Just One Night Together (Flatiron Five Fitness #3) - Deborah Cooke Page 0,81
if she thinks she’ll be able to move in with you and bring her stuff, since we all know that you don’t have any.”
Haley was surprised, although she knew she shouldn’t have been.
“Don’t look so astonished,” Brad said. “You have to have seen this coming.”
“I knew she wanted me to apply for the job, but that’s not quite the same as setting up house here together. I thought you were making her an apartment over the garage.”
“I am, but she might see your coming home as a better opportunity.”
“The stuff.” Haley made a face.
“The stuff.” Brad smiled. “Well, you always said you weren’t going to get married. Not our career girl Haley.”
Haley felt as if Garrett was sitting in the back seat, waiting for a gap in the conversation. Who was she kidding? Garrett didn’t wait for anything. He made his opportunities. His confidence that the world was his oyster was one of the things she’d most admired about him. He’d believed he could do anything he wanted and it seemed that the world shared his conviction. Everything had come his way so easily.
Like it was destined to be.
Would Haley see him on this trip? She had to be ready for it. Cool. Casual. Indifferent, if she could manage it.
She might not.
“That’s different from living with Mom,” she said, because Brad was waiting for her reply. They passed the high school and Haley noticed that it looked much the same.
“Once she fills your house with her stuff, it’ll be like you never left home.”
Haley shuddered. “And I’ll never be able to have sex again.”
Brad laughed hard then. “Might be worth getting married, rather than being celibate forever.”
“I’m not going to live that long, but if I was celibate...”
“...it would sure feel like forever,” they said together and grinned at each other.
Haley felt the weight of her family’s expectation and didn’t much like it. “Look, I haven’t decided to move home yet,” she protested. “It’s just a job interview.”
Brad gave her a look. “There is no ‘just’ in Mom’s world when it comes to all her chicks being close to the coop again.” He exhaled. “Let alone her stuff being rehomed. She’d probably offer the down payment for the house you two could share—unless, of course, you do plan to get married, too.”
Haley felt cornered that her acceptance of a job was being considered a done deal, even before she was offered the job. She really disliked that her marital status was up for discussion again. “Let me guess. You and Mom have a list of eligible bachelors drawn up and one is coming for dinner tonight.”
“Not tonight,” Brad acknowledged.
“You didn’t.”
“I didn’t do anything.” He sighed. “I might as well be the first to tell you that Garrett’s divorced.”
Haley’s heart skipped in that wild way she always associated with Garrett’s appearance. Divorced? She swallowed and deliberately didn’t reply to Brad’s earlier comment. She really hoped they hadn’t decided to invite Garrett for dinner. She didn’t need an audience for that meeting. “Really? That’s a shame.”
“Is it?”
“Divorce always is. Did they have kids?”
“I think so.”
“So, it’ll be hard for them.” Haley kept her tone light. “Anyway, I’m not sure I want to leave New York.”
“Even for your dream job?”
“I don’t know that it is, not yet. It just sounds interesting.”
“You’re going to a lot of trouble for something interesting.”
Haley sighed. “I don’t think that exploring opportunities is going to a lot of trouble.”
“Uh oh,” Brad said. “There you go, sounding stubborn again. Tell me that you’re not just teasing Mom, that there’s at least a possibility that you’ll accept the job if it’s offered to you.”
“You’re being protective of her.”
“Damn straight. Someone has to be.”
Haley felt keenly aware of her father’s absence and wondered if Brad did, as well. They never talked about it and she wasn’t sure she wanted to now. She felt agitated and self-conscious, exactly the way she didn’t want to feel for a job interview.
“There are a lot of variables,” she said instead. She counted them on her fingers. “The job needs to be what I hope it is; the pay has to be as good as advertised; the authority has to match the responsibility; I have to be offered the job in the first place...”
“All right, all right!” Brad grinned. “I know enough to recognize when you’ve dug in your heels.”
Haley didn’t say anything. She hadn’t dug in her heels. She was exploring. She hadn’t made a decision yet. It wasn’t nearly time to make a decision.