by Sonya Weiss
They’d taken him under their wing, teaching him about their Christmas tree operation, then later, inviting him into their workshop to learn how to build the wooden holiday decorations and ornaments they sold.
“I have nothing to apologize for.”
“The bar? You pushed me under that guy’s beer shower, and then you got me arrested.”
“I did no such thing.”
“Sure you didn’t.”
“Believe what you will.” He took off his coat and draped it on the back of a kitchen chair. “Let’s get on with the attic.”
“Yes, let’s.” She spun around and marched down the hallway and up the stairs to the second floor.
In the spare bedroom, he reached around from behind her for the rope to pull the attic ladder down at the same time she did. When his hand closed over hers, Haley tugged hers free and ducked her head, her cheeks flushing and her lips tightening.
“Careful,” he said, putting a steadying hand on the side of her waist when she lurched sideways as one of the steps on the wooden ladder let out a cracking sound.
“I’ll fix that,” she said in a weird not-Haley voice as she brushed his hand off.
He climbed up after her and stepped into the attic. Horrified, he surveyed the stacks of belongings. “You want all this out of here?”
“No, lucky you.”
“If I was lucky, I wouldn’t be here.”
“You can chill with the love poems I’m sure you’re mentally constructing. I only need a few boxes.”
“Love poems? That’s what turns Haley Bowman on?”
“You want to know what turns me on?”
“Sure. When coffee beans turn into magic sprouts and I can beanstalk my way right up to the clouds.” He stretched his arms to loosen his muscles. “All right. Which ones do I take?”
“I need the ones marked ‘Mom.’”
The hitch in her voice gut-punched him, and he cleared his throat. He’d cared for Mrs. Bowman. She’d always been kind and looked out for him as a kid when his own family hadn’t. “Okay.” He looked at the towering stack of boxes, then grabbed a short ladder, positioned it, and climbed almost to the top. He lifted the first box and climbed back down.
“Why’d you do it? I’ve always wondered.”
He lowered the box to get a better grip. “What act of ruination have I committed against you now?”
“You let Scott Landon believe that you and I kissed that day we were getting trees ready to take to the lots. It’s why he and I broke up.”
“I didn’t let him believe anything. He assumed because he had a jealousy problem.”
“And you didn’t correct him.”
“It wasn’t my place to pat his pointed little head and reassure him.”
“Admit it: you thought it was funny that he thought you and I…” She gestured between them. “Which wouldn’t happen in a million years, not even if you were the last man in the world.”
“Same to you. Not even if you were the last woman in the world.” He strode to the ladder built into the attic opening, determined to get the boxes downstairs as fast as possible so he could escape Haley’s company. They’d never gotten along, and he’d never enjoyed spending time with her, but now it was worse, since his brain reminded him every few minutes that she was attractive.
She waited—deliberately, he thought—until he’d struggled halfway down the ladder with the box before she said, “I don’t want any of those downstairs.”
He balanced the box against the ladder and glared up at her. “I asked you if you wanted all of them out of here.”
She shook her head. “I said I needed the ones marked ‘Mom,’ and I pointed to this clear area of the floor. You weren’t paying attention.”
He muttered under his breath and climbed back up. If he weren’t a man of his word, and if he didn’t hate feeling like he owed Haley Bowman, he’d leave. Depositing the box at her feet, he raised his eyebrows. “What now?”
She knelt and began searching through the box. “Now I need the others.” She waved him off in the general direction of the towering boxes. “‘Look to the past.’ Celeste must have meant the journals.”
Max gritted his teeth, ignored her mutterings, and worked silently, climbing up and down the ladder, moving back and forth, until he had several boxes stacked around her. When he was done, he wiped his brow with his shirtsleeve. Haley kept the temperature in the house set to roasting, and the heat rose into the attic. It was like an oven. “Favor repaid?”
“Not by a long shot.”
He would have ignored that and considered the favor done anyway, but he thought he caught a hint of vulnerability on her face. “Haley” and “vulnerable” weren’t words he’d normally link together. “Mouthy” and “tough” were more like it.
She indicated the floor. “Please sit. I want to talk to you. It’s important.”
“I can’t think of anything you and I could have to discuss that’s more important than moving boxes.” He sighed, feeling like a jerk when she bowed her head toward her lap. Guess he’d been right about the vulnerability. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
She scowled, smacking her fist down. “What? You couldn’t possibly hurt my feelings. I don’t have any where you’re concerned.”
And there it is. That toughness.
She held a journal above the boxes, and he was able to see what she’d hit her fist on. “This was my mother’s. It’s proof.”
“Proof?”
“That I’m on the right track. Celeste said I’d find my future love by looking toward the past, and my mother wrote the same names that I did. Don’t you see? It’s fate telling me I’m on the right track.”
Her voice ringing with triumph, she read aloud, “Mom’s names are: Bennet, Luke, Dean, Michael, James, Will, and Scott…”
“I don’t understand what these names mean.”
