Independence: #4 Hayley (11 page)

Dane nudged Jack, both men watching Hayley.

“I’ll ask Claire if she has one in red or can get one,” Jack said easily, collecting the things and carrying them to the counter.

“Hayley?” Dane waited until she was back, handing her the t-shirt and jeans. “Ready to go?”

“Oh, sure,” she answered, dressing quickly.

“There’s a sports store next door down, Hayley,” Dane said as she was working the jeans up her legs. He met the startled look in her eyes that changed to a bright smile.

“I could use a new pair of runners,” she answered with a little nod. “And I always need new shorts and tops.”

“You can go over there while we finish up here,” he suggested, surprise on his face when she came up to him and framed his face with her hands. His mouth had barely opened when she kissed him and danced away with a nod. “We’ll be over in a few.”

“Should I ask?” Jack waited for the total, the clothing and toys bundled and bagged.

“Running shoes and clothes,” Dane said, his hands in his pockets. He stood staring at the door. “She’s not what I expected.”

“No kidding…and you’re just figuring that out?” Jack shook his head, signed the receipt and shoved one of the bags at Dane. “Here. Make yourself useful.”

Hayley tapped in the code for her debit card when she looked up to see them striding into the store.

“Wow…nice eye candy,” the girl behind the counter remarked with a little growl.

“Yeah…they sure are.” Hayley slid her card back into the wallet and watched the girl fold the shorts and top she’d bought before putting them into the bag with her new shoes. She felt the hand on her hip and leaned toward it. Jack, she thought at the familiar scent seconds before his lips brushed her temple.

“Found what you were after?”

“New shoes,” she said with a grin, her body freezing when his hand slid free and Dane’s came from the other side. “So we can run in the morning.”

“You’re both nuts. I’ll sleep in,” Jack took the bag and offered a grin at the girl staring at them. “Ready to go home?”

“Yes,” Hayley murmured, unsure if she should be embarrassed or triumphant at the expression on the younger woman’s face.

“Good. We have time for dinner before getting ready for tonight.”

“Why did you do that?” But there wasn’t anger or embarrassment in her voice as she climbed into the back seat of the truck. Confusion etched her features, her gaze going from one to the other.

Dane looked over at Jack. “Do what, Hayley? Come inside for you?”

“I…no, no, of course not…” She scowled at the both. “That girl…the sales girl…looked at you both like…”

“You don’t think we notice that?” Jack asked, his head shaking. “Some guys are like girls, Hayley, we like to be appreciated for more than our…muscles.”

She thought about their conversations. About how they’d started their construction company and wanted better than just cheap in the buildings and tons of money in their bank accounts. About how it had taken a few years to find the right clients and the work they did in the meantime to keep eating. Yes, they had more than just their looks going for them. A lot more. And for some reason, they wanted to share it with her.

Friends. And more.

Heat flushed through her and she turned to look out the window as they rode through the streets and onto the highway. “It’s not far from the ranch…maybe twenty minutes down the highway.”

“Did you need something from your place, Hayley?” Jack asked, meeting the gaze she turned from the window.

“Oh, no…just thinking it wasn’t that far. Not by this area standards, at least,” she told him with a smile.

“Claire included the hangers, so you can just remove all the tags and hang them in the closet.” Dane caught her gaze in the mirror and winked at her.

“I can put groceries away,” she volunteered.

“Jack’s pretty particular about his kitchen,” Dane warned after a little bit of a frosty silence.

“Jack is organized, not particular,” came the prickly response.

“I’ll open the cabinets and match things up,” she said with a laugh at Jack’s sarcastic tone.

“A smart man doesn’t argue with help,” Jack returned with a grin at her. “Especially pretty help. We’ll haul for you. Leave the lunch stuff out and we’ll have big sandwiches.”

“Good. I’m hungry,” Hayley decided she liked the idea and loved their kitchen. “You know the owner of the shop, don’t you?”

