Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection (157 page)

“Do you?” Emily asked again, her tone more insistent.

“Oh sorry, sweetie. I was zoning out for a minute.” Haley took a deep breath as she continued running the brush through Emily’s wet hair, which hung to the middle of her back. “No, I don’t have a boyfriend. Do youuu?”

Emily whipped her head around and looked at Haley like she’d just bit into a lemon. “Eww, no. That’s gross!” Then, turning back around, Em pulled her knees up to her chest and focused her attention back to the movie that starred transforming cars.

Haley bit back a smile. She remembered exactly what it had felt like to think boys were gross. In fact, she’d stayed in the boys-have-cooties stage much longer than all of her friends. Which was sort of odd because she was
very
much a romantic, always had been.

Part of her late blooming had had to do with the fact that Haley had what everyone had always referred to as an ‘old soul.’ When she was growing up, her favorite pastimes were reading and shopping for antiques. Not a whole lot of crushing usually happened during those activities. With the exception, of course, for book boyfriends. She’d had—
still
had!—a serious thing for Gilbert Blythe. The summer of her sixth grade year, she’d read
Anne of Green Gables
at least twenty-five times.

That same summer, she’d also spent every weekend trying to convince someone to take her antique shopping. Not that she’d had any real money to spend. She’d always just loved being around antiques. She would make up stories in her head about the furniture, knick knacks, and jewelry. Where it had been. Who its previous owners were.

The other reason that she seemed to have skipped the pitfalls of a boy-crazy adolescence was because she’d been raised side by side with five older male cousins. The boys had really been more like brothers to her. Growing up, she’d had a front-row view of all the disgusting things boys did. Seth, Riley, Jason, Alex, Bobby, and their friends had given her a look behind the curtain and it was not a clean, sanitary place, to say the least.

Not only had she seen firsthand how smelly and dirty boys could be, her dating life had also been hampered by the fact that her cousins intimidated the crap out of all the boys that had shown even a slight interest in her. It wasn’t as bad for her three little sisters since three of her cousins had gone into the military right after high school. She had definitely received the lion’s share of the overprotective-older-brother treatment.

After using almost an entire bottle of detangler, Haley was finally able to pull the brush easily through Emily’s hair. “Do you want a braid, Em?”

“Yes please!” Emily bounced up and down with excitement as she clapped her hands together.

Haley’s heart filled to the brim with love. She felt so honored to be able to share these little moments with Em. It was the little things—braiding her hair, doing their nails, tucking her in—that caused Haley’s heart to swell. Those were the moments that Haley treasured the most. The day-to-day routine stuff.

“Did your mom used to braid your hair?” Emily asked, her voice edged with a little sadness.

“Sometimes.” Haley smiled at the memory even as her heart broke for the little girl sitting between her knees.

Lately, Emily was having a tough time dealing with the fact that she’d never met her mom. She’d been asking Haley a lot of questions about what it was like to have a mom. Also, she’d asked if Haley had known Emily’s mom Lacey.

Of course Haley had tried to answer her as honestly as possible—without putting in her own narrative on what kind of a person Lacey was—and basically just be there for Em when she needed someone to talk to. But lately, the “mom” topic had been coming up more and more, and Haley thought that it was probably time to let Eddie know. Haley at least needed to find out how he wanted her to handle the dreaded ‘Lacey’ questions.

Haley’s fingers twisted and wrapped a ponytail holder around the bottom of Emily’s braid. “All done, sweetie pie.”

Emily’s hand immediately reached back and her slim fingers ran down the center of her braided hair. Then she excitedly turned and looked up at Haley with big brown eyes, asking, “Can I braid yours now?”

“Of course,” Haley agreed happily as the two switched places. Haley now sat crisscross-applesauce on the floor in front of the couch with Emily perched on the cushion behind her.

As they watched the movie and Emily brushed out Haley’s hair, her mind wandered to what Eddie was doing right now. And who he was doing it with. She knew that logically she should feel upset, and of course there was a small part of her that wished he were here with her instead of out there with…whoever he was with. But that had more to do with the fact that she missed him, not that she was jealous over his hook-up.