She looked up at him. “My exes. The ones on my kiss list.”
“‘Kiss list’?”
“A kiss that will lead to love,” she said, beaming like he was supposed to know what that meant.
“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about and don’t really care. Favor repaid. I’m outta here.”
She held the journal to her chest and narrowed her eyes. “The favor can’t be repaid by shuffling around a handful of boxes. I have an arrest record, and those are public. Every time an application asks, ‘Have you ever been arrested?’ I’ll have to check yes. Until the crime—which, you may remember, I never committed—is expunged, it might hurt my ability to get a job.”
Max felt bad about that, though he still didn’t think it was his fault. There were some places you just didn’t put a foot. “Fine. What do you want to consider it paid in full?”
She let out a breath. “I want you to help me with the men on my list.”
“Why can’t you get Roxy or Piper’s help?”
“They don’t speak man any better than I do. That’s where you come in. You can smooth the waters if they’re wary because of the video. You reassure these guys that I’m a great woman—sweet, loving, very devoted—and then set up casual run-ins or dates with them, and I’ll take it from there.”
“Lie to them?”
“I’m a great catch, and any of them would be lucky to date me. So you set up the run-in or date that could lead to a kiss, and then I’ll be able to tell which one of my exes is the one.”
“The one, huh?” Max ran a hand down his face. “Like in the movies, he’ll drop to one knee, pull out a rock worth his retirement, and propose?”
“I’m looking for a relationship, but my immediate need is a date to Suzie’s wedding. Marriage isn’t on my horizon right this second, but if it’s the right person, then in the future…” She grinned. “I wouldn’t be opposed to a proposal from the man I love.�
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“A proposal based on a wish list—”
“Kiss list,” she corrected vehemently.
“And you want to do all this just for a wedding date?”
“No.” She sounded frustrated. “I do need a date to Suzie’s wedding because she’ll never let me live it down if I don’t. But that’s…the cherry on top. A byproduct of finding and being with my soul mate.”
He’d had enough. Getting to his feet, Max towered over her. “If you think I’m going to help lead any man to the sacrificial relationship altar, the answer is no.”
“You can be so irritating.” She stood and put her hands on her hips. “I don’t like you any more than you like me—”
“Finally, something we agree on. There’s never been anything good between us and never will be.” Max retreated so he could get the heck out of there.
“I was the reason you got the job at our tree farm.”
Max paused halfway to the ladder. “You?”
She dropped her gaze as if she regretted blurting it out. “That’s something good. I didn’t like you, but I knew you needed the work for your family’s sake.”
Max wanted to let loose the string of curse words building inside him, but he clenched his jaw. There’d been a time in the past when his family had struggled financially. He’d already been working one job, and he’d applied for a second one at the Bowman family business and been told there were no openings, only to get a call later the same day telling him he was hired.
That additional income had helped keep food on the table and the lights on. He’d had no idea Haley had somehow made it happen. He owed her, and he couldn’t stand that.
“I didn’t like the idea of having to work alongside you, but I knew how bad things were after your dad lost his job.”
“It turned out to be a blessing in disguise in the end. That’s what made my parents take out a loan against their house and open the coffee shop.”
She nodded. “Exactly. A blessing in disguise. Then you’ll help me with the list?”
“No. Not even if I owed you a hundred favors.”
He could’ve sworn she growled.
“That’s great, Max. Show yourself out and don’t come back. Ever.”
“I’ll be back tonight. Your dad invited me for dinner.”
She dropped the journal into the box like the discussion was over. “You and I are at war. We’ll always be at war. We’re like natural-born enemies or something. I’m rescinding the invitation.”
“Only the inviter can do that. So I’ll see you later. I like my tea sweet and without poison.” He started down the ladder.
She yelled after him, “You suck, Max Gallagher.”
He laughed, only because he knew it would piss her off. Let the war rage on.
Chapter Three
The ticking of the grandfather clock counted down the minutes to her demise. This is the end. The big finale. She’d have to sit across the table from Max and fight her inner urge to fling the bowl of mashed cauliflower straight at his smug, handsome face. Despite her dislike, she couldn’t help but be aware that he was definitely handsome.
“Everything smells delicious.” Her father patted his abdomen. “I swear I’ve put on ten pounds since you moved back.”
“Pounds you can afford to gain.” She sent him a smile as she lifted the apple pie from the oven. Hoping she was speaking with the right amount of indifference she asked, “What made you invite Max to supper?” Max, of all people.
“Because we’re friends.”
She hip-bumped the oven door shut. “Friends? Not a word I’d use with him.”
“He’s a good man, Haley. I don’t know why the two of you never got along.”
He’s arrogant and stubborn, and he can’t stand to be wrong. He’s a jock who thinks being as hot and sexy as he is gives him a pass to stick his nose into my life and make assumptions about me. “I don’t know. It’s a mystery.”
Her dad poked at the mashed cauliflower. “These aren’t potatoes.”
“No, but it’s better for you.”