“You might, too, Hayley,” Dane told her, snapping his belt open as they pulled before the house. “I don’t know how many people you know that go to the club, but I know Claire is a friend of Dianna’s and Bailey.”

“The Helping Hands shelter,” she said softly, her head nodding. “I know Claire. I didn’t see her…she must be swamped with only a few days left before Christmas.”

“She was bouncing between her office and customers while you were changing,” Jack told her. “Some things she hadn’t ordered were on the road…somewhere…and she was trying to locate them. She said she’d catch up with you tonight at the club.”

Hayley swallowed hard. “Claire goes to the club?”

“Hyperventilating,” Dane said softly, bringing his palm down sharply on her thigh. Her eyes went wide and her mouth opened seconds before it slammed shut. “Hayley, we have to deal with this thing about people uncovering your little secrets. It won’t make either of us terribly happy to scoop you off the floor if you pass you.”

“I don’t know how,” she answered honestly when he stepped onto the concrete and waited for her to join him. Jack had the back of the truck open and was hauling bags to the front porch.

“Let’s start with what are you afraid they’ll do to you? You’re over twenty-one.” Jack tapped in numbers to the key pad and then disarmed the alarm on the inside. He blocked the door wide and carried a load of bags to the counter in the kitchen. He stared for a long minute at his neatly arranged kitchen and hoped he knew what he was doing. It was one thing to have an OCD attack in front of your best friend, a completely different matter to let the girl you’re considering wooing to see you lose control over a misplaced box of cookies.

He winced. He was an adult and could deal with someone else in his kitchen.

“Jack?” Hayley came up behind him, the bags she carried set on the counter next to his. She placed a hand on his arm and offered a little smile. “I think I’m the same way when I let my uncle or Conner use my examining room. I used to spend hours worrying they’d put things in all the wrong places and I’d freak when I needed something and couldn’t immediately put my hands on it.”

If he was still considering his decision to try, a bit of it slipped past consider when he looked down into a pair of doe-soft eyes.

“I won’t…and if I don’t know, I’ll ask, okay?”

Jack hadn’t moved or spoken when she went to her toes and kissed his cheek before returning to the truck for more bags.

“I think she has you pegged,” Dane commented with a crinkle of plastic as his bags joined the others. It had been a few weeks since they actually did more than just ‘pick up a few things’ and the cabinets were fairly bare. No excuse, he thought, just other things to do than shop. “Maybe we should take our own advice and hire a part time housekeeper. We can make a list and they could shop for us when we’re too busy. Three people living and working together, need all the help they can get, especially if they’re as involved as we are.”

“This is the last of it,” Hayley said, the door closing behind her. She shivered as the warmth caught up with her body. “Winter…” she stood near the counter, the bags in her hands and gazing around. “You don’t have a tree.”

“Uhh…” Dane raised a brow, looking expectantly at Jack for ideas.

“We’ve never had one,” Jack answered slowly. “This is the biggest place we’ve ever lived in…we had an apartment back east…but didn’t really spend much time there.”

“We’d go off to relatives or hide out during the season,” Dane added, wincing when he realized she was staring at them both with confusion and a little sadness. “We’re okay with it, Hayley.”

“Oh…then that’s a good thing,” she said quietly, setting the bags down and gazing to the hall. “What should I wear tonight?”

Dane and Jack exchanged looks. “Pick something, Hayley. I’m pretty sure anything out of the collection will do very nicely.”

“I have to go home for a while,” she said with a little nod, wandering to the back and looking at the packages they’d left on the bed for her. She lifted one and walked with it to the front, her keys dangling as she moved. “Promptly at six,” she said with a quick glance at each of them. When they nodded, she smiled. “Tonight. Thank you.”

Dane and Jack stared but said nothing until the sound of the truck leaving.

“The kitchen thing didn’t scare her off,” Dane finally said, emptying bags and leaving the items on the counter.

