“Everything okay?” Hayes greeted her when he answered the call.
“Don’t hang up,” the woman said.
Not Athena but Shayla. Shit. His groan was so loud that Hayes was surprised that someone in the Jameson houses didn’t come out to check on him.
“I’m sorry,” another woman said. This time it was Athena. “Shayla convinced me that she had to talk to you. I think you’ll want to hear what she has to say.”
Hayes seriously doubted that, and when he did get back to LA, he would change his number and then have a sit-down with his friends and insist they not share his contact info with Shayla.
“I wanted you to know I’ve moved on with my life,” Shayla said, speaking fast. She probably knew he was within a breath of hanging up on her. “I’ve found someone else, and I won’t be contacting you again. This is the last time you’ll ever hear from me, Hayes. I just wanted to wish you the best and say how sorry I am for following you around the way I did.”
That took some of the frustration out of him, but he was still skeptical. After all, this was Shayla, who’d made stalking an art form.
“I’m sorry about Ivy’s emails, too,” Shayla went on. “It must have hurt to see them printed like that.”
“It did,” he admitted. Always would.
“You weren’t to blame for anything that happened to Ivy, you know,” Shayla added.
It sure felt like that.
“You weren’t to blame,” Shayla repeated, as if she’d heard his thoughts. “I would needlepoint that on a pillow for you, but I don’t think you’ll want to have anything to do with me.”
This was boggy ground. Shayla might sound “reformed,” but anything he said to her could give her hope to continue trying to be with him. “Tell me about your new guy,” Hayes settled for saying.
She sighed, a dreamy “in love” sound. “Marlon is wonderful. Perfect in every way.” She seemed happy and not in an “I’m overly medicated” kind of way.
“Then I wish you the best with him.” He paused. “But if things don’t work out between you two, back off. Don’t stalk him.”
She laughed as if that were a fine joke. “I can’t stalk him. Not at the moment, anyway. He’s actually on his way to jail. A problem with his taxes, but it’s all a big misunderstanding that he plans on fixing.”
Hayes groaned again. “Shayla, you need to keep up with your therapy.”
“Oh, I will. And I’ll visit Marlon any chance I get. When you love someone, you always figure out a way to be with them.”
Or else you didn’t fall in love. That was the simplest solution.
And the hardest.
Until now, it hadn’t really been a problem for him. He’d just kept his emotional distance and put up a shitload of barriers between him and anyone he might fall for. He hadn’t quite managed that distance or barriers with Cait.
“Goodbye, Hayes,” Shayla told him. “Have a good life.”
That sounded like one of those bad clichés that you said when you were closing a door in your life. He hoped that’s exactly what it would be.
“Same to you,” Hayes answered, and he ended the call.
He stared at the phone a few more seconds, and he hoped this was one particular door that stayed shut forever.
Hayes made the drive back to Em’s, and since the party would probably still be going on, he intended to slip in and go straight to his room. If he saw Cait, there’d be no way he could keep his emotions off his face, and his sisters would also see. Then he’d get another round of twenty questions. He wanted to skip another sibling interrogation tonight.
He parked next to Cait’s SUV, and he quietly went in through a side door that led to the little-used living room. It was empty, but he could hear the sound of a TV and some chatter in the family room. There was talk of boob cupcakes and honeymoons.
Hayes pulled off his boots, and when he started up the stairs, he made sure he didn’t step on any of the boards that squeaked. He had to do the same in the hall when he went to his room, eased open the door. And froze.
Because Cait was in his bed.
She was on her stomach, fully dressed, and appeared to be asleep. However, she lifted her head, her eyes meeting his, and she smiled.
“Em told me to use one of the guest rooms,” she muttered, her voice both sleepy and sexy at the same time. She yawned. “But I thought I’d rather be in here. We saved you a tit cupcake,” she added.
