Taken With You (9 page)

When a car pulled into her driveway, she frowned and went to the window. It was Paige’s car and Hailey felt a pang of concern. She rarely showed up unannounced and she hadn’t been out much at all since having the baby.

By the time she got outside, Paige had hung a massive diaper bag over her shoulder and was wrestling the car seat out of the backseat.

“Let me help you.” Hailey took Sarah’s seat while Paige kicked the car door closed.

“Are you busy?”

“Nope. Just drinking coffee and putting off my to-do list for the day.”

“I can help you with both of those things. Only one cup of coffee for me, though. I shouldn’t even have that because I had one this morning and I’m nursing, but I’m going to lose my mind if I don’t.”

Once they were inside, Hailey unbuckled Sarah, who was looking at her with solemn blue eyes. “You are the most perfect baby girl I’ve ever seen.”

“Don’t let her fool you,” Paige said, setting the diaper bag on a chair. “She’s a Kowalski. That love comes with a whole helping of crazy-making.”

Hailey lifted the baby out of her seat and cradled her, bouncing her gently. “I bet she’s worth the crazy.”

“She is.” Paige sighed. “So is her daddy.”

The saw started, Bear barked and Sarah startled in Hailey’s arms. “Sorry, doll. The horrible man who lives next door doesn’t care about us at all.”

Paige went to the window and looked out. “Oh, my.”

“He also doesn’t like to wear shirts.”

“Aunt Hailey’s a lucky lady.”

Hailey snorted. “Aunt Hailey was going to work in her yard today, but it sounds like a construction site now.”

“But what a view.”

“Hey, married lady. Come take your daughter and I’ll sneak you some caffeine.”

Paige laughed. “Ha. You keep my daughter and I’ll make my own coffee. I had to grab a few things at Fran’s and she fell asleep, so we’ve been driving around. I had the radio on and was singing and having a good time, but then she woke up and we were close, so we came to visit.”

“How long did you drive around?”

Paige shrugged. “I might need gas.”

“That’s not a good long term plan for coping with Mitch being on the road.”

“No, but it felt good to cruise around and sing for a while. And Rosie’s so eager to get her hands on Sarah, she’s pushing me to go back to work.”

Hailey sat down at the table because tiny little bundles of joy got hard on the back rather quickly. “What does Mitch think about that?”

“Mitch is a very smart man and thinks I should do whatever makes me happy.” Paige smiled and took a sip of the coffee she’d poured. “I don’t really need to be at the diner. Between Ava, Liz and Tori, they’ve got it covered. But it’s still my business. I might not wait tables, but I want to be there at least a few hours several days a week. I’ll get out of the house and Rose gets her fill of Sarah.”

Hailey looked into the baby’s face, trying to ignore the way her insides turned all warm and fuzzy. “I don’t know what I’d do if I had a baby.”

“Take it to work with you.”

She laughed. “Libraries are the perfect place for babies.”

“I’m serious. Maybe you don’t realize how much this town loves you, Hailey. You could bring a baby in a bassinet and nobody would mind. Cutting back the hours a little wouldn’t hurt anybody, and you might get a few people turn cranky if the baby was crying, but overall you could make it work. By the time the baby’s ready to need some running around room, you’d be ready to find child care.”

“I almost believe you. Not that it matters. I’ve yet to meet the hypothetical child’s father yet.”

“Hypothetically, you need to come look out this window.”

Hailey threw her a dark look. “Matt Barnett is not the father of my hypothetical child, even hypothetically. I have no desire to raise a little pack of forest urchins, running around barefoot with no shirts on in the mud.”

“Forest urchins?” Paige returned the look. “Why are you being so hard on this guy?”

Hailey sighed. “Because he touched the back of my neck and I wanted to climb him like a horny monkey.”

Coffee
almost
sprayed from Paige’s mouth as she tried to choke down it and a startled laugh at the same time. “Seriously, Hailey?”

“Seriously. Just looking at him makes me want him. Then he put some cream on the bug bite on the back of my neck yesterday and...just that was almost enough, if you know what I mean. Oh, and that was
after
he carried me into the house.”

“What? Why?”

Hailey told her the entire story, leaving nothing out because this was her best friend, after all. She could trust Paige to keep her best interests at heart.