“I think it was the comment about the tree,” Jack responded, quickly locating spots and storing what they’d bought. “Our girl has a Christmas Fetish.”

“Huh…” Dane considered this and finished with what he could do in the kitchen before glancing toward the large, mostly empty living area. “So how come we never thought about it before?”

“Don’t care?” Jack answered. “Guess we’ll have to find out later.”

Chapter Eight

Hayley had stood before the mirror in her bedroom for ten minutes before stripping and thumbing through things in her closet. She folded the shimmering red dress and put it into her pack. But she sure as hell couldn’t drive in the thing.

She found a couple tank tops and layered them before shimmying into the old, one size too small skirt. She’d grown a few inches since the skirt had seen the outside world. But she figured it would work fine in the club. It stopped just barely past legal and she was tugging it over her underwear as she walked to the car.

And it was a festive red and green plaid with gold stripes. Perfect for the season. She cast one last look at her little tree before taking her pack and leaving the house.

She’d bound her hair into a high riding ponytail and it bobbed in the darkness as she went to the entrance of the club. A bright smile was beamed and she told them who she was there for. The man wrote her name on a clipboard and wrapped a paper band on her wrist, then he wrote the time on it and the names of Jack and Dane.

The sparkling green heels she wore clicked on the tiles and a shiver ran through her as she crossed into the reception area. She held up her wrist, uncertain of what she should do. Her gaze shot to the clock and she sighed. She still had five minutes.

“They’re already inside,” the young woman at the desk told her, gesturing to the thick curtain blocking the public from the inside.

“Thank you.”

A warm spiral began in her chest and spread out as she stepped through the curtain. Into another world, she thought briefly, the soft, chanting music a sign of the early hour. Later, it would thump and vary from one large space to the other. She swallowed the lump in her throat, straightened her shoulders and hitched her pack onto one of them before striding toward the bar.

****

Dane nudged his elbow into Jack’s side, two pairs of eyes watching her approach.

“We evidently weren’t very clear,” Jack said quietly.

Dane’s gaze wandered to her feet. “I guess not.”

They saw the hesitancy in her approach once she knew they were there. She gazed around, aware of people watching her. Dane held up a hand when he caught sight of Jude approaching along the bar to see if she wanted anything. Jude backed off and returned to watch mode.

Jack held up a hand, one finger raised when Hayley opened her mouth to speak.

“It might be best if you said nothing at the moment, Hayley,” he said softly. “Put your pack on the stool here and go to the supply area behind us and get one of the thick cushions to kneel on.”

Hayley swallowed and set the pack down. “Yes, Sirs,” she answered and continued past them to the wall.

“The look in her eyes says confusion,” Dane commented. “Not defiance.”

“Which means she forgot what she was told or has an explanation she believes exempts her,” Jack exhaled slowly. “So we’ll go cautiously.”

“She’s punctual.”

“She’s not punctual if she’s not dressed the way we told her.” Jack waited as she carried the large pillow and stood in front of them. “Place it on the floor, Hayley, between us and then look up here.”

Dane turned slightly, his arms crossed over his chest. He was leaning on one of the bar stools, his right leg stretched out and the other bent.

“We seem to have a severe communication issue, Hayley,” he began, his tone patient and eyes flat. He shook his head when she started to speak. “We haven’t given you permission to speak yet. When we do, I strongly suggest you think very carefully about your responses.”

Full lips closed and she nodded nervously.

“I see three infractions to the instructions you were given, Hayley,” Jack picked up smoothly. “So I’m going to ask that you explain what I see and see if you agree with what’s wrong and what’s put us in a bad mood right off the bat.”

“Wrong?” Hayley swallowed, her gaze skittering uncomfortably from one to the other. “With me? With…my clothing? I couldn’t drive in that dress!” Her voice came out low and genuinely filled with dismay. “I have it in my pack. I was going to go to the changing area.”