Her sisters (who were the only people privy to her long standing love-slash-crush-slash-infatuation of Eddie Thomas) made some valid points in their argument that she shouldn’t be wasting her time wishing things could be different between herself and Eddie. But Haley had finally come to the conclusion that she couldn’t reason with her heart. And even if Eddie never returned her feelings, Haley didn’t regret the years she’d spent loving him. Because she knew it was true love.

Her cousins might have given her a front-row view of how disgusting boys could be, but she’d also had a great seat as she’d watched all of them fall in love with their significant others. Oh boy, had they fallen and fallen hard. Luckily to amazing women—one of whom was Eddie’s sister Chelle, another was Haley’s boss Amber. All of the women seemed to return her cousins’ love, having fallen equally hard themselves.

Sure, Haley wished that she had what her cousins had, that her true love loved her back. But the way she looked at it, it had taken Jason and Katie over twenty years and Riley and Chelle over ten to make it to their happily-ever-afters. Maybe she still had a shot.

“Are you having a birthday party too?” Emily asked as she busily worked on separating Haley’s hair into three sections, just like Haley had shown her on her Barbie.

“Yes, I am.”

“Can I go to your party?” Emily’s voice sounded hopeful.

“Oh, I wish you could, but you have to be twenty-one to get in where my party is.”

“But you’re coming to my party, right?” The tone in Emily’s voice sounded unsure and Haley didn’t want anything, especially something that had to do with her birthday, upsetting her.

“Ab-soooo-lutely,” Haley assured her. “I am going to be here all day. I already found my princess dress. My party doesn’t
start
until after yours is over. In fact, it doesn’t start until after you will be sound asleep in bed dreaming about all the gifts you got.”

Haley and Emily shared the same birthday. They liked to call each other ‘birthday twins.’ The last few years since coming home from college, Haley had spent their shared birthday celebrating with Emily in the day and then going out for her celebration at night. This year would be no different. Well, except for the fact that she would be dressed like a princess because that was the theme that Emily had chosen this year.

“Is Daddy going to
your
birthday?”

Good question
. One Haley would very much like the answer to. “I don’t know.”

“Does he have a girlfriend?” Emily asked, her voice sounding curious but a little hesitant.

Another very good question. Again, one Haley would very much like the answer to. She knew that he hooked up with random women, but were any of them serious? Did he see one more than the other? Did he think about one when he went to bed at night and woke up in the morning?

“I don’t know,” Haley answered honestly.

“Well, do you
know
what you want for your birthday?”

Yes. Your dad
.

“Um well, I like jewelry and books, so it would be nice if I got something like that.” Haley honestly didn’t want anything but Eddie for her birthday, but she wasn’t going to ruin Em’s fun by saying a boring ‘nothing.’ “What do you want pretty girl?”

“A bra,” Emily quickly blurted out as if she’d been waiting for her to ask that.

Haley had no idea how to respond to that.

“Can you make me one?” Emily asked in her sweetest voice.

“Um…well…let me talk to your dad first, but—”

A heavy, defeated sigh sounded from behind Haley’s head. “Never mind.”

“Did you already ask him if you could have one?” Haley was pretty sure that she already knew the answer to that.

“Yes,” Emily begrudgingly confirmed.

“And he said ‘no’?”

“He’s a boy!” Emily plopped down beside Haley and spoke animatedly. “He doesn’t understand.”

Haley just nodded in understanding as Emily rested her head against her shoulder. Tilting her head, she leaned her cheek against the top of Emily’s head as they once again turned their attention to the movie.

“I love the nights you come and stay with me.” Emily’s voice sounded sleepy.

“Me too, bugaboo.” Haley wished she was here every night. With Eddie and Em. “Me too.”

* * * * *

EDDIE PULLED UP his boxer briefs as he crossed the darkened room, bent over, and snatched his pants off the floor. He was still catching his breath from the physical exertion he’d just expended. Usually on his nights out, he spent several hours in bed with his dates, and he used the term ‘date’ loosely. They were casual hook-ups. That was all.

