Page 3 of Forever my Love

Nick had used his connections as a police officer to find out that their mother had overdosed six years before.

For six years, the sisters had believed that Harper had been the cause of the woman’s demise. Six long years of the sisters hiding from the world. Hiding from the truth. Running from the darkness they believed was after them.

Now, it appeared, the darkness might just catch up with them.

Harper had immediately suggested that they leave Pride. Hide again by bouncing from job to job, hotel to hotel once more.

To hell with that.

Hailey was done running. Done hiding. Done being weak. She no longer wanted to be someone who could be easily manipulated or hurt.

So the next time Reece had offered to train her, she’d accepted.

Everyone in the small town said that Reece was the best boxer in the state. She’d never seen him hit anything other than the punching bag, nor had she ever witnessed an actual boxing match, so she had nothing to compare him to.

“I was going to head to Baked for some dinner after. Do you want to join me after showering?” Reece asked.

She thought about heading back to the cabin. What if Harper and Nick were still there?

It was obvious to her that her sister and the cop were sleeping together. Considering their past, the knowledge that her sister was intimate with him made her uneasy. After what they’d been through, she couldn’t imagine letting a man get that close.

“Sure, why not. I’m probably better off avoiding the mess back home.” She disappeared into the women’s locker rooms.

As she showered off, she thought about her past. The things she’d been through, the things Harper had been through. They hadn’t come out of their childhood unscathed. Hailey had tiny scars where their mother had burned her or cut her with a flying glass or beer bottle. But on the inside, it was obvious that Harper was more scarred than she was. And whatever pain their mother had inflicted on them, Fred had tripled it in just the year he’d been in their lives.

She took a look in the mirror as she combed through her hair. Since that night a little over six years before, she’d kept it styled shorter. One time the sun had lightened a few strands and she’d liked the look, so she’d started highlighting it herself. She’d never been to a beauty salon, even now.

It had taken her a few tries to get it just right. She’d done as much studying about hair products as she could on her phone or the library computer.

The couple years they’d been on the road, when she should have been studying for her GED, she’d taken a few online cosmetology classes instead. Even if she hadn’t been trained in person, she knew everything there was to know about hair.

Whenever she had free time, she watched training videos or scoured through the latest products.

While Harper had her camera and photographs to fill her vacant time, Hailey had cosmetology.

Unlike her sister, whose hair and clothing styles were a little boring, Harper spent every dime that she had left over each month on stylish clothes and accessories. She adored Classy and Sassy, the boutique in town that was run by cousins Lilly and Riley.

Whenever she went in, she would spend hours talking to the ladies and looking over the new clothes. The cousins were each married to one of the twins who owned Baked, where Hailey worked. They both had kids and, even though Hailey had never really thought about having kids of her own, she adored Aurora and Benjamin.

It took her a while to figure out which kid belonged to whom because the cousins talked about both kids equally.

Benjamin belonged to Lilly and Corey, while Aurora belonged to Riley and Carter.

At first it was hard to tell Corey and Carter apart. The twins confused a lot of people in town. But after working with them for over a year now, she could easily tell them apart.

Corey had lighter hair and manned the pizza ovens while Carter, the darker-haired twin, ran the business side of Baked. He hired, fired, and paid employees, ordered supplies, and ensured that the bills were paid.

Hailey had been intrigued by how a business was run, and she’d enrolled in a few online business classes.

When Carter had found out about this, he’d kind of taken her under his wing. Whenever she had a question about running a business, he answered her and then made a point to show her how to implement what they had talked about.

Shortly afterward, Riley and Lilly started talking to her about how they ran their business as well. No doubt Carter had told them about her interest.

Hailey found it all so fascinating. But since she didn’t want to be a burden, she kept her questions to a minimum.

When she stepped out of the locker room, she was surprised to see Reece sitting outside on a bench, already showered and changed.

His short, dark hair was still damp. He’d changed out of his sweats and was wearing blue jeans, tan hiking boots, and a green flannel shirt that he wore often.