“Hailey, you need to climb that man like the horny monkey you are.”

Or not. “He looks good right now, especially with the whole sweat-glistening naked torso thing, but he’s not my type.”

“I didn’t say to marry him. A horny monkey can climb a tree, then climb back down and choose another.”

“I’m starting to regret the horny monkey thing.”

“Yeah, it’s not very sexy.”

Sarah wriggled in Hailey’s arms, making squeaking sounds. “What is she doing?”

“She’s ready for breakfast. Again.”

“Good. Then it’s my turn for coffee.” Hailey handed Sarah off to her mother. “After you feed her, you can take a nap if you want. I’ll keep an eye on her.”

“Thanks, but I’m going to head over to the lodge after. Business has picked up enough that we’re going to go through the food budget. We’re looking into the feasibility and legalities of purchasing their kitchen supplies through my suppliers.” She went to the couch and grabbed throw pillows to make herself comfortable for feeding Sarah. “And, bonus, Rosie will get to fuss over her grandbaby.”

Even though the Kowalskis weren’t Rose’s biologically, which was good considering Josh and Katie’s relationship, she considered them as good as hers, and therefore their children were her grandchildren. Johnny, Sean Kowalski’s son with his wife, Emma, was about to have his first birthday, but they lived in New Hampshire, so Rose was ecstatic to have a baby close enough to smother with love.

Hailey curled up at the other end of the couch and drank her coffee while Paige nursed Sarah, making small talk about nothing. But her mind kept bouncing back and forth between thoughts of Matt and wishing she had a baby of her own. As much as the former sounded like a delicious treat, if she was going to ever get the latter, she couldn’t afford to be sidetracked.

“I need to start going into the city on the Saturdays I have off,” she said suddenly, and Paige rolled her eyes.

“And do what? You’re just going to bump into Mr. Right by hanging out at the mall every other Saturday?”

“Or the movie theater or a bowling alley. I’m sure as hell not going to find him at the library, am I?”

The saw fired up again and Paige gave her a meaningful look. Hailey looked back at her coffee mug and ignored her. There would be no climbing of Matt Barnett.

* * *

I
T
TOOK
M
ATT
most of the day to put in the swinging door for Bear, between installing the frame itself and wiring the alarm. He’d taken a long break midmorning, then gone out for a run with the dog, which had eaten up more time than he’d anticipated. Bear still wanted to investigate his new surroundings more than exercise.

Once the construction was wrapped up, he’d put away his tools and had a very late lunch in the form of a small microwave pizza. He was going to need to make a run to a real grocery store soon and stock up on essentials. Thankfully, there was a chest freezer in the garage. It worked and barbecue season was coming, so he’d fill it with meat.

Now he was out in the grass, doing one of the more unpleasant chores that came with owning a dog. Especially a large dog who ate a lot. With a spade in one hand and a rake in the other, he moved through his yard.

Movement caught his eye and he turned to face his neighbor’s house.

Hailey was perfectly framed in her big bay window and, with the sun behind clouds and the lights on in her living room, he had no trouble seeing her. She had one of those telescoping dusters and was cleaning her ceiling fan blades. Or that’s what she was supposed to be doing, anyway.

Her hips were swaying and, as he watched, the slight moving with the music became a full-on dance. He could see the small mp3 player clipped to the neck of her shirt and the white wires leading up to her ears, and her eyes were closed.

Her mouth moved as she sang along with whatever song had her moving like that, and his body hardened in response. It was a sexy song. He could tell by the way she moved and, even though he couldn’t dance worth a damn, he wanted nothing more at that moment than to be in that room, his body moving in time with hers.

Then the cell phone in his pocket vibrated and he jerked his gaze away. It was probably creepy, watching Hailey dance when she didn’t know he was there, and it was definitely something he couldn’t make a habit of.

His mother’s number showed on his screen, just to hammer home the vague sense of guilt and wrong-doing.

“Hi, Mom,” he said, carrying the yard tools back to the deck. He leaned them against the side of the house and sat in one of the patio chairs that had also gone with the house.

“Are you busy?”

“Nope. Just finished up.”

“Good. I miss you. You live so far away now.”