Still, Eddie normally didn’t treat them as such—at least between the sheets. But tonight he just didn’t want to be here. Physically, he’d gotten off, but to say that he’d enjoyed himself would be an exaggeration of epic proportions. He was nowhere near satisfied.

“Where are you going?” Claire’s voice sounded behind him as he was stepping into his jeans. He felt her naked breasts press up against his back as her arms encircled his waist. Her touch made him want to move away.

His reaction was severe, and it even surprised him. What in the hell was he doing with his life?

“I’ve got to get home,” he answered as calmly as he could. He didn’t want to be a dick just because he’d suddenly grown a conscience or…whatever was haunting him lately.

“Are you sure I can’t change your mind?” she purred as she raked her dark red nails across his abdomen.

He moved out of her reach. “No, not tonight.” Picking up his shoes, he moved to the chair next to the window. The drapes were pulled open and his attention was drawn to the breathtaking view of the Chicago skyline.

A random, unbidden thought suddenly filled his head.
Haley would love this view.
Eddie shook his head in an attempt to clear it. He had to knock that shit off. The inappropriate sexual thoughts that had taken up permanent residence in his mind about the blond-haired, blue-eyed babysitter were bad enough. But the non-sensual in nature were almost worse.

No, they were
definitely
worse.

She popped into his mind at the most random times. Last week, in the early hours of the morning, he’d been commuting to the job site and seen the most beautiful sunrise dawning and the first thought that had crossed his mind was
I wish Haley were here to see this
. He had taken Em to see Disney on Ice and the entire time they were there he’d been thinking about how much Haley would have enjoyed it. He’d pictured her eyes lighting up with excitement as the performers skated gracefully onto the ice, imagined her smile brightening the room as she beamed down at his daughter.

Haley was so good with Emily, and his daughter worshipped the ground the object of his infatuation walked on. Which you would think would be categorized as a pro, but to Eddie, that fact was firmly in the con category. It was just one more reason that nothing could happen between them. It would be selfish and reckless for him to act on his growing feelings for Haley. His daughter deserved to have Haley in her life. She meant the world to his little girl. If he did anything to jeopardize that, then he would be exactly what people thought he was—an asshole.

His main goal in continuing his unsatisfying adventures in the one-night-stand department was that he could squelch the all-consuming fire that was internally blazing for Haley. His reasoning had been simple and scientifically-based. His get-laid-now, avoid-disaster-later plan was more than just a feeble attempt to take the edge off. Eddie likened his strategy to when seismologists said that small shifts in the earth’s plates were good. That tiny earthquakes actually lessened the occurrence and likelihood of large, devastating quakes.

Which would be exactly what would happen if he ever gave into his base desires for Haley. It would be complete and total catastrophic devastation. It could destroy the very foundation that his life—and Emily’s—was built on.

“Listen, I am going to be up in the Harper’s Crossing area on Sunday and I thought maybe we could have a picnic. You, me, and Emily.” Claire sat on the chair beside Eddie totally, unselfconsciously naked. The dark-haired beauty beside him was by far one of the most self-aware, self-assured, self-confident people he’d ever met.

And she had every reason to be. Claire had the body of a Victoria’s Secret model, and her face reminded him of Cindy Crawford (his teenage crush). Not only that, but Claire was a successful businesswoman. Smart, savvy, and sexy. On paper, she was a triple threat with capital T’s. If Eddie was planning on settling down, logically she would be a front runner for the job.

But he wasn’t. And no matter how much he tried to talk himself into being interested in her, if he was being honest, he just wasn’t. Which made absolutely zero sense. Sexually: they were compatible. Personally: they were compatible. A small voice in the back of Eddie’s head, the one he’d been trying to ignore for years now, pointed out the obvious fact that Eddie was doing everything in his power to ignore; it explained his disinterest in the raven-haired beauty, or any other beauty for that matter.

Claire wasn’t Haley. Serena wasn’t Haley. Janessa wasn’t Haley. None of the women he was seeing now or had seen in his past came close to making him feel what Haley made him feel. Except Lacey, but he didn’t want to go there.