He grunted, and the clock chimed the hour at the same time someone knocked. “Right on time.” He went into the living room to let Max in.
When the bane of her existence walked into the kitchen, the space shrank as if his broad shoulders and bus-size ego sucked up all the square footage. And she was reminded yet again that he was easy on the eyes. She wanted to kick herself for the way her mind jumped to that thought.
He held out a bouquet of wildflowers.
She wondered if the flowers were a sign his stance on not helping her had weakened. “Oh. You shouldn’t have.”
“I didn’t. They’re for the table. Your dad said your mom always had flowers at dinner, so I figured it might be a nice gesture.”
“We don’t have flowers or plants in the house anymore because I unintentionally kill them,” Haley said.
“You? I’m shocked. You’ve always taken such great care of all living things.”
There’s that Max sarcasm. “Almost all,” she said sweetly, wondering why she had a hard time looking away from the slight upturn on the sides of his lips. “I’ll put these in a vase.”
Max walked to the cabinet and began to take out dinner plates like he’d done it before. He set them around the table.
Haley put the vase in the center, turned at the same time he did, and they bumped against each other. He recoiled as if he were a vampire and she a vampire slayer. “Don’t worry,” she said sweetly. “I won’t use the wooden stake on your shriveled little heart. At least not here where my dad could witness.”
“Ah, the dramatic gothic reference. Still reading your Dracula books?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Still reading your picture books?”
He smiled at that. A genuine smile that transformed his handsome face into one that made her uncomfortably understand why she’d seen women hang all over Max in the past. She trampled the thought. Just because the package looked good on the outside didn’t mean the contents weren’t rotten on the inside.
He helped her get the rest of the food onto the table, then sat at her father’s right.
Haley debated for a second before she grabbed her plate and slid into the chair next to Max. Nice and close. She gave her father a big toothy grin and looked at Max with all the innocence she could muster. He leaned forward, picked up his chair, and moved it a few inches away.
She put her hand on her chest. “Oh…was I in your personal space?”
“Not at all. You always ate with your elbows on the table. I figured you’d need some more room.”
“We ate beside each other one time at the town’s anniversary celebration, and I was nine. A lot about me, besides my table manners, has changed over the years.”
Max took a bite of the chicken she’d seasoned with lemon and garlic rather than answering.
“Delicious, isn’t it?” her dad said. “Haley creates wonders with food.”
The expression on Max’s face made her pause in the act of lifting a bite to her own mouth. With her father looking at him expectantly, Max was going to have to offer praise, and it was practically going to kill him. “She does at that. In fact, I’d say she’s good at everything she attempts.”
Haley lowered her eyebrows. Something fishy was flopping around.
Max gave her shoulder a gentle pat. “I think that’s why her kiss list idea is so brilliant.”
“Kiss list?” Her father looked baffled.
“You didn’t know? It’s the list that will help her find a husband.”
I’m going to kill him. Haley dropped her fork, and it clattered against the plate. Kill him slowly. Painfully.
“Husband?” Her father grinned. “Oh, honey, that makes me so happy. Who knows?” He lifted his glass of tea in a toast. “May grandkids be right around t
he corner. How exciting.”
Max clinked his glass against her father’s. “Isn’t it, though?”
“It’s not a husband list.” She scooched her fingers toward her fork, thinking she’d start Max’s murder by poking him with the tines, but he was faster.
He snatched the utensil up and moved it to the other side of his plate. “Aw, honey, don’t be shy. Tell your dad all about it.” He jerked his thumb toward her while looking at her father. “Craig, you gotta hear this. I was blown away when she told me. Utter genius.”
Haley breathed in deeply, then let her breath out the way she’d learned in the yoga classes she’d taken in L.A. “It’s…nothing, really.” She glared at Max.
“Don’t be modest.” He put his hand over his heart. “‘One kiss leads to love.’ I believe that’s how you phrased it when we were in the attic?”
Her dad went to get the tea pitcher from the refrigerator and refilled his glass. “I’m thrilled for you, Haley. I’d thought you were too hurt to want to date. Hearing this warms my heart.”
There was no way she’d lay her pain bare for Max’s viewing pleasure. “I planned to break up with Doug as soon as I found out he’d cheated. I only waited because his sister asked me to handle the breakup after the premiere.” The wicked witch of L.A. had warned her brother, and he’d preempted her breakup plan, then told anyone who’d listen that Haley was the cheater. Her so-called friends there had sided with him. She cleared her throat. “More than my heart, he bruised my pride.”
Her father shook his head, not fooled in the least. Probably because he’d seen the ugly crying, the boxes of tissues, and the ice-cream binges. He’d probably overheard one or two of her conversations with her friends when she’d filled them in on some of the uglier details.
“He was never worthy of you,” her father said. His cell phone rang, and he pushed away from the table. “Excuse me. Be right back.”
Haley went to get herself another fork and watched her father retreat into the living room. She pointed the tines at Max. “That was a low blow. You know he’s nagged me for years to get married and have a family.”
