if he did have a daughter with Hadley? He hadn’t thought beyond a baby and what it would mean if she was pregnant. But a daughter—one who looked like Hadley—that would be a challenge. He knew how men would react to her and he wasn’t sure his temper was ready for that. Or if it would ever be. Also what if he let down his daughter? He wanted to believe he’d changed, but he wasn’t sure he was ready for fatherhood.

  * * *

  The Peace Creek Steak House was just off Main Street. Hadley realized if they wanted to keep a low profile, she shouldn’t have suggested this place, but it wasn’t as though most of the people who knew their families hadn’t already cottoned on to the fact that something was going on. And she’d always been more of a face-it-head-on kind of girl.

  Mauricio had shaved and changed into a gray suit that was clearly custom-made, paired with fancy leather boots. He held a Stetson in his left hand that perfectly matched his suit. His collar was open and she saw his St. Christopher medallion nestled in the hollow of his throat.

  He put his hand on the small of her back as she followed their hostess to the table that was tucked into one of the alcoves near the back. She wished she’d chosen a wool dress instead of the light silk halter dress that left her back naked. But she’d wanted to look good for him and the touch of his hand on her skin did feel nice. Too nice.

  They were in a nebulous no-man’s-land and she wasn’t sure what would happen next. But she’d promised herself no more free passes to hop into bed with Mo. She needed to be thinking with her head and not her vagina.

  He held the chair out for her and then took a seat across the table as the waiter placed her napkin over her lap and then asked for their drink order. She started to order her customary glass of wine but then thought of why they were here. She could be expecting his baby. Better play it safe.

  “Sparkling water with a twist of lime,” Hadley said.

  “Same,” Mauricio said, and she heard the amusement in his voice. “On the wagon?” he asked once the waiter left.

  “No. Just in case it turns out I’m...you know, I figure I’d better not take any chances,” she said.

  He sank back in his chair
. “Good thinking. So, should we jump right into this discussion or what?”

  “I think we should wait until we get our drinks, so we don’t have any awkward waiter intrusions,” she said.

  He nodded again, and she realized that he was nervous, which was silly when she thought about all the dates they’d been on together. But the truth was, she’d always been hyper aware of everyone watching them, of trying to give the impression that they were the perfect couple. There had been so much pressure that, honestly, she couldn’t remember a single meal where she hadn’t been upset with Mo over something he hadn’t done correctly.

  “How was your day?” he asked after a minute of silence.

  “Not too bad after you left me alone with Mother,” she said, arching her eyebrows and sending him a look.

  “Sorry about that. But Candace never really warmed to me, and I had a feeling if I stayed, it wasn’t going to be a good experience for anyone.”

  “You’re probably right,” Hadley said. Her mother really had liked Mauricio when they’d first started dating, but she’d gotten frustrated with how they had always broken up and then gotten back together. “She just thought we were like oil and water.”

  “She’s wrong there. We were always like fire.”

  They were like fire, something that she’d never been able to control. The passion had always been the easy part between the two of them and so she’d felt that she had to work harder on the other stuff. It made her realize how immature she’d been, trying to make them perfect to the outside world instead of perfect for each other.

  “So, after you dealt with your mother, what did you do?”

  “I got a shipment from an artist I’m exhibiting next week. He’s really hot right now. And I’m lucky to have gotten him. There’s an invitation-only showing next Friday. I sent out the announcement to all the big-time collectors in the state. Would you like to come?”

  “I would. What if we aren’t...”

  She put her hands on the table next to her plate and looked over at him, seeing the same uncertainty in his eyes that she felt deep inside. “No matter what, I think you and I have to figure out how to be friends. Unless one of us is leaving Cole’s Hill. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.”