In her mind, she’d probably added an explanation or some kind of context to that cupcake comment, but then he saw the plate on his nightstand. There was indeed a cupcake with a tit on it.
“We had dick cupcakes,” he said. “I didn’t bring you one.”
She sat up, stretched. “Oh, well. Maybe next time.”
Yes, because there were so many opportunities in life when dick cupcakes would be available.
Cait moved to the edge of the bed, put her palms on the mattress, but she didn’t get up. “Do you want me to leave or stay?”
Stay. That was the answer that nearly flew out of his mouth, and it would have been 100 percent true. He wanted her to stay, but the real question was—should she stay? If she did, they’d have sex. There was 100 percent certainty of that, too. And even though it was a certainty that Hayes knew he should fight, he didn’t. He stepped in, shut the door and locked it.
He went rock hard in anticipation.
“This time,” he drawled as he went to her, leaning down and kissing her, “I’m using more than just one hand.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
A PIANO VERSION of The Judds’ “Love Can Build a Bridge” flowed through the wedding tent. So did the sounds of dozens or so of whirling fans that kept the air cool.
There was also the sound of quacking ducks.
The first was a contribution from the pianist Em had hired. The latter was because the flower girls had decided to add sound effects to go with the duck-bill tiara hats they were wearing.
This day was a testament to how something that shouldn’t work managed to do just that.
The girls—Austin’s twins, Avery and Gracie, along with Bailey, the child Hadley had carried as a surrogate—had wanted full fowl face paint. Bailey, however, had turned out to have an allergy to the paint, so they’d settled on the duck hats, which Hadley had glammed up with sparkles and more of those seed pearls. The girls wore flowing yellow chiffon dresses trimmed at the bottom with white feathers.
As the triple maid of honor, Cait walked behind the black-eyed Susan petals that the girls were dropping, or in Avery’s case, flinging on the floor. Because the girls had gotten the yellow chiffon, so had Cait, though her dress wasn’t billowing out like a duck’s tail. At least she hoped it wasn’t. From what she’d been able to tell from looking at it and herself in the mirror, it worked.
The “it works” applied to Hayes, too. He stood at the front of the tent as the triple best man, and he was as mouthwatering as usual. He’d opted for a Texas tuxedo like the grooms. Jeans, cowboy boots, a black jacket and yellow ties. They looked like a lineup for hot guys.
Soon, her temporary hot guy would be leaving. Maybe as soon as immediately after the reception. Cait hated for that miserable thought to even enter her head, especially at a happy time like this, when she was about to see her three brothers married to the women they loved. But still the thought came, and Cait knew she would soon be paying the piper for the fun times she’d had with Hayes.
Kinsley flashed Cait a wink and a smile. Her sister was serving as the triple bridesmaid, just as Adam was doing that particular duty for the grooms. Cait was glad he’d been included because heaven knew how long it’d be before there was another Jameson wedding. This would hopefully make him understand that he truly was part of the family.
For better or worse, just like the wedding vows.
Adam would almost cer
tainly provide better, and if past behavior indicated future behavior, then the worse would come from Marty.
Cait kept walking down the makeshift aisle, avoiding the clumps of flowers that the girls had dropped so that she wouldn’t trip over them. There were the appropriate amounts of oohs and aahs from the one hundred or so guests. Some giggles as well at the quacking girls.
She spotted Marty, who was in the front row with her mother, Em and Tony. No Sunshine, of course. Nor had the triplets’ father shown up. Even though they hadn’t heard from him in years, Cait had been afraid that he might arrive just to stir up some trouble. Then again, he hadn’t taken that particular trouble-stirring path like his ex-wife, Sunshine.
As everyone else in the family and wedding party were doing, Cait checked for any signs of reporters. None. She recognized every face in the crowd. That didn’t mean, though, that one of them wouldn’t snap a picture and sell it to the tabloids. A whole lot of temptation there. But at least it wouldn’t be a photo that would put a dime in Sunshine’s greedy hands.