Matt smiled. “I’m not
that
far away. Last Sunday I was there for Mother’s Day and you saw me just yesterday.”

“For fifteen minutes. And I hate not being able to picture where you’re living.”

“I showed you the pictures the owners sent me.”

“It’s not the same.”

He sighed, giving in to the inevitable. “I’ve barely started unpacking. This weekend the trails here open
and
it’s Memorial Day weekend, which you know is crazy for me. But how about the following Saturday you and dad come over and visit?”

“That sounds wonderful. I bet your niece and nephews would like to see you, too.”

“Bring everybody, Mom.” She would anyway. “We’ll have a cook-out.”

“That sounds wonderful. I’m putting it on my calendar right now. How do you like your neighbors?”

An image of Hailey flashed through his mind, her hips swaying to a sensual rhythm he could feel even if he couldn’t hear it. “The neighbors are fine.”

“Really?”

Jeff must have run his mouth, and Matt made a mental note to make his brother-in-law pay somehow. “She’s nice.”

“I heard she called you a stalker.”

“It was a joke, Mom.” Bear brought him his rope, hoping to play, so Matt tossed it out into the yard. “It’s a long story, but I’m not having problems with my neighbor.”

“I’ll probably get to meet her when we’re there. You should invite her.”

“Maybe. I have to run, Mom. It looks like it might rain and I’ve got tools outside.” It was a lie, but a little one.

“Okay. I love you, honey, and we’ll see you Saturday after next. I’ll make my pasta salad.”

“It wouldn’t be a cookout without it. Love you, too, Mom.”

Even after the call ended, Matt didn’t get up. After pulling his T-shirt back on, he relaxed in the wrought iron chair. He was tired, and maybe a little afraid he’d succumb to the temptation of walking to the back of the yard again, where he could see Hailey. Bear wasn’t the only one who needed to learn boundaries.

The dog brought him the rope and, after a game of tug, he tossed it into the yard again. Bear raced after it, almost tripping over his own feet in his rush to grab it and bring it back so he could refuse to drop it again.

He was hungry, the microwave pizza long since burned off, but he couldn’t work up the ambition to go inside. It was a nice night and he didn’t have anything in the fridge worth making. The diner was a possibility, but that also required a level of ambition he didn’t feel.

“Five more minutes,” he told Bear. Then he’d probably nuke another pizza, just because they were there. And easy.

* * *

H
AILEY
TUCKED
HER
phone between her cheek and her shoulder and pulled the baking dish of shepherd’s pie out of the oven. The left oven mitt must have been damp, though, because her fingers started burning almost immediately, and she dropped it onto the stove surface with a hiss.

“What’s happening?” Tori asked, interrupted in the middle of a sentence about a show they both watched.

Shifting the phone back to her hand, Hailey shoved the rack back in and closed the oven door. “I made shepherd’s pie and burnt my fingers getting it out.”

“Shepherd’s pie, huh?

Distracted by getting to the sink so she could run cold water over her fingertips, Hailey spoke without thinking. “For my new neighbor.”

“Your new neighbor the hot game warden?”

“How long was it between the time I left the diner and the time Liz called you?”

“About thirty seconds, probably. I was working, though, so she left a voice mail. I was waiting for you to bring it up and then you distracted me with television talk. So tell me everything.”

“Matt moved in next door. That’s everything.” She had no intention of telling anybody except Paige about him carrying her inside and the way her body had reacted to him touching her neck.

“Everything except the part where you called him a stalker.”

Hailey winced. “That was a little crazy, which is why I’m bringing him shepherd’s pie.”

She glanced toward the oven, feeling a rush of pride at the way the top of the mashed potato layer had formed a perfect buttery brown crust. It would have to cool a bit before she could carry it next door, even with dry oven mitts.

“You should invite him
out
to dinner,” Tori said.

“Why would I do that? I want to welcome him to the neighborhood, not date him.”

“Because this is the only place to eat, so you’ll have to come here and I’ll get to watch the two of you together because I bet you
should
date him.”

“That’s a little weird.” She wasn’t going to date Matt. She also wasn’t going to let him near her neck again, because that made her think about a lot more than dating him. Unless dating was a euphemism for sex.