Marrying Hayden isn’t going to happen.
Chapter Sixteen
Hayden
After leaving the diner, I’m not in the mood to go to my mother’s house. I’ll have to soon, of course, because Penny’s there. But on the off-chance my mom’s home early, I need a few minutes of walking in the fresh air alone to process the hard left-turn my plan took today.
You don’t get to be as successful as I am in business without mastering the ability to pivot, but asking Cara Gamble to marry me was one hell of a pivot. Or telling her she should, actually. It isn’t going to go down as one of the more romantic proposals ever put out there.
I spent the entire drive from the diner to the main street of Sumac Falls trying to come to terms with my own audacity—marrying a woman in order to facilitate taking possession of her family home should feel wrong. The fact it doesn’t makes me worry about myself a little.
By the time I find a parking spot, my spinning thoughts are starting to slow to the point I can sort through them. After locking my car, I set out down the sidewalk at a slow pace with my hands in my pockets and my gaze roaming over the windows and signs around me. Some are familiar, having been there for decades. Others are new, including a surprising number of tanning and nail salons. I’ve yet to see any extra-tan people with impeccable manicures walking around, so I’m not sure how Sumac Falls sustains them all.
Once I’m calmer, I let my mind wander back to Cara. I assume the reason the suggestion of marriage doesn’t feel wrong to me is that I’m not hiding my motivation from her. Letting her believe I was in love with her and wanted her to be my wife until death do us part, and then divorcing her once I have the deed? That would be wrong.
But if she’s in on it from the start, I’m not deceiving her.
I pop into the market to pick up some fresh fruit for my mom’s house, and I’m already through the door and fully inside when I realize my mistake.
I mostly kept to myself when I was young, and I rarely visit town when I come to see the family. The residents of Sumac Falls who do know me either give me a wide berth or they want to tell me everything that’s happened in their lives over the last seventeen years.
I’m not in the mood for either right now, but Shawna Carpenter is manning the cash register—as she’s been doing for as long as I can remember—and the way her whole body perks up tells me I’m going to be here a while.
I always liked her when I was growing up. While Shawna’s a notorious gossip, she never chooses sides and treats all of her customers—basically the population of Sumac Falls—the same. She never looked down on my family, even during the really tough times after we lost my dad.
Once I’ve chosen the fruit I want, Shawna gives me a warm smile and plunks the bananas on the scale. “I hear you’ve been in and out of town quite a bit lately.”
I think quite a bit is an exaggeration, but considering how seldom I visit Sumac Falls, I can understand why people have noticed. “Just felt like getting out of the city, but I’ve still got a lot going on in the office, so I’ll be going back and forth for a while.”
She gives me a sideways look without losing her orange-scanning rhythm, and I know I’m busted. Shawna might not have as many details as she’d like, but she either knows about the offer on the Gamble house or my dinner with Cara.
Maybe both.
If Cara had accepted my proposal, this would be a perfect opportunity to sow the seeds of our deception. And I think she’s going to accept it in the very near future, but I’m not sure enough to risk her being gossip fodder for no reason.
Like the best gossip collectors, Shawna doesn’t ask any pointed questions. She just waits, hoping I’ll fill the silence with the kind of social small talk that offers up all kinds of personal tidbits if one’s paying attention.
Unfortunately for her, I’m comfortable with silence—babbling in boardrooms never ends well—so she surrenders and by the time I run my card through the reader to pay, I know a lot about the stray cat she adopted.
Not wanting to risk running into anybody else I know while I’m in limbo, not knowing exactly what the gossip is and not being able to confirm or deny anything they’ve heard, I walk straight to my car, putting the bag of fruit into Penny’s booster seat.
When I pull into my mother’s driveway, her car is still gone, but my brother’s is parked in her spot. I wasn’t expecting to see him so soon, and I hadn’t really thought about what, if anything, I was going to tell him about Cara. I didn’t tell my mom I was having dinner with her because of her reaction to Penny seeing her professionally, but I don’t know if Cara told anybody. As far as I know, nobody else knows about our lunch today, though.
As I walk in the door, he’s clearly on his way out. “Hayden, I didn’t know you were back. I mean, I did once I got here because your dog is here, but before that, I mean.”
“I was going to shoot you a text later, but I had to drop her and run.” Aaron’s brow furrows, no doubt because he’s trying to figure out what urgent thing I might have going on in this town I don’t live in. I hold up the bag. “Still fighting the battle to convince Mom fruit tastes better fresh than from a can.”
“She likes those little half-cherries they put in the canned stuff. And just so you know, if Penny’s weird about me for a while, it’s because I didn’t know she was here and caught a glimpse of pale fur skittering under the table.”
I’m next to her in seconds, running my hand over her body. She doesn’t look hurt, but I pin my brother with an icy glare. “You didn’t throw anything at her, did you?”
“No, I didn’t throw anything.” Aaron’s face reddens and he won’t meet my gaze. “But the scream I let out might haunt her dreams forever.”
I laugh so hard, Penny sidles away from me, but I can’t help it. “Like the raccoon in the trash barrel when you were…what? Ten?”
“Yeah, but maybe this scream was louder because this was in a house. On some level, we know there’s always a chance of raccoons in the garbage cans. It was lower-pitched this time, of course, because I’m a grown man now.”
By the time I get my second round of laughter under control, Aaron’s annoyed and Penny has left the room entirely. “I didn’t know you’d be here or I would have sent you a text.”