Cait’s eyes met Hayes’s just for a second, and she tried to give him some ocular reassurance that all was well with her, that the smile she was giving him was the real deal. And it was. He made her happy, and she was glad she’d had a taste of that particular happiness.
She silently cursed.
She had become that stupid cliché of it being better to have loved and lost, blah, blah, blah. But it was true. She wouldn’t want to undo what’d gone on between Hayes and her even if she would have to pay for it for the rest of her life. She loved him, and she knew in her heart that it was a done deal. Every man who crossed her path from now on would have to measure up to Hayes, and those other men would fall flat on their faces.
The sounds of people clearing their throats got her attention, and when Cait glanced around, she realized she had stopped. And along with the stopping, she was also staring at Hayes. Good grief. Not only was it embarrassing, it would give people something to gossip about for years.
Poor pitiful, lovestruck Cait.
It probably wouldn’t look very believable, but she reached down and fiddled with the bottom of her dress to make it look as if she were un-snagging it. Then she finished her walk to the front of the tent and stood on the opposite side of her brothers and across from Hayes. The moment she was in place, the wedding march started.
The aisle hadn’t been wide enough for all of the triplets to walk side by side, so they’d chosen to go in order of their births. Sunny came first in her sleek silk strapless gown that sported a flash of yellow on the beaded belt. Instead of a veil, she had some sprigs of baby’s breath and a single black-eyed Susan in her hair. She smiled and didn’t take her eyes off Shaw as she made her way to the front.
McCall was next, and she was wearing a fairy-tale gown that had been Avery and Gracie’s choice. The girls had also helped with the bouquet, which had little glittery magic wands sticking out of it. A small yellow rubber duck, too, to go with the rest of the theme.
Hadley was last in her white leather dress. Yes, leather. Nothing traditional for her. Well, except for that look of total love that was on her face when she spotted Leyton. Cait was surprised their eyes didn’t send out little throbbing cartoon hearts.
Unlike her sisters, Hadley had worn her hair down.The black curls and waves cascading down her back were adorned with several dozen tiny duck barrettes. Her bouquet was sunflowers and duck feathers. On paper, that hadn’t sounded like a good mix, but Hadley made it look like a work of art.
Behind Hadley waddled the real duck, Slackers. Having the mean-tempered critter there had spurred many long debates and conversations, but the twins and Bailey had matched that with pleas and promises to clean up any poop. Which, of course, no one would have let them do. In the end, the wedding party had decided for Slackers to wear a disposable diaper and a little sign warning visitors not to touch him.
Slackers wandered over to a food dish that Em had set up by the piano, and the ceremony started. Cait thought it was probably a good idea that she couldn’t actually see Hayes because it allowed her to focus on the vows. Again, all were as unique as the brides. Sunny and Shaw wrote their own. McCall and Austin went traditional. And Hadley and Leyton went with a version of Hayes’s catchphrase “climb on, bitch, and kiss me.”
There were indeed some kisses after the minister pronounced them married, and then the shuffling began almost immediately. Em had laid out this part the way a general would diagram a battle plan. While a crew moved in to take down the wedding stuff and set up the tent for the reception, the wedding party would wait in the house. The guests would go to the backyard, hopefully not for long or there’d be risk of heatstroke.
With the chatter about how beautiful the ceremony had been, the wedding party brought that happiness and invisible cartoon hearts into the kitchen, where Em had set out food and drinks for them while they waited. The flower girls had opted to stay outside, which was probably a good thing, considering that a kissing fest immediately started with the newlyweds. That left Kinsley, Adam, Hayes and Cait to pretend they were blind and deaf and couldn’t hear or see what was going on.
There was an awkward silence where Cait was trying not to notice Hayes and he was trying not to notice her, but thankfully Adam gave them a reprieve.
“I had a good time on tour with Granddad,” the boy blurted out, and then he stuffed a canapé into his mouth.
Cait felt ashamed that she hadn’t quizzed the boy on how that’d gone, but Marty and his tour bus had only cruised in that morning. Still, she should have made sure Adam was okay.
And he apparently was.
Even if Cait hadn’t picked up on his tone—which practically qualified as gleeful, by Adam’s normally somber standards—she couldn’t have missed the Granddad. It had rolled off the boy’s tongue, letting her know that he was comfortable with it. That likely meant Marty was, too, because she doubted Adam would have just started calling him that on his own.
“You didn’t see anything you shouldn’t have seen?” Cait pressed.
Adam glanced at Hadley and Leyton, who were French-kissing. “No naked women or anything. The band is all right. Friendly,” he added. “I guess Marty talked to them and told them not to cuss or anything in front of me.”
Well, that was a first for Marty to follow through on that kind of concern for one of his kin. So maybe past behavior didn’t have to keep on into the present. Then again, this was Marty, and it was just one short road trip. It didn’t qualify the man for The World’s Greatest Granddad coffee mug.
Kinsley pulled out her phone from a side pocket when it dinged with a text, and the girl flushed and smiled when she looked at the screen. “Uh, I want to go outside and wait.”
Cait had her own look at the girl’s phone and wasn’t surprised to see Jason Crawford’s name there. Jason was sixteen, the star quarterback of the high school team and had started to show some interest in Kinsley.
Which meant he was someone Cait would keep her eye on.
He seemed like a good enough kid, but she had a “big sister” duty to make sure Jason understood that she would do him grievous bodily harm if he did anything to hurt Kinsley. She’d also let Jason know that anything of the grievous nature she did to him would be a teeny-tiny drop in the bucket compared to what Leyton, Shaw and Austin would dole out. After all, they had “big brother” duties, too.
It occurred to her that her brothers might feel the same way about Hayes. But their relationship was different. Yes, there’d be hurt, but Cait was old enough to know exactly what she’d be facing.
Kinsley grabbed one of the plates of party food and hurried out. Adam lasted another minute, tops, before he muttered an excuse about needing to check on his granddad before he headed out, as well. That left Hayes and her surrounded by billowing clouds of newlywed lust. Then again, Hayes and she didn’t have any trouble creating their own l
ust clouds, billowing or otherwise.
“Thank you for making me the happiest woman in Texas,” she heard Sunny murmur to Shaw.
Hadley must have heard it and taken it as a challenge. “Thank you for making me the happiest woman in the entire universe, black holes included.”
McCall just chuckled, dismissed that with the wave of her hand and gave Austin a very hot kiss.
“I would tell them to get a room,” Hayes commented, tipping his head to the newlyweds, “but they might just do that and miss the reception.”
Yes, they did seem eager to get the honeymoon started. Their new lives, too. The kissing turned to sweet talk and promises before the gushing finally started about how beautiful the ceremony was. The consensus was that it’d been perfect, that they were happy their friends and family had been there to share it, that there’d been no interference from Sunshine or the press. And there was also talk they should somehow coax Slackers back into his pen before he pecked any of the guests or crapped through his diaper.
“I can help with that,” Cait offered. Not that she was especially eager for the chore, but she thought some fresh air might clear her head, even if that air was hotter than Hades and smothering with humidity.
Cait dumped some of the snacks into a napkin so she could use it to lure Slackers and wasn’t especially surprised when Hayes followed her out. She doubted it was just so he could give the couples some alone time.
“If you’re going to say goodbye,” she started the moment they were outside, “then you should just do it.” And so they’d have some privacy for that, Cait went to the side porch, away from the crowd that was milling around under the shade trees in the backyard.
Hayes didn’t say anything until they’d stopped. “I am going to say goodbye.”
Here it was. What she’d dreaded. But Cait refused to let the tears come. She wanted Hayes to have no visual and no indication whatsoever that this was indeed crushing her.
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